The Bakers (with 1 B): DC with Am

So Amber just so happened to be on the East coast this weekend, so I met up with her at my aunt and uncle's house in Virginia. Greg told me it would take 8 hours to drive up there; Google told me 7; my GSP said 6. So I packed enough food to last three days and left. We stopped for an hour after driving one. Drove another hour stopped for 30 minutes. Drove an hour and half, stopped for on hour. Drove until we got there.

Rex at our second stop. Stretching his legs at the Virginia border.

Trying to take a picture of Alice while holding her

Saturday night (arrival night), we just hung out and took pictures. Autumn was sad she couldn't control her arms and get back at Alice who was all about Autumn's face.

Maybe one day they'll be friends.

Who doesn't love cousin's bathing together? Rex. He dropped Autumn into the water 5 seconds before we took this picture.

Sunday morning, we went to the temple. Amber fed the slow-eating Autumn while the kiddos and I looked around. Rex didn't want to be in any pictures.

Rex was our photographer

Set the self-timer--straight up Brian style. Who needs friends?

Monday, we ventured into DC. I must admit, I was a bit underwhelmed. I was expecting good-looking buildings surrounding a mostly empty mall--you know Soviet or Communist China style. Show the power of the state. Nope. The Mall was so unassuming that Amber led us about a mile out of our way looking for it. I started to think we'd never get there (we were walking parallel to it about a block away the whole time), so I took this picture of Am and Autumn so we could say that we at least saw something. And the buildings were...well they looked liked BYU campus minus the beautiful mountains and well-maintained lawns and landscaping.

It was pretty cold. Nearly freezing I'd say. We got caught in a few snow flurries as we walked. But I couldn't find Rex's gloves. I thought for sure there would be a million vendors out and about trying to sell me crap for a million dollars just because it says DC on it. I was willing to pay the million dollars to get Rex some gloves. His poor little hands. But nothing. No one. For the first several blocks, we were the only tourists. Everyone else: business people at lunch.

We finally got to the Mall, just to look more closely at the map and notice that the museums we had planned to go to were literally 4 blocks from where we parked--we are awesome at reading a map (actually, we didn't read the map at all. We already had a super full stroller; I didn't want to add to the disoriented look by holding out a map freshman style). We didn't feel like walking any closet to the Washington Monument. Notice how I'm holding it up?

I thought Amber was trying to look pensive. She was telling me to the get the camera out of her backpack.

Once inside the Air and Space Museum, Alice wanted to see what was going on so I took the stroller apart so she could be a big girl.

This one's for you Dad.

We paid $12 for one meal at MacDonald's. It was almost like Disneyland, minus Splash Mountain, and Thunder Mountain, and Space Mountain, and It's a Small World, and...

Alice all ready for a nap and venture across the Mall to the Museum of Natural History

Autumn...I just thought this was funny

Rex flying a jet

Trying to take a picture of Alice while holding her again

Next stop: The Museum of Natural History. Mostly we just looked at the dinosaurs.

Rex in front of a T-Rex wearing his Rexcellent shirt.

The super over loaded embarrassing stroller.

Last (attempted) stop: National Archives to see the Constitution. We were 5 minutes too late to make the last group in so we took some pictures outside instead. All (including Rex) the kids were asleep anyway. So we closely studied the map to be sure we went straight back to the car, and then proceeded to walk in the wrong direction for 4 blocks only to have to double back. I was carrying Rex the whole way because he fell asleep on his little bench on the stroller.

Rex is asleep--he's doing the church bob.

Rex asleep in front of the capitol building.

After only 1 wrong turn, we got back to Mark and Gail's and hung out. We spent the rest of our trip just hanging out. One day in DC was enough for us.