District of Columbia

To start off our trip to Costa Rica, we stopped in D.C. to see Jon and Jaclyn for a few days (way cheaper flights through DC than to go straight down). It was incredible!! I'm not sure you could see or do more than we did in 2.5 days.  Thanks Jaclyn for being such an awesome tour guide! We had a blast seeing you guys.

First day: Saw the sites from the old Post Office building:

The Capitol:

Washington Monument:

We didn't get pictures of the following seen on Monday:

Smithsonian Natural History Museum 

Smithsonian American History Museum

National Archives (favorite)

Holocaust Museum (favorite)

Tuesday we went to Ford's Theater, which was also a favorite. Of course, we love President Lincoln and learned some fascinating things about his life and assassination.  What an incredible man of God.

The box he was shot in:

The original gun:

Some fascinating facts learned:

1) A few nights before he was killed, Lincoln had a dream of his assassination. In his dream, he got up hearing people sobbing and wandered through the house, seeing no one. He finally came upon a room where a funeral scene was taking place surrounded by armed guards. When he demanded to know what was going on, one of the guards told him that the president had been assassinated.

2) John Booth was an actor at Ford's theater. Lincoln watched his plays the play from his box. At one point during a performance, Booth was said to have shaken his finger in Lincoln's direction as he delivered a particularly threatening line of dialogue. Lincoln's sister-in-law, sitting with him in the same presidential box where he would later be slain, turned to him and said, "Mr. Lincoln, he looks as if he meant that for you." The President replied, "He does look pretty sharp at me, doesn't he?"  He later said John was one of his favorite actors.

3) Lincoln's body guard had left his post prior to Booth sneaking in. No one knows why

4) After shooting the President, Booth jumped from the box breaking his leg as he landed on the stage (people thought it was a part of the play).  He flashed his knife at the audience, yelling "Sic semper tyrannis!" Which means, "Thus to all tyrants!" in Latin before hobbling off the stage. He proceeded to his horse and rode over 60 miles with his broken bones stabbing through his flesh.

Anyway, enough of that. Then we went to the White House:

And then to the Arlington Cemetary to see the Eternal Flame, the Lee Home, and the Tomb of the Unkown Soldier (and changing of the guard):

It was so touching to see all those graves. What a sacred, amazing place.

We also got to see where Jon teaches math (with Teach for America). What a cool school. We're so proud of all he is doing for those kids!!

Thursday evening, we went to see all the monuments. Jefferson:

Washington:

and the Lincoln:

D.C. is such a cool place. There were a few things we didn't get to see (Mount Vernon and the National Gallery of Art) but overall, we did all we wanted to! We had great warm weather and even better company.

I love this country and am so thankful for our founding fathers and their amazing standards and veneration for God.

 "God who gave us life, gave us liberty.  Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed the conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?  Indeed, I tremble for my country that I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever." ~Thomas Jefferson

Now we have made it to Costa Rica and start our adventures bright and early!! We're having a blast and actually doing pretty well without our little monkey. We miss her (and I might have cried when we passed the baby aisle at the grocery store) but we'll see her in just over a week!

Here are a couple pictures from the current babysitters at home! She already looks different to me!!

10 months

WHAT?! 10 months already??

17 pounds and about 28 inches long.

She's officially "a walker."  She now prefers walking to crawling. The only time she crawls now is when she wants to get to something REALLY fast, like when she gets out of her gate and tries to hurry to the stairs before I can get her.

Oh and the gate doesn't hold her in anymore. It was previously used as a doggy gate so it doesn't latch to the wall. She just pushes it with all her might and moves it out of the way.  The last few days have been hard to get any work done that's for sure!

Still no teeth! And I'm happy I didn't have to deal with biting while nursing. Since we leave to Costa Rica today, I'm done nursing! It's a bitter sweet thing... definitely would have gone all 12 months but pumping 3-4 times a day while on vacation doesn't sound do-able so we're just ending 2 months sooner than planned.  I loved every minute of it and look forward to next time!

13 days without Claire. I don't know if I'll be able to make it 2 DAYS. It will certainly be fun, and needed, but come on!!! I am going to miss this little munchkin like CRAZY!!

She says "dadda" and "babba," grunts "UH!" and yells.  She makes elephant noises, blows spit bubbles, and sticks her tongue out all day long.

She LOVES her pointer fingers. They are always out. It's how she waves hello--she points at you! Everyone jokes that it's the new thing, touching pointer finger to pointer finger to say hi instead of a shake, five or knucks.

By the way, this is Kraig's b-day cake. Isn't it AWESOME! We used the same lady that did Anna's zebra wedding cake. And I actually re-did her blog/website. Check her out! She's AMAZING.
Buttercream Dreams by Melody

She is going to be an acrobat. She loves doing flips or swinging upside down with daddy. 

Loves it outside and could be out all day.

Takes 2 naps a day (a one-hour and a two-hour) and still sleeps 12 hours straight at night.

She's still the happiest, smiliest, sweetest baby alive. I don't even remember the last time she fussed. She lays down to nap and bed without a peep, gets up talking or babbling, and loves people.  We are so blessed to be her parents.

Have fun with your grandma's baby! We will miss you terribly.

SPOILED

Well it was an eventful weekend for me indeed. I turned 25 on Saturday (woot woot!) and had my first Mother's Day on Sunday. Ben sure spoiled me with gifts and love. As seen in the previous post, my big gift this year was that sewing machine. He also surprised me with waffles, flowers, a babysitter, glitter toes, lunch at In-n-Out (bringing back California memories) and some sports at the park with my family.  It was the best day ever! 

Mother's Day was so great. It is beyond-words-wonderful being a mom and I am so proud to be this angel's mother. She is the perfect baby in every way and such a light in our lives. I don't know what we did to deserve such a sweet, happy spirit but boy we got one. We are so SPOILED to have her in our lives.

 

And thank you to all the mothers in my life, especially my own, for teaching me how to be a mom. I hope I can be half as good as my mom was. I love you!