The Capital

This past weekend we were able to take our first road trip from the Pitts and go to Washington DC. Its a little less than a 4 hour drive from here and since Thomas stayed up the whole night before getting homework done, I'll just say it wasn't one of the most pleasant drives we had.

To make matters worse we arrived close to dinner time, with our four grubby children hauling blankets, pillows, nintendos, snot and who knows what else into an upscale business hotel, confronted with professionals in suits and ties and glares at our tangled mess of a family with Rainier running to and fro like the crazy monkey he is.

Our plan was to get some dinner and swim that night and the next morning wake early as possible and hit a session at the temple so that Alli would not have to watch the crazy monkey for too long in their hotel room.  While we were planning on where to go for dinner I decided I better call the temple and find out exactly what time their first session was.....8 am...what? What  happened to early to bed, early to rise?  Luckily they had an 8:30 pm session for the evening. That gave us enough time to haul our travel disoriented family out to the business class masses, run to a grocery store, let them choose their dinner of choice, come back, haul in groceries, change quickly and leave our children to fend for themselves hopung that all the candy we bought them to keeep them occupied didn't have a counter effect of extreme SUGAR HIGH and broken noggins from jumping on the beds.

What on earth would we do with out the internet, GPS, and cell phones? How did we survive 10 to 15 years ago? I mean seriously. We punched the address into the GPS, got to the temple with 20 minutes to find our way through the massive, gorgeous temple and then wha-la...the rest of the trip was absolute bliss and absolutely fabulous. It is always amazing to see the Spirit in action, bring peace and calmness to your soul and to feel re-edified. It was exactly what we needed.

We spent all of Saturday walking the main sites and attending the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.  The kids were great and Rainier enjoyed all of the walking/running/climbing/hopping he was able to get out of his system.  Claire had the brilliant idea of stealing a clump of grass from the White House lawn for a souvenir and was even brave enough to pluck some, overcoming her fear that the men on top of the White House would shoot her.  Ainsley said she thought that when we got to see the White House we'd get to look into the windows and see the Obamas doing dishes and such so I think she may have been a bit disappointed but none the less she seemed very satisfied with the overall trip.

 This may be our Christmas picture this year. Claire tying her shoe, Alli "scratching" her nose, Rainiers disdainful look, and of course Tommy's camera pose.

 Rainier did not want to be pushed in the stroller, he only wanted to push the stroller.

Yes, Thomas posed perfectly for this one as well.

The squirrels were so tame & would come right up to you on their hind legs.

Here's one at the White House eating a milk dud we gave it.

Grabbing some lunch from a hot dog vendor, digging Claires peace sign.

As we drove home the next day I thought of our trip and thought how silly I was to be squirmish of my tribe of children as I walked into that hotel.  They, by far, are our ABSOLUTE best asset we have and to be embarrassed of them simply is not an option.  I am so proud to be a mom, that truly is the thing I wanted most in life, and I need to let that be shown in all of my actions.