Fun at the Washington Monument

We decided to have a little fun at the Washington Monument...It had been a long day :)

Enjoy!

Busy day in Washington DC

After leaving Asheville, we headed up the coast to Washington DC or in other words, one of my favorite places to visit in the country (and in the world at least until I see more of the world). I love Virginia so I was beyond excited to tour the state and see DC again.

Our first stop was the National Air and Space Museum. Mike and I were there a year ago but since we've been they have changed the space shuttle's so this time we got to see the Discovery which has actually been in space. We were pretty excited and seeing Mike in this museum is like seeing a little kid on Christmas morning :)

The Enola Gay

The view of the Kingfisher that those one the ground would see.

Grandpa Epperson's airplane that he flew off of the USS Salt Lake City. The Kingfisher.

Space shuttle Discovery fresh off of its last flight to outer space.

Shuttle with "authentic battle damage"

Th business end of the shuttle

At the air and space museum standing in front of Grandpa's airplane.

We were staying Crystal City which is just two train stops away from the pentagon and just 6 train stops from the mall. So once we got settled into our beautiful apartment that Uncle Randy arranged for us to stay at (Thank you so much!) we headed to the train and down to the mall. We decided to start at one end and work our way towards the other. So we begin at the capital building.

After we finished at the Capital, we continued our walk down the mall. While we were passing the National Gallery of Art, we found the sculpture garden. Their were some interesting and weird things but our favorite was this house that followed you and looked like it was moving when you walked past it. Unless you stood behind it you couldn't tell how it was leaning or positioned. (Sorry for my terrible explanation and the pictures really don't show it either...we tried a video but it wasn't the same as the trick on the eyes)

After this we went to the Museum of Natural History. This is my favorite museum in DC. I love the dinosaurs! Mike loves the geology section of the museum and explaining all of the rocks and gems to me.

This greets you as you walk into the museum

This is 22,000 carats!!!!

We made a quick stop by the American History Museum to see Kermit the Frog :)

We got another surprise at the museum. We found the sunstone from the original Nauvoo LDS temple.

It was a great day! We didn't get to do everything we wanted (their just isn't enough time in the day) but it was still fun :)

Visit to Biltmore

This past week Mike's parents visited us in Spartanburg. We did a little tour around Greenville and the surrounding area and then we left. We had a crazy, week long trip planned for their visit and our first stop was Asheville, NC to visit the Biltmore House.

I hadn't been there since I was 12 and mike's family had never been there so I was so excited for them to see it! The Biltmore House is the largest in America. It is beautiful and amazing to see! It was built in the 1800's and opened on Christmas Eve 1895. The house covers 4 acres of living space and has 250 rooms. We spent a little over 2 hours touring the inside of the house and we didn't even get to see everything! Then we spent a while walking around the beautiful gardens and the stables that are now shops. Unfortunately you can't take any pictures of the inside of the house but the outside is gorgeous and we could take pictures of it to are hearts content.

Those windows behind me are the grand staircase. Its spiral and goes up to the fourth floor. I want one!

These used to be the stables but they are now little shops which are really cute. 

We had a really good time visiting but Mike and I agree that we never need something this huge. Although I wouldn't mind having the library someday and Mike would love to have the banquet hall in our house with the pipe organ playing. Those two rooms and the staircase might be nice :)

Since we can't take pictures of the inside of the house ourselves, I went online to google and got some pictures of our favorite parts of the house for you guys to see :)

Mike's favorite: Their is a pipe organ above on the other side of the room.

My favorite: This library reminds me of Beauty and the Beast :)

Abby and I

I just want to say that I love my job! I love getting to play with Abby everyday! She is so sweet and fun. We have our moments of course and we all have are bad days for sure but for the most part it's just fun. She and I love to play! One of our favorite things to do is play the cycling game on the Wii. We work together to ride the bike and I love the happy dance Abby does when she "wins".  Abby also loves to vacuum. At least once a week I let her use the vacuum and we clean the house together :) She is such a great helper around the apartment with the vacuuming and helping to put the dirty laundry in the washing machine. I let her push the buttons but I just love that she sits on the machine and talks to me while I do it.

Recently, I was cleaning out some of the bins in our guest room looking for a sweater and I found my little red riding hood cloak. Like always Abby was right there with me and she asked if she could wear the cloak. How could I say no? Isn't she so cute? I wish I'd had a little basket for her to carry around the house. The cloak dragged behind her but she enjoyed it.

Abby is also a wonderful help in the kitchen. She loves to watch me in the kitchen. We make eggs for breakfast...a lot. She loves to get the dishes for me to use and turn on the light in the kitchen. I decided we should do something new for breakfast this week since Mike was going to be home with us. So we decided to make blueberry cupcakes (they're muffins but abby said they looked like cupcakes so thus they have a new name).

A few nights ago Mike and I got to watch Abby and Ethan. It was so cute watching Mike with the kids. They wanted to play with Mike all night! Its moments like these that make me excited for us to have kids someday.

This past week was finals week for Mike so he was home studying. Abby wanted to be by Mike's side all the time and he was so patient with her and she was so good. Around lunch time Mike was studying in the bedroom and I had Abby's lunch all set up in the living room. The first thing she asked was "where is mike?" Then she asked me if she could eat her lunch with Mike. I told her she would have to ask Mike and he happily said that she could come hang out with him. So while Mike studied, Abby ate her lunch :)

I think they're watching Top Gear (or as Abby calls it, the car race show)

Anyway, I think its safe to say that Mike is the favorite but its ok :) As I said, I LOVE my job! She is so sweet and its fun (most of the time). I also love that because of this job Mike and I have made some wonderful friends, the Hobb family who we love.