The Smithsonian

Well, we made it to D.C. again, and this time to check off the SMITHSONIAN!!! It was so funny cause as we were walking to the museum I noticed that we were walking along some pretty huge sights as if they weren't even there. SO... we slowed down just a little bit... and breathed it all in.

Here we are displaying the Capital of the U.S. of A! Note to self and anyone else reading this, when spending the afternoon in DC during June... always bring a hair tie for a pony tail!

AND THIS.... is the Smithsonian castle! I wouldn't mind living in a castle like this one day. Cory can even be a mad scientist if he wants to. This castle was cool, the first floor was the only floor we had access to (bummer), but to make up for it Mr. Smithsonian himself was right there in the front entry way... in his gigantic urn!

And this lil beauty is an actual piece of the original American flag!!! How insane is that! The actual flag is on display but you aren't allowed to take pictures of it. Something about preserving it cause its so old. ha ha ha. We are seriously so blessed to have our freedom and live here in the 50 nifty United States! Most important I am grateful for 2 of those states in particular. Utah and Idaho (got to throw that shout out in for the Waters).

Our next stop of course had to be the kids fun stop. Cory loves all the hands on stuff! Such a little kid at heart!

This is the actual Mr. Potato Head! You get the eyes, nose, mouth and other such necesities. And you provide your own face, such as a tomato, the classic potato, or if you wanted to get real crazy... a green pepper! But seriously, Cory and I decided that this toy was by far better as the original! The new one takes all the creativity out of it!

Julia Childs kitchen. Not going to lie, didn't know a thing about her until I saw the movie Julie and Julia. I loved it and now am inspired to cook better... not professionally, just better.

The actual ninja turtle suit. It was really short, I always thought of them bigger, probably cause I was a youngin when that came out.

This is Jared, Cory's brother. He now lives with us as he's working on becoming a millionaire along with us in the summer sales thing... ha ha ha.

I think that this is the museum that was based on the movie "Night at the Museum". Ben Stiller offers virtual tours.

Isn't it weird that this is real???I thought so!

And there he is! The famous movie star himself!

This kinda captures the whole day. Jared would walk behind us everywhere with his phone in his hand and when Cory would stop to look at something Jared would run right into him. ha ha ha.

We got this shot with the help of 6"7 Jared! Look at those chompers!

This was kinda cool. They actually had a lab that you could watch the people as they worked on the bones.

I couldn't tell if the guy was for real, or if he was one of the workers on break pretending. Cory insists that he was real.

This guy was HUGE! Cant imagine if I had to run from him.

This little (ha ha ha) baby was an added bonus to our trip cause I had no idea that it was going to be there or it would have been on my list of things to see. The HOPE DIAMOND! 45.52 carats.

It is amazing to read about where this bad boy has been. They can get info back to 1668! It has so much history. Its crazy to me though, that now it just sits in a clear glass case with a sercurity officer guarding it. It needs to be out in the world making more history. I know just the girl to do it too! Okay, fine, I'll do it!

And of course when the diamond gets to the United States some lady puts it on her dogs collar and hides it in her couch cushions! What does that say?

Well, it really did take us a full day to see this grand ol museum. We didn't even hit everything but we did see so much! Our minds were enlighlened and we learned so much. We had so much fun just getting to spend some time together and seeing some insanely awesome things! And even though it was a blisteringly hot day, we didn't have any casulties.

The Yates

A couple of Sundays ago we got to check another item off of our list. We got to go and visit an older missionary couple from our mission. Brother and Sister Yates only live about 20 minutes from us. They are so nice and generous and invited all of the Sacramento missionaries who are serving out here to dinner for some Enchiladas!!! Oh man... they were so delicious. It was super fun to visit and see how they were as a "normal" couple! I'm sure it was weird for them to see us (well most of us) as "normal" people. (0:

TRIP TO DC!

Sunday we decided to start on our "to-do" list and head into DC. It was super cool because it was Memorial Day Weekend and there were tons of flowers and old pictures of soldiers lining all the monuments. Also, there was a huge BIKERS convention, so a million Harley's to look at! There was so much to do... we didn't know where to start!

This was at the WWII Memorial, Cory and I are just representing!

Then we were off to the Lincoln Memorial. I was so excited!

Then off to the Washington Memorial

As you can see, Cor was super excited about this one! ha ha ha

We went with our friends the Lundeens. They are the cutest couple. He is insanely tall and she is cute and small!

This is the Vietnam wall. I couldn't believe how many names were on this wall. It was so amazing to see all of the flowers placed at the base of the wall!

Then we were off to the WHITE HOUSE!

For some reason we couldn't get inside! Cory even had his Eagle Scout card (which he was guaranteed would get us in!) Guess we'll have to do a little more research on that front!

We're so blessed to live so close to all of these amazing historic scenes! We had so much fun in the heat of DC, with our friends and each other enjoying some time of work. We are so excited to visit all the rest that DC has to offer! Will keep you posted!

OUR HOME IN VIRGINIA

As you can tell from the previous blog, I'm still struggling with this blogging stuff! Hopefully this one goes in the right order, if not... oh well!

The family room, also where I work when I get to come home during the day. Shout out to Lisa for helping me get to and fro, Cory has the car all day! Without Lisa I would die of boredom!

The kitchen!

The bathroom. It took us a long time to get unpacked, this picture was during that time of commotion!

Weird, but awesome closet that is just full of dresser drawers

Our very plain bedroom

And this is our home. Since none of you can really come and visit this is your virtual tour! If any of you do decide to come... our couch is a pull out bed!!!

HONEYMOONERS!!!

THE END OF OUR AWESOME TRIP

After the jump! I forgot a towell. Try drying off in that humidity!

OF COURSE I HAD TO JUMP! They told me it was going to be freezing, but when I came out of the water I was surprised at how warm it really was! Those Mexicans have never been to Calf Creek where the water is glacier run off! Now thats cold water!

This is a sink hole! I guess they have them every where in Mexico! It is amazing!!!

Manatees! They are the weirdest things ever!

TULUM! This was one of our favorite places! We are convinced that a ton of Book of Mormon stuff went on here. We wished we would have done an LDS tour!

This is Chichenitza! Turns out you dont get to climb those stairs and go into this pyramid anymore. Someone fell all the way down it and died a couple of years ago. Our guide said it was the last human sacrifice!

If any of you know Cory you know that he is ALL boy! These little crabs were everywhere, so Cory loved to bury them as deep as he could to see how fast they would un-dig themselves.

His very first time touching ocean water!

Its about time that I finally get this caught up. Cory and I have been home from our honeymoon more than a month now. We went to CANCUN MEXICO!!! Of course I was super stoked to use my spanish while we were there, and Cory was so excited for his very first time to the OCEAN!