Washington D.C.

There are lots of pictures in this post. We just got back from our vacation. Ross and I have a friend that lives in Washington D.C. Parker was a chemistry major at BYU-Idaho also. He has been a really good friend of ours. We were so glad that we could visit him because he'll be moving to Hawaii in August. Anne, Ross' mom was able to come with us. She served a mission in Pennsylvania and was able to go to Washington D.C. for one day before she went home. It has always been a dream of hers to go back. I'm so glad we could be a part of that. It was a great experience for all of us.

Madison was an awesome baby during the whole trip. I couldn't believe it. She just enjoyed looking at everything. We had a great time.

Madison and Grandma

The Washington Monument

We were walking around the Potomac when we saw about 30 of these Black Hawks flying over. I captured tons of pictures of them. It was so neat to see. We weren't sure why they were flying over head.

Madison being a goof ball.

Ross, Madison, Anne and I in front of the Lincoln monument. I think this is one of my favorite places in DC.

Family selfie with Lincoln.

Ross and Madison. The two from Wyoming.

The World War II monument was beautiful. I loved the way that it was put together.

Anne and I are both Colorado girls.

Ross, Madison and I. That is part of the WWII monument and then the Lincoln behind that.

When we were getting ready to leave, WWII veterans started coming in to see the monument. They were brought in from Chicago. It was a great experience to see them. It was neat to see them all come in and I enjoyed celebrating them. They were very humble people and very kind. The one man was pushing his own wheelchair.

We went to the Smithsonian Air and Space museum.
This is Parker in front of something. I don't remember what it was but he was very excited about it.

I thought that this space suit was really neat. There was a lot of really fun stuff there.

Madison enjoyed looking at everything. I was shocked at how great of a traveler she was. She liked to point at everything.

This was how she told me she was ready to get back in the stroller.

Ross and Anne at the Air and Space museum.

I saw this helmet at the museum. My dad has a helmet like this from his ancestors. I wanted to compare them.

Ross and Bill Daniels. Ross received the Daniel's Fund scholarship and it helped us a lot during our undergraduate degrees.

I am in the middle of a jump. I love my hair.

We stayed with Parker's Aunt and Uncle. They had a beautiful house that had a pool in the backyard. I loved jumping off the diving board. Madison hated the diving board. She got so scared and didn't want anything to do with it. She came back with a fear of water. Bath time has been interesting.

I accidentally cut his head off in the pictures. It was fun to swim after walking all day.

My favorite place that we visited in DC was called the Newseum. It is a museum about the history of the media. They had a lot of neat stuff there. This is a picture of Ross and Madison in the guard tower of the Berlin wall. They had part of the Berlin wall also. I really enjoyed the room full of newspapers. They had newspapers from different events in history. I enjoyed seeing all of them.

Ross, Madison and I. You can see the capital behind us.

I tried my hand at reporting a little reporting while we were there. I need to practice.

Anne Davidson, reporting from the White House.

Ross wasn't thrilled to be a reporter.

Madison will be an excellent reporter one day!

This pictures shows how we spent most of our time. Walking, walking, walking.

We went to the National Zoo and saw the Panda bears! They were pretty active. It was neat to watch them.

Ross and Madison in the bird house.

Ross, Madison and Anne

We loved seeing all of the trees and plants. Anne was excited to see this Bamboo. It was growing in someone's front yard.

Ross and Parker gave me a lot of grief about taking a picture of Madison St. Ross was saying that there is never any Ross St. When we saw this we had Parker pull over and Ross went out and got a picture!

Madison liked to point at the animals at the zoo.

Madison, me, Parker and Anne in front of the National Cathedral. It was beautiful

Replace Parker with Ross.

There was a beautiful garden next to the cathedral.

Parker spent a lot of time taking pictures. Photo by: Ross

We ended up stumbling upon Georgetown Cupcake. I had secretly wanted to go there, but I figured no one else would want to. They used to have a show on TLC called DC Cupcake. It is on Netflix now.

Me with my precious cupcakes.

Top left is coconut, right is salted caramel, bottom left is red velvet and right is chocolate. They look amazing.

Horrible picture, but they were amazing! Holy cow it was the best cupcake I have ever had! Writing this is making me want one.

This is Madison was Brooke and Elise. They are Parker's cousins. They loved hanging out with Madison and playing with her! They were fun girls!

Brad's Birthday Weekend

This weekend has been exciting! Diana and Anne came down to Laramie on Saturday because we are getting ready to head to Washington DC on Tuesday. They made it to town in perfect time to celebrate Brad's 4th birthday. I can't even believe that Brad is four already. Braidy's sister Lyndy came out with her three kids. It was nice to meet Lyndy and the kids. They are fun people. We enjoyed hanging out with the whole group. 

I have a ton of pictures from the past week. 

 A few weeks ago, Ross and Phillip made rockets with the kids. They were excited that we could finally launch them off. It was a little windy but they did pretty good. I was impressed. 

Madison and I during our rocket launching adventure. 

 This is the outcome. You can kind of see it, but not too much. It would have been better if it wasn't was windy. 

 I got this chair for Madison at a yard sale. I loved it and thought it was so cute. Luckily, Madison loved it too. She really loves to sit in it. 

Ross was able to get a delicious mango the other day. He was in heaven. I told him I hadn't seen him that happy in the last three and half years. 

 Madison has been hanging out with Brad and Phillip too much lately. They always point at her and she has finally caught on. I was glad I could catch this picture. 

 Madison loves the fridge. She always tries to go over when it opens. She is probably looking for the raspberries she loves them. 

 The girls love Aunt Diana! 

 This was the first trip that Madison wasn't afraid of Diana and Anne. It has been really nice. I am glad that she has been able to play with them more. 

 Bronson is such a cute boy! 

 Phillip took us all to a park that had a little pond that the kids could fish in. It was really neat. Brad wore his cape so that it would blow in the wind. 

 Jamie caught the first fish. I was glad that Jamie, Mason and Davis were all able to catch a fish. It was a good time. It was nice that the weather was so good too. 

 Diana and Bronson 

 Davis with the fish. I am pretty sure this is Davis. I kept confusing Mason and Davis. They both are adorable and look different, but I can't get there names straight at all. 

 Mason, Bradford, Davis and Jamie

 Madison in a Diana sandwich. Madison loves harassing Diana. She kept poking her mouth and her nose. It was pretty funny. I was glad it wasn't happening to me. 

 Brad's birthday party. Braidy did a good job putting everything together. 

 She made this giraffe for pin the tail on the giraffe. I felt bad that I had no idea how artistic Braidy is until this party. She did an amazing job on this. I loved the way that it turned out. 

 Brad's cake. It looked so good and it tasted amazing too. I'm going to have to get Braidy to teach me a lot of her talents. 

 This was the best part to me. Brad came down all ready for his birthday celebration. Anne gave Stella this crown for her birthday. Brad was a little jealous during her party. He remembered the birthday crown and was excited to wear it and the cape. I died laughing. It was hilarious to me. 

 All the older kids in the zebra masks. The younger girls didn't like to wear them. They turned out cute too. 

Brad blowing out his candles. 

 Braidy had a little treat table set up for the kids. She invited them to fill these little boxes with candy and treats. Stella loved them. She loaded her box full of m&ms and then started to eat the other crackers. It was so funny to watch. 

 Lyndy and her kids got Brad this bowling set for his birthday. I have been eyeing this at the store for awhile now. Ross loves bowling and I'm assuming Madison will too considering how much I bowled while I was pregnant with her. She seemed to enjoy the set. It was a fun toy for the kids to play with. They all enjoyed it. 

We have had a fun weekend. We are heading to Washington DC and New York City on Tuesday. We are so excited for our trip. It will be a blast to be there!