Happy holidays for us

I know, Christmas was a few weeks ago... but I'm just getting around to posting our pictures on the blog. We had a wonderful Christmas. We drove down to D.C. to spend it with our friends Em & Brett. I think this was our 5th visit to D.C. but we wanted to see the sights at Christmas, and we never pass up the chance to see Em & Brett. They're like family to us. Plus, we all got to spend a few days in New York City together, and that was wild.

Christmas tree in front of the Capitol Building.

The White House

The White House Christmas tree... though not as close to the White House as I thought it was going to be...

Christmas morning. Abby was too cute while opening presents. The present she's unwrapping is actually mine (and I'm very excited to read it!) but since all she wanted to do was unwrap the presents, she opened some that weren't technically hers. She'd unwrap one, look at it, toss it aside, and grab for another one. Too cute! Cory & I decided that we're just going to wrap up empty boxes for our little one this Christmas...

Christmas dinner. Delicious!!!

Wreaths at Arlington Cemetery. Very cool to see!



Mount Vernon, home of George Washington. It's right on the Potomac River. Very picturesque.

Washington DC temple, at night. They do a mini-temple square, and decorate all the surrounding trees. Very pretty.

Brett, Em, me, Cory

The Monday following Christmas, we drove up to New York City. We wanted to see all the NYC Christmas sights. This is Rockefeller Center. And no, we didn't ice skate, since it apparently costs $50 per person to do so. Ack! But it was fun to watch :)

The famed Rockefeller Center tree.

Em & I, looking quite awesome in our 2010 glasses.

Macy's Department Store.

One of Macy's decorated windows.

Ground Zero. Every other time we've been there, it's just been a hole in the ground. It's nice to see they're actually constructing something. We visited the church that's across the way, and they had many artifacts and posters memorializing 9/11. It doesn't seem to matter how many times I've seen it... I still choke up.

Times Square. You can see the pole that the ball drops down. Apparently the ball wasn't out... we think because it was so very windy.

I'm putting up this unflattering picture of me so maybe you can appreciate how cold it was. The temperature was only in the teens and the wind was gusting up to 50 mph... making it feel about 0. I'm wearing 4 layers on the top, plus my coat. I'm getting big enough that fitting into my coat without 4 layers is challenging... Cory had to literally zip me in and I could barely move. I felt like Randy from A Christmas Story...

Em, Brett, me - on the decorated streets of New York City.

Like I said, we had a very good time. Baby was actually pretty well behaved, and I only threw up twice the entire trip... and luckily it wasn't on the streets of NYC or on the subway. We're grateful for good friends who feel like family, when we couldn't be with family for the holidays. It was an awesome vacation, and we enjoyed every minute of it! We got back to our house on the 30th (no, we didn't want to stay at Times Square to see the ball drop; we watched it from the comfort of our warm living room). We vegged for New Years, watching as much football as possible, and eating lots of stuff that was tasty (but not nutritious). An excellent way to start the new year!

Labor Day weekend

We had a very nice Labor Day weekend. We drove down to D.C. to spend time with Em & Brett. Since I'm still not feeling well, we kept it a pretty casual weekend. Given that I spent a lot of time just sitting on their couch, we didn't take a lot of pictures... but here's a few.

Kayaking on the Potomac River

Enjoying ice cream in Georgetown

Cory and Abby playing

It really was a nice weekend. We don't see nearly enough of Em, Brett & Abby, and so it was nice to just spend some time with them and have a relaxing weekend. We certainly wish that we didn't live 7 hours apart!

Our nation's capitol

We took advantage of the 3-day weekend and turned it into a 5-day weekend. We went down to Washington D.C. to spend time with our friends Em & Brett. Thanks guys, for such a great trip! It was our 3rd time visiting D.C., but we still found plenty of stuff we hadn't seen!

Capitol Building

We went on a tour of the Capitol Building, and it was pretty neat to see the inside. This is the hallway leading to the House of Representatives' chamber (they were in session while we were there). We even saw Nancy Pelosi, on her way to session.

Capitol Building Rotunda

Old Supreme Court offices, in the basement of the Capitol Building (they don't use the offices anymore)

Cory doing his best to look like a hoodlum in front of the FBI building

The White House

The White House

Washington Monument

Vietnam Memorial Wall (so cool to see!)

Korean Monument

We rode the elevator up the Washington Monument, and the view was awesome. This is overlooking the mall, down to the Capitol Building.

White House, as seen from the top of the Washington Monument

Monument to the Marines - better known as Iwo Jima. It was so huge! Much bigger than I was expecting...

Iwo Jima

Washington National Cathedral. Very cool inside. This is where Pres. Obama came for prayer service the day after he was sworn in.

National Cathedral

Inside the Cathedral - way cool

Monument at the Pentagon Building. Each bench is designated to a specific person.

Pentagon Memorial - such a sobering place to visit

Our romantic Valentines Dinner. It was really yummy. We made the boys' favorite - chicken cordon bleu.

Cory playing around with a bottle - I snapped the picture at the perfect moment.

It was 'Restaurant Week' in D.C. and so we took advantage of it. Really fancy places that are usually $80/plate (or more) offer a limited selection from their menus, and let people come in for much less than normal price. We paid $20/plate for lunch. We ate at Il Mulino, an Italian place. Best food I've ever had, hands down. The cheesecake was to DIE for.

Ford's Theatre, where Abe Lincoln was shot.

After he was shot, he was taken across the street to the Peterson home. He died in back room of the house.

Inside Ford's Theatre

The box where Lincoln was seated.

Ford's Theatre

Em discovered how to make the Wingers sauce (and for those of you who don't know, I loooove Wingers sauce!) So we had Wingers night at their house ... it was tasty!!

We also went to see the monuments at night. Very cool! This picture is taken at Iwo Jima, and you can see the Lincoln Monument, Washington Monument & Capitol in the distance.

Iwo Jima at night

Washington Monument at night

On our way home, we stopped and did a session at the D.C. temple.

Yeah, it's a gorgeous building, inside and out.

I had a hard time narrowing down the pictures to just these; we took so many! We had dinner with my aunt & uncle and enjoyed our time with them (though we totally forget to get a picture of the evening). We also wandered through the Museum of American History and saw the original U.S. flag; the one that hung over Ft. McHenry to signify victory and inspired The Star Spangled Banner. No pictures allowed, since it's in a climate controlled room. Still very cool. It's much larger than I expcted.

Spending time with Em, Brett & Abby was just wonderful. We miss being close to friends and family, so we're happy when we can go visit people we love. Plus the history in D.C. is fascinating. All in all, one fabulous trip!