Exhaustion

We spent the last weekend being tourists in our Nation's lovely capital city. Our time spent was even better since we were able to spend our days fighting the crowds and wearing out our soles with some of our favorite peeps in the whole entire world. Wow, seeing the fam twice in one month...we are so spoiled!

Let's just say I am still exhausted from all the walking, late nights, air mattresses losing air every night, and probably 20+ hours of driving between Ohio, DC, and Virginia in the three days we spent there. Dad, you are amazing to have survived and thrived the way you did, because I am still lying on my couch falling asleep at 8 pm every night. You are the best example of strength and perseverance in the world. Not to mention that after we left the rest of the crew jetted off to NYC to explore some more big city life. But of course the memories, laughs, slips in language, and baseball hot dogs made the exhaustion totally worth it!



Waiting in line to see the Declaration of Independence and other documents at the National Archives.
This is the rotunda where the Declaration is held. It is a beautiful spot, but remember...NO flash photography!

Still waiting. You will have to dismiss the blurriness of the photo. We were in museum mode to avoid getting arrested by the photography police who were actually real police. Scary.

After a long and grueling house hunt we finally decided on this one. What do you think?

Homes Sweet Homes

Saturday night Sam and Kyrsten's apartment finally reached capacity (9 people using one bathroom, but thankfully not sharing two towels this year!) as Ryan's brother Greg and wife Karly joined us from Philadelphia. Sunday morning we were able to visit Arlington

National Cemetery and watch the changing of the guard take place at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. The entire experience left me in awe of the service that men and women are willing to give for our country and my freedom.

A few of the sites I loved: World War II Memorial

Vietnam War Memorial

Jefferson Memorial. Ryan felt really sorry for Jefferson. He has to spend the rest of his life standing at his memorial while just across the pond Lincoln is nice and comfortable in his seat.

We were also able to visit the Holocaust Museum which was a very emotional experience. That night Sam, Kyrsten, and my mom stayed up to watch the movie The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. I had already seen it and told Ryan the end so we didn't/couldn't stay up to watch it. Let's just say it is a very emotional movie about children and the Holocaust and paired with the days earlier events left everyone drained. It is not at all a happy-go-lucky film, but I would recommend it to anyone interested in the time period.

This band just started playing their tunes and recording some sort of video near the Washington memorial. Sam and Kyrsten stayed and listened for a while and thought they were really good.

Here is what we looked like at the end of each day. Watching Wipeout, playing in the spray fountains, and eating Ben and Jerry's.

Saturday night we drove to the DC temple. It was closed for cleaning, but we were able to walk around the temple grounds and spend some time in the visitors center. What an amazing place! So beautiful and peaceful.

And of course we couldn't visit a city with a MLB team and not go to a game. And when they are playing the Cubs it makes it even more necessary. It was a great day to watch the Cubs whoop on the Nationals and enjoy hot dogs and coke from the nosebleed section. Anything for my hubby!

So, needless to say we did a lot in a short amount of time! But it was a blast and I loved every minute spent with family we don't get to see as often as we would like. And now it is 10 pm and I am still exhausted and am ready to go to bed! Next stop on the Palmer's national tour...Philadelphia! Can't wait for another tiring weekend.