a real shmigift

Jake's much anticipated spring break came and went way too fast! We had tons of fun though! Friday the 28th, right after Jake got off school, we went straight to the airport and flew to Phoenix. Saturday we spent the day with the Smith side of the family. Luckily we barely caught Josh, Jenni, and the boys who were still visiting from CA until Sunday morning. We hung out with them along with the Arizona Smiths at the park. Jenni and I got away for a little bit to do some shopping... I found a cute jacket on super clearance. Score! Sunday we spent the day with the Gift side of the fam. Had a tasty BBQ and hung out with family and friends after church. Weather in AZ was perfect... not too hot yet. I took off for a run around 7 in the morning monday and it was gorgeous running weather... aaaa...I love that there is no humidity there! Monday we met Jake's old mission companion, Brigham, and his wife for lunch at good old Chipotle. The rest of the day we hung out with family. Tuesday morning Jake and I were off to Washington DC. Thanks a bunch to grandmas and grandpas for watching Luke so we could have the week to ourselves! Luke had fun being spoiled by the grandparents!
In DC we stayed with Brendon and Taryn. Brendon and Jake were roommates at BYU. They have visitors all the time lately, so they are the perfect hosts! Seriously! Pros. They gave us a list of everywhere they thought we should visit... and had tons of info about everything. It was great. Brendon has the awesome job of working on President Bush's speeches. Isn't that so cool!? Ya. So, he was able to give us some pretty awesome tours of the White House. I loved seeing all the entertaining rooms in the White House... the awesome flowers everywhere... things like the china various presidents have used. Thanks to Brendon we got to see the West Wing... stuff people don't get to see without White House connections. Pretty awesome. Anyway, thanks again guys for a fun time! We took a million pictures on our trip. Although I narrowed them down a lot to post there are still tons on here, so brace yourself for some favorites! :)
Here are some pics from the White House. Unfortunately, pictures are only allowed in the rose garden, the press room, and outside. Cameras weren't even allowed on our first white house tour.
Us... in the front yard of the White House...

Jake, Me, Taryn, and Brendon in the White House press room...

In the rose garden. The oval office is behind us.

Another cool oval office shot. The rose garden is so pretty... even at night!

Another rose garden pic...

the oval office...

West wing entrance...

On to other DC sites...

We ate at so many good places! Here's Jake at a Mexican restaurant we ate at the first day. I've learned to sit in the spot that has the view of the TV if ESPN is on... otherwise, that captures his attention... like it's doing here.

Washington National Monument....
We FROZE waiting for tickets in the morning to go up to the top of the monument. It was way cool though. The view is worth the wait.

Some shots from the top....
on this one you can see the Lincoln Memorial in the distance...

This view showed the White House...

View of the capital and some Smithsonian buildings...

It was Cherry Blossom festival while we were visiting! I'm glad we got to see the trees this time of year!

We waited a long time for Holocaust Memorial Museum tickets too... AMAZING museum. Just be warned... they spare no details about the Holocaust. Very eye-opening place.

Having fun riding the Metro!

One of our Metro cards... I'm dorky and like to keep stuff like this for scrapping! haha

I LOVE Cosi bagels!!!! We stopped here a couple of times. MMMmmm..

Jake in front of the Library of Congress...

an interior library shot. the architecture was so cool...

We took a tour of the Capitol and thought it was fun that Brigham Young is sitting in there!

Awesome artwork in the Capitol... this pic is of the dome inside...

Outside view of the Capitol...

Korean War Memorial...

Aaaa... more cherry blossoms!

Eating some great Thai food with Brendon and Taryn. Brendon found out earlier that day he's been accepted to Stanford for his MBA, so they're off to CA soon! Congrats again!

We took a tour of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. It was fun seeing how money is made!

I loved all the big old trees everywhere there! Such a nice change from the little scrubbies in TX! haha..

So many cool memorials

My favorite memorial... the Lincoln

We checked out Ford's theatre and the house across the st. where Lincoln died

Arlington National Cemetery

Tomb of the unknown soldier...

It started raining when we were at the cemetery... excuse the hair :)

A few pics from the Natural History Smithsonian...

Hope diamond..

Marie Antoinette's earrings....

dorks at the Imax...

Air and Space Smithsonian... I met a new friend...

stud in front of some planes...

American HIstory Smithsonian stuff...
Seinfield's puffy shirt and Mr. Roger's sweater...

George Washington's uniform and sword...

Nauvoo temple sunstone...

I was sort of skeptical about going to the International Spy Museum.. but now I'm SO glad we went! It was so cool! One of my favorite things that we did actually. All sorts of interesting espionage info and spy gear... go see it! We were there for pretty much all of Saturday before we left to go back to AZ.

outside the spy museum.. it's huge inside.

So, we ended up spending time at the White House (West and East wings), the Capitol, Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the Natural History Smithsonian, American History Smithsonian exhibit (the museum itself is being renovated right now), the Air and Space Smithsonian, the National Archives, the Holocaust Museum, International Spy Museum, Arlington Cemetary, the Jefferson, Lincoln, Vietnam, Korean, WW2, Washington, and FDR Monuments, and probably some things I am forgetting right now! It was a crazy week! We were literally running to and from different places to make appointment times and things.

We flew back to AZ Saturday night and stayed at my parents house. It was fun to be away for a little bit by ourselves but it was fun to get back to Luke. Sunday we flew back to TX... grandparents had talked about flying on planes quite a bit with Luke explaining to him where we went while he was at their house so he was so excited to fly on a plane and come back home! Loved looking out the plane window and was so good! Anyway, back to school and Texas life...

Yay! Luke went to his first movie at a theater. Well, technically his first movie theater experience was when he was a month old... but I don't count that one since he was in the hallway crying with me for 3/4 of the show. haha. Anyhow, he loved Horton! I thought we would have to bribe him with popcorn to stay in his chair and not run around, but he was glued to the big IMAX screen... and didn't move the entire movie. We didn't even have popcorn to keep him busy. Nice! Hopefully more kid-friendly shows are coming out! It was fun to get out with our little guy. You should ask him about Horton and JoJo... he loves talking about it! Here are some pics of our big night out.
Luke & Aunt Abby posing with Horton...