feel free to put your hand over your heart at any time

dc... the city of our nation's history. vi and i totally went there with emo for mlk weekend and LOVED IT.
get ready for the post of your life.

day before the trip: this little rascal helps me unpack everything we packed... over and over.


day one: surprise, mj!

admittedly, i was a little scared to fly across the country with little vi in tow. we can barely make it through an hour of church before she is making a run for it and digging through somebody's purse. i packed a diaper bag full of all her favorite things and started saying prayer after prayer that we wouldn't be the most hated people on the plane.

turns out, vi was GREAT. it helped that everywhere we went we got special treatment. "you with the stroller! come to the front of the line! yes, get in front of all these people who have been waiting forever!" we were just doing what we were told... and it made a huge difference. we were settled on the plane, snacks in hand, wipes in the seat pouch, toys at an arms reach... and we were off. since it was an afternoon flight, vi took a nap. and since our second leg was an evening flight, vi took another nap. love that little girl. probably the best thing for traveling with vi was having emo there too. she was going to dc to surprise both her sisters and attend ka's wedding shower. there is no way i could have done this trip alone. a big thanks to the girl below and all the love she gave little violet (can't you tell from this picture how happy she is with emo's carrying solution?).

when we arrived in dc at 1:00am we were most excited to surprise mj. she had NO IDEA emo was coming with me so we gathered our luggage and emo hid while we waited for mj to come and help me get my stuff to the car. when mj found me i told her i had met a girl on the plane who was so nice and that had helped me with violet. i explained that because we landed late (we were delayed) the girl needed a ride to baltimore and i told her we could take her there. mj, never good at hiding her emotions, flat out said no. baltimore is an hour in the opposite direction and it is 1:00 am. mj laughed and offered to show her where she could catch a train but said that she was not taking this "girl" to baltimore. right in the middle of mj's rant, emo popped out from her hiding place and surprised her sister. there was lots of screaming, lots of jumping and lots of relief on mj's face once she realized i was lying about baltimore. surprise #1=success.
and thus, we all slept soundly at laney's for the evening.

day 2: white house, capitol, and food. all highlights.

day two was busy! we started out the day with an early morning white house tour. we couldn't take violet along so we roped ka's fiance, clint, into an early morning babysitting gig. it was early enough that violet slept the whole time but i am thankful for clint and his willingness to help! i loved the tour. i couldn't get enough about all the stories about where this painting came from or how that became a tradition. it was so fun to see all the history of this building come to life. no cameras were allowed so we have no proof any of this actually happened. but it did. i had the bags under my eyes all day to prove it. note: i did not meet obama.

after the white house, we headed over to the capitol building. on our way there, this nice man stopped us and asked us where we were from.

we told officer atkins we were from utah and he was all excited about it. he let us know that he was "kinda mormon" and that he had been going to church but had not been baptized yet- although he said he planned on it one day. we chatted about all sorts of things and became great friends. before we left, he gave violet an officer's badge and told us that if we ever come back, he would be happy to take us on some cool tours. "after all," he said, "once i am mormon we are basically family."
what a guy. what an experience.
onto the capitol, we still needed to surprise emo's other sister, ka, with the news that she was in town. ka works for congressman chaffetz in the capitol so clint had told her that we (ka is thinking just clint and i) were coming to meet she and mj for institute and lunch. little did she know that emo was waiting to jump out of nowhere and surprise her as well! surprise #2=success!
we all ate some very yummy burritos in congressman chaffetz office where vi posed at his desk for a few shots.

she will make a great politician one day.
after lunch, mj took us on a capitol tour.

she is the most patriotic gal around so she was a great tour guide. since mj works there as well (for congressman simspon) she got us into all sorts of places. sometimes we couldn't use our cameras and sometimes we could.. so here were the highlights.





vi took a nap half way through the tour- but the rest of us thoroughly enjoyed it!

after the tour, we walked a little around the mall. violet loved clint.

later, we met up with laney, mj, ka and clint for yummy indian food and fun. laney and i had a great time as we reminisced about the crazy times we've had while the rest of the group laughed along.

great day.

day three: a bridal shower and then shopping. all. day.

this day started with ka's bridal shower where we dined on quiche and honored this fabulous couple. this was the main reason emo came all the way to dc so i was glad that everything worked out.

after the shower, it was time to shop. if there is something laney and i excel at as a team it is shopping. so, for day three, that is what we did for the rest of our time. all the girls met at the mall and, like ravenous locusts, devoured all the deals we could find. it was GREAT. shopping is an essential part of any girls trip- and since cade didn't come with me, that is what i considered this trip to be. vi loved the shopping as well. we even found some great steals for her in the h&m baby section. you have to love that.


after all the shopping we ate at a great mexican restaurant and called it a day. we were pooped!

day four: the sabbath. and a concert.

on sunday we attended the singles ward with ka, mj and laney. vi was in heaven because she was the only baby there- and thus, was the center of attention. everybody emptied their purses trying to find something that would lure her over to their seat so they could love on her. it was great. afterwards we ate with the henshaw brother, gus, for our sunday meal. gus and jen were nice to let us all come over for dinner (we were quite the herd) but violet loved playing with their little girl, lilly.
after the meal, we met at laney's where a spontaneous jam session broke out. i hope you are as surprised to read that as i was surprised to find something like this really happening. it is not really like us... but it all started with mj and her darn ukulele.

she carries that thing around like a purse and pulls it our for all sorts of occasions. i am not complaining. i love singing along to a good tom petty song every once in a while- who doesn't? well, that night we all grabbed a makeshift instrument and went wild singing all the songs of our past- including: gangster's paradise, foolish games, backstreet boys, and more.
laney and debbie played the spoons and the knives, respectively.

i played the drum. you see all the blurs below? that's how into i got. a little embarrassing, i know.

and we played into the night...

day five: mlk day!

for mlk day we headed back to the dc sights. for starters we went to the lincoln memorial. i love this memorial. i went there when i was ten or so but i still remember how impressed i was with lincoln. what a great man... he quickly became the theme for our day.

at the memorial, vi got her picture taken with miss black louisiana. i am not making that up. i guess there is a "black" pageant as well! she was really nice and even took a few pictures with her camera as well.

we also were sure to stand on the spot mlk gave his infamous speech. mlk was another great man, so it was a neat experience to be there on a day dedicated to his name.

great time with the gals.


vi was a trooper. it was freezing cold but she just plugged right along with the rest of us!

for lunch, we headed to ben's chili bowl.

this is a landmark food stop. this is where obama, cosby, denzel, and violet all eat. we ate a smorgasbord of chili- comfort food never provided so much comfort as this.

next up was ford's theater. again, i love abe so this was a great stop. the museum has all sorts of info on his life and shows how awesome he was.

this is where he was shot and although they still have plays here, nobody ever sits in the memorial.


by this point, vi had hit a wall... so she took a nap while we toured the hall of american presidents in the smithsonian.

let's be honest, we were all pooped at this point so we called it a night and went home to prepare for our early morning flight the next day.

the flight home went great... they did have to page me in the chicago airport but other than that it was smooth sailing home to daddy... who we missed very much.