Stanton and Jenni's Wedding

Over a month ago we were able to fly down to AZ for my younger brother's wedding. We were really grateful scheduling worked out with Adam's schooling and Brigham's doc appts. We weren't about to miss the wedding. Let me just say it was amazing to see my brother get married to his high school sweetheart! Jenni is fantastic and I almost feel relief now that they are married - you know - relief that Jenni is finally officially part of our fam - she has felt like a sister for quite a while. Of course the wedding was beautiful and they were such a happy, gracious couple. Here are some highlight photos that cousins and siblings took:

These are all my first cousins. We are lucky to have spent so much time together growing up because now we are close. Oh, we didn't realize they were taking this picture so Adam, Brigham and I were in the temple waiting room. oops.

The luncheon

It's nice to get a pic of Dad actually  smiling. I love this one.

Brigham was the biggest trooper during the reception. He had never been around more than about 7 people at the same time in his life, but he handled meeting all our friends and family from AZ like a champ. Doesn't he look adorable adjusting his bow tie?

Garret and I were talking about what a rewarding moment this must have been for my mom to dance with Stanton on the day he was married.

Yay! What would a wedding be without the four of us together.

Like I said before, it was so great to be able to go down to AZ. I'm grateful Brigham's docs let me schedule his appts around the wedding so Brigham could meet his Shields aunts and uncles. It was rewarding to see them love him and interact with Brigham. 

Brigham just loved 'talking' to Carson. He would just go back and forth with him forever.

Stanton discovered (on his own) that babies like vibration so he would always talk in base range while holding Brigham. The day before I left I showed Stanton one of Brigham's vibrating zebra toys and he felt so validated.

This was a great moment. The day after the wedding both sides of our fam came over to our house and we all reminisced watching a video we made for my dad's 40th bday.

I'm so glad the Roush's were able to fly/drive in for the wedding. It has been a while since we've seen them.

1 month left

We realized we have 1 month left here before Adam's internship and classes are up for the semester. So, we are still enjoying exploring and seeing some typical and not-so-typical places in DC while we are living here. Adam is applying for jobs and is doing a fantastic job with his interviews he has had so far. It seems like we may be back in DC after grad school.

Anyway, I just briefly need to show some of the places we've seen in the last few weeks. Posting pictures of the places we've been is more for me to keep track of where we went and when we went there. Bear with me...

First, Udvar-Hazy Air and Space. For the record it is far superior to the Smithsonian Air and Space museum. There are much better planes and spaceships, etc.
For example, Blackbird

and the Discovery

We also went to the National Franciscan Monastery. It is pretty cool. Honestly, it took me down memory lane from my semester in Jerusalem. See, the monastery brought replicas of all the most sacred sites to it. I made Adam take so many pictures of things in the monastery that seemed random to him.  I wanted to show him the pictures I took in those same spots in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, etc. However, I left all my pics from Jerusalem in Pittsburgh. So...Adam will have to see them when he gets back and compare them to the monastery. But anyone who has been there will recognize these replicas for what they really resemble. Here are some:

The Stone of Unction (where many religions believe Christ's body was placed while being prepped for burial)

Inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, sepulcher

The non-Mormon traditional  place where Christ was born

Obviously everything in the monastery was 100x more polished and new than the centuries old sites in the Holy Land.


That same day we went to the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. It is the largest Roman Catholic church in America and the 10th largest in the world. It was huge and had a few stories to it. It has over 70 chapels and oratories inside of the whole building. Jaw-dropping really. I didn't look it up but it probably cost billions of dollars to make because it is made out of the most expensive materials.

The entrance's ceiling was a gold mosaic from one end to the other.

The basement floor had every donor's name inscribed on the pillars and walls from one end of the building to the other. It must have gone on for as long as an entire football field.

As we were on our way out I walked by and saw the name Spinelli and got super stoked. I mean does anyone else recognize "Leonard Spinelli" from a few Boy Meets World episodes?? (the assistant manager to Mr. Matthew's grocery store. high nasally voice. ring any bells?) Alright, I'm a nerd.

Another day we decided to go to the National Arboretum. To be honest, Brigham was having a hard day. Despite that, it was still nice and a gorgeous day and super pretty in the fall leaves. 

Oh and while we were there there was a world class bonsai exhibit. This is just a part of it.

I think some people heard we went to the Supreme Court because Adam posted this pic on fb.

Isn't Adam great for taking Brigham and feeding him so I could finish the tour and learn about the basketball court over the courtroom? ha.
Also, I snapped this fuzzy bad picture with my 4 year old camera phone of the Great Hall while we were posing to take a fam pic in it. So, when Adam whipped out his phone the security guards swarmed him and said we aren't allowed to take pictures of it. So, I was going to delete this fuzzy picture, but now it is contraband and valuable :)

After the Supreme Court we went to the United States Botanic Garden. It was cool, but nothing too special with respect to other botanic gardens. Mainly it was nice to get out of the cold weather.  By far, the best part was the statues. They have replicas of many of the national monuments that are made out of things that were once living. Really cool.

Brigham is 4 months old

Yesterday was  Brigham's 4 month bday. Notice him holding his new favorite toy from Grandma - the sock monkey - he always wants to be holding it.

Isn't that the best smile you've ever seen? I think his favorite pass-time is to just smile and giggle all day long. He is such a fun baby!

More of the National Mall

There were a few places along the National Mall that we still wanted to see. One day we decided to try and see it all. So, we put on our tennis shoes for all the walking and set out.

First, we went to see the Vietnam Memorial. This is the other memorial I had been dying to see since block history class so we went to see it first in the day. We laughed at ourselves when we got there because it is remarkably right in the middle of the National Mall and somehow we had never seen it before. 

 While we were there, a whole tour bus of Vietnam vets showed up to see the memorial for the first time. It was especially humbling to be there with them while they traced the names of their friends who fought.

Next we decided to stop by the Lincoln Memorial since it was on the way.

 As well as the Washington Memorial.

While we were there, Brigham needed to eat. So, like I said in an earlier post, most of our sight-seeing pictures are of us feeding Brigham. So, this was taken on the side of the giant reflection pool just after eating. ha.

We stopped by the Korean memorial to get a look on our way to the Tidal Basin. 

As we walked around the Tidal Basin we were able to see some landmark sites. Honestly, it was a perfect day with perfect weather with virtually no tourists besides ourselves. It made for a great, peaceful stroll around the water.

Here are the memorials surrounding the water:

Martin Luther King Jr.
They centered the entire monument around his quote "out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope" from his 'I have a dream' speech. I don't know if this pic portrays it well, but notice how the stone he is carved into is pulled forward out of the mountain stone behind it.

As we continued to walk the edge of the Tidal Basin we came across the FDR memorial. It was a fitting memorial considering everything he did as president. The memorial was more of an "experience" than a statue or anything. It is designed to highlight his 3 terms. So you start at one end and walk through stone snapshots and quotes of moments in his presidency. For example, his fireside chats he did in his first term:

Soup kitchen and bread lines during his second term:

Quotes and speeches and policies from his third term. It was a lot bigger and more involved than I'm portraying on this little blog post. Very very appropriate memorial for FDR:

Of course they also had to highlight wonderful Eleanor Roosevelt:

On our way to the Jefferson Memorial we saw this 'Japanese Memorial' I think Adam remembered it being a bit bigger the last time he saw it, but I made him take a picture with it anyway. He's a good sport.

The last thing we squeezed in for the day was the Jefferson Memorial. I've only ever driven by it and was amazed with how huge it is. Actually, I found out that FDR was a huge admirer of Jefferson and was the driving force in getting the Jefferson Memorial built. It seems pretty fitting that FDR's memorial is across the water from it then.

Busy day and so rewarding. I'm really glad we were able to fit it all in. Brigham was so cute and seemed to really enjoy walking around outside all morning and afternoon. 

More of D.C.

We've tried to do a lot of exploring the city while the weather has been so nice. As I've looked back at the pictures we took at each place, I noticed a common thread. We seem to feed Brigham at every site we visit. We have so many pictures of feeding him on benches outside famous places.

See...this is us outside of the State Capitol building feeding him just before our tour.

 

In the Capitol they have 2 statues for every state. Of course, we had to get a pic of Utah's since it was Brigham Young. After all, that is Brigs great great (etc) grandpa. 

We also went to Arlinngton Cemetery and spent a couple hours walking around there. We saw the Kennedy graves and eternal flame.

We also toured the Robert E. Lee family mansion home.

We saw a few other little and big memorials as well as just enjoyed being humbled by all of he graves and soldiers who gave their lives.

Ever since my block history class in high school I have been so eager to see specific places. One of them is the change of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It was a special experience.

Another day we went to the National Harbor with everyone. It was really fun. It is a lot like Pier 49 in San Francisco but even fancier. 

This is my nephew playing on this cool giant statue of a man buried in he sand. It's fun.

Oh, there is also a Peeps store! In the Peeps store they give a wall to Mike n Ike and another wall to Hot Tamales. It is awesome! They have so many different and unique flavors that you can fill your bag with. It's like a fozen yogurt wall or a giant soda fountain but of different kinds of Hot Tamales or of Mike n Ikes. 

And after that long day of fun, we were sure tired.