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.