Last Activities in DC

(really delayed post)

It was a fun, but unique first Halloween for Brigham. It was really fun for him to be around cousins, but it was unique because a lot of DC is apartments, so....trick or treating....isn't done in door to door neighborhoods. So, the local mall is set up as a trick or treating headquarters. All the shops can decorate and provide candy for the kids. It is really fun actually because you get to see hundreds of kids dressed up in a short amount of time. This is sleeping Brigham and his cousins trick or treating in the mall:

  Oh, I was also super glad to have family close by to celebrate with on Halloween because Adam had class until 10pm, so we just 'dressed up' with him later for a ward party.

Oops, I also forgot to mention that we didn't even have power on Halloween in our neighborhood because of Hurricane Sandy. ha. so it was a great thing we could go to the mall.

Speaking of, here are some pics of Brigham and I toughing out the storm and no power while Adam went up to NY with his brother-in-law and sister to help with relief. Really rewarding.

Turns out Brigham LOVES fire.

Anyway, some great food places we enjoyed trying were Good Stuff Eatery (amazing, but no pic), Ray's Hell Burgers (where Brigham tried his first shake),

and Ben's Chili Bowl (where Brigham sat in the same spot Obama sat at when he ate here. Also, Bill Cosby ate here so much they named the main dish after him).

and The Fish Market. One of our last nights in DC we just wanted to get out of the house and drive around. It was beautiful to see the city at night....but we took a couple accidental turns and found a hidden (but popular) fish market. Oh, so good! All the fish is caught in the tidal basin and Potomac right behind the wharf.

Our last outing in the National Mall was to the Natural History Museum and the Hirshhorn Modern Art Museum. The best picture we got at the Natural History Museum was us standing by a mummy, which I loved because it reminded me of seeing the tombs and mummies in Egypt, but it may be kinda gross for a blog. 

Now, the Modern Art Museum was super cool! I love modern art (and so does Adam) so we were really excited to go. They were featuring works of Ai Weiwei - the Chinese contemporary artist/political activist who openly criticizes the Chinese government through various art forms. Adam was really excited to see some of his artworks. You can see in this picture how he purchased 2,000+ yr old urns from the Han Dynasty and trivially painted over them and smashed them. 

Another one of his symbolic pieces:

This was just another one of our favorite pieces that shows the phases of the moon.

The last thing we did in DC was visit Adam's sister at her work downtown to get a tour and go to lunch. She works at the offices at the Williard Hotel. It is gorgeous and has a beautiful view of downtown.

 She works directly across the street from the White House. So, after lunch we took the time to go see the White House.

 And meet the famous White House neighbor. (if you want to know more you should look up the permanent protestor online).

AZ Trip/Brigham's Blessing

I know.
I know.
I'm way behind, but I have to at least post about the rest of our AZ trip last October because Brigham was blessed. It was so humbling to be able to bless him in my parents home with all my extended family there. They were so nice to wait an extra day before traveling home to be there for it.

  I have the best family!

 Seriously, it was so cool to have both of his great-grandparents there. Bunny sewed him this AMAZING white blanket. It is gorgeous. She said it took her 100+ hours.

Grandma Cookie gave him his blessing outfit. She even found it at the same boutique she bought my blessing dress from. Isn't she thoughtful?

Brigham was upset at one point so Didn started singing to him and he loved it. I'm so glad Amanda caught this on camera.

A major highlight was just to be with my cousins. 

Blake and Brigham finally got to meet.

We were also able to sneak away and celebrate Steph's bday at a family favorite restaurant.

 Oh, and the extended family visits ended with an oreo party. Amanda even showed us a new milk dipping technique. genius.

Luckily, Brigham and I were able to stay with in AZ for an extra week after everyone else went home. So, we were able to spend some real time with my fam. We were also there for Stanton and Jenni's wedding present opening gathering that Jenni's family has made a tradition. It was nice to get together again as families after all the wedding dust settled.

It was good to be with fam, but Adam was so happy when we flew home since he was by himself for an entire week. 

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!