Sightseeing.

On our last day in DC we decided to do a little sightseeing. First we headed into downtown where we hit up Bobby Flay's burger restaurant. 

Yum! Sarah and I shared the Crunchburger (yes - with potato chips on it!) and the Bobby Blue Burger (with bacon and blue cheese) and of course fries and onion rings! 

Then we walked off some of those calories. (Garrison's favorite part!)

On the walk there is a museum in pretty much every building! We finally decided on the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

 There is so much to see! You could spend more than a day in here, but we had much more we wanted to see so we headed out after checking out a few exhibits. 

 Little Miss Reese and Mr. Max looked pretty stinking cute in their matching Bjorns! :) The babies did amazingly well on this trip! I was so impressed!

Next we saw the Washington Monument and the Capitol building. 

Then we decided to check out this Hop On - Hop Off tour bus. There is just so much to see and it is so spread out we figured this would be the best way to get to as much as we possibly could! 

 Yes, the go-go gadget arm managed to get a picture of all of us on the bus! :) 

1st stop on the bus was the Korean War Memorial.

Then on to the Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting Pool. We were really excited to see the pool until we noticed there was no water! :( Then we saw the sign explaining the renovations. Bummer! 

 But the Lincoln Memorial was very cool. 

Check out these two doing acrobatics in front of the monument! Crazy!

Our last stop was the Arlington National Cemetery. It was an unbelievable sight to see. 

 We got to witness the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It is amazing the precision that they have with their movements. 

 After the cemetery we hopped back on the bus and decided to head to the top to check out anything we had missed on the way back to our car. Little did we know that the ride back included getting on the highway! Have you ever been on top of a double decker bus on the highway??? I wouldn't recommend it, especially not with babies! It was crazy windy and a little scary! We did get a pretty good view of the Pentagon while we were driving though. 

I thought this pic of Josie and Sarah checking their maps was pretty funny. Debating on whether or not this bus would get us back to where we had parked! No worries, it took us right to it! (Whew!) 

 After all the sight seeing was done, we got dressed and headed out to a nice dinner to celebrate Erin's official birthday. 

What a great way to end this once in a lifetime trip!! I am so glad to have these wonderful memories with some great friends! Thank you for putting all this together for us Trey!! 

A cross-country surprise!

I recently posted about how my good friend and college roommate, Erin, was recently in town and we got to spend some time with her at the pool. Well, her hubby Trey had also had a little surprise up his sleeve. He arranged for all of us college friends to fly out to Washington, DC (where they are temporarily staying) and surprise Erin the weekend of her 30th birthday! Pretty sweet, huh? Bonus for me - Erin's birthday is the day after mine so this was also my 30th birthday weekend too! Trey is a pilot for Southwest airlines and he arranged "buddy passes'' for us to all fly for free!! It was awesome! (Flying standby is a little nerve-wracking though! Not sure if you will get a seat on a flight or not!) But Sarah and I made it with no problems! Here we are with pilot Trey once we got to the Baltimore airport. (Sarah had never rented a car before so that is why I took a pic of the tag of her first rental!)  

 Erin was soooo shocked when we showed up at her door! It was so fun to surprise her like that! 

 Our other friend Josie and her family also flew in from OKC but their flight got in later so Erin got another surprise!! 

 We got to stay in this cute house in Virginia while we were there. Thanks to Trey's parents for letting us all crash there!! We relaxed and hung out the first night while we all caught up with each other. 

The next morning we went to a Farmer's market in the Old Town disctict of Alexandria, Virginia. It was so neat! I loved all the history in this area. Definitely something you don't see everyday in KS! 

After we were all finished we grabbed lunch at this cute little French restautant.

 

 Erin's son Garrison is so funny, he thought this was a great game to play with daddy. Over and over and over again!

While Trey and Erin went back to the house to start setting up for the birthday party. Sarah, Josie and I decided to do a little more sightseeing in this great area.

This guy was unreal!! The music he was playing out of glasses of water was unbelievable! I should have got a video of it!

 

What a great area - we could have walked around here all day!

We took one more quick stop to check out the Roosevelt and Jefferson monuments before we went back to get ready for the party.

 

 Back at our temporary home, party planning was in full swing and soon the guests arrived! 

 And what is a party without a game? How about pin the shades on Barbie? :)

Cupcake time! There were actually 4 birthdays within one week of each other so everyone sang Happy Birthday to Erin, Molly, Josie and Louisa. :) Trey's family also never blows out candles...huh? Apparently his  mom is a little germ-a-phobic so we stayed with the tradition and "wafted" the candles out with air from our hands. This picture pretty much says it all! 

 These cupcakes were to die for! I mean best I have ever had -- and that is a huge statement coming from a Sprinkles fanatic! They were from Georgetown Cupcakes, who also have a TV show on TLC called DC Cupcakes! Let's just say I am going to have to start watching that show. Amazing.

All four birthday girls - Me-Sept 17, Erin-Sept 18, Josie-Sept 24 and Louisa-Sept 19!

What a great way to spend my 30th birthday!!