Tuesday, December 2, 2008

We're back

The National Zoo was fun, unfortunately it was too cold for the panda's to be out in their habitat. But we did get to see them sleeping in their cages. We also got to see some gigantic elephants, plus a baby elephant. The lions were actually pretty active and that was fun. Malachi really liked a young gorilla that was hanging out by the window and running around.

That was Friday. On Saturday we went to D.C. to meet our friend Jessica who we all knew here in Dallas and her new husband. We decided to meet them at the National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian at 9:30. We got there at about 9:15 and found out it didn't open until 10:00. Turns out none of the memorials or museums open until then. We did walk over to the capital and hang out there for a little bit before walking back. Jessica and Armando didn't make it to the museum by 10 so we went in with out them.

Malachi LOVED it! He wanted to see everything! We saw rockets, planes, lunar modules, and so much more. We let him run around for the most part. John and I didn't really get to see too much because Malachi was running around so fast. Once the museum got really full he went into his stroller which he wasn't too happy about.

After the NAS Museum we headed over to the Natural History Museum and Malachi had to stay in his stroller most of that time because of how busy it was. Holy Cow was that a busy place! We headed over to see the dinosaurs, and we saw the lions, giraffe's, etc. (the stuff we see in a zoo, but less alive), we also saw some good water animals. Of course we also had to go see the Hope Diamond. It's so pretty! The gift shop had plenty of Hope Diamond booklets, necklaces, earings, etc. But we got Malachi a really cool popcorn rock that will grow crystals when we pour vinegar over it. The growing process will take about 1-3 weeks, so we hope Malachi can wait that long, but we thought it would be a fun thing for him. I got a heart shaped rock that's black but really sparkly. It looks great under some good lighting.

After that Joshua and Bethany were gracious enough to take Malachi back to eat lunch and nap so John and I could enjoy more of D.C. John and I had been on our feet for over three hours so we took a little break while trying to think of what we wanted to do next. I really wanted to see the Lincoln Memorial and the White House. John really wanted to see the Capital, The Library of Congress and the Supreme Court. Unfortuantely what he wanted and what I wanted were on the opposite sides of the Mall and we were in the middle. The mall is really, really long by the way.

So we decided that with how the Metro Stations worked we'd head over to the Lincoln Memorial first and then over to the stuff that John wanted to see. So we started walking (no Metro by Lincoln), and while we were walking we stopped at the Washington Monument quick just to get a little close to it. While we were on our way there our friend Jessica finally called us (2:00pm) and said that they'd meet us there at 2:20. So we hung out waiting for them, and waiting...and waiting. While we were there we had a pretty good view of the White House so we decided that we didn't need to go over there because it wasn't actually very close to anything else we wanted to see.

Finally we met them at about 2:45. We had a blast with them. Armando is really nice and we hadn't seen Jessica since Malachi was in the hospital when he was born. We did all that was on our schedule with them. Walking over to Lincoln first. We then took quite a walk to the nearest metro. On our walk we saw the buidling for The Department Of State. John got a picture since he's applied to it. We were all very excited that we got to see it.

We took the Metro to the opposite side of the Mall and saw The Library of Congress, The Supreme Court and The Nation's Capital. We got to only go into the Library because both the other buildings were closed. But it was still very cool to stand on the steps of the Supreme Court. We were all getting very tired so we decided not to cross the street and go over to the Captial because it didn't look like we'd get close to it anyway.

After that we decided to go to the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial because it was on our way home on the Metro. It was already dark by the time we got there, so I think we enjoyed it less than we might have. But it was still cool.

One more Metro ride and we were home to Josh and Bethany. I think we got home about an hour or more later than everyone originally expected so we rushed out quick to dinner. Josh and Bethany took us out to the Ethiopian restuarant they like to go to. They're adopting two children from Ethiopia so they're getting themselves aquainted with the food. It was actually really good! The national dish they have wasn't actually one I liked, but the other stuff was great. They warned us it was spicy and it was, but nothing we couldn't handle. I don't think it was spicier than what we get here.

Sunday morning we were off to their church where we heard a good word from a guest speaker. It's too bad we didn't get to hear their head Pastor speak, but we enjoyed it none the less. Sunday afternoon was full of napping for everyone but John (who did homework). Sunday night we had their friends over for dinner and really enjoyed a visit with them. They have a 15 month old son, William, he and Malachi really enjoyed playing together.

Monday morning was full of laundry, packing and getting ready to leave. I filled their dryer too full and couldn't get all my laundry dried. It was quite a fiasco really. Currently I have one suitcase full of laundry that wasn't dry. I'm going to have to re-do all the laundry today. I was thinking that we'd get home with time enough for me to throw it in the dryer.

Unfortunately both our flights were delayed. What a travel day! We didn't get home until 9:45pm and we should've gotten home around 8:00 at the latest. I wont bore you more with the tedious travel details, but it was bad.

We're home now and getting back into the swing of things. Malachi's excited to be back at school, and I'm now back at work. John's heading to work and is expecting a crazy week. This is the last week of his school semester and he's really excited. He's going to be so busy this week though, so if anyone in town wants to hang out this week, let me know!

I found some work to do (yay!) so I'm off to do that. I hope everyone had a great weekend! Now the countdown to Christmas begins!

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