D.C. Trip (without very many pictures)

So we FINALLY made it to the Washington, D.C. temple. It's the one we're assigned to, but we went to Raleigh, NC last time, because there's less traffic and it's a little cheaper to get a hotel down there. They're about the same distance away.  The other two doctors in Jeremy's office were going to be out of town, so he ended up having Thursday and Friday off this week. We drove up Thursday morning and it took us about 5 hours with a 1-hr+ stop at Ikea. This was a plus for everyone. Reilly and Jaina got to play in their kid area, Katy got to run all over and check out the showroom, and we found a dresser for our room in the clearance section. We also got a yummy lunch for everyone for about $12.
We got to our hotel, and it was a little strange. We already have a history of finding random hotels through Priceline, since we once stayed at the hotel at McDonald's "Hamburger University" just outside of Chicago. This time we got a suite at The Bolger Center, which sounded more-or-less normal, but wasn't quite. It seemed to be owned? by the US Postal Service and was a big complex of buildings that reminded me of being at E.F.Y. except for adults and without people (other than us).  The workout center was Awesome, but the pool was attached to locker rooms (all of this is in a different building, a short walk from the hotel) and was only open from 5-10 pm. They did neglect to mention that there would be swim teams practicing in there as well until 6:30. And I wouldn't call the pool "heated." But the kids still had a blast, and enjoyed getting to swim. They can't wait for summer and getting to go to pools and the beach again.  The staff everywhere was super friendly and helpful, and the surroudings were beautiful (even with it being winter, and most of the plantlife hibernating). After swimming we grabbed some dinner at the closest mall and then I got the kids to bed (pretty late - at almost 9 vs. their normal 7:30 bedtime - totally worth it though, because I got to take a bath in a big comfy bathtub while they watched Curious George!) while Jeremy went to the 8 PM session at the temple. 

That night was a little interesting. We had a one-bedroom suite, but we are a family of difficult sleepers, and I think everyone but Katy was awake more than sleep between 1 and 3, and then Katy woke up for the day at 5 am. TIRED. By the time we got on our way, I had to wait until 11 AM for a session to start, but it was neat to walk around the inside of the temple a little bit. I was there about 10 years ago with my dad, but only saw the outside. It is so beautiful, inside and out, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time there! Katy took her only nap that day for about 40 minutes in the car, and then they explored the grounds and the visitor's center while waiting for me.

That was the only nap Katy would take, even though she woke up at 5... Thankfully we were all pretty tired and decided not to try to do anything else before heading home, because before we even got a few miles from the temple it started raining. Hard. Between that and the "normal" Friday afternoon/evening traffic leaving D.C. it took us almost 2 hours to go the first 20 miles, and it stayed busy for quite a while. Poor Reilly even got sick with all the stop-and-go traffic. :( At least he's older and we were able to avoid any mess. We stopped in Quantico, VA for a breather and spent 45 minutes or so exploring the fairly new (and free) Marine Corps Museum. It was pretty neat, and very well-done.

My cute little 4-armed monster.

 I wish we had more time to spend there, but we still had 3.5 hours of driving left, and we didn't know if we were going to keep having traffic problems. We stopped one more time, at about 5:30 pm, because Jeremy was dying for some Famous Dave's, and there isn't one close to us. So at 6:30 we got back in the car and still had 2.5 hours to go. So it took us from 1:30 pm to 9 pm (with stops) to get home. Rather long, and the kids (especially poor sleep-deprived Katy) were starting to feel it by bedtime. I'm still glad we went and don't regret any of it, because it was such a blessing to get to go to the temple, and it was so nice to get out of town!

Sorry about the lack of pictures. I tried to get the video camera out a lot this trip, which means I took no normal pictures at all. Jeremy got some with his phone, thankfully. :)

We've all been fairly healthy (thankfully) since our fun with stomach flu, but we've been busy and we will continue to be busy for the next  2 1/2 weeks. Very excited for two things:  1. In about a week and a half, Jeremy and I get to go see Wicked. We've been wanting to see it since it came out and Jeremy did songs from it in Spring Sing at EAC, and I am SO excited. His office actually bought us tickets, which is awesome. And 2. SUPER excited to go home to Arizona for David & Nicole's wedding a week after that. Jeremy gets to stay about 6 days and the kids and I will stay for about 3 weeks total. We are so excited to meet our two new nephews, see David (it's been nearly three years now!) meet David's fiancee, and see all the family we've been missing. Hopefully we can stay well; fun times ahead!

Batten Down the Hatches

No, we're not having another hurricane. We're just paying for the last 6 months, in which we've been mostly disease-free. I'm still fighting a cold I got like 9-10 days ago, which has morphed into a nasty cough-the-first-half-of-the-night-instead-of-sleep thing. It's probably the same cold Jeremy was still trying to full recover from that he got like 3 weeks ago. A doozy of a cold, I guess. Then yesterday Jeremy came down with some kind of gastrointestinal issues that's had him flat on his back most of the day. I'm really, really, really hoping no one else gets it, but I know it's a possibility, since we all have to share the same bathroom. Thankfully Katy has slept the last few nights, because we had teething issues over the weekend that had her waking up for a few hours every night at about 4 am. That, combined with my cold, was a little daunting. We're really hoping for some positive improvements in my cough, and especially for Jeremy in the next day or so, and hoping that no one else comes down with anything before we can regroup a little. So if your house is healthy, make sure you ENJOY it. I know I'm going to with a little more fervor when we pull out of all this fun. Here are some cute pictures of the kids, who are mostly being troopers through all this.

Our beatiful Jaina, snuggling in Daddy's chair

A board game that involves play-dough? Definitely a hit.

Katy with her most favorite book. She's getting so big!

They haven't complained much about all the TV they've been getting
to watch... No, I'm not sure why Katy's on the tricycle.