Vacation Photos, Part 2

Okay, here are the rest of our vacation photos. (Well, not ALL of them!) We spent the second half of our vacation with my parents in Virginia. We had a little vacation rental near Blacksburg. It was right along the river & was so quiet & peaceful. One day we did go up to see the Cascades, but other than that, we didn't do much except relax.

Vacation Photos, Part 1

I promised to post vacation pictures, but there are just too many to put in one post. We had sort of a two-part vacation, anyway, so that will make it easy to divide it up. Jeff & I spent the first part of our vacation in Washington D.C. while my mom & dad took Ryleigh with them to North Carolina for the weekend. Since Jeff & I both love history, we spent time visiting the Supreme Court Building, the Capitol Building, Mt. Vernon, the Jefferson Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery, the National Cathedral & Manasses Battlefield. Even though we love Ryleigh to death, it was really nice to be child-free for a few days. Besides, most of those places would have been really hard to fully enjoy with a toddler along.

Supreme Court Building

Mount Vernon

This was a really cool place to go! In fact, we could have easily spent the whole day there because there was so much to see. We stood in line for an hour to get into the mansion, but it was definitely worth it. Also got to walk around the plantation a little & see Washington's tomb. We didn't get to spend nearly as much time as we would have liked in the museum, though. Something really cool that we did get to see was an actual letter from Thomas Jefferson to George Washington as well as other letters written by George Washington!

The Capitol Building

We stood in line for almost an hour to get tickets to go on a guided tour of the Capitol and then had to go through tight security. Once again, it was totally worth it!

Washington National Cathedral

We visited here for the Sunday morning service (rather interesting ;) & then stayed for a guided tour after the service. The building itself is huge & has quite a bit of history, even though it wasn't completely finished until about ten years ago. This place also has a lot of dignitaries buried in the crypt including Helen Keller & her teacher Annie Sullivan. I also enjoyed using this building's many arches & steps to get lots of cool pictures!

The White House

Unfortunately, we weren't able to tour the White House this time, so we had to settle walking by it for the obligatory photo. By this time we had walked so much that my feet were killing me & I thought I wasn't going to make it. What I won't do for a photo opportunity.... ;)

Arlington National Cemetery

I think this was by far our favorite & definitely the most moving place we visited. We were able to see the last changing of the guard for the day. Incidentally, the guard who was being relieved of his post also took extra time to pay his respects to the tomb because it was his last time to be on duty at the tomb. It was a very solemn & moving moment. (I was so disgusted when I realized at the beginning of the ceremony that my memory card was full... so no pictures.)

Jefferson Memorial

Manassas Battlefield

Back from Vacation

Long overdue pictures...

from the week of July 4th. I intended to upload them before we left for vacation, but I didn't get to it. We were blessed to be able to see both Jeff's family & mine in the same week. How unusual is that?! Anyhow... Jeff's parents, his brother Steve & his family & his brother Jon were all in New York for a few days, so we made a quick trip up to see them during the first part of the week. It had been over a year since Ryleigh had seen her Grandma Stratton, so that was a real treat!

Little Miss Kristen

Ryleigh was fascinated with the "ba-ba" (baby).

We all (us, my parents, Alicia & her boyfriend Dwight Habecker, Brent & Brenda, Ana & Shane) celebrated July 4th with my Uncle Mark & his family. It had been a whole year since we'd been out there to visit & it was so good to get to see everybody!

My beautiful little sis, Alicia.

Alicia & Dwight

The enjoyed the nice weather while it lasted (it started raining not long after we finished eating).

My cousin Andrea & my sister Alicia goofing off.

My cousin Heather's adorable daughter, Madeline.

Brent & Brenda

Ana & Shane