Touring the Washington Monument

Taylor's first year of law school we discovered that amazingly, in his section alone, there were 7 other LDS guys- 6 of whom were married. It has been so great to have instant friends. The wives started meeting together for a book group the first year and we've expanded the group this year to be an official "Spouses Society" so everyone's invited. I volunteered to be in charge of a "touring" group so once a month I plan an activity where we go see another part of DC. So far we've visited George Washington's Mt. Vernon estate and gone to Cox Farm Pumpkin Patch. For November we went and toured the Washington Monument. We took a 2 minute elevator ride to the top and then spent a while looking out the observation windows that overlook the city. It was a fairly foggy day but the views were amazing. As a bonus, as we were walking back to our cars, the president's helicopter flew right over our heads and landed on the grass behind the White House. The lawn and balconies were overflowing with people and apparently Bush was arriving to "pardon" a Thanksgiving turkey.

Play Group at the Zoo

For our playgroup today we braved the 40 degree temperatures and went to the zoo. Ethan was most impressed by the "pana bears" and the meerkats (since he's seen them on animal planet). I was most impressed with the Elephant getting a bath from a hose and the 7000 pound hippopotamus that kept staring at Ethan and then flashing all his teeth at us. Was that a hint?

Trick-or-Treating

Just thought everyone would enjoy some more pictures of our little "monkey boy". He did great trick-or-treating mostly because he can now navigate stairs himself so I don't have to carry him up and down every front porch. He is very scared of masks though and actually jumped into the lap of a man handing out candy when another child turned around and walked past him with a Yoda mask. Before that he was very enthralled with all the lights and decorations. After that he stayed very close to Taylor and looked at every person's face to make sure they were "all right". And much to our surprise, after 45 minutes he announced "all done" and wouldn't go up to anymore houses. He was happy to go home to bed. We'll see if that one holds true in 10 years!

Bowling with the Auna's

Bowling with the Auna's

Last week for Family Home Evening we went bowling with another family in the ward. Ethan and Elise are just 3 weeks apart and love copying each other and laughing non-stop. We had a great time and Ethan has been asking to "go bowl" ever since. Sadly, if you look at the last picture you'll see that Jacky and I both got our butts kicked not only by our husbands but also by our 2-year-olds. I'm blaming that on the big belly!

Fam-o-ween

In September when we got back, we started holding Family Home Evenings every Monday. We figured it was time to get on the consistency bandwagon since Ethan's already two. He fell instantly in love with this "family time" and goes screaming through the house "Fam-o-ween" whenever I announce it's time for Family Home Evening. We assumed he was actually trying to say "Family Home Evening" until last week when we asked if he wanted to go trick-or-treating for Halloween. To which he did the same demonstration and went screaming "Fam-o-ween" throughout the house. We realized he has somehow merged his idea of Halloween with Family Home Evening. Oh well, at least he's happy and everything somehow makes sense in his little head!