Spring Break in DC pt. 1: The DC Temple!

We made 2 big plans for vacations this year. Well, sort of. We decided that during Spring Break we would spend 2 nights in Washington D.C. During the summer, rather than take a family vacation like we normally do, we would pack lunches in a cooler and go to the beach as much as possible. We realized we could go to the beach about 16 times for the same price of the family vacation we were thinking about. 

Spring Break was something that we looked forward to for SO long. It was such a relief to have a husband again. Chris did really well this semester, and a side effect of his greatness is that we hardly ever saw him. We survived, but Spring Break was manna to our family. We ate it up and enjoyed every second!

We left on a Tuesday morning and drove through a crazy rain storm.

Our first stop was the Washington D.C. temple. Chris dropped me off and I was able to do a session while he and the boys checked in to our hotel. It is such a beautiful temple! There is stained glass on the stairwells that is so pretty and at the bottom of the stairs there is a fountain, so you can constantly hear the stream of running water. I didn't have a lot of time to explore because Chris was trying to make the session right after mine. I was pretty sure that one of the women was the mother of a missionary who served in Kingman when we were there. Such a small world! I didn't have time to talk with her, but I later found out that it definitely was!

When the boys arrived we played outside a bit. The wind was chilly, but it was a beautiful day!

We played outside as long as we could before the boys got bored (it wasn't very long). Then we went inside the visitor's center. I would be lying if I said it was easy and enjoyable. The boys were exhausted from the long drive and just did not want to be calm or quiet! Luckily there was plenty to keep them entertained and we had an awesome sister missionary show us around.

Side note: I love how Aaron is always taking pictures of his shoes!!!

We listened to the Christus presentation, which was beautiful.

Then we got a picture!

After the visitor's center we spent a lot of time in the car watching DVD's. It seemed like Chris was in the temple forever, but it was just because the boys were so tired and worn out. I'm so happy we finally got to visit the DC temple. It was such a lovely afternoon!

After the temple we got to have Cafe Rio. It was delicious. I had no idea there was a Cafe Rio in DC! We were thrilled.

After Cafe Rio we headed to Safeway to do some shopping (it was so nice being in a real Safeway again). Our hotel had a full kitchen, so we allowed ourselves one meal out (Cafe Rio) and cooked the rest in our room. We had a nice room, too! It was a 1 bedroom suite. It wasn't fancy and felt a little run down, but we got such a great price there was no way we could complain.