washington d.c.

While we were back east for my grandpa's funeral, we took a day for ourselves and headed over to Washington D.C.

Doing the tourist thing in D.C. all on your own, with a 5 week old baby is a bit challenging. We were running a bit behind schedule that day so we only got to really see two, out of the hundreds of things there are to see there; the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial.

Union Station- where we parked

We booked a tour of the Capitol through Senator Flake's office a few days before, but we missed our time slot thanks to insane D.C. traffic. We decided to show up anyway and see if they could squeeze us in, and luckily they had an intern available to take us on a tour.

Senator Flake's office building

It was just our little family and the tour guide. Our guide was amazing and super accommodating- he even let us stop to tour for like 15 minutes while I nursed Xander and got me a drink of water while I was doing so. He was really patient when we had to pause for our fussy baby, and told us "We are very family oriented at Senator Flake's office." That was so comforting for a new mom in a very unfamiliar situation. Being able to take the time to care for my baby when needed made it possible for me to actually enjoy and learn something from the tour, rather than worry about Xander the whole time.  

So here are a few of the pictures that we snapped during our Capitol tour:

Us, in front of one the statues representing Arizona

The corner stone

Us, in the very center of the Capitol building

Bust of Abraham Lincoln

The gorgeous painting on the ceiling of the rotunda

The other Arizona statue and our handsome tour guide

As we were heading back to Senator Flake's office, through the underground tunnel system that senators use to go between their offices and the Capitol, we ran into Senator McCain. How cool is that?! 5 weeks old and Xander is already exchanging pleasantries with United States senators!

Senator McCain jokingly gave us a hard time about booking our tour through "the handsome senator's" office. It was really nice to meet him and really cool of him to take a moment to visit and pose for a picture with us.

Here are some of the pictures that Nathan took outside the Capitol. I think some of these shots are pretty impressive! They look like they could be on postcards or something.

After getting some dinner and getting Grumplestilskin to calm down, we drove over the Lincoln Memorial and snapped a few photos before heading back to my aunt's house for the night.

Isn't this picture gorgeous? Nathan captured it as we were walking up.

Gettysburg Address

Nathan, Xander, and Mr. Lincoln

All of us with Mr. Lincoln! A nice lady who was standing nearby offered to take a picture of all of us together. She said that she knows how it is not be in any of the pictures with your kids on vacation.

The Washington Monument from the step of the Lincoln Memorial. If you are wondering why it looks different- there is scaffolding all over the outside; they are repairing earthquake damage.

And finally, this is a picture of a skinny white boy who jogged by as Nathan was taking pictures of the Memorial. I was starting to get overwhelmed with it being so close the Xander's bedtime, but when Nathan took this picture I couldn't help but laugh.