My Family's Visit...Restoring Honor in DC

The day after Drew's parents left a big chunk of my family showed up. Once again, it was so great to have family here with us. There were nine people stuffed into our little apartment for the week! It was great! I love being surrounded by family and staying up late talking with people scattered all around.

My older sister Haley brought Darcy her birthday present and I am totally in awe of all the work she put into it. She made her a quiet book for church and it is absolutely amazing!! I am totally in love with it...oh and Darcy is too. :) I'm having a hard time letting Darcy play with it because I just can't stand the thought of it being ruined. Thank you soo much Haley!

The main reason my family chose this particular week to come was so we could all go to Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor rally in Washington DC on 8-28. It was amazing how many people were there! I just looked up how many people were there and I found an estimate of 300,000 but I'm pretty sure Glenn Beck said there were over 500,000 people there. Either way, it was a lot. It was so awesome to be a part of that sea of people all there to take a stand. We thought Glenn Beck did a really great job of bringing people of so many different religions and backgrounds together. I actually kind of thought it might be a huge majority of Mormons, but it really wasn't at all. I feel so strongly about standing up for what you believe in, and I am so happy I got to go be a part of something as major as that. I am proud to be an American. I am so grateful for our Founding Fathers who were men of faith and honor and for the freedoms we enjoy in this country. I pray that we can restore honor to our government and remain a free people.

Darcy getting her birthday present from Haley.
The whole crowd was excited to play with the quiet book!






Darcy playing with her new book.
We got to DC the day before the rally so we got to go see the temple there. It is so gorgeous. Darcy loved running around the temple grounds.
A family picture in front of the temple.

Haley suggested we swing Darcy while we walked so we could go a little faster. She loved it!
A family picture at the rally. Haley found a pattern on a blog to make these flag shirts. It ended up being quite the project to get them all made, but it ended up being worth it. We had people come film us and take pictures of us a lot. We were so popular! :)
A sisters picture at the rally. It was SO hot!
Look at all the people!
After the rally. I was trying to get a picture of the sea of people walking away.
After the rally most of my family went to the Holocaust Museum. I had already been and didn't think I could handle it again at this point, so a few of us (with the little kids) went over to the Natural History Museum.
Ashley at the Museum of Natural History.

Drew's Parents Visit

Neil and Becky just left this morning and we are so sad to have them go. It was so much fun to spend this past week with them. It was so nice for me to have their extra hands to help with Darcy, and I loved watching them interact with her. We will all miss them!

We started our touring in Williamsburg, VA where we got to learn about some early American history. Then we went to Yorktown, VA where we learned about the Revolutionary War. Unfortunately I forgot my camera at home, Neil forgot his at the hotel, and Becky had her's but it ran out of battery so we have no pictures of our first day. Sad. :( The next day we went to Jamestown and Busch Gardens. The next day we started driving home. Along the way we crossed the Chesapeake Bay bridge-tunnel and stopped in York, PA for the night. The next morning Drew and his parents went and toured the Harley factory and then we headed home.
Outside the settlers camp in Jamestown. I just thought the whole Jamestown thing was so awesome. I tend to get kind of confused and lost when we're talking and learning about the wars, but I had the Pocahontas Disney movie in my head to keep me straight (even though there were definitely some details that were a little off).
Drew ready for a battle in his armor. We laughed so hard at this picture.
Outside one of the settlers homes.
In a canoe carved out of a tree trunk.On one of the ships.
Outside an indian hut.
I was so into this awesome fountain outside the Jamestown visitors center and I just had to have a picture!
We went to Busch Gardens and ate some good food and rode on some fun rides. This was a little kid ride that Drew and I took Darcy on. She had this little grin on her face the whole time.
We watched some of the sesame street characters sing and dance for a little while.
Neil and Becky on the gondola ride (I'm not really sure that's what it was called, but I'm going with that.).
Darcy and I on the gondola ride.
Drew went on this absolutely crazy roller-coaster. It stopped at the top for a second and then dropped straight down and it did it two different times! I feel bad that Drew is such a dare-devil and I am the opposite. I promised I would ride on one roller-coaster with him and I ended up riding on two! So I think I get some huge gold stars for my wife duties chart. :) His dad went on one with him too, but neither of us were interested in this crazy one, so he braved it alone.
We took Darcy on a ride on the carousel. She cried because she wanted to come over to me, but I guess it was worth a try.When we left the Williamsburg/Jamestown area we had to go drive across the Chesapeake Bay bridge tunnel that is one of the seven architectural engineering wonders of the world. It was 23 miles long. You start out on a bridge then go down in a tunnel, up on a bridge again, down in a tunnel, and then up on a bridge again. It was so long. You can see in this picture how you can't even see the land in the distance. We stopped in Baltimore on our way home. While we were waiting for our tour Darcy got a chance to get soaked in this fountain with a bunch of other little kids. She absolutely loved it. I think she would have stayed in there all day if I had let her.In Baltimore we went on a tour of the harbor on a speed boat. I love boats and I love going fast so it was a great combination for me. Drew got really soaked because he was right by the edge so I don't know if he was as excited about it. :) The Baltimore harbor is where Francis Scott Key wrote The Star Spangled Banner and we got to see exactly where he was compared to the flag on the shore.
Coming off the boat.
Darcy with Neil before church. She wore the skirt she got from Neil and Becky for her birthday so we had to get a picture!

Darcy's 1st Birthday - Part 3

Can you believe there is really a part three to this whole first birthday thing? I promise this is the last post about it. I meant to add this to part two actually but forgot until I was already done.

The package from my parents didn't get here until a couple days after her birthday so she got to have an extension to her celebration. Lucky! I requested that my mom get her some of the classic books for her birthday, and she ended up with a whole library of new books. We are loving them. They also sent some really adorable new clothes that I can't get enough of.

We feel so blessed to have such a big group of family and friends who love Darcy to pieces just like we do. Thank you so much to everyone who was so thoughtful and generous with birthday wishes and gifts. She is one lucky girl!

Checking out the fun card that talks to her.

With some of her new books.

Opening one of her presents.

Showing off her new duds.

Darcy's 1st Birthday - Part 2

Get ready for a million pictures! We went and got these pictures from Rich and Brittany yesterday and I was just overwhelmed with the amount of adorable pictures they took. If it were a little easier to do I would just add all two-hundred something of them. I love them all!! I know there are lots of pictures of basically the same thing (Darcy eating cake) but I just had the hardest time choosing.