Day #5--Jamestown Settlement

Here it is Monday and back to exploring Virginia. This is showing how the Powattan Indians made boats by start little fires in the logs and scraping the ashes with seashells.

The blacksmith in the colony, making nails...

The community oven...

Gardens

Small houses where they ate and slept in the same rooms and had to just put their beds away every day.

My little troopers. Poor Noah has school and I had already pulled him out a few days the week before. But obviously we will take him back there. It's not far from us and it's even free for York County residents.

Ammon sitting on a bench in the church house...

Micah did usually eventually pass out for an hour or so when he had surpassed nap time by a couple of hours. Poor guy.

They had the 3 ships that brought the colonists here in the 1606-1620 range. This was very coold and fun to see and try to imagine living primarily in the small dark quarters beneath the deck for 4 1/2 months.

On deck

Kaden got to practice lighting the canons...Yes, he really liked that for some reason.

Trying out the sleeping quarters.

The following are the Powattan Indian village...

Day #4--Back home

We left DC on Sunday morning. That is the time to drive in D.C. for sure. We made great time getting home and even made it to church.

Day #3--Air and Space Museum, American Indian Museum, Capitol Building

This was what Travis was the most excited for. We didn't get a lot of pictures here. In fact, everyone had so much fun the day before, that they all seemed a little worn up and grumpy for part of this day. But we still had fun. And on this day we were much smarter with food. Our hotel was only about 7 blocks from the Mall area, so we (thankfully) didn't have to drive anywhere or find parking this whole time. On the first day we ate lunch in the Natural History Museum which was super expensive, so this day we stopped at a Subway in the morning on the walk to the Museum and got some $5 footlongs and ate them in the eating area of the Air and Space Museum. Everyone around us had to eat McDonalds (not to mention expensive McDs), so we felt pretty special in that moment.

Outside the American Indian Museum. Noah claimed at one point that this was his favorite part of our trip. He is at such a fun age and just soaked everything up. In fact we only went through this museum because he wanted to so badly.

In front of the Capitol Building. Noah is the photographer.

Then we headed home to relax before heading out to find a place to have dinner.

More of Day 2--Washington Monument, WW II Memorial and Lincoln Memorial

The World War II Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial were actually two of my favorite things to visit. Very though provoking.

Below is as we are first heading to the Washington Monument. Noah turned out to be such a great help this trip. We took the 2 stroller in case we exhausted everyone to quickly with all the walking, and it was nice not have to keep track of as many running children...Anyway, Noah ended up needing to push Ammon around for most of the time and was so good about it and talked to Ammon and showed him everything in the Museums and explained them to him.

Tara from the Lincoln Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial

We wore this poor tyke out. If only Micah would know he should sleep more, too...the hardest thing about this whole trip was the hotel stay because Micah is used to having his own quiet and dark room, so getting him to sleep at night and back to sleep if he woke up was tricky. The first night he cried for about 20 minutes (which I would let him do at home, but it felt like too much with all of us in the same room and people probably annoyed next door...) so I finally took him down to the lobby for an hour and a half at 3 a.m. A great start to a refreshing vacation...

Thes are in front of the WW II Memorial.

Smithsonian Castle and Natural History Musem--Day 2

I am finally posting pictures from all the fun things we did and saw while Tara was visiting. I would have to spend hours more to try and do it all in the right order (I wish I were more computer savvy). So here is a jumble of pics for anyone who wants to see them. This was our first full day in Washington DC. The Natural History Museum is huge and amazing and could take a couple of full days by itself. The picture below is the Smithosonian Castle, which I think is just kind of an information center.

Not so great a picture...

DC Temple

The first place we went when we got to DC was the temple. What an amazing place. Tara was so wonderful to watch our kids in the visitors center on on the temple grounds while Trav and I got to do a session together. They have a very nice and big visitors center and were to nice to show the kids some good movies and let them roam around a bit. If you look closely you can see Travis and me walking out of the temple...

So we got to begin the trip on the best note and Tara was able to go through the temple with her friends at the end of our trip. Which means she was able to see it at night. I was hoping to somehow see it also at night, but Tara's picture will have to do.

An attitude of gratitude

"This is a wonderful time to be living here on earth. Our opportunities are limitless. While there are some things wrong in the world today, there are many things right, such as teachers who teach, ministers who minister, marriages that make it, parents who sacrifice, and friends who help."We can lift ourselves, and others as well, when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude. If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues" (Thomas S. Monson, "An Attitude of Gratitude," Ensign, May 1992, 54).

Whenever I go to the grocery store lately, I always end up going to the commissary on a Saturday after payday, and dearly regretting it. I mumble and grumble to myself about how it is not enjoyable to have to fight my way through the aisles, most of the time finding it easier to abandon cart a few times to go snag something down the aisle. Then I start to feel a little guilty for being grumpy about it. Here we are, blessed with a commissary with way better prices than I can find anywhere else, not to mention blessed with a grocery store...period. It seems like every time I pile our cart high with food, I start to marvel and wonder about how lucky we are to just go to the store and buy whatever we want when years ago people had to make their own butter and soap and milk the cows, and grow their own food, and trade for things they couldn't produce on their own. And washing their laundry by hand (I spent a huge chunk of my time doing laundry even with machines!) I think about how busy I feel like I am all the time and wonder what it is that makes me so busy.

Anyway, as my sister Tara has been here visiting this past week, I have had many more chances to marvel and feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the day we live in and the blessings and technology that God has given us. As we were in Washington DC and got to read and ponder more on the beginnings of our country, and think about the sacrifices people made to bring us where we are today (not to mention the amazing people who were inspired by God and led to do such great things), the history of slavery and the long way we have come, and even in the Natural History Museum marveling over all of the creative and amazing creatures God has created and the beautiful and intricate world that we live in. Then as we visited Jamestown settlement and saw more of the way people lived (average lifespan of 40 years), the Victory center in Yorktown to see how people lived in times of war--which brought up more ponderings about the frailties and imperfection of men that always lead us to war with one another. That cycle that you always see repeating in the Book of Mormon.

I don't know my point exactly, I am just feeling very grateful for all of the great men and women who came and went before us, and for the progression of man and for the opportunities and blessings we have in this generation. I'm grateful to see God's hand in everything and to feel of that great love that He has for His children. I hope I can keep my focus in the right place and do all I can to serve Him and show my gratitude in some small way.