Washington DC

We loved our quick trip to DC this last weekend. It was a fun-filled weekend for sure! DC is only 4 hours from NYC which makes it a nice quick drive. I love living on the East Coast because everything is sooo close! You drive through state after state in no time. Anyway, we had planned (about a year ago since Spence is on top of his BYU games) to go down to DC for the BYU game. We went with our good friends, Sharra and Nate, from church too. Since I knew I needed to run a half marathon around that same time, I found one that was only about 40 minutes outside of where we were staying and ran a half marathon too. It was perfect. We also celebrated our FIFTH anniversary! On Thursday when we arrived we were able to go to the DC Temple and walk around the Visitors Center which is amazing! It has a great little children's section which the girls loved. A favorite quote that I like is, "If you allow your children to touch the temple, the temple will touch them." It was really special stopping at the temple and talking to the girls about the Gospel, Jesus and Joseph Smith.

The next day we went to the Mall and walked around some of our favorite memorials. I didn't want to do too much walking since I had my half marathon the next day, but we did quite a few before we went to meet our friends in Fairfax for dinner and so Sharra and I could go pick up our race packets. We went to the MLK memorial. I LOVE all the quotes on the walls. There is also a great view there of the Washington Monument. (really any view is great of that thing though!) Then we went to my favorite, Teddy Roosevelt Memorial. This one takes a while to walk through but it goes through each term of his Presidency and what he accomplished. It has some great quotes as well and there are lots of cool waterfalls throughout it. We then walked over to the Jefferson Memorial and then to the Lincoln Memorial. The BYU Football players were at the Lincoln Memorial and I saw Jamaal Williams!! I was so close and wanted so badly to ask to take a picture with him but chickened out since Spencer had gone to the bathroom. dang! Next time for sure. 

After the Memorials, Charley spotted a trolley that looked just like the Daniel Tiger Trolley. She wanted to go on it so badly. She had actually seen these same trolleys in Philadelphia but the tours were like an hour long so we didn't want to get on. This tour was only 20 minutes.. score! Bergen was napping in the stroller, so Spencer took Charley on the trolley. They rode to Arlington Cemetery and back. Charley's face was priceless getting on that trolley! I hope I never forget her pure joy and squeal of delight! She was super excited to be riding the Daniel Tiger trolley! 

We then drove out to Georgetown. I love Georgetown! It's a quaint little town right outside of the main Mall area. It's only like 10 minutes to drive to and has the cutest shops, bakeries and restaurants. We walked around for a bit and stopped at Dean and Delucas to get some yummy dessert bars and cookies. Then I yelped another amazing bakery place called Baked and Wired that we NEEDED to try! So we walked over there and got MORE dessert bars and cookies. They were absolutely divine and both recommended! 

Saturday morning Sharra and I woke up bright and early for our race! It was a beautiful morning with the sunrising and the temperatures were perfect. We actually both didn't know we were signing up for a girls-only Diva race when we signed up a few months ago, but when we picked up our race packet they gave us a tutu to wear and everything was ALL pink! Well we weren't daring (or crazy) enough to wear the tutu's but still had fun running the race! It was actually a very hilly course! I didn't know it was going to be that hilly and was surprised by the amount of up-hills there were! 

A little back story about the race: So my hip had been hurting me pretty bad before this race. I started going to a PT to help it heal and did stretches on my own. I fasted and prayed that it would heal and had Spencer give me a blessing. Before the race, I took a few days off and race morning my hip didn't hurt! It was nothing short of a miracle and Heavenly Father watching out for me. I ran the race in little pain! I wanted to run a fast race in preparation for my full marathon in November but didn't know what to expect with my hip, so I went out taking it at a slower pace. When I realized I was in third place (!) I began to pick it up a little. The first place girl dropped way down (she must have started too fast) so now I was in second! I knew I was going to see Spencer at mile 8 and kind of wanted to be in first when I saw him, so at mile 7, I passed the first place girl and never looked back!:) (well I did at the very end to make sure no one was going to pass me right at the end) I was in first place from mile 7 on and ended up winning the race! It wasn't a PR for me but it sure felt good to break the tape at the finish line! Spencer is so supportive and brought the girls out to watch me! He drove out (had to leave our place at 7am!) to see me at mile 8. I don't think he thought I was in first place when he saw me because he seemed a little of a shock when I came running by:) After I passed them and tried to hug Charley real quick, they got in the car and drove to the finish line. He said he parked the car and then had to sprint to where the finish line was with both girls and the double stroller ! What a champ! He was able to take a video of my crossing the finish line too! Love that family of mine. Sharra did amazing as well! She got 9th overall and almost PR'ed (by only a minute I think). 

After the race, we went back to our Airbnb place and got ready for the game that afternoon. It felt so good to stretch, foam roll and take an ice bath and then hot shower! Nate's parents live really close by so they actually found two young women from their ward to come watch all the kids for us. It was perfect! We gave them money to order a pizza and they stayed with both our kids for the night while we drove out to the game. It was about an hour drive out. It was a fun game to watch and I forgot how much I like watching football at the stadium. When Spencer and I were first married, we would go to all the BYU home games. It was so fun and you get way more into them when you are actually there! We also met up with a few friends from Utah who flew out to watch the game too. Spencer and I got a really good (but expensive) cheeseburger with sweet potato fries. After the game, we went back to our place and packed up the girls and drove back to NYC that night. We got home at 2am but we had to drive that night since I was in charge of the Primary Program at church the next day! 

Philly

I just love Philadelphia! It is a super clean, easy to navigate city. Spencer had some work there a few weeks go, so the girls and I tagged along! We stayed in downtown Philadelphia (in a Residence Inn, which is the only way to go with multiple kids since they had a separate room for us to sleep in). While Spencer was in meetings, the girls and I did our own little traveling. As we started our trek around the city, I was amazed at how easy it was for me to walk around (probably 5 miles) with a double stroller all day. It's kind of become my element and makes for a great way to travel places. The girls are so easy in the stroller and know that is how we get around.. I love it! These pictures are way out of order, but we first walked along Franklin Blvd. (stopping at the Thinker statue) to the art museum where the famous Rocky steps are. Afterward, we walked along Kelly Drive (where we saw boathouse row) all the way to the Please Touch Museum which was about 4 miles! When we got there it was closed!! I was so bummed. It was only closed for that day for cleaning, so I moved things around our schedule and decided to do it another day with Spencer. We took an Uber back to the hotel (I didn't want to walk another 4 miles) and ended up going to the Magic Garden. It is this amazing museum type place with tons of stained glass, tiles, and random things piled onto of each other to make art. It was fun to walk around and see. There were games for the girls to do along the way which kept their attention too. I loved it!! 

The next day, we went to the Please Touch museum again with Spencer. It is a HUGE museum and so much for the kids to do. They loved it and definitely worth going again sometime! After that we came back for the Philadelphia Temple Open House tour. It is such a beautiful temple! I really loved the inside (especially the family waiting room) and the architecture outside is amazing! They made it look just like other buildings in Philadelphia which I thought was cool. Something sweet that happened in the Temple was when we were in the Celestial Room, Charley learned over to me and whispered, "where is Jesus?" I told her that he wasn't actually there with us, but he is in our hearts and is up in Heaven. She got pretty sad because she really thought we were going to see and meet Jesus in the temple. She ran over to Spencer who was a few feet away and said (very loudly for most to hear), "Dad, Jesus is in Heaven!" It was pretty cute. 

That night the kids played in this cool fountain at City Hall and then we went out on a date while the girls slept to Del Friscos! So good!! 

Our last day, I got up and went on a run on Kelly Drive. My hip flexor has really been hurting me recently, so I took it easy. When I got back, we explored the constitution area with the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and Franklins Court. We didn't have a ton of time, so Spencer went on a tour of Independence Hall where the Constitution was signed while I walked around with the girls for a bit. We stopped and got some Acai bowls, peeped into the window to see the Liberty Bell, and then wrote our names with an old-time ink pen! Afterward, we stopped at Dalessandros for supposedly the best Philly Cheesesteak in Philadelphia. It was pretty darn good! It was crazy busy (even at 4pm) but it was such organized chaos. You were in this single file line to order and there were ladies in the front practicing yelling what you wanted to order. Once you ordered you kind of stood around until you got your food, so we were about 10 people back and were yelling our order to the girls writing it down. It worked well and was really efficient, but I couldn't imagine doing that all day. They were hustling like crazy in there!