spring break, 29th birthday and easter...

*beware. long post*

March 18th-

Celebrated my birthday by flying ALL day! We were a little surprised

to find out our flight to Philadelphia had a stop in Denver and Chicago! But we were happy to see Hope and Aspen on our flight to Denver. Eleanor through a

bit of a fit on the flight to Denver and would not sleep in my arms but fell asleep right when John took her. Go figure. The other two flights she did great. She loved watching "shows" on my ipod and listening to "love" (All you need is love). I'm pretty sure she listened to "love" more then 15 times! After we got all our luggage, rented our car and made it to the hotel is was past 9 pm so we ordered in pizza and had a relaxing evening. In my birthday card from John he surprised me with tickets for "LOVE" in Vegas. What a great husband!!

March 19th-

Neither John nor I had ever been to Valley Forge so we thought

we'd give it a try. I've decided I like traveling and doing tourist sights during the off season. It was great not fighting crowds and having the park to ourselves. The weather was a bit cold, but it was still beautiful. It was fun going through Washington's house and seeing all the other camps. After Valley Forge we went back to city and John went to the Goldman Sachs office while Eleanor and I hung out in the hotel room. Call me crazy, but sometimes my favorite part of vacations is just hanging out in the hotel room. Eleanor had a blast standing up on a ledge and looking out the window. She was waving to everyone and yelling hello to all. She even spotted John when he was walking back to the hotel. Unfortunately it rained the entire afternoon, but we still walked the 10 blocks to the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall (we were told it was only 4). Again, we enjoyed the lack of lines and crowds. I remember one time waiting in line for almost 3 hours to see the Liberty Bell! After the tourist sites we headed over to H&M and a few other stores to do a little shopping, ordered in dinner at the hotel and took a little dip in the FREEZING "heated" pool.

March 20th-

John had to be to the D.C. office before 1pm so we left Phily that morning. On the way out of the city I was craving a fountain drink and was very annoyed that we could not find a single gas station that sold fountain drinks! We eventually found one about 30 minutes out of the city and a few miles off the freeway. What a joke!! When we got to D.C. I dropped John of at the office, which is RIGHT across the street from the Capital. Would be an ideal place to work, Eleanor and did a little driving around the city. I absolutely love that city!!

Later that afternoon we visited the Hirshhorn Museum and saw a great video exhibit. We then took Eleanor on the carousel there at the mall. We knew she'd love it because of the horses, but we didn't think about the HUGE fit she'd throw when the ride was over. What a pill! That evening we met up with Tracy, Kresent, Eric and their kids for dinner.

March 21st-

We went to the National Zoo with Kresent and her three kids. We were surprised to see how crowed the zoo was!! Eleanor loved the panda bears! She loved saying "hi panda hi panda" over and over. She also loved the monkeys and the horses of course. After the zoo we went back to Fairfax Station and drove around some amazing neighborhoods! We were all pretty tired and just spent the evening chilling at the Hancocks.

March 22nd-

We got up early to be at the Capital before 9 am to get tickets for a tour of the Capital. Our tour time wasn't until later that afternoon so we decided to take a quick trip out to Mount Vernon. We've been out to to D.C. a few times but had never been to Mount Vernon. We are so glad we went, it is so beautiful out there. Of course we didn't stay too long, we did see the house, George and Martha's grave sites and walked around a little. I love traveling with John. He and I have the same attention span when it comes to things. We enjoy seeing everything but don't spend all that much time looking/reading things. Maybe we'd learn a little more if we took the time.

I wont lie to you, I was NOT impressed with the Capital tour. Number one we had the most annal tour guide possible,we were with a Chinese group which made the tour twice as long because they had to translate, AND we had Eleanor to deal with! The tour guide made us all stand in this tiny little circle and if you moved only two feet away she would stop her presentation and yell for you to get back in the group. Eleanor was awful! When we were in the Whisper room I noticed that her diaper was beginning to leak and of course our tour guide would not let us leave her side, so I had to become a white-trash mother and change her diaper right there! Also, by the end of the tour she had her shoes and socks off and was fighting me to take her shirt and pants off. I was never so glad to get out of a place! When we finally got out we decided to let Eleanor run around the lawns of the Capital. She loved chasing the "monkeys" (squirrels) but eventually got ticked because she could not touch them.

That night we got to meet up with our good friend Jill. We had dinner at Jaleo, our favorite restaurant. Of course the food was amazing!! After dinner we went to Old Town Alexandria to our favorite little place for ice cream, Pops. ! Unfortunately it was a little chilly to walk down the streets and to the water, but we still had a good time.

March 23rd-

Easter! First thing that morning we gave Eleanor her Easter basket which she wasn't all the impressed with. Maybe if we'd filled it with a dog instead of candy and trinkets she would have enjoyed it! The entire time we were at the Hancocks she followed their dog and cats around. Poor girl had no clue none of the animals liked her!

We went to church with the Hancocks and then after took Eleanor down to a little park/pond to play. Of course she wanted to go swimming in the pond and kept trying to take her dress off!

We had a great Easter dinner with the Hancocks. We had such a good time seeing all of the cousins and just hanging out. Aunt Lynn is such a great cook and everything was so good!. John and I made the bunny cake. I wish I could have taken a photo, John took such care to get the whiskers, teeth and nose just right!

March 24th-

We spent the morning at the Air and Space museum. I was a little annoyed that the American History museum was still closed, but was happy that they had a small exhibit at the Air and Space. Eleanor got to see the original Kermit the frog. No, she has no clue who he is but she's been into frogs lately and she was mesmerised by it! She also enjoyed being able to push a button which played a song by Prince and then dance to the music. She had NO clue she had a huge audience watching her for a good 5 minutes. It was really cute!

Our flight left from BWI and with the way traffic can get in the afternoon, we decided to leave D.C. a little early. We enjoyed a good lunch in a little town near BWI and let Eleanor play outside for a little before we got to the airport. After we all boarded the flight we sat on the airplane for a good 50 minutes waiting for our pilot to show up! It was such a joke! When we finally took off Eleanor listened to Love a few times. She was cracking everyone up because she had her headphones on and was singing along SOO loud! Finally she fell asleep watching a National Geographic show. We all slept pretty much the entire flight. Eleanor didn't even wake up when we made our short landing in Denver. It sure makes for a much more pleasant flight when she's sleeping! Our flight didn't get in until 12 pm and we were SO glad to finally be at our home at 1pm.