DC Day 5

Day 5 of the trip was spent with the whole family in DC. We made the rounds to ALL to monuments and walked several miles. We started at the Jefferson Memorial.

Garett was such a trooper! He spent 1/2 of his time in the stroller on this trip!
Here is some of the group. We all wore our matching shirts this day!

Grace posing at the FDR Memorial.

There he is! Grace taking a rest on his knee.

The Korean War ( i think) Memorial.

The Washington Monument.

Ben's got the whole world in his hand, or at least the Washington Monument.

There's Good Ol Abe with the 3 little inseparable girls, Elise, Abby and Grace.

One of the few of just Ben and I.

Vietnam War Memorial. I love how you can see people's reflections in it.

WW II Memorial. This Column is Utah's.

This was a good place to take a little break and watch the Duck play in the water.

We decided to thought the day out a little longer and headed up to the White House. Grace was dying to see where Barack Obama lives. (She yells his name every time she sees a picture of him. Don't worry, she does the same thing with President Monson.)

On our way back to the car Ben and Grace ran up to get some close up shots of the Washington Monument.

Grace was sooooo tired by the end of this long day! She ended up walking most of the way.

Garett was as happy as can be because he took a nap in the stroller.

What a fun full day! I'm so glad we were able to see these great monuments of our Country!

DC Days 3 &4

On day 3 of our trip to VA our Hardy Family reunion officially began! We all went to church that morning, took some family pictures that afternoon and then played the Hardy version of Jeopardy.

The kids were pretty excited about the candy hidden under the daily doubles and the adults enjoyed learning and remembering some new things about each other.
Michelle and Jack spent a lot of time designing a logo for our Family Reunion and made an awesome video and matching t-shirts for everyone! It was so awesome. On the back of everyone's t-shirt was their #. The order in which they joined the family!
On Day 4 we spent the day playing games. We did an adult wheel barrow race where I got my face smashed into the grass. We also played some other really fun games. That afternoon we busted out the slip and slide! This was possibly the most fun thing at the reunion!

We ended with a game of kick ball and slid into home base.

That night mom gave us a fun FHE lesson, and almost every night was spent staying up late and laughing and talking.

DC Day 2

Our 2nd day in VA was jam pack full of sight seeing! We started out the day in Mount Vernon. I LOVED this place. I was so fascinated by George Washington and the beautiful estate he created, mostly from afar as he was off serving the country. Garett can't resist the sheepie.

Us trying to pose with the Washington's.
The mansion. I found it so interesting that the rooms inside were so brightly painted! It was a sign of wealth if you could afford color on the walls. The house was beautiful inside!

Who wouldn't love a back porch like this....

especially if it had a view like this!

Garett trying to break into the old burial vault.

Grace in front of the new burial vault. You can see George's casket.

It was a hot day! We had a picnic on the grounds and wandered looking at the beautiful gardens and all the out buildings. My favorite part was listening to Martha Washington. In one of the little houses they had a women dressed as her telling story after story of George and the family. It was as if she really was Martha! She was amazing!

After Mt. Vernon we stopped by Arlington's National Cemetery.

We trekked it up to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and watched the Changing of the Guard. It was really neat.

There was some really cool gravestones. We especially liked this guy riding his horse.

Ben and Grace by the Eternal Flame at JFK headstone.

For being totally wiped out the kids were really great and I am glad we had a chance to stop at Arlington and remember so many of the wonderful people that have served our Country! It made it even more special to be there before the 4th of July so we could remember the experiences we had on our nations birthday!

DC Day 1

Our first full day in VA we spent in Washington D.C. We had scheduled a tour of the US Capitol Building.

There were lots of cool statues to stand by.
The rotunda was amazing! The ceiling was incredible!

Grace grew to love Abraham Lincoln, mostly because she recognized him and he is in lots of places in D.C.

The kids grew pretty restless on the tour, but Ben and I thought it was really fascinating. Especially after reading the latest Dan Brown book, it was cool to be in the places he talked about. Plus, you know, all the cool History that happened here.

We were happy to find a familiar face... President Brigham Young's statue.

This is Ben and the kids in front of the Justice Building. We didn't actually go inside, but it looks really cool!

After our tour and some lunch we went to the Natural History Museum. Grace was really excited about this, because of the Night at the Museum movies. She loves those movies!

Benni the Buffalo with a buffalo.

Garett and a Dino.

The kids climbing out of a rock they probably weren't supposed to be in. The display did say it was okay to touch though.

Our little family and the Dumb Dumb (or the Easter Island Statue).

Besides the parking ticket we got we had a really wonderful day exploring DC with our little family!

From Charlotte to Virginia

After visiting Heather's family in Charlotte we drove up to Virginia to see Scott's family and for the Hardy Family Reunion. We decided to stop at the Natural Bridge.

After walking through the museum we decided we didn't want to pay a ridiculous amount of money to hike to the bridge, so we walked through the wax museum and left.


We did get to stop at Foamhenge. We had no idea this existed until we drove by. We just had to stop and see it. Here is Grace in front of it. It is an exact replica of Stonehenge made out of Styrofoam!

We thought it was totally cool and it was an excellent (and free) detour for our drive.

Here is Garett in front of the warning sign. I got a kick out of it.

Our Charlotte Trip

We had so much fun in Charlotte with the Woolley's! We did lots of playing and running around. Garett loved playing with Catie and Connor and their toys. We got to see Sydney and Abbie to a kids Triathlon, see them in a Swim Meet, and we got to go swimming with them too! It was busy with them still in school and doing swim team so Heather and I did a lot of tag teaming and it worked out great! I loved just being there and being part of their lives.

We did make a special trip to the Discovery Museum there. The kids had a blast together!
Grace was pretending to be Snow White asleep in her glass casket.

This was a huge fan that was fun to stand in front of.

Garett practising to be a drummer.

Heather and Grace playing a "song". When you stepped on the light it played a note.

What is cooler than laying on a bed of nails?

We loved our stay at the Woolley's house! Thanks for letting us visit!

My First 5K!

I ran my very first 5K on Saturday June 5th! I started training for it at the end of April and was determined to get in shape for my trip to North Carolina. My sister Heather has been my inspiration and she found us a race to do together. There were so many times in the past month that I was sure I was never going to make it! Running is NOT fun for me, and it took some serious will power to get me going some days. I only missed a few days in the past month, and I even cut out desserts and sweets!

I flew in to Charlotte Friday night. (Friday was a LONG day with just me and the kids. Let's just say it involved sitting on a plane for 45 minutes just to get off because it was broken. Waiting around for 45 min to get transferred to a new terminal and then finally getting back on a new plane. we were only delayed 2 hours but it felt so long!)
We woke up super early on Saturday, got ready and left the kids with a baby sitter. I was a little anxious, but I just told myself I was going for a run. There was definitely some excitement in the air before it started.
Here's Heather and I before we started. I felt pretty fancy with my number and tracking chip on.

Then off we went. It was extra humid that day and so so hot! I was at the back of the pack which was okay until people started to stop and walk. I was determined to run the whole way, no matter how slowly I ran, but it was so tempting to walk! Around mile 2 I wasn't sure I would make it. I kept thinking, "Why am I doing this? I hate running and it's sooo hot!" Knowing that my sister was at the end and I would have to be proud of my goal or disappointed that I didn't make it kept me going. Luckily there was a nice little hill I ran down at the end that gave me an extra boost. Here I am running at the end.

Everyone was cheering as I came running to the finish line. I know they cheer for everyone, but it made me feel so great! I was so tired but SOOOO HAPPY! I can't believe I did it!

I'm so glad I did this, and while I can't say I love to run, it was an awesome experience and I'll do it again! Maybe I can get Ben to do it with me next time!