So this last week was fourth of July- filled with fireworks, partying, and lots of apple pie! Okay, so I didn't mean to rhyme there, but it's a nice coincidence. :-) Torry got the day off which was super nice so we were able to enjoy a nice three day weekend. While talking with him, we decided that time moves crazy fast.We were discussing what we were doing last fourth of July and (as seen in the pictures below) we were at the family reunion and baby was so little! Not only that but we were still in Rexburg packing up our stuff ready to move to Logan. Crazy! Now we are in DC after finishing up a masters- ready to take on another one, or get
a job -whichever comes first. But this year we decided to party it up DC style. We got on the metro around 9:00 AM, making sure that we got to DC by 9:30 AM so that we could get a good spot for the parade. Now keep in mind that the parade starts 11:45 AM so we had lots of down time. We got really good seats, right at the beginning of the parade with only a small row of people in front of us. We started talking to everyone around us because we did have a couple hours to spare and let baby play. She had a fun time wandering around in the little space we had, and the people in front of us even gave her one of their flags. She had a good time, but it was really hot and sunny.
The UV index was a 9 (highest is a 10) so we had to put on a lot of sunscreen and hide under an umbrella.It was really interesting what they do in DC while waiting for the parade. It goes right across the national archives museum so on the steps they do a
very dramatic reading of the Declaration of Independence, including
Huzzah's and
Boo's from the audience at correct times. I have like a two second video below that you can hear it faintly in the background. They then have reenactments of battles, which we couldn't see very well because they were far away, but after lots of playing (and a scraped knee) the parade started. It was really cool seeing people from all over the world come to perform in it.
After the parade ended we decided to hit a few of the Smithsonian's that we missed last time we went to DC so we went to the Air and Space Museum, and the Natural History museum (yes, two of the ones in Night at the Museum 2.) It was fun to go to them, but they were INSANELY busier than usual, so we didn't stay for very long. Paige fell asleep right before we got into the Natural History museum which was sad
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because I think she would have LOVED to see all the animals. After we saw everything in the natural history (including the hope diamond, which is blue by the way. I didn't know that) we decided to head over to the Capitol Building to see if we could get a good spot for the nightly concert. Well we went and decided we could sit on the steps, but Baby probably wouldn't enjoy waiting for three hours on busy steps, so we decided to head over to the Mall (the strip of grass between the Washington Monument and the Capitol.) We decided to go there so we could get good spots for fireworks which are right behind the Washington Monument. Well we waited there for about an hour before we decided it was way too hot to stick around and wait for four hours until fireworks started. And we weren't really eager to fight the crowds after fireworks to the metro. So we packed up our stuff and headed home. When we got home we had some BBQ chicken and homemade apple pie (yum) and relaxed on the couch. When watching the fireworks on TV though, we were super glad we didn't stay. I don't know if you saw the Mall on television while watching the Capitol special, but it was CRAZY how busy it got. People were packed in and standing, so we are glad we came home for them. Either way, we had a blast in DC. Happy Birthday America!
