A whirlwind of a week!

The past week and a half has been so busy for Mitch and I, and we have absolutely loved it! Mitch's family came to DC and it was such a blast to spend time with them and then my mom, Cindy came to visit us! We have had so much fun exploring the sites and spending time with the people we love! Mitch and I both feel like we are settling into living in DC and are finally figuring out how to get around and how to live in this amazing city.

Since there has been so much going on the last couple of weeks - here are some pictures of the highlights for us.

1. We met Elder Ballard (one of the 12 apostles in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints)! This was such an amazing experience. Elder Ballard came to DC and spoke for all the members of the church that work in congress and since Mitch is a part of the Washington Seminar, we were invited to attend his talk. It was absolutely incredible. The biggest thing I learned was that he truly has been called of God and set apart as a special witness of Christ. I know this man and the other apostles truly are exactly what they say they are, apostles of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It was so neat to hear him speak and shake his hand!

This is the best picture we could get of him

2. Mitch's family came to town! Seriously we had so much fun exploring D.C. with Mitch's parents and sister. I love my in-laws so much and am blessed to be part of such an incredible family. Here are some pictures of what we all did.

We went up to the top of the Washington Monument - which was very cool to see all of DC but it also made me very afraid of heights! I don't think I will make it up there again :D 

We tried frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity.... mmmmm delicious! 

We went to the Natural History Museum... here we are acting like elephants... logically! 

Love this cute girl!  

On our way to the beach we found Morris Rd! Here we are at the corner of Morris Rd and Friendship Rd. 

We drove all the way to Ocean City, Maryland thinking it would be a nice relaxing and lovely day at the beach, only to find out it was hot rod weekend. There were old classic cars and pimped up trucks from all over the country dragging through the town. It was fun for a little while, but then all the revving of the engines got old! None the less we loved the beach :D!

On our way home we found a farmers market where we could pick fresh strawberries 

We ended up picking way more than we could eat... these strawberries were seriously delicious!

Luckily at the farmers market there were toys that my husband could play with! 

So we had a race on John Deer tricycles... clearly Mitch is beating us.

Late night walk to all of the monuments 

At the Washington Monument after a great run from Lincoln to Washington.

We had so much fun exploring the beach and more of DC with our family!

3. The day after Mitch's family left, my mom came to town so we were able to spend time with her. Cindy and I were able to go to the holocaust museum which was an incredible experience and I recommend it to anyone who can go. We were also able to go to Mount Vernon and explore where Washington lived. I love visiting old homes and was absolutely amazed by his home and all of his property. It was absolutely beautiful. I have come to respect George Washington even more as I have learned more about him. Going to his home was evidence to me of just how lucky we are that he was our president and he helped create this great nation we live in. 

Love her so much! (and isn't Mount Vernon beautiful?!?!?)

Mitch and I are so excited about the next couple of months and all that we are going to do here. We just got called to be ward missionaries and we are loving it. We are going to go out with the Elders a few times this week and we can't wait. It is starting to get real hot in D.C. and we are prepared to sweat in the humidity for the rest of the summer... can't wait for that :D!