Road Trip to D.C. On The Last Weekend Of 2019!

The holidays continued to glow for us as we ventured out to Washington D.C. to see the temple lights and the People's tree on Capitol Hill. We try to go before Christmas Day but since Lexie flew in two days before Christmas went over the weekend. We are always so grateful to make time to come here along with eating at one of our favorite places! As usual I captured some moments of us during our day trip and it was exquisite! Even the blurry photos make this post perfect since our lives are not! Families are forever! 

On Capitol Hill.

When we went to the Renwick gallery a couple of weeks ago we took a drive around capitol hill, parked and walked around where they have all kinds of shops including the historic Eastern Market which i've never been too. I've always heard about it, and my friend Mary from church who lived here for a few years before moving to Jersey told me about a few places to come here, and also mentioned how spoiled D.C. made her while she lived here. I have to agree with her, and that's probably one reason why we love coming here because like Philly there's so much rich history here about America. 

And free museums! 

We had nothing but rain on our way to D.C., and when we arrived it stopped! I was so happy being as we were going to be walking all over the hill. When we come to D.C. we normally make the time to go the temple, but because we only had Noah and Chelsea, and no Lexie we decided to make it a day of temporal fun! Lexie would have come except that she had a church activity to go to, and I figured since Lexie will be having fun at church with her peers why don't we have a bit of fun with the kids in D.C. Like I mentioned in an earlier post The Renwick Gallery, and all their exhibits were truly a spectacular display of American creativity and fine artistry, and we are so glad we saw it! 

Since the museum took up most of our day (because seriously, one museum can take up your entire day) we didn't have a lot of time to take in all the booths at the market, and so being that the rain brought forth such beautiful sunshine we walked around the hill, and captured a few photos. You can see why we love coming here so much. 

Noah and Chelsea were having the time of their life here as they always do when we venture out to unknown places. They love browsing, and looking inside windows to see what merchandise is in the store, and are so curious as to what people are selling. Most of the people were already packing up their stuff which gives us an excuse to come again, and spend more time here especially when the shops on 7th street are open. 

Woven history is one store I would have loved to seen! They normally have rugs draping over the rod iron fence, but the shop was closed. See, I definitely have to come back now! 

The kids were super excited when we found this book store. Too bad it was closed, but for some reason there were books left outside on a table. I'm not sure if they were there for anyone to take, but no one was around and the kids just took a gander at which books they were, and then I told them to put them down, and continue on our walk. Strange, but who knows. Next time we come maybe I'll ask why there were books outside when they were closed! 

Walking around makes tummies hungry, and so we decided to eat at a place we've never been. As we were walking down the shops we noticed a place called District Taco, and because the food looked pretty good we decided to try it, and I was pretty impressed. Not as good as the authentic mexican food I'm used to eating in Texas, but for the east coast it's pretty good. 

Every mexican place we eat at Noah always has to get his chips and salsa. And orange fanta!

Okay...only my true tex-mex buddies would understand, and know this word, and sometimes I miss hearing it. Orale!

It was such a beautiful day, and we really love coming here. Sometimes I wonder had Jon taken the job in Bowie, Maryland years ago instead of Jersey how our lives would be today. Would I have had Noah? Would Jon still have been with AT&T and not UPS? Who knows. One thing for sure is that we wouldn't have to be driving two and a half hours to the temple, or D.C. to see the sights. But luckily for us, we enjoy traveling by car, and have amazing kids who are good at enduring long car rides. I love, love my life, and I'm so glad I still have these two kiddos who keep us on the go because just like Sierra, Lexie will be off to college, and on her own! This is where I'm grateful for that five year age gap, and for airplanes so that they can come back to visit! Love these kids of ours! 

Until next time D.C. 

Ted's Bulletin

Now I normally don't write about restaurants except if it's included within another post, but if it's a place that really got my attention, where the food was good, and the customer service was great then yeah, I'm going to give the place a "shout out".

Eat at Ted's Bulletin!!!!

First of all Capitol Hill is the bomb, and we just love that area! Besides Brooklyn, and the New England area Capitol Hill in D.C. would be one of the places I wouldn't mind living in. There are just so many yummy places to eat, and places to go! Every time we come here we try to find different restaurants to eat at, and places to explore. I have to thank this lovely lady for sharing some of the places she's eaten in the past when she used to live here. After all...that's what the internet is for right? Sharing, and giving. 

Before heading back to Jersey we decided to grab some breakfast. I remembered seeing a photo on her IG about a restaurant where they played old movies. I was sold when I looked it up online. I love old movies, and this is the perfect place to eat, and watch an oldie. The only thing is you won't be able to hear because the volume is turned down. Sort of like when you go Mystic Pizza in Mystic CT. They play the movie Mystic Pizza over and over again, and the volume is turned down. It didn't really matter to me because if you're into jazz then you won't mind the music playing in the background. I didn't mind because that's all I would listen to in the house. Especially when my oldest daughter played the piano. She always loved playing jazz pieces.

We were listening to Ella Fitzgerald singing, and Louis Armstrong on his trumpet playing The Nearness of You (literally one of my faves) above our heads while watching the ending of a Marlon Brando movie. We lucked out on getting the perfect booth which gave us a perfect view of the screen. 

The movie 'Top Hat' came on just as the food was being delivered, and watching Fred Astaire dance was pretty cool. I kept telling Noah to turn around so he can see Fred dancing, and kind of gave Noah the urge to move his hip, and tap his feet on the booth. I had to tell him to constantly sit down, and not dance on the seat! 

The food came pretty quick and it was so delicious! Here are just a few plates that we ordered. You know...just in case you decide to try it out.  

^^^ Jon ordered the biscuits and gravy. A little rich, but oh so good! ^^^

^^^ Chelsea got her usual. Every breakfast place we go to she always gets pancakes. ^^^

^^^ These are sprinkled pop tarts. We didn't get to have any because we were all so stuffed. ^^^

^^^ I had an "egg sandwich" which was filled with sausage, bacon, and a fried egg with cheese...delish! ^^^

This was such a great restaurant and very family oriented. I will definitely come here again to try the french toast. Lexie ate all hers before I got the chance to even try it, (and take a picture!)

So if ever you're in the D.C. area you got to come here for breakfast! And then go to DC-3 for lunch...these two restaurants are owned by the same owner!

Our weekend.

This past weekend I woke up with the urge to phone a friend of mine whom I hadn't seen since moving to New Jersey. Six years seems like a long time, but when I saw her it was as if I had seen her yesterday (love friendships like that!) I have always wanted to visit her since moving to jersey but our schedules just never connected. She's a planner, and I'm not so every time my family and I would go to to the temple I wouldn't call her because our temple trips would be spontaneous and for one day only. Luckily we had the entire weekend plus one day (Jon is off on Mondays so far) to drive to Virginia (and go to the temple) and spend a couple of days with her. 

And I'm so glad I did! 

Before we arrived to Dominique's we hung out in Capitol Hill for a while, and went to the farmers market, and ate some delicious dogs at DC-3. This is when I wish we didn't live hours away so that I could buy flowers, fruits, and vegetables to take home! Even though I live in the "garden state" it's still nice to buy, and try fruits from other areas. I'm afraid that if I bought flowers they would wilt on the way home, and the fruit would go bad. Maybe not the veggies, but I still didn't want to take that chance. So I left with nothing. 

We just love venturing out in Capitol Hill. There are so many places to eat, and we love trying new foods. Here are a few photos from our weekend. Sorry if it's an overload. There are many more pics to post, but will probably write  about them, and post them tomorrow.

^^^ Best hot dogs on Capitol Hill ^^^

^^^ Can you tell he wasn't enjoying it?" He just chowed on that hot dog like there was no tomorrow! ^^^

^^^ The best part of eating here for Noah was the fact that there was a propeller on the wall! He loves planes! ^^^

^^^ Farmers market haul ^^^

^^^ Love these sunflowers. Wished I could have brought some home with me. I think they would have survived. ^^^

^^^ city bikes. ^^^ 

^^^ The navy yards barracks. ^^^

^^^ Walking down the street, and checking out the flea market. ^^^

^^^ selfie in front of a vintage mirror ^^^

Seeing Dominique was a sight for my sore eyes. It was so nice picking up where we left off. She was also one of the missionaries Jon served with over 23 years ago and that's how I met this lovely sister of mine. I swear I became friends with so many missionaries in Texas & till this day still keep in touch with some of them via Facebook. 

We had so much fun catching up, laughing, and just discussing matters of life. She also makes a mean kale salad. She was so sweet as to go to Costco and  buy all this delicious food to prepare meals for us every night we were there. She has officially become "Aunt Dominique" to my kids. The kids looooove her! 

One evening before dinner I caught Noah and Chelsea having a conversation with her as if they were adults. It was so cute hearing the words that were coming out of their mouth...especially Noah's. When we were figuring out who would bless the food Noah pointed to Dominique (he was sitting right beside her) and said "you say it." He then went on to point at every single one of us saying, "not Chelsea, not Lexie, not mommy, and not daddy. Dominique, you say it." And so she did. It was so cute. You really had to be there to hear, and see the cuteness. 

There was one night when I was sitting in the tv room with the kids & can hear Jon & Dominique in her foyer talking about their mission and who got married to who, and what happened to so and so, and who's passed on, and is she or he Facebook friends with you (no, it wasn't gossip.) I loved that they were both in deep conversation reminiscing about their mission. 23 years later, and they still remember. That's one thing I love about my missionaries is that whenever any of them get together they all have to bring up their mission stories, and I love it. That's how you know a missionary loved their mission is by how they talk about it, and how they would do it all over again! I also love that Jon gets along with all of my girlfriends, and that my friends are his friends and vice versa. I enjoyed going to her ward, and meeting more of our brothers, and sisters. The church is true no matter where we go, and that's the best part of going out of town too. You can always find a chapel in every state, and almost in every town. 

This weekend was soooo nice, and we had so much fun. I think my favorite part of this trip, and visit with Dominique was going to the temple with her. The kids love the temple grounds, and we could have been there all day!  

It. Never. Gets. Old.

^^^ Barefoot on the temple grounds. ^^^

^^^ My light, light brown, messy haired little boy! ^^^

 ^^^ A bee on a flower, and beautiful flowers on the temple grounds. ^^^

^^^ Lexie loves taking pictures with her "new" camera. (We gave her ours.) ^^^

^^^ Just another family picture without Sierra (insert frown face here) for our posterity. ^^^

One thing I learned about this trip is that I never want to take any of my friends for granted. Especially the ones that I have known for years, and years. I have been living in Jersey for six years now, and not once did I really make an effort to see Dominique until now. Shame on me, and I know she felt the same way. Life is short, and the friends we made long ago, and still have today are the best kind. The ones that love, and forgive, and don't judge you for your past, or present mistakes are the ones you never want to let go of. The ones that will pick up the phone the second you call, and the minute they say hello you say to them, "I really need to see a familiar face, and I'd like to come see you", and don't even hesitate, but to say to you, "I'm so glad you called, please come on over" are the truest of friendships. If you have those friendships cherish them, and take care of them because they are very rare to find nowadays. Especially at my age! 

Thank you Dominique for your friendship, and most of all for your hospitality in sharing our weekend with you. You are a wonderful friend, and sure have missed you. I thank you for everything, and I mean everything! The kids love that Soda Stream! We will definitely plan on making more trips to visit you, and know you are always welcome in our neck of the woods too!

We love Virginia, and we love you! We will see you again soon...especially since Chelsea forgot the LOVE pillow you gave her!