Family stuff

At the beginning of June Rachel and Craig were married. It was a gorgeous wedding, and I've been waiting to get some pictures from people. So hopefully soon I will be able to get those and post them. I am getting some of our rockin family vacation. I do, however, have this one pic from outside the Bountiful temple at Rachel's wedding.

These are the Schmutz women (I guess Val and I are Owens, but still... and we're missing Cierra). I love this pic. Most of my favorite women. It was good to see grandma at the wedding, and the reunion.

It's the History Fair!

A few weeks ago I took Kyle and Valerie to Washington D.C. for Kyle's History Fair project. He did a play with some friends on the Sandwalkers, and got to go to nationals. I guess that means he's pretty cool. My parents couldn't take him so they asked if I would be kind enough to take some time out off to take them. Of course I could get some time off! So here are a few pics from our trip.

This is Kyle and I in front of George Washington's old tomb. They've built and new, nicer, bigger tomb since, and that is where the wreath laying was.

The first day we went to Mt. Vernon which was pretty amazing. I can't imagine living on an estate that big. We arrived at George Washington's tomb just in time for the wreath laying ceremony. Valerie got to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, and Kyle got to help lay the wreath on his tomb. Now they are officially in the Mt. Vernon national archives which I thought was pretty cool, how many people can say they've done that?

The next day we went to the National cathedral which was gorgeous. I'd never been in a cathedral before, and I loved it. I wish we would have spent a little longer there, but we wanted to try and make it to the zoo. The zoo really wasn't anything spectacular. Most of the animals were already inside, it looks like we picked a bad time to go.

On Monday Kyle gave his performance, and they did pretty well, but didn't win anything. After that we went to the Spy Museum. That was quite the exhibit. I think we spent about 3 hrs in there. It is a huge exhibit, and it was very interesting. I think that and the national cathedral were my favorites. We also spent a little while in the Art Smithsonian looking at the portrait photography section.
Overall It was an awesome vacation. I love D.C. there is so much to see there. Last year we went and stayed with my Dad's friend in West Virginia. It was so pretty out there, and I think I almost like driving around the countryside more than walking around the National Mall. I would love to move back east for maybe just a year to see what it's like. Maybe Kyle can win the History Fair again next year so we can go!