I Love To See the Temple!

We were finally able to make it down to the Washington D.C. Temple for the first time on Saturday for our ward temple day! It was really cool because the Primary held an activity for the primary kids so the parents could go to the temple, and there was also babysitting for nursery aged kids too, so we had no excuse not to go! It was a really fun day for Claira she was so excited to be able to see and touch the temple and tour the visitors center. The Primary leaders did an amazing job! We are so grateful to have this temple and will never take a temple for granted again...like in Utah when we could drive 5 minutes to the temple as opposed to 2 1/2 hours. it is such a beautiful temple! We had a wonderful time together as a family and ward, it really was an amazing day:) after our session we took the kids on a walk around the temple grounds and we saw a bunny and a deer just frolicking around! If you've never been here, the temple really is situated in a dense forest kind of area, you really can't see anything around the temple but thick trees, (and apparently bunnies and deer) it's so quiet and serene! We loved it!

Washington D.C. Trip (Karina Visit Day 4)

Okay so I'm taking FOREVER to blog Karina's visit, it's just overwhelming because there are soooo many pictures to choose from and we did tons of fun stuff! Hey, I'm not complainin'! So here is a whole slew of pictures from our first trip to Washington D.C. ever! Ben is missing from most of the pictures on our trip because he has officially been swallowed whole by his Masters program poor guy! He stayed home to work on homework...but hey at least we were out of his hair right? We had a lot of fun checking out the city. We did the normal touristy things because we didn't have a ton of time and wanted to see as much as possible. I think the highlight of the trip for the kids was riding the Metro! They LOVED it! Dylan gave out a squealof delight when he saw the Metro coming, it was so cute!

First Metro ride! I think this picture is awesome, everyone is spacing out and/or awkward haha!

Dylan was in heaven, he just couldn't believe he was on a real 'Two Cane' aka choo choo train:)

Our first stop was the National Museum of American history (The museums are all free! so cool!) Here are Dorothy's ruby slippers!

Muhammad Ali's Boxing Gloves

Dumbo Ride from Disneyland

discovering american inventions

Posing next to the Washington Monument

How cool is that?!

We dipped our feet in the water to cool off for a bit, ahh so relaxing!

Approaching the Lincoln Memorial

The standard Rocky Steps pose! Such a Philly girl! ha ha!

Not a great picture, but just look at how huge that is!

The Man with Karina & Claira posing most classically I must say:)

Showing brother some love! He was such a trooper in the stroller all day! any time we would stop he would say " go! go!go!" and try to thrust the stroller forward with his body, so funny!

So pretty!

Outside the Lincoln Memorial

Vietnam Memorial Wall

The White House

Karina Visit Day 3: The City of Brotherly Love

The moment I arrived here 8 1/2 months ago I just fell in love with Philadelphia. I have really LOVED living here so far! The city, the people, our ward... it's all very unique and I've never lived anywhere like it. I kinda laugh at myself now because I was desperately trying to convince Ben that moving here would be the end of my world as we know it. I'm glad that I put aside my fears of city livin' and supported my hubs! There is an endless supply of things to do, places to go, sights to see, and most importantly delicious food to eat! Mmmmm!

Feeling the love at Love park. We lounged here for a bit soaking up the sun and people watching...mostly Claira & Dylan watching though, claira did laps around the fountain and picked lavender flowers for us, while Dylan lounged and read the paper:)

Center City Philadelphia

We spent most of the day walking around the city discovering cool stuff, while we were walking Karina discovered that she probably shouldn't be walking over a subway station with a skirt on...WHOOPS! She put on quite the show for those Chili's customers behind her. As well as a creepy guy who gave her a standing ovation across the street ha ha! We were laughing so hard! It's moments like these that make life so fun! We are so glad she could come to visit again!

The posing queens of Philly

We found this really cool outdoor art display that was just huge game pieces strewn about! We let the kids run wild and stretch their legs for a bit, even Karina & I went crazy as you will see in the pictures below;)

Posing on an extra-roar-dinary top hat! (We thought this top hat looked like the one Michael Scott wears in an episode of The Office, so funny!)

Karina is pointing to some crazy teenagers wearing clown costumes complete with a bright green clown wig... in April! so funny!

Sticking out her bum:) she loves to ham it up with her poses!

My boy:)

Dominos anyone?

Classic chess pose:)

We ended up visiting the city again on another day, where we devoted our day to FOOD! So, that deserves another post altogether! More to come;)

Day 2: The Zoo!

Day 2: We took Karina to The Philadelphia Zoo (first zoo in America, nice!) After staying up waaay too late the night before...I'm talkin' like 3am... (we had to watch all extras & deleted scenes from Twilight and then laugh and eat and eat and eat) We finally ventured out around noon to grab a bite to eat at Chipotle (best Carnitas Burrito on the planet!) They were really blasting the music at the restaurant, so much that we didn't hear the guy trying to take our order, and we also didn't realize we were next in line because I was being thoroughly entertained by Karina at the time. She was really getting into the song and started dancing:) I love it! Little did she know the guy was staring-laughing-and indeed yelling "Ma'am? Ma'am?! Can I take your order?" HILARIOUS!!!! The best! We got our HUGE burritos and headed for the zoo, which appeared to be field trip day! School buses parked bumper to bumper for blocks! We thought we'd go anyway and it just so happens that all the field trippers were leaving as we were arriving, sweet! It was a beautiful balmy day for zooing it up we had a total blast and the kids never tire of that place!

The cool fountain at the zoo & Dylan hamming it up as always:)

This peacock was gorgeous!

Dylan was a wee bit freaked out by the goats. He wouldn't dare touch any of them with his bare hands, but he went to town with brushing their hair. He kept saying "I bwush da goats!" Karina was there for moral support, because even with his little brush barrier he still recoiled a few times and got scared whenever the goats would move...or breathe;) Notice his cautious stance...ready to bolt if anything goes terribly wrong! We love this little guy!

Claira, on the other hand LOVED this! She brushed probably every goat in there. Fearless.

Karina & Claira posing by the fountain

We have no idea how we got a picture of this face or even why he was making it in the first place, but it makes for a good monkey picture. so funny! I have to say it... my monkey man! (worst line in Twilight, but also my favorite!)

Cute!

I'm rockin' those whiskers!

These kids LOVE their AUNTIE!!!!!! Dylan now calls her Kreena instead of Keeka:) Also, one of the first things he said when I told him Karina was coming was "Kreena coming an' bweenin' me pwesents!" I had to nip that one in the bud fast! Expecting gifts at 2?! What the?! She has conditioned them well though, and mind you she didn't disappoint! lol!

LOVE!!!!!