Lots of Fun with Larissa

Larissa (isn't she beautiful?) visited us here in Philadelphia for 9 days this month.

The boys loved hanging out with her.

We did lots of fun stuff.

Independence National Historic Park

Waiting to get into Independence Hall.

William

Wow. It was so COOL to be in the very room where American independence was adopted, and where the Constitution came into being.

The following places in the building reminded me of moments in the musical 1776. These are for you, Mom:

"bustability! bustability! combustabili . . ."

"QUIET!!"

"Who will make me, Mr. A.?

"I."

"You?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"With physical force, if necessary."

"We're waiting for the chirp chirp chirp . . ."

David packed Larissa off into the Continental Army (something for which, I am sure, she is immensely grateful). 

The sound of the bayonet charge!

Jonathan ringing the story time bell.

Larissa sitting in President George Washington's (and subsequent President John Adams') pew in Christ Church. I took a turn too. It was amazing to think of the wonderful men and women who sat there and worshipped the God that saw them through so much.

Last weekend, we took a road trip down to 

Washington D. C.

Willliam & Jonathan being pilots at the National Air & Space Museum.

We stayed with good friends, Jeff & Estelle Cake, at their lovely home in the woods of Manassas, VA. They were AMAZING hosts.

We loved getting to spend (not nearly enough) time with them and their cats, Frodo & Asti. (With a big house to explore and two cats to find, the boys were almost too excited to eat.) The normally-skittish Frodo even let William sit next to him and pet him!

We took the metro into D. C. from Pentagon City Saturday morning and toured the Capitol first thing.

Each state has two statues on display in the capitol. David resonated with this one from Colorado.

David's proud of this shot.

Larissa examining a work by Picasso in the modern wing of the National Gallery.

A favorite of mine for years.

Larissa, the boys, & I dropped David off at the Natural History Museum to take pictures of rocks while we sampled a few exhibits in the American History Museum. We stood in a long line to see Dorothy's shoes from The Wizard of Oz, Kermit the Frog and Oscar the Grouch (among other things). Jon liked Kermit, but for some reason Kermit totally freaked William out. We enjoyed seeing all the mammals & sea creatures (Jonathan: "Nemo!") when we went back to get David.

The boys & I crashed that night while watching Cars on Estelle & Jeff's big screen TV (while David fell asleep upstairs looking at all the cool pictures of rocks he'd just uploaded to his computer).

Before he konked, though, Jon had to get all his ducks (I mean the kitchen stools) in a row.

Sunday, after church, we visited Arlington National Cemetery,

the Iwo Jima Memorial

World War II Memorial

Vietnam War Memorial

Larissa & I visited the memorial in the Holocaust Museum (we were too late to get passes to the permanent exhibit though).

Korean War Memorial

The 3 women in this statue near the Vietnam Memorial represent Faith, Hope & Charity.

This was taken from the Lincoln Memorial

We caught a few glimpses of the Jefferson Memorial

and the White House,

and found the Washington Monument very photogenic.

Walking in an avenue of trees along the reflecting pool. (I love how Jon's looking up at Larissa. He's such a fan of his sister.)

We visited the D. C. temple as we headed out of town. (Gorgeous, isn't it?)

The Franklin Institute

Philadelphia

A huge memorial to the inventor who made Philadelphia his home.

Jonathan & William pretending to clog arteries.

Larissa monitoring a heart.

William making blood flow.

Jon pushing buttons . . .

. . . then standing back to see the results. (I love it.)

David space-d out about the Star Trek exhibit.

Rocky

(cue soundtrack)

statue at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. 

It's at the bottom of the stairs these days.

David ran up the stairs anyway. Just had to be done.

Valley Forge

Watch out, U of U! Here she comes!

David enjoyed taking Larissa in to work with him a couple of times, showing her around. Her help was invaluable to him on day trips they took to the Lackawanna Coal Mine near Scranton, PA (For all you Office fans. David got some good pics of the city) and the Sterling Hill Zinc Mine in New Jersey. While they were out and about, they visited the Jersey Shore

where they saw some mummers perform.

Larissa had an adventure getting to Philadelphia (spent an unscheduled night at a hotel in Atlanta), and had a suspicious-looking snow globe in her luggage destroyed by airline security on her way out of Philadelphia ("aaaaah! a snow globe! run away!") But she made it here and, with her luggage (thankfully) . . . minus the aforementioned snow globe . . . back to Utah! She was delighted to learn, while she was with us, that she got the job she applied for at a Jamba Juice place in Salt Lake City. Hopefully, she enjoyed her trip to Lake Powell with Jordan and her mom, and is settling in to her dorm room at the University of Utah for the fall. 

Thanks for coming to see us, Larissa!