Expect the Unexpected

Oh boy, over memorial day and the following week our house was invaded once again by some travelers. Loren, Luke, and Elise paid us a visit and we had so much fun! They had a seriously packed week, so for Riley's (and my) sake we didn't tag along with all their adventures, but even just hanging out in the house was a good time. Britt and I loved hanging out with Luke and Elise now that they are all grown up. It was so fun to see the people they are now! They are some of those rare teenagers that are actually fun to be with. 

So the crew showed up around 11 pm on Friday night. We chatted for a bit and explained all the house rules, but then it was off to bed because I would have a child waking me up in not many hours. 

Saturday was our only day we would have the whole crew together so we did the easiest thing with a big group, walked around the National Mall. I wanted to get everyone out of the house as early as possible to not delay Riley's nap too much, but that proved to be difficult and not just for the teenagers. Loren came upstairs looking like death, the jet lag was real for these Mountain Timezone people. Britt also wasn't too thrilled with me when I knocked on her door, but we all made it to the cars just 15 minutes after my desired departure. When I looked at the forecast for the week of Loren's visit a few days earlier it said that almost every day was supposed to be rainy! It turned out to be a much nicer week than that, but Saturday was a little rainy in the morning. It ended up probably being a good thing because Loren chose to visit DC on Memorial Day Weekend so it could've been full of people, but as it was it wasn't too crowed. Loren kept us all cracking up through out this trip. Half the things he says makes you roll your eyes, but he always keeps you laughing! For example, at one point a man who may not have been all there walked by use saying loudly over and over, "Expect the unexpected." For the rest of our day Loren would randomly, loudly proclaim, "Expect the unexpected!!" Making it seem like he was the one who wasn't quite there.

As we arrived at the Mall Britt and I both realized we hadn't eaten anything yet and we were real hungry. As we walked by the collection of food trucks a guy let us sample a chicken quesadilla. It was the most effective sampling there has ever been! It was SO good. Britt and I vowed we'd be back for that quesadilla on the round trip. 

There are fences blocking the view of the White House so it wasn't worth the walk all the way up there.

After seeing the White House and the Washington Memorial we headed to the WWII memorial. Luckily, the fountain was back on, unlike when Mel and Kip were here. I felt so bad that they missed out on that experience because the fountain really is the thing that makes that memorial. (But remember Mel, they missed the cherry blossoms!) The sound of the rushing water just takes you out of your surroundings and lets you focus on the sacrifices and suffering that happened during that war. 

The wall they are standing in front of is where you stand and cup your hands behind your ears. When you do that it changes the sound of the water and it's said it sounds like roaring applause for the men and women who helped in the war. 

Just flexing my photography skills.

After WWII we headed to the Vietnam Memorial which turned out to be the highlight of this trip. Since it was Memorial Day Weekend there were a few hundred bikers called the Nam Knights that had come to pay their respects. We figured most were Vietnam veterans and seeing their emotions as they looked at the memorial really made it hit harder than ever before. There were also pictures that had been placed along the bottom of the wall by loved ones, being able to see their faces and not just their names also made it feel more powerful. 

This Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial has quickly become a favorite of mine. It's a little tucked away so you have to search it out, but it's so worth it! It is absolutely beautiful and the solitude of it adds to its affect.

Lukes look of absolute fear when asked to be in charge of a child. ;)

So, as promised, once we checked out all the sights we were going to see this trip we hit up the line of food trucks and enjoyed our delicious quesadilla in the rain. That night at home we played a rousing game of Codenames that nearly got Loren kicked out of the house and also determined that if you want to win you just have to be on Ben's team. 

Sunday and Monday we hardly saw Loren and fam as they took off to museums that had scarce tickets on Sunday and headed up to Gettysburg to connect with Jared Childers on Monday. Good thing I didn't need to get around much either of those day because I don't think Last Minute Loren mapped out all of his planned outings. ;) They went all around the area, they know it better than we do at this point! 

On Tuesday evening I made us a reservation at a place called Ted's Bulletin that was on both mine and Britt's list of places to try. The thing that we were excited about were the Homemade Poptarts and the fact that they serve breakfast all day! Between all of us we got to try almost every poptart they had. We decided the Blueberry Cheesecake was definitely the winner. We also really loved their hashbrowns. Other than that I don't think we were blown away, but it was fun to try a new place. 

On Wednesday Riley and I ventured out with the travelers again. We headed to a place I'd never heard of called Harper's Ferry. Actually I lie, I hadn't heard of it before like 3 days earlier when Britt was saying she wanted to go there. Haha, she was a little peeved I'd be going on a day she had to work, but I told her I'd see if it was worth seeing. It was cool, not sure if it was worth the 50 minute drive out there cool, but hopefully Loren, Luke, and Elise enjoyed it. I may have liked it more with a two year old at my side. It was a little tough trying to keep her reverent in the museum about John Brown. I think the best part of this destination was that I was able to flash my military ID and get my free National Parks pass. That's right! One of the perks I actually enjoy about the military is free entry/parking at any National Park. So, for those that don't know, Harper's Ferry is the place you could say the Civil War revolution began. John Brown was a white man that tried to get the slaves to fight for their freedom by storming the armories. He did not succeed. But his efforts are appreciated by this town. Another claim to fame is that Lewis and Clark stopped at Harpers Ferry for a month to prepare for their journey and gather all the supplies they needed. They spent some of that time trying to make a boat they could fold up and carry with them and then assemble as needed. The boat did not work. But their efforts were sure appreciated. This town has a lot of stories that don't end quite how you'd like them, but they are proud of them all the same. There was also a confusing memorial in the town paid for by the Sons and Daughters of the Confederacy. Apparently, the first person killed by the John Brown conflict was a free black man. So the S&Ds of the Confederacy bought a memorial honoring him...it was a very confusing statement on the memorial and we weren't really sure how we were supposed to feel about it, but it didn't feel good. Here's a wiki link about it I just found, kind of interesting. Memorial Wiki

Just chilling in an old building looking cute.

Not sure climbing on a memorial is encouraged, but I just took a pic before intervening :) 

One of the nice views at Harper's Ferry

Thursday was our last full day with the Messerly crew and we finally did something Riley actually enjoyed...we went to the Zoo! This was the first time Riley had been to the zoo where she was old enough to appreciate what was going on. I'll let the picture below tell you how she felt about it....

This girl was on cloud nine the whole time at the zoo. The first animal we saw was a tiger that was pacing around its habitat and yowling over and over. The rest of the day she kept talking about the tiger and it's tiger sounds. One downer of the trip was that we weren't able to secure tickets to see the baby panda, but that didn't get Riley down. She loved the big Panda status that were all over the zoo more than she would've just seeing a panda from afar. 

Hugging the panda with Cousin Luke.

She loved them so much on the walk back to the car she kept requesting to stop and see each one. Luke was driving the stroller at the point and sweetly took her up to each one so she could touch it. He also made sure she got under every little misting station which she also loved.

Riley LOVED the elephants. She talked for days after about how the elephant was using it's trunk to throw dust on its back and belly. She also really liked the antelope thing that she thought was a reindeer. 

Thursday also happened to be Ben and my 5 year anniversary! In celebration I made pizza, and one I shaped in the form of a heart. Half with pepperoni and half Hawaiian representing half Ben and half me. Well I took a picture of it and sent it to Ben because he was going to be home late and that pizza would probably be gone by the time he got home. That text ended up providing some laughs because instead of saying that 'IT won't exist by the time you're home' I had typed 'I won't exist by the time you're home.' Presumably thinking that I'd had a rough day he responded, 'I won’t know what to do with the Hawaiian half with you gone, so hang in there!' When I looked back and realized my typo it gave me a good chuckle.  

After dinner Loren and Luke experience the never-ending energy of Riley. They started a game of Keepy Uppy and didn't realize that Riley would never let them stop! It was very enjoyable so I have a few videos for you to watch. 

Their visit was a lot of fun and we were so glad they came to visit! It was so fun for Loren to get to know his niece and Luke and Elise to know their cousin. Loren got to appreciate how many times Riley will say a sentence that gets in her mind, her love of books, and her absolute love of Paw Patrol. While Loren was at the house he ordered another stuffed Paw Patrol to be delivered, Everest, one of her favorites. When she opened it she was initially very excited, but then soon started saying, "Rubble will be my last surprise." Hahaha she had just gotten a surprise and had already decided she needed just one last surprise. That's very in character. (I have to add that a few days after Loren left a Rubble arrived at our door. Thanks Uncle Loren!) 

Something else we learned in this trip is that Loren has a phone from the 90s. Look at this would be cute video of Bo and Riley playing...the video quality is a travesty! 

It was also really fun for Britt and I to get to know Luke and Elise better as teenagers. They are basically adults now and sometimes we still think of them as those adorable little kids! It was super fun to see that they are really good kids and fun to hang out with.