Tyler was very proud of himself since he was the one that cleaned, buffed, and polished this kayak - big boy! By the way, our parents watched the boys for us while we were away on vacation! Thanks, GG, Grandad, Nina, and Bubba!!!

Tyler's helping Bubba to wax and polish the kayak... Manual labor in motion! :)

Now there's a determined face!

Jackson enjoyed some fun time with Bubba!

Here Bubba and Tyler practice their paddling skills for a future kayak outing! Are you impressed with Tyler's form? :)

Tyler helped Bubba with his vegetable and flower garden!

This is one of the beautiful stained glass windows at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. Scott and I just returned from a week-long vacation in DC in celebration of our 8-year wedding anniversary! Enjoy the pics below!

This was a neat picture of the outside of the National Cathedral as seen through the 7th floor window outlooks.

Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan Macy (Helen's teacher) are both buried at the National Cathedral - neat!

We were excited to see Lincoln's prayer pillow. Evidently all the presidents have one.

This is the front of the National Cathedral - wow!

This is the back of the cathedral.

I thought this stained glass window was just beautiful! It's based on space travel... The moon is the top circle, the sun is the left circle, and Earth is the right circle. In the center of the moon is an actual moon rock.

We managed to see the National Cathedral in the morning before heading to the airport to return home that afternoon. It was well worth the trip!

Here's Scott sitting on a wall surrounding the National Cathedral.

This is the FDR Monument at night... And, no, the one in orange is me, not another pup! :)

Here's a picture of the Jefferson Memorial at night - neat!

It was really cool to see several different wax figures of Washington throughout Mount Vernon's new visitor's center/museum! It's creepy how life-like this figure looks, huh?

We tried to get a print of this painting, but they only sold it already matted and framed, shooting the price up too high... Bummer. We thought it was really neat to see Washington praying here - wow!

Here's the back of Washington's house with a line of chairs to sit in to enjoy the view - aahhh!

Here's the beautiful view of the Potomac that Washington had from his house at Mount Vernon.

Here's Washington's tomb at Mount Vernon.

Here's Washington's house on Mount Vernon - beautiful! It was made of wood, but made to look like it was brick (they cut notches in the wood and then painted the wood).

These are some of the formal gardens of Mount Vernon that we got to see. Just beside these gardens was the greenhouse and they had some characters from Washington's time that did some talks throughout the day. We got to hear Caroline, one of Martha's slaves, share about what life was like for her. It was neat to hear about how well Washington's slaves were treated compared to other slaves at that time... And, after his death, his slaves were set free.

Mount Vernon is just a beautiful place - wow!

Here's astained glass of Washington from the museum at Mount Vernon - beautiful colors!

Here's Scott's profile next to Washington's profile... Hmmm...

We happened to catch this shot as we were walking from the Library of Congress - neat framing!

After our Capital tour, we walked through a long hallway to the Library of Congress. This room that we walked into was just beautiful - wow!

I think this is Lady Liberty or Lady Justice... I'm not sure which, but it's located just outside of the Capital rotunda.

These are some large paintings in the Capital rotunda, the right one being of George Washington. There are also statues of different presidents circling the room.

This is the inside of the Capital's rotunda, which joins the House of Representatives to the Senate.

This is one of our famous take-it-yourself pictures... If you look at the reflection in my glasses, you'll see my arm holding the camera for this shot!

Here's a neat picture we took from Georgetown that evening when we returned for yummy pizza!

One day, Scott and I headed to Georgetown to bike the C & O (Chesapeake and Ohio) Canal towpath! It was a beautiful day and we saw some beautiful scenery with the Potomac on one side and the canal on the other side!

Are you impressed with my incredible strength or what?! This is what happens when you're trapped in the Lincoln museum (below the monument) due to heavy rainfall outside!

Here's one of Lincoln's quotes...

We loved the Lincoln Memorial, greatly due to thinking so highly of Lincoln, but also due to the size and beauty of the monument itself - wow! We heard a ranger speak on Lincoln while we were there, which we really enjoyed. He was a tall man - perhaps 6'3" - and could stand straight up under the right leg of the Lincoln Memorial without touching. Huge!

This picture turned out quite dark, even darker on the computer. To the left is the wall of the Vietnam Memorial with the center of the picture being that of the Washington Memorial at dusk. We read several touching letters from relatives or just appreciative citizens to different soldiers listed on the wall.

Scott and I enjoying a hot dog in the park by the Vietnam Memorial - yum!

Looking up at part of the WWII Memorial - beautiful bronze eagles!

Here's Scott standing by our state name at the WWII Memorial.

This was a kind of neat picture I took of the Jefferson Memorial from the WWII Memorial.

Here we are at the WWII Memorial, which was really beautiful and impressive.

I was excited to find Kwajalein at the WWII monument having lived there when I was younger.

The Washington Monument was really neat to look at! Unfortunately, we weren't able to see the movie/museum part of it due to it being too late in the day... Maybe next time!

Here's the Washington Monument with some pretty lighting!

I have no idea what kind of gem/stone this is, but it's beautiful! We saw it in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History as well along with a gazillion other peeps... I don't know why that area was so swamped, but it was!

It was very neat seeing all these dinosaur bones and learning about how they piece them all together.

We had a hard time getting most of our dinosaur shots to turn out. That was definitely my favorite part of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History!