VA Trip

This year my parents flew us out to Virginia for Thanksgiving! They were already out here for Emily's wedding, so they flew straight from Utah to Virginia, and we joined them a couple of days later. All of my extended family on my mom's side is from Viriginia, and we used to have Thanksgiving with them every year when I was growing up. I haven't been back since I came out to BYU 7 years ago. It was such a treat to be able to spend it with them all this year. We had a great trip!

We flew in Tuesday night, and our plane was delayed for 5 hours!!! We finally arrived around 4 am, and got to the hotel around 5. We all slept until noon, then headed out for some sight seeing.

This is Willie and I in our hotel about to go out sightseeing!

Willie and I in the Metro station.

The first place that we went was the International Spy Museum. None of us had ever been there before. It was really fun!

After the Spy Museum, we all took the Metro to Union Station and had dinner. We ate at this little cafe and it was SO good. Then we went on a 3 hr bus tour of DC at night. It was so fun and did not even feel 3 hours long. Even though I grew up next to DC and have been on bunches of field trips there, of course I didn't pay attention when I lived there. It just seemed normal to me. So it was really fun to visit all of the sites and monuments and really appreciate them this time.

Willie and I in front of the White House!

All of us by the Lincoln memorial, in front of the Washington Monument.

I think the Lincoln Memorial was my favorite. We took a picture with me in front of it to show how huge it is! They had the Gettysburg address and another speech of his printed on the wall which were neat to read. Also, on the steps leading up to it there is a tile that says "I have a dream" honoring Martin Luther King where he gave his speech.

Thursday we headed out to my Uncle Walter's house to have Thanksgiving with everyone. We had lots of good food and visited. It was so fun to see all of my family, and for Willie to be able to meet them all!!!

After Thanksgiving we went to the Air and Space Museum and saw Harry Potter at the IMAX theater there with my Aunt Claire and Uncle Keith, and my cousin Josh. It was lots of fun, and I really liked the movie!

Friday morning our good friends Brienne and Ryan came to our hotel and had breakfast with us. Our hotel had the best breakfast ever. They had a hot buffet of pancakes, french toast, eggs, bacon, sausage, and potatos. They would also make you any omelet you wanted, and they had a cold section with cereal, muffins, bagels, donuts, etc. It was pretty much delicious. We had a great time with them. It was so nice to see them and we had so much fun visiting!

After breakfast, we headed over to my Grandaddy and Grandma Gloria's house and had lunch with them. It was delicious, and we had the best time visiting with them. I hadn't seen them since I left for BYU either. My Grandaddy has been teaching himself the guitar over the past few years, and he even gave us a little concert while we were there! It was so fun to spend time with them.

After our visit with them, my parents went to the airport to go back to Saudi Arabia. It's always sad to see them go, but I feel so lucky we've been able to see them so much this year! Willie and I went to our hotel for the night, and got up at 3:30 am to catch our flight the next day. It was the best trip. We had so much fun. Thanks Mom and Ron!!