DC or Bust!! (Having fun in spite of the snow)

It's been quite a winter. The big snow that we got just before Christmas was a type of things to come, I guess. Although our church ward has not had to cancel church again since that big storm, other local congregations have not been so lucky. We have had three other major snow events this year and are expecting a minor one (about six inches) tomorrow. There is actually a patch of snow next to our driveway that never quite melted after the original storm and it is still well covered. Crazy year.

We had made plans last fall to go to Washington DC over President's Day weekend. As the time grew near to going, they got hit down there with even more snow than we had. The national government pretty much shut down. But we were determined. We delayed our departure by a half a day to allow for snow removal here and then took off on Friday morning. Because a storm had come in on Tuesday night, the kids ended up missing Wednesday and Thursday because of snow and then Friday because of our planned trip. Luckily the things down in DC and the National Aquarium in Baltimore opened up in time for us and we ended up having a great trip after all. The crowds were even thinner because of the weather. Bonus!!

( We actually took this cool photo of a jelly fish)

We took in the aquarium on the way down, spent Saturday and part of Sunday in the museums of the Smithsonian,

and stopped at the DC Temple on the way home on Monday so that Megan and Nathan could do some family file baptisms It was Nathan's first temple trip to Washington.

(Evan by the Christus statue in the visitor's center)

We also caught Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief on Saturday night. Nate is a big fan of the book series. Sunday, before going to the museums, we attended church at the Capitol Ward. The brothers and sisters there had missed the two previous weeks of church due to snow and it was very interesting to hear of their adventures. Over all......just a great trip. Even though we couldn't escape the snow, we had some great family time together and saw some parts of Washington we had not seen before.