If you can't tell from the words beneath the statue, this is Brigham Young.  In the Capitol, each state is allowed to pick two people and have their statues in the Capitol.  Trivia time!!!  We have 2 statues.  One is Brigham Young, who is the other?

 The Rotunda.  I have a cool story about this as well.  ;)

 a room in the Capitol and a nice view of my hair.  ummm......

 The Supreme Court building.  Cool but scary.  Looking at this, I have sworn to never walk up those steps as the one on trial.  I don't think I'll ever get to that point, though.  ;)

 The Capitol.

 The Library of Congress.  Interesting fact about this:  The Library has a collection of 22,000 teddy bears.

 Sitting at the Library of Congress with a good view of the Capitol Building.

 The Washington monument.  In August of last year, an earthquake happened in DC, cracking the Washington Monument.  How do you fix that?

 The Thomas Jefferson Memorial

 Thomas Jefferson is my favorite President, and NOT just because he played the violin.  ;)

 The Washington Monument

 We were in DC for the National Cherry Blossom festival, which is ironic because the Cherry Blossoms happened a couple of months ago.  DC was so  crowded!!!!

 Unicyclists for the parade.

 Us at the Lincoln Memorial.

 a missile at the National Air and Space Smithsonian Museum.  My favorite :)

 Air and Space Museum

 model of the Wright brother's plane.

Canopy Walk at the National Botanic Gardens in DC.

 Family picture in front of Mount Vernon.  George Washington said that he didn't believe that there was any home more beautifully situated than his Mount Vernon.  There is one place for me, and that is my home.  I guess everyone feels that way about their own home.  :)

 The back of Mount Vernon.

 Isn't it pretty?  Forget me and Drew, we don't add anything.  Just look at the scenery!!!!  Gorgeous!!

 The gristmill a couple miles from  Mount Vernon.  Washington made flour and cornmeal here.

 The guide explaining stuff to Hyrum, Emma, and Elsa.

 The distillery, where they made the alcohol.  Don't sorry, we didn't get samples.  ;)

 The distillery

 The gristmill.  Mom  LOVES taking pictures.  I am  not enthused at being in pictures.  There is a problem there.

 The gristmill

 Hey, after taking 3 tours and walking from the White House to past the Capitol can really take a toll on someone.  Especially in 90 degree weather, 50% humidity.

 The basement of the Capitol.  Hence the stickers all over us.

 A copy of the Magna Charta on glass, a gift from England to us on our bicentennial.

Did you know that they built a grave for Washington underneath the Capitol Building?  Washington didn't want to be buried there cause he didn't want to be deified.  Just another testimony to what a great man Washington was.

Trip part 1

                    The "necessary" at Mount Vernon.  My mom kept asking why Washington would make an outhouse so cute!!!  with all of the scroll work and the brick and everything, they are kinda cute.... :)

 Caleb and Melody and the side of Mount Vernon.  George Washington wanted to use stone to build his house, but it was too expensive so he had the construction people cut wood into blocks like stone, mix sand with the paint, and layer the sand/paint mixture thickly, creating the illusion of stone.  Genius, huh?

 I'm not sure what building this is.  As mom puts it, I was too "boring" to walk an extra 100 ft to see it up close.  I could already see it from where I was.  I think it is servants quarters, but don't quote me on that.  Then again,who would quote me?

 Washington's 16 sided barn.  It was a cool design for a threshing barn.  He would put wheat on the floor, send horses across the floor, the wheat kernels would fall into the basement, and his slaves would gather them up.  I am so glad that horse hooves haven't touched the wheat that I eat.  Instead, there are a whole bunch of chemicals.

 St. Louis Arch.  We got to see it as we were driving by.  It was so cool!!!  I have a funny story about this arch.  I will tell it to you in person if you want to hear it though, its kinda long.

 The Community of Christ's conference center.  As you can tell we are not big fans of its modern architecture.  ;)

 Liberty Jail was really neat and well worth the trip if you ever go out there.  You can see a replica of the jail and listen to some recordings of Joseph Smith quotes.  It is really a neat spiritual experience.

 Dad, Caleb, and Hyrum walking down to see the jail.

 Liberty Jail

 Car picture.  See my annoyed face in the background?  This was when everyone was supposedly behaving.  Note the supposedly.

Elsa and Caleb looking for secret passageways in Washington's garden at Mount Vernon.  Needless to say, they didn't find any.

Cute little lambs!!!  They were only a week old!