Washington D.C.

Todd and I were able to spend a few days away in Washington D.C. this month. We could have spent even longer if we had more time. There is so much to do and see there that we were amazed. We were also amazed at how much we were able to see without our kids. We visited a few of the Smithsonian Museums (Natural History, American History, National Archives and Air and Space). We toured the Capitol. We saw the Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Washington Monument and the various war memorials. We didn't get to tour the White House, but we took a picture and went to the visitors center. On Sunday, we spent most of the day at the United States Holocaust Memorial. It was all incredibly interesting, but definitely not a place to take small kids. We would to take our family back when they are a little older.

We forgot to take the camera so all of the pictures were taken with Todd's phone. Sorry, they aren't the best. The picture of Todd blowing a bubble with the Easter Island statue was especially for Lauren. If any of you have seen the Night at the Museum movies you may understand. In the first movie the Easter Island statue says, "Dum, dum give me gum, gum." Lauren thinks that is hilarious, thus the bubble blowing with the statue. Also, it was neat to see the second Night at the Museum movie after having just been to the Smithsonian.

Not only did we have fun, but I think that we both gained a new appreciation for our founding fathers and all those who have sacrificed to make our country what it is today.

Cinco de Mayo

We had a fun weekend at the Cinco de Mayo celebration last Saturday. They say that St. Paul has one of the biggest celebrations in the country with roughly 100,000 people visiting the street area where they have the feastival. Our favorite part is the parade and the Salsa Contest. Here is what the kids thought of the Festival (sorry I didn't bring the camera so I used a picture from the website).

Whitney's favorite part was the parade and the jalapeno eating contest (more on that later). There was a lot of cool stuff like Aztec dancers that had cool shells (aka nuts) on their legs that made noise as they danced.

Katelyn's favorite part was the trampoline-bungy jump ride. She was harnessed into the bungy so once she got the hang of it she was doing front and back flips. She also won a Twin's bobble-head at the Twins booth.

Lauren's favorite part was when they were throwing candy as part of the parade. And boy do they give out plenty of candy. She also went on a trampoline/bungy jump ride that she really liked.

Dustin liked the big fire trucks in the parade. He also like the fact that his sisters gathered candy and shared it with him while he sat in the stroller. Dustin won tickets to a twins game for he and his dad!!!

My favorite part was the Salsa Contest and the Jalapeno Contest. For the salsa contest you get to rate several local business' salsa according to the hotest, the smoothest and the most unique. My favorite are the hotest but this years standout was a cherry salsa that I voted for the most unique. I also entered the Jalepano Eating Contest this year. There were 10 contestants in the contest and you had to eat 1 jalapeno and wait 1 minute and then eat the remaining 9 as fast as you can. These were the big 4+ inch jalapenos right off the vine and they were smoking. Once the contest got started I cruised into the lead by downing the jalapenos as fast as I could chew them. Believe it or not they didn't seem that hot to me. I soon realized that the contest was between me and another gringo standing next to me. Everyone else didn't really get past 2-4 jalapenos. It was fun having my cheering section in the crowd with the kids and some friends from church.

As it got down to the last few peppers the hardest part wasn't the heat but the fact that my jaw was tired from trying to quickly chew so many jalapenos. The contest came down to the last pepper and it was a photo finish -- unfortunately the judges decided that I came in second by a millisecond. So I just missed taking home the shiny flaming trophy but I did get to have a flaming experience later in the day... It's nothing I didn't already experience on my mission...