We're home!

Our trip is over. DC is behind us. In some ways, it seemed the trip flew; then again, it was nice and long. Either way, we had a blast! We love DC. It is fantastic there. Absolutely beautiful, clean, the people are nice, just wonderful all the way around. I loved it. Lyle loved it. The kids loved it.

Last time I wrote was Thursday night. Friday we left early and decided to take the car instead of Public Transportation. We drove down to see the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, the Reflecting Pool, World War II Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial (The Wall) and Jefferson Memorial. This was problably my most favorite part of the trip, other than seeing how happy Hannah was playing in the Bay. Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, looking one way and seeing that huge statue of him, then turning and seeing the Pool with the Washington Monument (The Pencil!) behind it....it was AMAZING! Just breathtaking. For some reason, it just hit me emotionally and I just cried looking at it. Of course, I let Lyle think it was my allergies and my eyes were watering! I loved being there!

We then decided to drive to Annapolis, Maryland to check out the Chesapeake Bay again, since the kids loved it so much. Annapolis is gorgeous! We stopped at a beach and let the kids run around, looking for shells and rocks, step into the water. They found a dead jellyfish too! It was great. Annapolis was having a big boat show so it was over-flowing with people! We parked and looked around at the great shops, eateries, the boats....just a neat little town. Okay, it's not to little and it's really not a town. But it was neat!

We left around 9:00 Saturday morning with a destination of Louisville, Kentucky. Whew! Long driving! We ended up spending 13 hours on the road! Well, take a few hours out for stopping in Charlottsville, VA for shopping and lunch, then dinner in Kentucky. We finally arrived at our not-so-wonderful hotel around 10:00 and crashed. Sort of. The rooms were freezing cold and the pillows were terrible. Didn't sleep too well that night. Sunday we met up with Wayne and Greta Meece and went to church at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville. Man! I've never seen anything like that before! The church has anywhere from 15,000 to 20,000 in regular attendance. One Saturday evening service and 2 Sunday morning services. The church was great. We really liked it a lot. After church was over, we all went to Texas Roadhouse for lunch. Had a fantastic time visiting with Wayne and Greta. They are just marvelous people! Around 1:30 we hit the road towards Pana. We gained an hour thanfully, since Louisville is in Central time! Got home at 5:19 pm last night. We drove approximately 2,020 miles in 9 days! I got my oil changed on October 3rd. It's about time to do it again!!! :)

All in all, it was a great trip. The only negatives were that I lost my glasses (yes, my $250 glasses!), I was scared to death riding and driving in the mountains, the unsavorable hotel room our last night and my flat iron pooped out on me in DC! But it was truly a great week. Sooooo glad we could do it! Much thanks to parents and grandparents for giving us some cash to spend and for babysitting Jinx and the guitars!

I'll be posting some pictures soon. I just need to get some rest! Glad to be in my own bed...