Fall Vacation: The Rest of the Days

The last few days of my DC trip were just as fun as the first few.  On Saturday, it started to snow and was pretty cold.  I didn't quite plan for that, so my clothes were not necessarily snow appropriate.  We decided to go to the mall to avoid any outdoor activities.  We weren't the only ones.  The highlight of the mall activity had to be entertaining Aly while Chris and Lindz tested out the beds.

 Aly has discovered the power of mints.  Mmmm, so tasty.  Even if it is only the container.

That night we went to the ward Halloween party.  I must say that our little owl really did have the best costume.  She stole the show.

The only remaining thing on my list that I had to do this trip was to take a drive to see all of the fall colors.  We were going to drive through Shenandoah, but unfortunately, it was closed due to snow.  At the higher elevations, a lot of the trees had already lost their colorful, fall leaves, but we still managed to see some pretty sights.  It was the perfect Sunday afternoon activity. And yes, as you can see, there was definitely snow.

That night we also went to the Manassas battlefield to attempt to get some family photos.  My abilities are not excellent and it was pretty cold, so they weren't totally successful.  I did however really like this one.

 

And this one.

And here is mine which I am not totally in love with.

On my last day, we didn't really have any plans, so we decided to go downtown to see a few of the monuments that I hadn't seen on my last trips.  First we went to the Iwo Jima memorial.  It was really cool to see.  They had everything blocked off for a marathon, but we finally found our way to the monument.

I also wanted to see the new Martin Luther King Monument and Lindsay thought it would be fun to go see the Roosevelt Monument on the island.  That didn't turn out quite the way we had planned.  We circled the monuments a few times and couldn't find a place to park near the Martin Luther King Monument.  I ended up taking a picture in the car to prove we had actually passed it two or three times.

As for the Roosevelt Monument, we eventually discovered the difference between Teddy and Franklin.  They are in two totally different locations.  Lindsay was driving, the GPS was trying to navigate, I kept getting us lost, and Lenee was on the phone trying to tell us how to get where we were really trying to go.  It was an absolute adventure.  We eventually found the island.

We really were so glad to be there.

As we were leaving, I spotted a place that might be fun to take a picture.  However, there was a little miscommunication and Aly just ended up on the gravel in the middle of the road.  Don't ask us how that happened.  I am still not sure.  But we did get this really cute picture before the truck started driving up the road.

On our way home, we stopped for lunch and ice cream at Ben & Jerry's and pretty much made fools of ourselves.  Or me at least. 

Aly loved the ice cream.

This is our first attempt at documenting our visit in front of the sign. Then I fell while trying to squat, take a picture, and not pull Aly over with me.  Super graceful.

 Better!

  And you can actually see a sign in this one.

We also went to the old train station in Manassas.  We were once again looking for the perfect picture taking location.  Let's be honest, when were we not?  That was half of the fun of vacation.  I can't tell you how much we laughed on that last day getting lost all over DC and stopping on random back roads to take pictures.  I had a great time.

Later that night we went to dinner and Lindsay decided to see how Aly liked limes.

Mmmm these are kind of good.

And fun to play with.

Or not!

I had so much fun visiting, seeing the sights, and playing with Aly. I am sad I don't get to see everyone until next summer.

I was messing around with my camera taking self photos, and I will be honest, I kind of love this one.

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