No More Anatomy Classes... WAHOO!!!

Stewart finally finished his anatomy class! Hooray for that, no more stinky husband coming home from lab! Because he finished his class and his last test for anatomy was on Monday, Oct 5th, he had a fairly laid back week last week. We went to the library and he checked out a book (The Red Badge of Courage) and read a lot. He also did not have school on Friday so we jumped at the chance to take a trip to Washington DC.

We left Lewisburg on Friday morning and got to DC around 11:30ish. Our first stop was the DC temple. Stewart has not been able to get to the temple since we moved here because of school and the long drive. So we spent the afternoon in the temple. I am so grateful for the temple, the atmosphere is always peaceful and calm. It was nice to forget about Stewart’s school pressures, the crazy DC traffic, and everything else that has been on our minds. Even thought we live 4.5 hours away from the temple we feel we are very blessed to be able to go to a temple and spend our time doing something that benefits us and others. In general conference Stewart and I learned that 83% of LDS people live less then 200 miles from a temple, that means Stewart and I fall into the 17% that live further than 200 miles from the temple. How blessed we are that the temple is only 4.5 hours away, it could be worse.

After the temple, we met up with one of Stewart’s former roommates, Josh Woolstenhulme. Josh is living in DC, and working at some research place. It was good to visit with him and catch up on how things have been going since our last visit over two years ago. I think the best part about seeing Josh, was that he was someone who knew about our Pocatello life, and we could talk about things that were familiar to us. I guess it kind of took me home to Idaho for a time, I enjoyed that. Josh if you are reading this… THANKS FOR DINNER!

We spent the night in the outskirts of the DC area on the Virginia side, in Vennia. It was a nice location and easy to find. The hotel had a shuttle service that took us to the Metro stop about 10 mins away so that we could leave our car parked at the hotel. I think that was the best part. On Saturday Morning we got up and went to the National Mall in downtown DC. We had a great time; we took the Metro, which was about a 20 min ride and not all that scary. It was pretty strait forward. We did need help buying the right ticket for the right amount… but that all worked out thanks to the nice Metro Employee who helped us.

The National Mall was great! It was a lot of walking, but well worth it. Stewart and I knew that we would not be able to do everything in one day so we decided that on this trip we would go to the United States Holocaust Museum. The Museum did an excellent job educating us on a tough subject. There was a lot of reading involved, and I got to the point where I could not read things fast enough, so I would make Stewart read them and tell me what it said. We spent most of our morning there. After the Holocaust Museum we went and walked over to the Washington Monument, and then we headed the other way to the Capital building. We had a great walk and enjoyed seeing the sites we did see. We will most definitely be going back, I think it will take us a few more times before we can say that we have seen the National Mall.

Captial Building

Washington Memorial Building

Not sure what building is behind us

By the reflection pool in front of the Capital Building

One of the many Museams

Pointing at the capital building

(only put this in because Stewart says I never post enough pics of me)

On our way to the Capital building

Washington Memorial ... from a distance

On our drive home that afternoon, we were admiring the fall colors in the trees. It is a beautiful sight to see, the trees are amazing in there fall colors. I can’t even begin to describe to you what they look like, and the pictures I have taken do them no justice. While we were driving the sun was setting, the sky turned this vibrant pink and orange… that along with the trees was an amazing sight. How blessed we are to live in such a beautiful world where we can enjoy the beauties of nature.

On Sunday evening Stewart and I decided to go for a drive and a walk before school started on Monday and things went back to their normal vigorous routine for Stewart. We ended up by the river, and took some pictures of the sunset and the fall colors. While I was all camera happy taking pictures of this and that, Stewart informed me that there was a black bear. I said what? And he pointed to the bear on the other side of the river (which I was happy about) I took a picture, but he had already started to walk away by the time I snapped the shot. The people here say that the bears are just as scared as we are… to that I say, I hope they are right!

BEAR! ok so this is not the best picture... but that really is the back side of a BEAR... promise!

Well I think this post has gone on long enough, I hope you have enjoyed the pictures along the way, and know that we are still alive and living a life of adventures, one day at a time. Ciao!