Spring in DC

As some of you may know, I used to live in DC and work for one of SC’s Congressman, Jim DeMint.  It truly was one of the best experiences of my life.  My roommate, Stephanie, still lives there and works for Senator Cornyn out of Texas.  She just recently bought herself a row house, so the whole family went up for a visit.  It was great!
However, getting anywhere with one child is an adventure…so adding another one into the mix can make things very interesting.  For example, on the way up, we stopped for some gas in Virginia.  Scott took Seth inside the station to stretch his legs and stayed in the car with Levi.  While in the car, Levi woke up and let me know it was time to eat.  We were parked right at the pump, so I wanted to pull the car over to the side, for some privacy…not to mention the long line of cars waiting to pump gas at the station.  I looked everywhere for the car keys and couldn’t find them.  I sat and thought about it for a moment and decided I needed to get out of the car and go in and get the keys.  I stood outside of the car and stretched my neck to see if I could see Scott anywhere, and of course I didn’t.  Levi was crying to eat, so I decided to lock the doors and run inside the station and get the keys as fast as I could.  I took five steps away from the car and Scott an Seth came walking out.
Well, I am sure you have guessed it by now…I locked the keys in the car at an extremely busy gas station and my sweet 3 month old was crying in the car seat to eat.  
One major plus, is that the car was in shade and he was cool. 
Scott ran into the station and called 911 and let them know there was an infant locked in a car.  The Fire Department was there in less than ten minutes and got our car open in a flash.  I was so thankful!  And Levi got to eat!  Okay… go ahead and say it…I am a bad Mom, but no need to beat me up… trust me I felt horrible!  
But we did arrive in DC much later than we anticipated, because of course with children there are sometimes more stops than normal that you have to make.
We started our trip off with a tour of the Nation’s Capitol with Senator Cornyn’s office.  I dressed Levi in his Longhorn outfit to impress the Texans.  🙂

We made it!

Cornyn’s office

Go Horns!

This is a new Visitor’s Center that opened recently in DC, so it was very new to me and it was really cool.  They start the tour off with a movie and it was really well done.


My boys

Wow that’s high!!!
Scott looking up into the Rotunda

The Rotunda

The old Senate Chambers

Scott with one of the Mississippi statues in the Capitol.

Riding the tram under the Senate Buildings.  Seth of course was pumped, because he was riding “A Train” (screamed at the top of his lungs)

On the train!
I mentioned earlier, that traveling anywhere with children can be an adventure.  Because we had strollers, we had to take elevators throughout the entire tour.  We were half way through with the tour and on our way to the House Gallery and the Crypt and we had to stop to catch an elevator to get to the next place.  We waited and waited and waited and waited on an elevator.  We were actually second in line and right behind another family that had strollers.  And many other families were lining up behind us.  30 minutes later the elevator arrives.  It opens and what do you think happens…. everyone behind us goes running forward and we don’t get on the elevator.  Well, as you can imagine I am pretty frustrated at this point and one of my pet peeves is people who break in line!  Seriously, before checking out at WalMart I have to pray and ask the Lord to physically help me hold my tongue.  It drives me nuts when people are in line at a register and they open another one and the people in the back run to it instead of offering everyone that has been waiting much longer than them the option to go over there.  aaaghh!  Just writing about it makes me so mad!
But I didn’t say anything and we waited for the next elevator.  It came back up to get us and the Security Guard informs us that the Capitol is now closed and we can’t continue our tour.  At this point, I just had to laugh and think to myself…what a day!  But it really was a great day!  I got to see my dear friend Stephanie, we saw the Capital, and I got to show Scott some of the places I loved in DC.  More to come…

Thanks for the great time Tour Guide Joe!  Joe is a student at the University of Texas and is currently doing an internship in Senator Cornyn’s office.  Joe is also a former Marine…..Hooooowaaaah