We First Went to DC

We had such an amazing Christmas spending time with family, eating great food, and my favorite-exploring new places together! We were lucky enough to get to go to the East Coast for my cousin's wedding, and then we spent Christmas and New Years in Mesa. 

I had never been to DC and Tanner had never been to NYC, so it was going to be new experiences for the both of us! We were worried we wouldn't be able to experience it all since we were there for such a short amount of time, but we hit a lot, and I really was able to check everything off of my list! I loved showing Tanner NYC at Christmas because it's my favorite time to visit. The next time we go back East we want to go during late spring/summer so we can see the cherry blossoms!

We started by taking a red eye to Charleston, then from there, to DC. Unfortunately, we had a lady with a loud, raspy voice talking the whole red eye flight, along with having her light on, so we didn't get much sleep. But then on our short flight to DC we each had our own row and totally conked out. From the airport we went straight to the beautiful LDS DC Temple where my cousin and his now wife were sealed for time and all eternity. This temple was absolutely stunning! And, to top it off, Tanner's old mission president from Florida is now the DC temple president, so we were able to have an amazing tour and experience with him!

it was seriously so so so so cold and windy when we walked out of the temple.

After the luncheon, we headed to the capitol. Our amazing Senator, Senator Flake got us White House & Capitol tours. He's such an awesome guy, and we are so thankful he did that for us.

When we first got there, we took an underground "train" to the capitol building and it was sweet!

We have our feet on the center point of DC right here. All of the streets lead to that spot. And at one point in time Washington was once buried in a room below it. 

How do we look in our future positions? JK

After the capitol we went back to the hotel to change and take a quick nap-we were exhausted!

We had pizza at We the Pizza and it was SO yum! I'll be doing a foodie post-don't you worry.

After we woke up refreshed, we headed to the National Mall to see the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and the World War II Memorial. 

Lincoln Memorial-man that place was cool. It was so silent, and everyone was just in awe.

The Washington Monument:

And finally, the World War II Memorial:

(I was wishing I was in the warmer AZ weather at this point)

We ended the night with a trip to Shake Shack, and slept verrrrry soundly that night.

The next morning we woke up ready to see the White House! The amount of security there, especially the ones you can't see, is amazing. You even have to walk past dogs as they sniff you for security purposes! The White House tour consists of the East Wing, and that's where the President has most of the parties. I never thought we would actually see areas that they lived in. It was cool! I especially loved it smelling like pine, and all decorated for Christmas. It wasn't as long or as big of a tour as I expected, but it's definitely a must see! Especially because Tanner talks to every single secret service to ask questions that he probably shouldn't be asking-I just get nervous to have a gun aimed at me or something for being "curious". ;)

This teeny guy kinda looks like Grandpa Bill, so we were taking it to send to him!

Can you guess what room this is? It's the "green room".

Gingerbread White House

After grabbing lunch, we went to the Holocaust museum, which I would definetly reccomend going to. Every museum and memorial in DC is free which is so awesome. But, the history of that time was something great to experience. Sadly, we couldn't take any pictures. We felt very gloomy after it though, so be prepared.  

Something cool I found-our relatives were on the rescuers list! And, we sent these names to Oma and Opa, and they're actually relatives. So cool!

We "quickly" drove to New Jersey for the ring ceremony and reception, and it was cool to be on a road trip and see the history!

After the reception we drove to NYC, got in late, but then Tanner and I hit the town! 

#heisthegift billboard! There were 2 in Times Square!

We got back around 1-we are such partiers-but we slept so wonderfully in our Heavenly Beads. Seriously, Westin hotels beds are "Heavenly Beds" and they tell the truth. They're a dream. My parents have them at home :)

We woke up early the next morning for the Rockette's Christmas Spectacular, but I'll talk about that in a separate post!