Last Day of School and a ROAD TRIP!

Friday was a VERY exciting day for Tyson and Audrey because it was the LAST DAY OF SCHOOL! They won’t start back to school again until the beginning of September! Audrey finished 2nd grade and Tyson finished 4th. He will have one more year of elementary school before he starts middle school.

Charlotte is squinting in the sun with Charmin, and you can just barely see the school bus behind her making its way to the bus stop. 

We started a tradition several years ago that on the last day of school I meet the kids with ice cream- my kids and the other kids who get off the bus at the same stop. It has become such a well-known (and well-loved) tradition that this year we even had a middle-schooler come down just for ice cream (the middle-schoolers ride a different bus and get home an hour earlier)!

 Audrey with her ice cream cone and Charmin.

Now Tyson has Charmin (and a friend has joined us over there on the left).  

Teeny reeeally likes ice cream. Like, a lot.  

Silly girls. 

The day after school let out was Saturday, and one of our family goals for 2014 was to get to the temple at least once per quarter, so we decided to head up to the temple. 

Charmin is buckled safely in between Tyson and Audrey.

To give you an idea of the distance, I have included this helpful map. :-) 

We are down south (A), just south of Richmond, and the Washington, D.C. Temple (B) is actually in Kensington, Maryland, just north of the city of Washington, D.C. We took the beltway around Washington and it took us about 2 hours and 45 minutes to get there from our house. 

 See that sign that says “Tyson’s Corner”? That’s that area with all the big buildings. As we passed it Tyson said, “Isn’t my corner magnificent?” 

Often we face terrible traffic getting up there and back, but this time we just hit a few slow spots and it wasn’t too bad at all.

Since we didn’t have a babysitter, my husband and I took turns going in. I went first while he took them to lunch and then I came out and we went to the Visitors’ Center while he went in.

 Once again, Teeny was the teddysitter.

We met some very sweet sister missionaries who showed us around (I’d been there plenty of times before but it seems like they’re always changing and updating things). We went into this little faux house to watch a clip about families.

Teeny is completely devastated that I’m not letting her out of her stroller to play on the front porch with the other kids. She was waaaay past her nap time.

Checking out some of the cool touch-screen exhibits. 

 Charmin liked this gigantic Book of Mormon.

So did Tyson. 

Charmin on top of the glass display case with the model of the temple made before it was actually built; real temple is out the windows in the background. 

Did you know that the Washington, D.C. temple is the tallest temple in the world?

 Charmin gets a closer look.

Because every teddy bear needs a temple photo. :-) 

It was a gooooorgeous day out, so after we watched Legacy at the Visitors’ Center we went for a walk around the temple. 

This temple is full of symbolism- check out a great article here to learn more.

They just lined up on the steps like that all by themselves. Pretty neat! 

 A closer shot.

Everybody wants a pic with the bear. 

It was a lovely day, and so much fun to share it with our friend Charmin! We love the temple. :-)