Philly

This past weekend Matt and I took a little drive up to see the sights of Philadelphia. First off I have to say that I love Philly! The architecture is amazing and the city is full of so much history! We ended up not seeing as much as I'd liked to have, but still saw some neat places. Our journey started after a struggle to find a parking spot on the small/tight streets of the city. Then we headed to our first destination, Independence Hall. Unfortunately they ran out of day-tour tickets so we had a few hours to kill until they did their open house tour in the evening. So we crossed the street and saw the Liberty Bell. It was kinda weird because the bell is inside this brand new building/museum...I guess I just pictured it being outside on display.

We then ventured on down the street and passed some old famous buildings that date back to Revolutionary time. As we walked down one of the charming streets we entered the First Bank of the U.S. Inside they had a museum displaying hundreds of original paintings of our forefathers and a statue of George Washington that had been displayed in Independence Hall for centuries. As we were just about to leave they announce a special slide show presentation that went through the history of Independence Hall. We still had time to kill and Matt thought it would be interesting so we joined the group. Well lets just say I learned a lot of history about the building as Matt's head bobbed to and fro while he slept the WHOLE time. Needless to say I was embarrassed!

Now that we were re-energized...or Matt at least, we got in line for our tour. Independence Hall was neat to see and crazy to think that in 1776 our nation changed because of what went on in that room. The building has some really neat moldings and woodwork inside and have been restored magnificently! I cant tell you how much I love living in an area that is close to SO much history! I love that every weekend Matt and I can take an adventure to gain more appreciation for what our forefathers sacrificed for us. Its crazy to think that we've been to so many places that we had only heard about from textbooks growing up, and can now go and experience them ourselves. I love living back east!!!

Thats Independence Hall in the background

The floors at the First Bank of the U.S....I have a thing for checkered floors.

The beautiful moldings!! It makes you wonder how they did that back in the 1700's!

The chair at the head of the room was Washington's original and has a sun carved on it just like the Sun Stones on the Nauvoo Temple, pretty cool.

This was the gorgeous sunset we got to drive home to.

Let Freedom Ring

This past Independence Day Matt and I, along with some friends, had the chance to celebrate at our Nations Capital. We arrived super early to save a spot on the lawn, and were pretty disappointed that so few people were there. But after 6 hours of walking around the grounds and going to the Air and Space Museum we came back to a full crowd! People were everywhere but we still enjoyed listening to the concert near by and playing card games until the fireworks started. The fireworks show was amazing, and we had a perfect spot right between the Washington Monument and the Reflecting Pond.

After the fireworks show we joined the other millions of people that were trying to get on the Metro; but after speed walking from one station to the next we finally found a station that we could walk right up to, hurray! What a neat experience this was to celebrate at our Nations Capital and be surrounded by so much American pride!

The Wright brothers plane

The crowd we came back to! It went on for miles...

Our lovely Metro ride back to the car....

Mount Vernon/Utah

On Fathers Day Matt and I decided to take a little trip down to Mount Vernon-home of George Washington, the father of our nation. It was super crowded and we waited in line for over 2 hours to just see the inside of the house, but it was worth it. The last time I went to Mount Vernon they were remodeling and adding a huge visitors center so it kinda sucked. But now almost 8 years later my opinion has changed and I really liked our adventure. The only down side to our trip was that we forgot to charge our camera so the battery died after only 3 pictures....but thankfully they invented camera phones so we got a few more pictures.

The famous Mount Vernon

Washington's grave

The next day I flew home to Utah to enjoy a week back home with the family. Matt was able to join me two days later and we took full advantage of our time water skiing. We also were able to see Transformers with some of Matt's siblings- liked the movie, but they built up the sex-appeal a little too much if you ask me.




The real reason Matt and I headed to Utah last week was for Aaron and Daina's wedding. We were able to go to the temple as they were sealed. This was pretty cool because it was the first wedding/sealing I've been to besides my own. We were honored to go and had a fun day down in SLC and enjoyed their reception with Matt's brother Val and his wife Ashlee and their two adorable kids!

Carter, Ashlee, and Luke