Joy and Two Months

My sister Joy just got back from her mission (Jackson, Mississippi) on April 8. Since Mark is still a little too small for me to feel comfortable traveling to Colorado, she came out here to see us this past week. I figured while she was here, we might as well do some sightseeing. She thought she would have a leisurely vacation; instead, we were all exhausted by the time she left. Bryce had a test on Monday so we packed up Mark and ventured around the area by ourselves.

On Thursday we decided to go up to Gettysburg, PA and look around. We brought the jogging stroller since Mark generally likes it, but as it turned out, it was kind of windy and cold so we covered him up to keep him warm while we walked up to the National Cemetery and back. We were going to drive around the auto tour route too, but Mark wasn't too excited about it. We ended up doing a quick drive through the middle of the battlefield on our way back home.

Joy bought Mark some sunglasses and amazingly, he seems to like them. He wouldn't open his eyes outside unless we had them on.

Joy's best friend, Holly, lives in New York right now so she came down on Friday to hang out with us for the weekend. She'd been to DC so we went up to the Hershey Chocolate Factory in Hershey, PA. It was pretty cool, although we weren't impressed with the chocolate tasting. We were hoping for some new flavors, but instead ended up just getting the normal candies they make to sample.



We enjoyed watching movies (Joy had missed a few, of course, although some had come out long before she left) and eating cookies. Holly had to head back on Sunday night, but we had fun while she was here.



On Monday we ventured down to DC. It was probably in the mid 90s so we felt like missionaries walking the Mall in the heat (you know, that survival mode where you just ignore the fact that you're hot and sweaty and actually convince yourself that it's not that bad).

We started out near the Capitol Building and then headed down the Mall on foot towards the Lincoln Memorial.

We hit the Washington Monument next and then the World War II Memorial.

As you can see, from the WWII Memorial it's quite a ways to the Lincoln Memorial, but we had to see it. Luckily there was a bit more shade along that path.

Mark did surprisingly well on this trip too. We kept him hidden in the stroller and kept him cool with some water on his skin every once in a while. He mostly slept.

We made it to the Lincoln Memorial and were pleasantly surprised with how cool it was up near the statute.

Joy actually took this from a few blocks away. We decided that we would rather catch the metro during the reduced rate hours and miss the DC traffic than make the trek up to the White House.

We were sad to have to take Joy to the airport on Tuesday, but I guess she's got to go back and go to work sometime. Thanks for coming to visit! We'll see you this summer sometime.

On another note, Mark had his 2 month check-up Thursday. He's doing great at 12lb 14oz and 24 3/4 inches long. He's growing fast!