Washington DC

In May, John had the opportunity to be sworn in with the Supreme Court in Washington DC - which basically means if he ever had a case go that far, he'd be able to argue in front of the Supreme Court! Thanks to our wonderful family who watched our kids, I was able to go with him and we enjoyed a whole weekend touring around and celebrating this incredible experience. Since I had never been before, we had to walk "the mall" and see as many monuments as we could. We decided to go at night when they were all lit up - so beautiful!

Washington Monument

World War II Monument

Lincoln Memorial 

These were a few of my favorites. The Lincoln Memorial was especially impressive - much bigger than I realized. It was A LOT of walking for this pregnant mama's feet, but there was just too much to see so we had to keep going and going! Other highlights of our trip included visiting Old Town Alexandria...

On the trolley in Alexandria

Going to Eastern Market (a farmer's market and flea market) and waiting in the LONG line for some very delicious blueberry buckwheat pancakes...

Going to a few different museums (I was so surprised that most of them were FREE) like the National Gallery of Art and the Air and Space Museum. We seriously considered bringing back a couple of these Top Gun helmets for the boys, but we didn't have room in our luggage. Had to try one on in honor of my dad the pilot...

Every night was date night since we were sans kiddos, but Saturday night was especially fun. We had dinner at Nando's Peri Peri (a Mozambique place in Chinatown known for their yummy chicken rub - it was delish!)...

After dinner, my sweet husband let me stroll through some of my favorite stores like Zara, H&M, and Anthropologie. After another stop for some frozen yogurt, we headed to our final destination to see comedian, Brian Regan...haven't laughed that hard in a long time!

The last day of our trip was John's special day at the Supreme Court. They fed us a yummy breakfast in a very fancy waiting room. The Supreme Court Clerk, William Suter, came in to explain how the whole process would work...

They take things very seriously there and everything worked like clock work. I felt kind of like a school child who was going to get in trouble at any minute for doing something wrong, but luckily I didn't. The whole swearing in process took less than 20 minutes. We were surprised to have all 9 justices be present for it. They read some opinions on a few cases (very cool to listen to!) and then swore in each of the lawyers there.

Sadly, no pictures were allowed in the actual court room, but we were lucky enough to have a few of the justices stop in to chat and take some photos, including Chief Justice Roberts!

He was very charismatic and warm. You could just tell he was a cool guy...

Justice Alito stopped by too and had some very nice things to say about his experience with BYU alumni...

And finally, Justice Ginsburg came in to visit. I don't think I heard a word she said (she was so tiny and soft-spoken)...

Just had to get a picture of my bona fide hubby outside the Supreme Court - hopefully he makes it back there someday to argue a case!