FALL...

Mom and Emily came to visit... here we are in front of the old stone house in Georgetown.

 I wanted to see all the monuments by running to each of them. Emily was thrilled. Here's the beginning of our run on the Potomac.

 Lincoln

 Martin Luther King

 FDR

Almost to the Jefferson

 But come on, how pretty was this day!

I went on a tour of the Capitol building with Rachel, when she was here visiting Sarah. Here's the statue of Freedom, which is on the top of the building...

 Utah's statue of Philo T. Farnsworth... who we learned actually was from Idaho. Born in Utah, and Utah stole him for the statue hall... but really he isn't from Utah at all. 

 Original Supreme Court Room... very cool...

 Oh, and on halloween we made Caroline's Bread Pudding and carved pumpkins. The pumpkins turned out well. I can't say my version of her bread pudding did. My baking pan barely survived the ordeal.

 Nowhere to put a jackolantern in an apartment building, so we opted to display him outside from the top of our window AC unit. I hate to admit it, but he's still sitting up there. Yuck. I won't post a picture of that.

Lastly we went to Shenandoah and Warm Springs, VA. The highlight of the trip for Alex was the hiking and fresh air. Here is a hike we did in George Washington National Park. 

 The highlight of the trip for ME was the warm springs mineral water pools. Thomas Jefferson apparently designed the wooden structures around them; built in 1760's. 

Spent an hour soaking in there.  Delightful.

 we opted NOT to stay at the homestead, because it's a bit spendy, and instead found the Warm Springs Inn. it was adorable.

 Now, on to more hiking. This time in Shenandoah National Park. This was Old Rag Mountain. 

We didn't get a picture, but right after this, we ran into a BEAR on the hike. It was about 100 feet away and came running down the hill and popped out of the trees right by us. It was really scary, but thankfully, after a stare down, he turned and walked away. Needless to say, Alex and I ran down the rest of the trail.