Girls + Party + DC = ...

On Monday I returned from the ultimate girls getaway - the location of which probably will never be repeated. With two sisters living in Arlington, VA and working or studying in Washington DC, it was the perfect opportunity for a visit to the east coast. The opportunity became a girls getaway when my mom, aunt, sister, and sister in law decided to go also! So away we went, no kids, no husbands - seven woman on the loose in Washington DC. We stayed in this darling town-home on T street NW in Ledroit Park. The weather prior to our arrival had been rainy and cold, but the sunshine arrived when we did and the blossoms started to emerge during our visit.


As we all had visited DC before, there wasn't pressure to see EVERYTHING so we picked a few favorites and just enjoyed spending time together. My close friend Jill works at the Red Cross and gave us a behind the scenes tour. She also joined us for several outings. My cousins Elsie and Nikki also live in Virginia and joined in on the fun.

Beautiful, original Tiffany windows in Red Cross building

My sister and cousin both work for work for Congressman Herger (CA) and so we went to watch the house in session. We chose a very busy day, the Saturday before the historic Health Care vote. We never made into to watch congress, but we did observe a lot of protesting outside the capitol. It was exciting to see freedom of speech in action...though it didn't actually produce the results the protesters were after.


We also visited the American History Museum, Eastern Market, the Portrait Gallery, and FDR memorial. I think Washington DC is a beautiful city and loved walking its streets and seeing so many symbolic memorials. It felt surreal to be there with so many of my favorite people.

During our visit, my youngest sister turned 20! We celebrated by eating lots of good food (all week). We ate out at some yummy restaurants and ate in with some gourmet chefs (namely Aunt Pika and my mom)

Birthday dinner of delicious German food

I think this picture is funny. My sisters gave my SIL and I late/early b-day/valentine's gifts... I think they just wanted an excuse to buy cute little baby shirts which won't fit either of our children... or they are sending a very direct hint.
On Sunday we enjoyed lunch outside at my sisters house and a barbecue dinner with all our friends and family at the town-home. It was a memorable last evening to a memorable trip that flew by all too quickly.

Monday morning dawned cold and rainy, no doubt the city weeping to see us leave. Spring Break was over. I was able to sit in on my sister's class (she is in the same grad program I did) before leaving for the airport. It was sad to say goodbye too my friend, cousins, aunt, sisters and mom. Lucky for me I had these two and Fisher waiting for me at home.

Pika Party

Life has been crazy around here but I didn't want to miss blogging about the fun visit we had from my Aunt Pika (the fairy godmother from Disneyland trip). We were her first stop on her 6 week world tour (Phoenix, Atlanta, Washington DC, Germany). We had a lot of fun with her and fortunately she remembered to take pictures. She also posted on her blog and it is a great summary of our visit with her. She had great timing (for us) in that she was able to babysit several times while were at various meetings...oh an a movie one night. Curly and Lou had so much fun playing with her! Here are a few pictures of us having fun at the zoo.