Surprise Visitors

I was driving home from work on Friday when my Mom called to shoot the breeze while driving to Utah from Montana. I was telling her about the bar-b-que that Mike and I were planning to have at the Wheatley's house while they are in Utah this week (isn't that so high school? haha) and she said, "Can I come?" I said yes, of course, but that is just like my Mom to want to come to a fun party, so I didn't really think she meant it. Later in our conversation, she mentioned doing something else while she was out here, which again, I thought she meant for my cousin's wedding in May, or just in general, and then she told me she was coming out the very next day! She and Dean surprised me by stopping to see me for a day before continuing on to Augusta! It took about 20 minutes for that to sink in, and you can imagine the screaming and high-pitched schreaking on my end of the phone..."What do you mean you are coming here? When were you going to tell me? Are you serious? Tomorrow?!, etc., etc." I don't know if I stopped smiling all night!

On Sunday morning, we started early...we went downtown and did a tour of the Monuments/Museums/Memorials in hyper-speed. We saw the Washington Monument, Jefferson Monument, Lincoln Memorial, WWII Memorial, the new Air Force Memorial (from a distance), we saw the cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin, went to the Smithsonian and the Air and Space Museum--all before noon!

Here are a couple pictures from the day:

Dean, Mike, and Me--off the Smithsonian metro stop, in front of Washington Monument





Dean in front of the Montana stone @ the WWII Memorial


Dean, being silly, and me in front of the Tulip Library--this one's for you, Lauren!





Checking out the air pressure-measurer at the Air and Space Museum


And, of course, my favorite historical artifact at the Treasures of American History exhibit at the Air and Space Museum...they also had the "puffy shirt" from Seinfeld, which I took a picture of for Mike. That exhibit was pretty cool, and very popular--it was so crowded!


At the Wheatley's for our BBQ with my Mom, Dean, and Chad and Mareille Taylor with they cutest little musher Ella!


The Bar-B-Que was a raving success! My Mom made homemade oreos and her famous "rice krispie treats on steroids", Mike grilled burgers (Burger for the Gods, ala Alton Brown, and Pork Burgers Indochine, ala Build a Better Burger Challenge), veggie kabobs and asparagus, and I made a yummy chicken and artichoke dip. There definitely wasn't a lack of food, that's for sure! Our first real entertaining in VA was a success! After clean up, we watched the last session of conference and then took a quick dip in the hottub. On the way home, we drove downtown to show Dean the White House...you can't come to DC and not see the White House, right? We got home at about 8:30 and we were all exhausted! What a fun weekend surprise!