We went with the super easy this year. We already had this cute cowboy get-up from when Lincoln was two. Jackson was having a great time with it and was much more willing to wear it than Lincoln ever was! 
Here are the pics from Mandy's camera on Sunday. How fun is a great jumping pic?
I was surprised to learn that my husband set up a craft date with our neighbor kids. He scheduled a pumpkin carving/scarecrow making night for us the day that I got home from my trip. I took a nice afternoon nap (I had to get up REALLY early for my flight) and woke up to find them all outside. The pumpkins had already been painted white and the fun had begun. The kids had fun getting all of the guts out and then I was surprised to see Jeff starting to cut into the pumpkin. He went right at it knowing exactly what he wanted. I was so confused when he started cutting squares all over the place. Where is the nose? I asked. He explained that this was a contemporary pumpkin and that I would need to go and get my paints so that I could paint colors around each of the squares.
Here are a few of my favorite things I saw at the zoo all by my lonesome. My favorite thing was the hippo. He was out in his cage area eating and I was in awe of his massiveness. Then he dove into the water and made this amazing ripple of water. I caught it on video, but it still doesn't do justice to the experience.
Monday morning Mandy dropped me off at Cortne's apartment so that we could ride into town together on the Metro. We had a little bit of time to chat before it was time to go and I'm so glad I was able to spend time with each of my friends one on one and talk about all of the things that go on in their worlds. I mentioned in a post a few months ago that Cortne lost her mom to cancer just recently and I can only imagine the pain that is involved in that. She is an amazing person and I enjoy her so much. She helped orient me to the Metro, met me for lunch and sent me off to do ANYTHING I WANTED... ALL BY MYSELF. I think I was a little overwhelmed at the thought. Of course I wanted to go to the Hirshorn Museum of the Smithsonian, the one with modern art. Can't get enough of the stuff.
Sunday I went to church with Mandy at Cortne's new ward. The talks were beautiful and thought provoking and I was amazed at how many young people there are in the area. After church we went to visit Ernest and Judy Istook at their beautiful new home. He is in the stake presidency now where Mandy and Cortne live so Mandy knew them too! She also attended a class they taught a while back when they were in the same ward. We had a lovely time with them and then went to see a few more memorials. It was wonderful to spend time with Mandy. It will always be so special to me that she and her mom flew out to be with us at our wedding. It made me want to try as hard as I can to be there for good friends and be supportive of them.
Saturday morning we met up with friends from high school from brunch. As we sat and talked we realized we had actually all known each other since elementary school! We reminisced about things like watching the Challenger on a TV cart in our school and how important it was to have Guess jeans. The girls were so beautiful and happy. They have always been great people and I'm so glad to see what wonderful women they are now.
It was lovely to visit in person and very powerful. I found myself tearing up in front of several of them, especially as Marna and I discussed the events surrounding the depictions.
We headed into the city to meet up with friends for dinner. The restaurant was super busy and we had an hour and a half wait! Luckily we arrived early and there are plenty of things to see in walking distance, so as we gathered our group together... having more fun every minute... we walked around to see a few sights. We walked by the White House and saw a few of the memorials from a distance. My camera didn't take good night pictures, so I didn't do a very good job of capturing the experience on film, but I had a GREAT time. 
I didn't get into DC until 1am Friday morning, so Marna and I couldn't hold off on our girly chat until morning. We stayed up way too late gabbing and laughing and crying and having thoroghly therapeutic girl time. We made ourselves go to sleep around 3. I am terrible at sleeping in, so we were up and going again at a reasonable hour and we headed off to go sailing on the Chesapeake with Steve. Our first leg of the trip lasted about 5 seconds. We quickly docked and had lunch across the harbor and they treated me to a MOST delicious crab cake sandwich, with zuchini and squash on the side. YUM. Marna didn't think zuchini and squash sounded too yummy, but changed her mind once she braved a first bite.
They had a good system worked out for making everything go smoothly and I wished I could have been more helpful, but they made it all seem super easy.
