"MAY"be we had too much fun...

Nah...too much fun isn't even possible. :)

May started out magnificently and kept that as a theme throughout! We kicked off the month by getting to host a baby shower brunch with my friend Sarah for our wonderful friend Mary-Hayden.

Sarah did a spectacular job decorating and setting the table. She's the best hostess!

There were lots of sweet baby girl gifts...

And my friend Kristy made this incredible bouquet of cupcakes that were as delicious as they were beautiful!

We had a smorgasbord of yummy brunch food from casseroles to parfaits. Delicious!

With my sweet friends Sarah & Mary-Hayden...I love these two girls SO much, their friendship is a treasure.


My precious Isabella, she is going to be a fantastic big sister!


So many lovelies to share life with here. I'm blessed.

The next day my friend Laura and I did a five mile race as part of the Capital City Marathon in Olympia, lots of fun!

Before our race started, we gave a good luck hug to our friends Kristy & Tara who were running the half-marathon. They are champs!

It really was a fun experience and really cool to be a part of!

Derek got to go on a kayaking adventure with some great friends. He had an awesome time!

And then early on Sunday morning, May 26th Tula Gabrielle McGregor arrived! Mary-Hayden called me around 2:30 that morning to tell me she was in labor and we went right over to stay with Isabella while they set off for the hospital. Just about an hour later, Tula was here! I was so excited I could hardly sleep! But I had to rest up a little because I was going to meet this sweet baby...

I instantly fell in love with her...so precious and perfect and beautiful.


Then we reached the end of the month and honored a special holiday.

Memorial Day is a HUGE deal around here.

We live in a predominantly military community and that has changed my perspective on this holiday completely. Because living here, I can put a face to war widows and fatherless children. It's both sombering and inspiring. There is a running group that meets here in DuPont every Saturday morning called Wear Blue: Run to Remember. It was founded by a war widow a few years ago who used running as a healing therapy when her husband was killed in combat. Truly, an amazing story...a real story.

You can check out more about this amazing organization here.

On Memorial Day, Wear Blue hosted a spectacular Memorial Day run for the fallen and we were beyond honored to be a part of it.


 

I copied this from the Wear Blue website about this event...

Our world wide community ran over 10,000 miles for The Fallen on 27 May 2013 - Memorial Day.

Our goal was 6,876 miles. We reached our goal because of YOU.

wear blue was represented in 50 states, 10 countries, and met at over 13 Meet-Ups.

Thank you for your pledge...every mile was a sacrifice for those who gave ALL.

We look forward to Memorial Day 2014 when we will do it all again.

Our community is a Living Memorial~

For the Fallen...For the Fighting...For the Families.


It was a beautiful way to honor this day and wrap up a fantastic May.

Sorry, that wasn't supposed to rhyme. :)

Adventures in D.C. - Day Two: More Smithsonian, Monuments, & Really Big Buildings

We slept pretty good on night one...passed out as soon as our heads hit the pillow.

I mean, like four-year-olds-worn-out-at-Disney-World-exhausted.

But that didn't stop us from getting up the next morning to do it all over again!

We hopped on the metro and away we went! We had a plan in mind for what we wanted to see, but lo & behold, we got to see so many things along the way.

Like the National Monument!

(still undergoing some structural damage repair from an earthquake back in 2011).



The Capitol Building

Ahhh...we never got to actually go inside...crazy, right? We didn't realize just how spread out so many places on our "to do" list were until we got there. Then we had to make a plan to explore D.C. by "areas" and just see as much as possible. Unfortunately, we just didn't get to see it all. But at least we have something new on our list for next time. :)



The Smithsonian Castle




The Department of the Treasury


A Gigantic City Block!


The Department of Agriculture


Two Gigantic City Blocks!


But we saw all of these things because we were on our way here...

The Museum of Natural History (a.k.a. the set of Night at the Museum 2)







And what else would you possible check out first but the dinosaurs??









Yikes! Would definitely NOT want to be around during the dino-age.





This counter of the current world population was fun to watch...


There were about 3 minutes between the above picture and this one...and in that time the world population grew by 234 people!


And I was SO excited to see this jewel!

The Hope Diamond *swoon*


Such a cool place to explore - glad it made "the list." :)







We did one other museum on day two, but I'll give a blog post all its own...because I'm not quite sure how to put words to it just yet. You'll see why soon enough.

Day 2...check!

Adventures in D.C. - Day One: Smithsonian, Dinner, & THE WHITE HOUSE!!

So, once we left Arlington, we first headed over to Union Station to grab a bite to eat and then we went exploring at the Smithsonian Institution National Air & Space Museum.





I really wish I had alot of cool facts and statistic-y things to share with you but quite honestly, I don't. It was just cool to walk around and see so many life size pieces of aircraft on display from floor to ceiling. I'll just let you enjoy the pictures. :)
















Of special interest to me was the area designated to the space shuttle program!

Why?

Because my Dad spent nearly 30 years of his life building the external fuel tank - this map shows the location of the plant where he spent so much of his time.


This was a really cool scale version of the shuttle...see those tiny people at the bottom? That's just how small they would be next to the actual shuttle. Wow!


An actual size fuel thruster...


I felt pretty proud to be there, standing next to pieces of history that my Dad was a part of...really proud. :)


We left the museum to head over to a different part of the city so we could catch up with a friend we haven't seen in over four years...

Brittany! We met Brittany and her family when we were serving at Trinity Baptist in West Memphis, Arkansas. They were (and still are) one of our favorite families and it was so good to see Brittany and spend a few hours just hanging out and catching up on life. She's about to start law school at Georgetown - we are so proud of her! Maybe the next time we visit D.C., she'll be working in the White House, it seriously wouldn't surprise us one bit!

After dinner, Brittany pointed out that we were just a few blocks away from the White House...and even though it wasn't on our "list" for the day, how could we NOT go check it out??

So we did. :)

And I have to say...I was skeptical. I kept staring at it thinking "That can't be it. What is this place then? It looks nothing like what I remember from tv and pictures." Then I found out we were on the North Lawn, as in the lawn that doesn't face Pennsylvania Avenue. It all made sense and I was content. :)

THE WHITE HOUSE!!






What a perfect surprise ending to our very first tourist-y day!