Washington D.C. w/ Aunt Erica

We made a deal w/ Erica (Angela's sister) that if she came to visit us in New Jersey, we'd take her to see Washington D.C. We're very glad she took us up on our offer, and we're very glad Angela's mission companion, Sister McMurrin and her husband Rijen were gracious enough to let us stay at their place.


After this trip, we officially realized that we're probably not ever going to be able to take a family vacation again w/o backup. Erica was a lifesaver throughout the whole trip. I think that 3 Dean kids has to be equivalent to keeping track of 5 or 6 regular kids.

We packed a lot into 2 days & 1 night of touring the nation's capitol, here are some highlights:

Aunt Erica w/ the girls @ the D.C. Temple
Jefferson Memorial.

The White House.
Some random building. (I liked this picture of Analise, and we had to have pix w/ rain because it poured like crazy on us. No actual pix of the deluge because it would have killed the camera. Instant bath type of downpour, it was kind of fun.)

Inside the Capitol.

Interesting note: We happened to be there on the 1st day of the new Ronald Reagan statue (background). That was pretty cool. Each state gets 2 statues, and California switched out one for Reagan on this day. I wonder who they got rid of? Email us if/when you find the answer. And that made us think about who could ever take the place of Utah's statues: Brigham Young & Philo T. Farnsworth. I don't think Brigham Young has to worry, but Philo better hope nobody from Utah invents something cooler than the television.Outside the Capitol.

The Lincoln Memorial.

Angela really got a big sentimental kick out of visiting "McMurrin" and the fact that they both had babies at about the same time. Here's Angela holding Fiona, and McMurrin holding Alivia. It's hard to put into words, but it's really neat to serve with someone, and then cross paths as stages like marriage and babies occur.

And last but not least, my personal favorite picture from the trip. Taken of Analise & Kaya from the Jefferson Memorial, overlooking the Potomac River towards the Washington Monument.

A sad side note from our trip was that we went to the Holocaust Museum exactly one week before the crazy guy went in and killed a security guard before he was shot. The actual Holocaust Museum was sad enough to visit, but to have that happen one Wednesday after we were there was a little surreal and sickening to us. The news said that the Holocaust Museum is one of the most threatened buildings in the country. Crazy.