Day after Christmas

Since we were in D.C. on Christmas day, we weren't able to go to my folks' house to see my family. We had fun on our trip, but missed seeing my Mom and Dad, brothers, sisters, sister-in-laws, and the 6 nieces and nephews. Last night, we were able to visit them. We had to wait until Jacob and Clyde returned from the Dr.'s office, before we could leave. It turns out that his cough was more than a cough. He too has pneumonia. So, Clyde and Jacob went and had his Zithromax Rx filled and once they came home, then we headed out to the Cecil Farm. Raegen and John were there visiting, but we missed Doc, Tara, and their family; as well as Gray, Kelly, and their children. We had fun playing and visiting with Bubbie, Pop Pop, Ty, Raegen, and John. The childen had a blast playing with their new toys that they received. Dad, Ty, Clyde, and I played a game of scrabble on Dad's new toy. We ate a beautiful meal together and just had fun spending time with one another. We hope that everyone had a great Christmas!!

kiss my head

John & Penny
Ty & Penny hangin' out together
This is Penny offering her head to Raegen for a kiss.
How sweet are Ty and Jacob.

hugs from Pop Pop & Bubbie

We love Pop Pop and Bubbie! We had to get squeezes before we left to go home.

Pop Pop, Bubbie, and the Wardlings, the day after Christmas

teletubbie fun

On the way home from Bubbie & Pop Pop's house, the children got a smidge car crazy. They began to sing the theme song from the Teletubbies. (Penny got a Teletubbie DVD for Christmas.) They sang it over and over again. Clyde was trying to remain calm, while listening to, "Tinky Winky, Dipsy, La La, and Po..."

Penny was trying to chime in, while hugging her hand made kitty from Bubbie.

Christmas trip

This year for Christmas we decided to go on a trip. We wanted to take the family to Washington D.C. to see the Temple and the lights that are there @ Christmas. Clyde and I helped with a wedding on Friday and Saturday night, so we couldn't leave as early as we had originally wanted. On Sunday, we loaded up the children up and piled them into the van and we were off. It was pouring rain the entire trip; the entire 6 hour drive. However, once we got into our hotel room, it stopped raining. The sky cleared right up. We unloaded the van and to Penny's disgust, we got back into it to get some dinner. We ate some yummy Popeye's chicken and then we were off to get a few groceries. After grocery shopping we headed back to the hotel from some R & R. In the next few posts, you'll see the highlights of our trip. I loved every minute of it. It was so much fun to have this high paced adventure with the children. We were able to show them part of the history of our country and more personally, the history of us. Where our eternity begins... This was an awesome Christmas trip, one that won't be forgotten! Happy Christmas!!

Hotel fun

Once we got to the hotel, the kids had to get some wiggles out.

Woodfin

Breakfast at the Woodfin.
Christmas Eve...
We stayed @ the Woodfin Suites, the hotel, where Clyde and I stayed on our honeymoon. Of course this stay was alot different from our first stay.

the Christus

This is the 1st thing that you see, when you walk into the Visitor's Center. It is beautiful!! They all looked up with such admiration.

D.C. Visitor's Center

The Nauvoo Temple out of Legos!!
This was cool because it showed the different locations of where Christ was during his life. The spots glowed and showed where He was...like the Garden of Gethsamane.
Penny liked the bust of Joseph Smith.

Nativities

In the Visitor's Center were dozens of different nativities set up from around the world. This knitted one is from New Zealand. It gave me some ideas for Christmas gifts to come.
Czech
These two are from Poland.

Washington D.C. Temple

I loved going to visit the Temple with our family. This is where Clyde and I were married, so it is very special to us. It was neat to show the children where we had wedding pictures taken and who was there, what the day looked like & how we felt. A Sister missionary, from Arizona, took this for us.

Libby took this photo of us.
Isn't it beautiful! It was nice to be back. The last time Clyde and I were in D.C. was for the wedding of Michael and Victoria, 8 years ago.

On to Sight seeing in Washinton D.C.

How big is this Washinton Monument!!!
This is the Capitol Building. It can be seen from the Washington Monument. We didn't go to this building, but were happy to see it from where we were.
We were taking abit of a break from walking. After the walk from the van to the monument we needed to rest.
The White House.

Ward-Holmgren reunion

So, after 13 years, we are finally able to get these two Poland missionary companions back together. We met in the Ronald Reagan building for lunch. It was so fun to the kids to go through a security check. We had to show I.D. and empty our pockets with our cell phones and anything else metal. I put my bag to be x-rayed. The kids were mesmerized. Of course I beeped. I forgot my keys in my pocket and then my hair barrett beeped. I'm glad that I didn't have to be patted down, like Clyde had to be when we flew into NY. It was wonderful meeting Kurt ,and his family, after hearing mission stories of their companionship as well as others, nearly every day for the past 12 years. That's right, a daily Poland story. I think that I can tell them with a bit more detail than Clyde can. Clyde and Kurt served in Bytom, the disgusting, polluted, coal mining town. Clyde said that it was nasty and when we go to Poland, we will skip that town.
Here the fellas are with their crew of little people. In Asheville, this would be considered the branch primary in it's entirety. We loved meeting the Holmgren family: Kurt, Erica and children 4. We are looking forward to staying in better contact with you guys!! Shortly after this picture, while we were saying our good-byes, Penny tripped and fell. She split her lip open. Her mouth was bleeding pretty badly. Clyde joked saying that we were going to sue the government. I am glad to report that her lip is healing well. It was fat last night and today it is fine.

Lincoln Memorial

Look how small we look in front of the Lincoln Memorial. The children counted the stairs...there are, if counting going up and down, 100 steps. Now, how accurate that is, we'll have to plan another trip to double check.
Ahh, our family. I am thankful for folks who are willing to take the picture of a strange family. I have to say, how thankful I am for digital cameras. If the person is a real jerk and cuts your head off, then we can hit delete and pester someone else to get a picture of us. Thankfully, the Asian man wasn't a jerk! :)

Here we were at the far end of the reflection pool. The Washington monument looks small....

WWII monument

This was at one end of the WWII monument. I thought it was very patriotic.

We walked around the new World War II monument. It is pretty big. It is oval shaped with a big fountain in the middle. On the inside of the entrance, were these carved pictures. I like this one because it reminded me of my Grandpa, William Cecil. He drove the supply trucks in Italy. He was driving one day and a bomb hit his truck and there was a picture taken of it and it was published in a book. So, this carving of the supply truck was special to me.
Here are Jacob, Josh, Erin, and Libby throwing change into the WWII fountain. It's nice to think, that there is a bit of us there.
Clyde liked this carving quote. There were dozens of these around the monument. Clyde's Grandpa, Bill Gust was in either a 2nd wave or so, of troops to arrive after D-day.
Clyde and Penny in front of the fountain in the WWII monument.

festival of lights @ the Temple

We returned to the D.C. Temple after dark, last night. We wanted to get a family photo with the temple all aglow as our backdrop. How beautiful!! There were quite a few families and people there for Christmas Eve!
Washington D.C. Temple
Here we are under a beautifully lit tree, right beside the Visitor's Center. The reflecting pool is to our right, your left. It was frozen...

Once we left the Temple grounds for the night, Libby asked why we couldn't go into the temple. Clyde said thay they couldn't and before he could explain why, Jacob said, "Because, it's for old people."

presents @ the hotel

When we came back from eating our continental breakfast, there were 2 gift bags waiting for us! In it were gifts for us. How did Santa know where we were?? In the bags were star wars ships for Josh & Jacob, watercolor pencils and paper for Erin, a hair high lighting kit for Libby, (which we did!!!), & some croc-a-likes and a spinning light up toy for Penny. There was also a Willow Tree figure for me in that bag. I don't know what Santa was thinking, because he left Clyde's gift in his stocking @ home....