Easter Egg Roll at the White House Round 2 was a success!  As were all of the things we got to see with one Mary McKinley as our DC tour guide for the day.

First, Mary took us to the Library of Congress.  Which is a lot cooler than any library I’ve ever been to. The building is simply gorgeous.  I couldn’t stop staring up at the ceilings.  The amount of details that went into the architecture and design of these old building blows my mind.  They didn’t have the technology we do.  So these remarkable things were done by hand.  :: swoon ::

It was also pretty fantastic to get to see Thomas Jefferson’s book collection.  The very ones that started the Library of Congress in the first place.  

Also inside the Library of Congress, Mary got us into some of the private side-rooms where different conferences and meetings are held.  Which was really cool.  There are some perks to knowing people in high places.

We weren’t allowed to take photos, but we also go to go into the Capitol Building and actually stand on the House Floor.  How freaking cool.  So many people have sat in those seats and so many important decisions have been made in that room.  Remarkable.  Louis also pushed one of the buttons that the Congressmen/women use for voting…although there was no way he voted for anything, we are going to just pretend that he made some incredibly awesome ::coughsociallyliberalcough:: decision.  Who knows?  Louis could be pushing that button for real some day.

I have a small fear in my heart that Louis will grow up one day to be a politician as well.  It’s in his blood.  I can see it starting to become uncontainable with Bennett now.  So maybe we have 25 years until I have to try and talk Louis out of it too.  Don’t get me wrong, I fully appreciate the men and women who are willing to run for office and hold a political title.  It’s such a thankless, incredibly difficult job to do.  I’ve just seen the wear and tear that it can create on a person first-hand and I really don’t want to see my husband or son go through it as well.  Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s something I can stop.  It’s who they are. 

We met up with David, Meredith and the kids for lunch (which we didn’t end up having because of the restaurant causing a major fail on their part) and then walked across the street to the White House.  You know.  Just a casual stroll over to that big white building on Pennsylvania Avenue.  You know the one.

We waited in line for a bit and then made our way onto the White House lawn.  Because we’d experienced the Egg Roll last year, we knew what to expect.  Which made this time around a lot easier and less crazy.  Believe me, it’s still a little crazy.  It goes in 2-hour shifts but the Egg Roll hosts over 35,000 people in one day.  So it’s crowded and loud and busy.  But there’s so much to do and it really doesn’t seem like the mass chaos that it could be.

Lou got to take pictures with some of his favorite characters.  We’d scoped out the lineup so knew who to look for.  We told Louis about all of them except for the Lego Movie characters WildStyle and Emmett.  We knew he’d be so excited and we wanted to keep it a bit of a surprise for him.  He was certainly excited.  To see everyone, really.

We participated in the actual Egg Roll event as well.  Unlike last year, Louis rolled that egg across the lawn all by himself.  It was really fun to watch him do it alone.  I think kiddo was pretty proud of himself when he hit the finish line.  I still find it super strange that they use actual hard boiled eggs for the egg roll.  The hunt is with plastic and wooden eggs but the roll is real eggs.  They literally have to be boiling and coloring THOUSANDS of eggs each year for this.  Crazy.

It’s a really neat experience and not something people get to do often.  So we try and soak it in as much as we can.  How many people can say that they’ve been on the White House lawn for Easter?  Especially two times in a row?  I mean.  It’s incredible.

We owe Mary a lot for putting this together for us two years in a row.  She’s quite the woman, that
Mary.  Somehow I lucked out and got the pick of the litter for a mother-in-law.  (And I’m not just saying that because she might read this blog.  I really do like her a lot.  She’s more of a saint than I’ll ever be!)

DC was incredible.  The Easter Egg Roll was tons of fun.  And I look forward to (hopefully) going back for a third time next year with the crew.  Hopefully we can make it happen!