Oh hey!  Remember me?  I’m that blogger who basically only comes around for Sunday Lately posts anymore.  Whoops.  I promise I’ll be more present this month…starting now.

I realized that I haven’t shared all of the fun stuff we did over Easter weekend in DC yet, and that I really should.  Because it was ten shades of awesome!  I apologize in advance for the amount of photos that are going to be shared in this single post.

This is the third year now that Bennett, Louis and I have headed to the nation’s capital for Easter weekend, where we also have attended the White House Easter Egg Roll.  We love every second we get to spend in that big, beautiful city.  We basically spend our entire trips on Capitol Hill, sightseeing and staring at all of the architecture and old buildings.

It was an extra special trip this round because we got to take my Momma with us.  She’s never been to Washington, D.C. before and we were super excited to show her around.

Of course we hit up the Botanic Gardens.  Not only is it just fabulous to walk around in and see…but they still have orchids out on display and it was GORGEOUS.  Orchids are my favorite flower ever, ever, ever.  And having so many varieties of them in one space was the bomb dot com.

Louis is a huge fan of the garden as well.  It was funny because he was running around, wide eyed and exclaiming how much “he loved this” or “that is amazing”.  And we walked past some kid, slightly older than Louis, who said, “Why do we have to look at all these boring plants?”

Can I just say that I love having a child who appreciates basically everything we show him?  It makes our lives so much easier.

Mom’s one request was that we get to see the Lincoln Memorial.  Lucky her, it was one of the memorials that I haven’t personally been to yet.  Therefore, we were extra willing to head there with her.

What an incredibly iconic thing to see in person!  Honest Abe’s memorial (and the Washington Monument) are basically in every tv show and movie ever made, and it was still incredible to see in person.  

Easter happened to be super early this year and fell right during the peak cherry blossom season.  So not only were the monuments PACKED with people, but so was everywhere else near the National Mall.  Who wouldn’t want to see, smell, and photograph these gorgeous trees?

On the day of the actual Egg Roll, we met up with Mary and got some special “behind the scenes” tours.  We took my Mom to David’s office, walked in the tunnels between the Congressional offices and the Capitol, and took her onto the House Floor.  All awesome experiences.  Thanks tour guide, Mary!

After our fabulous, private tour, we headed to the White House for the Easter Egg Roll.  It was as fun as every year before.

I asked Louis if he was excited about the egg roll, before we got in the gate.
This was the face he gave me.  Haha.

We make sure to do the important things first.  So our first, right out of the gate, activity is always the egg roll itself.  Since we usually get there before the big crowd is let in, it provides for short lines and the best photo ops.  I mean, how many times do you get to be this close to the White House in your life?

The egg roll is exactly that: an egg roll.  Louis gets a hardboiled egg to roll across the White House lawn with a wooden spoon, in competition against other kids.  I’ll be honest and say that I don’t totally “get” the idea of it…but tradition is tradition and I’m more than happy to have Louis participate in this.

There are so many things happening all around you that it’s really hard to take it all in.  Musicians, athletes, celebrity chefs, actors, characters in costumes…the works.  They’re all there, filling up your two-hour slot with so much “hey look over there!” and “is that so-and-so from that show”?

My favorite celebrity to see was Idina Menzel.  Um.  Hello?!  We got to hear Elsa sing “Let It Go”, live and in person.  I die.  She also sang songs from Wicked and Annie, but my favorite was from by far “Let It Go”.  

My other favorite moment was when we got to meet this guy: Darth (freakin) Vader.  At the White House.  And he was force choking the camera.  #bestphotoever

We had such an amazing weekend.  The weather somehow held out for us, and didn’t downpour like it’d been threatening to.  And actually, we all walked away from the White House with some sunburns.  Not too shabby.

Thanks for the good time, DC!  See you next year?  Same time, same place?