the lloyds do DC~

Nate, ej, and i took a long weekend trip to DC. we thought it was nate's fall break but found out we planned it all a week too early- oops! however, we made it work. suzy (nate's mom) met us there and we stayed with his aunt leslie. his grandpa wanner also flew in so we were able to see lots of family.
we left cleveland at like 9pm thursday night. nate was a trooper and drove the entire way while ej and i slept. when we arrived at 3am~ ej thought it was time to wake up. nate and i were so tired that we just laid her in bed in between us and she played while we slept. occassionally we'd get a finger to the eye or up the nose, but eventually she fell asleep... once we both got smart and turned our backs to her:) she was being SO FUNNY it was hard not to laugh! we walked tons and covered a lot of ground and it was GREAT! we definitely need to make another trip to finish seeing all the sites! EJ was absolutely amazing- big shock there, she is ALWAYS such a trooper. the first day we thought she'd nap in her stroller as we were out crusin around. she slept for a total of 20 mins THE ENTIRE day. apparently she didn't want to miss out on anything. she wasn't even grumpy from the lack of sleep the night before or that day! we saw the holocaust museum which i am still having bad dreams about. i cannot even pretend to wrap my fingers around what really happened. nate having lived in poland was able to visit Auswitz and see a lot of the devastation first hand. the pile of shoes that is towards the end of the museum that everyone talks about was UNREAL! there was a quote on the way that said something to the effect of 'the only reason these were saved is because they were made of valuable leather and cloth and not flesh and bones'. another quote was by a leader of some country (i forgot who/where) when they went throught the concentration camps said "five, six, or seven pair of shoes i can understand... but thousands of shoes without any owners is unexplainable". it really hit me what the significance of shoes is! you don't go anywhere without shoes, and you don't leave a place you've been without putting your shoes back on. what a surreal place! they had videos of the Nazi's performing scientific experiments on the poor few they didn't gas and ended up with what i think was a worse fate! man. sombering to say the least.
that day we continued with the Washington monument, Lincoln Monument, White House, WWII monument, Ford's theater, Vietnam Monument.... it really made me think how many lives are represented in that small area of the country. MILLIONS and MILLIONS of people/events that we have learned about growing up. very neat to finally see it.
day 2 we went to some museums: space and aero museum- NATE'S FAV (he looked like a little kid on Christmas morning), museum of natural science, the botanical gardens, hung out at the capitol for awhile and fed ducks, and much much more that i cannot remember right now:)! day 2 again, ej was a star! we actuall got 40 mins of a nap in but that was it! she was happy as could be!
sunday we went to an AmAzInG brunch with the family. it was at this old, old toll house that was converted into a restaurant and had some pretty good food! everything from crab legs that size of texas to belgian waffles with whipped cream and fresh berries- my fav. nate tried a super disgusting oyster and it made ME a little nauseated. top it all off with some out of this world desserts- it was GREAT!
we had SUCH A GREAT time and cannot wait to go back. nate drove home to cleveland alone while ej and i flew to Utah. luckily we had suzy with us- WHAT A LIFE SAVER!! i couldn't have done it with out her. plus ej got her own seat and the flight was non-stop to SLC.... it was a BEAUTIFUL FLIGHT all around :)
ej and i have been here for a week and are headed back in just under a week. we miss nate SOOO bad and i think he misses us. he has been super busy (mid-terms) and has left the house at 6:30am and returned at 10pm!! i wish i could be there to help cheer him on and make yummy food for him to take to campus, but we are glad to be around family and i am loving the help with ej.