DC Trip

Mike and I have been planning our "10 Year" Anniversary trip (can't even believe it is almost here - the anniversary I mean) for a while and because of my fantastic mother who watched our little kidlets, we got to go! He had work to do there at the Federal Patent Office at the same time so I got to veg out - seriously. I woke up when I wanted, ate when I wanted, napped when I wanted, blogged when I wanted, and ate MORE when I wanted! I had forgotten how to do all that stuff. It was only our second time being there and we had so many sites to visit. One of our favorites was the DC Temple, we had to take the metro (Mike is a wiz on this subway - he is pretty used to it now since he visits DC quite abit) then catch a bus to get there. SO BEAUTIFUL.

We really enjoyed all the diverse people we got to meet as we traveled. A young man we met from Africa who currently just moved to DC from his family kindly helped us as we searched for the right bus to transfer too. As we visited he commented how "fast" we grow up in the states. Really made us stop and think "why?" do we do this to ourselves? Secondly was one of our taxi drivers. She was from Ethiopia and had won the Lottery Green Card with her two daughters who were in high school at the time. I asked her if they were scared to move so far and she said replied yes, but they knew it would be worth it. Another deep moment for us to think about how lucky we are to be here in Freedom and Liberty.

This brings me to our final experiences that affected us so much. In the last 24 hours of the trip we visited Thomas Jefferson's Memorial, Abraham Lincoln's Memorial, WWII Memorial and the Arlington Cemetery as we witnessed the changing of the guards. This is a must see for anyone going there. We learned the guards are so specifically trained for this honor requiring deep study of our country's patriotism and codes of complete silence for 3 weeks. They were absolutely perfect as they guarded the TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER. We left so affected by the thousands of thousands of grave sites spread through this sacred site.

Amazingly, as we stepped off the plane in Salt Lake, we were greeted by BACA Bikers holding flags, cameraman and a dozen soldiers in line. We waited for a moment to watch clearly the approaching soldier returning home. My eyes filled with tears as I heard a strong shout out and salute for this man as he came down the stairs with his wife and family, greeted by not only loved ones but many strangers just like us who were so grateful to be a part of such a wonderful moment.

Regardless if we all agree with our countries politics or not, none of us can deny the special blessing that is ours to live here in a place where thousands have suffered deep hardships beyond most of our minds abilities to imagine, even giving up their precious lives and leaving dear ones behind, so we can worship how, when, and where we may. This gift is all of ours to cherish every day and our trip to DC this week really helped us to better remember it.