What have the Farnsworth's been up to?

Thanksgiving was excellent. We were invited to the Simonds home where we shared dinner with the Simonds, the Campbells, and the missionaries. It was a delicious dinner and we all had a blast playing games and laughing. There were 9 kids including Logan and he loved playing with kids and terrorizing/hugging their tiny little dog. One of the Elders was my cousin Lani's Distict Leader last year, and the other knew her as well. Who would've thought I would move out here right after she finished up a mission out here?

We've also finally unpacked all the boxes and have found the camera! yay. Here are some shots of our Christmas tree, Logan, and our Saturday adventure.

I made this Christmas tree skirt. Yep, I sewed it myself. Aunt Pam gave me the pattern and mom provided the machine. It matches my pottery barn kids stockings from last year---I am quite proud of how it turned out.



Logan knows what to do when the camera is out. He stopped running around and smiled for the pictures. Isn't he cute?

Today we drove to the nearest Metro park and ride station (New Carrolton) and rode it into Washington D.C and Logan was a CHAMP. We started out at the American History Smithsonian. It was cool in the beginning, but then the masses and masses of people began flooding in. We did see Tomas Edison's light bulbs, Julia Child's kitchen, Dorothy's ruby slippers, and the original Oscar the Grouch and Kermit the frog before the masses arrived. We found out that this particular Smithsonian has been closed for the past 2 years for renovations, and opened just last week. So EVERYONE decided to go today, on a Saturday, over Thanksgiving holiday. There were Disneyland sized lines just to get into the galleries. After waiting in one line we decided to go again and visit it in a couple of months. Seth is going to take a day off work so we can get in and see the star spangled banner, and Abe Lincoln's top hat and other such memorabilia.

Julia Child donated her kitchen to the Smithsonian. Did you know she was 6'2"? Too bad she's not still around, I'd like to see her and Candace Olson combine shows for "cooking and decorating with giants."

For lunch we ate at a hot dog vendor just outside the museum which made us feel quite "Ben Matlockish," and then spent the rest of the afternoon in the Smithsonian museum of Natural History. It was awesome, much more kid friendly with the normal amount of people for a museum. We saw insects, a whole exhibit with animal skeletons including a gigantic whale and an 8 foot long leatherback sea turtle. There were also "stuffed" dead animals like a giant python that easliy could have eaten our whole family. There was a butterfly exhibit that you could walk through with butterflies flying all over the place and rooms full of animals. Seth's favorite was in the African savanna room: a lion attacking a wildabeast. He liked it better than any zoos because the animals are in "cool poses."

Here are Dorothy's ruby slippers.

Oscar and I go way back. He taught me the alphabet with his book, "Oscar the Grouch's alphabet of trash." So, I obviously had to get a picture with him, I couldn't believe this was the Oscar that I watched as a child. I spent many a childhood day wondering how he fit his house and pet elephant into that tiny can. (If you can't tell, it was really hot and sweaty in the museum and I wanted to shred people. We left the museum after this pic was taken.)


These are humongous shark jaws from the Natural History Museum's Ocean room. There were too many people to get a great shot, but look how big they are compared to me and the stroller!

We also saw many many meteroites, gems, and jewels including the Hope diamond. Eventually the Natural History museum started getting really crowded too, so we decided to call it a day. We had also been warned to make it home before sundown. All went well for us on our first adventure. We will be doing many many cool things in the coming months, so stay tuned!

Logan update: *Intended to be interesting to grandparents and aunts and uncles and any other devoted Logan-fans. Logan now says the words "star" and "key" along with "bubble" "ball" "kitty" "sneeze" "baby" "daddy" and "cookie." He likes to point at the star on the wall and say "star," and he likes us to sing the backyardigans song "the tower of power is very tall, and up in the top is the........and we stop and he says "KEY!" It makes us all so proud. :)