Washington DC Trip

Last week Mark, Anton and I had the opportunity to go to Washington DC with Farm Bureau. The purpose of our trip was to meet with our congressmen about some of the current farm issues congress will be making decisions about in the near future. Anton traveled great, and slept or sat quietly during our meetings. He has been to both sides of the country in his first six weeks of his life. We're now ready to stay home for awhile! :) Here are a few pictures from our trip.

Some of the flowering trees were starting to bloom. I loved seeing all the spring flowers and blooming trees!

We came home two days before the cherry blossom festival started. I'm not sure if these are cherry trees but they were beautiful!

People from our district just before meeting with our congressmen.

A picture of the Capital.

What we did lots of, WALKING!

One evening while Mark was out with the guys and Anton and I were at the hotel resting the fire alarm went off. This was not fun! Anton and I were on the 14th floor and I had to carry him in his heavy carseat with a backpack all the way down the stairs with flashing lights and sirens. Anton didn't like it and screamed for most of the 45 minutes we had to stand outside. Thankfully the building wasn't on fire and it was just some construction guys who hit an alarm below the building.

We had some free time before our meeting with Congressmen so we walked to the botanical center. They had a beautiful orchid display going on. I also thought this dragon was kind of neat.

Mark & Anton chose to sit and enjoy the sun at the botanical center.

Anton's first subway ride. Did you know that you can't take pictures in the DC subway system? Workers will come up to you and let you know of this rule, and then announce over the loud speaker that it is strictly prohibited to take pictures. Oops. :)

Tuesday afternoon we had some free time. We went to Arlington Cemetery. After watching the changing of the guards we were invited to the guards private quarters to visit with them about what they do. This was a unique and very interesting opportunity!

Ethan's Birthday Party

Last week we had a little party for Ethan's 7th birthday. He had a couple cousins and a few friends come to our house for the evening. Overall the evening went very well and the kids seemed to have fun.

Eating birthday cupcakes!

Mark played football with the boys in the basement. This picture is of them making their game plan.

A friendly game of football.

A pillow fight that resulted in Ethan's second baby tooth getting knocked out. At least it was fairly loose. :)

We were going to go to the Pizza Ranch for supper but decided not to be brave and take all the kids on our own. We settled for Pizza Hut at home.

Commodity Classic Trip

Last week Mark, Anton and I had the opportunity to go to the 2010 Commodity Classic in Anaheim, CA. The trip was part of a prize that Mark won in the Roundup Ready 2 Yield Challenge. Monsanto sent us and two others to be part of a drawing for a Ranger bass boat.

This is a picture of the convention center were the Commodity Classic was held. We enjoyed the trade show and meeting several other farmers from around the country. It's always interesting to hear what kind of crops other farmers raise and how they make things work. One couple from MI that we met raised 1,000 acres of pickles! That's a lot of pickles!

We didn't get to attend as many meetings as we would have liked, but we did make it to a general session.

An interesting John Deere tractor.

Mark's picture & quote was on a wall in the Asgrow booth.

These were the three finalists in the boat drawing. To decide who would win the boat they had to draw a number 1 through 3 out of a cup. Mark picked #1 and got to choose his tackle box first. Then they all opened their tackle box at the same time in hopes of finding the keys to the boat. Unfortunately, Mark found a Wii instead of the keys. :(

A picture of the boat.

While it was disappointing not to win the grand prize, we had a nice trip, got some money and the Wii with a fishing game that Mark is playing in the picture. :)

During our free time we relaxed in the Dekalb hospitality room and did lots of walking around the area and Downtown Disney. One afternoon we thought we would be smart and rent a car for the day for $50 to go to a restaurant and do some sightseeing instead of paying a cab $30. This would have been great if I could navigate and Mark liked driving in heavy CA traffic. Long story short we ended up bringing the car back after an hour because of the frustration of driving in this busy area! :) The rental car guys felt bad for us and only charged us for an hour rental instead of the day. I highly recommend Enterprise Car Rentals if you need one, they were great!

Anton traveled so well! He slept 3 out of the 4 plane rides and when he was awake he was happy! Mark and I were so thankful for this, it would be highly stressful for me to have a crying baby and no where to go on the plane! Hopefully he travels this well when we go to Washington D.C. in two weeks.

A video of Mark being introduced.

The video of opening the tackle boxes.