Lucy’s D.C. trip

Since Lucy didn’t get to come to D.C. with the family here, I was looking forward to showing her a little bit of it’s beauty while we were there.

Because she really cares about stuff like that (yeah, right).

After all the testing was complete at NIH, Dave took off to run his marathon (more on that later), and my brother picked Lu and me up to stay at his house overnight (we had to stay in the vicinity for 24 hours after her sedation, and what a better way to do that than with my dear brother and his beautiful wife who live right there?)

As much as we were so incredibly thankful for our time at NIH it was nice to shift my mind to something different.
I really am in such awe of the freeways there.

They really beat the ones here with gravel on the sides of the road and an occasional giant desert animal carefully made our of contrasting rocks.

Even though I love the green, I had had high hopes for some rich Fall colors while we were there since I crave that like the dickens here in the desert. But everything was still pretty green aside from a lonely yellow or red leaf floating lazily across the sky here and there.

Still, there was enough color to make some extra beauty on the sidewalks. Some may call this messy:
…but I love it.
Taking Lu to my favorite monument was enough to solidify my thankfulness that Lucy wasn’t there with us back in June.
She sure wasn’t catching the beauty of it all, but I’m going to go ahead and give her the benefit of the doubt. She had been through a bunch that day. (They were setting up for something big happening on the Mall the next day, that’s why those jumbotrons are back there.)

But I still felt the sacredness of that spot as I tried to capture it with my little point-and-shoot.
Eli finally got her to smile. He’s good.

Now at least she’ll know she has been there.
We picked up Julie (my sis-in-law) from work (she’s a nurse), picked up Thai food and headed to their place where they had set up a little birthday party for Lucy.

She couldn’t have been more delighted about that.

It was a heart-melter.

They even gave her a Dora figurine and a new “Boots” to go with her beloved Dora doll…yeah, they know that girl pretty well.

They made the end of a really traumatic day (remember she was under anesthesia that morning) so wonderful for her.

The next day we strolled around Eastern Market enjoying the gorgeous weather.

We had a delicious breakfast…Lucy loved the pancakes.
Lucy made a new friend there.
When we left she gave him a hug and tried to even plant a kiss right smack-dab on his lips. He had a big smile but told her she was “in his personal space.”

He really said that.

I thought it was so funny.
Yes, Lucy is WAY too big for that stroller.

Love these guys.

Then we flew home leaving all that green behind……into the arms of some SERIOUSLY excited people to see that little Lucy.
I wish I had video footage of how they literally LEAPED out of the car to mob Lucy. (Max was at the Priesthood session with Dave but man oh man, their reunion was pretty darn sweet too.)

My sister had been here taking care of the other kids while we were gone (more on her in the next post…she’s amazing).
They had her room all decorated up and her bed filled with little gifts for her to open.

Man, that Lucy is one lucky girl to have so much love surrounding her at every angle.

Now to work on un-spoiling her…