Bryce was chosen by his department to represent Purdue University a few days in D.C at a conference last month and since I happen to have a high school reunion in Northern VA the next weekend, Brycen and I decided to tag along.
Since we lost three hours due to the time change going from Seattle to Washington D.C., it literally felt like we spent all day flying. Luckily though, we sat in front of the best entertainers for Brycen (adored Brycen, didn't mind playing peek-a-boo, high fives, being hit with/feed fruit loops, etc for three hours) and it made flying quite beautiful and so easy for Bryce and I. Strangers are by far, Brycen's favorite toys.
When we arrived in D.C. we had a wonderful, cheap hotel room at a Holiday Inn for the night (thanks to Priceline) and got to attend church the next day with one of Bryce's old colleagues from BYU and found out that in the same ward, was a girl that was in our Freshman ward (Bryce and I were in the same ward our Freshman year at BYU). Small world, indeed.
After church, we went and walked around Arlington Cemetery since both Bryce and Brycen have never been. Brycen obviously found it very exciting and slept for 90% of it. haha. It made the walk very peaceful for us :)
The walk was obviously a little too peaceful because we lost track of time and were running late. We headed to our hotel so Bryce could get to his conference. It took him all of 30 seconds to realized he HATED D.C. traffic....20 minutes to go 2 blocks.
The conference was being held at The Capital Hilton hotel in the heart of D.C. but it cost $250 a night for only Bryce. Even though his department pays for his trip, since I was coming along, any additional charges that I caused, we had to cover. And for some reason, The Capital Hilton charges an additional $30/night per person, even though it's the same room. Which isn't a huge issue but since the hotel had mixed reviews online and offered NO free amenities and I would be the one that would be using the hotel room most the time; we decided to take our chances and do the "name your price option" on Priceline. We ended up getting a 4 star hotel on the same road as the Hilton, two blocks down for $135/night and that included me! So not only did we save Bryce's department $100+/night, we saved ourselves $60 for the two nights we would be staying for the conference. It still didn't have any free amenities... but had much better reviews. It's SO weird to me, it seems like the more stars the hotel has, the less free amenities....makes absolutely no sense... Like no free breakfast, or free internet...which you can get at any one star motels.
Luckily though, I don't know if it was because I arrived by myself, hands super full with Brycen and luggage or what, but the hotel was very generous and promoted us to the executive level that included free breakfast and dinner for no extra charge. It was a NICE room and we later found out that it is usually $1300/ a night! Brycen and I would quite comfortable the next few days. Right in the heart of D.C, walked everywhere, and was able to come back to the hotel whenever we wanted for naps and such, quite beautiful. We walked everywhere and came and went constantly, trying to catch Bryce on his breaks between classes. The staff at both our hotel and the Hilton knew us very well and would welcome us each time and ask me how the little guy was doing.
Our hotel was located in the business side of Washington D.C., not the tourist side. So as you may imagine, Brycen and I easily stood out as I pushed his stroller in my causal attire seeming to always to be going upstream, no matter what direction I took, in the almost constant downstream river of "suit and tie/serious" business people. Every head turned as we walked by and Brycen loved it. He would make eye contact and smile and I literally saw peoples' faces transform in front of me. They went from being very serious, grumpy-like to smiling from ear to ear saying, "what a beautiful baby, he just made my day". All day I had people constantly comment on Brycen and I even had a few tap me on the shoulder (scaring the heck out of me, big cities always put me on my edge) and want to stop and chat about how either their sibling/child/or grandchild had red hair or did not have red hair and they wished they had, etc. This one older lady with salt and pepper hair stopped me and told me how her brother had the prettiest red hair growing up and how she was always so envious, she then turned to Brycen and say, "would you like to trade hair colors?" Brycen firmly shook his head from side to side and she laughed.
Brycen really had no interest in sight seeing. we only ever made it to the White House (the closest tourist attraction to our hotel) and then he would want to get out and play.
He loved playing on the fence.
After awhile though, Brycen got bored and decided that needed to see the world differently. Of course he decided that he needed to do this in the middle of the sidewalk.... in the middle of D.C...
The foreign tourists already love Brycen but they got quite the kick out of taking pictures of this...
The White House from the front? or is it the back?
We loved the White House so much much, we brought Bryce back with us that evening after his conference.
After the conference was over, we went to the D.C temple :)
On Wednesday, Bryce flew back to Indiana to get back to work but Brycen and I stayed behind for the reunion. We stayed with some cousins and got to meet up with some other cousins and visit with old friends that I haven't seen in years.
Brycen with my cousin, Johnny...what would that make them? I've never understood/or have tried to understand the cousin removed stuff. haha
Natalie and Evelyn! Natalie is my cousin and was also my roommate for my Freshman year at BYU. I got to met her daughter, Evelyn for the first time.
Brycen and I with my two best friends from High School, Jessica and Joanna. By picture time, Brycen was DONE and wanted to go to bed...I was caught mid-sentence of trying to comfort him.
On Monday, after the reunion, Brycen and I flew back to Indiana. Flying by myself with Brycen is always a bit harder but this time was especially hard because our flight was delayed...making us spend 6.5 hours in the airport that day...and the people that we sat in front of on the plane were boring and slept the entire way. Oh well, what can you do :) Flying still doesn't seem to bother Brycen though, so once we finally were able to board the plane and he realized that we weren't sitting around any good "toys", he (we) took a grand nap.
Lastly, after we put Brycen to bed, we went on a bike ride! Bryce has wanted to go on a bike ride for forever but we still haven't invested in a child's seat for Brycen so after he went to bed, we used our expensive baby monitor and went on a bike ride just around the neighborhood. By expensive baby monitor, I mean, we left my cell phone on speaker right by Brycen's crib so that it would pick up all the sound and then had it connected to Bryce's cell phone which was on mute (so we could hear Brycen but he couldn't hear us). Bryce then used a hands-free set so he could listen while we biked. If Brycen woke up, we could be home within a minute, but otherwise, we enjoyed the bike ride together. It was a perfect evening and I don't think I have been on a bike ride in about 8 years or so, I had forgotton how much I enjoyed them!
