G's birthday in DC

We decided to go on a little adventure as a family of 3 on Grant's birthday weekend. We flew out of Columbia on Friday, June 20th in the late afternoon to get to DC in time for dinner (we went to Scion directly across from our hotel and it was awesome). Piper did great on her first flight and traveling with her was not nearly as cumbersome as I had expected. She slept the majority of the hour long flight and it was so nice to have her sleep in my arms. She has now gotten to the point that when she is tired she just wants me to put her down in her crib so she doesn't snuggle much so when she does, I soak it all up!

We stayed at the Palomar Hotel in Washington DC (near Dupont Circle). It was a great hotel and they had a perfect room for us. We got the spa suite with a pack n play so that we had 2 separate rooms and Piper slept great in her room. She even slept until 9:00am on Sunday morning!! 

We had a scheduled tour of the US Capitol with one of Mark Sanford's staff at 11:00am on Saturday. Grant worked for Sanford for 7 years while he was the SC Governor so we thought we'd take advantage of that connection. We had a great tour and even got to see the 'behind the scenes' tunnels and offices. Piper slept the entire tour and made it very enjoyable for us. 

We 'lost' this outfit to an unfortunate diaper situation. It just so happens that Grant said he would change her, but had no idea what he was getting himself into. I would have kept the outfit and dealt with it later, Grant said he'd buy her a new outfit and left it in the trash of the bathroom. It was worth the laughs anyway. We took 'selfies' while waiting on Daddy to finish cleaning up.

We walked to the Washington Monument and the White House and found a rooftop bar (POV at the W Hotel) that overlooks both. We enjoyed playing with our sweet girl over a glass of bubbly. We tried to get her out of her seat as much as possible and we had another issue here. This time I had her and next thing I knew she had pooped all over my white shorts. It was quickly time to get back to the hotel to get ready for dinner! (and time to go to size 2 diapers)

Grant and I decided we were craving Mexican and we wanted to be able to walk so we did some research and found Lauriol Plaza. We were able to sit outside and the food was more than I could even look at. Piper did great for us again. We were all exhausted after a long day.

We didn't fly out on Sunday until 7:00pm so we decided to go cheer on the Atlanta Braves baseball team since they were playing the Washington Nationals. We took the subway down to the ballpark and found great tickets for a steal. We weren't there too long as we didn't get there until the 2nd inning and left around the 7th inning, but it was a great experience. The Braves lost, but it wasn't because we didn't cheer.

We watched the US Men's soccer team in the World Cup from the airport. It was so crowded around all of the TVs and it was fun to see the energy of everyone. We should have won, but ended up tying with Portugal on a goal in literally the last seconds of the game. Our flight home wasn't as smooth with Piper as she cried quite a bit. But bless her heart, I think she was as exhausted as Momma and Daddy! It was nice to fly direct in and out of Columbia so there wasn't much hassle. 

This will be a trip that I will always remember. It was an adventure with no expectations since we didn't know what to expect from a 4 month old. Every moment of the trip was awesome and it was a much needed trip for our little family of 3. I love spending quality time with these people!! We love you, Pi! Thanks for being so good to us! As your Daddy often says, 'She's a good one'!