This past weekend we traveled to our nation’s capital in order to meet the stipulations of our travel order: we had to present Eden to the Kenyan embassy and get proof from an embassy employee.

We left early Saturday morning so that Ben could watch the US World Cup game. We spent Saturday night in Pittsburgh and were able to be there to celebrate Ryan and Anna’s birthdays. Sunday afternoon we drove to Rockville, MD where we stayed the night. Monday morning we got up early and headed out in search of the Kenyan embassy.

It only took 2 1/2 hours to go 17 miles thanks to several wrong turns, wrong exits, wrong addresses and near crashes. When we finally arrived, we walked right in and were escorted to the board room where we met with the Third Secretary. He talked with us for a few minutes and then wrote a letter for us to take to the magistrate in Kenya.

After we left the embassy we decided it would be appropriately patriotic and educational to visit some of the highlights of DC. We walked the sleeping babies to the White House and then to lunch. We drove to the Washington Monument and walked down to the WWII Memorial and the reflecting pond. Given that it was about 99 degrees with 99% humidity we felt that we had seen enough and dragged our stinky, sweaty bodies back to the car for the drive home. We got back to Pittsburgh in time for dinner and then got up Tuesday morning and headed back to Indiana.

We spent about 20 hours in the car in order to spend 20 minutes at the embassy but it was a fun trip filled with laughter and we created some good memories. The kids were wonderful in the car and we were blessed with mostly good weather. We hope you enjoy the new pictures!