The City of Brotherly Love

Last week, I took this cute boy to Philadelphia and Washington D.C. for his birthday:

Five years ago, I brought Philly to him, and thought I'd surprise him with a visit this year. It was a great trip. Long flights, an expensive drive to DC (a million dollars in tolls!), lots and lots of sightseeing, and a really fun time with friends. People always make the trip, right? We stayed with my mom's college roommate, Lori, and her family in DC. They were wonderful hosts and took us all around the city. We started off with a private tour of the U.S. Capitol:

So official:

Ok, I know my eyes are closed. But this is the balcony where the presidents give speeches, so I had to document. Also, it was seriously a hurricane, even though it looks so calm in the photo. Rain was hitting us sideways. 

Andrew with Lori's boys in the Capitol. They were such fun, outgoing, impressive boys and we really enjoyed them. Andrew had a great time with them. 

And this is what they did every night - Andrew loves hot tubs so they had a blast playing games and splashing in there. 

After the Capitol, we went to the Library of Congress, which is in an amazing building. 

Ford's Theater, where poor President Lincoln was shot:

I'm pretty sure the sign is self-explanatory:

This baby girl was an angel on the trip. She spent lots of time in her carseat, stayed up late, and was dragged all over the East Coast, but was still so happy. 

Our first day in DC was so, so wet. We did lots of drive-by touring and even saw a little snow that night, when a cold front came in. PS - look how cute Lori's son Landon is holding the umbrella over London's stroller. Her boys were so sweet to London and very helpful with her and transporting her stroller around. 

On our second DC day, we visited the Air and Space Smithsonian Museum and saw the amazing Hubble 3D movie:

Even London got in on the action:

We thought of Ty the whole time while looking at these airplanes:

It was a beautiful, sunny day, but it was pretty cold. The nice thing about traveling with friends is that you get pictures together. None of this one-person picture business. 

With Lori and her youngest son Presley. They are such fun people.

This is how Andrew wanted to take a picture in front of the Washington Monument. I protested.

Jefferson Memorial:

The Cherry Blossoms blossomed on Saturday. We were there Monday. There were a few straggly blossom trees left behind. Who knew they disappeared that quickly?

Love.

Lincoln Memorial, Andrew's favorite.

National Archives, my favorite. I'd been to DC before, but not here. I really enjoyed seeing the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. 

We saw this sign a few days later in English in Philly.

Andrew, reenacting Nicholas Cage running from this building in National Treasure. Check out his face:

Arlington Memorial, with Robert E. Lee's house above. Who knew that was there?

Such an amazing place. 

After a few days of fun in DC, we said goodbye to Lori and her family, and headed up to Philadelphia, where Andrew served his two-year Church mission. We stopped in Wilmington, Delaware on the way, to see where Andrew lived for part of it:

This picture makes it look nice. It was a really sketchy area. Then we continued on:

In Philly, we were able to stay with my college roommate and good friend, Kylie:

We first went to Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were signed. So cool to see the place and the documents. 

I'm a big U.S. history fan, so I was eating all of this up. Philly was a new city for me and I really enjoyed doing a little sightseeing there. We saw the Liberty Bell through the window and decided to skip the long line to go inside. I can say I saw it, right?

We went over to "where Ben Franklin's house once stood," which of course had a museum and gift shop. We took a picture here because Andrew had one in this same spot from his mission:

Can you get enough of her?

We also did the tour of Betsy Ross's house, who made the first US flag (and in this very place). It was a tiny little place, and I barely breezed through before it closed. It was a bit of a disaster nursing London, getting spit up on all over, having her blowout her outfit and changing her outside of this place, while taking turns going in. BUT we saw it. And George Washington came here to ask her to make the flag...bonus. 

On our way back to Kylie's, we drove past the construction site for the new LDS Philadelphia Temple. 

And then picked up some Rita's custard...delicious. I'm not sure why custard hasn't taken off in California?

Andrew loves Wawa, a gas-station/ little convenience store with a surprisingly large array of food. 

And apparently Tastykakes are a big deal there? They're a Little Debbie-type brand.

The next day, we hit Andrew's mission sites hard. It was fun to visit Philly because I didn't make any of the plans. We had a car and GPS (ok, phones) and I told him we could go wherever he'd like (as long as it was safe enough for a three-month old). We visited the old mission office:

And then the new mission office, where we visited with a few of the current missionaries. Andrew was so excited to hear that they still use Mission Stats, the computer program he developed as a missionary to track all of the mission information, six years after he left. What an impact he had!

Then, we headed into the ghetto of Philly. I was really surprised and humbled to see the areas Andrew served in. This was one of the church buildings Andrew attended on his mission:

Some of the areas he served in (he says he has knocked on every one of these doors many times):

We were also able to visit a few of the families he baptized on his mission. 

They just loved Andrew and had such great things to say about him. 

This family was so sweet. The mom told me, "I just love Elder Toolson. He saved my family." 

It brought tears to my eyes to realize how much he helped these people. He essentially put his life on hold for two years to serve the people of Philadelphia and teach them about Jesus Christ, and it was definitely worth it. 

We ended the day with cheesesteaks (When in Rome!). We tried the famous Geno's and Pat's steaks - two places that are across the street from each other. Geno's won in Andrew's book. 

Hold the meat for me:

We had a lot of fun eating steaks and visiting with Kylie and Ricardo:

And we had to get another Rita's custard, for good measure. We sent this picture to Lindsey to give her FOMO. She loves this place and has told me about it for years. Missed you there Linds! 

A perfect Philadelphia evening. Baseball, with cheesesteak shops and the city in the background. 

Kylie's son Russell was darling and was loving on London here:

On our last day, we made a few stops in the city with Kylie and Ricardo before heading to the airport. How handsome is this man? 

My favorite part of the trip was spending so much time with him. Work's been so busy for him this year, and I loved having a full week with him to myself. It was great.

Philadelphia City Hall:

LOVE Park:

The Masonic Temple Andrew toured while on his mission:

We ended our visit with Reading Market, which had lots of amazing food. We picked up some lunch and headed to the airport from here.

This girl was my little champ on the way home and slept in my arms on both flights. 

And we were so happy to come home and see this cute boy:

He stayed with his grandparents Grande and D and had a fabulous vacation as well. He played in their big backyard and went on a ride at the mall:

I was so happy to see him!

All in all, it was a great trip and so amazing to see Andrew back in Philadelphia. Happy happy birthday.