Brooke's Recruit Trip to Georgetown

It was a fun-filled weekend in DC!  

Brooke stayed in the dorms on campus with the XC team, ran with the girls everyday, 
enjoyed getting to know the program, the coach and the campus at Georgetown
and loved running the trails in the city.

We got to do all the things that we wanted to do like,

meet up with our dear friend, Trici,

go to dinner with Christy Johnson, our next door neighbor, who attends Georgetown,

shop on M Street, eat cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcake,

go on a tour of the Capitol, eat lunch at Cosi and visit one of the museums.

We packed a lot into three short days and then got out of town just in time

before the big storm hit the East Coast!

Brooke is trying to decide which flavor to order.

Holding the goodies from Georgetown Cupcake.

Brooke and her cupcakes!

When I was on the phone with John, from Jason Chaffetz's office,

 he mentioned another cupcake place that was even better than Georgetown Cupcake.

Of course, Brooke and I had to check it out.

So off to Baked and Wired we went!

Everything looked seriously delicious, the staff was super friendly 
(they threw in some biscotti samples that were amazing) and there was no line!
  Brooke and I were pretty impressed, but did the cupcakes taste as good as they looked?

After sampling cupcakes from bakery, we have to agree with John, 

Baked and Wired cupcakes were simply the best and their biscotti is pretty darn good too!

All we were missing that night was Ashley to complete the nextdoor neighbor besties!

We spent all evening visiting and chatting with Christy.  
It felt just like old times, when the three girls would come home from Ridgeview,
 and sit at the kitchen counter, eating chicken pot pies and root beer floats, 
discussing the important events of their school day.

How I miss those days and how we missed having Ashley there that night!

After a yummy dinner at Paparazzi restaurant.

The next day, we went to Congressman Jason Chaffetz's office for a tour of the Capitol.
Jason's office is right next door to Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford.

Because of the shooting in Tucson, the media was camping outside her office door.

It was a little eerie around Capitol Hill that day.
 Since session was postponed until Wednesday, most of the congressmen were not even around.

The halls of the Capitol were empty, so was the rotunda, and we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

Brooke, in front one of the statues from California, the Franciscan frier, Juniper Serra.

We were sad that we missed seeing Jason, who was still in Utah with his family.

But we were given a tour of his office and saw the infamous cot that he sleeps on every night.

I honestly don't know how he does it!

If you want to read more about Jason and his cot, read this New York Times article:
 House Members Opt to Sleep in their Office
Thanks Julie, for arranging the wonderful tour of the Capitol!

It started to snow as we finished the tour and walked outside to get pictures.

On the steps of the Capitol.

It was a very chilly but gorgeous walk to the Natural History museum.

It was an unusually quiet day and we had the museum practically all to ourselves.

Brooke found one of Chicka's relative.  Ha! Ha!

Then she found one of her relatives, the Black Bear.

After a tour of the Capitol, lunch at Cosi and visiting the Natural History museum,

it was time to hurry back to the airport, pack our bags and head for the airport.

The party was over!