Cailin Came to Visit!

My mom's friend Cailin came to visit us!

If I look a little sick, it's because I decided to eat all of Cailin's vitamins and they made me feel bad.

I think my mom and Cailin had fun, but I DIDN'T!

Five Days!

The count down for how many days we have left in Washington has begun!  Only five more days until we're back in California!


After my mom went to Mount Vernon, our whole pack came and stayed with us!  We did all kinds of fun thing.

They went on a tour of Annapolis, but they didn't take the puppy!

Because they were on Segways!

They went to Georgetown Cupcake, from the TV show!

But they didn't get the puppy any cupcakes!

They saw the ruby slippers...

And the theater where President Lincoln died...

And the Newseum...

And the Pentagon...

Actually, come to think of it, they did all kinds of fun things without the poor puppy!  I think my family should be waiting at home with lots of treats for me.  They neglected me over Thanksgiving!

The End of Fall

 After going to Arlington, my mom wanted to make sure she made the most of the beautiful fall colors, so she went to the National Arboretum.

The Arboretum has a million gorgeous trees, including all 50 state trees!  Unfortunately, Mom didn't get there until the sun was starting to go down, so she didn't get to stay for very long.  She tried to take some pictures though.

The arboretum allows dogs, but my mom didn't think I would like the hour and a half metro and bus ride to get there.  I think she was right.  She looked really cold when she got home!

Another great place for my mom to enjoy the fall colors was Mount Vernon.  This was George Washington's estate in Virginia.

They even had a real blacksmith there working!

George Washington said that he had the best view ever.  My mom agreed.

She also visited his final resting place and the memorial that has been erected for the slaves who died working at Mount Vernon.

Both of these trips let my mom really enjoy the East Coast fall.  It was a good thing she did, because not too long after this, the rains came and knocked all the pretty leaves off the trees.

That's okay with me.  I like to walk through the leaves and crunch them.  Sometimes I even pick them up and carry them around.  It's fun!

I'm Back!

My amazing Uncle Ryan finally fixed my mom's computer!  I have so much to blog about!

My mom's been using her computer a lot for school work, so she won't let me write about it all at once.  I'll write a short post every day until I get everyone caught up on what we've been doing.

A few weeks ago, my mom went with her friend to Arlington National Cemetery.

From there, they could see a beautiful view of Washington, with all the fall colors at their peak.

They visited the final resting place of the assassinated President Kennedy

And his brothers Robert and Ted.

They also visited the memorial for the astronauts killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia.  Christa McAuliffe, after whom my mom's middle school was named, is on the right.

 They also watched the changing of the guard, at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

My mom and I are glad there are brave men and women who will protect our freedom and my mom was glad she got to visit them and honor their memory at Arlington.

A few days after she visited Arlington National Cemetery, my mom went to hear oral argument at the Supreme Court.

She had to get up at four in the morning and wait in line!  Here are her pictures of the sun coming up over the Capitol and the Supreme Court building.

Here is the line she waited in!  Looks like some Americans are willing to get up early for more than just Black Friday!

They case she heard was whether or not the FBI could put a GPS tracker on someone's car and use the information about their movement on public streets to convict them of a crime.  The Supreme Court hasn't decided the case yet.  My mom said that this was one of her favorite things she's done in DC!  I didn't like it because they don't allow puppies in the Supreme Court.  I think that's a violation of the Equal Protection Clause.

Mom's Computer

Hey all,


You've probably noticed that I haven't been posting lately.  My mom's computer is broken, so I can't get on until Uncle Ryan comes to visit in a week.

I'll do my best to update everyone after Thanksgiving.

XOXO Aurora

No More Park!

Sorry I've been so behind on posting.

I'm mad at my mom because she says we can't go to the park anymore.  She said that the time changed so she doesn't come home until after it's dark and we can't go to the park in the dark!  I think she is just being lazy and doesn't want to play with the puppy.

I'm at daycare today, so I get to play with my friends and I'm feeling a little better.  Maybe tonight I will post and update you all on what we've been doing since Halloween.  We've been busy!

Only one month and one day left of living in Washington!  I can't believe it!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone!  My mom said that I didn't have to wear a costume this year, but then she made me wear this stupid collar anyways.

Photochallenge Day Twenty Five: Close Up

I didn't like it very much, so I moped around for a little bit.  But it was better than a costume, so after my walk, I felt much better and didn't mind wearing it around the apartment, even though it has jingle bells on it.  Mom says that it makes her happy and puts her in a Halloween mood, even though she can't go out and celebrate tonight because she's studying for the MPRE.  She's not even wearing her Twister costume tonight!

Mom's also happy because she got to go on a tour of the State Department building today.

In the Diplomatic Reception Rooms, they have one of the biggest collections of American furniture from the eighteenth century.  On the tour, she got to see the desk where the Treaty of Paris was signed.  That's the treaty that made the United States an independent country.

She also go to see a whole bunch of things that Thomas Jefferson owned, like this desk.

This official seal of the United States would have been attached to a treaty signed some time in the 1800s, but a traveler found it in a flea market in Argentina!  Now it lives in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms

In the rooms, there is a ton of porcelain from China. She thought it was funny that all the people on the plates look Asian.  Even though the Chinese porcelain makers were commissioned to make scenes from American history, they had never seen a European!  The plate on the right depicts the Battle of Saratoga.  Neither side looks white and neither side is wearing the correct uniform!

United States Botanic Gardens

Today, my mom was supposed to go out to some pumpkin patches on a farm in Maryland.  But when she woke up, she called the farm and they said they were all closed up for the season because of the rain yesterday!

My mom was sad at first, but then she went to the farmers' market and took me to go play fetch in the park.  I got really muddy.  It was so much fun!

After we played fetch for a while, my mom decided to visit the United States Botanic Gardens.  It was a nice sunny day today, so she didn't want to be cooped up inside.  She didn't care that the puppy got cooped up!

Anyways, Mom took some pictures of the pretty plants she saw at the botanic gardens.

Did you know that the bird of paradise is the city flower for Los Angeles?

Photochallenge Day Twenty Five: Something Pink

She said that they had TONS of pretty orchids.

They even had some desert plants.  Mom felt like she was back in California!

Day Twenty Three: Sunflare

They even had a cool greenhouse where my mom could walk around and look at the canopy layer of a man made jungle!

Mom really enjoyed herself and she got another opportunity to look at some pretty fall leaves before it snows again and ruins them all.

She even saw some holly berries and started to get excited for Christmas!  I'm excited too.  Last year, I got a whole pack of new balls on Christmas!

This is the "romantic" section of the garden.  Mom didn't stop because she was by herself.  She should have taken me!