CrabbyChilicheezhead News: The Lenharts, Mandels, & Ottens

I should probably follow that title up with OH MY!! The first weekend of December brought a house full of guests to the Lenhart house. We were so excited to host both Mom & Dad and Charlie & Linda for a long weekend. Plus Pastor & Gwen for meals and hanging out. It was SOOO much fun to see everyone and have our house filled with people. Each couple had their assigned bedroom and bathroom so I have to say it was a pretty smooth weekend-especially compared to the year of 9 people in our apartments or even 5 of us in our old house. :)
We started the weekend off with everyone coming in on Saturday. We had lunch and then the 6 of us headed down to the boat parade and dinner in Old Town Alexandria, VA. I think they enjoyed seeing it for the first time though it was a little disappointing compared to some years. Sunday found us going to early church and Dad even did the children's sermon! Then we came home for french toast casserole and turkey bacon wrapped whoppers. Don't ask! Rest of the afternoon was chilling, daddy do list, shopping, and football watching. Then Pastor and Gwen joined us for pizza, trivial pursuit, and more football. Monday Logan and I went to work while the Ottens and Mandels had an adventurous day downtown. After work we headed out for half price burgers at a local restaurant and then early to bed to be ready for the big day Tuesday.

White House tree

Tuesday morning at the crack of dawn we were all up and headed out to the Metro to meet up with Pastor & Gwen to be at the White House at 7:15am. We were disappointed to find that despite what we had been told cameras ARE allowed during the Christmas season. So we did the best we could with our phones. It was so neat to see all the decorations. It's pretty amazing how many there are. They are very pretty. Oh and we did see the dish room. No reenacting though. :( After the white house we headed to the Capital for our insider tour. That was neat and we even got to see the Senate Gallery during the opening of a session of congress with the Speaker of the House. Word of advice- sleeping is NOT allowed in the gallery! :) We did some more wandering and had lunch at Union Station before heading home for naps. Finished the day out with Pastor & Gwen coming back over and grilling out. Yes it was that nice out! Wednesday found a tired April & Logan heading to work and Mandels and Ottens heading home. So that was the latest slumber party weekend in a nutshell. Was a lot of fun and we can't wait to do it again. We're aiming for a Capital Dome tour next time! Enjoy some pictures of the weekend. Maybe more to come once I can get more from the others.