T and S

32

2012-01-23T20:33:00.000-05:00

People, we are rapidly approaching the three year mark. Strange! It feels like we have been married forever (in a good way) and only a few months at the same time (also in a good way)! Of course the proper way to celebrate 32 months is with ...more photos of us! These are still from the set taken at the Los Angeles Temple by T's friend.

This one was a strong contender for our wedding announcement.

I'm freaked out because I just realized what I am getting into while T is smiling because he already knew what I was getting into. (I'm JOKING!)

Of course more to come next month. I guess you might think that we are quite vain with all the photos I post of us. We're not. I just post these photos because they remind me of how much I love T. And that is definitely the thing I think about most everyday. And I think that that love deserves a bit of a celebration. Thus, the photos.

J's visit

2012-01-15T21:50:00.000-05:00

T's brother J came to visit us for a bit two days after Christmas. Here's a bunch (and I mean a BUNCH) of photos of a bunch of things we did. Well, he did stuff without us, too, but obviously we don't have any pictures of those things!

Udvar Hazy Air and Space Museum

Marine / Iwo Jima Monument

Jefferson Monument

At Arlington National Cemetery (If you know what to look for in this photo you can see the Lincoln, Jefferson, and Washington Monuments and the Capitol)

J with Lincoln at Gettysburg

National Cemetery at Gettysburg

Virginia's Monument at Gettysburg

With Lee at Virginia's Monument and Buford at Little Round Top

Little Round Top

Part of the WWII Memorial (J is under the Philippines column)

Washington Monument

Me and T at our favorite monument (D.C. WWI)

The Lincoln Monument - Don't be alarmed. That is not a fire. It is merely clouds.

See. Just clouds.

The National Cathedral

The National Zoo

With a panda! With a tiger! That tiger was pacing back and forth and SO ready to eat some child if they fell in.

The USS Barry Destroyer

The National Archives (where you can see the original Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights). Yes, it warmed up that day.

About five hours before we had to wake up to get J to his flight.

I think it was a pretty fabulous trip.

5:30 p.m. in D.C.

2012-01-12T22:55:00.002-05:00

I took this iPhone picture on my way to the Kennedy Center with T's brother. Gorgeous. Just Gorgeous.

This one isn't sunset (obviously) and was taken the next day about the same time, just facing south instead of west. It gets dark fast, yo! Anyway, the contrast of the blues that night was amazing. It was a lot more impressive in person. This iPhone photo through the car window really doesn't do it justice.

Those are STARS you can see! We never saw stars in SoCal.

How can people not believe in God when they see things like this?

2012-01-03T21:52:00.000-05:00

In September I noticed that a few of my friends had joined an event on facebook called Reading the Book of Mormon. The event came with a suggested reading schedule starting September 1 and ending December 31. For some reason, I really latched onto the event. T and I read the whole Book of Mormon together between September 1 and December 31.

I know it's not that big of a deal because that works out to only like 4 pages a day or something. As much as I love to read I've never been good at reading the scriptures, even though growing up my family read them everyday. I think it's because I really love reading for pleasure, so when I read I expect to be entertained and I think we all know that the scriptures aren't really about entertainment. Reading the Book of Mormon in such a (relatively) short time frame really helped me keep better track of what was going on and helped keep my attention better. I was rather impressed with us for reading consistently. The last night we didn't even have to read any extra to finish.

Reading the Book of Mormon together has definitely been good for us. We have a scripture goal for this year, too. So slowly we're working on getting better with the scripture thing. Hopefully by the time we're 60, it will be totally ingrained in our lives. Maybe by then I can get T to like tomatoes, too. Maybe sooner. For the scriptures and the tomatoes.

A fun side note: Reading the scriptures makes me yawn like crazy regardless of what time of day we are

reading! Like two yawns per column the whole time we read!

Another side note, this one isn't fun, it's just regular: For most of December I couldn't read aloud because talking = coughing. So to keep on schedule T would read one chapter aloud then we would read silently side by side.

Christmas

2011-12-31T20:19:00.002-05:00

I love me some Christmas but this year December has been kinda wonky. I have been sick literally the entire month with a terrible cough. Like coughing so hard I thought I would actually puke. Like coughing so long I couldn't catch my breath and would almost pass out. Like coughing so often I could only sleep in about 15 minute increments if at all. I finally went to see the doctor a few days before Christmas because my ribs were hurting every time I took a breath. Turns out I have bronchitis and I bruised / hairline fractured a few ribs from coughing so hard and so often. Awesome. The good news is that the antibiotics are working and hopefully in another week everything will be completely over.

Even though December wasn't quite normal, we did do some Christmas-y stuff. We missed a bunch of stuff I wanted to do, but there is always next year. I know you're just here for the photos so here they are.

Our lit up but undecorated tree. Don't worry, we did decorate it.

In SoCal our neighborhood had a Christmas Eve parade. In D.C. they also have a parade of sorts. It's just that this one takes place down the Potomac River with decorated boats. It was really cool, even though the pictures are not so great. It's hard to take photos at night of something that is lit up AND moving!

Santa fishing (the fish wasn't lit up right then), a lighthouse, a wreath on a mast, a turtle (with moving legs!), and an American flag. The rest of the photos were too blurry to post. I think we'll do this again next year.

We went to see the National Tree on the Ellipse in front of the White House. It was definitely not what we were expecting.

It's not that tall and it's kinda shaped funny. It's because it is a living tree planted in the late 70's. So yay for being green, but not so yay on the impressive scale.

Around the National Christmas tree there are smaller Christmas trees representing each state / territory (this one is Iowa's). Towards the back is Santa's Workshop. You walk past the White House to get to everything.

We went to the Festival of Lights, which is the D.C. temple's version of Temple Square. It was really awesome.

We saw a Christmas concert at the Visitor's Center and then the nativity exhibit (about 100 different nativity sets from around the world). This one was my favorite because it looks kinda like a carousel.

I was really digging these purple trees.

This Christmas tree in the Visitor's Center was decorated by our stake. Not that I had anything to do with it, but you know, reflected glory and whatnot.

This is the tree at the National Harbor. Much better than the White House National tree.

Plus, this tree's lights were choreographed to change color and pattern with the music.

This tree is at the National Patent Trademark Office. I was a big fan. This is what I expected the National Tree at the White House to look like.

We drove past the Capitol's tree downtown and it looked better than the White House tree, but not as good as the National Harbor tree. All the Christmas trees in D.C. totally pale in comparison to the tree at Rockefeller Plaza.

This is me in front of the Rockefeller tree in January 2009. Shortly after this photo was taken we saw a guy propose to his girlfriend in the middle of the ice rink! Sweet! It made me tear up probably because I had just gotten engaged a week earlier!

Anyway, the Rockefeller tree really is the best Christmas tree in the country!

Where's the snow, yo?

2011-12-17T22:02:00.000-05:00

Two Novembers ago T flew to D.C. for work and there was snow. Last December when T flew to D.C. for his interview there was snow. And this December, when I was SO looking forward to a white Christmas, there is no snow. Where's the snow, yo?! Is Wyoming hoarding it again?! Give it up to the rest of us already!

A Masquerade Christmas Cocktail Party

2011-12-09T14:01:00.001-05:00

Two nights ago T's work threw a Christmas party for their employees. It was masquerade themed and we received masks with our invitation and were instructed to wear them (the masks, not the invitation). Everyone was excited because the previous two Christmas parties had been at a BBQ joint and a sandwich shop. Apparently this was a good year for T's work.

So what do you wear to a Christmas masquerade cocktail party? It was easy for T: a suit and tie. Me... not so easy. Cocktail attire usually = knee length dress. And I do have a really nice little black dress that would have worked. But it's kinda sedate for a masquerade Christmas combo. So I went shopping. Duh.

I was looking for a bib necklace (like this) to sparkle up my black dress or a new dress and ended up with a new dress. It's long but I think the metalic-ness of the dress made it okay for a cocktail party.

The eye holes in the masks were way off and were totally cutting into our eyeballs. But they looked and felt mostly okay after we took a box cutter to them. So... here we are!

Some people really went all out with the masks and wore really nice / expensive ones. We just wore the plain ones that came with the invite which was probably good because after the first hour, everyone took their masks off. It was just too hot. Plus, I think most of us like having our peripheral vision.

My hair was very much not cooperating, hence the braid. This lovely iPhone photo brought to you by one of T's buzzed co-workers. Check out how wet T is! It was pouring on our way in.

The restaurant was sort of Moulin Rouge themed. EVERYTHING was red velvet and gold and crystal. I'm going to do a terrible job of explaining this, but there was also a glassed in stage that had dancers about every 15 minutes. I'm sure the dancers were meant to accent the Moulin Rouge feel, but the dancers weren't good and it was just weird choreography. I think they were mostly ignored because everyone else was too busy taking advantage of the open bar.

We ended up staying an hour later than we expected because we wanted to see if T won the guessing game that had a $1,000 cash prize (he didn't). We left around 10:45, but apparently the party went on all night. After the official party ended at 11 they went to karaoke. Then a diner. Then to Adams Morgan (a major night life area in D.C.). So the after parties went until about 3 a.m. and everyone was late and hung over at work the next day. So glad we are not partiers / drinkers. We are not missing out on anything.

This is after we got home.

This dress is SUPER comfy. I'm totally going to wear it to church this week. I bet the nursery kids will love it. You know, if they even ever notice what I wear. Actually sometimes they do. I wore my blue tights a few weeks ago and our favorite little red-headed girl told me that she liked them.

Sick

2011-12-02T12:27:00.001-05:00

So, bloggy, I'm sick. T had it last week and now it's my turn. Boooo. It's not the flu, just a sore throat and stuffy head. Anyway, my voice is all screwed up and it hurts to swallow. I'm such a wimp. I haven't been sick in a long time and I totally forgot how terrible being sick is. It's terrible!

Yet another Sara Bareilles song

2011-11-25T21:45:00.001-05:00

A while back my friend A posted this music video by Sara Bareilles on facebook. I liked it and then didn't think of it again. On Tuesday I heard the song playing overhead in a store. At first I couldn't remember how I vaguely knew this song. I figured it out and came home and listened to it four times in a row.

This one is called "Gonna Get Over You."

I like her songs (and her look!) but I have heard that she has a mouth like a sailor (though not in any of the songs I have posted). And I really hate it when people swear. So I'm not sure how much I want to like her.

Other Sara Bareilles songs I have posted about: Uncharted and King of Anything.

30 months

2011-11-23T20:20:00.001-05:00

As promised (threatened?) here are s'more of our engagement photos in honor of our big 3-0. Or is it our second anniversary of 29?...

Umm... this is where things get not so pretty. But my hair looks pretty! Seriously, though. There are about 11 photos in a row in this position where I am talking or making weird faces or blinking.

This one looks okay, though.

I'm confused here. "Where's the cake? I was told there would be cake. What do you mean that part isn't until the actual wedding?!"

Notice I'm not wearing my engagement ring? We took it to be sized the day before (I told T that I thought I wore a size six ring, but it turns out I wear size four and a quarter!) and didn't have it back yet. But that was just fine with me because I hate those engagement photos where the girl has her hand resting on the guy's arm to show off her ring. Super tacky.

I love these white flowers. Anybody know what they are called?

Definitely not a flattering photo of us, but my hair looks so long and lovely here that I couldn't resist. Also, what am I doing with my hands?! Scary!

If I could wink, this is where I would do it. As always, more to come next month.

Shenandoah

2011-11-04T23:12:00.000-04:00

At my Aunt J's suggestion, T and I took a leisurely drive through part of Shenandoah National Park two weekends ago. Well, technically she suggested Blue Ridge Parkway. And that was the plan, but we kept stopping so we never quite got to Blue Ridge, but I imagine the scenery is incredibly similar. Oh, this is another place that we had no idea is only two hours from D.C.!

You will definitely want to bring some snacks / a picnic. The closest town to Shenandoah National Park has next to zero food offerings and the stops in the National Park for food are very crowded.

The first half of our outing was pretty cold. Like "it's 44 degrees outside and we are only wearing light jackets" cold.

Also, I don't know what I did to the camera settings to make these two photos look all grainy...

We pulled over at almost every outlook.

Seriously, some good views from the tops of the Shenandoah Mountains.

We hiked Stony Man trail. We were going to do Little Stony Man, which is supposed to be really easy, but decided to do Stony Man. It wasn't that hard at all. It was only 1.6 miles round trip. It was still cold and all I had was that light jacket so I wrapped the fleece blanket we keep in the car around me as we started out. About halfway up the sun came out and significantly warmed us up (okay, also the hiking warmed us up). This is the view from the top. Don't fall, T!

Sometimes looking out toward the horizon the land looked so blue that it really did look like the ocean.

Seriously, the colors were gorgeous.

T rocking the self-photo.

I stopped on the trail back down to take this photo looking straight up. I think it is my favorite photo of the day.

The sun made it warmer, but it was still cold because of the wind. Check out my hair!

Getting out and wandering about provided us with some great views, but even just driving was lovely.

So, Shenandoah = a BIG yes to visit in the fall. The colors in our neighborhood have been quite lovely lately, too. Go fall!!!

Throw Out 50 Things

2011-10-30T20:21:00.001-04:00

I recently read "Throw Out Fifty Things: Clear the Clutter, Find Your Life" by Gail Blanke and really enjoyed it (really, it's good stuff - read the first pages from link!). I'm not saying that this book helped me find my life, but it definitely helped me toss a bunch of stuff out. My goal is that each time we move we have fewer boxes of "stuff."

I really like the author's "Rules of Dis-engagement" for throwing things out. If it (the shoes, photo, book, etc) weighs you down, makes you feel bad about yourself, just takes up space, or is not contributing anything positive, out it goes. It doesn't matter if it is expensive or if someone important gave it to you or if it is still functional, just throw it out. If you can't decide if you want to keep it or toss it, then toss it.

Throwing out 50 things is harder than you think because 5 pairs of shoes = 1 item. 20 old magazines = 1 item. It took me just over a month to finish this book, mostly because I didn't read the next chapter until I had finished throwing out stuff from the previous chapter (this is definitely the way to read this book). I was not so much into this book toward the end when it started talking about clearing the mental clutter because I wanted to get rid of stuff NOW and mental clutter takes a while.

Keeping track of what / how many things I tossed really motivated me to toss out more (for the record I didn't toss anything that belongs to T). So here's my list of things I tossed or donated to Goodwill.

1	5 pairs of shoes	25	7 books
2	4 pairs of pants / shorts / capris	26	5 textbooks
3	2 belts	27	1 jacket
4	4 bags	28	3 pillows
5	6 tank tops	29	1 dress and veil
6	5 bracelets	30	3 bowls
7	1 watch	31	1 combination lock
8	1 shrug	32	17 dead pens
9	1 bra	33	old school papers
10	9 shirts	34	photos
11	3 cooking items	35	paint samples
12	1 set of curlers	36	craft paper scraps
13	1 mascara	37	3 craft supplies
14	1 make-up brush	38	fabric scraps
15	18 hair ties	39	old ideas about who I wanted to be career wise
16	2 eyeshadow sets	40	old records (bank and car)
17	2 hair products	41	12 magazines
18	1 lotion	42	2 plaque awards
19	7 make-up samples	43	2 games
20	1 body spray	44	the fear that I peaked in high school
21	1 giant water bottle	45	letting one thing ruin my day
22	twisties and rubberbands	46	high need for security
23	ugly green RIT dye	47	comparisons to others my age
24	1 serving dish

I didn't quite make 50 things, but 47 (with 114 individual items!) isn't too shabby. Getting rid of stuff is such a good feeling!

Anybody else doing a purge? What are you getting rid of?

Gettysburg

2011-10-28T12:20:00.003-04:00

Just to be upfront, this is a very long post.

A few Saturdays ago T and I visited Gettysburg. It's only about two hours away from D.C.! How did we not know this sooner?! If you visit D.C. for four or more days, definitely take a day (really, it will take all day) to visit Gettysburg. It's worth it. If you're really into Civil War stuff, plan on two days in Gettysburg.

Our drive to Gettysburg started out very foggy. That should be the Potomac River 15 feet directly behind me, but it was so foggy you couldn't see it!

We started our visit by stopping at the Visitor's Center. We skipped the cyclorama painting, the film, and the museum mostly because they all cost money and those things together take two hours and our visit lasted all day as it was!

T with Lincoln. (Our guidebook came with augmented reality content for iPhones. Basically you download an app then if you act like you are going to take a photo of a certain site, a historical figure associated with that site comes into frame and you can resize and move them to appear in your photo.)

I didn't realize how huge area wise the Battle of Gettysburg was (about 25 square miles!). Considering how big the area is there are several different touring options. You can get a free map at the visitors center and follow the auto tour route, buy tickets for a bus tour with narration, buy any number of CD audio tours, or hire a licensed battlefield guide who will drive your car for a two hour tour.

T and I chose to buy an audio tour (Gettysburg Field Guide second edition narrated by Wayne Motts put out by TravelBrains) because it seemed to be the best combination of information, flexibility, and affordability. The audio tour we bought has a lot of human interest type stories in addition to facts and mostly follows the auto tour route. The CD tells you when to listen; sometimes while you are driving to the next location and sometimes while you are parked at a location. The CD came with a guide book that has battle maps that were pretty helpful because there was a lot going on in the Battle of Gettysburg. The guide book has almost everything word for word as the CD (deaf people like history, too!). If you're going to visit let us know and we'll loan you our CD and guide book!

The leaves were starting to turn in Gettysburg!

If we visited again with more than just the two of us I think we would hire the guide. It's strange that the guide drives your car but it makes sense because they know where everything is. Anyway, at several places we overheard the licensed guides talking and they were fantastically knowledgeable and friendly.

Before we left the visitor's center we picked up a list of free guided tours and times. Since our audio tour doesn't cover the Soldier's Cemetery, we planned to go on that free tour (about 45 minutes long) in the middle of the day.

This was at our first stop, McPherson Ridge. Don't worry, I didn't really know any of the specifics of the Battle of Gettysburg before this and it is still very confusing to try to keep everything straight. To make things even more confusing, there are monuments and memorial plaques literally every 50 feet. If you stopped at every monument or plaque, it would take days. This is a pretty typical looking monument.

Here's the up close.

And even closer up close because the numbers blow my mind. The 1st Brigade started with 21 officers and 445 men. Total they lost 15 officers and 322 men. That's 75 percent. Gettysburg is a very sobering place.

After our first stop we zipped over to the Soldier's Cemetery for the tour. As always, the National Park Rangers are excellent tour givers. I highly recommend taking one of the tours. The Cemetery was supposed to be for Union soldiers only, but a couple of Johnny Rebs ended up in it by accident. The gravestones are arranged in big arcs. The arcs are arranged by state and regiment and each gravestone has as much information is known about each soldier. Some are blank, some just have a regiment number, some just have ranks, and some have names.

This cemetery is where President Lincoln gave the Gettysburg address. There is a monument to that speech in the cemetery. It's the only monument in the world dedicated to a speech.

This is a memorial for the 1st Minnesota. The 262 men of the 1st Minnesota rushed 1,700 Alabama soldiers on Cemetery Ridge. Within 15 minutes 82 percent of the regiment was killed, wounded, or captured. Their charge gave just enough time to rush reinforcements in and hold the Union line.

The quotes on either side of the monument "All time is the millennium of their glory" and "These dead shall not have died in vain."

The Gettysburg countryside is so picturesque.

T with one of the cannons at the Eternal Light Peace Memorial. The Memorial was dedicated in 1938 by FDR on the 75th anniversary of the battle. About 1,800 Civil War Veterans were present that day, all in their 90's. Pretty sure this is where they got the idea for the eternal flame for JFK.

Gettysburg is lovely country. This is the McClean house and barn.

The North Carolina Memorial. You can see the wounded officer pointing the way, the color bearer in the back, a battlefield rookie, an old veteran saying words of encouragement into the ear of the rookie, and a battle hardened soldier leading the way. (That's a description we overheard one of the the licensed field guides giving, otherwise I would have no clue.)

Virginia's Memorial with General Lee and his horse Traveler on top. It's really strange for me to think of Virginia as being a southern state.

With General Lee in front of the Virginia monument.

Louisiana Memorial. I really had no idea what was going on here, but it's kind of out there so it fits Louisiana. Later I read in the guide book that there is a fallen artilleryman and the "Spirit of the Confederacy" is rising over him.

Gettysburg is just so lovely in the fall time.

On Little Round Top looking over the Slaughter Pen towards Devil's Den. Little Round Top is where 350 men of the 20th Maine held off two regiments from Alabama. If the 20th Maine had lost Little Round Top, most historians agree that the Union would have lost the Battle of Gettysburg.

At the bottom of Little Round Top with Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, leader of the 20th Maine.

With Lee at Devil's Den. Before they charged the hill, Confederate sharpshooters hid behind these boulders firing at Union soldiers on Little Round Top. The area between Devil's Den and Little Round Top is known as The Slaughter Pen for obvious reasons. This location was supposed to have a sharpshooter show up, but Lee did instead. So I took another photo with Lee.

The Pennsylvania Memorial. These bronze tablets go around the entire monument and hold the names of every Pennsylvania soldier who fought at Gettysburg.

T looking good at the top of the Pennsylvania Memorial.

How wonderful is it that the men of Pennsylvania wanted to honor the women? Pretty wonderful.

I think it is interesting that in the North the Civil War was often referred to as "The War of the Rebellion" and in the South it was often called "The War of Northern Aggression."

This is a New York monument. If you see a monument that is bigger or unusual looking, odds are that it is a New York monument. I think they have more monuments than any other state.

The one mile field that the Confederates ran through during Pickett's Charge. They were trying to reach the stone wall in the foreground. And they did for just a moment before they were pushed into retreat by Union forces, ending the Battle of Gettysburg.

Gettysburg is wonderful and sad. It is full of amazing stories of brave soldiers on both sides and a heavy reminder of the price of war.

If you visit (and really, you SHOULD visit), don't go in summer - it will be sweltering hot and you do get out of the car quite often to check out memorials and read plaques. Start by visiting the visitor's center when it opens and picking up the list of free guided tours at the info desk. Then take the audio tour (stopping at whatever point to go to the cemetery tour then get back on track with the audio tour). T and I ate in town, but it was kind of a hassle because none of the tour stops are in town and parking in town is hard to find, even in the fall. I would bring a picnic and eat it at one of the stops (we saw a ton of people doing this and wished we had planned ahead).

Gettysburg is one of the places I really want to visit again.

29 Months

2011-10-23T20:54:00.000-04:00

You thought just because I was out of wedding photos that this series would end?! Ha! We are still married, so on the series goes. I thought that I would share a bunch of our engagement photos. I'm pretty sure that the only engagement photo anyone has seen of us is the one we included on our wedding announcement. And I really loved our engagement photos. So here you go.

These photos are from Valentine's weekend 2009. When I left Utah it was snowing. But L.A. gave us a perfectly gorgeous 75 degrees, clear blue (not smoggy!) sunny day. One of T's awesome film school buddies took these for us. All of the photos were taken on the Los Angeles Temple's grounds.

Awww... we are so cute! This was like the third photo of the day and it is one of my favorites.

We're so casual because we get our pictures taken all the time.

One of maybe three shots where you can sort of see my shoes. They were ivory with a rose design.

This is our "blue steel" look. Also, I think this is the best my arms have ever looked in a photo.

One more shoe shot.

Eeek! We're getting married!

I'm pretty sure the weather was just SoCal trying to get on my nice side.

"Hey. Guess what. I have a secret."

(whispering) "We have so many engagement photos that these posts will go on forever. Forever."

See you next month!

People Skills

2011-10-20T16:02:00.002-04:00

A while ago I was using self check out at the library and one of my books wouldn't check out. A library worker asked if I needed help. His voice startled me. Not in a scared way, but more of an in awe kind of way. It's not that I wasn't expecting his voice - I was. It's just that his voice was so gentle. I've heard soft / shy / friendly / patient voices, but this was the first time I've actually heard gentle. His voice immediately made me feel at ease. First time that has ever happened to me. I really think that is what Jesus' voice sounds like.

People people: they blow my mind.

Another people person I know is Bishop Schwab - my bishop from Salt Lake. He brings out the best version of everyone. I feel like I am the smartest, prettiest, funniest, most interesting person in the world when I'm talking with him. Some people really do have gifts and really are people people even if I am not. And because they are people people, for just a minute when I am with them I am too.

Do you know anyone like that?

Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown and family

2011-10-13T23:33:00.001-04:00

T has an aunt who lives about three hours south of us. T's grandparents flew out to see said aunt and said aunt thought it would be fabulous if T and I came down for a day at the same time. So we did. And she was right, it was fabulous. And not just because I got to watch football on TV for the first time in over a year.

We all visited Colonial Williamsburg. Yes, that is the place where everyone dresses and acts like they are in colonial times. Colonial Williamsburg is definitely a pedestrian town. In the historical areas there are no cars or bikes. So we moseyed. The weather was WONDERFUL and it was quite a lovely time.

Most of the historic homes / businesses / gardens require a ticket for admission. We didn't get tickets (because they are $38 for one day for one adult! though that one ticket does get you into everything) but it didn't bother us because once you've seen one historic home / business / garden you've seen them all! Okay, not exactly, but kind of, yeah.

An old time-y looking man and his oxen in front of some sort of historic building.

The architecture is pretty impressive. This is in front of the Governor's Mansion. Please note that the statues on top of the gate are UNICORNS! Awesome!

Also impressive are the period actors. They really do speak that way. We walked past a group of young ladies and overheard their conversation all in old english talking about needlepoint and such. One of them asked if we needed a laundress. Fun! Also fun was Grandpa Stig stopping to have a conversation with one of the actors. In case you don't know, Grandpa Stig talks to everyone about anything and can go on for quite sometime.

We were too far away to hear the conversation, but we think eventually the actor made some old english excuse to get away from Stig. Ha ha!

The stocks were pretty fun, but not realistic. I mean, where are the masses to shun us and toss things at us?

All of the places you need a ticket to visit are marked with the British flag (you know, from before the colonies rebelled). Coincidentally, T was wearing his England shirt that day.

There are things to do if you don't buy tickets in Colonial Williamsburg. There's lots of walking about to do, demonstrations of many old time-y skills, lots of gift shops, and the little fife and drum drill practice (which we missed). There are also things to do in the non-historic areas of Colonial Williamsburg. The vibe and shop type in the non-historic areas kind of reminded me of Park City, Utah. We bought a guitar Christmas ornament at one of the little shops. Neither one of us plays the guitar, but the ornament looked pretty cool and it was only $6 so we bought it. Yay Christmas! Only 72 more days!

Since Jamestown is literally only 15 minutes away we stopped by there, too. From what I understand admission is usually $15 per person, but because it was a Saturday it was free. It's pretty crazy to think how much of Jamestown has been preserved and how much still hasn't been discovered. There are several active dig sites. I would recommend taking one of the ranger tours here. The rangers are really knowledgeable (as always - go National Parks Service!). We didn't take a full tour, but we caught the last 10 minutes of one and it was really great.

Here's John Smith, who was actually a pretty rough and tumble type dude.

The original Jamestown was much smaller than I expected. A good chunk of it is now covered by the James River. Erosion. It's real.

On the Jamestown property (though not part of the original settlement, obviously) is this Washington Monument lookalike. For the record, T's grandparents were not part of the original settlement, either. Ha ha. Up close the fake Washington Monument looks like it has a flat top. It is actually the Jamestown Tercentennial Monument erected in 1907 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the settlement.

We headed back to the house for some DELICIOUS grub made by T's aunt and uncle. This is the only shot I got of everyone. T's aunt took most of the photos.

A totally unrelated note: This aunt has a sheltie whose fur was super matted. They shaved most of his body, but left his head alone. So basically this dog had the haircut of a lion. It was hilarious.

I'm SO glad we down to visit. This was the first time I had really met T's aunt's family. They are such wonderful people and I really love them. I'm kind of gushing, but that's just how it is. The same aunt and uncle were in D.C. last week for a quick trip and we met them for lunch at Serendipity in Georgetown. Really, they are fun people!

If you're visiting D.C. I wouldn't drive down to see Colonial Williamsburg / Jamestown. If you live a day's drive away, it would probably make for a pretty good short family vacation.

Best. Photos. EVER!

2011-10-09T20:41:00.000-04:00

So, I saw the photo below on pintrest.com:

It is part of the best flickr stream EVER! All the photos come from a haunted house called Nightmares Fear Factory in Niagara Falls, Canada. I want to go there SO bad.

I LOVE haunted houses, which might not really make sense considering how much I despise scary stories and scary movies. I seriously can't handle them at all. They get in my head and creep me out for days and give me nightmares. I avoid them completely. Even slightly suspenseful / scary books or movies I read / watch in the middle of the day when I am not home alone. Scary / suspenseful is so subjective here because I am a wimp in the scary genre. For example, I had to watch "Jurassic Park" during the day.

But for some reason, haunted houses don't do that to me. Oh, I'm definitely the girl screaming and hiding behind her friends but I LOVE it. Haunted houses don't get in my head, they are just an awesome adrenaline high. Like jumping out of a plane. Except jumping out of a plane is better.

Anyway, a few more awesome photos from the Nightmares Fear Factory photostream on Flickr:

I REALLY want to see what is causing this reaction! There are so many photos in this set; check out a few, they will definitely make you laugh.

How do you feel about haunted houses and scary stuff in general?

RIP, Steve

2011-10-05T22:07:00.003-04:00

As you are probably already aware, Steve Jobs passed away today at the age of 56.

If you haven't read the commencement address he gave at Stanford in 2005, it's well worth your time.

One of my favorite excerpts:

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

Because of you, Steve, I have a job today. And I can't thank you enough.

iPhone wonderfulness

2011-10-01T15:59:00.001-04:00

I took all of these photos with my iPhone this past week while in the car (don't worry - T was driving, not me).

The "Welcome to D.C." sign has changed. It's in the exact same spot but the new one is bigger and has a more childlike font.

It's fall!!! My favorite season! Okay, it's fall like. Today is the first day that has really felt like fall. This tree is definitely getting a jump start on the season. Literally all of the other trees on this parkway are still completely green. This tree is making me VERY excited for the upcoming weeks.

T with silly bug eyes from his sweet headphones (seen in action here).

On Thursday T and I walked around the Potomac Park right by his work. We were treated to this lovely sunset. Also, when did it start getting dark at 7:00?!

Driving home on Friday the sunset was just as wonderful and it lit up the Lincoln monument beautifully.

Isn't this sunset gorgeous?! No wonder the light on the Lincoln was fabulous!

Gotta go. The second session of General Conference is about to start.
Okay, I'm back.

This is currently my favorite song (thanks for sharing, mom!). It's called "Marry Me" by Cherie Call. The song was written as a promo for a book that I haven't read. But, I LOVE this song.)

Bestie J gets married!

2011-09-27T22:43:00.000-04:00

I went to Utah last weekend to see Bestie J get married. It was a short trip and yet I managed to get in many things and see my favorite people.

Niece M did my hair (maybe you can't see, but there are about 7 little barrettes throughout my hair).

I hung out with USC Bestie J and her husband (we got J-Dawgs!). They are fabulous people. A side note: J's husband took this photo and he is super tall so it looks like we are short. Another side note: USC Bestie J is pregnant and showing (definitely pregnant showing, not "I gained five pounds and am wearing a too tight shirt") hence the "bumpalicious" shirt, but she totally looks not pregnant at all in this photo!

I went to IHOP with Besties M and H. Yeah, it was early. We met at 7:45 a.m. and we were all on time. FYI: IHOP is dead before 9:00 a.m. on the weekend.

And I had a fabulous lunch with my family! My sister M's family (the boy in the doorway is not an outcast - he's a cousin just trying to see what's going on).

Brother D and his son, Wolverine.

The always fabulous R family.

I love this photo because it's like Uncle J is humoring me, "Yes, S, we think you have super big muscles."

Aunt D! So glad she came!

With Baby E. The first day she was totally giving me the stink eye, but the second day she liked me! I know it doesn't really look like it here (she just woke up from a nap), but I promise she did (as evidenced by all the hand and face marks left on my shirt).

Brother B's family. Ask Niece L to show you her magic trick with the coins. It was actually really good!

The girls played dress up. It made me happy because I LOVED playing dress up at Grandma P's and now my old dresses are the dress up clothes!

I spy the purple dress I wore for brother B's wedding, one of my old (and washed!) sleep masks, my dyed purple heels, and my sheer polka dot curtains.

And while I love all these people, the best part of the weekend was seeing this wedding.

Everything was SO classy and beautiful - the bride, the flowers, the decorations, the food, the reception hall, the love... everything was wonderful.

T didn't come with me to Utah, so Bestie M was my quasi wedding date. It worked because we are both hot and ridiculously awesome.

J's dress was amazing!

Their first dance made me cry. It's not a surprise though because I also cried when J walked down the aisle, when they said their vows, and later when J danced with her dad. Crying is just what I do at weddings (though usually not that much - I just really love J!).

We didn't let the groom monopolize the bride all night though - Bestie M and I both danced with her, too!

J's bustle broke shortly after she danced with her dad, but she handled it like a champ. Later the groom improvised a sash type thing from a chair tie to help keep her long skirt up.

J had a photobooth! The exact same photobooth I had at my wedding! Of course we got some amazing photos. I'll toss them up on the bloggy sometime next week after I scan them in.

Dancing buddies!

I told J that I would dance at her wedding and I did. And it wasn't pretty. I have "white man's disease" which is the number one killer of rhythm. But you better believe I danced to every song (okay, I didn't dance to the slow songs or this one crazy line dance that I had never seen before). I felt okay looking like a dancing idiot because I really only knew the bride, her family and two other people so I had no image to maintain and I would never see any of those other people again.

The dancing was a ton of fun - there was the YMCA, a conga line, boot scootin' boogie, shimmying by the bride's mom, and lots of hair tossing. Towards the end, there were only about five of us out on the dance floor so it was our own private dance party. I just really hope none of my terrible dancing ends up on their wedding video!

They had a sparkler send off and I went home smiling and sweaty. I give J's wedding an A++.

The next day I spent some time with T's family. I forgot to charge the battery of the real camera so it died. But there is always the iPhone camera!

Kids are messy. And this was before we ate dinner! They are still super adorbs, though. (Twin B left, E right)

The girls totally know how to use their fingers to swipe on the iPhone. All three were trying to swipe at the same time so we spent a lot of time going back and forth between the same two photos. Then we took some classic self photos. (Twin H on left (she's not that big, it's just the angle), A on right)

The newest grandbaby on T's side. He was so tiny!

The cute parents of that cute baby boy.

The twins and A (and obviously her baby brother) still don't really know who I am, but G and E do and they think I'm fun. Because I am fun. Anyway, I was commanded by G to eat dinner with him and E so I did and it was fabulous. Little boys are a lot of fun. Plus, it's fun to be adored.

The cute parents of G, E, and the twins. G wanted to me to take a ton of photos of him shooting. I did so he would keep thinking I was cool. Mission accomplished.

On Monday morning I just hung out with my parents and it was awesome! Well, we didn't just do nothing. My mom hemmed a pair of my pants, sewed a button onto my shorts, and made me a new purse lining. My dad unpicked the back pockets on my shorts that were sewn shut. And I provided the entertainment.

We took a bunch of self photos together: one with my mom's real camera, three with my iPhone, and two with my dad's Windows phone. The ones I took were the worst, but I don't have access to the other cameras so here you go - a blurry iPhone photo!

Utah trip = amazeballs!

Lately (Marine Musem, WWII Monument, MLK Jr Monument)

2011-09-15T21:47:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago we went to the Marine Museum. It's down by Quantico. It's a lot like the "Price of Freedom" exhibit at the American History Smithsonian (it talks about all the wars and it's free). T had fun dressing up in the period costumes in different sections. This one was from The War of 1812 (I think).

The museum covers everywhere / time the Marines have fought, so obviously there was a section within WWII about Iwo Jima. It's a great exhibit and it is staffed by former Marines, some who fought there. It's pretty amazing what they accomplished. It's close to my heart because my grandpa was a Marine who fought at Iwo Jima.

I'm a fighter pilot! And T is... French? (Obviously, not really. We all know the French don't fight! Ha!)

Separate from, but near by, the museum is a beautiful Marine Chapel. We didn't go in (I didn't want to intrude on people actually using the chapel), but it looked beautiful.

The atrium has really cool architecture.

If you live in the area (or really like the Marine Corps), the Marine Museum is definitely something you should check out. If you are in town for vacation and have limited time, skip the Marine Museum and just take a bit more time in "The Price of Freedom" exhibit at the American History Museum.

The Friday of Labor Day Weekend, T only had to work a half day so we moseyed about part of the National Mall. We hadn't been back to the WWII Memorial since our first cross country trip together in 2007. Here I am with our new state.

The WWII Memorial has a great view of the Washington Monument. The Washington Monument is totally two different colors. No, really, it is. They started building it before the Civil War. Construction stopped during the war. After the war they went back to the exact same quarry and the stone had changed color, but they used it anyway. T and I haven't been to the top of the Washington Monument yet. We're not sure when that will happen... it was cracked near the top during the earthquake and it has not re-opened yet (though you can still walk around it).

Here's T with our new state. I'll have to dig up the photos from 2007 where I'm with Utah and T is with California.

It's a really lovely memorial. They all are.

That same day we went to visit the new Martin Luther King Jr. Monument. It opened to the public the week before the hurricane, even though the official dedication was postponed due to the hurricane. We are pretty great at those self-photos!

The stone that the carving of MLK Jr is in is actually the center part of one giant boulder (this center part is in front of the two sides - this isn't making sense; check it out here). On the side of the MLK Jr stone it says "Out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope." So this monument has some pretty great symbolism going on.

The monument sits right on the Tidal Basin and has a great view of the Jefferson. If you were to rent a paddle boat, I do believe you could almost pedal right up to it.

Okay, in this one you can kind of see the boulders on either side of the MLK Jr statue. The MLK part would fit exactly between the two other boulders. I really wonder how those giant boulders were transported.

Another gratuitous self-photo.

My two favorite MLK Jr quotes from the wall.

If you're in town for more than one day, you should definitely see both of these monuments.

By any other name

2011-09-08T16:43:00.000-04:00

I've been working on this post for two weeks and it's just not working. I can't seem to phrase anything right to get my feelings across. So I deleted most of it. Here are the bare bones:

Most girls change their last name when they get married. Some don't. I didn't. And not just for this reason:

The real reason I didn't change my last name is because I am very attached to my name. Very.

I don't want a crazy long hyphenated name. I don't want to drop my wonderful middle name to make my maiden name my middle name and have T's last name. I think I have a fabulous name right now. I love the way my name sounds all together (thanks, Mom and Dad!) and I love my awesome signature. But it's more than that. I love my name because it's my whole identity. And I love that my name is more than just me. I love that my name connects me to my ancestors on both sides. I'm proud of my name. I'm proud of the people I'm related to. I'm a *my last name* and to me that name means a lot. Maybe everyone else doesn't know what it means to be a *my last name* but I do, and I try to live up to that good name.

It's not that T has a bad or unpronounceable last name, I just don't have a strong connection to that name. But on the other hand, I am married to a guy with that last name and that is a pretty strong connection. Also, it would make some things (insurance, bills, church, etc.) easier if we had the same last name. I've been thinking about this lately because I have to get a passport so we can go to London next summer. So if I'm going to change my name, now is the time to do it.

Anyway, did you keep your maiden name? Do you have any thoughts / opinions on the matter?

P.S. I've pretty much decided to keep my name as it is. At least for now.

Utah! - The second wedding portion

2011-09-04T17:56:00.000-04:00

I know, our Utah trip was ages ago. But here are the photos from the second wedding we attended while out there in June.

The wedding was in a family friend's backyard. It was a ridiculously nice (and ginormous!) backyard. In between the ceremony and the reception I got a few planks in.

(I'm between the two flower pots.)

Mugging it up.

Seriously, the set up was almost as lovely as the bride.

There was many a parent doing this to a young child to keep them away from the pool.

It was hot. Some people were easier to cool down than others. It started out like this...

And ended like this.

The rest of us used ice cream to cool down. Oh, yeah, they had an ice cream bar.

And a candy buffet. And a cake.

T and some of his siblings:

Part of the backyard had a pond. It was just as hard to keep the kids away from that as it was the swimming pool.

Babies were everywhere. They were nice to hold and even nicer to give back to their parents.

I'm glad the father of the bride had time to snatch some noms.

Oh, weddings are the best!

Natural Disasters

2011-08-26T20:25:00.000-04:00

For those like us who don't own a TV, let me tell you what's been going on here the past week. No, there is too much - let me sum up.

Tuesday afternoon we had an earthquake! I was sitting at work when I felt things start to shake. At first, I assumed it was just a big truck rolling down the highway that is right outside our window. A few seconds later, I realized it was still happening so it probably wasn't a truck. My next thought was terrorist attack. Thankfully, that was not it either. As things continued to shake, it finally dawned on me, "Hey, this is an earthquake!?"

For those keeping track at home, we have been in an earthquake before. A couple of them, actually (including one when I was very little in which I refused to abandon my cereal and get under the table). But that was when we were living in So Cal. You can imagine my confusion when I realized I was in an earthquake in DC. It was very Twilight Zone-y. Apparently we didn't cover our tracks very well, because the earthquakes have followed us here. Sorry, DC kids.

It was a 5.8 with an epicenter 84 miles SW of DC.

Mother Nature, however, decided that a random earthquake wasn't enough. So we have a hurricane heading up the coast as well. Ocean City, where we went to the beach the other week, is evacuating.

In the initial projections, DC was in the DangerCone™. That's probably not the real term for it, but that's what I like to call it (cue the Top Gun music).

Here is the latest projection. We are safely out of the DangerCone™, but we'll probably still get strong winds and a lot of rain. It's supposed to hit Virginia tomorrow night/Sunday morning. We'll let you know how it all goes.

As somebody at work put it, "I feel like I'm in a bad game of SimCity... I just hope the UFO invasion isn't next."

Also, Natural Disasters would be an awesome name for a band.

27 months

2011-08-23T23:59:00.000-04:00

*There is a post about Baby M and co.'s visit to D.C. underneath this one if you are sick of the wedding. But really, how could you be sick of the best wedding ever?

Guess what, bloggy? I lied to you. Last month was not the last of the wedding photos from my brother W. Here are s'more from him!

It was so lovely to have a fenced in play area for the little people.

This rushing river at the back of the backyard is the reason it was so lovely to have a fenced in play area.

Re-enacting placing the cake topper just before our soiree started.

There was never any doubt that we would play nice with the cake. Smearing cake in the other person's face is tacky, rude, and not the right tone to start off a marriage.

In the midst of our party an epic battle erupted. The balloons created a giant monster that started eating children. It would lure them in...

Then savagely start engulfing bodies.

As bystanders stood helpless, the balloon creature finished devouring it's chosen prey.

Some small children were fortunate enough to escape, but they were shocked by the things they had seen. (P.S. doesn't V look impossibly small and young here?!)

Some could only point and wonder where their friends had gone.

Still others brazenly mocked the balloon creature.

Thus ends the balloon creature saga. Until the next sighting, at least.

Meanwhile, the party raged on. Okay, it definitely didn't rage. Perhaps it moseyed. Or strolled. Sister in law K is very good at self portraits, but I especially love this one because in the background I am hugging the man who married me to T! Also, K looks fabulous so it's a good photo for that reason, too.

K tastefully sampling the cake.

She liked the cake so much that when she thought no one was looking (nice tie, Dad!) she went for a big handful. Yes, the cake was so good, it deserved eating by the fistful. Even by those older than 5, though they won't publicly admit it.

This is one of my favorite photos ever of my brother W and his wife K.

Awww. Sharing is caring.

And now that really is the last of the photos from my brother W. The End.

Magz attack

2011-08-22T21:23:00.000-04:00

Baby Magz (not his real name) and co. came for a quick and busy visit. And I mean quick. On Wednesday in 12 hours we did:
A tour of the U.S. Capitol
The Supreme Court
Air and Space Museum
National Archives
Natural History Museum
American History Museum
Washington Monument
Dinner in Georgetown
Lincoln Monument
Vietnam War Memorial
Korean War Memorial

Magz was a total trooper and only cried once (when his parents left him alone for five minutes with me and T). His parents were total troopers, too, and didn't cry at all, even with all that walking!

It's dark, but here they are in front of the Washington Monument

On Thursday, Magz's parents had a wedding (the reason for the visit) so I hung out with Magz. I took this picture before I pulled him out of his car seat so I could remember how cute he was if he cried the entire time his parents were gone.

For the record, he didn't cry. He wasn't super happy, but he didn't cry. I think that counts as a victory.

Then Magz and co. went off to visit other people / states. We saw them again for a quick hour on Saturday night. This photo is awesome because baby Magz is wearing T's nice Skullcandy brand headphones and Magz has a skull on his T-shirt. Not planned, but still awesome. Maybe we can sell this photo to Skullcandy for an ad campaign...

This one is kinda blurry, but Magz and his dad often look like they coordinated outfits.

At the very end of the night, they fell asleep together. I don't blame them, they will need a vacation from their vacation - they were SO crazy busy. Magz looks so big here.

Sunday morning T and I took Magz and co. to the airport. But of course we had to snap some photos before they left. Magz had a good time crawling on the air mattress. And admit it, he could quite possibly be the cutest baby in the history of the Universe.

Magz's dad kept a pretty close eye (and when necessary, hand) on him.

We seriously love this family and were glad to see them.

Anyone else want to come visit and do D.C. in a day?

P.S. Magz's mom has already posted photos from their D.C. trip on facebook. Check them out!

Atlantic vs Pacific

2011-08-21T21:50:00.000-04:00

Last weekend T and I visited the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. Well, not really our first time seeing the Atlantic, but our first time getting in the Atlantic. We went to the Ocean City Beach in Maryland. We thought we would make a quick day trip of it. But it definitely turned out to be a long day trip. It took four hours and some crazy traffic to get to the beach. We took the free shuttle from the mall to the beach because we were pretty sure that parking on that little strip of land wouldn't be easy or cheap.

The beach at Ocean City is very different from beaches in Southern California. First of all at Ocean City Beach there is an actual boardwalk along the beach. So Cal doesn't have that. The boardwalks here have full on amusement parks and kitchy souvenir shops that face the beach. In SoCal, it is almost all houses that face the beach. There were SO many people at the Ocean City beach. In Southern California there are people around, but usually no closer than 20 feet. This beach was packed six groups deep with only about seven feet between groups. This photo shows it pretty well. Also note the lack of waves in that photo.

So the atmosphere is different on each coast and so is the actual ocean. The Pacific is frigid. You don't so much get used to the water temperature as you become completely numb. The Atlantic was surprisingly warm. Not warm like Lake Powell, but considerably warmer than the Pacific. You can get used to the Atlantic water temperature in about five minutes and then it really does feel good.

Another huge difference between the oceans is the waves. T and I brought our boogie boards to the Ocean City Beach hoping to catch some sweet waves. The Pacific Ocean always has good waves. In SoCal we never paid attention to high tide vs low tide because there were always sufficiently big waves to boogie board on. The Atlantic doesn't really have waves. There are small swells that break about three feet from the shore. We never even took our boards in the water. The entire time we were in the Atlantic there were only two waves that we could have seriously ridden. Maybe next time we'll try to plan for the tides?... Maybe the waves are better at a different beach?...

It started getting stormy so we didn't stay at the beach as long as we planned. Then it took us three hours to drive home. I think next time we go to the beach we will make it a weekend trip because driving for seven hours to play for three and a half hours wasn't our greatest idea ever (but like I said, we would have stayed longer if it hadn't gotten stormy).

We had to cross the crazy long and high Bay Bridge on the way to and from the beach. Well, it's actually two side by side bridges. Each bridge is 4.2 miles long and rises 186 feet above the water! A photo from their website on the left and our drive on the right:

If you're afraid of heights you might want to close your eyes. The bridge is three lanes across, but as you can see there is no cushion between the lane and the wall. And the wall isn't that high.

So to sum up:
Pacific Ocean = shorter drive time from our old place, colder water, fewer people, better waves, calmer atmosphere

Atlantic Ocean = longer drive time from our current place, warmer water, more people, smaller waves, party atmosphere

Our verdict = undecided

Have you visited both oceans? I think we'll try Virginia Beach next...

Lately

2011-08-20T16:54:00.000-04:00

Lately we've been hanging out with this little dude's family.

He's adorbs. And we're glad to see family this week, even if it isn't at the Iowa family reunion. But maybe next year we'll see this dude plus everyone else at the Iowa family reunion!

Utah! - The little people portion

2011-08-14T22:06:00.000-04:00

Many of these little people are not quite so little anymore... but they are still my favorite!

We spent most of Father's Day with T's family.

"Who are those scary people and why are they taking my picture?!" The twins had no clue who we were :(

T's brother C is quite adept at baby wrangling.

We had a family soiree at my Aunt J's house. Some of us played badminton.

Others didn't play badminton so much as they swung the rackets around with wild abandon.

These girls were more into Polly Pockets than badminton.

Nephew L pretending to sleep at Grandma's house.

Please note the toothbrush at the base of the scooter. This was an important feature for L.

At C's house. The playground was definitely a worthwhile investment. Baby H wanted to swing literally the entire time. I don't blame her. Swinging is the best!

Chicken nuggets for lunch, yum!

Even though the twins had no clue who were were the boys did, and we had tons of fun together.

Who doesn't love a good pair of heels? Baby A definitely does.

At my sister M's house. The boys were pretending that they had a candy store - hence signing candy and ice cream.

What is it with little people pulling up their shirts? The kids in our nursery class do it, too.

R loves dirt. Really. Under the deck while the other kids dig, R just likes to put his hands in the dirt and sort of knead it. Here he is with one of many clumps of dirt.

R was totally not phased when C dumped dirt on his head.

See. Not phased.

R was also not phased when C did this. Basically, R is just a very even keeled dude. It is adorable.

I love that all of M's kids love to read.

The kids have lunch at the park often after swimming lessons. I walked (slowly) over with the twins. Adorbs!

At the park, we raced the twins down the slide. I don't remember who won.

V was showing off his lunch balancing skills. This photo reminds me of the William Tell story.

At the park I ran into a friend K, from school. She looks fabulous and has three little people of her own. It was fun to see her for a few moments.

J showing off his mad skills.

It's hard to get this many kids to stay still for a photo!

Silly photos are easier.

At my brother W's house we played hide and seek, loaded questions, then went outside to jump on the trampoline.

Don't be confused. W does not have a son. This is my other brother D's son. We call him Wolverine.

The girls took some photos with my cell phone...

Showing off their posing skills.

Basically, we love visiting Utah because we get to see and play with all of these fabulous little people!

2011-08-10T17:52:00.000-04:00

Continuing my Taylor Swift obsession, here is her newest video "Sparks Fly." I totally clapped at the end the first time I saw it. I strongly recommend watching it in full screen (hit play then click on the arrows in the shape of an x in the bottom right corner)

sf from Taylor Swift on Vimeo.

TAYLOR!!! I sent you a cup of my blood! Did you get my blood?!

2011-08-04T16:31:00.000-04:00

So, you may or may not know that I heart Taylor Swift, or as she is more commonly known as in our house, T-Swizzle / Talor Swist.* Almost every time a Taylor Swift song comes on in the car T and I say, "TAYLOR!!! I send you a cup of my blood! Did you get my blood?!" (It's our version of this funny clip from "Blades of Glory" - the man is an obsessed stalker of Jimmy, a figure skating star.)

*I put "izzle" on the end of everything (PBandJizzle, ETFizzle, EQPizzle, etc.). An eight year old in my SoCal primary class was asked to write down her favorite song and the singer. She wrote "you blong with me by Talor Swist." So let it be written, so let it be done.

For Christmas, T got me tickets to see Taylor Swift in concert in L.A. Except the day after Christmas, T accepted a new job in D.C. Obviously, this meant that we would not be in L.A. for Taylor's show in August. Booooo. We tried to buy tickets to see Taylor in D.C. but couldn't get any. I was pretty bummed, but what can you do? (Well, for about 10 minutes we considered flying to L.A. to see the show.)

This past Tuesday afternoon I was listening to the radio while making meatballs. The DJ announced that the Verizon Center had opened up 300 new tickets for the Taylor Swift show that night. You better believe I flew right over to the compy and pulled up ticketmaster. On my first try I got two tickets!!! I was crazy excited, but they were also kind of expensive (stupid ticketmaster charging a $16 fee for each ticket bought online!) so I called T to ask if I should buy the tickets. Except he didn't pick up the first four times I called him! T answered when I called his work number and said to buy them! So I did. I then proceeded to scream and clap and jump up and down because I WAS GOING TO SEE TAYLOR SWIFT THAT NIGHT!!!

I bought tickets at 1:30 and had to leave to pick up T from work at 4:30 so the afternoon got really busy in a hurry. I finished making, frying, and baking the meatballs. I cleaned the tub. I took a shower and did my hair. I picked out something to wear. I looked up parking garages near the Verizon Center. I figured out how to get to the Verizon Center. I charged the camera. I picked up some cash. And then it was concert time!!!

With the precious tickets!

Mugging it with Taylor.

BOOM! Self Photo!

Taylor is everywhere!

When I bought our seats online I thought we were in the middle section (height wise - kinda by the suite level) and tried to go up when we entered the area. The ticket taker pointed down... we were 8 rows from the floor!!! We were about 3/4 of the way back away from the stage and right across from the tech booth. But we knew Taylor would be right by us because there was a 6 foot circular black stage at the back of the tech booth and that is the only thing it could possibly be used for!

In our seats.

That's not a giant white cross in the background. It's a white horse's face with a band's name printed across it.

This tree was dangling way up high above the small round stage at the back of the tech booth. Definitely another sign that Taylor was going to sing right in front of us.

The opening acts were Hunter Hays (love these two songs) and Need To Breathe. I had never heard of Need To Breathe before but I liked them. They were a country-rock band and definitely sounded more rock than country. The bass player had awesome dance moves. When we got home we checked out their album online, but were a bit disappointed - they rock way harder in person than on the album. Still good songs (like this one), but just way more rocking in person.

Waiting...

After Need To Breathe the big curtain around the stage was drawn. Because I had bought tickets earlier that day instead of months in advance I kinda felt like I missed the anticipation / countdown excitement, which is definitely part of the fun. But I did have one afternoon of crazy intense anticipation excitement so I felt like it evened out.

Then Taylor came out and all 13,500 of us jumped up and down and screamed our lungs out. I had warned T that there would be a lot of girls screaming and that I would probably be one of those girls... and we all screamed louder than I thought we would.

Taylor put on an amazing show. Like blow your mind kind of show. Worth every penny.

Before the show I was a bit nervous that I wouldn't be able to hear Taylor. I knew everyone would be singing along and I wanted to sing along, too, but I didn't buy tickets to hear the girl next to me sing - I paid to hear Taylor sing. T told me that he was pretty confident that the speakers would be more than sufficient. And of course he was right. Taylor sang my favorite song "Our Song."

I loved that we were close enough that I could watch Taylor instead of watching her on the screen (though I did do both).

I asked to T to be in charge of taking a few pictures so I could just enjoy the show. I felt like SO many people were missing out on the real experience because they watched the whole thing through their camera. Don't worry, I told T not to take too many photos because I wanted him to enjoy the show, too.

I'm sure the Verizon Center event staff loves the T-Swizzle concert. The crowd is basically teen girls and their moms. So no big guys trying to cause trouble, hardly any alcohol sold so no drunk people, no mosh pits, and no crying or lost kids like there would be with a Disney on Ice show. Plus the security guards know they could take down 99% of the people in the crowd with one hand.

And guess what, Taylor did come sing right in front of us. And not just one song, but three!

Yeah, the tree was slowly rotating.

I love that Taylor was so nice. I mean she genuinely appreciated the crowd and even seemed surprised that this many people love her this much. It's wonderful that she's not jaded. She seemed so happy to be on stage performing. She looked like she was having the time of her life; I know I was.

She sang my favorite slow song "Last Kiss."

and part two (slightly less shaky)

Some musical artists are not nearly as good in concert as they are on the album. However, Taylor Swift sounds just as good in person as she does on her album. And the show (dancers, lighting, background videos, etc.) adds a lot to the songs. I wanted to sing along the whole time - and I mostly did - but sometimes the show part was so amazing that I forgot to sing and just stared instead. For instance, for the song "Haunted" there were giant bells on the ground and the song started with Taylor hitting the bells. Then the bells were raised and when the chorus started dancers dropped down out of the bells on ropes! It was like four minutes of aerial dancing. It was totally awesome! You can sort of see it in this video. The audio isn't great but watch for the dancer to drop out of the bell at the two minute mark. This song ends with the bell dropping over Taylor. Then 10 seconds later the bell lifts and Taylor is in a new outfit for the next song! Fun! There were about seven costume changes and multiple set changes, too.

Taylor had lots of fireworks, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Fireworks + Taylor = awesomeness.

I like this photo because it looks like the white light is emanating from the guitar player like he is an angel.

LOVE that sparkly guitar.

I really admire Taylor because she doesn't just sing. During this show she played the guitar, the banjo, the ukelele, and the piano. The girl is talented (also, I'm sure she practiced a ton!).

Taylor did two songs for her encore: "Fifteen" (which is the only Taylor Swift song I don't like) and "Love Story." For "Love Story" she got on this balcony that slowly moved across the whole Verizon Center.

The show ended about 11:15, so I was glad we chose to park at a garage that was open until midnight (no need to repeat a garage lock out - especially on a weekday!). My voice was really raspy from all the yelling and singing along. T and I both thought the concert was worth every penny.

So there were 13,500 of us at the show. Including ticket prices and merchandise sales I bet each person spent about $140 (I also bet that each person would say the experience was worth it). Which means Taylor raked in about $1,890,000. Not too shabby for one night's work. T and I, of course did our (smaller) share: T bought me a concert t-shirt. I have I mentioned lately how awesome T is and how much I love him?!

Basically Taylor Swift's Speak Now Tour = amazeballs. If you haven't picked up on it yet, T is an amazing gift giver!

Horses

2011-07-31T17:19:00.000-04:00

(image source)

Two nights ago I asked T what we should name our racehorse. We don't currently have a racehorse and have no plans to ever purchase one, but... everyone knows that racehorses have the most awesome names around (Rock Hard Ten, War Admiral, Man O' War, Smarty Jones, and the list goes on). In fact, I choose who I want to win the Kentucky Derby based on name alone.

We've decided to name our racehorse Blind Ambition. But the horse can see. But we would get better press if he really were blind.

Our runner up racehorse name is Goes With Everything. Because really, winning Goes With Everything.

Do you have a racehorse name picked out?

The Gun Show

2011-07-31T01:31:00.000-04:00

A few days ago T asked if I wanted to see the gun show this weekend. (from here)

I said uber flirtatiously, "Well, can't I just see the gun show right now?" But it turns out T wasn't talking about his muscles - he was talking about an actual gun show in Chantilly, VA this weekend. So we went.

This photo pretty much sums up how I felt about the whole experience:

You probably know how I feel about guns. Well, actually, you probably have no idea how I feel about guns (but if you're a tad bit astute you might pick up on it from the photo). The short version is I don't like guns and will never let one in my house. I don't understand why other people think they need to own guns, but I think it is their right to own one if they want to. The long version is at the bottom of the post.

I didn't grow up with guns. I've never shot a gun.* I've never seen a real gun up close. The closest I've ever been to any kind of gun is seeing one on TV (actually, considering the number of concealed weapon permits out there I've probably been close to a gun and just didn't know it - and I'm glad I didn't know it.). I've never played any shoot 'em up type video or computer games. I literally have no experience with guns and I liked it that way.

I get a lot of my ideas about guns from my mom. For example: a long time ago my dad was a Boy Scout camp director at a camp with a Mountain Man theme. My dad wanted to get a black powder gun for camp. My mom really didn't want a gun in the house** (even though a black powder gun is not exactly easy or fast to load and fire) so she thought long and hard about something else that my dad might want instead. She offered to buy him a dual control electric blanket. And my dad decided to go with the blanket instead of the gun (if you know my dad this totally makes sense; the man gets cold easily).

Anyway, as you can imagine, a gun show is not really my scene. And on top of that, what do you wear to a gun show??? I don't own any camo! But T wanted to go (he grew up with guns), and I want to go where T wants to go. Plus, this would totally be an adventure for me, and I love adventure! (But not enough to buy adventure pants. Those things are not fashionable. (adventure pants = zip off pants)) I felt okay going because I checked out the gun show website and absolutely no loaded guns are allowed in the building. So I knew going in that none of the guns would be loaded and that all the guns would also have zip ties on them making them unshoot-able. I thought that sounded like a pretty ideal (and safe!) arrangement for my first introduction to guns. For the record, we are never going to own a gun.

The night before we went T explained a lot of things about how guns work and different types of guns so I would understand the basics. My game plan was to just remain silent for the duration of the gun show so I wouldn't embarrass us. T tried to tell me that we would be surrounded by guns, and while I understood in theory, it was quite shocking when we walked in. There were guns everywhere. It actually freaked me out quite a bit. My heart was pounding and I was holding back tears (remember, crying is my default emotion). T asked if I was okay and I said yes. I clenched T's hand really tight and tried to hide the crazy fear in my eyes and off we went.

I got calmer as we went around the 1.3 miles of stalls. It helped SO much to know that there was absolutely no way for any of these guns to fire. I held some handguns (no photos allowed, but T will verify that I held several). Handguns, even of the smallest variety, are surprisingly heavy. Also, it is seriously hard to pull back a hammer or slide (look at me knowing gun parts!). Oh, and I can't take lady guns seriously. They are pink and just look so fake so I would probably forget that they are real (or maybe not, they are heavy!) and injure myself.

There were a bunch of knife, survival kit, and war memorabilia stalls as well. We were actually looking for a knife for our 72 hour / zombie apocalypse kit, but didn't find any we liked. We did buy two other things for our kit: a bunch of beef jerky and a small portable butane stove. (Our most likely emergency situation would be a winter power outage.)

The gun show demographic wasn't as redneck and biker gang as I thought it would be. Actually most everyone looked normal.

So there you go. S's first gun show and first time holding a gun. All in all, I think I handled the gun show really well. And though I am a very small tad more comfortable with guns (read: if there was some crazy situation where I had to hold a real loaded gun and possibly use said gun odds are now 50/50 that I would pee my pants instead of 100%) my feelings towards guns remain virtually the same.

Someday T might take me to a gun range and I might fire a gun. It will have to have just one bullet in it because there is a very real possibility that immediately after I pull the trigger I will drop it out of terror / surprise. And I'm pretty sure that dropping a loaded gun is not a good thing. But then again, I could be wrong. If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm pretty new to this gun thing.

Oh, after the gun show T and I went to Dick's Sporting Goods and bought a Gerber Big Rock Camp Knife:

*I misspoke. I think I fired one shot on a BB gun at Camp Tracy.

**Even though my mom won't let guns in the house she has no qualms about lying about having a gun in the house. If there is an intruder in the house part of my mom's plan is to say really loud to my dad "You get the gun; I'll call the cops." I hope my dad knows this is the plan or wackiness could ensue...

My feelings about guns (these are my feelings, not T's): I don't see why anyone would want to or need to own a gun.

I know some people have guns because they like to hunt. I think it is mean to hunt animals just for sport. I don't see the point in hunting unless you are hunting to feed your family. I barely like the way beef tastes - pretty sure I'm not going to enjoy bear, elk, deer, antelope, or rabbit meat (but this is easy for me to say because T keeps me well fed with mainstream meat).
I really see no reason why anyone would need anything resembling a machine gun and I don't think guns like that should be legal at all.
If you just like to shoot (target practice or clay pigeons), then rent a gun at the gun range.
If you feel like you need a handgun for protection, I think you need to hang out with different people, move to a safer neighborhood, and / or get a home security alarm. I know some people have used guns successfully against home invaders or other situations. But many people have also had their own guns used against them in those exact same situations.
I don't think kids and guns should be in the same house even if you have a gun safe and keep the gun and ammo separate (and if they are separate, is your gun really accessible to use for self-defense?). The risk that anything will happen when a gun is in the house is small, but the consequences are too great to justify it. You can lecture and educate your kids about gun safety, but the risk, however small, is still there that even if they know not to touch the gun, they will touch the gun. And then only bad things can happen. I couldn't live with myself if a kid died because I kept a gun in my house. It's such an easy thing to prevent. There will never be a gun in my house.
I do think that background checks to buy a gun should be more thorough, but I also think that it is a citizen's right to own a gun if he wants to.

Gun ownership is something that just doesn't make sense to me (kind of like being a runner, a Democrat, or a vegetarian), but as long as it is done properly by others, that's their business. We can still be friends if you're a gun owner, runner, Democrat, or vegetarian!

26 months

2011-07-23T16:52:00.000-04:00

The last of the photos from brother W.

And that's all she wrote.

Hot

2011-07-21T23:38:00.000-04:00

It's pretty hot here. I just left Target (at 11:00 p.m.) and to me, even though it is night, it felt like daytime in the shade. So I got home and checked the weather. This is a screen shot from my computer:

Right now, at 11:20 p.m., it is 89 degrees. It feels like 104 degrees due to humidity. I thought it was supposed to cool down at night?... But since the overnight low is only 8 degrees cooler than right now, I guess not. Thank goodness for air conditioning.

I hope the rain later in the week cools us off, but I'm pretty sure it will just make the air more muggy. Basically, it's hotter than Hell. No, really. It's only 76 degrees in Hell, Michigan. Ha ha. I'm a laugh a minute.

Utah! - The Raging Waters portion

2011-07-16T20:48:00.000-04:00

T and I went to Raging Waters with his family on our last Saturday in Utah. I was a bit concerned about how the water (and chemicals and germs in the water) would affect my burn. My burn was 11 days old at that point and looking much better (and smaller) so I decided it wouldn't be a big deal. I put on the burn cream, then a thick layer of vaseline on top of that, then a giant waterproof bandaid, then sealed the bandaid with clear first aid tape. It worked beautifully. I checked it constantly while we playing in the water, but the bandaid didn't fall off and the water never touched my burn. Go team!

Now for a few photos...

Babies looking all sweet and innocent (ha!).

The kids kept putting their mouths around the entire bottle opening, which as you can probably guess did not go well. T's mom is trying to show the kids how it's done.

Awww... the twins are sharing.

It was a fun time and neither of us got sunburned!

Things that must go

2011-07-12T21:51:00.000-04:00

My favorite radio station of all time is X96. The morning show has a feature called "things that must go." It's basically a list of pet peeves that the hosts and listeners wish would go away. Here is my list of things that must go:

Cabbies. All of them. No exceptions.
The words preggo, luncheon, and panties.
People who have their milk (gallon sized) put in bags at the grocery store.
Every song by Pink. No exceptions.
Hipsters.

What's on your list of "things that must go"?

Utah! - The friends portion

2011-07-10T19:53:00.000-04:00

I saw a bunch of friends during the Utah trip. It was wonderful. These girls make me SO happy.

Bestie K

Bestie Cousin M

I went to a KISS THIS concert with Bestie M (the concert was part of the Murray Relay for Life)

This is M's dad!

With Besties H and M

Besties A, J, and A.

I can't believe I forgot to take a photo of me and Bestie J. Insert saddest sad face ever here. I heart that girl and can't wait for her wedding!

We also forgot to take a photo of us with T&R and their three cute girls. :( Obviously forgetting was a theme this vacation.

Bestie parents (why yes, this is an iPhone photo taken at church while my mom is playing the organ)

And of course the bestie of all besties, T. Okay, so I see him all the time, but still... he's the ultimate bestie and I did see him in Utah.

Can you believe it's been two years since we got married here?!

I love that we look identical in these two photos. It seriously looks like we just photoshopped a different background in. I promise we didn't!

Seriously, it was good for my soul to see these friends. Hopefully our next trip isn't so crazy busy so we can see the friends we missed this time.

Utah! - The wedding portion

2011-07-07T17:12:00.000-04:00

The reason we visited Utah when we did was so we could go to two of T's cousin's weddings. First up was cousin C. Yay! I LOVE weddings. And we love this family.

The reception was at a park. When we pulled up to the park all we could see was baseball fields. But the reception was inside the main building and it was classy and gorgeous.

There was family...

More family... (Check out the bride and groom in the background of the top left photo. Thier line was crazy long all night.)

Babies...

And even more family.

Those pilars in the back are not solid. They are foam. I found that out the hard way. Also, the strawberry dessert that H is eating was incredibly delicious.

We went outside for some mountain photos (oh, I miss the mountains)...

And found out that that is where all the cool kids were hanging out.

No, really, it's where the kids were hanging out.

G fell asleep in his little brother's carrier. And that was good because things were about to get crazy.

Okay, not crazy, but there was planking! Wedding cake planking...

Car planking...

And gift planking.

We attempted to recreate the famous photobooth picture from my wedding.

And a pretty version. Because, really, we are pretty. Very pretty.

Oh, there were some outtakes. Top right: C is getting her Vogue on while the rest of us ham it up. Bottom right: I have a hand springing from my chest and K is feeling up C. Check out the surprise on C's face!

These are the only two photos we got of the bride and groom. Seriously, they were SO busy. Check out the bride's niece twirling in the background during the first dance :)

Heading towards the car.

I am more than slightly envious of the bride's hair.

But we saw them after they got back from their honeymoon. Are they cute or what?!

Awwwww. Weddings are the best!

Utah! - The swimming lesson portion

2011-07-05T22:25:00.000-04:00

June has been nutso busy. But we're back to normal (it's all relative) so I'll share all our Utah vay-cay fun. First up: swimming lessons.

My niece L, her brother L, and my sister's oldest three boys all have swimming lessons at the same time and place. They are so much fun to watch!

I feel bad because I totally forgot the real camera (happened a lot this trip!) so these are all iPhone photos. While some iPhone photos are awesome, these are not. The pool is kinda dark and we didn't want to get close and distract the kids so we used the zoom in function. A lot. The result is these not so awesome photos. Awesome memory wise, but not so awesome composition wise.

Check out J's concentration!

Niece L loves her swimsuit. She told me about how beautiful it is when the sparkles on the neckline of her suit catch the sun.

V wasn't such a fan of getting his hair wet, but he did it a few times anyway.

Nephew L was smiling seriously the whole time.

D was so excited to be swimming. Several times he shouted (and signed) over to us "I can swim underwater!" V and D were in the same class and D was such a good big brother encouraging V.

While the older kids were swimming, the twins were running around. Well, not really running around. Well, yes, actually they were running around, but they weren't running around willy-nilly. I promise we kept a very close eye on them to make sure they didn't jump into the pool. (That's R on the left and C on the right.)

The twins crack me up. There was another little girl on the sidelines about their age and both twins would point to her and sign and say "baby." I wonder if they know that they are babies themselves?...

Later in the week we went to swimming lessons with the kids again and brought the real camera, but only took three photos. Yeah, I don't know what happened there either. But check out how adorbs (adorable) these boys are! (Niece L wasn't feeling well so she stayed home with my mom and the twins.)

Up next from our Utah! Vay-cay Extravaganza (you have to say it like an announcer - it's way more fun that way): weddings! Or maybe the park. Or maybe Raging Waters. Or maybe I don't actually know yet. Just come back in two days and it will be something new. I promise.

Burn Update

2011-06-28T21:28:00.000-04:00

I was burned by bacon two weeks ago today. And let me just say that the human body is amazing! The burn looks really great. Go my body plus modern medicine!

You don't have to scroll down for the photo because I don't think it looks bad anymore. I actually think it looks really great!

Some explanation is necessary here. The purple-y portion in the center is my burn. So is the brown-ish area above the purple-y area. The red area to the side is a rash. Boo. :( It's interesting that the rash stops right at the edge of the new skin from my healing burn. Both the rash and the burn are getting better.

I actually really enjoyed changing my bandage every 12 hours because the burn looked better literally every time I looked at it. The body moves fast! And modern medicine helps it move even faster!

The burn maintenance has been pretty low key. It does take me longer to get ready in the morning (You know with the keeping one leg from getting wet in the shower and all. Oh, and the cleaning and re-bandaging morning and night, too) but that's about it. The burn was doing well enough by Saturday that I bandaged it special and went to Raging Waters with T's family and everything was totally fine! Tons more about our extra long Utah vacation coming soon...

Burned by Bacon

2011-06-16T15:41:00.000-04:00

I love bacon, but bacon doesn't love me. One time I tried to cook bacon in the oven. That didn't work out so well - the bacon caught on fire. Tuesday night I tried to fry bacon on the stove. And I got splattered on my leg. Bad. (Dad, I really like you, so I'm going to post the photo at the very bottom so you don't have to look at it.)

It hurt like crazy! Part of my skin was brown / black and had peeled back. I cooled the burn, cut off the dead skin, then put some burn cream on it and put a giant band-aid on it. And it hurt for the rest of the night. A lot. I wasn't sure if it was a first or second degree burn (a second degree usually blisters, but I didn't see a blister).

Today the burn still hurt and it was red and bloody splotchy looking. I already knew from school that burns need to be kept moist and covered and that burns can become infected very easily. I didn't know what a normal burn was supposed to look like because signs of infection are redness, swelling, and hot, all of which come standard with burns. I really thought I could take care of this on my own, but we are going on vacation soon and I didn't want this burn to mess that up. So after calls to my mom, T, and the ask-a-nurse hotline I went to the insta-care.

Good news, it's not infected. Bad news, it's a big second degree burn. The blister area was actually pretty well defined once I knew what I was looking for. Immediately after the grease hit my leg I automatically tried to use my other foot to brush the grease off and that probably ruptured the blister. More bad news, the burn is bigger than I originally thought (there was a lot of swelling). The burn is slightly too large for the largest band-aid so I have to use gauze and an ace bandage (which makes the burn look way worse than it is). More bad news, I have to keep the burn protected from the sun for about 1.5 months. The actual skin will heal in 2-3 weeks, but it is very vulnerable to scarring and sunburn for 5-8 weeks. Even more bad news, I probably can't swim on our vacation! Booooo. But they did tell me if I wanted to try it, the best way to do it. So we will see...

But I'm glad I went to the insta-care. I got some special cream and told how to care for my burn twice a day and now I don't have to worry about it on vacation.

And now for the photo. If you don't want to see it, don't scroll down any more...

This is at insta-care before treatment. You can see where the grease dripped a bit down my leg and the pretty well defined blister area. The brown isn't dirt, it's dead burnt skin that hasn't fallen off yet. I was hoping to wear sandals to the weddings, but now it looks like I will be wearing boots (seriously, with the ace bandage it looks like my whole leg is burnt).

This is the burn about 8 hours after treatment. Look at that lovely color!

Other things we have been up to that don't quite deserve their own post

2011-06-13T16:52:00.000-04:00

Shortly after Easter T and I explored Union Station.

I LOVE the main corridor. I want to attend or throw some fancy schmancy event here. The space is just gorgeous. That week the space was being used to display DC public school art depicting the cherry blossom festival. Some of those elementary kids are already 10 times more artistically gifted than I am!

In the (extremely smelly) food court T bought me this apple fritter that was as big as my face.

There are quite a few of these signs around and they always make me giggle. The driveway isn't so hidden now! Haha!

On May 14th T and I went to our first roller derby game (match?). We went because one of T's co-workers was playing in the championship game. It was a TON of fun.

A side note: The game was held at National Guard location and we had to go through metal detectors. They were so strict about the no food or drink thing and threw away my bag of Skittles, but didn't look twice at my mace. Am I the only one who finds that a bit odd?

We had no idea what to expect game wise when we went in at all. Really, we both thought there was some kind of ball / net involved. After we got our seats we did some quick googling to find out the basics of the game. There's not a net. Or ball. I won't explain it here, but just know that it's a violent team race around an oval kind of thing. Some of those girls were scary with some pretty serious hip checks! Our team won so that's always good.

We left the roller derby a bit early to attend a D.C. United soccer game literally across the street. D.C. United plays in the old Redskins stadium (the Nationals played there for a couple of seasons, too) and everyone sat in the lowest level.

We attended the tail gate and game with T's co-workers because T's work had free tickets. The game was a tie and ended just as it started to rain. And then it poured all the way home. Like "wipers on as fast as they go and still can't see anything" kind of rain.

Last week we went to an outdoor movie in a park. The parking garage was ridiculously small. My head almost touched the ceiling at our parking spot and elsewhere in the garage the clearance was only 5'1"!!!

Remember how there are no "Welcome to D.C." signs out here? Well, now there is one! This used to be just a blank white sign, but about a week before my parents visited, the welcome sign went up! Yay! They really do want us here! (I took this while T was driving - there's definitely NOT any good places to pull over in this area (due to traffic, not crime!)).

This giant butterfly was hanging out on our screen for several hours during a windstorm.

As you probably know, there are a lot of tour buses in D.C. I spotted this one in Georgetown. who know Mercedes Benz made buses?!

Anyway, if you can't tell, we're having a pretty fantastic time out here.

Three Way Stop

2011-06-11T18:44:00.000-04:00

Have you seen this? You might want to watch it in full screen (grandma, to watch full screen hit play then move the mouse over the movie then click on the arrows to the left of the word "vimeo"). This takes place in NYC, but it could easily be Georgetown here in The District. Those crazy bikers! And peds! And cabbies! It's dangerous out there.

3-Way Street from ronconcocacola on Vimeo.

Heels

2011-06-06T23:01:00.000-04:00

So I don't really need new heels, but these are the pairs I am currently coveting:

Dermani by Ivanka Trump: I love this shade of blue and the knot on the side.

Skyscraper by Christian Louboutin: You might think I'm crazy, but I would LOVE to wear heels this tall.

What shoes are you coveting?

The Chesapeake

2011-06-05T20:48:00.000-04:00

We visited Chesapeake Bay on May Day. The drive there was lovely. There are so many trees all over! I don't think I'll ever get over how many trees there are along the freeways in Virginia.

Keeping with our state sign trend I took this horrible last minute photo through the top of the windshield as we crossed into Maryland. It's interesting that there is an accompanying sign for the governor. What a waste of taxpayer dollars, Maryland!

The Chesapeake Bay is so wide that at times you can't see the other side. But, the Chesapeake is also pretty shallow. A six foot man could walk across about 80% of the Bay.

There were quite a few people digging in the sand. I'm not quite sure what they were digging for...

All along the boardwalk there were benches in honor of so and so. We saw this bench...

And obliged...

Falling

2011-06-03T16:47:00.000-04:00

I'm falling in love with Virginia. This might be premature because we have really only experienced one season here. But the fact of the matter is that spring in Virginia is gorgeous. Ridiculously so. (I have secret hopes that autumn will be even better than spring.) I love all the green (lawns, flowers, trees, trees, and more glorious trees). I love that D.C. doesn't have sky scrapers. I love the thunderstorms. I love that there are SO. MANY. things to do here. I even like the humidity (it reminds me of Iowa and you know how much I love Iowa).

Some other reasons Virginia is pretty freakin' awesome: The state beverage is milk - which is also my favorite beverage! The state bird is the cardinal which everyone knows is the coolest bird right after eagles! The first Thanksgiving was held here in 1618 and Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday! The state motto is "sic semper tyrannis" or "thus always to tyrants." How can you not love a state that has been sticking it to the man since the 1600's?! Basically, the more I know Virginia the more I love her.

Yes, I know that technically Virginia is a commonwealth, but really people, it's not a big deal to call it a state. Let's be real: it's the 50 states. You never hear anyone refer to the 46 states and the 4 commonwealths.

Now here's a little unrelated something to make you smile.

courtesy of tots & giggles

His and Hers

2011-05-31T13:18:00.000-04:00

Things in our house that are his and hers:

Towels
Closets
Milk
Toothpaste
Lasagna

Anyone else have some strange his and hers items?

A Visit by the Parental Units

2011-05-26T23:11:00.000-04:00

My parents came to visit us. I heart them and hope they had a good time. Now for a ridiculous amount of photos.

The Lincoln Monument

This is my second favorite photo of the trip.

The Korean War Memorial

The Vietnam War Memorial

The Postal Museum

He owns this set of stamps...

I pretended to be a trucker.

The Jefferson Monument

Looking out over the incredibly flooded Tidal Basin.

Jefferson is crushing my mom's head! He just needs to flex his biceps and this photo would be perfect!

My mom french braided my hair three times while she was here - LOVE! I can't french braid my own hair. In fact, I can't french braid at all.

The National Cathedral

In Baltimore watching the Orioles play the Nationals.

Our actual seats were in the shade, thank goodness.

Some old family haunts

T on the monkey bars at Somerset Elementary.

Iwo Jima / Marines Memorial - This is my favorite photo of the trip.

My dad took this one of me and T with his phone.

The Supreme Court

Super cool gold elevator doors at the Supreme Court. I am very fascinated by the Supreme Court. I really want to go back in October to see the court in action and hear oral arguments.

Awww, T's first plank was on the air mattress.

Playing darts. My dad was the best, but my mom was the best come from behind player.

We went on a tour of the Capitol, but all the photos are on my parent's camera. We also visited the Holocaust memorial and museum, but photos were not allowed.

We had remarkably good weather the entire time. It was overcast and only rained once. However, we had the worst traffic with my parents that we have ever had in D.C. (except for that time we moved here in a snow storm). My parents were so good to us - they filled up our gas tank, did our dishes, bought us groceries, and took us out to eat several times. We are really glad they came to visit.

You may wonder why T was not in very many photos. He had crazy long hours at work because they are approaching a deadline. He had to work full days on Saturday and Sunday. Booo.

2011-05-26T13:36:00.000-04:00

The roads around here are more than slightly confusing. Sometimes the green freeway signs straight up lie. And in places like this if you don't know already know how to get where you want to go you are just out of luck.

Planking is the new owning fountains

2011-05-15T00:33:00.000-04:00

Basically, if you stand in a fountain and take a photo that means you "own" that fountain. Like this:

Bestie E and I "own" this fountain at a particular college campus. Trust me, I "own" many other fountains.

Anyway, I think I'm going to move on from fountains to planking. The Bulletin explains it best: "Planking involves a person lying flat on their stomach in different environments while another person takes photos, which are then shared among fellow “plankers” via internet sites, including Facebook." Like this:

(photos all from here)

I could plank anywhere! Well, anywhere where I can convince T to take a photo of me proving I did so. Hmmm. This might be harder than I initially thought...

Awww... S's first plank!

Try it, I think you'll like it!

Currently listening to:

2011-05-13T21:34:00.000-04:00

"Uncharted" by Sara Bareilles. Love it!

I love how lots of her songs start with really strong / awesome piano stuff.

P.S. This song totally has the word "kaleidoscope" in it!

National Zoo

2011-05-11T22:02:00.000-04:00

Saturday T and I went to the National Zoo, and like all Smithsonian things, it was free. Seriously, I love all the free things to do in D.C. The zoo really wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be. We went right as the zoo opened so some of the animals weren't out yet.

At the entrance to the zoo. I love that it looks like I am in a jungle and I stumbled across some pretty awesome (and well manicured) ruins.

As T and I were meandering we were talking about how cute and furry baby lion cubs are. T said, "I just want to cuddle one. That's why the millennium is going to be awesome! As soon as it happens I am making a beeline for the zoo!"

See how cute and cuddly:

(from zooborns!)

A red panda. He was so close and so furry; T really wanted to pet him. Some teenage boys going past, who obviously didn't read the signs, thought this was a lemur. Really.

Panda fun!

Getting his noms on.

There were quite a few exhibits closed for construction. This was in front of the partially closed elephant exhibit. I guess we can go back in 2013 to see the monkeys and sea lions.

The opened portion of the elephant enclosure. They look so dirty! I know that the dirt / mud is a sunscreen and also keeps the bugs from biting, though.

This is an orangutan on the "O-line." It's a series of towers in enclosures connected with rope to mimic their natural habitat and ways of moving around. The orangutans can move about freely and the lines actually cross some of the main pathways. Talking about orangutans has totally made me want some cold Tang!

Just after we snapped this photo, the orangutan decided to randomly slide all the way down the hill on his back.

A different form of the self-portrait. I didn't realize there was a scratch on the mirror in front of T's face until just now. :(

That's a crocodile right up against the glass and kids right up against the other side of the glass. Both sides are wondering what it would be like if the glass were not present...

Fact: Polar bears and komodo dragons are the only animals that will actively stalk humans as prey.

Pretty lions.

T really liked this younger lion on the right. He thought it looked like the lion was plotting.

I really liked the cheetah exhibit.

We saw the zoo in about 2.5 hours. The zoo food was totally overpriced, as expected, but there are lots of picnic areas if you want to bring your own lunch. The zoo does have on site parking for $15, but as we were leaving there was a big sign that said "all lots full" so definitely arrive early. We were able to park for free in the neighborhood because it was a weekend. Parking in the zoo neighborhood is always free, it just has a two hour time limit during the week. The zoo was fun, but it was just like any other zoo (well, maybe not like San Diego Wild Animal Park). If you're a tourist on a short visit to D.C. and have a zoo in your hometown, I would skip the National Zoo just because there are so many other things to do that are completely unique to D.C. But if you're on a longer D.C. trip, don't have a zoo in your hometown, or you have kids, I would recommend the zoo.

As we were driving home we saw a sweet parking spot near The White House. So we parked. Hey, when life hands you the gift of a beautiful parking spot in downtown D.C. you take it. This is the backside of The White House. The kitchen garden is just off to the left. Doesn't this picture look so fake?!

Facing away from the back of The White House is the Washington Monument. I have no idea why the auto settings used the flash in this photo - it was crazy bright outside!

We walked all the way around The White House (it's a big property!) to the front, which is much closer to the fence. You can make out a sniper on the roof if you look closely.

We stopped at a gift shop east of The White House where we scored this beautiful ornament for $12.

We have been looking for a White House ornament since we arrived in D.C. Most are the yearly ornaments and we wanted one without a date on it - we won! Now we just need to find a "Virginia is for Lovers" ornament... At this particular gift shop they have a reproduction of the Oval Office - specifically the President's desk - so you can get a very presidential looking photo. I thought it was actually kind of cool and it was only $5, but we were so not looking presidential that day.

Me with Andrew Jackson in the park in front of The White House.

And then we went home and I slept for an hour. Weekend naps are great. The end.

Baby clothes

2011-05-08T19:16:00.000-04:00

Bestie E is going to have a baby - YAY! So I went shopping for some super cute baby outfits. Except it seems like every store only has variations on this theme:

These all came from Target.com, but "cutesy" sayings like these are on almost every single piece of baby / toddler clothing in every store and it needs to end now. Yes, babies are cute, precious, loved, etc. We already know this. We don't need tacky clothing items to tell us that. Yes, your baby is in fact "too cute for words" so for heaven's sake don't put words of any kind on your poor baby's chest. I feel so sorry for babies who are dressed in things like this.

Needless to say, I am still looking for an outfit for Bestie E's baby. Thank goodness I have until fall to find something.

*If you dress your baby in things like this, it's okay. We can still be friends.
*There are a few (a FEW!) baby clothes that have "cutesy" things or sayings on them that are actually cute. But really, the vast majority are horrible.
*I think it is ridiculous when people dress newborns in scratchy clothes or jeans or name brand sneakers. They are newborns, not mini-adults! They should be introduced to the world in soft, comfy clothes - being in the world is already uncomfortable enough as it is.

Also, happy mother's day. My mom is the best!

Now What?

2011-05-06T13:29:00.000-04:00

I made some cookies. They didn't burn to the pan. I used the last of the parchment paper on one pan. The pans looked fine. I put them in the dishwasher like I have many times before. Except this time the pans came out looking like this:

I have no idea what happened. They used to be a beautiful light silver all over without a single burn mark or blemish and now they look like... this. Can we still eat food off of these? Is there any kind of scrubbing that will make them normal again? Should I just toss them? Any idea what made this even happen to begin with?

Washington National Cathedral

2011-05-04T22:30:00.000-04:00

This Saturday was ridiculously gorgeous. It was the first perfect weather day we have had this spring. T and I visited the Washington National Cathedral.

This was our first time visiting and we took the tour and it was wonderful! I highly recommend it. The tour was about 45 minutes. A tour is not required, you can just poke around yourself, but I highly recommend taking the tour before poking around. The tour explains so much and it makes the poking around more interesting because you know what to look for.

This is the center aisle of the Cathedral. We were standing at about the mid-point.

It is the length of two football fields. Even though Westminster Abby's aisle is shorter, no wonder it took Kate over three minutes to walk down the aisle! Every state flag is hanging in the main hall and each Sunday during the services they pray for a different state (also one week for D.C. and one for the nation to finish out the 52 weeks in a year).

The stained glass windows are exquisite; even if taking photos of them is difficult. Some of the stained glass windows are giant. Giant like the people portrayed in them are life size.

Why, yes, that is George Washington in stained glass form.

Clockwise from top left: Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation, Paul Revere's ride, Paratroopers, planting the flag at Iwo Jima.

Windows in the afternoon sun and the pretty colors they put on the pillar.

The space window represents man's flight to the moon. The small circle at the bottom is earth, the straight lines are the flight path, the large circle is the moon. In the center of the moon is an actual moon rock.

This was my favorite window. It looks like a painting I would like to have in our apartment.

Clockwise: A chapel scaled to the size of a six year old; a tapestry with the seals of all 50 states, a seat reserved for a Senator, a cross made from fragments of the Pentagon attacked on 9/11.

If you visit the Washington National Cathedral, go to the seventh floor, there are some great views.

There is so much green around D.C.! Love it! Can't wait to see the fall colors!

The grounds are pretty lovely, too.

We sat for a minute and it felt so good to put my bare feet in the soft grass. I haven't had a chance to do that since I left Utah.

The sky was ridiculously beautiful.

We think we saw the Darth Vader gargoyle. But we couldn't tell for sure because we didn't bring binoculars.

T felt like going to the Lincoln Monument, so we did.

If you're looking for a less crowded photo-op with the epic pillars, head to the backside of the Monument.

The government is re-doing the floor of the reflecting pool along with several other renovations, including my personal favorite World War I Memorial. Hey, it's us with Lincoln! Somewhere I have a photo of us with Lincoln back in 2007 from our first cross country road trip when we first started dating...

It's interesting that one of our most humble Presidents is enshrined in what is essentially a giant Greek temple.

For the record, I think Lincoln was the second greatest President, right behind George Washington.

An epic photo taken by T. As we were leaving, a high school band was playing patriotic songs at the base of the Monument. Pretty cool stuff.

The Vietnam Memorial is near the Lincoln and we visited that as well, though we didn't take any photos. There are big books at both ends of the Memorial that have all the names listed in alphabetical order and their location on the wall, if you are looking for someone specific. The names of the people on the Wall are listed in the order they were killed in Vietnam. The Wall and the things left behind always make me cry.

Then we zipped home to change and headed to the adult session of Stake Conference where they announced our ward split (finally). Our stake re-did the existing boundaries to add three new wards; so we now have 13 wards. We would have had a stake split, but we don't have the property for another stake center yet. Our ward went from 792 members to 430. Our old ward had three nurseries. We were nursery leaders of the oldest kids and we only kept 2 out of 13 kids! That makes me a little sad. Oh, our previous ward was so big, that when they announced the new bishopric for our new ward, I had never seen any of those men in church before. Our meeting time and location didn't change, so no worrying about showing up at the wrong time!

Royal Wedding

2011-04-29T23:06:00.000-04:00

Yes, I totally woke up at 4:40 a.m. to watch the whole thing. And I mean the whole thing, not just the ceremony. Let me tell you why:

I have a major girl crush on Princess Kate. I want to be her American BFF. Kate has never handled herself with anything less than perfect poise and grace. She is so down to earth and utterly queenly at the same time. The royals are lucky to have her. I love that William and Kate love each other and that their mutual adoration is obvious. Oh, and I totally want Kate's hair.

The wedding was so gorgeous and perfect and totally lived up to the hype. William and Kate are so in love, and love, my friends, is a beautiful thing. Here are the things I loved most from the royal wedding:

Victoria Beckham's heels. Where can I get a pair of these?! Those heels will make any girl's legs look fab. And how awesome is she for wearing these heels while seven months pregnant?! The answer is super awesome. David Beckham is looking pretty swell, as well...

Pippa's dress. It was so simple and so fabulous. Her figure is really fabulous, too! Someday soon I hope to look that good.

Kate's dress. It was a complete show stopper. I thought it was absolutely perfect and very Grace Kelly-ish. I love Kate's modern elegant look (especially the pleats!). It is so her vibe. How cool is it that a commoner wore the Queen's tiara?! Kate is just so classy and her whole wedding day reflected that.

The fairy tale feeling. I feel kinda bad for posting this because William isn't smiling here, and in reality it seemed like they both couldn't stop smiling. But this is completely the best photo of the two of them. William and Kate, and the whole wedding, really, seemed like something out of a Disney movie. The best part of this fairy tale is that everything, especially the loving glances between the couple, seemed incredibly genuine.

Two kisses. True story: When I was younger and there was kissing in a movie, my mom would often rewind it and watch the kissing again. I just wanted to skip that part completely. But now the kissing parts in movies are totally my favorite. And real life kissing parts are even better. Thanks, mom!

Kate's reception dress. Love the angora shrug and the jeweled belt. Also, I secretly like that it looks like Camilla is wearing a nightgown - haha! Thanks for bringing sleeves back, Kate!

All photos from here except Pippa's is from here.

Sweet moments:
Kate looking completely calm and poised as she walks down the aisle. She definitely has an inner Char.
William waiting to see Kate in her gown while Harry turns around for a quick peek.
William telling Kate that she looks beautiful when she meets him at the top of the aisle.
William saying to Kate's father, "I thought this was supposed to be a small family affair."
William and Kate constantly looking at each other and smiling.
The prayer that William and Kate wrote for their wedding.
Kate's soft emotional voice as she says her vows.
Kate's "Oh, my!" as they step onto the balcony at Buckingham Palace and she sees the massive crowds.
William saying, "I love you" to Kate just before he kisses her for the second time.
William and Kate looking like a normal just married couple driving a decorated convertible (except said convertible is an Aston Martin!).

You know I think that my wedding was the most perfect wedding in the history of the universe, but I do believe that William and Kate's wedding topped it. Barely.

23 months

2011-04-23T23:27:00.000-04:00

Because we all know that 23 is the best day to get married and also the best anniversary month to celebrate. Or something like that. I really can't believe that next month will be two years for us!

* There is a new non wedding post underneath this one if you're tired of our wedding.*

These photos are from my brother W.

W and K totally have the self photo thing down pat.

Everyone loved playing in the fountain. And no one even fell in!

I have no idea who watched all the kids during the actual wedding because their parents were all inside the temple. Was it the grandparents on the other side? If you know how this worked out please let me know. It was like magic.

LOVE all the pink dresses!

These girls totally ham it for the camera. They are way more grown up now, but are still as adorable as ever.

I have no idea what was so hilarious as we came out of the temple. Also, check out those ginormous perfect shade of pink roses!

This is kind of a paparazzi shot. The hand getting the crowd back, the flowers blocking my face...
I also like this photo because I look way skinny.

It's like a rock concert for babies. Except they don't have any lighters. And there's not actually any music.

I was holding T's hand crazy tight the entire time.

With Elder Teixeira, who married us, and his wife. They are such wonderful people!

It makes my heart glow how much W and K love their girls. Their newest baby, E, isn't in any of these photos, but I feel like she should be because she was born on our one year anniversary.

I was ridiculously giddy once the actual getting married part was over.

People wrangling is hard.

LOVE these people SO much!

A close up so you can see everyone's pretty faces.

The roses were so big that a few of the blooms snapped off. This one is for niece M to match the other nieces.

Check out the post directly under this one - it's new, too!

If you feel like re-living our wedding check out the other months: four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11, the whole wedding, a year!, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 21 and 22. As always there will be more next month, along with my wedding memories.

The latest goings on

2011-04-22T22:46:00.000-04:00

Alternate Title: I'm So Vain, You Probably Think This Post Is About Me

We went to the D.C. temple last night for the first time. It is gorgeous. It feels like you have to drive through the woods to get there, so that was fun, too. There were so many tulips and the temple seriously looked like it was glowing. I couldn't stop smiling.

If you come at the temple from the freeway (a different way than we came) you go around a bend and all of a sudden out of nowhere this is what you see:

(photo from here)

I'm sure it has caused a few accidents. As I recall, as you go around a freeway bend in San Diego, the temple suddenly pops into view as well. Both temples are both show stoppers. Anyway, we were glad we went, it was good for us.

I have had my nails painted bright red (well, red orange-ish) for the last two weeks. I love them this color. Every time I look down, they are just so much fun!

The nail polish color perfectly matches my new H&M dress that I bought in NYC. Oh, what? You didn't know I went to NYC recently? Well, I did. I'll blog about it soon. I think.

You can't tell where my nails end and the dress starts. Oh, and I love these shoes. You might remember them from their unique Christmas wrapping. They are so fierce and surprisingly comfortable. Also, my toes are not the same shade as my nails... Is that a faux pas? I don't know. Please discuss amongst yourselves.

Every week I make some kind of desert. The last four have all been disasters.

First was maple spice bars that I imagined would taste like spice cake. But they SO did not. We each ate one then threw the rest away, they were so bad.
Second was lemon graham bars. I thought these would taste like lemon bars but with a graham cracker crust. Not even close, though the crust part was good - it's hard to ruin a graham cracker crust.
Next was chocolate chip cookies. I used a new recipe. T liked them, but I only ate two. They were so not winners. They were very flat and very bland.
This week was mini chocolate bundt cakes. The cake part was fine. But the mini bundt part wasn't. I greased three of the molds by hand and did the rest with PAM since it was faster. Only the three that I greased by hand came out of the mold. The rest tasted fine, but literally had no shape. Oh, I also ruined the frosting. I can only make frosting if I follow my mom's instructions exactly and this time I tried to wing it. Did I mention that I don't really like chocolate? Disastrous (for me at least - T liked them just fine, even though it was essentially a bunch of big crumbs with drippy frosting on top).

You might ask why I keep making things that I don't know if we'll like. The reason is I have 62 dessert recipes and 18 pie recipes bookmarked online and countless recipes marked in cookbooks to try. I've got to start making a dent in that list. Here's hoping that next week I can break my yucky streak.

We dyed raw Easter eggs tonight. We dyed them raw because neither of us likes boiled eggs or egg sandwiches. And since there are no little people about we don't have to worry about cracking the raw eggs.

You better believe that I'm going to make T hide them for me to find tomorrow. Egg hunts are the best. So is T for doing this for me. We did this last year, too. What? It's not just for little kids. Though, I am kind of bummed that I'm missing the big dying and hunt party with all the grandbabies in my family.

Last Saturday T and I went to the National Museum of American History on the National Mall. That will get a separate blog post next week.

And now you're all caught up on our ever so exciting lives.

2011-04-18T16:46:00.000-04:00

That's the reality, people.

In downtown D.C. it is $4.89 a gallon. Note to self: NEVER run out of gas in the District.

The Best Day

2011-04-14T15:58:00.000-04:00

I wrote this in April 2010 and am just now posting it...

Our life is pretty fabulous. It's definitely not perfect, but it's still pretty amazing.

The first best day of my life I'm sure was with my mom. I don't remember one day specifically, but I have so many happy memories wrapped up in my mom that it seemed like every day was the best day. It's like Taylor Swift's song "The Best Day."

If you want to see the video that Taylor made for her mom click here.

I love best days because you don't have to decide which day is the absolute best because they all are...

In high school when I won every single award at the senior banquet.
The last day at USC with the freshman family.
That one day during winter break January 2008 when I finally told T I loved him back.
Christmas Day 2008 when T asked me to marry him.
May 23, 2009 when I married T in the best wedding in the history of the universe.
Then most recently a perfectly lazy and blissed out Saturday.

Anyway, to quote a four year old: "We have the luckiest life." We really do.