Valent9's Day

Happy Valentine's Day.  We love our life and each other and you!

This is the picture we were going to use for our V-day postcard this year, but as you probably know because you didn't get one, we didn't get around to printing them out this year.  But I had to show you the picture because it took an insane amount of time to get to this simple photo (we started with almost a completely different concept and a ridiculously difficult camera angle).  Next year we'll be more on top of it.  Maybe.

Confessions

I want to see Disney on Ice, even though I am an adult.

I ate popsicles for dinner.

I still hope I will grow taller.

I've never seen The Goonies. And I never plan to.

32

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

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.

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?

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

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!