Jessica Wigington

Holy Land Tour-Day 5

2011-08-21T13:17:00.009-04:00

Today we went to Bethany and went to the church that marks the traditional site where Mary, Martha and Lazarus lived.

This is the tomb where Lazarus was buried. It was much deeper than I thought it would be, he really had quite a climb out of there.

'O Jerusalem' -this is a view from Panoramic Point

We walked through the Mount of Olives and along the path that Christ walked on Palm Sunday to get to Mary and Martha's house. We walked to the Orson Hyde Park along that path.

This church marks the traditional site of where the Last Supper took place in the Upper Room.

This is the location of where Caiaphas' palace was. The top of this church has a rooster weather vane to symbolize Peter denying Christ before the cock crew.

This is the orignial dungeon where Christ spent the last night before his crucifixion. It broke my heart to hear how he suffered there. It was a very spiritual experience, I felt so strongly how much the Savior truly loves us. He didn't have to suffer through all of that for himself, he did it for each one of us.
To the left of this photo is Potter's Field, which was purchased with 30 pieces of silver that Judas gave back. On the right is where Judas hanged himself.
The Garden Tomb

This is where we believe Golgatha, or Skull of the Rock to be.

The Garden Tomb is another place where I felt the spirit very strongly. Presidents Lee, Kimball and Monson all testified that this is indeed the place where Christ was risen. We had a devotional here in garden where we sang 'I Believe in Christ' and had a testimony meeting. It was such a wonderful experience. My testimony grew so much on this trip!!!

Holy Land Tour-Day 4

2011-07-31T21:22:00.007-04:00

Today we started out at the Temple of Herod where we went to the 'Wailing Wall'. This is where the Jews go to pray. They write their prayers down and stuff them in the crackes of the wall. After you go to touch the wall, you walk backwards away from it as not to turn your back on God. I liked that symbolism.

We walked through the tunnel that went along the western wall. We got to see and touch some of the original foundation of the temple.

A lot of women stop in here to pray, they believe it is in front of the tunnel that leads to the place where the Holy of Holies was kept. It is the closest they can get to it.

After the tunnel we went up above and saw where the Muslims worship. Here we are in front of the Dome of the Rock, where the Muslim women go to worship. It is thought to be built on Mt Moriah, where Abraham to Ishmael (they believe it was Ishmael, not Isaac) to be sacrificed.

This is the spot above where the Holy of Holies is thought to have been in the temple.

This is the Pool of Bethesda, where Christ healed the lame man on the Sabbath. It is pretty big, it was divided into sections. It is amazing how much of it is still there.

This is inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, this is the traditional site where Jesus was thought to have been crucified.

This is the Stone of Anointing where crusaders claim Jesus' body was prepared for burial.

This is the Holy Sepulchre where it is believed that Christ rose from the dead. It is a beautiful church and very elaborate, but I have to say, I like the Garden Tomb idea much better-but we'll talk more about that on day 5 of the tour!

On the ramparts we...walked! I never really thought about what a rampart was when singing the Star Spangled Banner, but this gives a new perspective. We walked along the ramparts of the temple that were built by the crusaders, we had a lot of fun on this treck! Here I am in one of the windows that had a little opening in it for shooting arrows.

Holy Land Tour-Day 3

2011-07-21T18:48:00.005-04:00

Our stop this morning was the Garden of Gethsemane. What a beautiful place that was! We had a devotional there and we sang "I Stand All Amazed" (my favorite hymn!) and there was such strong spirit there. After the devotional we had free time to find a secluded place to sit and read, study, ponder, pray, etc. The Garden, though walled, is right next to a busy street so it was as quite and peaceful as I would have hoped, but I still greatly enjoyed the time I was able to spend there as I reread the of Christ's suffering in Mattehew and Luke. I really do 'stand all amazed' at the love Jesus has for each of us and I felt that love many times on this trip as I walked the paths that he walked and beheld with my own eyes the places where significant things in his life took place. The tree that I am standing in front of is called a witness tree because it is over 2000 years old so it would have witnessed Christ's suffering in the Garden, kind of neat to think about.

After visiting the Garden we went to church at the BYU Jerusalem Center. Behind the pulpit on the stand is all windows that look out over the city, it is an amazing view!

From the church we headed toward Bethlehem. We stopped along the way at a little Bedouin tent restaurant where had a wonderful traditional meal.

Next we stopped at Shepherd's Fields, and the Shepherd's Church, the tradional site where the shepherd's received the glad tidings that Christ was born. We sang "O, Little Town of Bethlehem"-so fitting right!

We went to the Church of the Nativity which is the oldest church in all of Christendom. It was built over a little cave which is believed to be the manger where Christ was born. Here we are down in the manger.

We celebrated the end of Shabbot by going to Ben Yehuda Street. The had live music, street vendors, entertainers and food-including delicious gelato!! Our group randomly pulled out a camera case string and started a limbo competition in the street. The people there loved it! We drew a bigger crowd than the fire thrower!

Holy Land Tour-Day Two

2011-07-20T20:46:00.012-04:00

Today we drove to the City of David where we walked through Hezekiah's Tunnel. The history behind that was amazing! The tunnel served many purposes, one being to make getting water easier and safer for the women. The tunnel was built very quickly; they started digging on both ends and worked toward the middle. There is a plaque showing where they met up with each other. We got to walk through the tunnel! It was awesome! There is still water flowing through it so we got to wade through about a foot of water. My favorite part was when we turned off all of our flashlights and stood there in the pitch black and sang 'Lead, Kindly, Light'-what an amazing feeling! Outside of the tunnell was the Pool of Siloam where Jesus told the blind man to wash his eyes after he put mud on them. Only one corner of the pool is uncovered. I sat on the original steps of the pool!!!

We drove toward Jericho and stopped to look out over the Wadi Kelt (or the Valley of the Shadow of Death). This is the location of the parable of the Good Samaritan. From here you can see the traditional site of the Mount of Temptation where Satan tempted Jesus Christ. I got to take a small donkey ride here.

We stopped by a big sycamore tree which is thought to be the sycamore tree that Zacchaeus climbed to see Jesus coming.

That evening we went to the 'Wailing' Wall and watched the Jews bring in Shabbot (their Sabbath). We weren't allowed to take pictures so I don't have any documentation, but it was a great experience. We walked down and touched the wall, after you touch the wall you have to walk backward as a sign of respect, that you won't turn your back on God. People write down their prayers and then stuff them into the cracks of the wall. They sing and dance too, the men are on one side and the women are on the other.

Holy Land Tour-Day One

2011-07-20T20:18:00.008-04:00

The beginning of a great trip begins with long flights and layovers. We finally landed in Tel Aviv at 1:30am, but our bus didn't come to pick up our group until 2:30pm so we we found a nice corner bench to settle on for the night.

Our first adventure after getting settled and eating dinner was to walk to 'Old Jerusalem'. We walked through the Gate of Damascus, which was having a light festival at the time. We also walked through the markets along the traditional 'Via Dolorosa'.

A Very Good Day!

2011-05-01T21:36:00.010-04:00

Those of you who know me well know that I hate running! It will most likely surprise you to learn that I ran my first 5k this past Friday. Yes, crazy I know!! It all started about mid March during a time of pondering and reflection. I decided that I needed to set a short-term goal for myself that would stretch and challenge me a little bit and that would give me a sense of accomplishment. The next day a friend from my ward posted an email on our listserve about some 5k's that would be going on here in Crystal City. At first I thought, bleh, I am not a runner, but the more I thought about it I realized it was just what I was looking for. It was a short goal that I could accomplish in a small amount of time, and it was something that I would really have to challenge myself at to achieve. I immediately wrote him back and said 'I'm in! Consider this a committment so I don't talk myself out of it!' There was a 5k every Friday at 6:30 during the month of April, I chose to do the last one so that I would have lots of time to train for it (and inevitably procrastinate). I went on a few runs over the course of a couple of weeks and I gradually began to feel more confident, that is until I showed up at the actual race! There were over 1300 runners that day and I felt like a fish out of water. I looked around me and saw all of these runners stretching and warming up. I felt like I didn't fit in there at all and that everyone could tell that I wasn't really a runner. Now I know that this wasn't the case, I was just psyching myself out. I said a prayer and asked for strength, endurance and to be able to just have a fun time and not worry about it. I wasn't there to race, I wasn't trying to beat anyone, I was just there for me and I wanted to do the best I could. I went into the race with two goals, I wanted to finish the race in under 40 minutes and I wanted to be able to run the whole thing without having to stop or walk. I am happy to report that my finishing time was 28:55 and I did run the whole thing!! And on a side note, I had a lot of fun too! My roommates Jenny and Crystal came to support me and cheer my on, I couldn't have done it without them!! It was so fun to see them at different places along the route, I am so blessed to have such great friends!!

After the race Jenny and I drove 45 minutes to Olney, MD to the newly opened Cafe Rio (the first one on the East coast!) where Jenny treated me to a sweet pork salad-my favorite!!! YUM!!! What a perfect way to end a great day!!!

Happy Birthday Little Brookie!!

2011-04-13T18:05:00.009-04:00

True Statement!! :)

Brooklyn's 1st birthday!!!

Brookie's new outfit from Aunt Jessica-she was so excited she started clapping!

Isn't she SO cute!!! I just love the baby 'jeggings'!!

Brooklyn just loves the slide! She is all ready to race Caleb!

A Glimpse of the Cherry Blossoms...

2011-04-13T17:45:00.008-04:00

Here are a few picks I got of the Cherry Blossoms this year.

Happy Birthday Caleb!!

2011-02-06T20:18:00.007-05:00

My cute nephew turns 2 years old on Tuesday and this weekend we celebrated his birthday. Julie made a fabulous basketball birthday cake, Caleb loved it! I am so glad that I got to be there to celebrate with all of them. For Caleb's birthday present I gave him a little Doctor's kit. It was fun to play with him and see him use it, now he can be just like his dad! I just love those cute kids!!

NYC at Christmas Time!

2011-01-03T18:14:00.017-05:00

My roommate Jenny and I 'planned' a spontaneous trip to NYC on December 18. We basically decided to go two days before while we were G-chatting at work. We booked our bus tickets and we took a day trip up to the Big Apple! We took a taxi at 3:00am to the bus station where we caught the 3:30 Chinatown bus. We thought we would just sleep on the bus, well that would have been a good idea if I didn't have miss 'Thang' with a serious attitude sitting behind me! I tried to recline my seat back (and lets be honest, it's not like they really lean back that far), but she immediately yelled at me "Don't you be puttin' yo seat back! You'll smash my knees!" I still have yet to figure out how her knees could have been up that high that they would be in the way. Oh well. The funniest part was toward the end when her camera bag fell off the top rack and landed on my head (now take into consideration that I basically sat at a 90 degree angle trying to sleep for the last 4 hours and was exhausted when this happened) so I turned around and glared at her. She immediately yelled at me for glaring at her because it's not like she did it on purpose! I just turned back around and tried one more time to go to sleep. We arrived in NYC around 8:00 and the adventure began. We got some breakfast from a nice Kosher bagel place and then made our way through Central Park. We were lucky that the weather wasn't too cold, it was great! We walked by The Plaza Hotel and into FAO Schwartz toy store, what a fun store! They have awesome (and very expensive) toys there! We headed over to Rockfeller Center and saw the big Christmas tree and the decorations that surrounded the area. It was SO crowded, definitely not like Home Alone2! We went over to Bryant Park and walked through their little Christmas shops and watched some ice skaters out on the rink. After that we were ready for lunch so we went to this great Italian place called "OTTO", it is run by Mario Batali (of the Food Network). It is set up like an old train station, it was great and the food was really good too!! After lunch we walked by Bloomingdale's, Saks 5th Ave and Macy's to see their window displays. Macy's won hands down with the best window displays ever! Each window was a 3D, animated page of the storybook "Yes, Virginia There is a Santa Claus" and it was so cute! After strolling through the store we went to Grand Central Station to check that out and then we went back over to Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas tree all lit up at night. We caught the 7:30 bus back to DC and got home just after midnight. It was a long and wonderful day! Jenny is the best person to travel with because she knows all the great places to visit and she has an amazing sense of direction, all I have to do is follow along!! (She is also a lot of fun to be with!)

Disney Western Carribean Cruise

2011-01-02T19:57:00.006-05:00

I had the awesome privilege of going on a 7-Night Western Carribean cruise with my parents and little sister, Tinique the week after Thanksgiving. We had a huge blast! Here our some pics of the cruise!! I have a lot more on Facebook with a more details.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

2010-11-26T09:41:00.009-05:00

This year for Thanksgiving my roommate Kimberly and I decided that it would be fun to take on the task of hosting the Thanksgiving meal. Neither of us had ever really done a turkey by ourselves before and I was excited for this opportunity; I feel so grown up! We invited just a few friends over, there were seven of us total, and it was a good sized group for our first Thanksgiving. We gave everyone a food assignment and they all did an amazing job! Aside from everyone running late, Thanksgiving went off without a hitch! Surprisingly, it wasn't even stressful, we gave ourselves plenty of time to get everything ready and we cleaned up as we went along and by the time 2:00 came around all we had to do was carve the turkey. I think that Kimberly and I did a great job on our first turkey. While we ate we went around the table and expressed what we were thankful for, I am so thankful for my family and the many wonderful people that surround me in my life! I am truly blessed! After dinner we loaded the dishwasher and put food away and then we sat around talking until the subject of 'the worm' (a dance move) came up, our friend Ally gave us all a wonderful demonstration of how to do 'the worm' which was followed by everyone taking turns trying it out-what better way to make room for pie??? After eating the delicious pie we topped off the night by going to "Tangled" in 3D and can I just say that it is a fabulous movie and I think that everyone should it!! I was laughing my head off the whole time!! I definitely missed not being with family for Thanksgiving but this was definitely the best alternative that I could have hoped for!! Thank you everyone!!!

Monticello!!

2010-11-14T16:15:00.009-05:00

I have been wanting to go to Monticello for some time now and now I can finally say that I have been there! I was especially lucky because I was able to make it down there in the fall and not only was the property beautiful but the drive down and back was also beautiful! I just love the fall!!! I went down with my friend Kyle and we had a great time visiting Thomas Jefferson's home. The home itself is amazing, he spent 40 years building, adding onto and renovating the place. His property is some 5,000 acres and it is incredible! We took a tour of the house and then walked around the property. Thomas Jefferson was a very intelligent man and he dabbled in many areas of expertise. He invented a lot of things for convenience sake and it was neat to see some of those inventions he came up with. We walked down to the little cemetary and saw his tombstone as well as others in his family. We went through the visitor center and learned even more about Mr Jefferson. After our visit to Monticello was complete we went over to Michie Tavern where we enjoyed a late lunch. This tavern is a historical place where Jefferson himself went to eat on occasion. It has been around since 1784! It was a buffet of home cooked food that would have been eaten back in the day, it included: fried chicken, pulled pork, mashed potatoes and gravy, biscuits, cornbread, coleslaw, stewed tomatoes, and green beans-oh and the best apple cider ever! We ate off of metal plates and drank from tin cups and the workers were all dressed up in outfits from Thomas Jefferson's time. It was an all around amazing experience!!

Weekend in Philadelphia!!

2010-10-27T17:05:00.014-04:00

My roommate Kimberly and I went to Philly for the first time this past weekend and we had a blast! On our way to our friends house that night we accidentally took a wrong exit as we entered the city and ended up right by the Philadelphia Art Museum. We did what any normal human beings would do...we parked the car, put 'Eye of the Tiger' on speaker and ran up and down the steps! We weren't nearly as cool as the little boy after us who was making his own 'Rocky' theme music while he ran up the stairs! So cute!!

On Saturday we got up super early and drove an hour to Lancaster (Amish Country) and we went to the Shady Maple Smorgasbord! It was fantastic!! All you can eat breakfast buffet and they had everything you could possibly eat for breakfast! I love breakfast food so I was in heaven!! I even tried the 'scrapple' (a Philly dish that is made up of pork byproducts and cornmeal, it is made into a pudding and then fried), it was alright, not my fav!

After breakfast, since we had to go by it again anyway to get into the city we decided to stop at the 'Rocky Steps' again and get some better pictures in the daylight. Here are some of the highlights...

Where's the Love???

We went to City Hall (which was closed), Independence Hall (which we were too late to get tickets to) and the Liberty Bell.

Of course you can't go to Philly without getting a Philly Cheesesteak!

Drewry's Bluff

2010-10-16T15:06:00.004-04:00

We went to Drewry's Bluff in Richmond and walked the trail in the rain! If the Union hadn't got a hold of this fort they might not have won the war.

Best Buddies!!

Ready, Aim, Fire!!!

Let it Be Known!

2010-10-16T14:58:00.004-04:00

I am Caleb's favorite Aunt!!! Hearing him say my name is my favorite sound in the world!

Need a Little Spice in Your Life?

2010-10-10T14:58:00.004-04:00

Halloween has been quickly approaching and my roommate Kimberly and I have been racking our brains as to what to be. Since we are basically inseparable we wanted to come up with a great costume idea that we could do as a duo. We finally came up with the idea to be salt and pepper shakers. We bought some matching metal collanders to resemble the top of the shakers and then we wore black and white outfits with duct tape letters. It was a pretty simple and easy idea. We tested them out at our 'Fall Festival' last night and got some great reactions. Some people had a hard time determining what we were, we had one person look at the collander's and then down at the 'S' and 'P' and asked if we were spaghetti! Nope, try again. Some people thought we were using the collander's to prevent aliens from reading our minds; I guess they could serve that purpose too, I don't think any aliens read my mind the whole time I was wearing it. We did get a lot of positive comments about our costume and we actually got 2nd place in the costume contest!

So the World May Hear...

2010-09-29T18:45:00.007-04:00

I had the wonderful opportunity to volunteer with the Starky Hearing Foundation as they gave out 125 hearing aids to deaf people in the DC area. (Starkey travels all over the world donating hearing aids to people who would not otherwise be able to get them) My friend Justin got me involved with the organization and I am so grateful that I got to be a part of this life changing event. I got to help out in the counseling area. I taught the recipients how to use, care for and protect their hearing aids. It was great to see how excited these kids got as they began to hear, some of them for their first time. If you want to be a 'Hearing Angel' and help children have the chance to hear, go to: http://www.oliveosmond.com/

The Legwarmers!!!

2010-09-29T18:12:00.004-04:00

On Friday some friends and I put on our best 80's attire and went to see The Legwarmers (an 80's coverband) perform. It was totally RAD!!! They played tons of great songs from the 80's and they were a blast to watch. We got there a little early and made our way to the very front, right by the stage. We were so close that when they came to the edge of the stage we could reach out and touch their guitars! My roommate Kimberly and I both caught one of their guitar picks. We were right by one of the speakers and it took all the next day before we felt like we could hear normally again. But it was totally worth it!!! So fun!!!!

Home Sweet Home!

2010-09-11T22:35:00.003-04:00

I got the chance to go home for awhile back in August. I flew out of Richmond with my sister Julie and her two kids. We had a wonderful time visiting our family and friends. Our days were filled with fun and excitement. We shucked barrels of corn and bagged over 150 quarts of it at my grandparents house. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows in the fire pit in the backyard, Caleb was a little unsure about the fire. We played the Wii, went for walks, went grocery shopping and played games. It was a wonderful vacation!!!

Amazing Shenandoah Camping Adventure

2010-08-11T14:32:00.009-04:00

I was randomly invited to go on an overnight camping trip with a group of people (most of whom I did not know) to Shenandoah. We left Friday evening and got there just before 9:00. My new friend Cody made us some delicious tinfoil dinners; of course they took forever to cook so we roasted s'mores while we patiently waited. It was so great to be sitting around a campfire again, that is something we did a lot back in Logan but it's harder to do out here in Virginia. I loved it! I woke up early in the morning to use the bathroom and on my way back I saw a young buck. He walked right up to me and we just stared at each other. If I had been a couple of inches closer I could have reached my hand out and touched him. I got into my tent to grab my camera and as I did so he followed me and walked right up to the tent window and looked in. When I came out with my camera he started walking away, apparently he is a little camera shy, so this is the best shot I could get of him. Breakfast was a treat! My new friend Merideth brought fruit and toaster strudels which we heated up by balancing them with two sticks over a small camp stove. I thought it was ingenious!! We hiked a short distance along the Appalachian Trail and got a great view of Shenandoah. We hiked along the Cedar Run Falls Trail to a natural waterslide-which was SO much fun!! Here are some great shots.

New York, New York

2010-07-23T18:15:00.000-04:00

I have been on the east coast now for almost a year and I had not made it up to New York City yet. So my birthday wish this year was to take a trip up there. My two roommates were very obliging and were great to accompany me. To avoid toll roads and parking fees, we decided it would be much easier to take the mega bus, which was actually pretty nice and we could all nap at the same time! We left Friday morning and made pretty good time. My roommate Jenny works for GWU and got us a great deal on a hotel just a couple of blocks from Times Square (it was much nicer than the hostel I stayed in last time I went to NYC)!! It was a most fortunate coincidence that NYC was having their restaurant week at the same time we were there. There were hundreds of restaurants participating in this event, and we finally narrowed it down to a nice restaurant that was just a few blocks from our hotel called 'Club 21'. It was the nicest restaurant I have ever eaten at in my life. As we were being seated, the waiter pulled out our chairs and pushed them in for us, I don't think that we ever got half way through our water without a refill and the atmosphere was beautiful, even the bathroom was amazing...it had nice sofas inside and it was perfectly clean. There was even an attendant there just waiting to give you a fresh, real clean towel after you washed your hands. Jenny got a picture of Crystal and I touching up our lipstick!

Phantom of the Opera

2010-07-23T17:42:00.006-04:00

Our next stop was Broadway!! Jenny and I got tickets to Phantom of the Opera and Crystal went to see the Lion King. Since we were doing dinner and a show we decided that we needed to dress up for the occasion so we put on our 'little black dresses' and got all dolled up! It was SO much fun!! I bought a pair of new heels for the occasion and as we were walking down the street this random lady stopped me and said, "I know this is a really weird request, but can I take a picture of your feet? I am a photographer and I just love those shoes!" I told her that she could and so she had me pose my feet at just the right angle and then she took a picture of them. I guess they were a good investment...maybe I should charged her... :) The opera was amazing! I have always loved the music of Phantom of the Opera and it was great to see it live! After the show we walked around Times Square and got to experience a little of the night life before we walked back to our hotel.

Central Park, etc...

2010-07-23T17:23:00.020-04:00

On Saturday we toook a nice stroll through Central park, (after our train took a little detour to Harlem...eek!) that park is ginormous!! We walked by the waterfall, turtle pond, Belvedere Castle, Shakespeare Garden, the Boathouse and the famous fountain from 'Enchanted' , 'Home Alone 2', etc. We spent a couple of hours walking through the park and I loved it! We even passed by a wedding ceremony, right off of a jogging trail, no thank you. After our fabulous walk in the park we went over to Penn Station where we got some lunch, then we went to Macy's-the world's largest department store! We sauntered through the first floor looking at ties and expensive jewelry, we then made our way up to the shoe department and then to housewares. Of course we rode up and down on the wooden escalators, simple joys! We were going to ride the Staten Ferry, but the subway had changed some of their routes and we ended up in Brooklyn! We got off the train there and waited over half an hour for a train to take us back. By then we were pretty exhausted so we went back to the hotel to relax before we went to dinner. We weren't sure what we were going to do for dinner so we just walked around until we found a nice place that wasn't too pricey. We ended up going to a cute little Italian restaurant called Caffe Cielo, apparently Oprah ate there and enjoyed it so we thought we would give it a shot. They did not disappoint, it was really good! After we ate dinner we walked around for awhile and ended up Rockefeller Center, where we sat down by the fountain and just took it all in! It was wonderful! On Sunday we went to a singles ward in Union Square. It was not your typical church building, it was in levels, like everything else in NYC. It was kind of different. After church we grabbed some sandwiches and headed to the bus stop and made our way back home. Visiting NYC was a blast, but it definitely made me appreciate living in DC SO much more! DC is a lot cleaner and not nearly as crowded. I absolutely love living here!! Jenny got me a birthday cupcake from Magnolia Bakery. It was so great! All in all, my birthday weekend was everything I hoped for...and then some!! Thanks to everyone who helped to make it special!! I love you all!!!

Quick Trip to Palmyra

2010-07-12T14:39:00.019-04:00

So my sister called me a couple of weeks ago and asked if I would be interested in going up to Palmyra for the Hill Cumorah pageant with her and her family. Of course my answer was YES!! They came up to my house from Richmond on Thursday evening and we drove up to Gettysburg and spent the night there. They hadn't been to Gettysburg before so we explored the visitor center on Friday morning before making the long trek up to Palmyra. Since the pageant starts kind of late we didn't want to bring the kids out so we decided to go in shifts. I got the short straw and had to on Friday night in the rain. Not really, my friend Emily had come up for the pageant that night and I met her there so I wouldn't have to sit all by myself. It rained for quite awhile just before the program started, but after the opening prayer it only sprinkled for a little while, I didn't even need my umbrella. The pageant was AMAZING!!!! I had the most wonderful time there and the spirit was so strong. Julie and Austin went on Saturday night while I stayed back to put the kids to bed. They are so cute!! On Saturday morning we headed to the Palmyra Temple first. We walked around the grounds and got some pictures there. It is really beautiful! From there we drove over to Joseph Smith's house and went on a tour there. I can't believe that such a large family lived in something so small. One of my favorite things was walking through the Sacred Grove. Although there were a lot of people passing through, it still had a very calm and peaceful feeling. It truly is a sacred place and I will always remember the way I felt there. I even heard the bees humming and the sweet birds singing! What a wonderful and beautiful place!! Another thing we got to do was tour the Grandin Printing Press where the firstBook of Mormon was printed. It was amazing to see all of the steps it took to produce the Book of Mormon. I absolutely loved my trip to Palmyra!! It was especially great to spend time with Julie, Austin, Caleb and Brooklyn.

Slip n' Slide Extravaganza

2010-07-06T18:17:00.007-04:00

Since it gets ridiculously hot and humid out here my neighbors at the 'Tramp House' decided to celebrate our independence by having a Slip n' Slide Extravaganza!! They bought a roll of plastic that was 8x100 feet and layed it out on their lawn with two sprinklers and a kiddie pool. It was great fun, although today I am definitely feeling the effects of hurling myself at the ground. I don't remember it hurting so much as a kid...I guess I am just getting too old for that stuff! And of course what would a party be without food? These guys had a fabulous barbecue which included homemade hamburgers with all the fixins. We were all supposed to bring a salad or dessert...I went with the traditional Jello cake although I don't like doing the traditional flag shape because I think that the blueberries need to be spread out over the cake and not just in the corner.

This will show you what a horrible slip n' skidder I am!! I never made it down to the pool!

A Capitol Fourth Celebration

2010-07-05T21:40:00.017-04:00

So for the Fourth of July I went to the Capitol for DC's big concert and fireworks. We sat in the hot sun for hours before the concert actually started. We played cards, had a picnic and we got to watch Gladys Knight warm up. The concert was fantastic, it included stars like David Archuletta, Reba McIntire, Darius Rucker, Gladys Knight and John Schneider. The fireworks were also incredible, it was great to see all the fireworks going off above the Washington Monument. What a sight!! I am so lucky!!

The National Memorial Day Concert

2010-05-30T23:23:00.012-04:00

So tonight there was a special concert held on the lawn of the Capitol. It was free and open to the public. It was the National Memorial Day Concert, also broadcasted nationwide on PBS. It featured the National Symphony Orchestra along with special guests: Lionel Richie, Yolanda Adams, the Allstate guy and, my personal fav, Brad Paisley, just to name a few. It was co-hosted by Joe Montegna and Gary Sinise. We got there about two hours early to get a decent spot for our blankets. It was a pretty hoppin' place! The program was phenomenal, and very touching too; they honored all of our armed forces as well as their families and they had a special tribute to widows of fallen soldiers as well. I am proud to be an American!! I am so blessed to have such amazing opportunities to attend great things like this. I have learned so much by living here in our nations capital! I love it so much!!! Everyday holds something new and exciting!!

Monuments by Night

2010-05-30T16:53:00.007-04:00

For Amanda and Morgan's last night in the District they wanted to be able to see the monuments all lit up at night. We had a blast going around to all the monuments and memorials, as you can see by the pictures, we got a little crazier the later it got!!

Gettysburg

2010-05-30T16:22:00.008-04:00

While my friends were here we decided to head up to Gettysburg, PA-a place I had never been before. That was a great decision because it was an incredible experience! There is SO much to see there, I wish we would have had more time to spend there. I guess I will just have to go back! We started off at the museum at the visitor center. They have a museum there has lots of information and artifacts from the Civil War period, I learned a lot more about the war. They have a great documentary about the Civil War and how awful it was and some of the things that went on during that time at Gettysburg. It is heart wrenching! After you watch the film they take you upstairs to the Cyclorama, which is a painting that goes in a circle and is 43 ft high and 377 ft in circumference. It was beautiful and so realistic, I felt like I could almost reach out and touch one of the people in it. This doesn't do it justice, but here is what a little part looks like.
There is a lot to see outside of the museum as well. They have a big cemetary and lots of statues and monuments to honor states and people who were big contributors to winning the war. We only got to hit a few of them but someday I would like to complete the Auto-Tour and see everything there is to see.

Nationals vs Orioles

2010-05-30T16:09:00.006-04:00

I went to my very first major league baseball game on May 21. The Nationals were playing the Orioles and they having an LDS Singles night at stadium. All of the LDS single adults in the area were invited to come and gave us a discount on tickets. It was a blast! I loved watching the game with my good friends! Of course I wanted to have the full baseball experience so I just had to get an overpriced hot dog to eat while I was there!! :) PS: the Nationals lost...but they still had a firework show afterward!!

Great Times, Great Friends!

2010-05-30T15:27:00.013-04:00

On May 18 my good friends from Logan, Amanda and Morgan, came out to visit me (and see DC). We had SO much fun! They did some sight-seeing and stuff while I was at work and then we got together afterward and lived it up! I took them down to Old Town Alexandria where we walked to the waterfront along the Potomac River, we also walked up and down King St and around the Washington Masonic Memorial, and of course we stopped by the Lavender Moon Cupcakery! It was actually my first time eating at the cupcakery as well, but it won't be my last! Mmmmmm...the lemon-blackberry one was my favorite! (Sidenote: cupcakes are a big deal out here! People pay between $3-$5 for a single cupcake, I guess I went into the wrong business!) For dinner one night I took them Ray's Hellburger's, one the most popular burger joints out here, their burgers are fantastic! On Saturday they had a White House tour and then I took them to Mt Vernon where we went on a tour of George Washington's home and walked around the HUGE grounds and museum. I just love going there! We also walked around and saw some of the monuments and memorials. One night we walked by the waterfront in Georgetown and watched a crazy girl try to steal a police boat, we just got a picture in front of the pretty fountains! :)

Branching Out

2010-05-16T15:32:00.014-04:00

My neighborhood in Arlington just celebrated its 100 year anniversary. For this anniversary they wanted to do something great to celebrate, so they decided to plant 100 trees in a local park.
Our ward wanted to contribute so we made it one of our activities. We had a great turnout and it was so much fun! I had never planted trees before but I loved it! The weather was absolutely perfect! We could not have asked for a more beautiful day! After planting trees for a couple of hours, our elders quorum held a BBQ for everyone that had helped out there. It was a great opportunity to serve and to help make a difference in my community.

An Amazing Guy!

2010-05-16T15:21:00.005-04:00

I saw this guy playing playing on a corner down by the waterfront in Alexandria, he is incredible to watch and listen to! He plays a lot of different songs, my favorite was The Star Spangled Banner. I took a video clip of a song just so you could see how talentedly awesome he is!

Brooklyn Ruth Schwab

2010-04-18T15:57:00.004-04:00

Here are some pictures of my new beautiful neice!! She was born on April 15th at 8:48pm. I got to come down to Richmond this weekend and meet her. She is SO adorable!!!

Night of Celebrities

2010-04-11T21:34:00.006-04:00

My friend Kyle and I went out to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum on Friday night. We got some great pictures. It was so much fun!!!

Sights Around DC

2010-04-11T21:30:00.000-04:00

I had a couple of days off in the last few weeks and I used them to do some sight-seeing around DC.

It was raining on the first day but I walked out to the Pentagon Memorial, I couldn't take any pictures there because it isn't allowed. I walked from there to the Air Force Memorial.

On a much nicer spring day I took a fabulous bike ride into DC. The cherry blossoms were still out and I got to check out some of the memorials around the National Mall.

Fredericksburg

2010-03-23T17:08:00.006-04:00

On Saturday some friends and I took a little historical day trip down to Fredericksburg. We sure couldn't have picked a better day for it, it was a beautiful warm spring day. We started by vistiting the Battlefield of Fredericksburg. We got to see 'The Sunken Road', which was basically a dividing line between the North and South during the Civil War. We also got to see the Confederate Cemetery. There are a lot of unknown graves there. Ashley and I had some fun with cannon!

On the Battlefield there was the Innis House, where Martha Stevens lived during the Battle of Fredericksburg and refused to leave. We were lucky to be able to go inside the house because it is closed 95% of the year. The house is the original and you can see where bullets went through the house during the battle. It was really cool!

After touring the Battlefield we had a nice little picnic lunch by the Rappahanock River, walked around the little town and then went to Mary Washington's House, which is the house that George bought for his mother after she lost her husband. She was determined that she could look after herself so he bought and fixed up a nice house for her that close to some of her other children so they could look in on her. She passed away in that house not too long after she gave George a blessing when he became president. It was a very beautiful house.

What better way to end a fabulous sight-seeing day than by stopping at the local ice cream parlor for some amazing homemade ice cream? If that isn't enough for you, how about stopping at the Super Walmart on the way back? It is sad when going to Walmart becomes one of the 'must see' places to stop and visit. I sure took that for granted living in Logan!!

Happy Pi(e) Day!

2010-03-16T14:34:00.008-04:00

March 14 (3.14) marked the day of Pi and what better way to celebrate than with pie? Plus it is a great excuse to have a party. My roommates and I were very excited about this party and Sunday afternoon was filled with baking for the occasion (I made a quadruple-berry pie). We also encouraged guests to bring their favorite pie if they desired. We sent out an Evite to a huge chunk of the ward and some of our good friends outside of it. I could not believe how many people actually showed up (my guess is probably around 70)! Our house was practically busting at the seams, both our kitchen and living room were filled with people and more people kept coming. People must really like pie! I have to say that I was very happy with the turnout, I got to meet and associate with a lot of great people! I am so grateful for the wonderful friendships that I have made out here, everyone is super great!! My only regret is that we didn't have more pie...

These aren't the best pictures for showing how crowded it was, I took these more toward the end.

Happy Valentine's Eve!!

2010-02-15T13:20:00.011-05:00

One of my good friends hosted a most wonderful Valentine's Eve party. It was a black-tie affair and I was SO excited for an opportunity to get all gussied up! I looked forward to the party all week long (I had a lot of time to think about it since I was snowed in all week!) and I anxiously counted down the days of its arrival. I was in charge of making 'decadent' brownies for the party. I knew they had to be good for this formal occasion and I spent hours looking at recipes online! I found an excellent recipe for Truffle Brownies and they turned out really well!

My good friend Ashley was so nice to come over and help me get ready for the big event. I have never been good at doing fancy things with my hair and she did a fantastic job! The party was incredible! My friend rented a roulette table and a guy to run it, he gave everyone some fake money to gamble away as they wished. I don't even know how roulette works so I just pocketed my money and hung out at the food table! :) We had 'mocktails' which included Martinelli's, gingerale, and juice along with raspberries and blackberries to put in them. There was also a wide assortment of refreshments that were so incredibly good! The party was a huge success and I had a wonderful time!! I hope that there will be more occasions such as this!!

Snowpocalypse/Snowmaggedon

2010-02-11T15:01:00.000-05:00

Call it what you want but the fact of the matter is that we are experiencing record-breaking snowfall out here in DC! We had quite the storm back in December right before Christmas, but this surpasses that with flying colors! Just when we start to bounce back from one storm another one strikes. This past weekend we got two feet of snow and we were expected to get an additional 10-20 inches between Tuesday and Wednesday. Church and Institute have been canceled for the last two weeks. We were fortunate to have the stake presidency give their permission to have the preisthood administer the sacrament to us in our FHE groups. It was a great experience, I felt like a pioneer back in the day when they met in homes for their meetings. On Friday we closed up our office just after noon and I haven't been back since. Even though the snow has stopped, they have had a difficult time getting all the roads plowed as well as the metro rail system. I have now hit day #6 of being snowed in. I have watched a lot of movies, made some cards and cut out squares of material to make a quilt. We have had neighbors over to play games, drink hot chocolate and eat breakfast. When you start going stir crazy it's nice to have some opportunities for socialization. I have been on few walks here and there to get out of the house and to visit friends, but I haven't gone too far. The day before the storm was supposed to hit last week Jenny and I stopped by the store to pick up some eggs. That was a big mistake! Apparently people here go a little crazy when they hear a storm is coming. All of the essentials were cleaned right off the shelves and the checkout lines went all the way to the back of the store. It was very interesting to observe the panic of everybody. I was amazed to learn that most people don't keep a lot of food on hand, I guess they are just used to going out for meals, it makes me grateful that I have been taught to keep a food storage on hand and it confirms to me how important it really is. It looks like the city will be up and running again tomorrow (then we will have a 3-day weekend!) I am actually excited to go back to work, I have a longing to be productive again! We are supposed to get more snow next week, but we will cross that bridge when it gets here!!

Two Blown Out Tires

2010-02-09T18:11:00.000-05:00

So I guess that blowing up a cake in my kitchen wasn't enough excitement for me because the next day I decided to blow out two tires on my car. My roommate Jenny needed to go to Target and she was going to drive but her car battery was dead. I offered to take her there after dinner. We got in my car and made our way down the highway. As we got closer to our destination I began to move over into the turning lane as I approached the stoplight. I must have started getting over a little too early because I skidded against the curb that divided the lanes of traffic. I don't feel like I hit it with a huge amount of force, but it was apparently enough to blow out both of my tires on the driver's side. I did some quick maneuvering and got into the Target parking lot so I would at least be out of the way. I examined the damage and I wished with all my might that I could just hit the 'Undo' button and that it would all go away! I left my car there overnight and had it towed to a mechanic the next day to get it fixed. It was a rough couple of days, but I guess that's how we keep life interesting!

Dinner Group Disaster...

2010-02-03T13:23:00.000-05:00

So last night it was my turn to make dinner for our dinner group. I had thought long and hard about what I was going to make. At the suggestion of a friend I decided to make Hawaiian Haystacks. I had been to the store and I had everything I needed to start making dinner as soon as I got home from work. Things were running smoothly, the chicken was cooked, tomatoes were diced, the cornbread batter was in the pan ready to bake and my oatmeal cake batter was in the mixing bowl ready to be poured. I had just put a pot of rice on the stove and cranked the heat to high so it would boil. The oven was ready for the cake so I set the glass 9x13 dish on the stove and I poured the batter into it. My roommate came into the kitchen and asked if she could help. I turned to answer her and then I heard a loud, crashing noise behind me. My cake, and the dish, had exploded! I thought I had turned the rice on to cook but I had turned the wrong burner on, when I set my cake on the stove it was on top of the burner on high heat! How stupid could I be? I was impressed, and surprised, by how far the shards of glass could reach, they were everywhere! It was fortunate that I had turned around when I did or I could have been hit with the glass too. Unfortunately, my gravy was uncovered and since glass had made it over the pot, I could only assume that some had made it into the pot as well, goodbye gravy. I also had to give up my cornbread batter(which was made from scratch by the way) as well since it too was at risk of containing glass. It was 20 minutes to dinner time and now I had to start over, plus clean up the HUGE mess that was made. Thank goodness for Jenny!!! She saved my life, she cleaned up the whole mess while I started cooking again, she is amazing!!! As people arrived they were put to work dicing vegetables and setting the table-what a great team! We were over a half hour late getting started but it eventually came together and everyone was able to eat dinner. It is a good thing that I don't have to cook for two more weeks, it might take me that long to recover!!

Squid-Fried Rice and Baby Octopus

2010-01-28T17:15:00.000-05:00

Some friends and I recently started a dinner group. It's been really fun so far and we've eaten some great meals. Last night's dinner was the most interesting of all. My friend Jake made us some squid-fried rice. I am not a big seafood fan and this dish included squid, clams and even little baby octopus's. Jake informed us all at the beginning that everything in the dish was edible-who wants to hear that pre-cursor before eating dinner? Maybe it's the fact that I didn't serve a mission, but I seemed to be the only one who was a little weirded out by the meal. I was determined to be adventurous and not too afraid to try something new, so I fixed up a small plate. If I had to choose I would say that the texture was a little worse than the taste (which wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be). The baby octopus was especially unique. I ate it whole and at first it was a little chewy and the little 'suction cups' felt a kind of weird, then it turned crunchy as I continued to eat it. My roommate Jenny got it on video. I don't know how to rotate it so you'll have to view it sideways if you want to see it! :)

White House Tour

2010-01-22T18:08:00.000-05:00

I got to go on a White House tour today. I didn't have to work so one of the intern's in my ward got me set up on the tour. It was at 7:30 am -which is earlier than I have to be to work- but it was so worth it! My fabulous roommate Jenny was kind enough to drive me to the White House, which saved me a lot of time. As I got in line for the tour I saw my friend Melissa Shelton from Logan, she was in DC for a teacher's conference. I was so surprised to see her and it was nice to hang out with her for a little while. We weren't allowed to bring anything into the White House but our ID's and cell phones-which had to be off! I was bummed that I couldn't take any pictures to prove that I was there but I did get a cell phone shot once the tour was done. It is cool to think that I was in THE White House! I got to see the Green, Blue and Red rooms, the dining room and assembly hall. I learned a lot of great things on the tour and it was awesome to see so many historical items from past presidents, some of which are centuries old! It was like going to a museum!

National Aquarium in Baltimore

2010-01-20T17:06:00.000-05:00

On Monday, since it was a holiday, I went to the National Aquarium in Baltimore with a bunch of friends. We got to see lots of different fish, jelly fish, sharks, reptiles and even birds. We also caught a dophin show and a 4-D movie about penguins, polar bears and...elephants(huh?) Here are some pics of my trip.

The George Washington Masonic Memorial

2010-01-10T17:13:00.000-05:00

The George Washington Masonic Memorial was built in the 1920s by the more than two million American Freemasons who wished to "express in durability and beauty the undying esteem of the Freemasons of the United States for him in whose memory it shall stand throughout the coming years." It is a beautiful temple that included architecture from several places and periods. It was interesting to note some of the similarities among our own temples. It is a 10-story building and as you can see it gets narrower at the top so the elevators actually go up sideways. We got to go outside at the top and while the three of us were out taking pictures the rest of the group piled into the elevator and went back down. We came inside and noticed that everyone had left and we were stuck up there. You need a key to use the elevator because you are only allowed up there with an employee. We waited for about 10 minutes to see if they would come for us, but they didn't. Luckily Ashley had their phone number and so she called the front desk to let them know we were up there. Our tour-guide then came to save us and we didn't have to spend the night there-thankfully!

Since we were in Alexandria we decided to walk (in the cold) around Old Town a bit and get something to eat. We went to the 'Hard Times Cafe' for their world-famous chili. I got the 'Chili Bubba' which was two kinds of chili served over two pieces of cornbread with onions, tomatoes, cheese and sour cream...delicious! You just can't beat a day spent with good friends, seeing cool stuff and eating good food!!!

Winter Wonderland

2009-12-20T03:20:00.000-05:00

Today we got over a foot and a half of snow here in DC! The blizzard was ranked in the top ten snow storms in DC history! The city has been almost completely shut down and church has even been canceled, we don't normally get snow like this. My snow day consisted of sleeping in and then eating a delicious french toast breakfast with my roommates, then Jenny and I ventured out into the snow to walk to the grocery store (the roads were far too icy to drive on). We really didn't need anything at the store but it was a great excuse to go out and experience the snow first hand. After we got back from the store we made snow angels, threw snowballs at our neighbors doors, and got into snowball fights. It was great fun!!! The snow was up to my knees out there! Later in the afternoon I went with some friends to see the movie, "Invictus". Due to the snow, we had to walk about half a mile to the movie theater in a foot and a half of snow, I wished that I would have had my snowshoes for that treck. This was the first movie that I have been to since June and I thought it was really good. After the movie was over we went back out into the snow ready to trudge our way back when we came across a bus that was stuck in the snow. We tried everything we could think of to get it unstuck but alas, we failed, it was just to icy. Once my neighbors and I made it back home from the theater I went over to their house and we had some hot chocolate to warm us back up. All in all is was a fabulous day!!!

The National Christmas Tree

2009-12-18T22:58:00.000-05:00

This is me in front of the National Christmas Tree, it is so beautiful!

This is the "Utah" Christmas tree

This is me in front of the yule log, it was super warm!

Festival of Lights

2009-12-13T16:39:00.000-05:00

This weekend I had the opportunity to attend The Festival of Lights (which is our equivalent to Temple Square) and the Bell Choir Concert-which included some members of my ward. It was wonderful! The concert was so amazing, I am very impressed that they can be so unified and not lose count. After the concert was over we ventured outside of the warm visitor's center and into the cold where our ward had hot chocolate and cookies waiting for us! The lights were so beautiful, the only thing we were missing was the snow!! Inside of the visitor's center they had numerous Christmas trees (I think one from every stake) decorated and spread throughout for everyone to see. They also had many creches (nativities) from around the world that you could look at. It was really neat to see how many different ways you can make a nativity scene and with so many different materials, this one from New Zealand was one of my favorites; it is made out of shells.

Touring DC with the Schwabs

2009-11-29T18:00:00.000-05:00

Julie, Austin and Caleb came up Thanksgiving night to spend some time with me and to see some of the sights of DC. It was so great to have them here! We got to go and see Mt Vernon on Friday, which was great because they had just decorated for Christmas. Unfortunately the weather was not that great and we ended up having to wait in line in the rain, hail and bitter cold wind, of course it was sunny when we got there so I left my jacket in the car, not smart!

That night we practiced our culinary skills and cooked a turkey for the first time, it took awhile but it eventually cooked and it was so delicious! On Friday we got up and made a terrific pancake breakfast and then headed out for more adventure. We first went to the US Capitol and walked around a little bit outside, then we walked over to the Air and Space Museum and hung out there for awhile. We took a quick break for turkey sandwiches and then explored the Lincoln Memorial and the Korean War and Vietnam War Memorials. It was still a little cold but not too bad. On our way back to the car we also made a quick stop at the Albert Einstein statue. It was great to spend a few days with Julie and her family, so fun!!

Amazing Thanksgiving Dinner

2009-11-28T18:14:00.000-05:00

This was my first Thanksgiving away from my family and although I missed being with my family this year, I still had a fabulous Thanksgiving. A couple of guys in my ward hosted a Thanksgiving dinner at their house and it was incredible!! The set up was beautiful, the food was delicious and the company was terrific! I was in charge of bringing the rolls and the pumpkin pies for the occasion, they weren't as good as mom's, but they turned out ok. There were about 14 of us there, and I only knew about half of them when I got there, but it was so great to meet everyone else-including Artie who is the nice old man from up the street who was home by himself for Thanksgiving-he never lacked for anything to say, even during the blessing on the food! :)

Donut Extravaganza!!

2009-11-23T20:03:00.000-05:00

Sunday night we celebrated two birthdays for girls in my ward. What better way to celebrate than with homemade donuts? I made two batches of dough and covered the kitchen table with cutout donuts. I underestimated how long it would take me to fry all 81 donuts, plus about twenty or so holes. I only have a small deep fryer and could only cook two at a time! What I thought would take me an hour or so ended up taking almost three! We had the party at my friend Melissa's house and I ended up taking my fryer, glaze and donut dough over to her house so that we could finish cooking them there for the party. It worked out pretty well because then everyone could have fresh hot donuts. I had a wonderful time visiting with people in the kitchen and I think that everyone seemed to enjoy their donuts, even if they had to wait a bit!

My friend Jake helped me fry the donuts.

Pre-Thanksgiving Turkey Bowl

2009-11-21T14:35:00.001-05:00

This morning the Colonial First Ward (my ward) took on the Colonial Second Ward in the annual Turkey Bowl. In lieu of this event we sisters got together early for a Relief Society 'meeting' and worked on our football skills. We had some fellow brethren there to instruct us on rules and techniques. While it was very helpful at the time I will admit that when I was in the heat of the moment I didn't think 'hmmm...should I curl or should I blitz?' I basically thought, just run away from the other team. We had enough people from our ward show up to make three teams and still add onto the Colonial Second Ward's team, who only had a few people show up. We had a great time playing though. What a great way to kick off the week before Thanksgiving!

This is a picture of my team, go Gators!!

Lions and Tigers and Bears...Oh my!

2009-11-15T13:04:00.000-05:00

So yesterday was a fun and eventful day. One of the things I got to do was go to the DC Zoo with some friends. We parked the car a few blocks away and decided to take the 'shortcut' through the gate that suggested 'pedestrians prohibited'. We split in half to see which way really was faster, and although the shortcut lost, we did get to experience a lovely trail covered in beautiful fall leaves along the way. The zoo here has lots of unique animals to see and we even got to see some of them do some crazy stuff. In the reptile center we saw a legless lizard (looked like a snake) attacking another one. It had blood on its mouth and the other lizard didn't ever move again, I like to think that it was just resting after the attack. Moving on to the elephants. There were two elephants that were separated from each other and one of them was going nuts, it made the loudest noises (which actually sounded like the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park), and then it kept trying to kick the metal door in. We got to see a mother ape with her baby, which was so cute, it acted a lot like a normal toddler. At one point the mother grabbed her by the arm and through her over her back and took her inside, I assume that either was either nap time or she needed to go to time-out. So all in all, it was a great afternoon spent at the zoo.

Happy Halloween!!!

2009-11-05T01:58:00.000-05:00

So for Halloween some friends from my ward and I dressed up as characters from the board game, Candyland. I couldn't believe how much fun it was. I think that themed costumes are the best! My character was 'Mr Mint'. I went to two Goodwill's and couldn't really find what I was looking for, I wish we had a DI out here. I ended up going to Target and I found a pair of red and white striped pajama pants and a scarf. I wanted to find a big candy cane to add as an accessory but there was none to be found. Instead I got a shower curtain rod and wrapped some red electrical tape around it. I thought the whole ensemble turned out pretty well (although someone did ask me if I was the North Pole...who dresses up as the North Pole? Maybe that can be next years costume). Everyone in our group looked great in their costumes! We went to a big barn dance up in Maryland for all the single folks in the DC area, it was huge! I had a lot of fun!

Candy Corn Cookies

2009-11-01T18:18:00.000-05:00

These are the cookies that I made for a Halloween party. I cut sugar cookie dough (which I colored orange) out in the shape of triangles (I didn't have a cookie cutter so I made one using some heavy cardstock). I baked the cookies and then dipped the big end in chocolate and let that harden. Then I dipped the pointy end in white chocolate and let that harden as well. It was a fun little festive treat!

Pumpkin Custard

2009-11-01T17:00:00.000-05:00

On Saturday afternoon Jenny and I went to The Dairy Godmother for some traditional pumpkin custard. Oh my goodness, it was SO delicious!! The Dairy Godmother is a cute little parlor where you can get custard, sorbet, cookies, brownies, etc. They are always rotating their flavors and for Halloween they made pumpkin custard. I savored every single bite of it! Mmmmmm...

Shenandoah

2009-10-26T22:23:00.000-04:00

So my roommate Jenny has been trying to organize a camping trip to the Shenandoah's for a few weeks now, but as luck would have it, it rains every weekend. Since fall is in it's peak time right now we really wanted to go to the Shenandoah's and see the beautiful fall colors, so we decided to take a nice Sunday drive after church. It was so worth it! The colors were so vibrant and beautiful and they just went on and on over the rolling hills. There were four of us girls that went and we had a blast walking through the leaves and taking memorable photos. The pictures don't

quite do it justice, but you can get an idea of how amazing it truly is.

It's Saturday Night!

2009-10-26T22:08:00.000-04:00

So Saturday I got to go to a 'Saturday Night Live' party. It was fabulous! I was so impressed with all of the people who dressed up like a character from 'SNL'. I went as Penelope (a girl who always has to one-up everyone else). I will admit that I had only seen a few clips of SNL before this party so I didn't know too many of the characters, but I got to know them and I laughed all night long! These are some pics from the party.

My Day Off

2009-10-23T22:20:00.000-04:00

I didn't have to go to work today because the Dr was gone to a conference. I had a great day off. The first thing I did was go on a bike ride. I haven't riden my bike since I left Utah. There is a nice bike trail behind my house that I have been wanting to go on it since I moved in. I ended up riding 14 miles! That is the longest ride I have ever been on, and now I am so sore! It was so worth it though, I loved it!! I rode through a park, down past the airport, and along the outskirts of DC. Here are some pictures of the things I saw on my ride.

After my bike ride I came home and got ready for the day and then I went to the temple. It isn't too far from where I live, it should only take about 25 minutes, but with traffic it took me an hour and even longer on the way home (I got done during rush hour, poor planning on my part).

To top off my day, I went to Einstein Bagels and got pumpkin bagels with pumpkin cream cheese (one of my favorite fall time foods). I love everything pumpkin! It was a fabulous day off!!

Eastern Market

2009-10-18T22:29:00.000-04:00

My roommate Jenny and I were supposed to go camping this weekend but Mother Nature decided it would be better to create a cold rain that would last the entire weekend and then some. We weren't going to let that get us down so we opted for another adventure. We went to the ever so popular Eastern Market in the District. It's like a year round farmer's market that is held indoors. It was really great. They are well known for their breakfast and so that is what we went for. We stood in a line long enough to make you change your mind about what you were going to order several times. I went for the blueberry buckwheat pancakes with homemade hashbrowns and orange juice. They have quite the system down. They have one big long table for you to sit at and you hope that by the time you get your food there will be a place for you to sit down. What a fun experience! After eating our fantastic breakfast we walked around the rest of the market. They had really great (and expensive) breads, desserts and produce, along with all kinds of fresh seafood and any part of a farm animal that you could want. Eek!

They also had apples that were half the size of my head! We had so much fun!!

My Little Nephew, Caleb

2009-10-18T22:05:00.000-04:00

Yes, I am a very proud aunt!!

This is his Halloween costume from Grandma, isn't he SO cute!!

Time-Out For Women

2009-10-18T15:23:00.000-04:00

My sister Julie and I went to Time-Out for Women in Richmond and had a wonderful time. They had fantastic presenters, we were uplifted with spiritual messages and music. They even brought a mini Deseret Book with them. I wanted to buy everything there, but I showed some self control and only bought a CD.

My House

2009-10-15T22:00:00.000-04:00

This is the place where I live. My room is at the top.

My Neighborhood

2009-10-15T18:40:00.000-04:00

This is a small view of the neighborhood that I live in. Cute huh? Several of these rowhouses have members of my ward in them.

My Work

2009-10-15T18:23:00.000-04:00

This is the building that I work in downtown, our office is on the 4th floor.

Apple Picking

2009-10-14T21:22:00.000-04:00

My roommate Jenny and I went to an orchard in Purcerville, VA to go apple picking. We had a great time and we got lots of delicious apples to eat and bake with!

A Whole New World

2009-10-13T22:02:00.000-04:00

Where to begin...

Long story short, (since most everyone knows the story anyway), I moved out to Richmond, VA with Julie and Austin at the end of July and I am now in Washington DC! I never, in my wildest dreams, would have thought I would end up working in our nations capital. It was a rough go at first; I wasn't quite sure what I had gotten myself into. That only lasted about a week though. I got a job here but I still didn't have a place to live. Thank goodness for the Church! How else could you find someone to stay with when you didn't know a soul? I roamed from couch to couch for about a month before I finally landed a place to live-which was SO worth waiting for! I just moved into a cute rowhouse in Arlington, VA. I share the HUGE third floor bedroom (it is the whole floor) with another girl. We each have our own walk-in closet that has a ton of space and we share a very large bathroom which has two separate vanities with lots of drawer and cupboard space, what more could a girl ask for?

I am working for an opthamologist in the District. I actually have a pretty easy commute: I leave the house at 7:05 to catch the bus across the street, that takes me to the Pentagon where I hop onto the metro. I get off at 'Foggy Bottom' (I really like that name) and walk several blocks to where I work. I am the administrative assistant for the office and I do a lot filing, scheduling appointments, and conducting the visual field exams (along with a bunch of other office related duties). I work with two other LDS single girls, who are actually in the ward I moved into. I feel so blessed to work with such great people!

I love this area more and more everyday! I love coming around the corner and seeing the Washington Monument with the sun rising behind it. I love driving through DC at night and seeing everything all lit up. I love all of the wonderful history here and all of the free museums and memorials. I also love that the interstates are lined with big tall trees and there are NO billboards! It is so beautiful!! I can't wait to see the leaves change colors this fall!!

I belong to a great ward out here. It is much bigger than the ones I am used to (300+). Everyone has been super nice to me and I have made some great friends out here. People are really involved in the ward and there is always something going on. I am so very blessed to be out here and living this dream!! I truly love it here!!

Mt Vernon

2009-10-12T21:52:00.000-04:00

I had a day off of work a couple of weeks ago and I took the opportunity to go to Mt Vernon that day. Mt Vernon is George Washinton's huge estate. I went with a friend from my new ward and we were there for over 4 hours and we still didn't get to see everything. We took a garden tour, a tour of the house and we also walked through the orchard, to his tomb and down to the Potomac River. It is a very beautiful place; they even decorate it for each season and I can't wait to go and see it around Christmas time!!