National Harbor Tree Lighting

The day after Thanksgiving we went to National Harbor where the had a tree lighting ceremony and then did fireworks over the water.  It was AMAZING.  Probably one of the best firework shows that I have ever seen. The fireworks were time perfectly to Trans Siberian Orchestra, really cool!

The peep store, yes there is a store dedicated to just marshmallow peeps, was giving away these goofy hats so of course we had to get one! 

Les Miserables

I love the musical Les Mis! It is so fantastic, and beautiful.  I had the opportunity to go and see it at the Kennedy Center, and I loved every minute of it!  The Kennedy Center is an extremely pretty building.

This is the front hallway when you walk in the building and this picture just can not do it justice!

 

I was a little disappointed in the fact that they took the liberty of adding some suggestive things that really did NOT need to be there! 

Other than that it was wonderful and if I could have afforded to I would have gone every night! 

A Familiar Face

I have loved my time out here but I miss home.  I miss seeing long streches of nothing but fields, I miss the mountains,  I miss the people and familiar faces.  When I heard that a friend from home was coming I was so excited and I was lucky enough to get to tag along with Connie Gunnel and her brother on their vacation.  The came because Connie had just finished her masters degree and Daniel was leaving for his mission in 2 weeks so they came for a little get away, and I crashed it!  It was so good to see someone that I know, and I loved being able to catch up with Connie.

I was a loser and didn't take pictures, except like 2.

That is the Jefferson memorial in the Background.  I have still never actually been there, but I have heard that it's awesome.  I have didn't go over with Connie and Daniel because I had some pretty massive blisters on my feet.  I don't know why but I get blisters ALL the time.  No matter what shoes I wear!  It is really unfortunate.  

This is the new MLK Jr.  memorial.  It is really awesome.  It was supposed to open the weekend of the hurricane, but they had to cancel it.

We also went to Mt. Vernon and my camera battery was dead!  Mt. Vernon is probably my favorite thing that I have been to since I have been here.  We are going to try and go again this week to see it all decorated for Christmas.  I will try and take pictures.

 

Boyce Avenue

So a year or so ago I accidentaly ran onto a Boyce Avenue you tube video and I was instantly sold!  I love them!  They do covers and original songs, all of which are good!  In October I got to go see them live!  Was it AWESOME?  Why yes, yes it was!  I drug a few friends along with me,  they had never heard of them before but they really liked them.  At least that is what I was told.  We had a blast, there is nothing like having a drunk crazy spill his beer on you!  Haha it really was a fun concert though,  I am glad we went. 

This is Alexis and Tara.  I love these girls!!!!!

Gettysburg

In October my ward had our ward retreat in Maryland.  Our camp was really near Camp David.  I only know this because while we were there Camp David had a "special visitor" and helicopters kept flying over really low, and the roads around our camp ground were all closed.  It was a one way in and one way out kind of thing.  It was a really fun camp out though, and really fun to have Sacrament Meeting in the woods.

Gettysburg was only like 30 minutes farther from where we were so we decided since we were that far we might as well keep going.  We were only there for a few hours and didn't even scratch the surface of all that there was to see.  It is a really beautiful and peaceful place.  I would really love to go back sometime.

My camera had been having issues so all of the pictures were taken on my phone, so they are not the best quality.

I didn't get to take very many pictures because my phone died. These pictures are from the national cemetery.

What's Shakin?

On August 24th EVERYTHING was shaking!

Can I just say that people here do not know how to handle a natural disaster and in the end of August they had  a few opportunities to practice.  I would give them a solid C- for effort.  I can't say that I blame them for the mass chaos created by the earthquake and hurricane in the same week.  After 9/11 everyone's first thought was attack.  Having had the practice of earthquake drills in school I knew what was going on.  However, I was not in a high rise building.  I was at home sitting in my living room and I had just put Isaac down for a nap, and might I add that he was out!  He did not even flinch.  I wouldn't have even moved out of the rocking chair but the bookshelf next to it already has some stability issues and I didn't trust that it wouldn't fall on us.  We were safe with no damage to our house.

There was more damage right in DC.  A few of the spires fell off of the National Cathedral and the Washington Monument is still closed due to this crack

  Luckily it was just minor damage.

Then that weekend we were lucky enough to meet Hurricane Irene.  She was a beauty.  I won't lie, we didn't let the hurricane slow us down.  It was a perfect day for a little bit of shopping because everyone else was to busy buying water and batteries for the power outages that had been predicted.  Like I said, they don't know how to do natural disasters here, not prepared for them at all! 

It really wasn't as eventful as they made it seem like it was going to be, at least in my area.  A lot of rain, but it rained even harder the next weekend, lots of wind, and our power was out for like 2 hours.  Not 2 days like they told us it would be.  It was an eventful week.  I can now say I have lived through an earthquake and hurricane.  Who would have thought that they would be in the same week! :) 

  

Jumping Back on the Band Wagon.

So it has been awhile since I have posted anything on here, but I have been busy...PLAYING!  It has been such a long time since my last post because about a month ago the hard drive on my computer crashed and I lost EVERYTHING!!! I was so bummed and felt overwhelmed that having to play catch up didn't sound like such a great task, and I have been busy doing all the fun things that I should blog about, so that means that no blogging was accomplished!

Since I am the queen of all things procrastination, I am so far behind.. Hopefully I will get everything all caught up this weekend  Next up on the blog docket:

• Earthquake and Hurricane News
• Trip to Gettysburg 
• Boyce Avenue Concert
• Visit with a friend from home
• Mount Vernon
• Les Miserables 

Now don't you have something to look forward to!!!