Wednesday, September 23, 2009

What a weekend

Two weekends ago Mike and I decided to go DC. Its moments like this that we truly love our central New England location that allows us to take weekend trips all over the east coast. We left after work on Friday so that we would have all day Saturday to enjoy a small portion of what DC has to offer.

We started our day with a tour of the capitol building. We didn't get to see the rooms that the House and Senate occupy because it was the weekend but the tour was still pretty interesting.
This is the mural on the top of the arch of the capitol building.
Each state sent in two statues to be displayed in the capitol building. It is no surprise that Brother Brigham was one of Utah's.
After we went on the tour we went to the library of Congress, but we didn't get to see anything too cool in there.
While we were there. We were able to participate in the Conservative tea party. It was actually really cool. The energy was amazing and it was nice to be around people who share my disapproval with the government and don't worship our President like he is the messiah.
There are mixed reports on how many people where here but I think 1.5 million is accurate.
Read everything on this movie poster. Its funny.


BAH!
After we made our way out of the sea of people we walked down the national mall to the Washington Monument.
Then we walked down to the White House to meet our mutual friend Nina for lunch. She just started an internship and graduate school in DC so it was fun to have her catch us up on her crazy new life.
After lunch we checked out the Smithsonian's.
My favorite is the Museum of American History.
Then we walked down to the national archives to see historical documents like the magna carta, Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights, and even court documents like Mayberry vs. Madison and Roe vs. Wade.
While waiting in line to view the documents Mike thought to tell me that his 5th Great-Grandpa signed the Constitution. I couldn't get the picture the right way so if you look at it sideways he is the last person in the New Jersey group, Jonathan Dayton. Petty cool. Since Mikes middle name is Dayton we'd already decided to name our first boy Dayton, so know its even cooler.
After all that we met up with one of my best friends from College, Sarah, who is living in DC. We went with her to the WWII memorial. My grandpa fought in this war.
O-H-....

The Wash. Monument's reflection in the Vietnam Wall.
Honest Abe!
Korean War memorial.
We headed up to Georgetown for dinner and some shopping that night. Very cute and classy.
Our friends Ryan and Brooke Naylor were kind enough to give us their spare bedroom while we were there. It was good to see them and catch up.
Sunday morning we were feeling ambitious and decided to break up our 4 hour trip home with a stop in Philadelphia.
We naturally had a Philly Cheese Stake for lunch. I was not personally a fan. I didn't like all the meat and cheese I felt like I gained 5 lb. by just eating it.
After lunch we went to see the Liberty Bell. I loved it! I learned so much about the freedom Bell!
A statue exhibiting the excitement that went along with the signing of the Deceleration of Independence.
Independence Hall
The room where the Constitution and DoI was signed. The freedom of our country was drafter here! Sooo cool.

We were home by 5pm. It was a great weekend we feel so lucky to be able to go to see all these cool places.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Here Kitty Kitty!

So we wanted Epps to have a playmate. So we decided to get a new kitten... ON A TRAIL basis. Mike had a little hesitation about having two cats and I was nervous about how Epps would handle it. When we first brought the new kitty in the room Epps freaked out. She stared hissing and growling and was a completely different cat. Now that we've have Rosalie for about 2 weeks i THINK things are going better. If any of you have integrated a new cat with an old I need some advise on what to do to make them buddies! lol.



Mike cuddling up with kitty

Sister Lovin
Forced bedtime cuddle
Now the willingly sit on the same couch.
Pretty kitty.

Kitty in a bag... my favorite type!

US Tennis Open

Mike been the cause of many of my new interests, watching the stock market, mad money and tennis. I've picked up a racket two times in my life but apparently I'm improving. I'm also able to watch a match, know what is going on AND enjoy it! So when we were presented with the opportunity to attend the US Open we were more than excited. It has been a dream of Mikes for a while seeing as he is the tennis lover/player that he is. We had a fantastic evening with great company.


The globe is pretty but if you look in behind it and notice the 2 spaceships... those are the ones used in Men in Black!
First match was a women in which Venus Williams played and won.

If you look closely find the flowers in the corner of the photo. Then go 3 rows up and one seat in. In the green shirt with the creme cardigan is WILL FERELL! I was sooo excited. When all was quite watching an intense rally you would hear random calls like "DO IT FOR WILL FARELL" or "WILL FARELL I SEE YOU!"
The second match was a decent one played by Nadal (#3) and Keifer. Nadal won!
He's like a big kid in a candy store.

Next I want to go to the French Open! lol!

Thursday, August 27, 2009

I see London, I see France....

For years I have dreamed of visiting Europe. I was lucky enough to be able to go with my high school choir the year after I graduated. Our trip consisted of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and a portion of southeaster France. As beautiful and majestic as these cities were it only made my desire to return to europe even stronger. But the next time I go it has to be to London, 

London...
 
Paris
Barcelona
(this city is more to give mike a stronger desire to go. My true 3rd destination would be Rome.) Anyways I know right know with the bad economy flights to europe are very cheap. Especially from JFK to London. Anyone who knows me well also knows that I love to look for value hotels, flights vacation and find awesome deals (thats how we got out disney vacation.) So I found the perfect flight over spring break that would cost us $540 each so ($1,080 total.) Not to bad at all, considering thats pretty close to what it will cost to fly to Utah for Christmas (OUCH!). Then I found some great hotels on priceline I could negotiate down to $100 a night.) So now I'm dying to go. the problem is that with just hotels and flight its $2,000... thats doesn't count transportation and entrance fees to the sights... so like $4,000 total with all that. Which is a lot of....
So my question is. How can I make a few extra thousand in 6 months? I already work full time. There are no plasma centers around her. (Although there are egg donation place, which I HAVE ruled completely out of the question, but $8,000 to miss a period sounds enticing at first, right? lol.) So what skills do I have...  UHH..... I CAN.... HUM... yeah thats about it. So what can I do? I've heard of online surveys and stuff but I feel like thats all a joke. So my day has consisted of a long and hard though process on how to earn a massive amount of money in 6 months. lol. If you have ANY ideas... that do not require me to sell portions of my body... let me know. lol.

Anyways its back to eurovaction.com to dream a little more ;)

Monday, August 24, 2009

A year ago yesterday

Yesterday Mike and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary! It is so hard to believe how quickly time has gone by. I can remember the events of our wedding so clearly, it can't have already have been a year. But it has been, and its been wonderful. We've been so blessed this past year. Lets do a quick recap:

-Visited my family for Thanksgiving, Christmas and my Brothers endowments
-Got our first pet, Epps.
-I completed my final year of school online
-Went on trips to Boston, Salem,Mystic and Newport
-Mastered NYC and its subway system (well almost ;)
-Seen 4 shows on Broadway
-Have my parents/sister, mikes parents/ Aunt and cousin's visit us.
-Visited Utah for New Years
-Experienced the death of a loved one
-Made great life long friends
-I learned about/how to follow the stock market
-Went on our First Disney Vacation
-Feel deeper in love than the year before.

So for our anniversary Mikes gift to me was his time. A precious commodity these days. He planned out what we were going to have for dinner (my least favorite thing to do,) did the shopping, made the dinner (he wouldn't even let me into the kitchen to attempt to help,) then cleaned up everything after. It was fantastic. I felt kinda lame because I just got him some wii accessories I thought he'd like. Since my mom pitched the top layer of our wedding cake we bough a fresh red velvet/cream cheese cake (what our top layer was.) That evening I made cupcakes and some of our friends came over to help us celebrate. It was a great day! Now it is time to reminisce a bit with some of my favorite wedding pictures!
Mike making dinner!
Mexican stake tacos... sooo good!
My First love and my Last love
Family
Besties
My grandpa the sealer!
Flowers
Lovely looks
Desserts GALOR!
Place settings
Our grand entry
The head table
My beautiful wedding cake that I DESIGNED!
My taste wedding cake all over... Mike and a little on me!
First dance kiss
Daddy Daughter dance (Butterfly kisses, our song since it came out in '97)
Mother son dance!
My sister Lizzy and her new big brother
Pep talk!!

Our chaperone for the evening!


How quickly time flying in the presence of love and laughter!