Our First Trip to DC

The other day I was thinking about when my husband & I went to DC last year (4 weeks before our wedding) to look at the apartment we committed to sight unseen. Side note: My dad had been up to see it and said he would live there, so we agreed.

It was so much fun. It was the first official trip we had taken 100% on our own-- we planned it, booked it, found hotels. . you get the idea.

We did lots of tourist things-- White House, monument, went out to eat, and did lots of walking.

We headed to DC the day after we spent 7 hours at Aquatica (Orlando water park). My husband got a lovely sunburn and was in lots of pain. Poor guy. His whole front was bright red.

Can't ya tell?

Can you see his red neck? Ha, no pun intended. 

Anyways, we were staying in Rosslyn (Small "city" outside DC-- More on that here). We walked a few blocks to hop on the metro and we were downtown in no time.

One night we went to a cute little healthy restaurant for dinner. It was so nice and I was loving every bit of it! My husband, who is not a health food nut, was not pleased. About halfway through, he started acting weird and itching himself from the sunburn. Practically in tears. Poor guy.

Ahem. Imagine a guy, sitting at a table with a woman, sticking his hands up his shirt practically in tears. 

He kept itching himself and I was getting annoyed. My husband spent all day away for work stuff and I was cramped in the hotel room while he was gone. All I wanted to do was go out when he got home. Now he wants to go back to the hotel? Ugh.

We rushed out of there because he said he had to go. He starting itching to the point of tears.

While walking back to our hotel, in the middle of the street I shouted:

Stop touching yourself!

Yup. My poor husband. God love him. :-)

Sister Visit-- December 2012

The week before Christmas, my sister & her boyfriend visited.

It was much colder than her last visit (more on that back here), but we still had lots of fun. Plus, she made super fun memories with her boy.

My husband obviously had to work and I had a lot to get done for work but I was able to sneak off and get some good visiting with them.

I'm going to get in trouble but he is so handsome. I'm allowed to say that since we're married. He's cute! 

The bum thing about my loving to be behind the camera is that there are never pictures of me. One day I want my children to actually know what I looked like! Oh well. We're working on that. Maybe that can be another 2013 goal?

That would maybe look romantic if there wasn't a chain link fence and construction?

It was so beautiful out and the sun was just begging to be photographed. It was cool out but definitely not freezing. Just perfect out!

All the flags were at half staff for the Sandy Hook victims. It was a wonderful reminder to stop and say a little prayer for the victims and their families. 

I think we were watching protestors or a k9 unit. Something interesting!

By this point it was starting to get really windy and dark. We were planning to go to a Sports Bar for dinner so we made the long trek back to my husband's car. 

That helicopter (above by the flag) was flying around several times. It was big and made lots of noise. I wish my FIL was there because I'm sure he would have known what it was! 

Christine's boyfriend is awesome at photography..

I told you the sun was AMAZING

To see all 50 flags around the monument at half staff was kind of crazy. It really made all those victims really physical and much more real to me. When you only see stuff on the news, that's what happens. Does that make sense? It was much more real seeing 50 flags at half staff. There ya go. That makes sense. 

I cannot stand walking in the gravel through the mall. They really should throw some concrete down..just sayin'. :)

Not sure why this picture looks so odd? But of course had to give the chalkboard some love.

Sorry for the poor iPhone quality. 

My perfect little family. We are so excited to just be together this Christmas and enjoy every moment of it! 

PS-- I will never hunch over in a photo ever again. Ever. Promise. 

Cuties

Stay tuned for more random DC photos, Christmas, and any other ramblings I find appropriate. xO!

Our Thanksgiving 2012

My husband was able to spend Thanksgiving with me and it was absolutely wonderful! I'm so glad we decided on a whim to have him be here with me.

I asked him multiple times what he wanted for Thanksgiving Dinner, and he kept saying turkey & ice cream cake. Don't worry, we ate more than turkey & ice cream cake. :)

By this point I was wishing we could just go out for dinner. Glad we didn't, though.

The picture above was taken moments before the platter just collapsed. Fantastic! Luckily we got a ton of beautiful platters for our wedding so I quickly replaced it. 

I'm not a chocolate person but my husband is-- these are just box brownies and break and bake cookies. I know, I suck. 

Our favorite! 

Yup, that's 1 stick of butter just on the top. It wasn't a low fat day. 

I wish I was better about taking photos of what we ate. Whoops. Clearly you can see where my heart is-- dessert and mashed potatoes. Ha. We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, rolls (burnt by yours truly), and lots of dessert. We also had a cheese ball for an "appetizer" that I believe I ate on my own. 

While I slaved away in the kitchen, my husband did a lot of this:

He was all hopped up on eggnog.

And this..

(Facetime/phone calls with his parents)

My husband is such a sucker for Cocoa's begging. It annoys me to no end that he will give her turkey like that! Judge us all you want, but please don't send me any emails or comments about it-- my inbox is overflowing. :) 

The aftermath..

My friend mailed me the white candles for our first Thanksgiving. Love her!

Keep an eye out for another post on what else we did! xO

Dad & Flat Stanley Visit DC!

I think if you click the photo, it will get larger.

My dad came up to accompany me to a doctor's appointment (maybe I'll post more on that later?) and we always have so much fun together. 

I need to be better about carrying my gigantic camera, small camera, or just taking photos on my phone. I only got a few photos! 

Oh-- and Flat Stanley came along with us. That little stinker-bell has been hanging on my "to-do" list for too long. We snagged one hilarious photo and I can ship Stanley back home to Florida tomorrow. 

Should I share the reason why I said "we snagged one hilarious photo"? 

I didn't think of the step idea at first. I had my dad holding him by the very tip and I was able to not get my dad in the photo. It looked okay, but not great. My dad was standing there holding Flat Stanley and someone shouted..

Flat Stanley!! Flat Stanley!! 

My dad said I turned all shades of red. :) 

I'm sort of obsessed with fall trees. We didn't get those colors in Fl!

That was me in the passenger seat. :)

I don't think the Pentagon gets enough respect!

We had lots of fun.. Besides that pesky doctors appointment. He even took me out for steak at the top of a building! It was wonderful. 

Love you, Papi (He loves when I call him that. Ha).

Sister Visit

My sister came and visited for Labor Day weekend. We had a blast doing all the touristy things because she had never been to DC before. Here are some pictures from her visit.

We had a behind the scenes tour of the Capitol Building. It's such a beauty inside and out!

She's cute but she's not single. :)

We took a boat ride on the Potomac River to Georgetown. This is my favorite thing to do when people visit! Granted, I've only done it twice but it's super fun. You can watch the planes take off and land right at Washington National. 

We were on the boat the same night as that "blue moon". I'm not sure where the name Blue Moon came from, but it does look really nice! That "neighborhood" is actually an air force base.

Once we got to Georgetown we stopped at Georgetown Cupcake. I'm sure you've seen them on TV-- two sisters own a cupcake shop. Tasty!

We got stuck in the rain on our way to the White House. 

Gosh, he's handsome.. but crazy! 

I guess you could say there is a "story" behind the sign at Arlington National Cemetery. We went to the cemetery when we first moved and I just didn't get it. No jogging? Are the security officers going to come up to someone and say, "Sir, please slow down to a speed walk please". Then we realized! They don't want joggers coming in and just working out. Ah ha! 

We had lots of fun! Tomorrow I'm going to post about our little "off road-ing" we did. It's quite exciting. 

Nighty night! xO