Last couple pix from DC

I've got just a couple last fun pictures to send out to the universe from our DC trip...

National American History Museum - Julia Child's kitchen! If you haven't see Julie and Julia - get on it. Meryl Streep should have won that award!
C3PO! The original!
One of my favorite places we saw... the National Cathedral. I really like the Gothic style castles.
Ben wants me to get him this poster.
Ninja Turtles!
This picture is great. We had some serious rental car problems. Like breaking down on the freeway and then in Old Alexandria. Broke down. This picture accurately shows our confusion. Took 3 ish hours to get a tow truck to come down with a new car. Kinda ridiculous. Don't rent a jeep.
Finally Gettysburg. Very impressive and solemn monuments.
I already expressed that I felt like I didn't have enough understanding and appreciation for such a place. Would be nice to go back after I've taken some time to study some more about it first.

Monuments of Washington DC

There are a lot of monuments. Lots. I would suggest pick out a few that you really want to see, get a tour bus pass (NOT from the "Tourmobile" Company) and focus on those few. Just too many to see.
We chose to see the capital of course. Didn't go inside - the outside really is impressive enough. Can anyone tell me why there is a 19 foot statue of an Indian on our capital? Not that I have a problem with it - just want to know why?
(Ben is so good at one handed pictures...)


Another angle of the capital - Ben and Phyllis.



Above is the ceiling of the Library of Congress. A place that was not high on my list - but was on Ben's IF he could see the Gutenberg Bible. Which he did- and I found a display of hand written letters written between Washington, Jefferson and other founding fathers. That really was so neat. It's hard for me to picture these historic figures as real people some time - but when you are looking at their hand writing... it makes them kinda real!

Below is the WWII memorial. I thought it was really awesome and conveyed from the artist VICTORY!

Kim and Ben and FDR's Dog. Lincoln Memorial. Huge. Majestic. And a surprisingly reverent place for how many people were there.

FDR Memorial: "Freedom of Speech. Freedom of Worship. Freedom from Want. Freedom from Fear."
Very good.

Cherry Blossoms 2010

One of the major reasons Rick and Phyllis wanted to come to Washington D.C. during the first week of April was for the cherry blossoms! I wasn't sure how excited I was about it - because I've seen cherry blossoms before, but you add the blossoms, in large amounts, plus the beautiful buildings - really is a sight to see!

Lake, Jefferson, Cherry Blossoms, and phyllis pointing to something...


Here is the other thing about the Cherry Blossoms. For every little flower - there was a person there to see it. It was VERY VERY crowded. We asked around to the local tour people and they said this saturday was the busiest day of the year. It's defiantly a sight to see, but come prepared for the crowds.

For more about it - check out the National Cherry Blossom website.

Washington and Weddings

Pictures from Washington

Hail to the chief! This last weekend Ben's parents took us to Washington D.C. as a planned christmas present. It was such an experience! There is so much to see and do it's kind of overwhelming. I can appreciate the emotion and passion that has to go into building such structures, monuments, etc. There are many pictures to show and share for the next couple of days :)

Uncle Sam Wants YOU!

This is great. Ben has always wanted to be a part of or start up a riot. So we walked the reflecting pool where many other protests have occurred. Here Ben and Phyllis protesting the 1/2 hour wait at the tour bus stop. NO MORE WAIT! NO MORE WAIT! NO MORE WAIT!

We went out there the busiest saturday of the entire year! Saturday, Spring Break, and opening Cherry blossoms... SO many people. Which I really didn't mind (with the exception of the metro). This view is from the Lincoln monument. Pretty nice huh.
(Like a where's waldo... can you find ben?)

Just before we left was Shelby's wedding! Yeah! Sadie Sadie Married Ladie! I'm excited for Shelby and Steve to jump into married life after many years of courtship. :) Not the best pictures but a beautiful wedding, beautiful bride, beautiful food, :) Yeah!!

Very cute couple.

Long time no bloggy

Wow. I can't believe it's been a month has gone by with no posts. I can tell you that my life feels so full and scheduled but I can't seem to come up with what it is it's scheduled with. You know those days that you climb back into bed and think "what the heck did I do today??" Ya know?

....the things that are going on are not unmanageable but certainly makes you feel small in comparison to what needs to be accomplished.
Not just things on your to do list - but trying to help others with their assignments.


And it's hardest when your totally feeling unmotivated but still know there are a million things to do!
Work gets busier and busier every day and you wonder if you are cut out for an 8 hour desk job...
And there are parties to attend and social events to plan..


*Sigh* But at the end of the day - even if it's busy, your glad you have so many good things and good people in your life. Big Smiles all around. :)
Ya know?

Project Puppy

Okay.
Alright.
I admit it.
I watch project runway. I think it's impressive that these people can sew a dress in one day. Sketch, buy, cut, sew. Wow.

Anyways, Ben and I went out of town this weekend and Ben's parents are always really great about babysitting our pups. I wanted to make a little surprise -
Reminded me project runway. Tim Gunn says you have an old sheet, a couple scraps of fabric, and a marker..."make it work".
Pretty lame I know. I would probably would be 'out'.... but Phyllis says it made her laugh for 5 minutes straight.
Don't look at me like that Tim....

Things I learned this week...

This week I learned a lot of stuff.

Ben and I were lucky enough to be given symphony tickets! My first time for me and I learned the difference between Mozart's classical and Dvorak's Romantic period styles. I feel so refined...
Today I (remembered) that today is Reggie's birthday - into the Sharples family. We've now survived him for 2 years. He's a handful but we love him.
Valentines day is awesome. Awesome because Ben and I are so chill about it. It's more of a month of conscious choices of service. I tried to leave little treats/surprises on our table for Ben when he gets home from school. And Ben cooked a really nice dinner this week and gave me a fun pair of ear rings. I love that we take the whole thing 'chil-lax'. :) However this week I learned that I don't like Smiths frosting. I normally LOOVVVE frosting - which is what inspired Ben to get me this monster cupcake. Which is totally fun... but the radio active yellow frosting was... blah. (turns out reg likes it though. I scrapped it off and threw it away and later when --- reg got in the garbage --- it was spread all over the kitchen floor and we had pink paw prints around the house. argh)
I learned that fish don't like warm water. Ben is always saying we need to keep the house kinda warm for the fish -- so, why not warm up the water too when I clean it out? Sadly, this is a 'file photo' -- for the gold fish is no more. :(This week learned that the sweater I have been working on for ben for a YEAR --- is WWWAAYYY to big for him. Ya can't really tell right here...but it's monstrous and super thick. I know that if I unpulled it - there would be enough yarn to make a hat for every head in Haiti.
This week I learned that - swap-bot.com is a lot of fun - but too expensive. You are paired with someone in a group to swap something. From postcards to food. I've been doing post card swaps with international and state wide people (which was fun) but I signed up for a chocolate and yarn swap and ... spent TOO much in just shipping. Fun while it lasted...
This week Ben and I did a - small - fruity/chocolate taste testing. I learned that toffee makes a big difference and so does the jump from 65% to 70% dark choco....
Finally I learned that Tally is scared of birds. Big ones. We went on a walk around Liberty park which has a small aviary and Tally was totally freaked out by the peacock and duck noises. Couldn't see them-- just hear them. She was trying to escape any means possible - including running through the mud over and over and over.
...i hate those quacks...