What I've been up to lately....

Enjoying the view and sounds of the ocean....

Watching the sunrise after falling a sleep to the sound of waves crashing onto the beach...

Crafting up a storm and getting lots of projects knocked off my to-do list!! (Any guesses on what this is? My Dad's guess was VERY wrong!)....

Enjoying rest and relaxation....

Doing a little sightseeing (We walked through an old church graveyard and I was amazed to see this tree growing around this headstone).....

*Cooking with my niece ....

 

Doing some more sewing....

*Watching the waves roll in for hours and hours....

And enjoying more sunrises over the water...

*Enjoying time with family...

*Finding seashells...

*Enjoying the light reflecting on the water from fullest moon in 18 years...

Not wanting to ever get back to reality!

My parents were in town for the past couple of weeks and decided to get a beach house. My brother and his family and my youngest sister were also able to join us for 5 days. It was wonderful to have family around. They live in Colorado so we don't get to seem them very often. This was my brother and his family's first visit to see us. My parents left yesterday so now its back to reality {and a MUCH smaller kitchen!}

*Pictures taken by my talented sister Tiffany. I'm sure you could tell as her pictures are much more artistic than mine!

Sights and Colors of Philadelphia- Part 1 (Warning Picture overload!)

Roderick's brother had a business trip in Philadelphia the last week of school. We decided we would go up that weekend, since Philly is much closer than Colorado! Roderick studied in the car as I drove some of the way and ended up staying up quite late Friday night to finish his Hebrew Final. (Oh, the joys of school!) We were able to meet up with Jess Trach on Saturday and had a great time touring the beautiful city!

Adventure in Washington - Part 3

Our final destination before we headed home on Saturday was Georgetown. The town was beautiful.... But who can visit Georgetown without also visiting this place. Thanks Sarah for the good word. We probably would have never waited in this line if it hadn't been for your vote of approval!

After seeing the line Roderick wasn't so sure, but we decided to wait it out. He was a little less skeptical when he saw these beauties.

We had a red velvet cupcake (for my husband) and a cookies and cream (for me) boxed up since the store was so full. That gave us an extra speed to our step as we walked the 20 plus minutes back to the metro and rode it all the way back to Alexandria. As soon as we got to the car this occurred!For my husband surprisingly it was love at first bite. He couldn't get enough of it as you can see in the below picture. The skeptic was then planning when we could return for another visit!

Colorful candy shop in Georgetown.

We left DC about 5:30, made a quick stop at IKEA for a little shopping and a shared dinner...made a wrong turn that headed us back towards Washington D.C., took the very next 'exit' which ended up being an HOV lane without any exits for a very LONG time and were back where we took the wrong turn about a half hour later! We made one more wrong turn that ended up being near a Kroger so we did a little coupon shopping for the LaVictoria salsa I wasn't able to get here. We spent $9 on 4 bottles of LaVictoria, 10 cans of diced tomatoes, tuna (to donate! we are not fans!!!) and some apple juice. We didn't arrive home until after midnight Saturday night! Roderick was hungry so he downed a bunch of LaVictoria and we headed to bed....only to be woke up at 4 by a VERY sick husband! Yep the flu....(and no he has not eaten any more of the 4 jars of LaVictoria I purchased!) I came down with it a little later in the day, but I think that I had the start of it Friday and Saturday. My cupcake didn't quite taste as good as I'd expected and I feel queasy any time I see one now. Hopefully that will change soon because I really want to try a chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting from Georgetown! We are so thankful we made it home before the throwing up began!! And we got another day added to our little vacation.... a sick day on Monday!

Adventure in Washington - Part 2

Warning: Huge picture overload. We mainly took lots of pictures and walked and walked...and walked. The pictures are a bit out of order, but I don't want to waste the time trying to reoranize them. We had fun just enjoying each other's company. However, I do wish I wore something a bit heavier. It was a lot colder than I was expecting!

Adventures in Washington- Part 1

A few weeks ago Roderick and I took a little weekend trip to Alexandria/Washington D.C. Spring Break was not a break for us as Roderick worked a ton at work and on a certain VERY HUGE Hebrew project. Those of you with husband's in seminary probably know exactly which project I'm talking about. So when it was all finished we decided to take a break. Here is what we enjoyed on Friday evening....

One of my main goals was to look at and take lots of pictures of the beautiful spring blooms and trees. We certainly accomplished that goal and I think I ended up with a few cool pictures. (You'll see a bunch more in the next installment.)

Roderick's only request for the weekend was to watch How to Train a Dragon in Imax 3-D. The theater was just a short walk from our hotel and was probably the largest theater I've EVER seen. Let's just say that this frugal got a HUGE shock when they told us the price.... $35 for the two of us. What?!?!? I could probably buy 2 or 3 DVDs at that price...maybe more. Roderick even asked if there were any student discounts, but unfortunately those only apply on Thursday. We did decide to splurge and we had a blast. Probably not worth the price, but we were not sad we decided to go ahead and watch it anyway.

A huge pizza that was great, but too large. (Maybe even one of the best I've ever had.) We specifically asked our waiter if he thought the 10 inch would be enough for the 2 of us as we didn't want any leftovers. He said that was the personal size so we went with next size up... which was only a couple of inches larger. Now my husband eats a lot....but that pizza was huge. Try as he might he couldn't eat it all and we left with one piece leftover. (AND a very full husband that seriously regretted eating so much.) We looked high and low to find a homeless person to share it with, but we couldn't find one....so we left it on top of trash can. (We saw lots that would have enjoyed it the next day.) Hopefully we learned our lesson on that one. Plus we made some great memories.

The hotel we stayed at. We got a great deal and it was quite nice. However, I have to say its parking garage wass kind of creepy. Roderick was sure he had seen online that the hotel had the option of valet parking or park yourself so we drove into the parking garage ourselves. Let just say that I'm sure Roderick would have been able to easily touch the ceiling if we had got out of the car. (If we had a truck I'm not sure we would have even made it inside without scratching the top.) There were cars parked in various places no space was left untouched...and there was no way to get out once we realised we were in the wrong place. After we got a questioning look from one of the valet drivers and asked about it we did find the end and we were able to turn around. That was another expense we hadn't quite counted on so we just decided to walk everywhere we went and nixed the idea of driving around downtown Alexandria. = ( I guess we'll do that another time.

More of DC later...