Bluhd

Here is a funny video my friend had on her blog that I wanted to share. Little kids are so cute!

Potomac River

Let's say you want to rent a canoe and travel down the Potomac River, can you do it here? Of course you can! And it's really easy. Ja and I drove about 15 minutes away to a little dock on the river, told them we wanted a canoe they gave us one, then we were off. We paddled (Ja did most of the work paddling. I paddled too, but he is much stronger.) We were having a great time enjoying the water when, just around the river bend, there was the Washington Monument. It was really cool! Once again I forgot my camera so we'll have to do it again so we can take pictures. That experience made me more excited to live in this area.

Apartment shopping has also made me more excited to come back here and live. I was a little weary of moving into another apartment, but here they are so much better than in Provo! They actually have square footage. I don't think our apartment in Provo would make it on the scale. Apartments also have dishwashers, washer and dryers, pools, fitness centers, balcony's, and walk-in closets. I'm excited for all of those things. I checked out 16 apartments in the area and made up my final 4 list. Ja hasn't seen any so we will pick "the one" later. Hopefully "the one" is available when we need it. 

1. The Ashby at McLean. Floorplan E. $1464/month. It's wouldn't be renovated, so the kitchen wouldn't be as nice as in the pictures, but it's still nice. The hallways don't stink like most places I went. 

2. Tysons Glen Apartments. The Dogwood floorplan. $1480/month. This one is renovated so the kitchen is as nice as the pictures. It has a spot for washing your car too. I thought that was an added bonus. The staff was really nice here. 

3. Fairfield Crossing. The Birch, Red Oak, or Oak floorplans. $1415-1505. This apartment is the farthest away to Tysons Corner which is why we would be able to afford a two bedroom. The W/D is in the kitchen which is a little weird. Multiple huge closets. They pay gas for cooking and hot water and sewage, but we pay $15/month for trash so it equals out. 

4. Peachtree of McLean. The 960 sp ft. floorplan.$1610/month. This one is too expensive for us, but I really liked it so I kept it on the list. I couldn't stand to throw it out. The staff was nice, the amenities are really nice, the kitchen is nice, and it has a breakfast room. But we probably won't be moving here.

Take a look if you're bored and give us your feedback!

Guns, Bells, Bikes, and Food

Top 10 things that happened lately:

1. On Saturday Ja took a 55 mile bike ride down to Mount Vernon. He wasn't planning on going that far, but got halfway and talked himself into it. He's been wanting to make that ride all summer so I'm glad he did because our time here is almost over. 

2. I've started looking for apartments in the area. It's making me more excited to live here. Every apartment has a dishwasher, most have washer/dryer in the apartment, all have some kind of outdoor living space, and much more space than we had in Provo. Now if we can talk PwC into paying Ja enough so we can live here...

3. Saturday night Ja and I went to Arlington Cemetery. We talked the mile and a half uphill very quickly to see the next Changing of the Guard ceremony. I couldn't understand anything that was being said because it was in military commands but it was still cool. I have no idea why the tomb of the unknown soldier is protected that like. Does anyone know?

4. Brigham called his dad a bad parent. To see the story click here.

5. After the Cemetery we walked over to the Carillon Bell Tower for a little concert. In the summer, every Saturday night a different person plays the bells. On those nights you can walk to the top of the tower and see the person playing the bells. It's an amazing view from the top. The park ranger said it's the best view of DC because there's no line like there is at the Washington Monument. There is also a huge lawn around it so it would make a great place to have a picnic. We climbed to the top and were really glad we did. You can see the Potomac, Washington monument, Capital, and everything in between. The Arlington Cemetery is on your right side too. Jacob and Brigham were able to play a bell. The guy playing the bells was really nice. He even knew about the bell tower at BYU. The bell tower was a gift from the Netherlands to show their friendship. It's a hidden jewel in DC.

6. We watched Mission Impossible III and I had to leave for few minutes because it was too intense. I felt like I could never breathe. Now Greg isn't going to let me forget that I left. 

7. Friday night we enjoyed Bumbleberry Swirl custard from Nielson's Custard. That place is sooo good. 

8. Sunday was Heather's b-day so we had dinner with everyone. It was such a great dinner. Heather made a delicious paella, Trevor made a really really good angel food cake, Holly made a great Spanish Tortilla. 

9. I learned that my mother-in-law got so tired of her rowdy kids one day that she checked into a hotel for a night. I'm sure my mom thought about doing that with us too. 

10. My good friend April had her twin girls! She went from one kid to three in no time. 

This is Ja's last week in his internship. On Friday we should receive the information that will help us plan the next few years of our life!

Randy's & Stacie's Wedding

On July 19, 2008 my sister was married to Randy. They got married in the Newport Beach temple on a beautiful day. Ja was able to make it to California for the wedding, which I was very happy to have him back with me. Jill, Danielle, and I were the bridesmaids and we got to wear pretty pink dresses. After looking at the pictures I realized that we all did look nice in that color pink. Here is the only picture we have on our camera worth sharing of the temple, so it's a good think I really like the picture. 

The luncheon was at Island's in Newport. We had a good lunch visiting with people. 

The reception was at Randy's house and it was a really fun party.

 It's stressful planning a party and setting up for it, but everything looked great. The food was good and the cake was awesome. It was a "Stacie cake." It was an "Ace of Cakes" style wedding cake- if you've ever seen that show. It had pink and orange fondant on it

 and the cake layers were leaning in different directions. We all had a great time visiting with old friends and family. Here is Randy checking out the music before the Reception.

Ja and I had the pleasure of taking the newly weds to the airport so they could leave for their honeymoon. (No, it wasn't awkward at all.) Stacie didn't know where she was going on the honeymoon, and neither did any of us. I found out that they are now in Mexico enjoying the sunny beaches. Ja and I left the next morning for Virginia with our nephew Luc. It was a good flight on Jetblue. I was exhausted from all the festivities and slept in until 10:30 the next day. 

I had a lot of fun spending all that time with my family. We miss them all and look forward to seeing them again. I'm really looking forward to being in Provo with Stacie and Randy in the fall! I finally get to live by some of my family!

My trip home to California

Since my sister was getting married I decided to go home a week before the wedding and help with wedding plans. I was really glad I was able to go home because I had a really fun time. I was able to spend a lot of time with the whole family, and even Randy's family too. While most of my time was spent doing wedding things I was able to get a few fun things in too. 

Stacie went through the temple for the first time on Friday so a lot of our family was able to be there with her. A lot of Randy's family was there too. It was really nice to be there with everyone. I had a lot of family support when I went through for the first time, but I was so overwhelmed that I didn't appreciate it, but now I am glad to have family that love and support me. Stacie, Randy, my mom, and I went to the temple again on Saturday so Stacie could feel more comfortable going on her own.

On Monday Stacie and I were treated to our first ever professional massages. It was fun to walk around a day spa in a robe. We put our feet in the hot tub, felt like we were suffocating in the steam room and enjoyed a 50 minute body massage. I definitely recommend it!

Then on Wednesday Stacie and Randy went to San Diego for the day so Kenny, Jill and I decided to have some fun of our own. We went down to trusted Newport Beach. We brought crab catching things so Kenny could catch crabs on the rocks. He's really good at catching the little things and was a favorite among the little kids.

 So many kids came over to our hole in the sand admiring the crabs. After Kenny took the crabs back to their home, he decided he wanted the little kids to bury him in the hole. That was a funny sight to see as well. Some of the kids were betting on how long it would take Kenny to get out of the hole.

While we were on the rocks someone put a starfish in our bucket. We didn't want to pry the starfish off the rocks because it's mean, but since someone did it already we had to take a picture with the little guy. There were quite a few starfish that day and sea urchins. 

On Thursday Stacie, Jill, Mom, and I all went to get pedicures and manicures for the wedding. That was fun to be with them all. We all looked very fancy afterwards, Stacie being the fanciest of all. After that we went to the park with the Olsons, Williams, and G&G Seymour for pie. We were celebrating Grandpa's birthday the next day. 

Friday was spent trying to get last minute things done for the wedding. There was a little problem with the centerpiece flowers but a good friend came over to save the day. All was well with the centerpieces and they turned out beautifully. 

Where we should live poll

Four of you said Arlington, is that because that's the only place you've heard of? Three of you said other but I've only gotten one suggestion for Cambodia. Can you guess who that's from? I'm waiting for the other two suggestions...

Caleb's Bedroom

Caleb, who is a boy, was living in a bright pink bedroom. Ja and I knew our nephew couldn't be living in a pink world anymore so we decided we would paint it while Greg & Holly were on vacation for a week. While Ja was at work I got to work. It took me three days to finish the project. Holly talked about painting the room a light green so I had that for direction. There is a band of cork board on one wall so I decided to incorporate that by painting it blue and having a blue band all around the room. Here is a picture of the pink.

Now it's primered.

Here's the blue band. I should have painted everything green and then painted the blue on top. Now I know for next time. 

Finished product. 

Holly was really surprised to see the room. Over her vacation she had a dream we painted her house. I thought that was a little scary. I was worried she wouldn't like the outcome, but she did. Caleb crawled up the stairs to his room so I take that as him liking it too. I was really glad I could do this for them.  

Independence Day 2008

I really enjoy the 4th of July so I wanted to spend it doing something worthwhile. I thought it would be fun to go to the National Mall to see the firework show. We heard you had to get there early to pick out a good spot to sit. We didn't really know what early meant. It opens at 10 a.m. so does that mean we have to get there at 9 a.m.? Or is 5 p.m. early enough? We ended getting there at around noon and it seemed really crowded because a parade was about to start. We were a little worried at the large mass of people. It was misleading though because as soon as we made it to the Washington Monument there was no one there! We decided to sit on the top of the hill in front of the Washington, facing Lincoln. 

The clouds disappeared right when we arrived so we were really hot. We laid on our blankets for awhile, Ja even fell asleep. I think he was dreaming about chickens. We played a few games of cards to pass the time.

We were so hot we almost called it quits and went home. We decided that it would be all right to leave our blankets and find shade since there was hardly anyone there. Once we found shade and ice cream we felt much better. We poured water on our heads and feet. I wanted to pour some on my back but the water came out faster than I thought so it looked like I sweated all down my back. I was pretty embarrassed. It started to rain pretty hard so we were really cooled down by that. Ja was getting soaked because I was using the only umbrella. A nice guy next to us let Ja borrow one of his. I was glad the guy did because I was starting to feel guilty.

We were joined by some family friends from CA; Don, Gretta, and Lilyanna. A few hours later were were joined by Trevor, Heather & fam, friends from the ward, and eventually Matt & Cassidy. Here is our group. 

It rained a few more times unfortunately. Trevor brought a little tent that most of the kids found shelter in. The rest of us fended for ourselves under umbrellas. Luc was playing in Trevor's hiking backpack and said he was a hot dog. I asked him to make a hot dog face and this is what I got.  

I was really glad the firework show still happened even through the sprinkling rain. It was a really good show. They had some of the coolest fireworks I've ever seen. Here are a few pictues that turned out. 

Getting home was the hardest part because 1,000's of people are all trying to get home on the metro. We went to our stop but it was absolutely packed and no one was moving. Jen, from our group, decided we should go one stop further away from where we got off. This was genius because we walked right on the metro and even got to sit down. I think that is the secret to getting home. 

Overall we had a fun time. We didn't need to get there any earlier than 4 p.m., you could even come at 5 and still get a good spot. Oh well, Ja and I spent some quality time together. We say this was a one time event, but we said that about the Rose Parade and we've gone 4 times now. At least we know what to expect next time. 

Funny things last week

Holly was in the basement and heard Jacob yelling, "Aunt Laura, I am on Uncle Ja's bed!" Jacob hardly ever goes in the basement so it was really funny that he made it all the way in our room. Holly asked Jacob what he was doing and he said he was snuggling with his calculator. Later I noticed that my itunes was open, luckily my songs weren't all renamed to 01234567891011121314151617181920, or abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz, or 1234567891011121314151617181920abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz. 

I jumped on the bed with Jacob and he loved flopping all over the place. Brigham found Jacob and I down there and wanted to snuggle on the bed with us. After Ja got home from work Brigham wanted to snuggle on the bed with Ja and I. What that really meant is he wanted to entertain us by jumping off the bed and pretending he was falling off a cliff.  

Yesterday there was some splashing going on upstairs so Greg went up to investigate. The next thing we hear is Greg yelling, "Caleb's up here with a plunger!" Caleb had one hand in the toilet and one holding the plunger. Ahhh, so cute.

Gravelly Park

Ja and I visited a park that is right next to the Potomac and the National Reagan Airport. Since the river separates the park from the airport making it's a great place to see planes take off and land. The planes fly right over your head and really low. Hearing the loud noise and seeing the huge shadow in the grass was really cool. 

Here is the airport, a plane flying over us, and me touching the water. It was surprisingly warm! You can see the Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial in the background.

We want people to come visit us so we can take them to all the cool places we are discovering!

Another Great Weekend

This weekend wasn't as eventful as last but still fun. On friday night we walked around the huge Tyson's Center mall and ate dessert at Costal Flats. We've been there twice for dessert and it's been really good each time. Then we watched the movie Martian Child. Thank goodness for Redbox because the movie wasn't that great. Cute, but I felt like it was missing something. 

Saturday was a busy day. We went to the bank, then went to the temple. The D.C. temple is huge! After that Heather had us over for lunch because they had a lot of leftover sloppy joes. Saturday night we went with some people from the ward to the movie Iron Man. I actually liked the movie. It was a really good superhero movie. Never once did I think that it wasn't real. We're excited for the sequel! After the movie we came home and finished preparing for a Sunday School lesson Ja taught. He said the lesson went well and the kids in the class were talkative. It's always nice when people like to talk. 

Sunday was a good day at church. The lessons were good and the people were nice. After church we got a call from Luc asking if he could come over and play. Ja asked what time he wanted to come over and Luc said 24. We didn't know what that meant so we wanted around for him so show up. We played hide-and-go-seek, Hulk smash, watched a Diego movie, and played some marble game. In hide-and-go-seek Luc likes to hide in the same spot every time or in the spot you just hid in. He is a pretty easy finder. Then we ate another good dinner thanks to Heather. The weather was very nice so we took a walk around the neighborhood and met some neighbors. We ended off the day talking to far away family. I'm sorry there aren't any fun pictures, just boring narrative. 

Why we love D.C.

On friday night we went on a date to Nelson's Custard and to the National Mall.  It's amazing that we can take a short car drive, park the car, and walk around in our nation's capital. The White House is down the street and all the buildings that run our country are right here. Night is a great time to see a lot of the outdoor sites because it isn't as hot, there aren't as many people, and they look very cool lit up. We saw the WWI memorial, FDR memorial, WWII memorial, Lincoln memorial, Korean War memorial,  Vietnam memorial, and walked along the Potomac river. How fun is that? I did get a little tired with all that walking but I still loved it. And the best part is, is it's totally free and you get exercise while doing it all! It's a great date night if anyone wants to come visit and try it out:)

Then on Saturday we went downtown again with Holly, Greg and the kids. We parked, which is great with Jacob because he gets handicapped parking, walked over to the Navy memorial and ate Potbelly's sandwiches. Then we walked past the National Archives and through a sculpture garden. There is a big fountain in the middle of the garden so we decided to rest our feet by putting them in the water. Here's a picture of the fountain, the fountain wasn't going at the time.

Before we knew it Jacob was sitting in the fountain waist deep. Just before this happened Greg said it was time to go, but Jacob said back, "I don't think it's time to go!" He was planning on getting in the water! All in all it was a great weekend visiting downtown D.C. We really enjoy being so close to so many great sites and museums!

Quote of the day

I overheard Holly talking to Brigham:

"That is why we don't eat gold coins while we go to the bathroom, because we might get poop on them."

Brigham was going to the bathroom and wanted to eat a chocolate gold coin at the same time. I saw Brigham walking out of the bathroom without any pants on, so I asked him if he was getting ready to wrestle. (Apparently you have to wear only underwear when you wrestle.) He said, "Oh don't worry about it." He then walked into the kitchen, then walked out and got Holly. Brigham wanted her to get the gold coin out of the toilet. Holly was about to until she looked in the toilet. I'm still wondering why he stopped in the kitchen before getting Holly. I really hope he wasn't thinking about getting a spoon. 

Things we learned from our trip

I recorded that we drove approximately 3,397 miles. It could be a few more miles than that, but it's still a lot of driving. From adding up all the time we wrote down I have we drove 44 hours. It might be more than that, because that is an average of 77 mph and I know we didn't drive that fast a majority of the way. We drove a lot of back roads and highways that had a speed limit of 55 or lower. Still, that is a long time to be in a car. 

We wrote a list of things we learned from all this. Most of you probably already know this stuff, but it was my first big road trip I was in charge of so it was all new to me.

1. Don't assume that every hotel has shampoo & conditoner.

2. Don't assume every hotel has a blow dryer.

3. Not every hotel has an iron.

4. If you stay in the cheapest hotel you can find, it's going to be crappy.

5. Always have a map of the U.S. and the states in the car.

6. Keep a lot of food and water in the car. (We had plenty, but we want to make sure we do it again next time.)

7. If staying somewhere over a Sunday get a room that has a fridge and/or microwave to cook food on Sunday.

8. Even though Mapquest is very good (it only failed us once) make sure you have another source of map knowledge.

9. Be patient, very patient.

10. The sites usually take longer than anticipated.

11. Use AAA to help you find hotels and routes.

12. Plan the trip out well (get hotels in advance, things like that), but leave room for changes and extra stops, etc.

13. It's give and take for visiting in off-season. (It wasn't crowded or hot, but not everything was open, and some things close early)

14. Check the weather where you are going and pack accordingly. (We thought it would be warm but it was cold so we wore the same one jacket every day.)

15. Bring books on tape-they saved us.

16. If anyone gives you the chance to stay at their house, take that chance. It's nice to stay at a real house and it saves you money.

Thanks for putting up with all of these posts. I was really doing it for our records but we enjoying sharing too. I'm going to put ALL of the pictures here if you want to see them.

2 Things post worthy

The first thing of importance is I drove through this crazy intersection called "seven corners" successfully! Yes, there are really 7 directions coming into the intersection. I would have probably avoided it, but my directions had me go right through it. I guess you have to face your fears head on. On this same trip, I had to go from Target to the mall, without directions! This is a hard thing to do around here. Granted I only had to take 1 road to get to the mall, but it got confusing when I hit seven corners again. I was really proud of myself.

The second thing, I wish I could be four again. Our nephew Luc came over wearing blue goggles on his head, army shorts and giraffe rain boots. Brigham was wearing his car stunt driver suit until he got hot. He then took it off and walked around in his underwear. It's too bad adults can't get away doing these things.