D.C.

 A few weeks ago we went to Washington D.C.!! We had so much fun. After having been to the capitals of several other countries, I finally made it to the capital of the USA! Some highlights:

• The Holocaust Museum. We also went to the National Gallery of Art, Air and Space Museum, Museum of Natural History, the Museum of American History
• We got Library of Congress library cards and went in parts of the library the tour doesn't take you
• On Sunday we found the most amazing farmer's market
• Seeing my friend Ashley and meeting her baby!
• And, of couse, taking pictures with my wonderful camera

MLK Jr. Memorial 

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier 

Arlington National Cemetery 

Washington Monument from the Cemetery 

Vietnam Memorial 

Unfortunately, the reflection pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial looked like this on our trip...under construction. 

WWII Memorial 

Inside the Capitol 

Brigham Young at the Capitol Building 

We also happened upon the Nicaragua Embassy

And then on purpose found the Uruguay Embassy 

Fun bookstore we found

Pretty temple

At the Museum of Natural History they had a live butterfly exhibit. It was so fun!

Korean War Monument 

Jefferson Memorial 

White House-we went on the tour, which was kind of disappointing. Long line for not very much tour. I guess the line was because President Obama needed to leave. Rumor has it he was going to his girls' soccer game :) 

The Washington Monument is so striking and pretty. I couldn't help but take a lot of pictures of it. 

Legoland

We had a reputation to live up to after last year. Having sworn off paper mache for life, my costume this year only involved a box, oatmeal canisters and a little paint. Here I am with my coworkers.

We are debating how to get lunch with our costumes on.

It was tricky but we managed in the end.

I hope everyone had a lovely Halloween!

Weird Al

Monday night we went to the Utah State Fair and saw Weird Al in concert. I tried to fight it at first, but I have embraced Weird Al. I love his polkas the most. It's made our music listening in the car on road trips a lot easier. Audrey came with us! This concert was fun, but the best part was seeing Jacob's face full of pure joy and giddiness as he enjoyed the performance.

Nerd alert!!

I was also slightly obsessed with taking pictures of the Ferris Wheel and trying new things on my camera. 

Portland Trip

I spent last weekend in Portland with Becca! It was indescribably awesome to have a sister trip. I will, however, do my best to try and describe it to you. I had never been to Portland before, and was excited to see a new part of the U.S., and see where Becca served her mission. 


Friday morning we hiked Multnomah (Mult-NO-ma) Falls. Becca had to correct my non-Oregonian pronunciation a few times on this trip. The falls were gorgeous. 

 

There were several artists there painting the falls. 




For lunch we went to the Grilled Cheese Grill, a bus converted to gourmet grilled cheese shop. It was too hot to eat inside the bus, we ate outside, but it made for some cool pics. 

After that we headed to the mall. We went to H&M, one of my favorite stores. It did not disappoint. We also got pedicures, because a sister trip is not complete without them. 

For dinner we went to Burgerville, a popular Oregon-only burger chain, which Becca told me rivaled In-N-Out Burger. Sorry, Becca, I will remain true to my In-N-Out, it is still my favorite burger. Below is a picture at The Grotto, a famous Catholic church. It was very peaceful and pretty. They had an interesting path with several of these monuments. We saw the sister missionaries street contacting someone right outside, which made Becca very happy. 

Saturday we went to the Farmer's Market, which is right on the waterfront downtown, along the Willamette (wil-LAMM-met) River. Also very cool. I had the best pupusa and bought a cool ring made from a spoon. We also saw some interesting folks. Becca told me some peeps in Portland tried to pass an ordinance that within certain city limits, one could not wear any product that was scented- no lotion, deodorant, even shampoo! We saw (and smelled, unfortunately), some people who seem to be practicing this ordinance, even though it didn't pass. 




I look like I'm ready to sock Becca in the stomach in this picture. Probably because she just bought the cutest little blue clutch and I'm jealous! 

Then we went to Powell's City of Books....a bookstore spanning a whole city block and several stories high...it was mind-blowing. After about an hour in the store I found my favorite section, and about an hour after that we managed to escape without too much damage to our bank accounts.


We also went to the International Rose Gardens, where they have every kind of rose you can imagine. After this, we were beat. We drove to the temple, and then Becca showed me some places she served and we went to a lookout point for Mt. Hood. 

Sunday I played the piano and Becca sang a solo in church and then I came home. I really liked Oregon. I was amazed at all the greenery, considering I still think of Utah as such a green place, when many consider it the desert. Portland reminded me of Salt Lake in some ways; parts of Salt Lake have that hipster/granola/have-dreadlocks-even-though-you're-white kind of feel. It was such a good trip. And my good husband cleaned the house and my car while I was gone, making it even more fantastic!

It's Moabites, not Moabees

I am interning for a company called the Wayne Brown Institute. They are the oldest non-profit venture capital accelerator in the country. I have been there for about 3 months. The internship ends in about 3 weeks.

Anyway, because of all the awesome things that the interns have done for the institute, they decided to take us all on a weekend retreat to Moab, Utah.

For those of you who are not familiar with that area, let me take a couple of paragraphs to fill you in.

There are two stories explaining how Moab got its name. One of those stories claims that its first post master, William Pierce, named it after the city of Moab that is found on the East side of the Jordan River, believing that the biblical Moab and this part of Utah were both "the far country." The other story claims that the word "Moab" comes from the Piutes word "moapa" meaning mosquito.

Now, through the years, starting in the late 1800's, some of the residents of Moab wanted to have the name changed due to the fact that in the bible, the Moabites were idolatrous and incestuous. On different occasions they tried to change the name to Vina, and then Uvadalia. Weird, huh?

So now you have a little background info on Moab. That is where Laura and I spent our weekend, with the Moabites.

We left around noon on Friday and drove the 4 hours to Moab. The Institute paid for a couple of condos that we stayed in. Laura and I snagged the master bedroom in one of the condos which ended up being one of the best things we could have done. We got the master bathroom all to ourselves. It was nice.

The first night there we just settled in and had some dinner. We played some ping pong and darts and went to bed.

Saturday was a full day of Jeeping. We got up at 8 AM and went over to the Jeep rental place to pick up the 5 Jeeps that we were going to be using all day. We went to some pretty cool places. Instead of telling you all about it, here are some pictures:

There were a lot more pictures taken...some of you will get the opportunity of seeing those.

We got out of the Jeeps a few times for some site seeing and for lunch. We also got out to take a little hike to Gemini Bridges, which is a pretty cool spot. Here are a few pictures from that hike:

I think we were Jeeping for close to 9 hours yesterday. It was literally (said like Rob Lowe on Parks and Recreation) one of the coolest things I have ever done.

Saturday night we had a nice Mexican style dinner and then went to bed.

We slept in on Sunday and left for Salt Lake City around noon. Here is a part of the story that is funny to everyone but Laura and I...

While we were driving home, Laura and I were playing the game were you trying to link movie stars by the movies they are in. For example: link Meryl Streep to Jack Lemmon...

This was my first chain:

-Meryl Streep to Pierce Brosnan in Mama Mia

-Pierce Brosnan to Halle Berry in Die Another Day

-Halle Berry to John Travolta in Swordfish

-John Travolta to Samuel L Jackson in Pulp Fiction

-Samuel L Jackson to Ewan McGregor in Star Wars

-Ewan McGregor to Jim Carrey in I Love You Phillip Morris

-Jim Carrey to Jennifer Aniston in Bruce Almighty

-Jennifer Aniston to Jason Bateman in The Switch

-Jason Bateman to Will Smith in Hancock

-Will Smith to Jack Lemmon in The Legend of Bagger Vance.

I later came up with a chain that was about half that long.

Anyway, Laura and I were so engrossed in this game that we didn't bother to pay attention to where we were going. We just kept driving and driving. It wasn't until we got to the point where we were so hungry we started looking for nearby eateries. Laura saw a sign and said "In 20 miles we can stop and eat in Beaver." I was like, "Beaver!?!?!?!?!? We shouldn't be anywhere near Beaver!!!!!!!"

It turns out that we were 20 miles north of Beaver when we should have been close to Spanish Fork. We added 2 hours on to our trip because of the never-ending degrees of Meryl Streep.

1. This is where Moab is.

2. This is where were were when we realized we were going the wrong way.

3. This is where we should have been

4. This is home.

It was pretty sucky!

So, that was our weekend.

See how many people it takes for you to link Meryl Streep and Jack Lemmon. Post it in a comment.

A Little Bit of Plywood and a Little Bit of Paint

As I write this post there are pellets of sweat beading under my knees. I am only telling you this so that you know that I am extremely uncomfortable. Why do I want you to know how uncomfortable I am? I don't know, but it is relevant to the post.

This is Jacob, by the way...Did you picture Laura's sweaty knees? Gross!

We live in a little one bedroom apartment with no central air conditioning. In the summertime we use a couple of a/c units that help keep us just cool enough to not want to kill ourselves. Am I complaining enough?...No? I can keep going.

Anyway, the a/c unit in our bedroom prevents us from being able to shut our window. Having the window open makes it very hard for the cool air to stay inside. Well, Laura's dad came up with the idea of cutting out a piece of plywood to cover the portion of the window that is left open. Less than 24 hours after making that suggestion, her dad was back up here installing the piece of plywood.

Now, some of you might be thinking "A piece of plywood? What an eye sore!"

What a coincidence, I was thinking the same thing.

I almost immediately got out some paint and started slapping in on the wood. This is what ended up forming on the plywood:

The painting is about 2 ft. wide and 17 in. tall.

I call it...

"Blind Sailor"

May

Jacob walked at graduation!

He is one step closer to being done with school! Hooray. We had fun seeing his family that weekend. (If you are ever looking for a good time with the Parrys, just throw a hula hoop into the mix. Very entertaining.)

Jacob also started a great internship this month at the Wayne Brown Institute, where he is the associate director of public relations.

We are looking to buy a house. Buying a house is kind of like finding someone to date. There are a lot of options out there in the housing and dating markets. Some you look at and immediately think, no way. You really like some on the outside, but on the inside, they may be moldy and creepy. Some are really intriguing, but in the end don't win you over. The whole process is really exciting at first, but a little bit into it, you'd rather just be done with the whole thing. We haven't found "the one" yet, but we'll keep looking.