Washington DC 2015!

I was FINALLY able to download my photos to my laptop, no thanks to Windows 10!  Ugh.

Anyway, we had an amazing trip to Washington DC and surrounding areas a couple weeks ago.  The weather and the scenery were beautiful and the sites were amazing.

Day 1:

We flew in to Baltimore and were once again amazed at the beautiful scenery and colorful fall leaves. We drove to our hotel in Alexandria, VA and had just enough time to find a place to eat dinner and crash for the night.

From the plane's dirty window.

Day 2:
On Sunday we went to church, then drove over to the temple and hung out in the Visitor's Center for a couple hours.

Church building in Alexandria...

....scenery around the parking lot....nice.

Our first glimpse of the Washington Monument

Beautiful fall foliage.

Washington DC temple

Day 3:
On Monday we drove up to Hershey, PA to visit Hershey World.  There really wasn't much to do there unless you go over to the amusement park which we didn't do.  But we got a short tour of how chocolate is made and then walked around and bought souvenirs. After that, we drove down to Gettysburg and spent the rest of the day there.

Me and my buds.

2nd floor, 2nd window from the right is where Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Address. Pretty darn cool.

Town of Gettysburg.

Where most of the fighting took place.

Where the last battle took place.

Happened to run into President Lincoln so he let me take a picture with him. Nice guy!

Day 4:
Tuesday was our anniversary so we spent a good part of the day in the temple.  Then we went back to Alexandria and had a nice dinner, just the two of us and a cockroach.

Delicious food despite our unwanted dinner companion.

Great finish to a wonderful anniversary!

More beautiful fall foliage!

Day 5:
Wednesday was probably our busiest day.  We headed out bright and early so that we could be at the White House for our tour time.  Then we walked......and walked............and walked.............and walked around DC for the rest of the day, seeing many fun and interesting things along the way.

First thing we saw as we were walking from the Metro.

 The White House......

The China Room

The East Room

The Green Room

The back yard! So cool.

I'd say they have a pretty nice view

The Red Room (in case you couldn't tell).

The Lincoln Dining Room

A totally cute couple who happened to be there.

So cool! One of my faves!!

We decided to walk along the reflecting pool to the Lincoln Memorial.  It's even farther than it looks!

Lincoln Memorial.....loved, loved, loved being there! One of my faves!

A great man.

Vietnam Memorial. 

We also went to the WWII Memorial, but for whatever reason, I didn't take photos there.  It started raining pretty hard by then so we spent the rest of the day at the Smithsonian American History Museum where we were educated and enlightened beyond our imagination!

The Ghostbusters were on the job that day.

Alexandria had so many charming restaurants to choose from.

Look! Some beautiful fall foliage!

Day 6:

We spent Thursday at Mt. Vernon.  This was my most favorite out of all my faves! 

Pretty nice.....if only they had indoor plumbing.

Here's the outdoor plumbing! Kinda cute though.

This is about one fourth of the vegetable garden they have there.  My 4x4 grow box seems a little small now, but at least I don't have as many weeds!

View from the front porch. Not bad.

Back of the house and entrance for all who came to visit in carriages.

Tomb where George and Martha are buried on the property.

MORE BEAUTIFUL FALL FOLIAGE!!

Day 7:
Another day in DC.

Ford's Theatre where Lincoln was assassinated.

Waiting for the show to start.

The Presidential box where he was watching the play.

Walked past the FBI building.  Mulder and Scully were in the field that day so we didn't go in.

Taking a stroll down Pennsylvania Ave.

This is what the Capitol Building looked like that day.  About a year from now, it will be really beautiful again.

The inside matched the outside but we had a great tour and saw some other beautiful rooms.  That was a great tour that we weren't planning to do but were really glad we did.

Supreme Court Building

We spent the rest of this day at the Air and Space Museum.

I will end with....

....you guessed it, beautiful fall foliage!!

Wish we had had more time to see everything, including the rest of the museums, but we would have needed about a month.

It was a super fun trip, we highly recommend it!

Abbey's Wedding

This past Thursday, October 8, Abbey and Jake got married in the Jordan River temple and we went up for the festivities.  It was a beautiful wedding and a beautiful day for them and we were so glad we got to share her special day.

Mr. and Mrs. Pugmire!

She had this big grin all day. I remember the feeling!

What a good looking family!

Keeping Camden busy during the reception.

Congrats Abbey!

It just so happens that Abbey married the nephew of two of my BYU roommates.  It's a small world....

Still look 19......okay, I can dream.

On Friday we went to see Becky's art exhibit in SLC.....

A couple of my favorites.....

.....but they were both sold!

Most of her pieces were already sold, which is so awesome.  Congrats, Becky!

Then we drove down to BYU to check out THIS....

SLC temple made of Legos....pretty cool.

Late Friday afternoon on campus.....pretty calm.

Camden is zapping my phone so I can't take a picture.  Ha! Got one anyway.

Remember how they tore down Harris Hall in August?  The pile of rubble has turned into a mound of dirt. Stay tuned!

Hanging out at the Bean museum, ready for some ice cream.

In between activities we hung out at Dan and Nicole's, playing with Camden and Wesley.

Camden showed us how he could ride a bike.

Wesley showed us his crawling abilities.

Babysitting the grandkids....life doesn't get much better.

Wesley loved Jared's whiskers.

Lego Land!

It was a great trip.  I wish it could have been longer.  It was so fun to see everyone and it was nice to spend a couple days in cool temps.  I love Utah in the fall....because they get one!

The next couple weeks will be spent catching up on everything I put off while getting my Statistics class done.  So glad that is behind me! 12 days until our trip to DC so stay tuned!!

August 2015

I have been wanting to update our blog for some time now but computer problems have prevented me from attaining my goal, thanks to Windows 10.  Keep your fingers crossed that this goes well!

August was pretty busy.  First of all, Scott and I both had really bad sinus infections the beginning of the month.  I was worried that my trip to Utah might get postponed and it did.  But I finally made it for Education Week, my first time going.  Although it was wonderful, I was still not feeling well and over exerted myself which put a damper on things.  But it was great to be in Utah and hang out at BYU for a week.

Nice lunch spot.

The campus was buzzing.

Ok, so I think I posted photos last year of my old stomping grounds in Heritage Halls.  They have been gradually tearing them all down and replacing them with new buildings which are beautiful.  However, my old home, Harris Hall was in the last group of four to be torn down and I was so happy to see at the beginning of the week that it was still there.  Three days later, on Thursday, I had lunch with one of my roommates from Harris Hall, Pam, and we walked over there to see it one last time.  Yep, you guessed it, GONE!

Just a pile of rubble....

Wish I had thought to take one last picture, but alas.....

Nice shot of the Law Building though!  Just for you, Scott!!

One of the perks of the week was staying with Dan and Nicole and getting some quality play time with Camden and Wesley!

Wesley is growing like crazy and is such a happy baby!

Camden is still the funnest ever!!

It is always nice to spend time with Dan and Nicole and I was also able to have dinner with Jared and Cate.  They are always so fun to talk to and it was nice to catch up with them.  They even insisted on going to Brick Oven even though neither one of them is crazy about that restaurant, which I kind of don't get, hehe.  You guys are awesome!

From Provo, I went to Turlock to attend the wedding of a friend's daughter.  It was great to be there and catch up with everyone from my old ward.  It was also great to see my family again and hang out with them for a couple of days. Wish I would have taken pictures while I was there!

This is Jayde (and Aunt Susan's legs). Sorry guys, I'll do better next time!

At the end of the month we went up to Prescott to celebrate Ashley's birthday.  We had a nice lunch with her and Jason and then we walked around town for a bit before heading back to her place for......

30th Anniversary cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory!! Super yummy choice, Ashley!

She opened gifts.....

And then we headed back down to the hot valley.  Thanks for the nice reprieve Ash!

I can't believe we're halfway through September.  This month has been a blur so far because all I have been doing is working on my stats class.  At least that's how it seems.  I took the 3rd exam this morning.  I now have one unit left and then I take the final.  I am hoping to take it in Provo while we are up there for Abbey's wedding.  Keep your fingers crossed.

"Just because" flowers from my husband that I couldn't resist posting because he is the best ever....

We're looking forward to being in Utah for Abbey's wedding!

Until then....