I enjoy being a tourist...

I just came back from a long weekend in DC. my cousin and her husband live in Arlington and they invited a bunch of us to visit for a few days. we spent most of Friday in the city playing tourists. it was J's first time in DC so he wanted to see all the major sites. the weather was chilly and the skies were overcast but we made the most of it. also, most of the cherry blossom trees were bare already because of the early spring. but we managed to see a few and they were quite beautiful. I thought I would share just a few of the pictures I took...

here's a view of the Capitol behind a cherry blossom tree

the next three pictures were taken inside the Botanic Garden center

after lunch in Chinatown we headed towards the White House...it's kinda big...haha

next up on our tour of the city, the WWII Memorial...I got the Washington Monument in the shot as well

we stopped to see the new Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial. all I can say is...powerful.

our last day there we drove out to the Air & Space Museum which was awesome. here's a photo the Enterprise rocket.

okay, so this final picture wasn't taken in DC. this is one of the baby birds that hatched while I was gone. their nest lives in one of the light fixtures by the garage. so cute!

 

College Football Baby! *Go Clemson Tigers*

I love, love, love college football! Seriously, it's like one of my most favorite things in the whole world. Unfortunately, I have only ever experience two previous college games live and in-person. Thanks to this weekend, my total has now gone up to three! 

I flew up to Clemson, SC to spend the weekend with family and friends and attend the Clemson/Florida State game. Talk about picking the perfect game to make my Clemson debut! The weather was absolutely gorgeous (hello, being able to wear jeans and not sweat to death!) and the Tigers played a fantastic game. The sold-out stadium was a loud, orange-and-purple lovin' place of amazingness. Seriously, I so got goosebumps when the Tigers started running on the field and they released the massive amounts of orange balloons into the beautiful blue sky. Nothing can compare to seeing the action live. Every team and stadium has fantastic traditions that make them special, and I truly loved experiencing Clemson's for the first time with people who love their alma mater so deeply! 

Thank you, thank you, thank you family and friends for making the weekend so special! Love and hugs!

summer in Iowa...

between all my house/pet-sitting gigs this summer I was able to take a quick trip to Iowa to see my family. it was great to get away for a few days; even better to see my brother, sis-in-law, and gorgeous nephews. I took lots of pictures (as per usual) but decided only to post my absolute favorites of Kayden and Jayce (2 each to be fair). I also had to take some pictures of a beautiful Iowa sunset...and a couple flowers. because well, that's what I do.

DC: mini-trip

A couple weeks ago I made a visit to D.C. for a long weekend. Unfortunately, while my trip was a lot of fun, I did not take many pictures. However, while wandering around Georgetown my cousin and I happened upon an adorable historical site...the Old Stone House. (I think) At any rate, we wandered through the beautiful gardens and I snapped some pictures of pretty flowers. I like flowers. :) We also made a quick visit to the Natural History Museum and spent most of our time in the Gems section. Pretty pretty pretty. The Hope Diamond...amazingly spectacular if I do say so myself. Oh, and yes...I managed to snap a couple shots of some famous landmarks. Because well, what's a visit to our capital city without spying some major sites.


Maybe on my next trip I'll do a better job of actually using my camera for more than like, an hour or two. Here's hoping...

 

since it feels like summer already...

Even though it's not yet the middle of April, it already feels like summer here in sunny Florida. Ugh. I am not ready for this. However, it is fun to re-live last summer's amazing week at the beach. Starting back in the spring of 2009 our family started planning a big family reunion at the beach. None of us had ever been to the Panhandle and we were so excited to spend time together there. After 14 months of planning, hundreds of emails exchanged, and vehicles stuffed to their brims, 11 family members and I descended upon a gorgeous house right by the beach.


I had so many fun pictures of our time at the beach that I decided to split them into two posts. Today's post cover's the first three days. Whenever we get together we do things up big. During the planning process we decided to have theme days. We divided ourselves into groups and each chose a theme. Our first day was "Christmas". That's right, Christmas in the middle of June. We had a traditional Christmas feast and "Santa" even left stockings. Our family has a tradition of playing bingo on Christmas day so we had to do that of course. If I remember correctly, we also had the movie White Christmas playing in the background. Like I said, we like to go all out. 


The next day we said "Aloha!" to a fabulous luau-themed extravaganza. As hard as I tried to campaign for a fire on the beach with a roasting pig, that just didn't make the final cut. Maybe next time. At any rate, we had a feast and it almost felt like we were on the big island. Well, maybe not. But it was sure fun! How do you top a Hawaiian luau you ask? Well, that's easy...you plan a big "4th of July" celebration. That's right, everyone dressed in their patriotic best and enjoyed a yummy cook-out followed by fireworks on the beach. Okay, so maybe we didn't really have our own fireworks...but we did see some fireworks going off in the next town. So that was actually a fun, unexpected surprise!


Don't worry, between all the theme meals and evenings we had, we all still managed to take advantage of the pool at our house as well as the beach. It was great to be able to just spend hours relaxing around the house. *sigh* I think we all managed to come away with sunburned faces. It was worth it!

Yeah, I'm ready to go back...