Visit to DC!

This weekend we were in Washington DC! Neither of us had been there before, and one of my best friends, Stephanie, just moved out there after graduating in December. (And she just got a full time job starting after her internship ends- way to go!) This trip was my birthday present from my in-laws. We had a great time! It was so neat to see such an important place to our country.

We landed and immediately had to figure out the metro, which was interesting. It took a little while, but we did it! Right when we got there, we met up with my college roommate, Jackie, and her husband, Joe, who had driven up from Virginia Beach. We spent Friday with them while Stephanie was at work. It was great to see them!

They had lots of pretty flower pots all over the city, so I immediately had my camera in hand and started snapping shots. Here are some flowers right off the metro.

They called their houses "row houses." They were pretty cute!

Food from a van! We don't have that in Iowa. 

 Beautiful cherry blossom tree. We just missed the festival of the cherry blossom trees by a week. Most of them had turned green now, but there were still a few beauties around!

 Lots of tulips, too.

Library of Congress.

 My first view of the Capital!

Steph's apartment building. She lives super close to the Capital and has an amazing view!

More cute row houses while walking around.

Walking around the Capital.

Plenty of protection- squad cars. The patrol police around the Capital had the biggest guns I've ever seen.

Jackie and I.

Kley and I (still at the Capital).

Kley and Joe.

The fountain/flowers in front of the Capital on the other side.

First glance of the Washington Monument! (There was scaffolding around it to fix the damage done to it by the last earthquake.)

Embassy Row.

You can't really see it, but this sign said "Obey this Signal" underneath. I thought that was funny.

Walking around the Newseum. We didn't go inside because it was expensive, but it was cool to even see the outside! They have the front page of the big newspapers from all over the country.

The Des Moines Register!

Capital Bikeshare- there are 150 stations, and you can "check out" a bike anywhere and drop it off back at any station. Pretty cool!

Snack stands.

Plenty of places to get your paper all over.

Riding the metro! (One of the funny moments of the trip was when Joe rushed on when the doors were closing, and barely got out in time, or else we would have been separated.)

Joe and Jackie took us to see the Washington National Cathedral. 

A very unique and interesting place! Lots of pretty stained glass inside.

View from the top.

Walking around the gardens outside the cathedral.

Joe and Jackie.

Union Station- where we met up with Steph!

La Loma- a Mexican restaurant we all went to for dinner!

I had flautas for the first time- delicious!

After dinner on Friday, we said goodbye to Joe and Jackie and headed back to Steph's apartment. We hung out, laid low, and watched the news about Boston. Last week was a rough week- there were two bombs that exploded at the end of the Boston Marathon. Several were killed and lots were injured. (There was also an explosion at a fertilizer plant in West Texas last week that killed several and injured many.) There were two suspects, and there was a shootout and one of them was killed. The other was on the run, and the entire city of Boston was on lockdown for about 24 hours, until they found him on Friday night. What a week for our country. I don't understand why this happened, but am thankful that God is a big God, and is still Sovereign even in the midst of pain. (We went to bed earlier since we had woken up really early to catch a 6am flight! We were supposed to fly out Thursday evening, but our flight was cancelled, so we flew out Friday morning instead, which worked out okay in the end.)

One of my favorite parts of the trip was walking along this beautiful trail along the Capital, Washington Monument, and Lincoln Memorial. It was a gorgeous day, and walking with two of my favorite people, seeing historic and important sites was so great!

Washington Monument.

The walking path.

The Washington Monument and reflecting pool.

Lincoln Memorial.

The place where the "I Have A Dream" speech was spoken. So cool!

View of Arlington from the back of the Lincoln Memorial (where Steph's internship is).

The cemetery from way off in the distance- at night you can see the "eternal flame."

Vietnam Memorial- the names of everyone who died or went missing in the order it was found out. So humbling- thankful for everyone who has served our country.

The White House!

Then we headed to Georgetown to walk around and get some cupcakes!

Georgetown Cupcakes (from the TLC show DC Cupcakes!)

We had to wait in line awhile, but it was worth it!

Another favorite moment from the trip was meeting MICHELLE KWAN! I saw her earlier in Georgetown sitting at an outdoor restaurant, but Kley and Steph didn't believe me. We saw her again later walking, and she was with her new husband (just married in January!), and we googled a picture to be sure, and it was totally them. We "chased" her down and talked to her for a minute! She was really nice! It was funny that we were asking Kley to take the picture, and she thought we were asking her husband, because I guess his name is Clay too! 

I took ice skating lessons in Jr. High and was a huge fan of Michelle's, so it was so fun to meet her!

(Her husband has an important job at the White House too- the head of some security department!)

The restaurant where JKF proposed to Jackie.

We had dinner at two different places (combined- ha) near Steph's apartment. Both were owned by some guy named Spike who won a cooking show (I forget which one.) The first was Good Stuff Eatery, which was a burger place with great milkshakes, so we got some shakes for dessert (we got dessert first- bad, I know).

Then we went next door to We, The Pizza for some yummy pizza!

It was a great weekend and we are so glad we got to go! Hope to visit again soon!

Kayla's Confirmation.

This weekend was good- it was one of the only weekends in awhile that we weren't/won't be traveling, so it was nice to be home, even though it was full! I have been feeling like we have had and have full weekends for awhile, but we can't complain because it's all great things!

Friday we had our friends, Dave and Lindsay, over for dinner/games. They are the couple we colead our small group at church, so it was fun to hang out and talk about church stuff. A great time! This was also the first time we used our grill this year- grilled pork chops. :)

This weekend was my youngest sister, Kayla's, confirmation. At their church, the eighth graders go through a whole year of "confirmation" and at the end they stand up in front of the whole congregation and make their profession of faith- saying yes to Jesus. We are so proud of her! What an important decision and a great reason to celebrate! My parent's had a few friends and family over. Both sets of grandparents, my brother and sister, and my uncle were home, so it was awesome!

Here is Kayla opening some of her gifts.

Here is a beauty I captured and had to share. I think it's hilarious, because Kley loves Daisy, but it's more of a tolerating love. Daisy is very spoiled by every girl in the family and is the most girly dog. Probably ever. Daisy somehow senses Kley's true feelings, and she loves to taunt him about it. Whenever we go over, she tries to sit by him, stepping on him- as if on purpose- to find the most comfortable position. So I had to take a picture of this. :)

Me and the special girl!

Sunday morning at church- the whole gang.

My amazing family!

 Congratulations Kayla! We love you and are so proud! 

How blessed am I.

This weekend we spent most of our time in Omaha, seeing Kley's family. It was a great time. Most of the women on Kley's side make a Saturday shopping trip twice a year (since the OC malls are nonexistent :) We went up on Friday night to celebrate Elizabeth's (my sister-in-law) birthday. We went to this fun Italian restaurant and had a good time catching up. We stayed in a hotel, ordered room service in the morning, and felt like we were living in luxury. :) We went shopping on Saturday, while Kley and Brad golfed, and it was so great. My mother-in-law, Jana, is one of the most generous, selfless, and giving people I know, and spoiled me rotton. It was a great time!

The ride home was interesting. We were driving back late last night- later than we thought we would, it had been a long full day, we were both tired, and I wasn't feeling very good. We had a talk about our future in the next year. This will be a big year for us. Considering where to live, Kley graduating law school, adding a home and children sometime in the future- all wonderful things. We are so blessed with the bright future ahead of us.

But at the same time, it's scary. Unknown is scary. Change is scary. I don't adapt to change well- it takes a lot of time for me. It's overwhelming to think of all the change that will/could happen in the next year. Good things, but still scary because these are major life decisions.

We had a great talk, but after I started thinking, and my mind wandered into worry and anxiousness. We started to talk about our schedule for the morning of the timing of things/church events, and I freaked out about doing a load of laundry- what time I would do it at and whether I would get it done or not. I allowed my anxiousness about the looming future and our previous talk to spew out at Kley in trivial anger.

Kley was so gracious to me. He calmly asked me to stop being angry and shutting down, and to talk about what was really bothering me. He offered to do the laundry on Monday while I was at work.  That little act of kindness broke me, that he would be offering to lighten my burdens even in the midst of me acting like a total pain, and I started sobbing and told him everything.

I apologized for being so angry and taking it out on him for something so trivial. Who looses it over what time they are going to do their laundry the next day? (Me, I guess). Kley forgave me, let me let it all out, and told me that's what he wanted all along- just to let it out and talk to him.

Thank you, God, for perspective. For hope. For a bright future. For being with me all along the way.

I am so grateful for my family- mine and Kley's. We are truly grateful to have such supporting, loving, and encouraging families.

I am grateful for my husband- that he will love me when when I don't deserve it, comfort me when I cry, not react in anger back at me, and simply just love me all the time.

I am grateful for our bright future. No matter what happens, that we are in this together and that Christ is leading us.

How blessed am I.

Hilarious.

I thought this was so funny, I cried laughing. 

Enjoy. :)

Thankful for my job.

Last Thursday (our Easter celebration at school) was rough. I was so pumped for it, because celebrating holidays with little ones is so great! We finished opening our resurrection eggs, which was great to open the last empty one! (For those of you who don't know what those are, it's basically 12 eggs with a small picture/verse inside that tells the story of Jesus' death and resurrection. This was my first year trying it, and I liked it. Even though some of the concepts are above a two-year-olds' comprehension, you can still make it work by simplifying it and explaining it how it works for your kids.) We also had an Easter egg hunt and celebrated my coworkers' birthday with cookies and singing! Candy overload. Unfortunately, these fun activities were interspersed with naughty behaviors, grumpiness, and tantrums, which made the activities not-so-fun. It was an off day for my class, which made the day more difficult.

But...having a three day weekend was awesome, for me and the kids! A break was needed. Today was a redemptive day after last Thursday. The kids came back refreshed and everyone was back to their sweet, happy selves.

Today was a day where I truly enjoyed my job and interacting with the kids. It's so great to have a day where everyone is being good, playing together and laughing. I felt overwhelmed with love for my kids today (not that I don't on the bad days too, it's just a different feeling!). I am so excited to be a mom. I'm not an official parent, but I feel like one because I love my kids at school so much. I am truly blessed to be able to do what I love (be with kids), do it along-side wonderful Christian coworkers, and be active and never bored at work!

I was also blessed by a meeting today that went better than I thought it would, and an unexpectedly wonderful conversation with my boss after.

All in all it was a great day. I am so thankful for my job and I am so thankful that I love it.

Happy Monday!