New York City

Michelle and I visited our cousins in NYC this past weekend. We had really been looking forward to it for a long time. We took Friday off and took a bus up on Thursday so that made it even more fun. It rained almost the entire time we were there but we didn't let it slow us down, we just grabbed an umbrella and put on an extra coat and hit the city! We walked through Central Park and visited a couple amazing museums. The Museum of Modern Art had a huge exhibit on Tim Burton along with all the usual interesting stuff. We also visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This is hands down the most incredible museum I have ever been to. It is basically the best of all the Smithsonians here in D.C. all rolled into one. The first thing we saw when we went there was the Egyptian stuff and it blew us away. It was amazing seeing all this stuff in person. We also just had to see what all this cupcake craze is all about (we are always hearing about people in NYC going to gourmet cupcake shops). We went to Crumbs and got a couple cupcakes. They were delicious! We had a great time strolling through Times Square and also through parts of Brooklyn where my cousins live. There are some incredible views of the city and some bridges that we saw from Brooklyn. My cousins know a lot of really good restaurants so they took us to a Peruvian food restaurant (it had been way too long since I had a lomo saltado) and a Korean restaurant. We had a great time and look forward to our next trip to the city that never sleeps.

D.C. Happenings of Late

Michelle and I have been busy here in D.C. We love living here and are determined to do and see as much as we can. Above is Michelle and I in front of Capitol Hill. Below is a picture of us inside the main rotunda (the big dome you can see in the picture above).

Below is a picture of us and some friends with our feet in the exact center of all four quadrants of D.C. Below is Michelle and I visiting the U.S. Botanical Garden. I would describe it as an indoor greenhouse divided into different climates and regions from around the world. There is a tropical jungle area, a desert section, and several others.
Michelle atop the 'reading room' in the Library of Congress. You may recognize this room from National Treasure 2. It was also in The Lost Symbol.

Below is a picture from inside the Smithsonian Castle. You can see Michelle if you look, she is wearing an orange sweatshirt.

Valentine's Day

Michelle and I celebrated our third Valentine's Day together today. I got Michelle an external hard drive as a gift so we have been going through all the files on our computers and DVDs and compiling all of our pictures on the hard drive. Below are some pictures of us from when we had only been dating for about a month and lived in the Barlow Center in Georgetown (when we were interns on Capitol Hill through BYU's Washington Seminar program). We found these pictures while compiling all of the old pictures we have. It has only been three years, I don't think we really look all that much different.

Snowverkill

That video is of Michelle walking from the office of our apartment complex to our apartment. Today is Wednesday, and school was canceled again for the third day in a row. I am betting that school will be canceled for the rest of the week. The road conditions are absolutely awful and there is no way anyone is going anywhere anytime soon. It is still snowing and according to weather reports it could keep snowing all night and next morning. What makes the storm so bad right now though is that it is actually like a storm - it is extremely windy. On the news all morning long they have been talking about how little visibility there is and that you should stay off the roads unless it is an emergency. Anyways, here are a couple pictures of what things look like right now where we live.

Snow Days I and II/Snowpocalypse Update

The last few days have been a little crazy because of the record-breaking snowstorm dubbed 'Snowpocalypse.' The storm was so bad that the school district Michelle and I work for, DCPS, has had to cancel school yesterday and today (Monday and Tuesday). It is extremely rare for DCPS to declare a snow day so that should give you an idea of how bad of shape this area of the country is in right now. Michelle and I and a group of friends were crazy enough to go out to the movies last night and see what the roads are like right now. Some roads are very bad, others are pretty much fine. There is still so much snow on the roads in some places that I cannot foresee this city getting up and running like normal for quite a long time. The temperatures are just not warm enough to melt the snow and ice and the DC metropolitan area is not equipped to plow and salt on scale this large. If it did not snow anymore, I would say maybe by the end of the week life would return to normal...but unfortunately it is going to snow again today. In fact it is supposed to snow up to 20 inches again. If it does indeed snow that much more I don't see how we could be going back to work anytime soon. There are so many roads that are still in awful conditiom; there are so many cars still totally buried in snow and barricaded by walls of snow from the snow plows; things are a mess. In the meantime Michelle and I are having a great time hanging out with all our friends here in our apartment complex! We are lucky enough to live in an apartment complex with a ton of friends. Pretty much everyone's work is canceled so we have all just been playing games and hanging out all day and staying up late because nobody has to work the enxt day :) It has been a really fun time! We have used up all our snow days now though so if they cancel anymore school days after today we will probably have to make them up somehow. Here are some pictures and video of the aftermath of snowpocalypse. If it snows anotrher couple of feet today I will be sure and put some pictures up of the madness.

Snowpocalypse II

That is my car, believe it or not. This weekend, DC got hit by the worst snowstorm since 1922 or something like that. Michelle and I only had to work a half day yesterday because of the storm. We have had a lot of fun with this rare snow storm here so far. As you can see by the picture of the road that my car is parked on, we aren't gonig to be able to go anywhere for a while. There are some funny videos at the bottom.

Christmas in Idaho

We spent our whole 2 week Christmas break in Idaho at my house this year. It was a very much needed break from teaching and was so much fun. We had lots of yummy homemade meals that I didn't have to cook, we read lots of books we haven't had the time for, played Rock Band, watched some good movies, went to dinner and the movies, went shopping, and really enjoyed spending time together. Chad's parents even drove up to my parents house to have Christmas with us and stay a week. It was a lot of fun to have both of our families there. Luckily, they all get along great. We did a lot of really cool things over the Christmas break. The pictures and explanation below are going to be a little out of order. Sorry!

Here is us with Chad's parents on Christmas

Chad told me before we left DC that he wanted to really experience what Idaho has to offer this vacation, so on Christmas day after we opened presents we all went skeet shooting in the hills near our house. It was Linda's first time, so here is Chad teaching her how to do it. Almost everyone hit at least a couple of clay pigeons, so that was fun. Cara hit 3/3 when she first started!

On Christmas eve day, to show Chad a little more of what Idaho has to offer, we took our four wheeler to the mountains and did some four wheeling and sledding. We didn't last too long on the four wheeler because our faces were getting so cold, but it was fun to be enjoying the outdoors and time with family. I love that in Idaho, even when it's really cold, you can just dress warm and be totally comfortable (as opposed to DC where no matter how warm you dress the cold humidity chills you to the bone).

While we were playing around in the snow, Chad lost his cell phone. He didn't realize until the next day (Christmas) that it was missing. After searching the house and cars, Chad was convinced that the only place his phone could be was in the snow in the mountains where he had fallen. So after skeet shooting we drove back up to the mountains to look. Most of us didn't really think we would find it, and if we did, if it would even work after being in the snow for 24 hours. Amazingly though, Brandt found it in a little hole, right where Chad had fallen the day before and it was perfectly fine. We were all very relieved that it was still there and hadn't been buried by more snow! Our mothers called it the Christmas miracle! We played around in the snow for a little while and then headed home.

Michelle and Chad skeet shooting

After Christmas, we decided to go to the Bruneau Sand Dunes near our house. They are the tallest Sand Dunes in North America. There's not much to do there when it's cold outside, but we did hike up one of them.

Chad and I learned how to make beef jerky while we were there. We bought the beef, cut it into slices, marinated it, and put it in the dehydrator. It turned our really well and was fun. We really love my mom's beef jerky recipe!


Chad, his mom, Brandt, and Cara all went night skiing/snowboarding one night at Bogus Basin.

My family (minus Brian who is in the Philippines, but will be home in less than 2 weeks!)

One of my family's Christmas traditions is to make gingerbread houses with homemade gingerbread. We struggled with getting our roof to stand up, but finally got it to work. We bought way too much candy and decorated it with everything we like to eat. I guess we forgot to take a picture of it all done.

Another Christmas tradition - matching pajamas to be opened on Christmas eve. Very comfy and cute!

Chad and I got a new PS3 for Christmas.

It snowed a couple of days after Christmas, so we took our four wheeler to the park and went hooky bobbing. It was a lot of fun! That is one of my favorite things to do in the winter.

Before we went to Idaho, we went to see the D.C. Temple lights with some of our friends.

Thanks Chad!

I truly have the best husband! I woke up yesterday morning to breakfast in bed - scrambled eggs and toast and jam. It was so yummy and such a nice thing for Chad to do. After breakfast, he did all of the dishes and cleaned the house. He does the greatest job at taking care of me! I don't know what I would do without such a wonderful, supportive, unselfish husband. Thanks Chad!

White House Christmas

Yesterday I got to go on a tour of the White House and see the special Christmas decorations. It was really amazing! Most tours don't allow you to go through the Library, Red Room, Blue Room, and the other areas that they let you see on the Christmas tours. It was fun to get to go through the front doors of the White House and see what is behind the walls that I had only seen from behind the far away gates until now. Special thanks to my friend who works on Capitol Hill for helping me get this opportunity! Unfortunately, Michelle had class last night and wasn't able to come with me. The other cool thing is that they let you take all the pictures you want during the holiday season (normally they don't even let you bring a camera).