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).

Our First Thanksgiving

Michelle and I had a really fun Thanksgiving break. It was the first Thanksgiving we have hosted and planned ourselves. All in all everything was great! One of Michelle's best friends and her husband drove up from Florida to stay at out place for the break so luckily we had them to help us plan, cook, and figure everything else out. I guess I should stop saying that 'we' cooked and 'we' figured everything out, it was really the wives that did all of the planning and made the big decisions and did the important cooking. The only thing I can really claim credit for is washing a lot of dishes. We also had a couple friends from Syracuse over for Thanksgiving that recently moved down to Virginia near where we live. It was great to spend Thanksgiving with good friends. Michelle and the ladies really put together a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner. We made a turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, home made pumpkin pie, rolls, stuffing, and a nice salad. None of us had really made a turkey before so all you veteran Thanksgiving chefs can probably guess the rookie mistakes we made. We ended up not thawing it earlier enough so that set us back a couple hours and somehow we also didn't realize that only having one oven would make things a little tricky. We cooked the pies while the turkey was defrosting and then cooked everything else after the turkey. It worked out just fine though because we had plenty of appetizers to hold us over while everything cooked. We also played the Wii and had some really intense games of our favorite game Big Brain Academy. I think playing it with six people was the most fun I've ever had playing the Wii. Thanksgiving dinner was outstanding. Everything was delicious, a little too delicious maybe...I think I might have gained a couple pounds just from that meal.

Having friends stay with us over Thanksgiving break also motivated us to get out and see a lot of cool stuff here in DC that we hadn't seen yet. On Friday we waited an hour outside the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to get a tour of where they make money. The tour was very interesting. We literally saw millions of dollars being made before our very eyes. Apparently the people working there have a good sense of humor because there were lots of signs on the walls that said things like "How do you think I feel? I see my lifetime salary get made every couple of minutes." Another sign said "So close yet so far." Michelle and I toured the Mint (where they make coins) in Philadelphia over the summer so it was nice to see where they print the money. After that we went to Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. It is always cool to see airplanes and space shuttles and tons of artifacts related to them. They have a neat exhibit there right now about the Wright brothers. I don't know how, but they've got the actual plane there on display that the Wright brothers flew for the very first time. I can't decide which is more amazing: what the early planes looked like and the fact that those things could actually get off the ground or how far technology has progressed and what planes/space shuttles look like now.

On Saturday our friends had to leave to go back home but before they did we took them to the National Archives where over 9 billion documents are stored, including the Constitution, the Declarationof Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the Magna Carta. It was a real treat to see these sacred documents and learn a little bit more about our nation's history. You honestly can barely read some of those old documents but its still nice to see them. If you've ever seen the movie 'National Treasure' with Nicholas Cage, the National Archives is where they went to steal the Declaration of Independence. While at the National Archives we decided to go into the research area and look at some of the old books they have. Frankly, I am surprised they let the public look at and touch some of the older books. Granted you have to have ID and sign in but it just seems like you should be wearing gloves or something to handle some of the books in there. One interesting book we found was an 85 year old 'Yellow Pages' from the DC area. It was massive, but pretty similar to what they look like now.

On Saturday night Michelle and I volunteered at Ford's Theater Ford's Theater is where President Lincoln was assassinated. The theater is kind of a double treat to visit. You get to see and learn about a historic (although tragic) place and moment in U.S. history and they also still put on phenomenal productions there. We were the ticket scanners for the play that night, which was 'A Christmas Carol.' I must admit it was amazing. I would give it 5 stars out of 5 and recommend going to see a play there to anybody. When Michelle and I first volunteered at Ford's theater a couple years ago (when we were interns in DC) they didn't have the museum about Lincoln's life that they have now. It is a great little museum and they've got John Wilkes Booth's actual pistol that he used.