July is hot

It's been awhile since I wrote, and I missed talking about a bunch of fun things we have done. First of all, the 4th of July! I don't have a lot to say about it other than that we had a fun time. We went to a BBQ and birthday party for Hannah and then afterwards we stayed in DC and watched the fireworks with Hannah. We ate frozen lemonade and saw a great show. We were on a hilltop right next to Arilington Cemetary and we had a great view of DC. We could see the Pentagon, the Lincoln and Washington Memorials, it was cool. The fireworks lasted like 20 minutes and they were great!

The view from where we watch fireworks... It obviously looked
a lot more impressive in real life.

On our way home there was a bit of traffic and some roads were closed off... Unfortunately this led us right into the middle of the city! It took us an hour and a half to get home ha ha. We literally drove right through the entire city until we were able to get on the freeway again. It was kind of funny. People were lighting off fireworks everywhere! Right next to apartment buildings and on the side of main roads, it was nuts. I don't even know how many firetrucks and ambulances we saw, but it was a lot. When we got home we were able to finally eat our pie. Yes, pie. We made a Blueberry ice cream pie the night before and decorated it with cream and fresh blueberries and strawberries that morning. It was very festive looking... But I didn't take a fresh picture of it, so I took a picture of it while I was eating my midnight piece. Yum.

The weekend after the 4th we went back into the city to go to the Holocaust Museum and see some monuments, the Holocaust Museum was great, it was really interesting and humbling, but it's not something that you can say you had "fun" doing, ya know? We walked over to the Washington Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial next, both of which were cool. It was fun to see those, even though we've both already seen them before. The only downside was that it was literally 105 degrees outside plus humidity and we were drenched in sweat and looking and feeling pretty gross. In front of the Lincoln Memorial though, they actually had a big sprinkler set up so that people could run though and cool off, so we did! And that felt really nice.

David running through the sprinkler at the Lincoln Memorial

All wet after our sprinkler run

A few weekends ago David got tickets for us and Hannah to go to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. It was super fun! We saw all sorts of cool things. We spent a lot of time by the sharks, mostly trying to get good pictures of them, which I failed at, but it was still really cool! Them we saw them feeding the stingrays, we saw jellyfish and to top it off we watched the dolphin show, which was great! At the aquarium we joked about how funny it would be if the restaurant there served seafood ha ha. Then after the aquarium we went to The Cheesecake Factory for lunch and I ordered salmon! So I got my fair share of fish that day.

One of our attempts at a shark picture... But you can't see it's head.

After our late lunch, we went and saw the new Spiderman movie at a nearby Imax. It was a good movie and we had fun watching it. Altogether we had a super fun day in Baltimore. It's a really nice city and we really enjoyed it.

Well, those are the exciting things we've done lately. Other than that it's been pretty boring. We listed our car for sale last week and have gotten a few calls on it, so that's good. Last weekend David hydroplaned or something while driving in the rain and hit a curb with the wheel and bent the arm that connects it to the chassis, so that cost us $450 to fix, one last repair on that car before it's gone! We showed it to one girl yesterday who said that she would let us know by Friday, and several others have called wanting to see it on Sunday, so hopefully we sell it this weekend, that would be perfect! Then we would only be about one week without the car and David can just take the bus to work and back and then we fly home on the 11th!

I gotta be honest, I'm a little excited to get home! Especially because we are going straight to California when we get back for a whole week with my family! I haven't seen anyone in my family since March, so I'm really happy that we'll be able to spend a whole week with them right when we get back. I've missed them. Then after California my dad will give us a ride home to Provo and we'll get to move into our new apartment! I'm also excited for that, I know it's weird, but I love moving into new places... I don't like the actual moving part, that's a pain, but I do like setting up all my stuff and getting to decided where everything goes. Ever since I was in high school I would rearrange the furniture in my room every couple of months. It's fun to be able to have a whole apartment of our own to mess with. I miss Maile and Michael too, so I'll be so happy to get to play with them again for sure. I talked to Maile yesterday and it was so nice to be able to talk to her again, that now I can't wait to see them.

Right now I'm trying to get everything I need done for this upcoming school year. I have a bunch of requirements that I need to fulfill in order for the school to accept my financial aid, so hopefully I can get all of them done as soon as possible so that I don't have to worry about it anymore. I also have to apply for graduation so that I can graduate in December with my Associates. Don't get too excited people, it's just in general education, so all that means is that all of my credits will transfer to another school now, I haven't really accomplished anything. I don't know what I'll do after I have my associates, maybe try for nursing school, or maybe something else, I just don't know. And it kinda gives me a headache to think about it right now, so I'm going to stop.

If we don't sell our car before Saturday, then I think David and I might go to the beach. We'll head to Annapolis and spend the day lounging on the beach, swimming, soaking up the sun, snacking, and we'll probably wrap it all up with a 5 pound milkshake from a restaurant we saw one time on Man V. Food that David really wants to go to ha ha. We'll see how it goes I guess, it would be fun though, I've been dying to go to the beach.

I love AC!

So, we bought a car! Not the one I previously mentioned, but a different one. It is a white, 2005 Dodge Stratus, it has only 26,000 miles on it! And we got it for a steal of a deal! It is currently awaiting us in Alpine, Utah with David's dad until we get back in August. I don't have a picture of it right now so you will just have to wait to see it in August. We will be listing our car for sale here and hopefully selling it before we leave, but it's tricky because we need to use it up until we leave, so we can only list it a few weeks before we go, so we've been praying hard that it'll all work out.

Last week we went to the Washington DC Temple which is beautiful! Our GPS took us on all these back roads to get there and we were really wondering if it was taking us the right way because it sure looked like we were in the middle of nowhere and then all of a sudden we pull out from a bunch of trees and there it was! Angel Moroni on a golden pillar in the sky! it was a breathtaking sight to pull out and see the temple. 

When we got inside we walked town a long grand hallway and when we got to the end we had no idea where to go! We got a little lost inside for a few minutes, but at least we were lost in a building as beautiful as that. We finally figured out where to go and had a great time there together. 

We've pretty much just been hanging out lately. This is a picture of David holding our niece Joanna showing her how to play League of Legends one night ha ha.

So on Friday night there was a HUGE storm! The power started flickering on and off while we were watching a movie in the basement so we ran upstairs and watched out the sliding glass door as the wind was going crazy and it rained harder than I've ever seen it rain before! It was crazy! It only lasted under an hour but the after effects lasted quite a bit longer than that. 3 million people were without power! We didn't have power for almost 2 full days, and when it's almost 100 degrees outside it makes it a lot less fun. No air conditioning in that kind of heat is like torture. We decided to get out of the house on Saturday and went to a place called the Mooseum, which is like a farming / dairy museum. Getting there was a pain though seeing as how almost all the street lights were out and apparently nobody knows how to act when that happens, so it was a bit chaotic. 

Me with my niece Amy at the Mooseum

My husband giving Amy a ride on his shoulders out to the car

Last night before bed we played a lovely game of Settlers of Catan by lantern in which my husband David won, barely, but still. And since it was so hot in the house everybody decided to sleep in the basement, so we had 4 adults and 3 kids all in one big room. It was crazy and I'm pretty sure it was the worst night sleep that any of us has ever had ha ha. But it was a lot cooler than sleeping on the top floor. 

This morning we went over to some friends house because they still had power and they're actually not staying in their house right now because they're at the hospital because she just had a baby yesterday! Luckily the second hospital she went to had power, and by power I mean backup generators. While they are at the hospital though John and Janice were going over to feed their dog and they were nice enough to let us hang out there in their AC. Luckily our power came back on around 3 or so today, we're still waiting for the ac to cool the house back to a cooler temperature. It's still 84 degrees upstairs. Good thing for us we are in the basement where it's like 75 right now and completely comfortable. 

Over the last several days I've been flying through the 6th Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I'm loving it! I only have like 25 pages left now, so I think I'm going to head off to finish it and then tomorrow I can start on the 7th and last book of the series. Exciting!