Rolling Thunder

Every Memorial Day weekend the Rolling Thunder biker club comes to town. We were lucky enough to stumble across them this year on the way back from kayaking in Georgetown.

Melissa managed to snap a photo of me in the middle of thousands of HOGs which captured a pretty fair amount of the excitement I get when I'm around these rumbling roadsters. This bike with 2 wheels on the front is a real beauty, as well as this yellow submarine, or whatever it is. We found this religious motif on painted on the back of a 3 wheeler. We saw plenty of handlebars that I wouldn't even be able to reach too, but didn't get any shots of them.

I'll probably never get a bike like any of these, but Melissa and I wouldn't mind stumbling across an inexpensive bike one day.

Kayaking the Potomac with the Morris's

Melissa and I hopped on our beach cruisers and biked on over to Georgetown with our good friends Ashlee and Nate where we rented Kayaks at Joe's (10 bucks per kayak per hour). The weather couldn't have been better, and when Melissa capsized she said the water was pretty nice too.

We weren't expecting the wildlife we saw. Ducks and swans, cool birds in the trees that came inches from crapping right on my mug, a lizard, and about 6 red eared slider turtles, just like Lincoln, but 2 or 3 times bigger, out basking on logs. It was a real treat to see Lincoln's cousins out in the wild. We said "Hi" to them for him (and he said "Hi" back).

Melissa didn't really capsize, I was just kidding. I tried tipping my kayak over and it was harder than I thought it would be. Never did it.

Air Show with the Essigs (and the Hulk)

Well, this was a great opportunity to watch planes, drive tanks, shoot guns, and grab buns. As you can see Ali took full advantage of that chance. And Ironman wasn't too happy either. He came up to us afterward and asked "Did you guys take incriminating pictures of my butt?" We denied everything. Little does he know I just posted those pictures on our blog. It turns out that the dudes go for guns and the ladies for buns, who knew?

As you can see we arrived on the tarmac with quite a welcome, our cheeks are still sore from smiling and waving to all our fan club. I was thankful for the hardy welcome because this was my first time ever going to an air show, we were enjoying ourselves so much we all forgot to eat. We finally grabbed some burgers and wieners as we left.

This post is a little late, much like all our other posts, Melissa and I have already peeled completely and burned our skin afresh since this long day out in the sun. We actually spent more time in line for the shuttle on the way there and then again on the way home than we did the entire time at the show, the line was a painful experience, but the show was worth the pain, it was fascinating.

Notice:

For those of you who like a little dose of verbiage with your photographic illustrations, the stories behind the pics have now been added to the most recent train of posts.

Amish Country in PA

I told myself that I'd keep these posts short, but once I start, I just get myself into this detailed story-telling documentary mode, and next thing I know my whole life has come out on my blog page. Accidental, perhaps; but good for the posterity, definitely. I'm sure this will all be of deep interest to our children someday, even if blogs are completely outdated, obsolete, and uncool by then.

So I've always wanted to go visit the Pennsylvanian Amish communities in Lancaster County, and Jon and I finally had our chance on our way back from the B&B. This was such a fun experience that we'd recommend to anyone in the area to take advantage of. It was totally fascinating to us. Before I delve into our experience, I just want to throw it out there that we left with a great appreciation of these people their hard work in their lives, their cool accents, and their amazing skills that have allowed them to become so developed in the most simple, humble way. We were impressed, and any that we spoke to were so nice.

Jon and I always like to study up before we go somewhere so that it's all in context for us when we get there, and on our way there we read that the Amish don't like getting their pictures taken for religious reasons. But then we went on a buggy ride run by an Amish family, and the old Amish man that took us told us we could take all the pictures that we wanted. New liberties granted, we kind of went crazy and tried to catch every Amish person in a buggy, scooter, or otherwise sweet form of transportation, that we could. Don't think we're terrible people, it's just unbelievable there, because we felt like we were hanging out with the pioneers, but it's the 21st century, and they aren't acting! It was awesome. Our buggy driver said he and his wife vacation in Florida every winter, and we wondered what exactly they do there for fun. No matter. He took us around a couple Amish farms and told us a little more about their lifestyle. Short, but totally worth it.

We also went to this "Old Schoolhouse" to see what it was like. We were thinking there would be someone in there to just tell us a little more about it, but we were instead greeted by 30 Amish schoolchildren manikins, and their 3 matching teachers. I'm not gonna lie, it was kind of freaky. The lady running the place put on this record thing playing a story that explained Amish/Mennonite schoolhouses, which was sometimes accompanied by a sharp movement from one of the manikins. I really thought one of them would break when they were raising their hand or pulling some girl's hair. It reminded me of the part in Goofy Movie when Goofy makes his son Max go to that freaky theme park where those machine-operated bears are playing in some country band in a theater. If you haven't seen it, just know Max was creeped out, as was I in the school house. Entertaining to say the least.

Creepy schoolhouse aside, we also went shopping and got some Amish jams, root beer, and cookbooks. The quilts were amazing, but super expensive. We actually spent most of our time driving around to look at all the cool farms (their land and houses are AMAZING, they keep everything up immaculately well, they were the best houses out there) and trying to get pictures of everything we wanted to catch on camera, i.e., the buggy crossing sign, the clotheslines that seriously go 50 feet in the air, an Amish person on a scooter pulling a trailer behind them, and other such featured essentials of Intercourse, Pennsylvania. We're proud to say that most of our photo hunting proved successful.

Following the hunt, we ate at the recommended Family Cupboard Amish food restaurant, where Jon was in heaven, a.k.a. mashed potatoes and gravy land, and where I had to constantly resist snapping more photos of the sweet do's we saw in there when the working men came in and took off their hats. It totally reminded me of my bro's hair during snowboarding season, but with a killer beard. Don't worry, we didn't take any pictures. Talk about self control.

Regrets: we didn't get to the Kitchen Kettle until after it closed, which is where all the best shopping is, so we hear. And we never got to buy Amish ice cream. Who knows if it's any different/better than what you can get at your local grocery store, but we sure wanted to find out. Note: everything there closes at 5. Maybe 6. Go before that.

"DND...hang the sign on the door.."

Semisonic says it so well. (One of our faves, listen here).

May 12, 2008, the actual day of our anniversary, we left beautiful NY, crossed the Hudson over the Bear Mountain Bridge (which offers fantastic views), stopped at a Salvation Army in the cutest quaintest little town where we walked away with a few choice steals—an awesome antique bedside dresser, 2 rockin' purses, and 3 stylin' ties, photos to debut at a later date—and then arrived at our B&B in northeast PA at the perfect time to drop our bags, get all fancied up, and head to dinner at a really great restaurant in the tiny little town we were staying. We splurged, but we never splurge, so I'm okay with that. It was soooo nice. The food was awesome, and we borrowed the nearby socket to charge our camera while eating...so tacky, I know. But you can't just have an uncharged camera during prime time moments such as dinner on your anniversary.

The Bed & Breakfast was AMAZING, and we'd highly highly recommend it. (Santosha on the Ridge) It was seriously in the middle of the woods, on a little ridge top, where we could see nothing else but trees and a river bottom way below us. You should have heard all the bullfrogs in the pond out back, it was so entertaining. It was kind of a yoga/zen place, which was funny, but we didn't partake in any yogi moves or meditation hours. They're optional. However, we did get to "burn something we want to leave behind" and "take something we want to gain" through paper and matches in a little urn and a rock with our desired new trait written on it. Jon picked innovation and I picked clarity--and what we burned are our little secrets. :)

And as for the cake in a sack...well, you know how you're supposed to eat your wedding cake on your first anniversary after freezing it for a year? Upon arriving in DC a year ago, we realized we had no idea what the fate of our cake had been, so we instead made a fakesy wedding cake (a.k.a. box cake), frosted it with our wedding colors, and froze it instead. But guess what? Months-old cake, retired from the freezer and mushy from traveling through 3 states, in a ziploc, inside of a cooler, just doesn't look so hot and romantic anymore. So we took a pic for good measure, and tossed the cake. We're such good traditionalists.

Nanny Fam in NY on Melissa's first Mother's Day

Flashback to 6 years ago, when I was a little 19 year-old nanny, fresh out of one year of college at Utah State and ready to take on the world of children in New York state. Few things in my life have been so defining, and so incredibly fun, and I am so glad that I took that opportunity years ago. "My kids" then were 1 and 3 when I first arrived...they are now 7 and 9 {see first 2 photos, the "then" and "now" photos}. Time really does fly when you're off growing up and having fun!

Jon and I were able to stay for a couple days with this cute family that I love, and it was so fun to see how the kids are just the same, only bigger. They have the same little personalities I knew before! They made us this cute banner to welcome us there, and they were especially happy to find out that the old chinese man that mistakenly came to their house earlier that day delivering flowers to the wrong address was not in fact my husband. Apparently Will, upon seeing the errant flower deliverer, reported to his parents that "Jon's ugly!" Good news, Will, it turns out Jon is quite the looker. :) They were super hospitable, and I was so happy to have Jon meet them and spend time with them. They're so great, I've missed the whole family. And NY/CT area--it's sooo beautiful.

How ironic to spend my first pseudo-Mother's Day in the house where I first gained the skills and experiences that made me so excited to be a mom someday. Jon's so sweet and he celebrated with me, and he also made me try my darndest to stick my belly out for special effect in the photo. Funny, I don't really have to try 3 weeks later. :)

As a sidenote, it was also so fun to go the the New Canaan ward that Sunday, where we got to meet our good friend Rachel Allen's parents, and we found out her dad was my ward's high councilman when I was in 'the nanny ward'! Such a small world. And lucky duck Jon got to be taught his priesthood lesson by Glenn Beck, and let's be honest, who doesn't want that?

One Year Anniversary NY Trip

We've been married for one whole year!!! We can't even believe it's been that long already. We've had such a good year filled with so many exciting things. Since our wedding, our families have added one brother-in-law, one sister-in-law, three nephews, one niece, and another niece on the way in two months. We wish we could spend more time with the fam and it's sad missing all these new little ones coming into our family, but we were blessed to be able to attend both weddings, and we're SO excited every time we get photos sent to us of all the kids.

So we'd like to give our first annual report. Seeing as Jon's sitting right next to me, this isn't going to become one of those 'tribute to my husband' posts, but our goal is to not have to do those because we'll already be saying all that stuff to each other in person on a daily basis. :) But I do want to digress super briefly into our year together and what brought us here in the first place.

Year #1--we've LOVED it. Every day has been so much fun getting to know each other even more and spend time together. It's funny to think about any "horror stories" we heard before getting married about how hard it would be to get used to living with someone else, or how much we would disagree all the time, because we've just felt so blessed to have each other, day in and day out. We've had so much fun living where we do, which has given us great opportunities both to be close to old friends and to meet so many new fun people, not to mention opportunities to go see so many awesome places together--from Niagra and Palmyra to Ocean City and Williamsburg--that we definitely wouldn't get to enjoy if we lived anywhere else. We're so grateful for where we are and that we both want to take advantage of our time here. We're mostly grateful for our marriage, and truly feel that it is a miracle--a miracle that we ever found each other, a miracle that we started dating 3 weeks before I had to leave to go back to school, a miracle that we still kept dating when I left, and a miracle that after only those 3 weeks in person and a total of 9 months of long distance dating/engagement (not counting our visits in between), we could finally live in the same place. Somehow, it was perfect for us. We couldn't have been more excited than we were on May 12, 2007, to know that finally, we wouldn't have to say goodbye at the airport that day.

One year later, we couldn't be more excited than we are to know that one year is only a tiny fraction of the eternity we'll get to spend together...because we're seriously having a blast. We feel so blessed to have the relationship, friendship, and love that we do, and we look forward to all the fun our unknown future will bring. Our anniversary was especially fun to celebrate knowing that we have a little one on the way, and that at this time next year, we'll have a 6-month year old with us. How fun is that!?!? We feel we've graduated with flying colors from our training with 'the green child' (Lincoln the turtle) and we're stoked and ready to move on to the big leagues. We're hopeful that our real child will be even cuter than our green one--and that it won't have a shell, claws, or a nasty attitude. Jon's pretty excited to see our "mini-we" (to be politically correct until the gender's determined in 2.5 weeks), and I can't wait to see the kid using the same faces on me that Jon does.

Enough said, we love being married. We love each other like mad, and we're all stoked about another year.

NY: So for the 'versary we decided to swing up to NY for some much needed time away. Jon's schedule right now has us dying for some vacation time, so we splurged and I took two days off for the trip. Speaking of splurging, we spent our first big money on "entertainment" to go see the broadway show "Mamma Mia," one I've wanted to see for YEARS since I was a nanny in NY state. Dreams fulfilled, we went. And it was a blast! The show was hilarious, the actors were incredible, and the voices were amazing. The best part is after the curtain call when they all come out in bright-colored spandex to sing Dancing Queen and the like. LOVED it. There were a couple questionable lines, but other than that, we ate it up.

That about sums up our 3 hours in the city. We drove in, parked, went to the show, walked 2 blocks to Times Square, posed for a pic, (where we also stole a photo with some dude with the HUGEST cigar we've ever seen {see photo}. It reeked and probably gave us perma 2nd-hand smoke lung cancer, but we had to get a picture) and then we drove right back out.

The last photo of this post was taken at one of my most favoritest spots in the area I lived when I was a nanny back in the day. It's on this quaint little street in the town Katonah, the one photo we took on our day of driving through every small town I could remember (which is sadly a dwindling amount now) to show Jon the places I knew and loved. Too bad it's all getting blurry in my head now. But it was fun anyway. More to come on my nanny days/family in the next post up.

Ladies Night!!

Long awaited and long overdue, I finally got together with my cute friends (and old roomies) Ashlee and Kami. We've all been in the same area for a year now, and it's taken us this long to get ourselves together for an evening of food and chatting. We went to a great Thai restaurant in Shirlington recommended by Ash, and we pretty much owned the place for 4 hours following our arrival. Pretty sure our waiter hated us. And we were bugged by the constant interruptions asking us if we wanted more water. Beginning our evening at 7 and ending after 12, it was exactly what I needed--a good dose of my girls. It was so fun to reminisce, talk about about the now, and guess where our futures might take us. I miss those girls like crazy!! Thanks Kam and Ash for such a perfect night out! We better do it again soon!

Blog delay disclaimer

Just when we worked like mad to sweat out a marathon of pics and posts, we had to go and repeat our mistake, and now we're back to the blog debt we started with. Will we ever learn? We have great intentions, fun stories, and fabulous photos, but it seems we subconsciously like to build the suspense of our few readers. To you few and faithful, we apologize, and really, we're embarrassed. To those who stop in when they can, no worries, you haven't missed a thing!! :)

I've posted a teaser photo, one from our wedding, since we just recently celebrated our first (one year) anniversary of love and matrimony and all things related. What an awesome year we've had!! And our anniversary was so much fun. I have so much to say about it all, but for now (since I'm at work), I'll just say details to follow. Loads of 'em.

Our baby's first photo shoot

As we learned must always the case with sonograms, this was SO MUCH cooler in person, when it was moving and waving and lounging in its little home, but here is a picture nonetheless of the first glimpse we got of baby Smith. Of course we thought it was the cutest thing ever, we're pretty sure it has Jon's eyes, or maybe just his extraordinarily huge brain. It's gonna be a smart one!!! Many more updates to come.

Thanks for all your fun comments and excitement for us...to answer the questions, Melissa's feeling great and hasn't lost her lunch once, YES we're definitely finding out the gender (not until June) so we can lovingly refer to the baby as he or she instead of "it"...we feel so bad doing that...and yes, we'll have to move, but no, not anytime soon. We'll keep you posted!