Ben's Visit Part 1

I had a blast my first time playing "tour guide" in DC with Ben. Our first day we went to the Archives and saw the monuments as the sun set. Korean Memorial

WWII Memorial at night. It's really pretty with all the lights.

Us looking at "Top Secret" documents in the National Archives.

Snow Day!

This is what I woke up to Monday morning. We had 6 inches total-which is a big deal here! It's funny how quickly they close the schools, in fact, some are still closed today (2 days later)! Needless to say, I got a snow day. I spent the morning making yummy breakfast for Tim, lunch with Scott and Aubrey (the roads were cleared), the afternoon at Target, and the evening worrying that everyone at the fitness center would be angry with us for closing (only 2 complaints so far).

An American Tale...

I finally had a day off work for working last Saturday, so we went to the newly re-opened American History Smithsonian Museum. We were there a few hours and still saw about half of the exhibits, but I felt we saw some important things like...The Star Spangled Banner. I am embarrassed to say I never realized it was the name of the actual flag raised in the song. You're not allowed to take pictures inside, but this cool artsy flag was outside the exhibit of the actual HUGE flag made that was hung after hours of fighting around the Baltimore Harbor in the War of 1812.We also saw the entertainment section which holds what I thought was really random things such as Dorothy's Ruby Slippers, Kermit the Frog, and Apollo Ohnos Speed Skates? It was also a smaller exhibit than I expected. We were not dissappointed by the Price of Freedom section which went through America's wars. The middle picture below is a bunch of WWII promotion posters.
Below is Tim as our Nation's Leader...we wish.
On the way back to the car we stopped in on the National Sculpture Garden. What do you think about the "sculptures" representing our nation? I thought it would have been statues of people or something, but I guess not.
And this was our view on our drive home...

Happy V-day!

We had a pretty good Valentines Day -minus the fact that I had to work (notice my tired eyes in the pictures-yes-107 hours in 13 days). Tim went to a lot of work to MAKE these chocolate truffles. He proceeded to make the super cute box, and give them to me (and some for his family) for valentines. I have a pretty amazing and talented hubby. I've realized a lot of our posts have to do with food or eating, but that is probably about right. We like food.

Cafe Rio in Virginia

One thing I really miss living in the east is any good Mexican food...especially Cafe Rio. When I first moved here I started making and rolling out my own tortillas. For Christmas, Tim got me a tortilla press and found some homemade Cafe Rio recipes which we tried out last weekend. They just aren't the same, but everything did turn out pretty delicious!

It's been a while

I've been so busy lately, but a few weekends ago Tim and I went to the National Gallery Art Museum. I love impressionist art, so we went to the pre 1900 building and saw Monet, Renoir, Degas, Surat, and more. Last weekend I took a trip to Utah for my good friend Lindsay's wedding in SLC. She made a beautiful bride, and it was so much fun to have some of the high school group together again. Best Wishes, Lindsay!

The other half of my weekend in Utah was spent with family. I stayed with TJ and Kristen and had a wonderful time with their adorable kids! My parents even drove up to see us. As you can tell, Kate cheeses it for pictures, and Jonas is just adorable. In the mornings when I got up, Jonas would stand up and raise his arms so excited to give me loves while Kate yelled "Tanaya!" I love those kids!

Christmas Celebrations

It's been a while since I've posted, but we celebrated a lot for Christmas this year...
The Larsen siblings (and spouses) had a Fondue party and gift exchange!

Tim got a nice work shirt for when he has to wear big kids clothes, and I got some nice kitchen stuff.
We also had to go see the temple lights. The DC temple is actually pretty well know for their Christmas lights and programs. They have some type of program in their visitor center every night of December. We got to see piano player Marvin Goldstein. It was really neat!
They also had nativities from all around the world.

At home, we had our own celebration and opened some gifts we couldn't take on a plane. Our favorite gift is a new TV thanks to both sets of parents :)
And my favorite: Christmas in St. George! We almost didn't make it with all the airline problems, but it made me enjoy it even more once I was there. We had a great time playing Wii and making a gingerbread/graham cracker house, but I mostly just enjoyed time with the nieces and nephews! We got Kate and Makayla hair glitter for Christmas, and the top picture in the collage is of Kate putting some in Tim's hair...so pretty!

Before leaving, we visited the Dinosaur track museum. For those of you who haven't been there, a land developing company found raised prints when turning over some large rocks in deep soil. What happened is that when dinosaurs stepped in the sand, their prints were filled in with water and sand that hardened, so it is like a mold of their feet. They are really helpful for paleontologists, and St. George is now a cool place for them.