Don't Mess with Texas

The Larsen family held a mini reunion in Texas last weekend. It originally started out as a Girl's Weekend to see the muscial Wicked!, but it ended up being the Girl's Weekend + Boys and a mini reunion. I was upset to find that my camera battery was completely dead, so all of my pictures are generic. Except above. That picture is from last summer.
The area Tim's parents live in has a lot of deer running around. They cause problems during certain times of the year, but I always find them enchanting! Apparently, deadwooddigital.com took this picture, but we saw a momma and two babies just like this!

For the GNO (Girls Night Out), we went to "The Majestic" Theater to see Wicked! The theater was pretty cool with the Spanish Mission look going on.

And, of course, the play was even better the second time! The music is so up-beat and the story line is so clever and funny. I would recommend it to anyone!

The rest of the trip was spend by the pool and eating delicious food!
Thanks Rod and Diane for the fun weekend!

Where's Kitty?

We couldn't find our kitty the other day, until we saw this...She has decided to camp above our cabinets! Only two more days with her...

Memorial Day 09

Tim and I had a really fun Memorial Day. To start, we went to the celebration show at the Capitol on Memorial Eve. I thought they did an amazing job at recognizing those who served the country.
On Monday, we ran a 3K put on by the city and got cool bright orange t-shirts for free! Then we went to a Potomac Nationals baseball game for the $1 admission and $1 hot dogs, but while Tim and Scott went to get the hot dogs in the 2nd inning, we had a downpour and the game was canceled. We ended up going to Aubrey's house (while she and her roommates were gone -shh!) and having a bbq at her "party pool." Tim and Scott put on an exciting performance of "ways you could jump into a pool."
And on another note, I have a cat. Actually, I am only cat-sitting for a few weeks, but it's good practice. Did anyone else know that cats are nocturnal? They are pretty much not like dogs in any way. Who knew?

The Big Apple

Sorry, I can't think of any creative blog titles for this post, but we did have a creative Memorial weekend! On Saturday we took the Chinatown bus to NY, NY for a fun filled day trip! When we got there, we were just amazed at all of the people. They are everywhere!We started out walking through Times Square to go to Central Park. I stopped for a brief second to take a picture for Dad of the Hello Deli around the corner of the Late Night Show. Too bad it was closed:( Next was the outside of one of the Trump towers (top right and tall building pic. in collage) for Ben who likes the Apprentice. Later in the day we went to St. Patrick's Cathedral, Rockafeller Plaza, and the Empire State building. We pretty much just looked at everything, we didn't want to spend too much money, but it was still pretty amazing.I was pretty excited for Central Park. It is featured in so many .movies, so we spent a lot of time here. Our favorite thing was the row boats, but we also enjoyed our hot dogs and pretzels we got from street vendorsNew York is a pretty famous place for shopping, but we got our kicks at the toy stores. I played the "Big" piano with my feet and walked through the Barbie Dream House while Tim looked at trains and Lego Sculptures of Harry Potter (actually, I was more fascinated with those than him). I was really impressed with the Ferris Wheel in Toys R Us! Each seat was a different theme like M&M's, my little pony, and Jimmy Neutron. We were sad we didn't have enough time to ride it.
And last but not least, Tim got his New York Style Pizza. He ordered a personal-sized pizza, but the man at the counter didn't understand english and gave us a HUGE pizza which is pictured below next to my hand so you can see how big it actually was. It was completely delicious though, so we went to extra trouble to take the leftovers home on the bus with us! Yay for the Big Apple!
We had more fun this weekend, but my computer is being dumb and not uploading properly, so I'll have to post again later this week.

The PWH "Sole Sisters"

For my job, I was able to put together my own running clinic. I advertised mostly at the hospital and fitness center, and got a group of 11 women together to train for a 5k. All of the women were aged 30-60 and most had never run a 5k before...or even really run. We met once or twice a week through the month of April to discuss running issues, run together, and motivate each other. The group decided to train for a race to support ovarian cancer and minus a few girls (plus a few others) we all ran...and finished! Everyone ran really well, but the real fun started after the race. Tim said we won the award for best dancing, so you can see some pictures below...

Happy Mother's Day!

I spent the whole day thinking of important mothers I know and love, and decided to make lists about them. I was originally going to only list 3 things, but the lists just kept growing. I settled on 5 special things about each person, but in no particular order. So thank you to all of these mothers in my life!
My Mom Janean
1. She works very hard for my family and has my whole life.
2. She is so smart with computers.
3. She has always taught me how important education is.
4. She always made good dinners growing up.
5. She has so many talents such as painting crafts, woodwork, guitar, and sports.

Diney (Tim's Mom)
1. She lives to help others. She never puts herself first.
2. She is always busy making beautiful things. Blankets, gardens, apartments, anything.
3. She has a talent to make others feel special.
4. She went back to school when her kids were older and got her degree in accounting and now spends her springs helping others with their taxes (including ours).
5. She is a great example of a wife and mother.

Mindy (My sister)
1. I have always looked up to her.
2. She is so smart and was a Pharmacist at age 23.
3. She never judges you when you talk to her.
4. She is a good mother.
5. She is the most easy going person I know.

Kristen (My sister-in-law)
1. She can do anything she puts her mind to...such as suddenly getting so great at photography and always knowing how to do cool things on the computer.
2. She is a great decorator.
3. She is so good at making friends (and keeping in touch with them).
4. She is easy to talk to...for anyone.
5. She stayed friends with me even when TJ was on his mission. (Although I don't know if I would call pranks -such as saying it was my birthday and hanging a huge sign up in the office even though it was surely not my birthday- friendship).

Grandma Dot (My dad's mom)
1. She can always find the best shopping deals.
2. She makes delicious roast (and corn pops)
3. She always remembers birthdays and events.
4. She has the best holiday decorations.
5. She has always been supportive of everything I've wanted to do.

Grandma Rich (My late grandma)
1. She is the most talented person I knew.
2. She taught me so many things such as cake decorating and sewing.
3. She always volunteered to serve; at the hospital, humanitarian center, etc.
4. She made numerous (and flawless) blankets for all of her many grandchildren.
5. I was always impressed with her desire to learn. She took computer classes to keep up with technology.

Grandma Bywater (Tim's Grandma)
1. She tells the best stories.
2. She is always up for things and has kept busy serving others.
3. She is so smart and has already read every book before I have!
4. She is great at sending letters and cards and has inspired me to send more.
5. She is amazing at flower arrangements and helped with my wedding.

Grandma Larsen (Tim's Grandma)
1. She always welcomes more people into her home and feeds them.
2. She is so positive.
3. She has created fun opportunities for us to travel with her and Grandpa Larsen.
4. She has helped me out by allowing me to stay at her house many times.
5. She is the epitome of a grandma; always living for grandkids, baking goodies, and being sweet.

My Princess Party

For my birthday last Thursday, Tim threw me a Princess Party! I always say little kids have the best birthdays and I was sad my last birthday was boring, so he wasn't about to let me have another lame birthday. His family came over and we celebrated kid-style! I had a castle cake (thanks to Diney), a tiara, fun finger foods, and my guests even got to take home goodie bags!

...Okay, so this isn't what I got for my birthday. I can only hope that someday... Actually, this is one of my puppies I volunteer to "hold." They start getting placed in temporary homes (for 2 years) and we will start training them to be service dogs next week!

On Friday Tim and I went to check out the National Botanical Gardens and the American Indian Museum. We didn't get any pictures of the Museum, but here is some highlights of the botanical gardens.
Tim thought he was cool by finding this huge leaf

But I think I won the contest.