Farewell Dear DC

The latest news goes like this: We are coming home EARLY! Jaren's work informed him that he had reached a 120 day limit and couldn't work more without them getting fined for not giving him benefits, so they basically told him that this Friday is his last day. We feel bad to leave the girls and Pam early, but we feel like the sooner we get home, the better (especially better on our wallet!). So we are starting to pack up and will leave early on Saturday morning!

Jaren's best friend Greg Warby came out for a visit last week. We ran all around the city seeing the museums, Arlington, the Capitol, Potbellies, Good Stuff, Oriole's Park at Camden Yards. . .

Greg and I went to museums all day on Thursday while Jaren worked. We started in the Library of Congress which I was very impressed with. It was gorgeous! We walked by the National Archives, but decided we didn't want to wait in the probably 2 hour line in the heat to get in. So, we went and shopped at a souvenir stand instead. We saw the Natural History Museum, Museum of American History, and the Air and Space Museum. I headed home to work and Warby met Jaren at work and they picked up pizza on their way home.


Friday, we all slept in a bit. When we were awake, we got ready and went on a Capitol tour. We stood in with a group in Statutory Hall and heard the cool acoustic affects. It is still fun to see no matter how many times you go in. Jaren got to go on a dome tour where you have to walk up TONS of stairs, but get to go up on top of the dome and walk around very close to the Apotheosis of Washington and go up outside on top of the dome. See the previous post of pictures that Jaren took. I'm jealous he couldn't get me in!!

Friday night, we headed to Baltimore in the rain to see the Orioles play the Yankees. We had just gotten situated in our sweet red ponchos with umbrellas and our first round of ball park food when the announcement came over the loud speaker that the game was postponed due to the rain. We were sorta disappointed that we didn't get to see the game, but at least we got dinner out of the deal... and we get our money back, so it wasn't a complete loss.


Saturday, we saw the White House, ate at Potbellies, and walked around Arlington for a while. It got really warm in the afternoon and I actually got a little sun on my face! We wandered around the National American Indian Museum and did some more souvenir shopping before we headed home. We made our awesome fried shrimp for dinner. That night, Warby treated us to a great round of cosmic bowling. We walked in and got our shoes and while we were putting them on, we noticed something a little off.... the bowling pins were tiny! We thought that was pretty funny, and then we discovered that the bowling balls were also miniature! A lady bowling with her family on the lane next to ours overheard our surprise at the mini bowling alley and explained that it is called Duckpin Bowling and it is huge here on the East Coast. The rules are mostly the same as regular bowling except you get to bowl three times per turn. It was really really fun, but I was awful at it. We bowled until 1 am and then drove Warby to the airport and got home around 3 am. And then we slept in a LONG time the next morning. We had a blast with Warby and were sad that he left so soon!




Now we are just trying to eat all of the food we still have, but probably won't get through some of it! That's ok though, cause we are coming home in 3 days!! We have had a TON of fun out here and have seen lots of awesome things. We're glad that Jaren was able to get an internship so we could come out and have this experience, and we are also glad that it is about over. We'll try to bring some warm weather home with us!

Pogo

This morning as I was walking up to my house, I saw one of the little boys down the street jumping on his pogo stick. I have seen him jumping on it a lot lately now that spring is here. Another little boy was walking down the hill to join him at the bus stop when the kid with the pogo stick yells up,

"Noah! I beat my record!!"
Noah replied, "What's your record?"
Pogo stick kid, "three hundred and fifty! What's yours?"
Noah said, "Only a hundred and fifty..."

I stopped listening here. I was smiling because I am the Pogo Stick Jumping CHAMPION. I was remembering my younger days when I pogo'd for over an hour on rough, clumpy ground at North Fork camp ground up Ogden canyon. Sure, I couldn't walk the next day cause my legs were so sore... but I did it.

MY record is 1,000 jumps on a pogo stick. I thought of smashing these young kids self confidence and telling them MY fantastic record. . . but thought maybe that was not nice. So I walked into my house proud of the fact that secretly, I am the pogo stick MASTER!

Credits

Just for clarification, Jaren took the pictures that precede the photo of him with the celebrities. I took the ones towards the end. I think we get some good ones. :) We're a pretty great photography team if we do say so ourselves!!! :)

Happy Spring!!

Just for a quick update, we haven't been up to much lately. Jaren is still working hard to save the world and yesterday he got to meet Alec Baldwin and Kevin Spacey. He said that when he shook Alec Baldwin's hand all he could think of to say was, "Hi. The Hunt for Red October is my favorite movie!" Alec just said, "Oh, thanks." How cool is that? Jaren said it well when he described the experience as .... the one perk to being an intern.... cough*Male secretary*cough*.........


Over the weekend we discovered a little place called Pizza Movers here in Takoma Park. It is a ghetto little pizza place a couple blocks up from our house. We decided to try it out. We found out that you can get an EXTRA large pizza with three toppings for only 13 dollars! ... We couldn't resist. I don't really care how the pizza tastes if you get that much for that cheap, and it is actually pretty good!! We are only sad that we just discovered it with only one month left here! The location is just perfect for Jaren to stop in and pick up a pizza on his way home from the metro. Who knew getting pizza for dinner could be so convenient?


Over the weekend, we went to a seminar together for Jaren's internship. We got to meet some of the other USU interns and participate in a discussion on politics. Jaren participated well, I just listened... there were some interesting people with interesting opinions there. We were there from 10 am until about 2:45 pm and when we walked out, it was pouring!! Luckily, Jaren had his borrowed umbrella with him so we didn't get soaked!

We watched conference also! ...Well most of it. Our internet cut out a couple times and on Sunday we got talking with the couple in our ward who came over. Mary found out that I had never tried sushi and apparently she has a tradition of snacking on sushi during conference, so she brought some over for us to try. I was a little worried about the smell of the sea weed stuff... cause I'll admit, it was not my favorite smell. She made a variety of flavors: teriyaki chicken, imitation crab with avocado and cucumber, and veggie. The chicken one was definitely the most safe so I mostly stuck with that one. I thought that it was pretty good over all, but not something I would want to eat lots of. :) Jaren had one piece of it... I think. haha. He is just so picky sometimes!!

It is SO gorgeous back here right now. All of the blossoms are in bloom and the trees are starting to green up. We're lucky to get to see it!!