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!!

A Bit More on our Atlantic Trip

Like I mentioned before, we took a little trip to the Atlantic ocean the weekend before Valentine's Day. We both felt like we needed to get out and go somewhere so we booked a hotel that was a short block away from the beach, which was really cheap because it is winter. I would say it is a little over a two hour drive out there but it was a fun drive. We got to cross the huge bridge that spans the Chesapeake Bay. (I think... I would look it up, but our internet isn't working right now.) It was huge and way cool. We both enjoyed the open-ness once we got out of the city. There were tons of cool houses with interesting architecture and lots of farms and stuff on the way out there. We stayed in Ocean City MD that is right on the border between Delaware and Maryland. The city is basically built on a peninsula and at most times you could see the ocean on one side of you and the bay on the other side. There are TONS and TONS of huge hotels and condominiums lining both the beach front and the bay front. We got in pretty late the first night and just relaxed and watched some TV in the room.

The next morning, I woke up and saw a weird orange light strip on the wall. I jumped out of bed and saw the sun about halfway up over the Atlantic Ocean. I got excited and yelled for Jaren to come see. haha. He thought I was a little mean for waking him up, but as soon as he saw it he was a little happier. :) We snapped a few pictures and then crawled back in bed for a while. After breakfast we drove down a ways to the Ocean City boardwalk. You can tell that in the summer it must be just crawling with people. We got there early enough that none of the little shops were open. It was almost creepy to see everything looking so deserted. There were a bunch of carnival rides that were also closed down for the winter and deserted looking. We walked out onto the beach and touched the water so we could say that we have touched the Atlantic ocean. Then we spent a couple of hours taking tons of pictures of the pier and the beach. It was pretty windy and cold, but not too bad at this point. A little later on, we walked down to the rocky point at the end of the beach and there the wind was howling and bitter cold. Our faces were both numb after a few minutes of picture taking so we started walking back towards the boardwalk and the car.

By this time, some of the shops and restaurants had opened up. We stopped in a few of the shops but didn't see anything we had to have. The smell of french fries in the air won us over though. We stopped into a little burger place. I got some cheese fries and Jaren got some chili cheese fries. They were EXCELLENT. :) By this time, our camera battery was running a little low so we headed back to the hotel to grab the extra battery. Then we headed out in search of a lighthouse. Jaren had seen one online that was supposedly pretty close to our hotel. ....About 30 miles up the road we had come to a State/national park (not sure which) and decided we would check it out. As we were driving through, we saw another huge concrete tower that we had seen all over the place and decided to check this one out cause it was close. Apparently it was a World War II lookout tower that was erected to protect the waterway between Delaware and New Jersey. It had a long spiral staircase inside and you could walk all the way up to the top of the tower and look out over the park, the ocean and the bay. It was gorgeous but SOOO windy and cold. From the top of this tower, you could see that there were two lighthouses a little ways off. So we went to find them.

We drove a little ways further and had to hike over a bit of sand to get closer to the lighthouse we had seen. It was a pretty little red brick one. The wind was so cold and strong at this place that it was blowing sand in our faces and we felt like we were going to get blown over. Jaren gave me his beanie cause my head and ears were cold, but after that I was actually pretty warm. We went looking for crabs but decided that they were all hibernating or something. We did find some HUGE crab shells on the beach here though. I wouldn't want one of those coming after me!

After the lighthouse adventure we headed back towards our hotel. We had someone look up the lighthouse that was supposedly by our hotel and discovered that it was, actually only like 2 blocks away from our hotel. It was just on the opposite side we thought it would be on. It was really random and wasn't even close to the water. We were both glad we had found the other lighthouse further up the road.

That night we spent swimming, going out to eat, and going to a movie. We slept in the next morning and just relaxed until it was time to check out and head home. We had fun talking and taking in the scenery on the way home. It was a fun trip. :)