For the Mothers

I've been blessed by many women in my life who have acted as a mothering figure to me - who encouraged me, blessed me, gave me advice, worried for me, and loved me. I daresay that I've had enough that, if I were to list them all and the reasons that I love them, this blog would become overly long. But, I want to recognize that I do have those women in my life and I am thankful for them on this day and all days.

With that said, I wanted to quickly highlight four women in my life who have given me example and shaped me into becoming a better woman, wife, and (some day) mother.

My mom gave me her sassy spirit and her sense of humor. She's given up a lot for me and I am grateful to her for that.

My grandma, as has been said many times on this blog, is a selfless and loving woman, who has give me everything she's ever had.

Holland's mom raised a wonderful guy and I owe her much for that. She is beautiful, funny, and loves fiercely.

Robin is a beautiful example of a Christlike woman. She gives, she loves, and is absolutely wonderful. Not only that, she's fun to boot!

I love all these women in my life and could not imagine where I'd be without them.

#DCCartwheels

My coworker, Danielle, and I have taken DC by storm. And by cartwheel.

Since the weather has warmed up, we take to the streets 2-3 times a week to run a little bit. After a run or two, we decided that we should liven up our runs in a couple ways:

1. Cartwheels
2. High Fives

Our first goal was to take cartwheels in as many DC locations as possible. To be honest, we've only done it a couple times and there's still a few places that we need to cartwheel in, but I think we're off to a good start.

Jefferson Memorial

Washington Monument

Cherry Blossoms

We added a few bonus shots as well.

Beaver Fever

Frog Jumps

Let the records show that I am an EXCELLENT cartwheeler. Danielle, however, is not an excellent cartwheel photographer.

Our second goal has been ongoing. Danielle sent me a text a while back with a picture of two men running past each other. Oh, look, here it is:

I called malarkey on that one because most runners couldn't care less about people around them. They're too busy trying to not die running (of fatigue or boredom). So we have made it our goal to high five those runners we do pass. I like to add a little "Woo!" with my high fives. Right now, we're about 50/50 in who we get to high five us back, but we will persist! 

Picnic Weather

We finally started warming up around these parts, so I coerced Holland into taking a picnic with me to the Cherry Blossom Festival.

I'm an expert sandwich maker, so I whipped up this little guy for HK.

We started with a little walk around the Tidal Basin to see the cherry blossoms which were just starting to bloom.

We ate our lunches on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial. As was expected, it was pretty busy, but we found a spot and started to chow down.

My sandwich was excellent, as expected.

And then we spent the afternoon reading in the sunshine (although, it was a little too windy for our reading preferences).

On Being Fit

Sometimes, (read: at least weekly), I get down on myself. More specifically (although I could probably give you a diatribe on a myriad of topics), how I look. I've been blessed with beautiful friends and a handsome husband, so it's hard not to compare myself sometimes.

Do you see what I mean? It's hard to be the unphotogenic one (for proof, see my double chins from the Easter post). And it's hard to feel like you don't fit in your own skin. You want to wear skinny jeans. You want to be comfortable in a bathing suit. You would love to have muscles to show off.

Want to know what else I want? I want to know that it is capable of hard things. I want to feel like I am moving towards a state of constant improvement. I want to push myself. I want to know what my body's limit is. But even more so, I want to be confident in my body.

And why shouldn't I be? Because dammit*, I'm the fittest I've ever been in my life. I can play sports better than I used to. I go to the gym 4-5 times a week and sometimes exercise more than once in a day. I can run further than I've ever run before. I can push myself. I can make myself be better.

So I'm going to. I'm going to keep pushing myself. And I'm going to get there. It may take me longer than I would like it to, but I am going to get there. And I will be better.

Disney fitness motivation, anyone?

*Sorry for the swear.

In Our House, We...

...give mean mugs. Mostly.

Fine. It's just me. But you can't just surprise a girl with a camera. Am I right or am I right?

Easter Happenings

This year, we rehashed our Easter Potluck (see here) and got together at Tiffany's to celebrate the holiday.

Unlike the previous year (even though it was not one, but two Easters ago), we got a few good shots of the smashing of the fruity bits/glitter eggs.

Here are a few pictures from the game:

Here are a few things we learned from this game or that we can deduce from these pictures:

1. Tiffany is not above hiding an Easter egg under burnt toast and chicken legs (see the first picture).

2. I am more than capable of creating a double chin with my neck (no need to go back up and look if that wasn't the first thing you saw...)

3. Husbands will pick on their wives.

4. Glitter negates the fact that it is not hair washing day (or so I'm told).

5. Tiffany's egg smashing strategy involves two arms - always.

6. I am not a soft egg smasher. Sorry Rachel & Ryan.

7. The anticipation of an egg smash is great.

8. Glitter is always good. (Unless you're Holland. Then you think glitter is always bad.)

Richmond Weekend

A few weekends ago, we ventured over to Richmond for a Saturday and Sunday trip (thanks to Brian & Robin for the hotel stay!).

Our first top when we got into town was the Virginia State Capital. We took a tour around the building and they told us all about the history of the capital and some interesting things that had been going on in this particular capital building. For instance, did you know that Virginia has had three separate state capitals? The first was Jamestown, where the first colonists settled. The second was Williamsburg - not too far away from the original capital. And the third and final capital was Richmond, at Thomas Jefferson's suggestion. 

Some interesting facts about the capital building: The design was drawn up by Thomas Jefferson himself, as a replication of the Maison Carrée at Nîmes in France. Since this was supposed to be an almost exact replication of that building, Jefferon couldn't put a dome on the top of the building, but there is an indoor dome, as pictured below.

That's George W. right there standing under the indoor dome. 

Another fun fact about the Virginia State Capital Building is that they filmed a lot of the indoor scenes of Lincoln in the capital building. Since VA's legislature is not full time, they were able to shut down the building for several months, hide any modern looking things (as well as busts and statues of people who were not yet dead during Lincoln's lifetime), and film scenes for the movie.

This same day, we went to the church building (St. John's) where Patrick Henry said, "Give me liberty or give me death!"

This is an inaccurate representation of what the church looks like on the inside.

We also visited St. Paul's right outside the capital because I may or may not have forgotten the name of St. John's and told Holland that this was the right church to be where Patrick Henry was. And we may or may not have crashed the tail end of a funeral. And Holland may or may not have asked the priest about Patrick Henry being there. But what we did learn in St. Paul's was that Richmond is super obsessed with Tiffany's glass (see the Wikipedia for more information).

We also visited the Virginia Museum of Fine arts, where Richmond reaffirmed their love of Tiffany's  glass with a section devoted to lamps made with Tiffany's glass. 

After the VMFA, we went down to Cary Street to look in a few shops before it closed. There, I spotted a different kind of glass:

And I swear, someday I'm going to make this happen in my own house.

After a few more stops on Cary Street, we headed to our hotel, left to pick up some Five Guys (we like to eat at the small local shops wherever we go... ha), and lounged around watching HGTV for the rest of the evening. Basically, we = Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.

The next morning, we slept in a little bit, ate our continental breakfast (waffles for me!), and made our way to Maymont Park. At Maymont, they have an aquarium, a mini zoo, a petting zoo (which, sadly, we didn't patron), and an old house with original furniture dating back to the 1890s-1900s.

Before I get ahead of myself, here's my favorite guy from the aquarium. He followed my finger around the tank:

 Coolest thing about Maymont was definitely the Swan bedroom. This picture isn't mine (as we weren't allowed to take pictures), but WOW. How amazing.

Swans, swans, everywhere!

 Once we had seen all there was to see at Maymont, we went to Monument row and walked around checking out the monuments and houses. We finished our trip with a visit to Kuba Kuba for some Cuban brunch.

And then we found a million dollars!