My trip to Washington DC!

So I went to visit my sissy in DC and had such a great time! 

We went to DC to site see, went to an air and space museum, hung around a lot, ate delicious food (Megan is a GREAT cook- I felt royal), watched some movies, bachelorette, hung by the pool or sand, played with Scarlet, tended to Scarlet (poor thing was sick half the time), and talked lots! 

Lets start from the beginning. Get ready for lots of pictures of....me. haha. Sorry. 

So here I am waiting for Meg at the airport. I had just gotten off a 4 hour flight and I had watched the last Harry Potter on my ipad during the flight. I totally was crying throughout the WHOLE thing. That movie just does it for me. Snape, Harry's sacrifice, Ron & Hermione, NEVILLE! Everyone. I just can't keep the tears from coming. Thank GOODNESS the people sitting next to me were sleeping! How embarrassing. 

  The first day there Scarlet wasn’t that into me. She would give me faces like this:

                                       

Or she would just cry if I even looked at her! She had a major fever, and wasn’t feelin good. Megan kept saying, “I promise she isn’t normally like this!”, but she was still super cute. The next day when we were getting ready for DC she was warming up to me a bit more. SHE IS SO CUTE. Here are some cutie pictures.

 

She liked to be wrapped like a baby and be held like a baby sometimes.

 

Right before we left for DC.

 

The metro! We went on the metro and I really loved it. It was so fascinating to me. I’ve never been on anything like it except at the Seattle airport, which is like…barely anything compared to this. I just kept thinking, “This is genius!” haha. I know, I sound like I’m a amish person or something. But it really was awesome. I felt all “city girl” like.

 

Here we are in DC! We were walking around finding a spot to eat some lunch and the capital building was on one side, and the Washington monument on the other!

 

First stop was the Archives of the United States of America. I totally didn’t expect this to be cool. But it was one of my favorite things! I’m SO GLAD we went!

We weren’t supposed to take pictures, but we snuck a couple.

 

Declaration of Independence.

 

So we saw the Magna Carta, Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights. The Constitution you could see really well, but the others were WAY faded. It was so cool though! I just couldn’t believe the penmanship of them and how perfectly they did it. It had to of taken forever. The paper was HUGE. Way bigger than paper we use! And it was pretty cool to think that they all signed that very paper I was looking at. I liked it lots.

 

I loved the architecture of everything. So cool. I kept thinking at every building, “How in the world did they build this? Amazing!” it made me realize I would love Europe, cause of all the cool buildings.

 

Look at my eye balls closely...freaky!

Next stop, American History Smithsonian Museum! This was way cool. There was everything from pop culture, movies, to war history, presidential history…I really liked a lot of it. It’s so funny cause I swear all the things I didn’t think I would find interesting, I loved. So there were things like, George Washingtons pocket watch, or his ACTUAL CHAIR, or his plate. All of these things, he ACTUALLY used and handled. It was so cool! I just thought how crazy that he was sitting there, or looking at that watch. I loved it.

I wish I’d taken a picture or something, but it was really crowded when we were there- but we saw the American flag that flew, which inspired the song “Star Spangled Banner”. It was AWESOME. Really sobering. And HUGE! I loved it.

This was the actual hogwarts uniform Daniel Radcliffe wore in the first movie! So little and cute!

Next stop, Natural History Smithsonian Museum! I’m probably saying all these names wrong, but they are what I remember them being called…

There were all sorts of things here…animals, fossils, SKULLS!

 

Then we went to the Capital Building. It was way cool. We just sat and ate snacks and rested for a bit infront of it and I kept thinking…”Um…Hillary Clinton could be in there right now doing who knows what” haha. It would be cool to tour it someday.

 

White house. I loved this. There were two men ontop of the whitehouse with sniper rifles set up. Hey Obamas!

 

Then we stopped and saw some ducks on the way to a bathroom which had no toilet paper in any of the stalls. There were two women in there saying, “I would think with ALL the taxes we pay they could handle putting toilet paper in the bathrooms…my gosh”…Megan and I couldn’t help but roll our eyes at them and talk about how ridiculous they sounded…and then realized they were standing right next to us…haha:)

 

Lincoln Memorial! One of my VERY favorites. The building was cool, the view was cool, LINCOLN was cool, everything just felt so important and almost holy. It was pretty great.

 

Megan and I trying to take a picture of the view with both of us in it without destroying the view…

 

Next was the Korean Memorial which was sweet…but we decided to rest there for a bit. Scarlet had fun playing in the pretty fountain.

 

Then, we saw FIREFLYS! Oh my gosh- I’ve never seen fire flies before and they were MAGICAL! We loved them, obviously.

 

Very cool view as we were headin to the Jefferson Memorial.

 

Before we hit up Jefferson, we went to Roosevelt. There weren’t really picturesque areas in that one at night time, but there were SO many quotes on walls that I realized I loved. Like, “The only thing to fear is fear itself” or something like that. He had a lot of good ones.

Jefferson Memorial was cool. Not as cool as Lincoln, but cool in a different way. The whole building was like…see through? As in no back walls. It was like all columns around. I didn’t realize that this quote came from Jefferson and I love this quote. It’s basically my whole belief system. Seeing all the quotes of some of these guys made me realize I really am interested in learning about our American History again. Of course I did as a child, but I was a child and don’t really remember any of it!

 

At the metro waiting for our train. We were EXAUSTED. We had basically been out and about for 12 straight hours. I learned something…a pregnant lady and a lyme effected person make a LOT of groaning on their way back to the metro after a long day in DC. We kept laughing cause we kept moaning and groaning. Megs back was killing her…my knees and hips were feeling like…broken and beat up. Oh man…I felt a bit like death on that tail end. But it was worth it. It took me till today to feel back to myself and my legs back to normal. I am planning on mentioning it to my doctor, but I do think that my joints just are damaged and can’t handle too much! Obviously everyone would be sore and such after a day like that, but it was pretty bad. I didn’t really feel like doing anything but laying around the couple days after.

 

Tired tired tired tired TIRED feet.

Scarlet was OUT and so tired. She was such a good girl! I couldn’t believe it. She like, never whined at all as we were out. It was awesome.

 

This is Scarlet talking to her dad on skype. It was so cute. He would sing her songs and she would dance and smile and sing along sometimes. He is out of town.

 

A few days later we went to the air and space museum. I wasn’t expecting to be TOO into it, but it sounded interesting. Right away it was cool. There were all sorts of planes all over the place hanging from the ceiling, sitting on the floor, it was cool.

This is the VERY plane that dropped the first atomic bomb. Insanity.

 

I just kept thinking, “How in the world did they feel sitting in there flying that thing and dropping it!?”

 

This is an ACTUAL space ship that has been in space! It was HUMONGO! I couldn’t believe it.

 

I just loved looking at that space ship. It boggled my mind that it had been in space.

 

The whole thing, and really all of my trip in general, felt really patriotic. Like this picture.

 

Scarlet just randomly laid on the ground and started scootin around. It was way cute and funny. 

I feel like I’ve left out a lot, but I think that’s pretty much all I documented on my iphone. Thank goodness for my iphone. It was so handy. A few times we didn’t know which way was best to get somewhere and it was night…so I just typed it in my google maps and it told us where to go! It even gave an estimated time to walk there…that was handy too.

All in all it was a wonderful trip! It was so fun being with Megan. We really are only around eachother in big family group settings and so it was fun to be just one on one and get a chance to talk a lot. She is a really good mom and a really good cook! I seriously felt like I was getting royal treatment. Everything was delicious. Scarlet is such a good little girl too! A few things that were cute and funny:

When she got a time out, Megan would put her in this corner kind of, but it was totally open and she could just walk away from it if she wanted. But when Megan put her in time out she’d say, “Time out” and Scarlet would cry and scream and be so upset, but stay there! I thought it was so hilarious. I kept saying, “I don’t understand why she doesn’t just stand up and walk away!” and Megan said she just really is a good girl. It was so cute.

She didn’t snuggle me the first day or so, but after a bit she let me hold her and one day I got her up from her nap when Megan was in her shower and she was SO CUTE. She said, “Mommy?” and I said, “She’s in the shower” and so then she wrapped her arms around me and let me hold and snuggle her for a few minutes. Then she said again, “Mommy?” and I said, “Lets go look” and I showed her the closed door to the bathroom and said, “See she’s in the shower! Should we wait?” and she nodded her head and wrapped her arms around me again and let me snuggle her. It was heaven!

She is just always smiling and so cute. Seriously, just a doll. I read her a book that had a spider in it, not a real one, like…the book showed a spider, and she started kind of singing the itsy bitsy spider. So I started singing it with her and then when I was done she made the sign for more. So I sang it again and then turned the page. Right away she turned back the page and signed more. Haha. She LOVES singing I think. Greg would always sing to her on Skype and she LOVED it. So precious.

 

One thing that I learned while at megans was…days sure do slip away quickly with a child around. I would tell clay what we did one day, and it seemed like…nothing. But the day didn’t feel boring or like we did nothing. It felt full…but somehow it didn’t sound full? It was odd. But I soon realized I think it was because of Scarlet! Haha. She just made time pass really quick cause I dunno…I guess maybe things just get interrupted so often and she is so dependent on others to help her you know? An obvious thing I suppose, but I never fully experienced that till this trip I don’t think!

 

This was on one of my flights. I looked out and it looked unreal. Like...heaven or something? It literally looked fake. I loved it. 

Last stop in Salt Lake before home. I had a really short time between flights, but enough time to think, "I am in the mood for chocolate". Clay and I have kind of a rule when we are traveling. We can eat whatever we want guilt free. So I was thinking...I will get a chocolate bar at one of the stores. Well, I never passed any! So I debated for a good 10 minutes whether or not I had enough time to go look for a store to get a chocolate bar, or if I should just resist. OR if I should go and get a cinnabon. I ended up just waiting for my plane and going without. 

Anyway, it is good to be home. I am still catching up and feeling pretty tired from the travels and time change. The time change isn’t much (two hours) but I think combining it with the long day of travel and still recovering from that long DC day, I’m just pooped. Planning on sleeping in tomorrow for sure.      

Last note- I just read through this whole post and I think I said the words "cool" and "cute" about a million times each. Yowsa.

Healthy(er) Sweet Popcorn

Okay, so last night I wanted popcorn and I didn't have any butter. A TRAVESTY! I know. So anyway, I got to thinking and had a saweeeeeet idea! I had a feeling it'd turn out, and it DID. Even more so than I'd imagined!

Healthy(er) Sweet Popcorn

1/4 cup popcorn kernels
1 1/2 TBS coconut oil
1 1/2 TBS agave
salt

Put 1/4 cup popcorn kernels in brown paper bag, fold down twice, and tape. Microwave for a minute and 35 seconds (I do this everytime I make popcorn. It's the best). Put coconut oil and agave in cup (or something) and microwave until coconut oil is fully melted. Sprinkle the concoction on popcorn, salt, mix. Sprinkle, salt, mix. Sprinkle, salt, mix. Taste, does it need more salt? You be the judge.

YUMMO! Even Clay ate some of it and he is NOT a popcorn guy! Yipee! It has a hint of kettle-corn taste with a hint of a coconutty twist and its all very subtle and not overpowering so it's kinda perfect. I love it when I have an idea and it turns out! (Which happens maybe once a year if that).

Gloomy Saturday

Today is gloomy, and cold. It's like 46 degrees and raining...I say raining with some hesitance because it always just kinda....sprinkles around here when it "rains". I just wish it would POUR if it's going to be like this...I think it's poured rain here (like in Oregon) like...less than 5 times since I've lived here. So, it makes it kinda just...gloomy. I do love the smell after it rains! Reminds me of home.

So whenever it's gloomy in a time when I feel like it should be warm, I get all antsy for Christmas. haha. Seriously! This usually happens around July. I get excited for Christmas. It's come early. I just went and pinned a bunch of stuff on my pintrest board for Christmas. I'm working on this advent calendar that I'm so excited about. It's already so cute! I just can't wait to share it. And Clay and I have decided on a couple of traditions we want to start. Although, Clay doesn't like that I am calling them traditions already, cause we haven't even started them. And he thinks for some reason, traditions need to come about naturally. Like...we do something one year, then the next year we are like, "lets do that again!" and thus, the tradition begins. I disagree. I think that YES, that can be a way traditions start...but I think that it's fun to say, "I want to do this every year at Christmas, it will be our little tradition". Like, I told him I want to go to Perkins to get peppermint hot chocolate and breakfast the first Saturday of December. A tradition. Of course he liked this idea because the last time we had peppermint hot chocolate we both about died of how glorious it was (I know Clay will be rolling his eyes right now thinking, it wasn't that great babe...it was just good). But he wants the tradition to come naturally. So he says, "Don't plan it! it will just come" so I roll my eyes and say, "Okay, it's not planned", though I'm mentally planning the first Saturday of December at Perkins.

I made a goal to read Les Miserables in 50 days. July 9 is the deadline. This all started when I decided I want to get into classics. I mean, I love my teenage drama/dystopian/love triangle novels I've been reading...but sometimes it becomes like, woah- these are all the same story with different names. I think I overdosed on these genres. So at first I was like, okay- I'm going to read some Jane Austin. I really wanted to because I have this GORGEOUS book with all of her books in it. Oh, it's beautiful. But then I remembered how a few years ago I read about half of Les Miserables while on a school break (of course it's abridged, but still about a million pages), and I really loved it! But then school started again and it was impossible. So I kinda forgot about it. Until I remembered it last week and how much I loved it. So I decided to start over and read it again. It's definitely not one of those books that I'm like DYING to get through. But when I do read it, it's wonderful. It makes me feel warm and uplifted, spiritual. I have definitely skipped a few days so I am going to have to read more than I figured for a few days. That's okay. Anyone with me? A dive into classics? Oh- and you know the great thing? You know how a lot of people have seen Les Miserables as a play or movie or something? So they know the story? I haven't! So I have no idea how this story plays out so it's pretty exciting.

Did I tell you I'm visiting my sister in Washington DC? Next week! I'm so excited. We are going to do a big long day in DC site seeing and stuff, and then relax and hang the rest of the time. It'll be awesome. I've never traveled further east than Idaho...isn't that the saddest? Not to my recollection anyway. I'm excited to be a bit more traveled and see some of those historical awesome things. AND I'm excited to see my sister! Haven't seen her since Christmas and I probably wont see her for a long time. She isn't going to be at our family reunion (SAD) and probably sometime within a year or so they'll be shippin out somewhere crazy. I'm just excited to spend time with her and her CUTE cute little girl.

Speaking of our reunion. I seriously think of it every.single.day. I'm so excited. I can't wait to kiss little Maddie's cheeks and see all of my nieces and nephews and sibs and parents! Not to mention the beach and coast and everything. Home. I'm just so excited. I love the Oregon coast SO MUCH. Everytime I go there I think, "Can't we just live here?". It's just got such a different feel and energy than anywhere I've been. Everyone is so laid back and nice and if they aren't, they are probably a tourist. Everything feels earthy (which I love) and raw and natural. Most places you go you can see the ocean and smell the ocean and really feel it. It's just the best. I feel like it always recharges me in a way.

Alright, time to see what's on my list for the day. Thank goodness Monday is a holiday! I can split up my list :)

Life lessons learned in the shower.

I am worked out, showered, lotioned, and ready to sleep. Not quite yet though.

 I feel like I learned a really important lesson today on balance. Life is seriously all about balance. This week I have done pretty much nothing but watch tv...at times I felt a titch guilty or something. But then I realized I'm okay. Last week I made a list of stuff to do and promised I'd get a reward if I did it all. Well, I did get a LOT of it done, not all, but a lot! So, I did one extra chore of vacuuming the dreaded stairs and then spent all day Saturday watching Season two of downtown abbey. So good. This week I had no list and didn't get anything done. I mean I did essentials. But not much more than that! And you know what I realized? Heavenly father doesn't want us to live in guilt. He doesn't want us to be sad or unhappy if we aren't perfect or doing things the best way ALL THE TIME. it's a balancing act. So when I thought, oh man I have done nothing all week, I respond, it's not a big deal, you did a lot last week, you need breaks, it's part of keeping up your health.

Another thing I relearned. My life will always feel out of balance if I'm not reading my scriptures. Sometimes I feel like my life is spiraling out of control. Then I remember to read my scriptures and what do you know. My life comes back together! I swear to you...striving and putting effort towards getting closer to our lord brings blessings of security and balance!

 Tonight at Zumba I had another flash of perspective of when my body didn't work right. Talk about guilt. "why can't you handle this?" my brain would say to my body. "why is it so hard for you but so easy for others?" I'm so grateful. So grateful to have a working body again. I can make dinner and do dishes. I can get ready in the morning. It's wonderful. And I'm so grateful for the lessons of patience I've learned. Mostly patience with myself.

Well, time for bed.

This week I promise to....

1. Do a form of exercise every day...here's my plan. Monday zumba, tuesday walk dog, wednesday ride bike, thursday zumba, friday walk dog, saturday zumba.

2. Watch Bachelorette, Idol, Revenge, and Greys. Easy. I know I'll get this one done.

3. Eat a salad everyday for lunch.

4. Take my herbs and supplements twice a day.

5. Clean the kitchen at least two times in the week.

6. Try one more time to get Joanns to take back my fabric...even if it means being stubborn and asking for the manager. I SHOULD get the right color felt I want for my advent Calendar. And Joanns employees are stingy and snobby and I know there are "Dishonest people in the world, unfortunately", but fortunately I'm not one of them! I deserve my rightful return.

7. Clean the kitchen cupboards on Friday.

8. Turn in all our medical crap to insurance and pay bills by Friday at 5.

9. Make some solid goals for the summer, documented and organized with estimated dates of completion.

10. Read scriptures every morning.

I solemnly swear that if I can do everything on this list by Friday night then I will spend all of Saturday doing whatever I want! If that means reading an entire book in one day, or watching an entire season of Downton Abbey (like I did on Saturday- HELLO- inlove with this show), then that is what I shall do! If I don't get this list done...I have to do some sort of horrid chore. Like...vacuuming the stairs. Bleh.

Motherhood

 I think if you are lucky, which a lot of people are, you are one of those people that say, "My mom is the best mom in the whole world, no seriously- she is". I'm one of those lucky ones! I literally can't imagine a better mom- for me at least. It's so true what they say that you don't realize how much your mom does for you until you are away from her! I was lucky in that through my high school years, my mom was my very best friend. I never had too much luck with girlfriends. I had a couple that were good friends, but not really true best friends. Come to the rescue- mom! We shopped together, talked together, watched movies and tv together, planned my future together, every memory of my life before I moved away has my mom in it. Even when I moved away, that first semester. I remember after my first class I was terrified, and I called my mom. She helped me through it, which now I realize must have been very hard since she probably wanted to tell me, "Oh you know what, you probably were too young to go, come home!" My mom taught me so many things in my life- really, I feel like she shaped me to be the woman I am today- but I feel like the most important, amazing, wonderful lesson that she has taught me...starting from when I was so young...was her love of Christ. I don't even remember huge talks or testimonies she shared with me...I just know I can always picture her reading her scriptures, kneeling on the floor praying, and ALWAYS without fail having faith that the Lord has a plan and it might be hard, but He will help us through this life. She still teaches me these things. I have never EVER personally known someone with more faith than my mom. It makes me happy when she comes to me with problems (rare) and I can say to her, "did you pray about it?" or remind her of all the things she taught me. She says I am so wise, but the truth is- I am just teaching her what she's taught me. My mom ALWAYS has my back. Always. And I love her so much for it.

 

When I got married, I'd heard horror stories of "in-laws", so I was pretty nervous. Honestly, my most important fear was that my husband's mom wouldn't like me. Add to that my husband is the oldest, and only son in the family...I felt a lot of pressure. When I first met Patty, I was so intimidated. I literally wondered if she was perfect. She volunteered at the schools, volunteered at the Red Cross, read a billion books a day, knitted socks and hats, made a wonderful dinner, had an impeccably clean house, and seemed to be always serving others whether it be in her calling, her family, or just random people. I thought, "how am I ever going to live up to this woman?!". After some time getting to know her and being around Clay's family a lot...I realized that I had a second family. Things were comfortable, and I could see that they saw me as a family member. Not an in-law, but a daughter. When Clay and I were dating, not even engaged! She got me a birthday present, and an easter basket. I think the best gift Patty has ever given me is her acceptance of me into her family as I am, and unconditional love. If Clay and I are in an argument, she is way more likely to take my side and say, "Son, listen to your wife". She understands me in ways others don't and comforts me when I am discouraged and aching for motherhood, as she had to wait a long time herself. She understands how important my sisters are to me and asks me about them often...she sent Amy a care package when she had cancer, which she probably wont ever know how much that meant to me. She is so full of love and kindness and I love her so much for it! 

 I always tell people that I loved being the youngest growing up because I observed all my siblings and noted their mistakes and didn't make them. haha. But what I don't think they realize is that I am so grateful to be the youngest so I can learn their strenths too. My sisters are all amazing mothers and I've learned and continue to learn from each of them. Rebecca has taught me how cool learning and teaching can be with your kids. She teaches her kids so many things and it doesn't even seem like teaching. Lizzie to me is the ultimate example of patience...finding alternative ways to tell a child they are doing something wrong than getting upset with them. Megan has taught me to enjoy the present, and not let outsiders let you feel bad about spending your day playing with your child. Even if that means nothing else got done. Amy is the newbie mommy right now :) And I think that she has taught me patience for myself. Amy too, had health issues, had to wait, and watching her has helped me realize that I too will have my turn and it will be so worth it. They all continue to teach me things, and I am so grateful for their good examples.

Can't you see why I'm so excited to be a mom now? 

Last night I was thinking...if I could be anything in the whole world what would it be? And I seriously couldn't think of anything that I wanted more than to be a mother. There was some point in time that all of a sudden I felt like something/someone was missing. I had some sort of clarity that I have children, and that they just haven't come to me yet. I am a mother, I just don't have the physical proof of it yet. This is what keeps me going and fighting. If I am doing Zumba, and I feel tired or achey or worn...I try to imagine my children and it gives me a boost. They aren't here in my arms yet, but they help me in this life so much. They motivate me to keep fighting for my health and working hard to get them here. I already love them so much...and I can barely stand it waiting for them. People say that once you have kids, they take over your life. That's it, no going back. Isn't that kind of the point? That's exactly what I want. I've lived the life of self-centered only about me. It's not as glamorous and wonderful as people make it out to be. My children are already the center of my life. I think of them EVERY day. All the time. I miss them, I love them, and sometime soon hopefully, they'll start coming to join me in this crazy life :)

Happy Mothers Day!