Mr. & Mrs.

Finally the day arrived.
Mitchel and I were so excited to be a part of their wedding.
we planned to leave early to be safe with the traffic.
surprisingly we didn't have any troubles in the morning and arrived waaaayyyy early.
i dosed off and on in the car waiting for joe and alyson to arrive
with less than 6 hours of sleep.... we were in for a long day
9 am arrived and joe and alyson still hadn't shown up.
joe's family had made it and we patiently waited for the bride and groom.
turns out they had been pulled over for speeding and joe had been detained
not necessarily the best way to start your wedding day....

eventually they made it and i went up with alyson to the brides room.
after dressing her and meeting joe in the hallway
i headed up to the sealing room to wait for them
it was a privilege to be alyson's escort.
sitting in the sealing room and watching them enter...
i was reminded of our special day.
{being sealed to mitchel was the best day of my life}
the words of the sealer were perfect.
a reminder that once married husband and wife become one and build their own family.
i don't think i can adequately describe the feeling of the spirit in the room.
once again i am grateful to be a member of this church and to be sealed to my spouse for time and all eternity

after the sealing i joined her in the bride's room to help her dress for pictures.
i'll treasure those moments with her, helping lace her dress...

we joined them for pictures around the temple grounds.
family, bridal party and couple photos....
the weather was perfect and the humidity was bearable.

after the temple we headed towards the vineyard were the reception and ring ceremony would be held
lunch in a darling historic down town
{sadly i don't remember the town name.}
a quick stop for caffeine and then all hands on deck to finish setting up for the evening.
the vineyard was breathtaking
i wish i managed to sneak more pictures of the grounds and so forth.
mt. airy called to my soul.
i'd be tempted to move there and live among the rolling hills and beautiful farm lands.

the ring ceremony was absolutely perfect
they balanced both worlds the families come from beautifully.
commitment, love, and covenants.
listening to them exchange vows brought tears to my eyes.

the evening was filled with pictures, laughter, and family.
drama was kept to a minimum and new friends were made

shortly before 10 we made our goodbyes and wished joe and alyson good luck.
we had another long drive ahead of us...

Dinner in Balitmore

Thursday night we had the wedding rehearsal dinner at Amanda's. {Alyson's sister}
We had spent a little time relaxing pool side at Karen's friends home after the zoo
and once i map quested our drive
i knew we were behind schedule leaving.
we were looking at a 2 hour drive.....
shortly after we turned onto the belt we hit horrific traffic.
it took us over 50 mins to drive 5 -6 miles.
we began to get nervous that we wouldn't make it on time.
gratefully the drive was beautiful and there is nothing that quite compares to driving through the greenery out east.

dear utah, i love your wide open spaces.... however you can't compete with their green back there...

we did make it on time. {barely}
amanda her back yard decked out like you wouldn't believe.
breathtaking and very pinterest-y.
it was magical to say the least.

2 hours later we decided to make our long drive back
we would be meeting joe and alyson at the temple around 8:30 the next morning
and we were crossing our fingers the drive back would magically shorter than the drive out....

we arrived back at my aunt's around midnight

a day at the national zoo

thursday
(july 25th)

mitch and i had plans to drive into baltimore for alyson and joe's rehearsal dinner in the evening
but we made sure to fit in an adventure to the national zoo during the day.
karen was able to join us again and be our 'tour guide'

i remember my last trip to the zoo with karen and her boys.
it was incredible.
hogle zoo doesn't even compare

as we parked and walked into the zoo
we thought it was slightly weird that there were no gates or booths to pay.
thank you smithsonians for being free.

we were in awe at the wide range of animals {and creatures}
the orangutans were neat and we loved watching them climb and cross their towers
the invertebrate exhibit was fascinating and slightly creepy at the same time
hope was eager to see the reptile house.
i've come a long way with the my fear of snakes.... i watched them and even took a lot of photos...

after 4 hours of exploring
hope was hungry and tired
and before anyone had a full melt down we finished with the panda exhibit

a perfect afternoon

wednesday we did a session at the washington DC LDS temple 

it'd been far too long since mitch and i went to the temple together.

i had the privilege of being alyson's escort.

the day was beautiful

but the time spent inside was memorable, perfect and peaceful.

Georgetown

tuesday night (july 23) karen suggested that mitch and i go out for a date.
we didn't know if we would be able to squeeze georgetown in with our agenda
and karen was going to take the girls there on friday while we were at the wedding.
so georgetown was our destination.

it was the perfect evening to wander up and down m street and peek into all the shops.
i was smitten.
absolutely charming.

we passed dc cupcakes.
i wanted to get some, however with the line forever long we kept walking
luckily i noticed a sprinkles tucked in the wall.
i choose a red velvet and mitchel picked a back and white.

finally we settled on serendipity for dinner
an over easy egg on a hamburger is my new favorite
mitch even loved the hard boiled eggs on his club.
and we loved their frozen oreo hot chocolate

thank you karen for letting us explore just the two of us.
it was exactly what we needed.

DC Adventures

our big adventure/trip for the year finally arrived.

joe and alyson were getting married in the DC temple on july 26th and we couldn't pass up turning it into a vacation.

we brought nanna and hope with us.

my aunt and uncle live in vienna and were so sweet to play hosts to us for the week we were there.

monday we flew out of slc around 3:30 and didn't arrive in DC until 11.

i remember 12 years ago flying back east to spend a week with karen and jeff. 

it was the first time i flew and the first big trip i ever made.

staring out the windows of the plane for that first flight was incredible.

now after many flights i've discovered i prefer the row seat, good book and a coke to pass the time.

however, hope was just like me on my first flight, eager for a window seat and being able to see the world in a new way.

our first experience with the toll roads was one to remember

i remembered them vaguely from my trip 12 years ago...

but didn't anticipate them at midnight and always needing change...

gratefully the lane we drove through was empty at such a late hour and we..... backed-up and went to the change lane.

thank you nanna for your love of change. you saved us.

we arrived around midnight at my aunt's

each of us beyond exhausted and ready to sleep.

tuesday started our real adventures.

karen was a jewel and spent the day playing tour guide 

we quickly learned how challenging parking is and how to feed the meters.

we ventured through a few of the smithsonsians. 

the first -- natural history museum

oddly enough i found the insect exhibit rather fascinating 

and even held a giant grasshopper!!

i was opting for the roaches... but they had put those away.

the butterfly house was enchanting.

i think the girls would have spent a few hours there... except we needed to head out and feed the meter.

pretzels from a food truck

lunch at a darling cafe in the park

seeing the star spangled banner... sadly no pictures are allowed

experiencing city walking...

our poor feet experienced enough for the day..

after the aero space museum we decided to have karen give us a driving tour of the area.

we quickly realized this trip would be too short to really experience everything DC had to offer

gratefully aunt karen knew how to give us the 'highlight' tour :)

spending the day in slc

saturday morning we got up early to head up to the SLC farmer's market. i loved how many dogs were there at the market. i almost wished we had brought jake. he would have loved the adventure and been better behaved than the little one. i loved exploring all the booths and seeing the difference of salt lake's culture. it varies dramatically from happy valley. after our wander through the farmers market, we made a quick stop at the whole foods store at trolley square. then we got dropped off at city creek while mom and dad went back to the farmers market to meet ashley. 

city creek is a gorgeous place. we had fun walking through but surprisingly were finished within the hour. as we waited for mom and dad to finish at the market again we tried to decide what we wanted to do. nanna was content to sit on the couch in front of macey's and nap, mitch had no desire to walk around the city anymore than necessary and i wished i could have been wandering the streets. i've decided that mitch wouldn't make a very good tourist... i would love to spend a day walking a city .... he wouldn't. before we meet back up with mom and dad, we walked through temple square. i can't remember the last time we were there. it was beautiful. 

we had lunch at p.f.changs. ashley, brendon and kennady joined us. it wasn't exactly what we had in mind but it was delicious. after lunch we all headed over to red butte gardens. red butte is utah's botanical gardens and i was excited to finally visit them. they were absolutely gorgeous and i loved seeing the beauty. i absolutely adore gardening and was thrilled to spend an afternoon wandering through these gardens. if only i had endless land to design and garden.... i enjoyed spending so much time with family yesterday.

nanna was planning on spending another night with us. that was until she got an offer to spend the evening with a boy. it worked out perfectly, because by the time we got home my head had started pounding. i crawled into bed by 5 and napped for 3 hours. sadly it didn't help with the headache. but what better way to spend one of the last stay-cation nights in bed?? 

freedom.....

of a staycation :)

i finished up work for the week around 3 today. hip hip hooray. a little happy dance too. mitch and i are going to take the rest of the week and enjoy our vacation time. never before would i have thought i'd enjoy staying home for vacation. it's beyond fun to travel and i truly love a good adventure.... but staying home and no need to go to work and do what ever we want to when we want too.... count me in! count us in! unfortunately wednesday is mitchel's late night at work so he won't be home for another 4 hours. not to worry i'm enjoying myself. a hot shower to start my time off, a pile of new magazines to read and two darling little fur babies to keep me company..... my evening has never looked better. maybe i'll get around to painting my nails, maybe a nap {thanks to a plummet in my energy. frowny face}

as an additional plus to our mini vacation. nanna will be coming over friday and spending the night with us and going on our farmer's market adventure saturday morning with us. and we'll finally make the trip to red butte gardens for me. the weekend hasn't looked better ;)

here's to a fabulous evening and a refreshing mini vacation at home.

Zion's Subway Adventure - Part 2

I can't begin to even describe the beauty of this hike. It was incredible. Plus wonderful people to spend the day with it couldn't have gone much better. The weather was ideal. Warm, sunny and slightly overcast. it took us about 9 hours to finish the hike. It was an adventure. Repelling, scrambling, swimming..... The subway is easily the coolest hike I've been on yet. If only my camera battery didn't die have way through the hike.