Reminiscing

Tonight I skyped with my parents who are all the way across the country. Pretty amazing. They are in Washington DC because my dad had a conference for his work, and my mom got to tag along. I am so happy they got to go but I am so very jealous because I was there myself two years ago. Today I decided to look back on some of the memories that were created on that trip. 

I miss:

The memorials

Alexandria 

Williamsburg, the Smithsonian museums, the luscious green land, the patriotism, the humidity, and the history. But what I really miss is this: 

These people. 

We were destined to become good friends. It wasn't like any old efy week where you never speak with your friends again, although you say you will. No, we really bonded on our trip together and have stayed connected ever since. I'm so grateful we have. Matthew is currently in California, serving a mission near the happiest place on earth. David is in the MTC, learning Japanese and preparing to serve. I can only imagine what his big smiling face and blonde, tall stature will look like in Japan. ;) Both Matthew and David will be the best of missionaries-- I need to write them asap. Melissa is at BYU and oh how I miss her. We talked on the phone for over an hour today, but it felt like just a few short minutes. The four of us have had many adventures together (here, here, here, and here) and it's hard to think that we're spread all over now. I really hope the four of us can be reunited again someday. I miss DC. I miss my friends.

Called to Serve

Farewell David! With your constant smiling face, positive attitude, strong testimony (best farewell talk I've ever heard) and never failing kindness, you are going to be the best of missionaries. The people in Japan are so incredibly blessed to have you. You will do extraordinary things. Best of luck and 'God be with you till we meet again.'

Good Times

On Tuesday, Melissa and I went down to Provo to hang out with David and Matthew. And goodness, when don't I have a good time with those people? They are so awesome and the time flies by so fast with them. There was, of course, endless laughter and a little mischief. Here's a little taste of what we did:

Pet alpacas and goats

Went on a zipline Matthew made for his brother's birthday. How awesome is that?!

{Cute little red barn by the zip line}

Looked at Barbara pictures. I don't think I should explain this one. ;) We also had a Banana Passion drink, created by David. It consisted of water, ice, a bendy straw, and a slice of a banana on the edge of the cup. It was quite enjoyable.

Attempted geocaching with a GPS that didn't work... so we climbed the best climbing tree EVER.

Amazingly found a geocache!!! This was found after going up the stairs of doom, and passing the snake and spiders of doom. But don't worry, on the way back we went down the stairs of triumph, and passed the snake and spiders of triumph.

Attempted to climb a bowry, but got too scared. Matthew, however, had no fear.

Became, "King of the Rock."

Had a contest to see who could keep their feet in the freezing stream the longest. Then made a Barbara raft. We're going to make a business and become famous.

Floated Barbara down the stream; under bridges, into barriers, through rapids, and under the fence into someone's yard.

Ran through sprinklers and got soaked. Then found a creepy jail-looking building.

Cleaned up the evidence of our mischief and made a pact that goes somewhat like this:

1. Find out Barbara's last name.

2. Give the Barbara pictures to Barbara.

3. Attend Barbara's funeral... if possible.
(I know it sounds weird, but I promise we're not creeps.)

I laugh so much when I'm with these guys. I just hope we get together again soon because they're going off to be big college boys. But what a great way to wind down the summer days. We had a blast.

Provo Adventures

On Friday, Melissa and I drove down to Provo together. While we were there, we met up with our good ol' D.C. friends, David and Matthew. We had such a fantastic time together. Here's what we did:

• Played sardines in the library (with awesome moving bookshelves).
• Went to the top of the Kimball building, (the tallest building on BYU campus) only to find out we couldn't go to the observation tower... so we threw pennies down the cracks of the 12 flights of stairs, to see whose could go the furthest.
• Went to David's dad's work office, but no one was there.
• Went to an awesome science museum where we could make sound through PVC pipes, blow air at each other through this drum-looking gun, and talk to each other through a wired telephone/disk thing. It was pretty neat.
• This is going to sound gross, but we stood over the bridge crossing the street and spit over the edge to see if we could hit the top of a passing bus. When I spit, I of course (because of my shortness) couldn't reach over the edge and missed.
• Went to the BYU Creamery, where we all got some type of chocolate ice cream (we're definitely chocolate lovers). :) We had a great time talking and laughing until our insides hurt (but this had been happening all day, of course). After our ice cream, David was very nice and bought Cookies and Cream milk that Melissa said was delicious. Of course, she was right, and we drank the whole bottle. (I suggest you try some the next time you're at the BYU Creamery.) I was sick, and sounded like a frog, and I didn't want to get anyone else sick, so Melissa water fountained the milk into my mouth. It was quite the process...

{Melissa, me, Matthew, David}

{Mmmmm...}

{David with the 'lucky' penny. We played a pretty tricky trick on David with this penny... hee hee}

{We decided to put the 'lucky' penny in a napkin and into the napkin despenser for someone else to find} {Ah! Sudden insight! Just like the note & quarter we left in D.C. for your brother, David!}

{Little does anyone know that there is a special penny hidden in this magical despenser}

{Gotta love Provo adventures with your good friends}

Washington D.C. Friends Reunion

The day before Halloween, Melissa and I went to UVU in Provo to see Jaelyn play volleyball. Her team made it to state, so we were excited to see them play. While we were there, David came over for a little bit. He was dressed up as a Newsie for school so it was really funny when we saw him walk in with a pile of newpapers. He couldn't stay long but it was great to see him. {David, Jaelyn, Melissa, me}

After David left, we watched Jaelyn's team play. They did a great job and won! It was wonderful seeing her again and we're hoping we can see her again around Thanksgiving.
After the game, we said our goodbyes and Melissa and I headed home. On our way back, we accidentally took a wrong exit. It was dark and we started getting a little freaked out when we couldn't see any lights to a town. Soon we saw a sign that said, "Wendover...500 miles, Reno...100 miles." That's when we went into panic mode. Once we finally calmed down, we called Melissa's dad and he helped us get back on track, and we made it home safely. Needless to say, we doubled our time getting home. It was a fun seeing our friends from D.C. and we definitely ended our day with an adventure to remember.

I Heart Washington D.C.

Sunday, June 21, 2009. Salt Lake Airport. 6 AM

Utah Fast Pass 2009

St. Paul, Minnesota Airport.

Smithsonian.

Museum of American History.

The Star-Spangled Banner. Located behind this wall.

Hall of First Ladies' dresses. This is Jaqueline Kennedy's dress.

I don't remember whose dress this is, but I thought it was pretty.

More of the First Ladies' dresses.

Amazingly detailed doll house.

Dorothy's Ruby Slippers

Apolo Ohno's Speed Skates

Kermit the Frog

Museum of Natural History

I can speak whale too!

Mr. Orangutan and me.

Kissy kissy!

The famous Hope Diamond, 45.52 carats!

Easter Island head.

Gum-gum for the Easter Island head, just like in Night at the Museum!

Abraham Lincoln's top hat. He wore it to Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865.

Cast of Abraham Lincoln.

Abraham and Mary's clothes.

Pretty boat dock we passed while driving.

The matching Utah Fast Pass, Smithsonian group.

Wall of Heroes.

"Our nation honors her sons and daughters who answered the call to defend a country they never knew and a people they never met."

Korean War Memorial

"Freedom Is Not Free"

Washington Memorial

Melissa and me.

Lincoln Memorial

We were so tired.

"In this temple

as in the hearts of the people

for whom he saved the union

the memory of Abraham Lincoln

is enshrined forever."

Beautiful Washinton D.C. at night.

The guy who took our picture insisted we were sisters. :)

Vietnam Wall

Vietnam War Women's Memorial. Honoring 265,000 women who volunteered to serve in the Vietnam War.

So pretty! If only the pictures gave it justice.

Monday, June 22, 2009. White House.

United States Capitol building.

Front of the Capitol building.

Supreme Court building.

Meeting Senator Hatch in the Hart Office building.

Arlington National Cemetery.

Soldier guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Changing of the guards.

They perfomed in perfect unison.

The sergeant shaking the hands of those in our group who layed a wreath on the Soldier's grave.

Kristen, David, Whitney, and Alexa with the sergeant, heading down the steps to the tomb.

Laying the wreath.

Taps.

John F. Kennedy and his wife's grave, with the Eternal Flame.

Flag at half staff 30 minutes before until 30 minutes after a memorial service.

Iwo Jima. Much larger than I thought it would be.

Air Force Memorial.

John Adam's Memorial.

Franklin Roosevelt's Memorial.

Waterfall in FDR Memorial.

WWII Memorial.

UTAH!

The ropes represent uniting the 50 states into one.

Cooling our worn out feet. Sorry, I don't know why this picture is sideways.

Wall fo 4,048 stars, each representing 100 Americans who died in the war.

Pretty little port near the restaurant where we ate dinner.

My favorite! A cobblestoned alley in Alexandria, VA.

Haunted candy Shop.

Cute gazebo.

Red, white, and blue. How patriotic! I'm going to move to the East Coast just so I can live in one of these types of houses. :)

Our guide for our haunted ghost tour. Outside the building where George Washington's funeral was held.

Unknown Soldier's grave from the Civil War.

Melissa's standing on over 200 graves!

Huge lollipop in candy shop window.

Barrels of taffy in the candy shop.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009. Rob Bishop's office, Utah's Representative.

Rotunda in the Capitol building.

Brigham Young. One of the two statues representing Utah.

The center of Washington D.C.

Philo Farnsworth, inventor of the television. 6th graders voted to have this as the second statue representing Utah.

Library of Congress.

It was very pretty inside.

The Old Post Office.

Overlook of Washington D.C. at the top of the Old Post Office.

Delicious, HUGE cookie. It was bigger in person. Promise.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009. Haunted house in Colonial Williamsburg.

Indian hut in Jamestown.

Replicas of the ships that sailed to America from England.

Canoe in Jamestown.

Gallows and prison in Colonial Wwilliamsburg.

Nifty bamboo forest!

Cute colonial house.

Waiting to go inside the Peyton-Randolph house for a tour.

I got to act out Mrs. Randolph. Our tour guide was awesome.

Making bricks.

Muddy toes.

It seriously took 15 minutes to clean off!

Help us!

Classic puppy dog faces.

Fantastic, old fashioned carriage.

Jim's tree.

Hmmm, where are we?!

One word: BARBARA!

One of the best dinners of my life. I laughed like I've never laughed before.

The girls.

Don't ask.

This picture just cracks me up.

Mound Rushmore.

We were the group that couldn't play volleyball, so we plopped in the middle of the court and played in the sand instead.

We placed piles of sand EVERYWHERE around the hotel.

It was the last night of our trip, so we played for a long time. We snuck a luggage cart outside and rode down the hill.

Don't worry, we returned the cart two minutes before curfew.

Thursday, June 25, 2009. Outside the Holocaust Museum.

What's wrong with this picture?

Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Children's Memorial

David and Matthew with their Library of Congress library cards! What a perfect souvenir.

While we waited to go into the Holocaust Museum we played games in a nearby cafe.

Zip Bong!

We weren't allowed to take pictures in the Museum, but we could take pictures in the Hall of Remembrance. This Museum was a sad way to end our trip, but it was very touching, with many tears shed, and I'm glad we could visit it.

We could light a candle under one of the various concentration camps. I chose Sobibor because we focused a lot on this camp in my World Civ class.

Leaving our bus, 101, to enter the Washington D.C. airport.

Playing KEMPS while waiting for our departure.

Fun adventures = very tired.

Dallas Airport. One of my favorite events of the trip. We had a 3 hour layover, so we kept ourselves entertained in many ways. This is one activity that kept us entertained. Notice there are NO chairs. Maybe I should work on my leg strength.

We made sure we took a picture in every airport.

Feeling like a princess.

Our "Dallas" group, with some of the chaperones.

Friends made for a lifetime.