Monday, January 24, 2011

Washington DC

For the first time since I started work, Jacob and I had a whole entire weekend off together. We were both just planning on running a few errands, hanging out at home, and watching The Office. But, on Saturday we decided we needed to take a day and head out to Washington DC. We had been putting it off because of the 3 hour drive, horror stories of terrible traffic, and because we hadn't had an entire day to spare. But Sunday we had nothing going on, so we woke up early and headed out. We hit zero traffic on the way in and out which was really nice, and cut the drive down to about 2 and a half hours.

At the Lincoln Memorial
On this trip we decided to just to check out all the major sites and just get a feel for the city so we could plan better for our next trip. We made it to the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the White House, the Capitol, The Smithsonian Museums of American History and Natural History, and the Aquarium. The cool thing about DC is almost everything is free!
When we first got there, around 10am, it was FREEZING! It was really windy and bitter. That made the walking around less fun, but by the early afternoon the wind calmed down and the day was much nicer.
Jacob showing off the White House

Jacob's photography skills, he made me so proud!

It was a really fun, quick trip, and I'm glad we finally made it up there!

Monday, January 10, 2011

2010 in Review

Every time I think back to 2010, I cannot decide if think the year went by quickly or slowly. Usually I tend to think quickly, but then I remember how the first 6 months were spent apart on opposite coasts, or how we drove ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE COUNTRY! So, in an attempt to really take in all that has happened over the past year, I am reviewing 2010, month by month.

January
When I think January, ONE thing pops into my head...Bootcamp Graduation! Let me just say, I thought it would never come! Chicago was cold and miserable but I was so excited to see Jacob after 9 weeks of nothing but letter writing and 3 phone calls.

I also was living in Flagstaff, starting what would be my last semester there, which I still can't believe sometimes. It was January that we had one of the biggest snowstorms ever!


I also visited Jacob the very last weekend in January, once again braving the terrible weather, and it was so worth it!

February
In February, Emily came to NAU with her choir and Amanda and I went to go see her perform.

Jacob sent me roses for Valentine's Day.

And....I went to go visit Jacob again =) That's when he gave me my new MacBook Pro. What a guy!


March
Lydia and Corey came to visit Flagstaff, lots of good memories.

Jacob graduated Pre-Dive School and got the heck out of Chicago, moving onto official Dive School in Panama City, Fl. (Upgrade!)

I turned 20. It was a pretty uneventful birthday to be honest, but Sarah and Amanda took me out for Thai food so you definitely would not see my complaining one bit!

Also, Amanda waxed my eyebrows and took some skin with it. =)

April
My late birthday present was a trip to Panama City to visit Jacob! I mostly remember how amazing the weather was, it was still early enough that the true humidity hadn't set in yet! Also, we walked 6 miles down the beach and got the worst sunburns ever! That trip was one of my favorites.

In April the Institute put on a huge volleyball tournament which was awesome!

Both of my sisters had birthdays in April and I was sad because I missed them =(

May
My last semester in Flagstaff was OVER! It was pretty bittersweet actually. But, my mom came up a few days early and hung out with me, let me stay in her hotel, and drove me to all my finals =) It was so fun and I was so glad she could find the time to come keep me company. We had a blast.

In May I bought my very first car! A silver Mazda 3 that would later get me and Jacob across the country =)

For my birthday, Sam got me tickets to Carrie Underwood, and in May the concert date arrived! it was really nice to have a girls night out together, before the wedding stress set in!

June
Early in June, Dad and I attempted to hike Cathedral Rock in Mt. Charleston. I say attempted because early on we had somehow abandoned the trail. But I think we ended up with a much more exciting, and beautiful, adventure!

Samantha's Bridal Shower!

Sam's wedding! I loved everything about being included in Sam's wedding and I was so honored to be her Maid of Honor!

July
I found out I was moving to VIRGINIA! Ah!

I had my last day of work at Paradise Pool. My lifeguards threw me one heck of a surprise going away party!

My Bridal Shower. I remember thinking..."how the heck is it already here!?" and at the same time..."FINALLY!!!"

Kylie threw me a Bachelorette Party!

JACOB GRADUATED DIVE SCHOOL!!!

We had our wedding and Jacob's entire family was in town! It felt like a big family reunion!

We started our drive eastward...

August
We arrived in Chesapeake, VA, found an apartment, and moved in.

We went to the Josh Turner concert and had the best seats you could ever ask for!

We went to the Darius Rucker concert.

We went to Busch Gardens.

We drove up to New York to visit Heidi and Jacob's parents were also visiting! That was a super fun trip!

September
I started school at Tidewater Community College.

Kylie came to visit me!

October
My Mom and Dad came to visit and I loved every second! I was so excited to show them where I lived. I wish they could have stayed longer!

We celebrated Halloween by carving pumpkins with our new friends, the Zinchini's!

November
We got Zoey.

I started working at Starbucks.

I made my first Thanksgiving dinner!

December
We got out first Christmas tree!

We took Zoey to the beach.

We had a huge snowstorm!

I came back to Las Vegas to visit!


Saturday, January 8, 2011

Norfolk Admirals

For Christmas, I got Jacob tickets to a Norfolk Admirals Ice Hockey game. We used to go to games in Arizona so I thought it'd be fun to go again. We had seats on the glass and I had a lot of fun having a night with Jacob after being gone for ten days!

Jacob got me cotton candy! I was very happy.

Internet on the Airplane!

On my flight back to Virginia I was on a WiFi flight! If you have flown across the country as often as I have over the past year, you would understand why this was so exciting!
Oh yeah...my hair is brown now =)

Sick Puppy


One of the really fun things I got to do during my visit home was take Zoey to the vet...I won't go into too much detail because it was kind of gross and involved poop...but long story short she was fine, I just wanted to remember it happened!

Friday, January 7, 2011

Baby Grace

Sam and I went to go visit Jenna's brand new baby girl, Grace! I had so much fun holding her and feeding her and just seeing how tiny she was! It was fun to catch up with Jen and reminisce about the good old days! I just can't believe she has a BABY!

The Cosmo

One of the days I was home, Madeline and I decided to play tourist on the strip for a few hours and check out the new hotel/casino that was just finished. The Cosmopolitan was very cool and we had lots of fun looking around at it. We also walked over to the Forum shops and watched the Bellagio water show. I really had such a fun time with my sister and I was glad to be able to spend the quality time together.



It was a great day.