Good Neighbors

My neighbors have been amazing since Ryan has left. They keep me occupied! There have been many nights spent sitting outside or having a bottle of wine. Carrie and I have gotten pretty close with walks to King Street and Chick Flicks. Last Saturday we went up to Mount Vernon for lunch and to walk around. I may have gotten a little picture happy too!


We had some delicious root beer at the restaurant and I coupled mine with some amazing veggie soup and a BLT. YUM. Then we went and walked around outside and saw the animals and the house.


Baby piggie! It was so cute, but sadly I could not get a better picture. Take my word for it.


Big piggies.


A mule (SO cute) and a horse... gorgeous aren't they?


Some peaches were on the tree. I was surprised, I couldn't believe they grew so well this far north.


It rained later in the day but when the clouds moved in it was quite pretty.


Some pears were out too!


Cardinal!!! It was so close, quite beautiful.


Mount Vernon... George's house.


I love this tree. Something happened with my camera and it got pretty dark for the next few... Wrong setting I suppose :(


Cloudy sky but gorgeous


George's house


Carrie and I, hanging out in George's backyard


View from the Portico


The blacksmith, man it was hot in there!


Bees in the sunflower, so close! *shudder*


Butterflies... much more my speed


Bourgen... Borgen... *googles* bourgainvillea.


Carrie snapping away


This guy... he adored Carrie. He talked to us on the portico for ages. Then we were hot so we went through the gardens and went to see the greenhouse. The greenhouse was actually an airconditioned room (hallelujiah) but guess who was sitting there?


Trees? Ivy? Both?


Memorial for all the slaves at Mount Vernon.


American flag


The Potomac


Some corn!!

Basically I have been trying to stay busy. I borrow Molly for sleepovers, like tonight, and having girls nights like last night. Smoothies and thai food were involved. Every night I call Ryan and before I know it is midnight and I am passing out. It has been hard to get up in the morning but it is so worth it.

And guess what?


I'M GOING TO VEGAS!!!!!

Labor Day weekend.

Ryan and I are spending four days together in Vegas. I found a great deal on AirTran and an awesome deal on a hotel on the AAA website. It is waaaay cheaper for us to fly into there and spend the weekend than for me to go to Palm Springs and see him, so he will rent a car on base and we will have a blast. I am so excited. And I get to see him up to two days before my birthday which makes me deliriously happy.

The first year we dated he was on restriction in the barracks for my birthday, so I didn't see him. The second year he was in Iraq, can't blame him for that. Last year we actually spent it together! This year, he is in California. Sigh. So two days early or not, I will take it.

Sorry my blog has been slacking. Work has been hectic, VP coming next week plus an intern for the week using my computer, and I am triyng to avoid being home too much. I will get better, I promise!

So in the spirit of that, for the link up with Goodnight Moon, I think this is more than appropriate! (:

Weekend Independence!

Since I only have my little camera at work with me (and for once it is mercifully slow) I will give a mini update of our weekend! Friday we went and saw Transformers 3 and had dinner out. There was almost a fight in the theatre (over seats being saved) that just boggled my mind. People scare me. Honestly.

Saturday we got Molly! We are dogsitting her until the 13th and I do love having her around. We went to a BBQ at our friends' Russ and Lauren's house and took Molly along. She was terrific. I also made an apple pie for the occassion that went over pretty well.

Sunday was church, lunch and a nap. I felt like I was sixty years old napping for two hours in the middle of the day! We were going to go to the dress rehearsal of the Capital Fourth Concert but it ended up pouring rain so we decided against it. Low key evening really! Until the fireworks! The golf course next to us shot them off Sunday night and literally standing in our parking lot we had an amazing view. Once those finished the National Harbor across the river started. So we crossed the street and went around the other apartment building and had a clear shot straight across the river. Two shows, no hassle no traffic, perfect.

Monday we got up early for us (on a day off) around 9:30 and decided to go up to Mount Vernon with Molly. We have season passes and we've already seen the house so we thought we would just walk around. I knew it would be crowded, but man oh man was that place mobbed! We had to park over a mile away and walk! We ended up having a nice time even though it was pretty warm.



Have you ever seen day time fireworks before?? I had no idea these things existed! They had colorful poofs of smoke that went off with a bang and left trails, it was pretty awesome! The shot off some regular ones with them too.



They also had free birthday cake (YAY America!). And it was good!





And of course re-enactors. Molly enjoyed watching them.




Must have been boiling in those costumes!

Molly was not as fond of the big animals as she was the re-enactors. The sheep scared the bejeezus out of her when she realized they could move! Same with the horse.


From far away early in the day she wanted to go play and see...


But once we got closer she completely changed her mind!

And a few other random pictures from that afternoon...

The House itself, Mount Vernon. Currently the exterior is being redone, normally it is a gorgeous white color and looks brick... it is done by mixing sand with the paint to acheive the texture of brick without the cost or labor!

SO so crowded. Check out the masses of people milling around. That is pretty far from the house too.
Sunglasses make the heat more bearable :P
SUCH a cool camera. I wanted to play with it but I knew I'd get in trouble!
Canon! BOOM! .... eloquent much? Sorry.

We went to the barracks later that night for fireworks, I will post pictures of that later! I hope you all had a great long weekend (:

(PS - My 2 year blogaversary was July 1st. I cannot believe I missed it!!!!! Ugh. Anyone want to help me with a little give away to celebrate? Let me know!)

Quality Time

After my surgery, when I was recovering and Ryan was on leave, we had a big realization... it seemed that our quality time together diminished. Once my drains were removed and I was able to move around we took a day and drove down to King Street and sat by the harbor and talked. As we were doing that we realized it had been so long since we could just sit and talk with nothing else rushing us. No deadlines, no work the next day, no need to go to bed early, no stress... it was just us. Talking and being together.

And we loved it.

With re-enlisting, both of us working full time, my upcoming surgery, family matters, and other things we were just both so distracted. We talked, but we didn't talk. We spent time together, but we were distracted. Having all of those removed it got to just be us.

So the past few weekends we;ve done our best to preserve that. We have been doing chores during the week and using the weekends to just be together. This past weekend we did just that. Friday we were both exhausted, but we cleaned up the apartment and then just watched Netflix. Saturday we slept in and then went to Mount Vernon. After a delicious lunch at the restaurant there (and a bit of a wait) we toured the grounds and then the mansion. I'll post pictures soon!

Then we found our new favorite obsession. Enter: 3 Buck Chuck

When my mom was here for my surgery she told us about it and that it was sold at Trader Joes. We have one down the street so naturally we had to check it out. Officially it is Charles Shaw Wine, but it costs $3.29! My mom said it used to be 2 Buck Chuck and it went up in price, but it is still pretty good. That is how Ryan and I ended up buying SEVEN bottles of wine for $23!!!! (One of which was a $2.29 bottle of Sangiovese for those who may be doing the math)

The rest of the night was spent at La Madeline (a good french cafe), hanging out in the cigar shop, watching Sweet Home Alabama, and drinking our wine. We were up verrry late and had a wonderful night (:

I woke up early Sunday but let the hubs sleep in. We watched more Netflix, ate left overs, and then went for a loooong walk up the trail near our apartment and into the marsh. It was beautiful at first, but once the sun went down the wind picked up and we were freezing!!! I was in a light sweatshirt and jeans and Ryan was in shorts and a long sleeved button up, so we were warm at the beginning of the walk and freezing at the end! Our plans for the evening went out the window as we didn't want to leave the apartment again once we warmed up! Instead we watched Despicable Me and snuggled on the couch.

Now Ryan is microwaving some s'mores and we are watching NCIS (never saw it before yesterday, its ok if not a little gory at times) and I am loving this time with him!