Oh Christmas Tree...

let's start with the fact that it's a tradition for us to go cut down a fresh christmas tree every year. the day after thanksgiving was not as fun this year... and i really wanted a tree. so, we decided to go check out the dupont circle farmers market. luck us, they had trees. it was so fun carrying it through the streets of DC to get to our apartment. actually, since it is a mile, only i thought it was fun. alex started getting mad that i made him stop every ten seconds for another picture.

here he is at the beginning of our adventure. the smile is genuine.

 still doing okay here... but that tree is heavier than it looks.

 unwilling to acknowledge i am here.  smiling is over. grumbling about how i'm not helping. (sorry)

taking video didn't help... but look how cute alex looks carrying that tree down the street. 

 in the lobby of our building. it looks bigger now that it's inside.

 the elevator. alex is quite mad at this point, because he just wants to get the tree home but i'm blocking the elevator door to get one more hilarious photo.

 once we got it upstairs we had a few snags. it tipped over (sugar water and all) once, then AFTER i put all the lights on i realized there was a short in them and only half lit. needed new lights and/or a new fuse. had to go buy a stand (no, DC hardware, Rite Aid, CVS, Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Harris Teeter, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Costco do NOT have stands.) alex and i hopped on our bikes toward Target and then thanks goodness some guys out walking their dog pointed us to a local hardware store that had some. several hours later we put the last ornament on the tree...  

cute right? christmas trees make me so happy.

let the holidays begin. 

FALL...

Mom and Emily came to visit... here we are in front of the old stone house in Georgetown.

 I wanted to see all the monuments by running to each of them. Emily was thrilled. Here's the beginning of our run on the Potomac.

 Lincoln

 Martin Luther King

 FDR

Almost to the Jefferson

 But come on, how pretty was this day!

I went on a tour of the Capitol building with Rachel, when she was here visiting Sarah. Here's the statue of Freedom, which is on the top of the building...

 Utah's statue of Philo T. Farnsworth... who we learned actually was from Idaho. Born in Utah, and Utah stole him for the statue hall... but really he isn't from Utah at all. 

 Original Supreme Court Room... very cool...

 Oh, and on halloween we made Caroline's Bread Pudding and carved pumpkins. The pumpkins turned out well. I can't say my version of her bread pudding did. My baking pan barely survived the ordeal.

 Nowhere to put a jackolantern in an apartment building, so we opted to display him outside from the top of our window AC unit. I hate to admit it, but he's still sitting up there. Yuck. I won't post a picture of that.

Lastly we went to Shenandoah and Warm Springs, VA. The highlight of the trip for Alex was the hiking and fresh air. Here is a hike we did in George Washington National Park. 

 The highlight of the trip for ME was the warm springs mineral water pools. Thomas Jefferson apparently designed the wooden structures around them; built in 1760's. 

Spent an hour soaking in there.  Delightful.

 we opted NOT to stay at the homestead, because it's a bit spendy, and instead found the Warm Springs Inn. it was adorable.

 Now, on to more hiking. This time in Shenandoah National Park. This was Old Rag Mountain. 

We didn't get a picture, but right after this, we ran into a BEAR on the hike. It was about 100 feet away and came running down the hill and popped out of the trees right by us. It was really scary, but thankfully, after a stare down, he turned and walked away. Needless to say, Alex and I ran down the rest of the trail.

Apt 702

here's our new place:

have you seen the episode of "friends" where Chandler finally sees inside Monica's secret closet? well here is our version:

come visit!

pre-school

the last week before school starts we've been busy being tourists. went to the zoo. didn't take any pictures. went to the national cathedral. took their "behind the scenes" tour, and got to go on the upper balconies, under the bell tower, etc. check it out:

outside on a tiny balcony

under the front window, as we stood on a tiny ledge above the main seating.

then, yesterday we had the "white coat" ceremony.

a bit of a snooze fest (3 HOURS sitting in one seat), but it was fun for me to see and learn a few facts about each of alex's classmates, which were read as each student walked on stage and received their white coat.

my poor camera fired this shot 2 seconds too late... but here he is with the Dean, 2 seconds after he put Alex's white coat on him.

officially a doctor in training...

Other highlights of our last two weeks:

1) Alex got pulled over by the secret service when returning the moving van back to Budget. Seriously. Apparently you can't drive a van or truck within a certain distance to the white house, and I'd sent Alex on an errand nearby our house (which is less than a mile from the white house). Got pulled over, had them check the empty truck, convinced them he was new to town and lost, and luckily got away with just a warning.

2) we sold our beloved Bianca. turns out we don't need a scooter here. we walk every place we go. or take the bus. here we are before we parted ways. you can't really see, but i am choking back serious tears. crazy though.... we sold her to a ginger named Alison who goes by Ali. i think she's in good hands.

3) i tripped on a corner in Georgetown and fell SO hard, flat on my face. i was talking to my sister Meg at the time, and my phone flew out of my hand and landed about 50 ft away. people came rushing over, wide eyed... so it must have been a pretty spectacular fall. i hardly remember it. but had to walk the rest of the way home with swollen, bruised, and scraped knees and hands. the best part: a guy handed me my phone, and Meg was still talking. :)

4) got a job at J.Crew. it's not going to make enough to pay half of our rent payment each month, even if i DON'T buy anything.... so it's going to be complete torture working in one of my favorite stores, with an awesome discount, and not be able to buy things. hmmm. this could be an anti-money making endeavor. i've got to find a better paying job. stat. but, i'm excited to have something to do. i start tuesday.

5) found a great store called TableTop. I've been there only 6 times in the 14 days we've lived here. yep, they all know me by name. actually, to them my name is "rug lady" because i bought a chilewich rug. i've been dreaming of this forever.

the road trip from 801 to 202

started with Wyoming. let's just say that Wyoming is lucky they have the Tetons, because the rest of the state really blows. first day was 10 hours of this. (see below)

the captain:

we were trying to make it all the way to Mt. Rushmore on Day 1... but we got a little later start than expected. So... we got there and it was definitely too dark to see those faces. We decided to get a hotel room and then see Mt. Rushmore in the morning instead. Thanks to the iPhone, we were able to look online and see how much hotels were in the upcoming towns. Amazingly, South Dakota has expensive hotels! we were looking at anywhere from $150-$300 for the cheap options. Then we drove by this camp ground and thought we'd try staying there. the sign said they had cabins. the office was closed so we turned around and then the owner approached us. I said "do you have any vacant cabins?" he gave me this blank stare. followed by a thought process that was obviously something like "what the hell is this girl talking about..." so i ask, "you do have cabins here, right?" owner guy: "ya, we do... but they've been booked a year in advance. you guys need a place to stay? with the sturgis rally starting this week, everywhere in town will cost ya $300 or more. let me see what i can do." (ah. the sturgis rally. interesting. wish i'd had a heads up about that!) so we rode with him on his golf cart up to the rec hall... which he said we could stay in for the cabin rate. of course. but we were glad to have a place for $50/night. the rec hall even had a blow up mattress. it was tricky at first to figure out, because it was a double decker for 2/3 of it. but, apparently it is supposed to go in front of the couch so you have the true luxury of a pull-out bed experience. isn't it pretty? he'd just built it so people could have weddings there.

the next morning we drove to the monuments. on the way was "crazy horse." i thought it was awesome that it's not done yet, and told alex how cool that we can tell our kids we saw it before it was finished. we went in to the visitor's center and watched this movie about it, learning that they've actually been working on it since 1948, and it's nowhere near finishing. bit off a bit more than they can chew, i see. not only is it slow going, but they rejected over $10 million dollars from the US government to help complete it. something about it started as a private endeavor, and it will finish a private endeavor. anyway... long story short, our children won't ever see crazy horse finished, nor our great grand children. i left feeling like it was the dumbest thing ever. who cares if it is 560 feet high (compared to mt rushmore's 80 ft). if they can't complete it, then they've just desecrated a mountainside. anyway, the visitor's center showed what it's supposed to look like with a scaled model (in the foreground). as you can see beyond, they've done his face and arm, and that's it.

anyway... here's the famous mt rushmore we went 5 hours out of our way to see!!! totally worth it. we loved it.

did you know that they were supposed to have bodies? we found this model in the visitor's center, and they explained that the rock formation changed below the heads, and wouldn't allow the rest of the sculpture to be chiseled out on the rock. interesting....

back on the road. here is what the rest of S. Dakota looks like.

and iowa. it was flooded. they had sandbags lining the freeway. it was pretty crazy.

we made a stop in nauvoo, where i learned the answer to my question about why the nauvoo temple has known signs of the devil all over it. (alex was really bored while i drilled the poor missionary couple about it). don't worry, they're also the sign of venus, the morning star... and in the book of Revelation, Jesus is referred to as the morning star. phew, i'm glad to have that resolved. after that i let alex go see the gun shop, blacksmith shop, carthage jail, etc.

here's what the rest of illinois looks like. quite lovely.

this is indiana, i think. we drove by a LOT of corn fields. ohio looked like this too.

made it to pennsylvania, and stopped at gettysburg. what do you know, bronze abe was sitting there waiting for us. arg. why is this underlined. i swear i hate blogger. i can't do anything right.

the gettysburg battlefield. it just looks like a field. i was expecting something a little more impressive. perhaps if we had gotten there before the museum and visitors center had closed, i would have been a little more impressed.

this was me trying to get out of the picture. apparently i did not. but alex let me almost fall trying anyway.

far across the field i saw this cool looking memorial, and thought maybe it was where lincoln gave the gettysburg address or something. so we walked about a mile to get over there... alex without shoes on... only to discover it was just another memorial to a troop. same as all the others. except bigger. i think it was the pennsylvania troop.

from gettysburg we went to Maryland and crashed with some friends (thanks Bethanne and Brad!). we FINALLY arrived in DC the next morning. moving day left our tiny apartment so full we could barely walk, and we didn't even have time to put the bed or sofa/bed together before night time. it was a crazy day. bob and merri slept in a hotel, and we slept on our mattress on the floor. these are the only 2 pics i have, and it doesn't really show the true craziness... this was when the truck was only about 25% unloaded. it got really scary after this.

the end.