It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

This year being my first year in DC for Christmas, I of course had to do all the traditional DC Christmas stuff! This mission placed me outside in the cold for 2 hours as i ventured into the city to see the National Tree, all the state trees, and any other Christmas decorations the district had to offer, BUT who better to do it with than my girls!

Jessie and I in front of the National Christmas Tree (aka the White House Christmas Tree)

The house and train set that went around the tree

Not a great picture but that is the back side of the white house right there, and one of the state trees on the right

the MASSIVE national tree! it really is beautiful if you get to see it in person

Washington Monument in the background

This firepit SAVED MY LIFE!!! i was trying to warm every part of my body from the heat was emitting. Pretty effective if i must say so myself, and i love fire so it was cool to watch it burn too!

These dedicated river dancers were out there gettin it in the cold! These kids (mostly girls) were all ages, from about 5 - 15 and they were so good! Bravo to them for braving the cold in their cute little dresses and tights and tap shoes.

More city decorations, you can see the capital in the background

To warm up we went to the Poste to get some much needed drinks and truffle fries (yummmm!) Unfortunately we never got that warm because we were sitting right next to the back entrance/exit and everytime the door opened we got a bitter breeze of 20 degrees air!

Glenda-boo joined us!! The trio of trouble right here :)

victoria & glenda; victoria had a few alcoholic beverages and was gettin a little rosey in the cheeks!

The former Alexandria Kimpton Sales team back together again!

After dinner and drinks of course we turn in to silly girls!

Victoria & I disturbing the presents under the Monaco DC's christmas tree

Oh Jess, yes i talked her into taking a picture with the fake cheeseburger doggie chew toy.

THIS is how hotel christmas tree's should look! It's so gorgeous!

Great times, with great friends! Kisses, thanks ladies!

Back to the E.L.

So the weekend before Thanksgiving we found ourselves back in East Lansing for the MSU vs Penn State game. As much as that game turned out to be not so much of a game, I could careless because I for the first time in YEARS got to do three things 1) be back in east lansing 2) be in spartan stadium and 3) see one of my best and greatest friends in the whole world and my most favorite couple in the whole world Jen & Brady!! After driving 10+ hours from D.C. to E.L. I was determined to have a great time, and that's exactly what we did!

Two and a half years later we finally get to be back together again!

SPARTY!!!

Opening Kick Off

The first touchdown of the game!! Unfortunately that was 1 of only 2 touchdowns we scored in the whole game, which would be fine if penn state didn't score 3 times as many as we did!

Oh how I love the drumline :)

The true state fans that stayed to the very bitter end!

The girls! Me, Dana, and Jen all at B-Dubs for some much needed catch up time!

The guys! Brady, Darreal, and John, back together again

Such a great weekend! I miss everyone so much, hopefully it won't be so long until we see each other again!

Darreals Bestie Comes To Town

Labor Day weekend brought along the end to a lot of things; my first job out of college, summer, and my college football withdrawal! As excited as I was to see college football coming back on every major channel, I was also excited to see Darreal's bestfriend, and the guy who brought us two love birds together, Brandon! Brandon brought his wife along for a long weekend in the nations capital and for those of you who I talked to that weekend, you'd know it was quite the adventure.

Saturday night after the MSU game went off we ventured into the city to have dinner at one of darreal & I favorite restuarant!

After dinner, feeling pretty plumped

Brandon, being all kinds of inappropriate, lol

Sunday we did the thing that all visitors want to do, go see the monuments. This is probably my favorite picture that I have of us in front of the washington monument

The married couple, the sky looks really gorgeous

Standing in the WW2 Memorial Fountain, the water felt so good!

OHIO!!!

Sun Setting over the Lincoln Memorial and reflection pool

This was the first time i visited the lincoln memorial at night and it is truly beautiful, for some reason its much more impactful at night time

As many times as i've been to the lincoln memorial, i've never noticed the very spot that MLK Jr. stood and delivered his "I have a dream" speech is etched in the marble.

Kisses from my babes!

Pretty, Pretty

On our way back from dinner that night, and before we got rained on while trying to find our "lost car" we passed the newseum. Anyone who comes to the area should definitely visit. It's really cool, and its the place that CNN was covering the 2009 Inauguration.

My 24th!

Another year older; What started out as a birthday weekend with no real plans turned into probably the best birthday ever. So this year I found myself going to Bedford, PA for a weekend of relaxation at the Omni Bedford Springs. I had no idea that PA was so beautiful.

The hotel was so big there was no way to get it all in one picture, so here is one side of the hotel with the Allegheny Mountains basically sitting on top of it.

Here's the entrance and a little piece of the other side

I got some good use out of the self timer on my camera...One of our many self portraits that we took

After drinks at lunch, and then realizing that neither one of us brought tennis shoes in order to go to hiking we decided to just chillax by the pool in a cabana.

Attempt# 4 at getting darreal to open his eyes in a picture!

Borderline scary, but their open!

The last bit of daylight peaking over the beautiful mountains and golf course off the pool area. So pretty

Of course we had to get a picture in front of it too!

Darreal spent the whole entire day asking me what i wanted for my birthday, after i settled on the idea of getting a laptop at midnight, he instead surprised me with this which is more than perfect! Of course i still had to ask if i was getting a laptop too, i'm such a brat sometimes. Love you honey, I promise i won't lose this one :)

Toodles Bedford Springs! This picture is pretty cool considering i snapped it out of the car window as we were moving at about 65-70 MPH