Cherry Blossoms.

For the past two years I have been dreaming of the day I got to witness the cherry blossoms in DC with my own two eyes, I missed the blossoms by just a few weeks both springs we've been here. 

Yesterday I had the day off so I packed a picnic for Michael and I, picked him up from work and drove over to the Jefferson Memorial. For some reason I wasn't expecting to see such crowds, but it was tourist city. Luckily we were able to find a parking spot and when we were walking along the blossoms  

I didn't even mind the crowds.

We sat on the water in front of Jefferson looking towards the Washington Monument just in awe at our surroundings. It's so surreal and you can't help but be deliriously happy while walking along the blossomed trees.

I also couldn't help but want to take a thousand pictures, here are some from last night..

I am making it a goal to go over there as much as possible before they blow away...today I went on a long run along the water by our house across the bridge and back to the monuments. I ran along the trees happy as a clam forgetting how much pain I was in from running.

We have tickets to go on a boat tour this weekend so I'll be back with more pictures of course. 

Anyone want to buy last minute tickets and come out for the weekend? 

-L

Here we go...

Once again I am playing catch up on our life. In December we spent our first Christmas together without family. Leading up to the holidays there were a lot of tears on my end, but I finally got myself together and tried to make the most of it. Christmas ended up being really special for Michael and I....we spent Christmas Eve with some of our friends and had quite the feast. We also did a gift exchange and watched plenty of holiday movies. 

We spent most of Christmas day on FaceTime with family. Technology is so amazing and I am thankful for the closeness that it can bring to our family being so far apart. In January we were able to make it to Utah and see some of our family and friends. We had a lot of sleepovers with the nieces and nephew and just had fun catching up with family.

After we went to Utah, Michael went back to work and I was able to go spend some time with my dad and his best friend Peter and son Christian in Arizona at the Barrett Jackson car show. My dad and Peter are huge car buffs and were like kids in a candy store looking at all the cars. I was also able to see my Aunt Kathleen and her husband as well as my cousin Jennifer and her family. Jennifer has always been the sweetest to me and I loved seeing how much her kids had grown since I'd seen them last.

Since then, we've been back to work work work. We're still enjoying life here and are trying to make the most of our time together. We also celebrated my favorite holiday with lots of chocolate and lovin'. For Valentine's we went and saw The Vow (the one time a year Michael will go and see a chick flick with me) and ate at Coco. Sala which is a little chocolate shop/ restaurant in Chinatown. We filled ourselves to the brim with beef sliders, baked mac and cheese with chocolate covered bacon, crab cakes and more. It was the perfect spot for our Valentine's date.

I even took a picture! One of our goals for 2012 is to take more pictures. We were pretty bad at taking pictures of us in 2011.

I can't promise that I'll be back soon. But, I will be back eventually.

That's all for now.

Love, Lauren

Life Lately.

I can't believe that it's already December 2, it seems like life goes by quicker and quicker the older I get. Michael and I have been living in DC for almost 9 months and really love living here. We feel so blessed to be living in such a beautiful city and to have jobs that we love. We've also been able to make some really great friends that we know we'll friends with forever.

Since I know I'll never be able to fully catch up, I'm going to go over some highlights from the past few months.

*We went to New York over Labor Day weekend and hung out with Reghan and Kristian. We love having them so close to us, I've seen Reghan more this year than I have over the past 5+ years.

*Michael and I love to eat good food. Lucky for us DC has a plethora of the best restaurants. The Washingtonian comes out with a 'cheap eats' guide every year that lists the best restaurants around the DC, Virginia, Maryland area. So, we spent a lot of time scoping out new places to eat this fall.

*We ate a lot of pumpkin everything this year, mostly from Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's just makes life better around our house.

*We also went to our first Truckeroo. Food truck's are everywhere in DC and in the summer once a month all of the food trucks get together in a huge parking lot and they have bands play and basically you just get to eat!

*October was also full of visitors. First, one of Michael's best friends Tony and his girlfriend came to town for a weekend.

*My dad came in town the next weekend and we went to Theodore Roosevelt island for the first time.

*The next week we had Somer, Brock and baby Ada come to town along with my mom, Greg and Reghan who came in town just for the weekend. I loved having my family around and getting to ooohh and aaahhh over Ada. She is just the cutest. We put her crib in my closet and she didn't make one peep throughout the night and I didn't hear her cry once while she was here. She's just the happiest little soul.

*We carved pumpkins with our friends the William's who also threw a bomb Halloween party.

*On 11.11.11 we attended my friend Jody's birthday party. She went all out with the 11 business and served us 11 courses of food. Also, at 11:11 pm we drove to a nearby park on the water and made wishes while we lit lanterns into the sky! It was AMAZING to see all of the lanterns in the sky over the water and city lights.

*Also, in November Thanksgiving and my birthday were the highlights of the month. On Thanksgiving we got up early and went over to the Capitol where Michael played some football with work friends. It was pretty amazing, the weather was perfect and they let them set up the field right on the grass in front of the Capitol.

*We also stopped by the US Botanical Gardens, I have been wanting to go since we moved here but haven't made the time. The gardens were gorgeous that they had fun Christmas displays! It definitely put us in the holiday spirit.

*For my birthday we did a little black Friday shopping, which was completely hastle free since there's a Best Buy, Costco, and huge mall a block away from our apartment. We went to the Newseum, which I was really excited about because I'd been wanting to go but have been too cheap to spend the $$. When all the museums around are free it's hard to want to spend money to go to one, but I'm glad we did. Later we went to Georgetown and did some shopping, ate at one of our favorite restaurants and got dessert at Serendipity.

*For now, that basically wraps up our lives. Another highlight is that Michael is officially a CPA, he has been studying day and night for the past 7 months for all of his tests and I'm so proud of him. I feel so blessed to have him in my life, he is truly my best friend. Sometimes we sit around and laugh about how we are the same person and how we are lucky we found each other because I don't think anyone else could put up with me like he does.

Happy December to all of our friends & family. We miss you all so much.

With love,

L

Futurama

Hi friends. Sorry for the lack of posts around here these days. Our lives have been taken over by work, studying, and visitors. One day I might get around to posting about our summer activities, but for now you get our futurama characters. Enjoy.

Be back soon, I promise.

xoxo.

June Highlights

We've had a crazy busy few weeks, here are some highlights of our month so far!

*Spending time in Georgetown

*Going to Shake Shack opening night in DC (Best burger + shakes around if you ask me!)

*Enjoying the beautiful summer weather we're having on our balcony

*Eating at We, The Pizza for the first time

*Loving our pool time

*Kabob Palace is a must if you're in town

*Lunch w/ Michael on Capitol Hill

*Last, but not least, I got an internship with NPR! The biggest change yet. I will still be working at J.Crew some nights and weekends but, for the most part I will be at NPR. It's 40 hours a week and paid, which is awesome. I'm really excited for the chance to do something in my field. My first day is Monday, I'm sure I'll be back with a lot of stories from my first week!

Happy Weekend!

-L

The Perfect Hamburger

Michael & I are not burger connoisseurs but-- we do know a good burger when we eat one. This weekend we entertained for the first time since we've been here and it went really well if I do say so myself. Outside by our pool we have picnic tables with grills. We had one of Michael's co-workers over and his wife and little boy. We served some of Michael's families favorite dishes including shrimp salad, turkey, fruit, chips, etc. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we decided to grill again today. Right now Williams Sonoma has the most delicious looking hamburger on display in their store front. So we looked it up & found this recipe. It was seriously delicious! Perfect for a warm summer night.

My new hat.

Michael being a grilling machine.

The finished product.

We grilled the buns and topped them with havarti cheese, bacon, tomatoes, mayo, ketchup & pickles for Michael. My mouth is still watering.

Hope everyone's having a good weekend!

Au revoir!

Baby Ada

The weekend I came in town, as I mentioned in my previous post, was also the weekend Somer was due. We waited all weekend for her to have the baby, but no such luck. On Sunday they had the decision to make if they wanted to be induced on Monday. I didn't want to pressure them, but i'm SO happy, that they decided to have the baby that Monday! Reghan, Lindsey & I stopped by the hospital around 3 o'clock to just check up on Somer and Brock. When we got there we asked the nurse where they were and she told us to just go in. Turns out we had perfect timing! Somer had just had baby Ada about 20 minutes ago!

Somer just lookin' like a rockstar after giving birth

Proud daddy to 3 perfect little girls

Papa Roger

Auntie Reghan was still in town too! (We missed Kayce who had to fly back to L.A. the day before)

Grandma Elaine

Being an aunt is the best. I can't wait to watch little Ada grow up.

Congrats to Somer & Brock.

You guys make some cute babies!