Happy Christmas!!!

One of my friends shared this version of "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" on her facebook page and I had to share too.

I'd never heard the background story of this song before, although it's one of my most favorite Christmas hymns. It just gives the song even more meaning.

Merry Christmas friends and may your soul be filled with peace and joy at this time of year as we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ!

Christmas Time!

There's a lot to do in this area around Christmas time. I wanted to share some of the cool things there are to do around here at Christmas (and things I've been able to do this season). :)

ZooLights- I got a group of friends together and we hopped on the metro and went to ZooLights. It was fun! It required a lot of walking, but I'm always okay with that. :) It's free to get into and I would recommend the metro since parking can be a pain.

Mount Vernon Candlelight Tour- I've been to Mount Vernon before but only during the daytime. When one of my friends invited me to go with her and another friend on the candlelight tour, I couldn't pass it up. It was really cool to see the grounds lit up by candlelight and be able to see the house decorated for Christmas. Once we were inside the house, there were people dressed in period costume who would tell us about an aspect of living at Mount Vernon during the time George Washington did. And how can you not like seeing Aladdin the camel on the grounds?! It was fun! It costs money, but it was worth it!

Christmas concert at the National Cathedral- The National Cathedral has amazing acoustics so the concert was awesome! There was a brass band as well as a couple of choral groups and it was so good! It cost some money, but it was worth it.

Holiday Market- I've been working in downtown D.C. for a couple of days a week for the last two weeks. I thought that I would do something fun after work while I was working downtown. One of the days I went to the holiday market near the National Portrait Gallery and walked around. They have some pretty interesting and fun things to look at! I may or may not have bought some stuff while there. :)

The National Christmas Tree (near the White House)- On the same day I went to the holiday market, I walked to the Ellipse (near the White House) to see the National Christmas Tree. They have the big main tree and they have little trees to represent every state and territory of the U.S. with ornaments that represent something special about that state on it. There are train sets set up around the main Christmas tree and it's kind of fun to just stand there and watch the trains.

The temple lights and visitor's center- How can you go through Christmas time and not visit the temple?! The lights are beautiful and the nativity scenes inside the visitor's center are always unique!

The National Botanical Gardens Christmas exhibit- I did this after work one day and it was lovely! I'm having a hard time describing this one, but it is really cool! It's free to get into and it's beautiful!

Merrifield Garden Center Christmas shop- I already did a blogpost about this one, but if you like looking at or buying Christmas things, you should visit this place!

Cookie Making and Caroling- I feel like cookie making and caroling is a part of Christmas for me. For FHE, one week we got together to make cookies one day and then the next day went caroling to people in our ward and brought the cookies with us! What's better than bringing Christmas cheer to others with music and treats?! :)

Happy Christmas Eve friends!

Merrifield Garden Center Christmas Shop!

A friend introduced me to the Merrifield Garden Center Christmas Shop tonight and can I just say how much I loved it?! :)

I had no idea this shop existed at Christmas time and it seriously is so cool! It's a big shop and it was fun to just walk around and look at everything, although I did end up buying something too. I needed a tree topper for my little Christmas tree and found the perfect little angel there. :)

So if you like Christmas stuff, you should visit this place! I went to the one near the Mosaic District, but I believe there are others in the area too.

A song!

I love this instrumental version of "If You Could Hie to Kolob" arranged by Lex de Azevedo! It's beautiful and I find it calming to the soul!

Happy Sabbath!

                       

Star Valley!

Back in July, someone sent us information about $200 round trip tickets to Utah in the fall time which is an amazing deal! I couldn't pass it up so I bought a ticket to Utah for the end of September. I went and had a lovely time there!

My mom grew up in Star Valley, Wyoming and a few years ago they announced a temple to be built there. The Star Valley Temple open house happened to coincide with the time I would be in Utah and so we decided to go to the open house that weekend I was there.

It's been a really long time since I've done the drive from Utah to Star Valley and I forgot how beautiful it is!

Dad, Mom, Heather and I stayed in Evanston, Wyoming on Friday night and we woke up to snow. It wasn't cold enough to stick to the roads, but look how beautiful it made it with the snow and fall colors. :)

Most of the photos from this post were taken by Heather.

Star Valley! This is the only picture I took in this post and I took it while we were driving 50 mph. ;)

I love this selfie of H and I in Star Valley on the land that Mom grew up on!

The Star Valley Temple! My second temple open house in two months. Look how beautiful it is with the mountains, snow and clouds!

Look at this awesome shot that Heather took! This is the view from the land where Mom grew up.

On the way back home, we took the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway and can I just say that that was one of the most beautiful drives I've ever been on?! With the snow, fall colors, mountains, lakes etc. it was just so magical!

Overall it was an awesome trip to Star Valley! We got to see an aunt and cousins I haven't seen in a long time. We saw beautiful scenery and Dad, Mom, Heather and I got quality time together.

Philadelphia and Lincoln's baptism!

As I mentioned in my previous post, my parents came to visit in August and that was a fun time! I got lots of quality time with them as I drove up with them to Philadelphia for the temple open house and then on to Somerset, PA to see my nephew get baptized. :)

We had tickets for the open house on a hot but beautiful Friday morning! The temple was beautiful, inside and out!

That was actually my first time ever going to a temple open house. I went inside the temple with my shorts and t-shirt on, there were lots of children there and it got pretty loud at times, but despite all of that stuff I could still feel that it was a temple, a House of the Lord.

 Papa, Mama, and Me after our tour!

After Philadelphia we made our way to our hotel in Carlisle, PA, which was about halfway between Philadelphia and Somerset. Lara and Glen and family, Pete and Mika and family, Matt and Karey and family and Mom, Dad, and I all stayed at the same hotel that night. I tried to get as much Benjamin time as I could since he actually let me hold him and I don't get to see his family as often as the others.  ;)

I love the progression of the photo above and the next two photos. Benji has a smile on his face.

 His smile is a little bit bigger.

 And he's laughing! :) Isn't Benji adorable?!

There was a Lindt Chocolate Factory a mile from our hotel in Carlisle and we may or may not have gone there and got some discounted Lindt truffles on Saturday morning before leaving town. :)

On our way to Lincoln's baptism, we stopped at the Flight 93 Memorial. It was a beautiful tribute to the people who died on the flight.

 All the siblings and nieces and nephews that were at Lincoln's baptism from our side of the family.

Overall it was a fun weekend with family and good quality time with Mom and Dad!

Highlights of this summer!

I haven't blogged  in awhile. This summer has flown by but it has been a good one! I'll spare you from telling you everything I've done this summer but the pictures below are some highlights.

My niece, Cami, got her mission call and went through the temple for the first time back in May. I got to be on the session as she went through for the first time and that was a pretty sweet experience. :) (She's going to the France Lyon mission.)

I hosted an FHE at my house and enlisted the help of my niece, Emma, to make a cake for it. The picture above is what Emma made for it! It was a beautiful cake and everyone was highly impressed. :)

The FHE Emma made the cake for was a birthday party for everyone. What did we do at our birthday party you ask? Well we ate pizza, cake, and ice cream. We  played taboo and sang-a-long to The Gambler by Kenny Rogers and laughed a lot.  :)

One of my co-workers called me up one Friday evening and asked if I wanted to go to downtown DC with her. One of her cousins, who lives in England, had sent her a Flat Stanley and she needed to go and take pictures of Flat Stanley in some famous places downtown.

I went with her and can I just say how pretty DC is at dusk?! The sky and the weather was so lovely that evening!

I've been trying to learn how to do side French braids in my hair. This was one of my attempts at it. I'm still learning, but I hope someday I'll get it to look decent. ;)

Back in July, I made cinnamon rolls for a breakfast family gathering we had at a nearby park. They turned out pretty dang well, if I do say so myself. ;)

Some of the kiddos were at the park playing and I was taking the picture, so we're not all in the picture, but this is most of us who were at the family gathering.

It was a fun morning and the weather was actually really nice that day for being July.

One of my coworkers worked in our office just for the summer. She had never been to Washington DC before and she didn't want to explore by herself so I happily volunteered to go with her to some of the famous sites of DC. Three times this summer, we took some field trips to DC as well as to Old Town Alexandria.

When we went to Old Town Alexandria, we went to the farmer's market, the Torpedo Factory (which I love to visit and is pictured above), the Carlyle House and the old Apothecary.

I highly recommend all of those things to do in Alexandria. I'd never been to the Apothecary before and it was so cool! When you stepped into that building it was like stepping back in time. It was exactly how the owners had left it back in the 1930s. Any way, Old Town Alexandria was fun!

 Look at those beautiful flowers in front of the temple!

One Saturday, I went on a short road trip by myself.  My first stop was Shepherdstown, West Virginia, then Antietam Battlefield Cemetery, then Pry House Field Hospital Museum (pictured above), then Melt burger joint in Leesburg. It was a really good road trip! I felt like I left all of my worries behind and I just drove, enjoyed the beautiful scenery, listened to good music and had some really good conversations with strangers at almost every site I visited.

The burger I got at the Melt. As you may or may not know, I'm a bit of a burger snob and so I have pretty high expectations for burgers from burger joints. One of my friends had recommended this place to me and I was not disappointed. That was a dang good burger! :)

My parents came to town for a week. Mainly to see my nephew, Lincoln, get baptized (and I will hopefully blog about later) but we did get to go to the Philadelphia temple open house while they were here. The temple was beautiful!

Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral, The British Museum- Day 21

This was our last full day in London before heading home, me to Virginia and Dad and Grandma to Utah.

We decided we wanted to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace this day. Since we were staying a little outside London, we had to get going pretty early to make it there on time and to save us a spot to watch from.

This pretty location in the picture above was not too far from Buckingham Palace.

We got there pretty early to save spaces to watch it from.

While Grandma rested on the steps, she started talking to this lady and made a connection with her. She learned that the lady was LDS and that her and her brother had come from Australia to England just that morning and were going to try to find jobs there in London.

If I remember correctly, if this flag is up that means that the Queen is home.

We never saw the Queen but this was as close to her as we will probably ever get, knowing that she was at home and that we were standing outside her home.

 And the Changing of the Guard begins...

The changing of the guard was quite a long process and although I took pictures, I was also trying to enjoy it without my camera in my face too.

It was a cool thing to watch but I don't think I ever need to do it again.

After the changing of the guard.

We had tickets for the hop on hop off bus again. They were double decker buses and of course I had to sit on top to get a clear view. And how could I not be on a double decker bus in London and not sit on top?! It was cold but it was worth facing the cold for the experience and the clear view. :)

 Some scenes from our bus ride from Buckingham Palace to St. Paul's Cathedral...

 St. Paul's Cathedral! I loved this place!

We went inside the cathedral but we weren't allowed to take pictures. All three of us got headphones for a self-guided tour and did everything on the first level. While Dad and Grandma waited downstairs I walked to the Whispering Gallery and the Stone Gallery. They didn't have an elevator to those places so Dad and Grandma couldn't go, but they were patient and waited for me while I went to enjoy the views. 

You walk up the dome to the Whispering Gallery (on the inside) and once you get there you get an awesome view of the beautiful main hall of the cathedral below. I don't know how to describe it but was really awesome!

 

After the Whispering Gallery, I walked to the Stone Gallery which allowed me to go outside and see the view from almost the top of the cathedral!

It was beautiful! The next six pictures are from the Stone Gallery...

 Although it was a little cold, it was a lovely day!

 St. Paul's Cathedral! The next seven pictures are St. Paul's Cathedral...

In case you couldn't tell by all of my pictures, I loved St. Paul's Cathedral, inside and out!

 Our next and last stop for the day was The British Museum. We actually didn't have too much time here (maybe a little over an hour). I was glad that on the map of the museum we received when we walked in, it had a highlights tour of the museum.

This museum is very large and overwhelming and I wouldn't have even known where to begin with only about an hour to see it. But the highlights tour was helpful. 

 Of course we had to see the Rosetta Stone!

 I don't remember what this was but it's cool!

 This picture explains the art in the picture below.

This picture describes the two pictures above this.

Overall this was an awesome day! After the museum, we went back to the hotel and packed up and got ready for our flights bright and early the next morning. 

The trip in general was pretty dang great! Thanks Matt and Karey for letting me stay with you most of the time and taking me to some awesome places. Thanks Dad and Grandma for the company while site seeing the last few days we were there.