Family Home Evening!

I've had this blogpost in my drafts for quite some time and have finally posted it. I've been in a blogging mood recently and decided it was time for this post. :)

I'm in charge of planning family home evenings (FHE) for the mid-singles in two stakes. I've been doing it for just about two years now and I plan them by myself. Our FHE group is not that big and I think in my particular age group, FHE is not as important as it once was (like in YSA wards). I think people get their social fulfillment elsewhere and not necessarily at church activities anymore. I mean there are various reasons why people don't come and that's okay. But because of this, it makes it a challenge to think of activities that are interesting enough for people to actually want to come to.

I know different things appeal to different people and not everyone is going to like everything. Sometimes I have to think of FHE as just a reason for people to come together and socialize. So even if only one or two other people show up, that's okay. I can still call that FHE a success. (Although sometimes it is stressful not knowing who will be there, it always ends up totally fine, no matter how many or few people are there.) :)

Since I've had to think of a lot of activities, (a lot from the internet, some from other people and some just from myself) I decided I wanted to write down a list of things we've done for future reference. Some of these things we've done multiple times but most of them just once.

-Make ice cream in a bag
-Make dinner for someone in the ward who needed it
-Indexing
-Paper-making (Someone in my ward has the materials to make paper and was more than happy to show us and let us make some paper of our own)
-Frisbee at a nearby park
-Hike at Great Falls
-Make homemade pizza
-Show and Tell (have people bring a souvenir or a favorite or meaningful item from home and talk about it.)
-Play the game Celebrity
-Financial advise class (by a couple in the ward who both work in the finance industry)
-Make bagged lunches for a nearby homeless shelter (coordinating the day and drop off with the shelter beforehand)
-S'mores (over a campfire at family's home in the ward who have a fire pit)
-Halloween party (with Halloweeny food and playing a murder mystery game)
-Watch Father of the Bride
-Draw pictures of our days and then go around the table and talk about our pictures and our days
-Tie fleece blankets for Syrian refugees
-Address envelopes to send out flyers to mid-singles about upcoming activities
-Eat dinner at Three Thai Sushi
-White elephant gift exchange/ugly sweater Christmas party
-Caroling
-Meadowlark Gardens Winter Walk of Lights
-Watch Once I was a Beehive
-Play Two Truths and a Lie
-Play the chimes (someone in our ward has some chimes and was willing to show us how to play)
-Music appreciation night where we shared our favorite songs
-Disney trivia night
-Eat at Silver Diner
-Play human bingo
-Pi day with lots of pies and board games (March 14 or somewhere around there.)
-Sushi making lesson (another mid-single knows how to make sushi and was willing to show us how)
-Easter egg dying
-Thoughts about general conference and banana splits
-Play Nertz
-Bowling at AMF bowling alley in Centreville for $2 Tuesday nights
-A family history consultant in the ward teaching us about familysearch.org
-Dairy Queen
-Had the emergency preparedness specialists in the ward come and speak to us
-Birthday party for everyone with pizza, cake, balloons, games and a sing-a-long
-Gravelly point picnic and games with Potomac Ward
-A couple in the ward showed pictures and talked about their time living in China
-Mini-golf
-Mini-movie making
-Eat at Smash Burger
-Pool party at a couple's pool in the ward
-Frisbee/After frisbee talk about our favorite things to do in the East Coast
-YouTube video party (have people submit their favorite YouTube videos beforehand and then watch them at FHE)
-Letter press (a lady in our ward has a letter press and let us come and make some cards on the press)
-Election party playing an American trivia game
-Going shopping together for non-perishable food items for a Thanksgiving service project in our ward
-Hot chocolate bar
-See lights and nativities at the D.C. temple visitor's center at Christmas time
-Cookie making night (on Sunday night) and caroling (on Monday night. Bringing the cookies we made the night before) at Christmas time
-Board game night (Telestrations, Imagine If)
-Musical FHE (where people share one of their favorite songs and why they like it or they play a song on an instrument they know how to play.)
-Eat at Freddy's and then go to someone's house and watch Princess Bride
-Pancake party (had a pancake mix where you just add water and made pancakes on an electric griddle while we sat around chatting and then ate the pancakes with delicious toppings).
-Learn about Latter-day prophets (asked some people to look up a few facts about a modern prophet of their choice and then share them for the lesson.)
-International food night (have people bring international food to share)
-Volleyball at a local park
-Eat at Cafe Rio
-Eat at Bebop

We usually have awesome turn outs when we go to restaurants! :)

Sandi (and later Trevor) showed up to this FHE! It was a beautiful night and we threw the football around. :)

What are some other FHE activity ideas?

For the Beauty of the Earth!

I've always loved nature and since my trip to Iceland, I want to do more nature only trips. (I've already started planning one for next year, Redwood, Crater Lake, and Lassen Volcanic National Parks in California and Oregon) :)

And you know the awesome thing about nature... it's everywhere. :)

One of the places I like to go that's only about 10 miles from home is Meadowlark Gardens. I love this place! I don't get to go as often as I'd like, but I try to go when I can. I went there recently and I remembered why I love it so much!

Look at that view!

And they have good trails around the gardens!

Isn't it beautiful?!

If you've never been to Meadowlark Gardens, you should go. It costs $5 to get in, but it's worth every penny. :)

Since I can't always go to Meadowlark, I like to walk on trails near my house too. There are some beautiful trails not too far from where I live.

And some beautiful flowers too! (These flowers were blooming recently.)

 These were blooming in April!

This is in my neighborhood! (All of the rest of the pictures (except the last two) were taken on various walks I've been on in or near my neighborhood and I love it!)

The temple always has beautiful flowers! Everytime I go, I ooh and aah over the flowers.  This was back in April.

This was recently.

I wanted to share these pictures from my phone because I think they're beautiful!

"For the beauty of the earth, for the beauty of the skies, for the love which from our birth over and around us lies, Lord of all to thee we raise, this our hymn of grateful praise."

Burger Places!

I do not claim to be a burger connoisseur, but I do have high standards for them when they come from joints that specialize in burgers. This all started when I got a burger at Jack Brown's Beer and Burger Joint in Harrisonburg, VA.

I visited my nephew, Spence, at JMU a couple of years ago and took him out for lunch. Jack Brown's was the place he chose to go and now it is the standard by which I judge all burger joints. :)

I wanted to make a list of my favorite burger joints (and not so favorite) so far. I haven't been to a ton of places yet, so my list isn't very long, but here you go.

Here are my top 5 that I would recommend and would happily go to again (in no particular order)! :) (I'll update this list as I go to more.)

-Jack Brown's Beer and Burger Joint in Harrisonburg, VA. The burger was juicy, perfectly cooked and the flavors were awesome!

-Melt Gourmet Cheeseburgers in Leesburg, VA. This burger was rather large, but cooked nicely with good flavors. I wasn't a huge fan of the shake here, though.

-Big Buns Damn Good Burgers and Beer in Arlington, VA. The burger was cooked perfectly and the flavors were good. The fries were tasty here too and they had good dipping sauces.

-Holy Cow in Alexandria, VA. The flavors of the burger were good but the burger itself was only okay for me. But I would still recommend it!

-Lucky Buns in Washington D.C. The flavors of my burger were unique and delicious together and the burger was cooked just right. (I got Alfie's Bun). I also got fries with curry sauce and I was pleasantly surprised how much I liked them. (I had never thought of dipping fries in curry sauce and it was really good!) 

Here are my bottom 2 and wouldn't necessarily recommend (in no particular order). (I feel bad about it because I know some people like these places, but I personally didn't like them.)

-Elevation Burger. I've been here a couple of times and the burgers were plain and not very flavorful.

-Ray's Hell Burger in Arlington, VA. I don't remember details about this burger, but I do remember being disappointed (especially since the name of the joint would make it seem like they would be devilishly good burgers.) :)

Do you have any burger joint recommendations in the Virginia or D.C. area? Have you been to any of these places? Do you agree or disagree with my reviews?

Iceland- Day 9 (National Museum of Iceland and Farewell Iceland)

This was our last day in Iceland! We left in the afternoon of this day, so we had time to go to the National Museum of Iceland in the morning. It's hard to get pictures in museums and I got no pictures of myself this day, but it was a lovely end to an amazing trip!

The National Museum was really interesting! It had a good overview of the history of Iceland and they had some interesting artifacts.

I liked this statue of Mary, Jesus, and Anne (the mother of Mary).

I honestly don't remember what some of these things are.

Look at how fancy those belts are!

A really old Bible! Read the sign above to learn more about it.

Look how big the Bible is!

Whalebone carvings!

Jón Sigurðsson was an influential leader in the campaign for independence during his lifetime. Although Iceland did not become free from Denmark's rule during Sigurðsson's life, their independence day is June 17, Sigurðsson's birthday! You should read about him, he was an interesting man. 

This dress was the end of the museum. As I mentioned, this museum was really interesting. I can't remember much now of what I learned, but I did really like it.  

Once we got done at the museum, it was time for us to head to the airport. The airport is about 40 minutes outside Reykjavik and we had to return the car etc. Then we had to say farewell to Iceland!

I loved my time in Iceland! It was seriously such an awesome trip and I would totally go back someday! If visiting Iceland isn't on your bucket list, it should be. :)

Thanks Diana for coming with me and putting up with me for 9 days.

Iceland- Day 8 (Ytri Tunga Seal Beach, Hraunfossar, Barnafoss, Reykjavik)

This day was the last full day in Iceland and it was pretty dang awesome!

I saw this type of bird all through our trip and I really liked it! It's a tjaldur also known as a Eurasian oystercatcher.

We went to a golden sand beach, but the sand wasn't very golden. We didn't stay here for very long.

Ytri Tunga Seal Beach! We saw a few seals playing in the water off shore, but not as many as I was hoping. I think the cold and wind might have kept the seals from wanting to be on land this day. But it's okay, the beach was still cool to walk around!

There's a Eurasian oystercatcher.

Still part of the seal beach!

The view from the seal beach parking lot!

So we stopped at this cafe where a scene of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty was filmed. (The part where he's eating at Papa John's in Iceland. They changed the signage and inside to look like Papa John's but it's actually a cafe with sandwiches and pastries etc.)

It was cold and windy!

We got food here for our lunch that we ate a little later. The pastry I got was delicious! :)

This was the view from the parking lot of the cafe.

Hraunfossar! I seriously loved this place! The falls are coming out of lava rocks. No pools at the top, just coming out of the rock and it was so cool!

Look at the color of that water and the falls and everything around it!

It was pretty long!

So awesome! Did I mention it was a bit cold and windy this day?! But look at that scenery!

Do you see that house and buildings on the green hill behind the waterfall?! It was so cool!

You can't have too many pictures of this waterfall. :)

About a 3 minute walk from Hraunfossar was Barnafoss! This waterfall was just as cool as Hraunfossar, just in a different way!

The color of the water was amazing and it's running through the arch! (It's the same water running past Hraunfossar.)

Looking downstream from Barnafoss!

Time to say goodbye to Hraunfossar and Barnafoss! Like I said earlier I loved these waterfalls!

Hello Reykjavik! Before we left for Iceland, Diana had found a walking tour we could take in Reykjavik. This was our meeting point.

Our tour guide was a grad student named Johannes and he was hilarious!

The building above is the Parliament building.

I had to secretly get a picture of Johannes! Our hilarious, cute, smart tour guide. :)

The Settlement Exhibition. I love that it says 871 +/- 2 years on the building. They had found some old human relics dating back to 871 but then conflicting information said it might be a little older or younger so they added the +/- 2. I thought it was kind of humorous. :)

A lot of houses in Iceland have wooden frames and corrugated metal on the outside to help protect them from the elements.

This is one of the nicer neighborhoods in Reykjavik! It was cute and Johannes mentioned it was pretty expensive to live here.

I took a picture of this tree, because there aren't very many trees in Iceland. So when there is one, it's worthy of being pointed out (as Johannes mentioned on our tour). ;)

This is still on our walking tour. I don't remember what this was. I just liked the building.

Johannes again! :)

Some graffiti on the side of a building.

A memorial dedicated to a pioneer in Iceland's women's liberation movement, Bríet Bjarnhédinsdóttir.

The beer mitten was invented by an Icelandic woman. Johannes had brought a mitten and can of orange soda with him to show us at the women's memorial. Diana got to drink the soda with the mitten. :)

While we were on our walking tour, we saw this Ugly restaurant/Don's Donuts and I thought the name was humorous and it made me want to get a donut later.

I was a bit disappointed after the tour when we went there and found there were no donuts, just pizza. :(

That sculpture is The Face of the Sun.

Inside the Reykjavik visitor center they had this awesome 3-D topographical map of Iceland! It was really cool to see where we'd been and see the landscape in that way. It was pretty amazing!

This was the ending point of our walking tour.

I thought this statue was pretty awesome! It's the Monument to the Unknown Bureaucrat. You should look it up.

I loved these little kid's hats with Viking horns on them. Aren't they cute?!

Me and Grýla! (Maybe I should have looked a little more scared to be standing next to her.) ;)

Me and Leppalúði!

Hallgrímskirkja! A beautiful but not typical church in Reykjavik! It's a Lutheran church and is the largest church in Iceland.

We got tickets to go to the top of the church to see the view!

The next six pictures are the view from the top of Hallgrímskirkja!

Isn't the city beautiful?!

Inside the main part of the church. Look at those organ pipes!

This teenager was practicing his organ playing while we were there. The organ sounded really good!

It's simple, full of light, and lovely!

On the walking tour, Johannes mentioned the most famous hot dog stand in Reykjavik and Diana and I decided to go there for dinner.

The hot dog was decent. It wasn't really anything special, but the toppings were good!

Our last stop of the day was the Harpa, a concert hall and conference centre!

Isn't it cool looking?!

Since it was pretty cold and windy outside, we went inside the Harpa to warm up and I walked around a bit. This was at the back of the Harpa. I loved the colored windows.

The view from inside the Harpa!

Look at that ceiling!

It was really windy and the it was hard to stand still for the picture. ;)

The view from the other side of the Harpa!

A statue outside the Harpa!

On our way back to our car.

This was the view from our hotel! Isn't it pretty?! 

I liked Reykjavik. It has a different feel than other cities. It's smaller, colorful, and just feels different than most big cities. 

Overall this was a day of awesome scenery and city sites!