Marvelous Meadowlark!

 On Saturday I went to Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna.  I had driven past it a couple of times and decided I needed to visit it.  It was so beautiful and peaceful!

 These are the geese from the second picture.  They were following me :)

 Isn't it beautiful?!

 I saw this from afar and immediately knew I had to go and see it.  It reminded me of Taiwan.

 

 The Bell of Peace and Harmony!

 I liked these awesome totem poles that were next to the Korean Bell!

 A random rhinoceros in the middle of the garden :)

I liked this shot with the trail and the trees and the lighting and the bench.

I loved this place so much I may or may not have bought a year pass so I can go back whenever I want :)

Charlottesville Ash Lawn- Highland!

After we visited UVA, we headed over to Monticello to see the home of Thomas Jefferson.  But it cost quite a bit and Tim and Heather did not want to go, so we went to Ash Lawn-Highland instead.  It was worth it.  I loved it!
Ash Lawn- Highland  was the home of James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States of America.  He owned over 500 acres.

Here's a beautiful tree on the grounds!  

Lane of Ash Lawn trees leading up to the house!  What post is complete without a self-portrait?!  :)

A cool shot from the estate!

The white house is part of the original house that Monroe lived in. 

A statue of the man himself :)  I learned a lot about James Monroe on our little tour. Our tour guide told us that the people of the U.S. loved Monroe as president and that he ran unopposed when he went for a second term.  There is a rumor that James Monroe won all of the electoral college votes except one when he ran for second term.  The reason he didn't get that one is because they wanted George Washington to be the only president to be voted unanimously into office so one person wrote in another person's name on the ballot so that it would not be unanimous. Historians are not sure if it's true, but isn't it a cool story?!  He must have been a good man. 

 Another self-portrait! Monroe's sticking out of Tim's head ;)

Monroe was friends with Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.  I believe,  if I remember correctly, that Monroe bought land and built a house in Charlottesville because Jefferson did.  Monroe lived about a 20-minute horse back ride from Monticello, where Jefferson lived.  And James Madison did not live too far from them either.

A cool shot H took looking down the lane of trees to the new addition to the house.

H and I where Tim took the shot!

.

Look at the view they had from their estate!  It's beautiful! 

I don't know why, but I like this picture!

A cool shot with the well and the servants quarters in the background! 

Isn't this place beautiful?!  

I loved our trip to Charlottesville!  Thank you H and Tim for coming with me! I enjoyed every minute. 

After Ash Lawn-Highland, we headed home on the scenic route 29.  What a beautiful day! 

Charlottesville On-Grounds!

Three weekends ago, Heather, Tim, and I took a day trip to Charlottesville.  I had never been there before so I was stoked about going!  I was excited that Heather was coming with to show us around!

I couldn't resist getting this self portrait with Tim sleeping in the background :)

Heather and I on the way to Charlottesville!  I couldn't get all of us in the picture with Tim sleeping.

Our first stop was the University of Virginia law school where Heather graduated from a few years ago.

I love this self portrait of all of us!

Inside of the law school was this hall.  Tim and I found the name quite interesting.   Of course it's named after someone with the last name Slaughter, but we still thought it was funny :)

The law school is really nice!   It is two stories.  There are four long hallways with class rooms, study rooms, offices, lockers, and bathrooms in it.  (You know all the normal stuff at a university;)  There is a large outdoor courtyard in the middle of all of the buildings, which is where we are standing in the picture above.

Another view of the courtyard!

At UVA when they say on-campus housing, they mean on-campus housing.  This on-campus housing is right in the middle of the campus.  Although only very special people get to live in this on-grounds housing, it still is fascinating how smack dab in the middle of the campus they live. 

Anyway, the dorm room pictured below (which is one of the special dorm rooms) was occupied by Edgar Allan Poe for a semester.

Apparently all of the rooms still have this wood flooring.  We didn't get to see any furnished ones while we were there (I wanted to though).  

Look at this cool s-shaped wall on-campus!  Heather took this awesome picture of it!

The Rotunda!  It's a beautiful building! I wanted to go inside, but we did not because we wanted time for other things we were planning to do.  (Don't you just love the black coverings on the top of the pillars? ;)

This picture was taken from the balcony of the Rotunda.  This building is a house that a professor would live in.  (We don't think anyone lives there now.)  But there was a whole row of these houses. This area is called the Academical Village, which was named by Thomas Jefferson. (As I learned from Heather:)   Although no one lives in this one, H believes that some of the other houses in the Academical Village are still occupied.

On the other side of the Rotunda.

Look at this wedding at the church on UVA campus!  There was a white limo waiting for the bride and groom to come out.  The church was beautiful and I like the color contrast of the light brown church and white wedding gown and blue bridesmaids dresses.

Tim got this cool shot with the angel statue (or whatever it is) and the cool house on the hill above it!

On campus were these chalkboard walls with all sorts of thoughts and quotes on them. Here's one that we found interesting.  

I really liked UVA campus! It was nothing like I expected it to be.  I'm not quite sure what I expected, but it was different than I imagined.  It is a beautiful campus!  

Stay tuned for another post to finish off the day at Charlottesville...

P.S. Most of these pictures were taken by Tim.  Thanks Tim for sharing your pictures since I forgot my camera that day.  

Public Transportation!

Public Transportation.

Public transportation is special. Think about it.  You work in the city.  You need to take the metro to work during rush hour.  You get on the train and all the seats are taken and everyone is crowded at the doors.  It's not as crowded in the middle (because people don't scoot in as much as they should), but you can't get past the people at the doors so you just stand at the doors with everyone else.

You're very close to and often times touching complete strangers. You don't know which way to turn because any way you look, you're staring into someone's face.  They have the bars so high that you have your sweaty armpit in someone's face or you're too far away from a bar that you can't hold onto anything.  That's especially fun when the train slows down or stops suddenly and then you're trying really hard not to touch anyone in an inappropriate place. 

I don't tell you all of this to complain (I am very grateful for public transportation), but I tell you this as an observation.  I've been going to downtown D.C. for work, twice a week on the metro.  Let's just say if you have a personal bubble, then on the metro or bus or whatever the case may be, it is gone. Out the window.  So long.   Sayonara.  Do svidaniya.  Au revoir.  Zai jian.  Adios. 



 

Football Games, Kidney Stones and Awards!

So basically I am writing this post to put off doing more important things.  I decided to look at my old journals again and I got caught up in them.  Here are a few more entries from my journals. 

August 14, 1996 (This is talking about our move from Minnesota to Oklahoma)
"We rented a 26 foot long truck and on the way down we stopped in Des Moines and my dad had to go to the hospital because he had a kidney stone and he was really hurting.  We stayed at the Best Inns in America hotel.  It was really nice... [at the end of the journal entry] Oh yeah my dads kidney stone passed about a week ago."

October 20, 1996
"Dad, Kristina, Peter, Matt, and I went to the BYU-Tulsa football game yesterday and BYU won 55 to 30.  It was awesome. Towards the end of the game it started thundering, lightning, and raining.  But we stayed there the whole game.  A lot of people left before the game ended."

October 21, 1996 
"At the game on Saturday against Tulsa and BYU my dad got to sit up in the press box.  He got to sit up in the press box because he was a spotter for KSL radio station in Salt Lake City, Utah.  What he did was figure out who has the ball etc for the radio person."

November 24, 1996  (This is talking about when Peter left Oklahoma to go to the MTC)
"My mom surprised Peter when he got to the Salt Lake airport.  Because Peter was leaving on the plane on United Airlines to Denver then on to Salt Lake.  Mom was leaving on the plane to Salt Lake non-stop on Delta.  Peter had no idea my mom was going to be there."

June 12, 1997
"I got 5 awards from school.  I got an English, American History, Math, renaissance, and golden attitude award.  The Golden attitude award is really cool because it is a plaque.  I feel really smart with it although I'm not very smart.  Well, I guess I got only 2 B's and the rest were A's for the whole 7th grade school year."

I think that's all for now.  I should probably work on those other more important things now ;)  I write these journal entries mainly to bring back memories but also to laugh about what I wrote when I was younger!  I hope you enjoyed some more trips down memory lane :)

My Sweet New Digs!

 I've had a few requests to see my bedroom.  Now that I have my chest of drawers in here and everything put away, here are some pictures of my awesome little room!

 I seriously love it!  It's my own room!  Look at those awesome built in shelves all along the wall under the window.

 My closet with my shoes on it! And one of my Ikea lamps!

 Look at my other awesome Ikea lamp!

I love this little lamp; it matches my bedspread and adds a little color to the room :)

Please Forward to This Address...!

Guess what?!   Guess what?!  Guess what?!  I moved into a town home yesterday with some LDS girls from the Langley Ward.    Guess who is really excited?!!!!!  ME ME ME ME ME ME!  

I feel good about the move.  And I think my roommates are really cool... so far :)   It's good for me to be more in the social scene.  I heard that in the little neighborhood that I live in there are a few houses of LDS people from the Langley Ward. 

Well I think that's all!  Be excited for me!