Tulips!

I love tulips! I've always liked them but I think I've now decided they're my favorite flowers. They're beautiful and colorful! 🌷

My sister, Kristina, was in town a few weeks ago with two of her children, Madeline and Jesús, and two of Madeline's friends. One of the things we did while they were here was visit a tulip farm. With the cost of admission, we each got to pick five flowers to bring home! The fields were beautiful and the weather was nice. I loved it!

Enjoy the pictures!

Kristina and Jesús!

Aren't they pretty?!

All of us minus Jesús (who was running around somewhere close by).

Since Kristina and family left town the next day, I got to keep all of the flowers we picked!

I loved having the tulips in the house. They were so pretty and they made me smile every time I walked passed them! 

I am so glad Kristina and part of her family came to visit and that I got to hang out with them quite a bit while they were here.

Votes for Women

My friend, Diana, gives a Sisters, Saints and Suffragists tour every spring (or almost every spring). On her tour, she talks about some of the ladies who fought for women's right to vote.

A few Saturdays ago, I went on one of these tours. It was cold, rainy, and windy that day. Thankfully, the rain had stopped by the time we had the tour, but it was still cold and windy.

One of the stops on our tour.

I learned about Martha (Mattie) Hughes Cannon. She was a lady who lived in Utah and ran for state senate in 1896 and won the spot (beating her husband for that spot). For some reason it makes me smile that she beat her husband in that election and also that she was the first woman state senator in the USA.

Mattie served a four year term as state senator and fought for improving public health and women's rights during her term. (She was a really interesting lady, you can also google her to learn more about her.)

 Diana, our tour guide!

 

Another stop on our tour, on the side of the capitol building. (Look at that view, with the Washington Monument and the cherry blossoms in bloom!)

Another thing I learned on the tour was about the Women's March on Washington in 1913. They were marching to bring attention (to the men in power at the time) that women should have the right to vote! It was the day before President Woodrow Wilson's inauguration. 

Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) organized the march. Thousands of ladies from all over the country marched along Pennsylvania Avenue (the same route the President would take the next day for his inauguration). 

You can google 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession (or parade) and some decent websites come up that talk more about it.

An original (I think) banner from the Women's March on Washington in 1913. (The tour ended across the street from the Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument. This banner was in that house.)

 Votes for Women!

The tour group at the end of our tour! I really enjoyed the tour and I learned a lot. I am so grateful for the people before us who fought for women's right to vote so that I (as well as all of the other women who are of age) can go and vote now.

 

Since the tour ended across the street from this house, my friend, Heather and I decided to go and visit it. It's a small museum, but it was cool!

 

 I liked this stained glass inside of the museum.

 

 

I think this was an original banner women used to peacefully protest in front of the White House before women got the right to vote.

"I stand on the shoulders of the women before me."

After the museum, Heather and I walked back towards the mall to get on the metro at Smithsonian station. Look at the sky in this picture! Isn't it pretty?!

The sky again!

I am glad I went on the tour this day and I am so grateful for the right to vote! Thanks Diana for giving the tour and helping educate us about some of the awesome ladies who fought for women's suffrage.

Nature

 I just wanted to share these pretty nature pictures.

Spring has come! I was walking on a trail on Sunday afternoon and this is what it looked like on either side of the trail most of the way. I liked the contrast of the brown trees with the green ground cover and yellow flowers.

So pretty! On the same trail as the first picture.

I liked the sun beams coming through the clouds behind the Washington Monument in this picture, but also the blooming cherry blossom trees, the green grass, and the sky with their contrasting colors. (I took this picture on Saturday).

Orchid Exhibit

I read somewhere about an orchid exhibit in downtown Washington D.C. I knew immediately that I wanted to go and see the exhibit. I invited a couple of my friends to join me and one was able to come. 

Heather and I met at Metro Center and we walked to the museum where the orchid exhibit was located.

The exhibit was at the National Portrait Gallery courtyard.

The flowers were gorgeous! There were a lot of natural orchids as well as some hybrids. There were some pretty amazing colors. I loved it!

Enjoy the pictures below!

 I loved the color of this one!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After we finished at the orchid exhibit we decided to look around some other parts of the museum. The colorful paintings of this artist were fun to look at! (Read more about the painting above in the picture below.)

 

Michelle Obama!

 

Since last Saturday, the cherry blossoms were close to peak and it was a really nice day outside, we decided to walk to the Tidal Basin to see the cherry blossoms there. But everyone else had that same idea and it was super crowded.

We got close to the Tidal Basin but ended up not going all of the way there because the crowds were too crazy. But we saw some pretty cherry blossom trees along the way.

 

 

 

After the Tidal Basin we headed to the metro to head home. 

Overall it was a nice day! Thanks Heather for joining me on this adventure.

Why I Blog

Why do I blog?

I started this blog in 2008 when I was in my last year at BYU. One of my roommates at the time encouraged me to. Also my sister, Lara, had started a blog the year before and I thought it was kind of cool. :)

When I started this blog it was supposed to be me writing my thoughts and opinions about stuff, any and every kind of stuff (hence the name The Early Morning Confessions of AnnaLisa). Although it may have started out that way, I mainly use this blog now to post pictures and write about adventures I go on.

Although I will happily share my blog with certain people, I mainly blog for myself. On a day to day basis, my life isn't very exciting (and that's okay). But I like documenting the things I have done or thought about (although I don't blog about everything because that would be too much) and I like that I can look back on old blog posts and remember those things.

I enjoy blogging. It's kind of like a journal of my adventures in life. I have always been a journaler. I have over 10 physical journals full of stuff I've written since I was 8 or 9 years old. I do still keep a journal where I write my most personal thoughts but I don't write in it very often anymore.

Although I'm not always consistent with updating this blog, as of right now, I plan on continuing to update on here when I feel so inclined. :)

A random photo of me on a hike last month.

Sky Meadows State Park

One of my friends mentioned how she's been hiking at Sky Meadows State Park a few times and really liked the area. I decided I wanted to go there and check it out sometime. (It's about 45 minutes away. There's a $10 entrance fee and it's self pay so bring cash (for my future reference).)

The first Saturday in February, I convinced my brother, Tim, to go with me to Sky Meadows.

When we first arrived at the park, there was a cold wind blowing that we weren't quite prepared for... but we continued on. The wind did eventually stop and it was much nicer. Without the wind blowing, it was a nice chilly sunny day.

 

The area was really pretty! Even with the brown of winter, I thought it was beautiful!

The trail was different depending on what part we were on. Probably about half of the trail was pretty muddy, but it wasn't too bad. That just added to the adventure!

(There are multiple trails to choose from at this park. This trail was the one the park ranger recommended to us at the visitor's center.)

What a nice view from the bench!

I really like this shot I took!

I've been thinking about going to Sky Meadows for quite a while now and I'm so glad I finally made it happen. It was a beautiful area with lots of different hiking options. I hope to visit again and try another trail in the spring time.

Random Happenings (Ragtime, Snow Week etc.)

January, what to say about January. I actually don't really know what to say about January except that it's not my favorite month. 🤷

Here's a post about random things in January (and one thing in December.)

I went to the musical Ragtime at Signature Theater with my brother, Tim and my friend, Diana at the end of December. 

It was an awesome production! I had actually seen it a few years before at Ford's Theater but I wanted to see it again because I loved it so much then. It did not disappoint.

Ragtime was so good! I loved it!

 

I have three brothers that live within an hour of where I live. We don't get together super often (because of everyone's busy schedules and also the distance) but we made it happen on New Year's Day. Pete and Mika and their whole family were there, Matt and Karey and their whole family were there as well as Tim and I. 

Alas I didn't get a picture of all of us but here are us siblings! (I really don't like this picture of me, but since it's the only picture that I took that day, it'll have to do.) 

We met up at a restaurant in Rockville, MD and had lunch and chatted. Afterwards I went to Matt and Karey's house and hung out with them until the evening. It was a fun day!

 

Sometimes I need a break from my normal walking route. One Saturday morning in January, my brother, Tim and I walked around Burke Lake. The scenery was pretty even if everything was brown.

 Burke Lake!

 

Recently Ash has started sitting in my chair (which I am totally fine with as long as I don't want to sit there). Sometimes when I am sitting in the chair, though, he'll sit at the foot of the chair and stare up at me (and I imagine him thinking "hey lady, you're in my chair" because as soon I as get up, he'll take my place in the chair). 🤣

(I also just wanted to say I got the blanket hanging over the chair from two of my friends for Christmas. It has one of my favorite Korean actors on it and I think it's pretty great.) 🤣

It snowed in January. There was a week that was snowy and cold enough that I didn't really leave my house for that week (and I didn't really need to since I work from home and I had enough food in the house).

I will say that when it's snowy and slippery outside it scares me because I'm worried my knee will pop out of place. Click here to see a post about a time when my knee dislocated. Although that time my knee popped out of place it wasn't because it was slippery, it has dislocated in the past because of it being slippery (but those times it just popped back into place on its own). 

Anyway that snowy week, I worked, read books, watched movies and Kdramas, called family and chatted on the phone, and wrote a couple of blogposts (although I haven't published them yet) etc etc.

Drinking some hot honey water while watching a Kdrama during that snowy week. 

Honestly my January wasn't all that exciting, but you know what, that's okay. Here's to a lovely February!