So fired from blogging

We are still alive.

The Cherry Blossom Festival is here again. Yikes, it's been almost a year since I last posted!

Here come some catch up posts...

Magical Land of Blossoms

Cherry Blossom Festival in DCSo we've been lucky to spend some time with Ben and Keiko before they leave the area.  They took us to a place that serves smores, have you ever heard of such a place??

The smores outing was a while ago but 2 weeks ago we met up with them before Conference on Sunday morning and walked around the basin.  All around the monuments in DC are hundreds and hundreds of cherry trees, and 2 weeks ago they were all in bloom.  It was magical!  Blossoms everywhere, all around the basin, above us- everywhere. 

It was gorgeous!  Breathtaking.  I loved walking around and am so glad these guys humored me as I kept taking pictures and wanted to walk just a little more in this magical land of pink.  The only thing that would have made this jaunt more pleasant was if my nice camera's batteries weren't dead, or if I had a new digital SLR one.  But doesn't this look pretty amazing?
And then this beautiful stroll was followed by Conference.  It was quite the wonderful weekend!

Send In The Clowns

The Circus came to Baltimore

We went to the Circus a few weekends ago and I loved every minute of it... well almost I can't think too much about the animals... but I was very entertained.  We even went over an hour early so we could see some acts and talk to the clowns.  
7 motorcycles!  7, I've ridden a dirt bike before and can't imagine this.  CrAzY!


Brandon was a little embarrassed that we were there without kids but I loved it!  So fun!

Conference

I love General Conference... twice a year as members of The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we get to listen to our Prophet, Thomas S. Monson, and other church leaders inspire and direct us.  

It's been a wonderful weekend full of fantastic talks and always leaves me feeling rejuvenated.

Love it!  LoveD it!  Can't wait to read it!

Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

Birthdays Back to Back

Birthdays weren't ever a huge deal at my house growing up... my mom would make or take us to our favorite dinner, yummy cake and ice cream, some presents and that was great!  But it wasn't til my roommate Hia had a birthday...that birthdays turned into month long events.  With Hia's enthusiasm spreading to Sara, Alisa, and me... birthdays were huge deals... everyone knew it was your birthday, you got your favorite dessert, and to go to your favorite restaurants, and breakfast made, and crazy-themed parties (Irish Hawaiian Luaus, camp outs in the living room with dutch oven dinners, Under the Sea)... so I'm trying to be more revvvved up for our birthdays.  And Brandon's and I are back to back, mine on March 19th and his on the 20th so it's a great reason to do something big and CrAzY!

Well, we ended up working a lot and not feeling well... but it was still a very happy birthday!

Started out with a very early early morning breakfast made by the hubby and then I was off to a training conference in Virgina.  Besides the getting up super early and getting home after 8 it was pretty fun... got to hang out with these lovely ladies and the trainer was hilarious.

I got home to a wonderfully cooked dinner and a not feeling very great self... oh and Brand made my favorite cake- Better Than Anything Cake with homemade cake batter ice cream.

Yum! And then I was too tired to do anything and fell asleep.
Woke up early the next day and made Brandon breakfast and then fell asleep cause my day off that week was Friday.  I really slept most the day (still not sure what was wrong with me) but I finally got up and ready to go a Mexican Restaurant with Brand and that's when the dessert parade started.  First, fried ice cream from the restaurant (although it wasn't fried-fried ice cream it was ice cream in a cereal almond cover in a shell--I'm pretty sure it's not the regular real friend ice cream but it was good).
Then to Ritas... they had free Italian ice because it was their opening day on the first day of spring.. we bumped up to gilati... mango deliciousness for me and pina colada for the birthday boy.
Then we were going to have more cake and ice cream when we got home but we just couldn't.  I'm sure the ice cream wasn't the best medicine for not feeling well but it was yummy!

Then we had steaks for Brandon a few days later...so so oh so good!
And then when I worked Saturday, the best gal ever brought me some cake
and I also got some balloons.
Happy Birthday to us!  It was a crazy busy week but fun.  Oh, and you know how snail mail is just so fun to get... well the downstairs door to our apartment building had some problems that week and the mailman couldn't get in for a few days so on my birthday we got all sorts of cards and goodies.  Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes and thanks Brand for the surprise present!!  You're the best!  Sorry, you're oh so old (he's a quarter of a century old now and thinks he's ancient).