Holidays and more holidays.

A lot of holidays have passed since I last blogged so here is a summary in pictures.

Halloween.

I was the female version of Where's Waldo and Mike was Paul Bunyan. We had SO many trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood that I ran out of candy and had to turn our lights off. I considered handing out snack packs and that point because I felt so bad, but Mike told me that was weird. I thought it was a great idea, I would have loved to get a snack pack in my bag of candy :)

Thanksgiving.
My mom and dad came to visit us for Thanksgiving. They were our first over-night house guests. It was so much fun to show them around our new town.

Oh, how I love my mom's famous Thanksgiving stuffing...

Christmas.
We went to La Center, Washington for Christmas to see Mike's family. It was great to relax and spend time with the Barnetts. This was the first time we had seen Mike's sister Kellie and her husband Kyle since our wedding.

My company's Christmas party at the Ritz Carlton.

Our very first Christmas tree!!

Christmas Day!

New Years.
When we got back from La Center, we decided to head to the Eastern shoreline and spend a few days in Ocean City, Maryland. Although the weather wasn't ideal for the beach, it was so great to put our toes in the sand and watch the sunset.

You better believe I schooled Mike in skee ball.

We went out for some famous Maryland crab and they gave us these wooden hammers to use. I guess I'm not very cultured because I had NO idea how to get the crab meat out of the shell. Our waitress walked by right as I was hitting the shell with my hammer as hard as I could, and she asked if we needed an explanation. Obviously, we did.

We can't wait to go back to the beach now that the weather is warmer, but next time we are going to try out Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. We drove through this town on our way back from Ocean City and it looked like such a dream.

The Road to Mt. Vernon.

Back in October, I did something really crazy. I decided that I would try out a 16 mile bike ride to the Mount Vernon Estate. Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am NOT a great bike rider. If I have to ride up any sort of incline, I give up after 15 seconds and start walking my bike instead. Pretty pathetic, I know.

 Here is a map of the Mount Vernon Trail. We started where the blue arrow is at Belle Haven Park.

Our view of the Potomac River.

We did the bike ride with our friends Spencer & Taylor. It was really fun, and the scenery wasn't too bad either.

This is Mike's super cool bike that he bought off of Craigslist. (Don't worry Mom, this was before we knew about the Camry fiasco.)

The best part about the whole experience is that everybody else was riding nice road bikes, and I rode this dorky mountain bike. On the way to Mount Vernon, I struggled A LOT. Like usual, I had a really hard time going up any sort of hill. My legs were burning and I was out of breath. I think Mike was sort of embarrassed in front of our new friends. When we were about 1 mile from our destination, I stopped because I thought my legs were going to fall off. Mike and Spencer started examining my bike to make sure everything was working correctly, and it turns out that the back break was rubbing against the back tire the entire time. This obviously created a whole lot of friction and made me put in twice the effort to get my bike going. I couldn't believe it. Needless to say, the ride back was a breeze! And I guess I'm not as terrible of a bike rider as I thought I was.

Two Years.

Exactly one month ago, Mike and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary. I think about our wedding day often. It was the funnest day of my life. If only we could re-live it every year...

We celebrated by going to the temple and the National Museum of American History, and then enjoying a nice dinner at a french restaurant called Bistro d'OC.

This was part of an exhibit in the American's at War section of the museum. I especially enjoyed the poster on the right.

Vote for me!

To many, many more years....

New Couch.

Yesterday was a big day in the Barnett household. We finally got to put away the air mattress because our new couch came!!! And I love it.

We're so happy to finally have a place to sit.

The National Mall.

Our favorite part about living in D.C. is the endless amount of activities and things to see.  We've set a goal to try and see at least one tourist attraction each weekend, and with the exception of the hurricane Irene weekend when we didn't leave our house, we have been successful.  Our first weekend here we decided to hit the National Mall.   

 I like to do all the dorky tourist things like pretend to push the Washington Monument because Mike gets so embarrassed! I think it's pretty funny.

 This soldier proposed to his girlfriend in the middle of the World War II memorial. Everybody clapped and cheered for the happy couple. Can you get any more cheesy?

 There is always a sense of reverence at all the memorials and monuments. I love it because it gives me a chance to reflect on the many people that have done so much for this great country.

For some reason I thought this would be a good pose to do in front of the White House. But, what am I DOING? I look like a fool. If you look in the background, there is a girl doing an equally embarrassing pose. I guess the White House just makes you want to strike a pose :)