I'm Still Alive

Just a quick to post to say Hi, Merry Christmas (late), and Happy New Year (early). Suffice to say, vacation was great but of course way too short. Here is quick list of notables: Ran into Rachel C. in SLC where she was waiting for the bus to Twin Falls after having to change her travel plans because of the Denver weather. Jill met the whole Burk clan and was not scared off Dress, Suit and Cake purchased Reception Dinner location reserved Attended a live session Christmas lights were enjoyed Successful Christmas Burks Bouncing Off the Walls More to come...

One More Week

So I have not been very good at posting anything lately. Sometimes it feels like there is nothing noteworthy to add. Usually I struggle with posting something interesting and it is even more of a struggle if there are no pictures involved. You may have noticed that I like to post a lot of pictures. So anyway, another week has been crossed off of the calendar of life. One more week closer to spending Holiday time in Utah with Maya, Jill, and the rest of the family. One more week closer to our wedding. One more week less to get things decided, organized and ready. One more week spent with great friends who may not live in the same state as us soon. One more week of shopping for loved ones. One more week of shopping for Sub-for-Santa families. One more week of making sure that some of the loved ones know that they are loved so we don't feel obligated to shop for them! One more week of sending out resumes. One more week of attending Holiday parties. One more week of listening to great Holiday songs. Like I said, nothing is really going on in our lives. When something exciting happens (or at least there is photo documentation to narrate) I will post something worth reading. Until then, Happy Holidays!

Weekend with Matt and Cami

I guess I should post about last weekend since it is already Thursday. Matt and Cami drove up from Richmond and we spent Saturday visiting some of the Washington, DC monuments. We started off with the Marine Corp Memorial (Iwo Jima) and the Netherlands Carillon (bell tower). I had forgotten how big the Iwo Jima monument is until we were walking up to it. Next we went to the Arlington National Cemetery. We arrived at the vistors center 10 min before the top of the hour which is when the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier occurs. The sign at the information booth said that it was a 20 minute walk. We ran it (boy am I out of shape) and made it there just in time. The discipline, exact timing, methodical manner of the ceremony is pretty amazing. After watching the guard change, we casually made our way back to the JFK memorial. Here are the rest of the pictures of Iwo Jima, Tomb of the Unknowns, and Arlington. Next stop, lunch in Crystal City then across the Potomac to DC. We stopped at Hains Point and played around on The Awakening for a while. Matt made several attempts before finally getting to the top of the knee. It took me 2 or 3 times to get up the highly polished surface. Cami casually made it to the top on her first try! Here are the rest of the pictures of us playing on The Awakening. We spent about 15 or 20 minutes driving around the neighborhoods of the White House before we finally found a spot to park. They were setting up the National Christmas Tree display and the smaller trees from each of the states and territories. We walked over to the World War II memorial, then the Korean Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Memorial then back to car and home. Here are the rest of the pictures of the DC Monuments. Jill finally caught up with us after finishing her fruit basket project for the in-actives in her ward. We got dressed and headed to the DC temple for a meeting on the 7th floor in conjunction with the Oakton Stake Conference. The Temple President said that this group was the largest they have ever had. We stayed for an Endowment Session then ended the day at Silver Diner. Sunday we slept in a bit, made a fritatta (not a quiche because we did not have any milk or cream). Then I spent two hours trying to get my GPS to synch with my new laptop. We finally had to go to my work in order to use my other laptop to download the Geocaching sites we wanted to find. We spent a couple of hours enjoying the parks of Herndon as Jill got excited about finding more treasures! We found 5 out of 6 caches. The one we did not find was a micro container next to a strip mall. Micros are not my friend. Micros are tough. Our last one was in the middle of a lot of briars and poison ivy. The GPS was leading us all over the place which was no fun at all. Everyone was ready to settle for a DNF but I wanted one more try and finally found it. Thanks Matt and Cami for coming up here to play with us. It was a fun weekend. PS - How often do you see roses in full bloom in December?

Black Friday

Last Friday we went to Valley Forge and drove around looking at the various monuments and buildings. The weather was incredibly nice for the end of November so it was nice to be out and about soaking it in. Here are the rest of the pictures from Valley Forge. Next we headed into Philadelphia to meet up with Jill's sisters and their husbands. We enjoyed a Philly Christmas Tradition of watching the light and music show at Macy's. People were laying and sitting on the floor throughout the center courtyard area. We found a cozy spot in the women's shoe section and patiently waited about 15 minutes for the show to start. Apparently the show has been performed for over 30 years (and has not changed). The show has no chance of winning any multimedia awards and actually included several songs that were not even holiday in nature. But hey, its a tradition and we participated! Nate and Sara took us to The Naked Chocolate Cafe where they enjoyed melted chocolate in espresso cups. Matt purchased some eggnog flavored malt chocolate balls. Next we walked over the Reading Terminal Market were we met up with Robyn, Landon, Linda and Toby. We wandered around the shops for a bit, bought a cookbook with local Philly cuisine then parted ways with Nate and Sara. Our last stop in Philly was South Street to enjoy browsing through a few shops and consuming some cheese steaks from Jim's. Pictures on the walls displayed famous people who have enjoyed a cheese steak there. Two of the pictures were of the current male and female winners of the most cheese steaks consumed (12 and 11 respectively!) The line was out the door and around the corner. We waited about an hour during which time our clothes absorbed all the aromas. We each determined the proper way to order our cheese steaks and the practiced while in line. Jill - provolone, hoagie, with, add peppers. Me - whiz, mushroom steak, with. Hoagie includes lettuce and tomatoes and 'with' indicated you want the onions. Here are the rest of the pictures from Black Friday.