i forgot to post this!

washington d.c. 2013.

Finished.

it took a day longer than expected, because i procrastinate, but i finished the book of mormon! 

this was definitely a life changing experience. 

i have never felt closer to the lord and more comforted by the gospel! 

i believe now that they book of mormon gets better the farther you read. because 3rd nephi, the book of ether, and the book of moroni are like my favorite. 

ether 12:27 is one of my favorite scriptures. and the whole chapter 12 is just really good and how it talks about faith. 

3rd nephi from like chapter 10-18 is really good because is about the coming of Christ, and what Christ teaches. and i really just loved it. 

the book of moroni is like a summary of the whole book, practically, and it really short and sweet! 

i also enjoyed alma quite a bit, the part where alma is writing to his sons and teaching them is really good! 

i have so many favorite parts to share, and i'll have to write more of them down in this post in a earlier hour. . . 

Book of Mormon Challenge.

last week i decided that i really wanted to read the Book of Mormon before fall semester starts. but seeing as there is only a few more weeks... i knew that i needed to get going. 

so this is what i came up with. 

i heard somewhere that you can read the Book of Mormon in 13 or so hours. so i decided that i would read the whole Book of Mormon in a week. 

i know, i know, this may sound pretty hard, but it hasn't been too hard for me so far. 

the Book of Mormon is hard to read, it is hard to always understand and it takes a lot of time to really get "into it". 

but i heard that reading the Book of Mormon in a week can be a truly magical experiences for some, not everyone... but some. 

so i started on sunday. on sunday i read 2 hours of the Book of Mormon. it is a really cool experience. i have never read the Book of Mormon all the way through and i know that this experience will be life changing. 

it can be easy (at least for me) to find 2 hours of my day to read. on Sunday i read after church and yesterday i had a party to go to a 10 am so i just woke up at 7:45 and did my two hours before the party. you just need to read 75 pages a day. and then if you don't reach your 75 page a day quota, you can just read extra the next day or on sunday. sunday is a perfect day to start and to finish on. you have more time on sundays to relax and so finding more time to read extra is usually pretty easy (at least for me). 

so if any of you want to join this quest with me.... just start! you can start today, tomorrow, any day. and you could just read an hour a day for 2 weeks, or 5 hours a day on a weekend! do whatever you want. but believe me, this will be worthy time filler, i know it has been for me! i don't think you will regret it! 

also, don't feel the need to rush your reading. remember to pray and think about what you are reading. get the whole experience! 

i know it takes some discipline, but just imagine how wonderful you will feel after and how much you will grow, i think that is incentive enough!

xoxo

Old Town Trolley Tour.

today was probably the most busy of all the days. 

laura and i woke up at 7:30 got ready and headed to D.C. we got there at the union station and from there we got a cool tour called the old town trolley tour. (i highly recommend it) 

 first we went to the capitol. i had already been but it was nice to go when it wasn't so full of people. (i was struggling in this picture though)

and this one a little too.

we then went to the national garden. it has different rooms according to the area that the plant grows. so in this picture i am in the jungle room. 

 we then headed to the air and space museum. it was cool! this is the shuttle they landed on mars in... what? i know. (sorry about the blurry picture, it's lauras fault)

we then headed to the Jefferson memorial. this place was cool, it had a great view of the river and the statue is so freaking huge!

this is me trying to model in front of the river just outside of the jefferson memorial. 

failing. again.

we went to the Arlington cemetery and it was really cool, but i kind felt more emotional than i thought i would. i just don't like cemeteries. they don't hold any good memories... for anyone

it was cool to see JFK's tombstone, and his wife (Jackie) . there is also a fire burning there next to where he was buried and since they buried him there the fire has never gone out. they keep it continually burning. sweet huh?

 there are just too many people buried here. it's just so sad to see. it's crazy to see all the people who sacrificed their lives for our country. 

i then went to the lincoln memorial and loved it. i have seriously been so excited to go the whole entire trip. so happy we we went!

 we then went to the Vietnam veterans memorial. we found a realative of laura's and it was pretty neat. we also found two hatchs, but i'm not sure if we are related or not

we then headed to ford's theater. (i'm not going to explain what this place is... you should just know.)

it was really sad... 

we then went to the peterson house where lincoln died. so sad! it was a really cool tour and it was free. 

after the ford theater and we went to the national archives museum. THIS WAS THE COOLEST EVER. i'd have a picture but pictures aren't allowed... so you can't see anything. i was about to cry from the happiness i felt from seeing the constitution. i don't know. my american heritage taught so deeply about the constitution, i just thought it was unreal to see it. 

anyways, it was perfect end to the trip. i'm happy to have visited the national archives last, that's for sure. 

i might do something fun before my flight tomorrow, but who knows!

bye, my friends. 

Virginia Walkabout.

laura and i are crazy good photographers...

just kidding! 

Mount Vernon! and a surprise guest... Jet Puff.

laura and i decided that we needed to take it easy today,  because tomorrow we have a whole lot of sightseeing to do. 

so us taking it easy is going to mount vernon, a large estate with a lot of walking. 

do you know what mount vernon is?

it is george washington's house! yeah, you probably knew that but i didn't know until like a week ago.. ok? give me a break.

anyways, it was really cool. and we learned about so much george washington history. and we even got to see george washington's first original lower jar denture. yeah i know! they were made out of human teeth and hippopotamus ivory. so cool. and did you know that in 1789 when george washington took the oath to be the president he only had one original tooth in his mouth, and the rest were fake? yeah i didn't know that. i guess he doesn't smile in his paintings so it's not like it was easy to tell or anything...

i also go to see where george washington died. which was sad, and after he died martha washington locked up their room and never reopened the room and never slept in the bed again. crazy huh? and out of an estimate of 300 letters between martha and george washington there are only 3 letters remaining? why, you may ask? because martha burned the rest to keep their love more private. pretty cool if you ask me. especially since everyone is so open with their relationships and PDA is like a huge thing. i thought that was really cool. modest lady.

here are some photos! 

 the east view of the mansion

 the view of the Potomac river from the mansion. 

 a very bad photo of the west view of the mansion.

and a huge head of George himself.

after exploring the grounds laura and i headed back home and enjoyed fluffernutters. 

fluffernutter: jet puff marshmallow creme (best stuff on the planet) with peanut butter served on white bread (best if bread is toasted) 

then laura and i tried to take a picture of me enjoying my a spoonful of marshmallow creme and it just ended up being really bad. 

we started out rocky, and then we started laughing at ourselves for doing this so then i laughed and got marshmallow creme on my nose and it just didn't work out, i wasn't going to post a picture at all but then i just got just decided to be a free spirit an do it anyways (did i just say free spirit?)... enjoy. 

bye, my friends. 

EXTRA Funday Sunday! Eastern Market and Smithsonian!

laura and i woke up at 9:30 and got on our sunday best and headed to the eastern market. the eastern market is a 41 minute metro ride and the ride to the metro station is 20 minutes. laura and i didn't know this valuable information for a long while.

we got to the eastern market and it was soooooo huge. i have never seen a market so big! it covered like 5 blocks or something. it is so big that it has it's own metro stop. we got there and loved it. 

we walked around and it was really hot,  but we managed to look at every little tent thing. we were really enjoying ourselves! 

we saw these really cute  donut stand and they were THE BEST donuts i have every had in my life. oh my.

laura and i then realized the time and we rushed to the metro and realized we didn't plan our time well and we wouldn't make it back to church. so we checked for a nearby meetinghouse and it was an hour away, as well. so we decided that since we were out there we might as well go to the smithsonian! 

we first stopped at the national natural history museum and it was so cool to see all the animals that they have there and the dinosaurs. i don't know why but i just love museums. 

i aslo enjoyed the caves they have, they were pretty funny. and "realistic"

we then headed over to the national museum of american history and we walked through all the cool sections there. like the first ladies section and the presidents section. we also enjoyed the world war II and Vietnam war sections of the museum and the america on the move section. 

i found two new boyfriends while enjoying the America on the Move area! i have pics to prove it! ;)

we loved the berlin wall pieces they had on display! SO COOL. 

 we walked out of the smithsonian metro stop and there was a huge "around the world" festival going on! it had music and food going on and it was really sweet. 

we then just got back on the metro and headed home! 

 enjoy the post!

xoxo

National Zoo and Sprinkles!

today laura and i headed to the National Zoo! i love zoos more than the next guy, and this zoo is free so it just made it all the better. 

got there around 1 and were there for a few hours. we loved looking at all the animals and we thought it was interesting to go to their section called "think tank" it's about how animals think and it was cool to see how similar orangutans think with humans!

after we got our fill on the zoo we headed over the the cupcake bakery Georgetown Cupcakes. there was a huge line going out the door so we settled for Sprinkles cupcakes instead (still a really good cupcake place) i got the salted caramel cupcake and it was hands down the best cupcake i have ever had. 

i definitely look sweaty in this picture, washington d.c is just so humid!

we then headed home and just rested and had dinner. because we haven't had a true rest day we figured we needed to go to sleep relatively early so we can keep our stamina up. 

xoxo

Chinatown and the White House!

laura and i took the metro to chinatown today. it was quite the adventure. 

we ate food at Chinatown Express and it was actually pretty good. we then headed over to the White house.

chinatown isn't that far from the white house and so it was only a 15 minute walk. we watched some street dancers and just talked about life (haha) 

we then got there and there were protesters prostesting obama about the coo in Eygpt and all about Morsi. it was funny to see them yell, that's for sure. 

even though they were yelling laura and i still enjoyed the beauty of the white house and the park across from us.

we then walked back to the metro and got on and sang les miserables under our breaths for the whole ride. it progressively got louder, though, we have no shame. 

i got some really good compliments about my shirt throughout the night. a security guard even said he will watch star wars if it's good enough movie for me to wear a shirt with it on it! i guess that i'm just a good star wars advertisement or something ;)

xoxo

4th of July In Our Country's Capitol!

today i had the honor of being able to spend fourth of july in Washington, D.C.! 

this was very exciting and tiring experience (especially since i have never been to D.C. before)

we woke up at 7:40, got pretty and then headed to the metro. we then rode the metro to D.C and walked a few blocks and sat down from 9-11:45 waiting for the parade. in my opinion the parade wasn’t even good. so then we got up and decided to walk to the capitol and wait in line to get in for the concert. we walked over and it wasn’t allowing you in til 3. so we walked there for nothing. so we decided to walk over to Johnny Rockets and get food and then walk back. so at 2 we walked back and waited for them to let us in… in the SUPER HOT SUN. gosh it was so hot. we finally got in and it was 3, and we ran to get seats in the grass and got super good seats! but then… the show doesn’t start until 8. so we waited in the hot sun for 5 hours. yes, 5 hours. we took hour shifts of sitting in shade so we could keep our spot. 

 i'm just a girl, sitting here on capitol hill (to the tune of schoolhouse rock)

just chilling with laura and her mom! waiting for the concert to begin!

the capitol is so pretty at night.

in the end... it was worth it. i got to be on national TV (singing my heart out), and i heard Neil Diamond sing Sweet Caroline, LIVE. so it was great. i also got a tan so that was lucky bonus. 

Fourth of July was successful, even though my feet kill.

you probably could see me on tv. capitol fourth concert on PBS. 

xoxo

I Have Arrived In Washington, D.C!

the plane ride was a grind, but when we were close to landing i got some cool shots of virginia.

  once i landed, laura and her mom came and picked me up and we went back to laura's house. it's so cute, its a little townhouse and is a 5 minute walk away from dunkin dounuts, so of course i insisted we get some. :)

so far it has been a very fun day. we have been eating junk all day, the usual thing that laura and i do. i am SO surprised we aren't complete fatties. 

laura and i have soooo many fun things planned! i am so stinking excited! i love virginia already! 

xoxo