Birthdays and Baseball

I love birthdays.  I love half birthdays. I love my birthday. And I love celebrating others' birthdays. My roommate, Whitney hit the major milestone of 25 this year and we decided it was reason to celebrate. I wanted to do something fun, something meaningful, and something memorable. I think, just maybe, that the birthday fesitivities covered all three. Whit isn't really a big party person, so we opted out of the ward dessert night that just happens to coincide with a birthday and plan a real party. This party included dinner, dessert, and a talent show! Whit is full of talents herself (singing, piano, crafts, creative, masterful teacher, and a contagious laugh that earned her a nickname of Giggles), so in return we as roommates decided to provide Whitney with a talent of our own. Here's the run down...

Steff started us out with a bang. She might be slightly obsessive about her new ipad and as her talent decided to showcase this.

Ally, a trained yoga teacher, demonstrated her ability to do the splits.

Marissa LOVES creating in the kitchen and she baked Whitney some wonderful treats.

Mike decided to show off his juggling abilities by juggline 2lb weights.

And I sang Whit's favorite rendition of "Climb Every Mountain" from the Sound of Music...

All in all, it was quite the talent show! I can't wait for next year.

BASEBALL- GO M's

Last year when I moved to the East Coast, I made a goal to visit all the ballparks on the East Coast. Well, that hasn't really happened, but I have attended every Mariner's game in the area. This year the M's came to Baltimore and to Washington D.C. I made sure to attend both games. Unfortunately, Seattle couldn't pull out any wins. There were some heartbreaking losses and I may have shed some tears. I guess with 162 games a year,  you can't win them all (or even half). Still, I am a Seattle fan through and through!

 My angry face as Mike gloated in Baltimore's win over Seattle. Supposedly the Orioles are his team.

 

Spring Travels

Time to recap my last 3 months. Life is pretty much the same with work, church, friends, etc., but what makes it interesting is all the trips!

April: NYC-Concrete jungle where dreams are made of....

My favorite running buddy, Traci, has been living in NYC for the past year and I needed to make another Big Apple trip while she still lived there. I buddied up with my friends Jackie and Liz and we took a girls weekend in New York. The easiest and cheapest way from DC to NY is by bus, so Friday after work we hopped on a commuter bus and arrived in downtown NY close to midnight. Saturday was perfect! Traci and I went running through Central Park, then Liz, Traci, and myself went downtown and checked out Times Square to see if we could score some cheap tickets to a show (no such luck). Later, Liz and I left Traci to do some studying and resting and we went walking and exploring. One of the best things about NY is the food--on our stroll we found some good street pizza, visited Pink Berry, and randomly happened across Insomnia Cookie, a cookie bakery a few blocks from Traci's place that she was trying to find. I ended up going with Traci to the suburbs for church on Sunday where she teaches Sunbeams and we had a grand ol' time teaching the Sunbeams about keeping the Sabbath day holy. Traci put me in charge of telling the story of the Israelites and manna and how God provided double portion of manna on Saturday so that Sunday would be a day of rest. We prepared pieces of bread for each kid and everyone got to eat some manna! My favorite quote was by a little boy named Cache, who when he finished his bread asked, "I want some more mannas please." Too cute!

NYC is a busy, big, and fast paced city...it's nice taking it in doses and having a local to show you around.

Times Square

Hanging out at the NYC Public Library

Happy Easter in FLORIDA!

Over Easter weekend, 7 friends and myself flew down to Destin, Florida! That's right, Florida. Sunshine, white sandy beaches, warm water, and good times! The trip included lots of beach time, Saturday dinner on a yacht, jet skis, dance parties in the street and lots of yummy food. I need my beach fix every few months and this was the perfect trip to start the summer season!

More beach in VA BEACH

In May, Mike and I decided we needed some more beach, to remedy this, we ventured down to Virginia Beach, VA for the weekend. While I was expecting some warmer temperatures and beach time, VA Beach had something else in store for us--our very own MONSTER TRUCK RALLY! Yes, as we looked out the balcony window late Friday night, we saw the beach scattered with monster trucks and mountains of sand scattered throughout. Now, for me this was no big deal and actually kind of a nuisance since I wanted to play on the beach, but for Mike this was childhood dreams becoming reality. I forced him to go running with me Saturday morning and then I spent the afternoon wandering the beach and trying to get excited over "Grave Digger" and "Stone Crusher" and other monster trucks that supposedly Mike knew and had watched as a kid when visiting VA Beach. To make his boyhood even more complete, we took a ride in one of the trucks! Wow, my life is complete. To round out the day and weekend we also went golfing (I'm a 'natural' according to Mike and of course, I believe him), listened to some steel drum music as part of a local festival, and had some scrumptious seafood on the water. All in all, it was a fabulous weekend.

 Livin' the dream

 VIP pass inside the truck itself

Enjoy the pics and stay tuned for more spring/summer happenings.