My family, Cannons, & Jordin Sparks

My family came out to visit last weekend and it was so good to see their faces.  We did lots of fun things together...one of which was visiting the battlefields.  If you didn't know, we live only a few miles from the place where the Battle of Bull Run (1 & 2) was fought. Given the fact that Jared and I are history nerds and we only live a few miles away...AND it only cost $3 to visit, I am surprised we hadn't been there yet. But now we can check it off the list. Not only is it a cool historical spot, it also is really pretty and a great place to take pictures....especially with all the fall colors and fallen leaves. So, we had a little impromptu family photoshoot for the Christmas card. We also went for a little hike, climbed all over the cannons (which we later learned is prohibited) and I attempted to teach my 6 year old brother what the Civil War was about. FYI...since living here we've learned that in the south they call these battles the "Battles of Manassas" and they call the Civil War "The War of Northern Aggression." Interesting. Here are some of my favorite shots of the day.

 

 Speaking of the Civil Wars...how good is this song?

I guess it's official

Fall is in the neighborhood.

Today, I decided to take a little stroll around our neighborhood to take in all of the new colors that have taken over our quaint little street. Apparently, I've been hearing that we are having a late fall season because only about half of the trees have changed colors, and they are just now starting to drop their leaves. Anyway, I think it's incredible, no matter when it fully arrives. We've never experienced a real fall, so this is really exciting. It's so pretty!  PLUS, the air is crisp and clear...and today I wore a scarf, a hoodie, and my Ugg boots.  Probably my favorite thing to wear...

We are starting to get a little nervous for winter. I mean...Fall in Virginia is about the same as winter in California. So we are entering uncharted territory. But for now we will just enjoy the fall colors around Primrose Park (our neighborhood).  Hope you enjoy them too!

873 days.

Jared and I have now experienced 873 days of pure wedded bliss.

The other day, Jared was trying to find our blog (typical), so he google searched "Jared and Alanna" and he randomly came across this blog post from the 2nd shooter at our wedding featuring a ton of our wedding pictures. She got a couple of the details wrong...but some great pics of such a fantastic day!

So I don't know if I'm feeling extra in love with my hubby today...or if it's due to the fact that I've been listening to cheesy 80s love songs all day (seriously, "Air Supply" Pandora station is so incredible)...but I felt like sharing the post and some pictures with you today. Enjoy!


Our Wedding Day

 

Jared, wouldn't you agree...baby you and me, got a groovy kind of love.

The Civil War

If you didn't know...the area in which we live in Virginia is rich in Civil War history. The two Battles of Bull Run were fought a couple miles from our house...therefore, each summer there are a couple of Civil War festivals in the area.  When we heard about this, we couldn't pass it up. I knew this would be some of the greatest people watching ever...and boy was I right. These people are AWESOME!  And, they totally go all out in their costumes and in character. Not gonna lie...I was a little embarrassed for them...but it made for a great afternoon when Kendra was visiting, and I had a very delicious pulled pork sandwich. It also was a great place to break in my new camera...and try and learn how to use the video. So here are some of my favorite shots of the day...AND a video of some of the festivities. (notice how scared I get at the end of it).

Jared and I are contemplating bringing this first act out to a middle school event. Not sure how well it would go over...or if it's morally ok to pay someone for the right to poke fun at them...just a consideration.

Summer Visitors

This summer, it was so much fun to have some of our favorite California friends visit us on the East Coast. We had a blast showing them around our new home and having them be a part of our new church. In fact, both Kyle and Nikki led worship for our youth services! So fun to have a little piece of home here!

When Kendra was visiting, she was suggesting that we need to have some sort of "Guest Book" for everyone who stays with us. I thought this was a great idea... So, I decided that instead of having a guest BOOK, we would have a guest WALL. So, I'm going to frame a picture of each of our visitors in front of the Washington Monument on a wall in our house. I'm so excited about this new idea. Here are our first members that came out this summer! We are looking forward to other confirmed guests... Kyle (again), Nick Toth, the Tafallas, the Trudeaus, the Johnstons, the Bergersons....let me know if you want to be included on this list...AND on our guest WALL!

We went to Baltimore this Summer

As usual, most of our travels revolve around Baseball, Food, or History... This particular trip was mostly motivated by baseball.

We started the day off by taking a stadium tour of Camden Yards, where the Oriole's play. Camden Yards was the first of the "new" stadiums and so many newer stadiums have copied their designs and ideas. Therefore, it is really cool and beautiful... HOWEVER, one of the stadiums modeled after Camden Yards is Petco Park in San Diego...and they basically took the idea in Baltimore and improved upon it 10 times over. So, as cool as Camden Yards is, our view of it has been tainted by how AWESOME Petco Park is. That...and the fact that our tour guide was an old bitter man who's team hasn't had a winning season since 1997, made the tour less than impressive.  Another thing that was disappointing about visiting the stadium:  I have YET to find a shirt that says, "Baltimorioles"...I thought for sure that SOMEONE working for the team was as clever as me, and I would find it in their team store...but, ALAS, I am still more clever then the Baltimorioles organization.  I guess I'll just have to make my own and sell the design to them. :)

Unfortunately, it was also about 100 degrees and like 95% humidity the day we decided to venture to Baltimore. So, we ended up spending most of our day in Barnes and Noble, reading magazines and enjoying the free air conditioning. Which, is a perfectly acceptable way to spend a day...just not when you are seeing a city for the first time.

We also stayed for the Oriole's game that evening...but the Oriole's suck, and there were like, 40 other people in the stadium.  So we left around the 5th inning to venture home to wash the sweat and stink off our bodies.

SO...everyone has been telling us how great the Inner Harbor is and what a cool city Baltimore is, so I guess we'll have to go back again when it's not a million degrees.

Now you know why it's taken me so long to blog about this day...because it was pretty much average. But here are some pictures of our day anyway!

Summer Camp

I know it has been forever since I blogged. I'm not going to bore you with all the excuses...I'm just going to catch up.

First on the catch up list is Summer Camp. We went to Summer Camp a couple weeks after we arrived in Virginia. There were some things that were very different than other camps we had been to...and there are some things about Summer Camp that are universal to any camp, any where.

I'm just going to tell you about my favorite moment of camp:

Well, some of our favorite new friends that we've met, are a group of dudes who are college-age who also happen to be in a band together, called Restless Street.   If you are a friend from California, think Brothers at Sea, but with a much larger pre-teen girl fan base. Anyway, they also were counselors at camp, and needless to say, the middle school girls were big fans of this. 

So, my super creative funny husband came up with a challenge for these guys. They each had to choose a middle school boy to become their mini-me and on the last night of camp they had to dress up their mini-me exactly like them and come to dinner together. Let me just say, that they definitely rose to the challenge. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. 

 They were such a hit that night, that they got brought up on stage. We were very proud!

So in conclusion, Summer Camp was great. Although a lot was different that we were used to, it was a great time to get to know all the new faces and actually learn names and get to know students and volunteers better.  AND...a ton of our students learned a lot and made many new commitments to their faith. Can't complain about that!

Here is a picture of all the leaders and middle school students our church brought to camp!

Wild and Wonderful

So far, I think yesterday might be my favorite day since we've been in Virginia...and actually we spent most of it OUT of Virginia...and in West Virginia...whose state motto is "Wild and Wonderful".  It is still incredible to us how easy it is to get to a new state on the East Coast.

Appropriately, we spent our day being "wild and wonderful" and taking a scouting trip for a middle school Tubing Adventure we'll be going on in a couple weeks. We wanted to test it out and make sure it would be fun and safe and so we could be better prepared.  So we grabbed some of our new favorite people, Travis and Carly, and headed to West Virginia to float down the Potomac River in an inner tube.

It was SO fun and relaxing and beautiful!  We floated down the Potomac to where it met the Shenandoah River right where Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland meet. 

It was so pretty floating down a river surrounded by mountains full of giant trees and herons wading in the water next to you.  I even saw a snake on a rock eating some sort of amphibious creature. Of course I couldn't take my camera in the river, so I couldn't take pictures...but when we take the middle schoolers I am DEFINITELY getting a waterproof camera or maybe renting a waterproof casing for my camera.   But here is a google image of exactly what it looked like...in fact, we floated under that bridge.

We thoroughly enjoyed the exciting rapids and the great conversation with our new friends during the calm areas. When we got to the pick up point, we were some of the first ones there, so we decided to be wild and explore some of the surrounding areas, and we found such a pretty waterfall.  I was so sad I didn't have my camera...next time.

On a side note: I know it's ignorant...but here is what I pictured West Virginia folk to look like:

And I'm not gonna lie...I definitely saw a bearded man wearing dirty overalls and no shirt, standing next to another bearded man with a crazy boot tan and a Wu-Tang Clan shirt...but most other people were fairly normal.




So, ANYWAY...after we were done floating down the rapids, we had definitely built up an appetite, so I used iphone to find a nearby restaurant...and we stumbled into the most incredible place...historic Harper's Ferry.  We had floated by it in the river, but I couldn't tell exactly what it was from the river with the trees blocking most of it. Well, you might remember learning about it in history. I know Jared and I are a little bit of history nerds...and luckily Travis and Carly are a bit too...but hopefully you are too.  In the late 1700s, George Washington selected this small strip of land where the Potomac meets the Shenandoah River to be the location for the Federal Armory, where they made most all of the weapons for the USA.  Then in the early 1800s, Lewis and Clark went there to get all their weapons and supplies for their journey...including their collapsible boat.

Then in 1859, the abolitionist John Brown (you probably remember him from US History), led a raid on the armory with the intent to steal weapons to give to the slaves in Virginia and start a slave revolt.  He was unsuccessful and he and his men took refuge in the firehouse there for a couple days until Robert E. Lee led some of the army to take care of him.  Brown was captured, convicted of treason, and hanged nearby. However, this is said to be the event that catapulted the south to secede and the Civil War to begin....and Harper's Ferry was very instrumental in the Civil War. Being a border town, it changed hands 8 times, and the Armory was consequently burned down.

Ok...now that I've bored you with a history lesson...I'll tell you other reasons why Harper's Ferry was so great. It was seriously like stepping back in time. Travis and I decided that it reminded us of what we would picture Diagon Alley from Harry Potter to look like. We were secretly looking for Olivander's Wand Shop and Gringotts. It had small narrow cobblestone streets and really old store fronts with wooden signs hanging over the doors. When we got out of the car, I grabbed my camera...only to discover that I left my memory card at home like a moron. So I had to settle for iphone pictures...less than satisfactory. We ate DELICIOUS BBQ in an old converted caboose. There was this man with the most INCREDIBLE sideburns grilling some delicious food outside and we couldn't resist the smell. It was SO delicious. I had a pulled pork sandwich with homemade mac and cheese. So yummy!

After our bellies were fully satisfied, we walked around the old town and browsed the shops and admired the old buildings and even found some people dressed in colonial gear hanging out front of an old boot store. Here are some iphone pictures...

An old tunnel...

  The firehouse where John Brown and his men hid out and were captured.

Cute Carly and Travis 

The caboose we ate in with the delicious smoking BBQ out front and the man with the sideburns who walked behind the smoke RIGHT as I snapped the pic. So disappointed.

So that was our lovely day spent adventuring, learning, and enjoying the company of new friends.

A day well spent. I look forward to topping it!

We are gardeners.

Jared and I had a very productive Monday. We totally redid what little landscape we have. It was raining pretty much all day...so we gardened in the rain. It was really fun actually...and probably better than gardening in sweltering heat...so we'll take thunderstorms any day.  Here are some pictures of our hard work...and how dirty we got.  Also, those cute polka dot pots were a gift from one of my favorite people in the world, Nikki Lalague...and she painted them herself! Aren't they adorable!

HOME: Reflections on our first month on the East Coast

Well, it has been one month today that Jared and I started our adventures on the East Coast. This has definitely been the longest time I've been away from family, friends, California, and "home".  It has made me realize a few things about life...and you'll have to pardon my cliches for a moment. Although it's been an adjustment living in the hot, sticky weather, and I get lost when iphone lets me down, and everything is foreign...things haven't been too hard. I've only had one emotional breakdown, and it truly had nothing to do with being so far away from anything familiar, and everything to do with the realization at how much it costs to furnish a house.

Before I left California, I had the incredible pleasure of watching one of my favorite people, Katie Reagan, dance in her school's showcase. First of all, she's so talented and beautiful and creative... Secondly, she danced one piece to a song by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros called "Home".  (It's a great song...you should download it)  I've been enthralled with it ever since, and it kind of sums up how I've felt about our first month in a new place. "We laugh until we think we'll die / Barefoot on a summer night / Nothin' new is sweeter than with you...Home is wherever I'm with you."

I know it sounds completely cliche and a little out of character...but I've realized that as long as I am with my two best friends...Jared and Jesus. I'm not alone or lonely or lost. I'm home.

Now...that's not to say that I don't miss California, or my family, or friends, or Pedro's Tacos, or the ocean, or not sweating all day... It's just to say that I'm happy.

In completely unrelated news...I made some delicious individual sized peach cobbler's from scratch last night for Jared and me in my cute little souffle dishes I just purchased...and they were DELICIOUS!

Ninja Turtles, Spiderman, and Dehydration. What could be more American?

I must say, that this 4th of July was one of the most satisfying independence days I've experienced. We knew what we were getting ourselves into when we decided to spend the day in the National Mall in DC. We had heard that 3 million people descend on this area that's less then 2 miles long. So because we knew that, we prepared ourselves...and probably OVER-prepared. We wore comfortable running shoes (knowing we'd be walking a ton and not knowing if we'd find parking near the metro station), packed lots of water and cash, and of course camera equipment. Maybe it's because we over prepared...but it was WAY easier and less chaotic than we anticipated. Yes, there were a LOT of people...and yes, it was hot, and yes, we did a lot of walking...but it wasn't unbearable, and we would do it again. It was a really cool experience, being in the nation's capitol on 4th of July. The atmosphere was really laid back and fun. There were a lot of families making a day of it in the park, flying kites, playing cards...and one group even set up a full volleyball court in front of the Washington Monument. So cool! Parking at the metro was free and easy and it was a cinch to get into the city.  We spent the beginning of the day walking through The American History Museum, although we decided to come back on a day where there wasn't so many people...museums are so much more enjoyable when you can leisurely walk through without a sweaty Midwesterner bumping into you with his fanny-pack and stepping on your feet with his Tiva sandals.  However, we did stop at the Julia Child exhibit to see her kitchen because we had just watched Julia and Julia the night before. (Such a good movie!)

We also came across this Ninja Turtle exhibit. Pretty awesome. So, we spent the rest of the day walking around, trying to stay hydrated, eating good Americana food and enjoying the festival and the very satisfying people watching opportunities!

Our patriotic way to cool down...

Some of the sights of the day... Spiderman flying dangerously close to the Washington Monument... and the steps of the Capitol, crowded with people listening to Gladys Knight sing "Midnight Train to Georgia"

Here's a shot of the Lincoln Memorial at sunset, right before the fireworks started.  Can you see ALL of the PEOPLE on the steps?!

And then came the fireworks. MAN O MAN!  They were cool. We were sitting in between the Washington Monument and the Reflection Pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial (you know...the water Forrest Gump runs through to get to Jenny), which is where they set the fireworks off from. It was incredible. They explode right above your head and you can feel the boom in your chest. So cool!  Here are some of my favorite shots from the fireworks.

Here's a video Jared took of the fireworks...although below it is a better video of Obama and his 4th of July watching the same fireworks as us...although, we had the better view :)

Now, the only REALLY crazy chaotic time was right afterward.  Millions of people leaving the same place...sirens everywhere...and we didn't REALLY know where we were going to get back on the Metro (the station at the mall was closed for obvious reasons, and my phone...with my metro map, wasn't working...probably because there were millions of people right by me trying to do the same thing). But we did find a station...and got on....well, I should say SQUEEZED on. I've never seen a more full car. Insanity. It's a good thing I'm not a germophobe because that is a LOT of hands on that pole.

So, we made it back safely and in time for Jared to watch the Galaxy game, and me to take the best shower ever, after a full day of sweating. So that was our day?  How was yours? What did you do?