So tired...

@Barnes & Noble. wearing a cape and cowboy boots. reading books. exhausted.
I. will. miss. him.

the younger brother. rosy cheeks all the time. cute & chubby. sweetness.
I. will. miss. him. too.

Winding down...

My, how the time has flown! As you can imagine, things around here are quite busy. Walt is rounding third base and finishing up his studies. I am collecting boxes and packing. We only have 2 more weeks until Walt graduates and we make the trek back to TN! We are so thrilled yet so sad. Thrilled to go back home and be near our family and friends again and at the same time sad to leave our friends we've made here. It has truly been a wonderful year for us. We've loved our experience here and will miss living in this area. But, we are certainly looking forward to our next season! Here are some pictures of what we've been up to lately:

The Megordens had us over for a 'good-bye' dinner. We are so going to miss this dear family!

Fishing on the Chesapeake Bay with Dave

Day trip to the city of brotherly love!

Walt really enjoyed his first Philly cheesesteak at Pat's...check out all of the huge cans of cheez whiz in the background...ewww...

Liberty Bell and Independence Hall

Day trip to Annapolis with Corby and Vilma...
Corby graduated from the US Naval Academy and gave us a tour of the campus and town. It was a beautiful and quaint seaside town.

Our friends, the Altrogges, asked us to babysit their little girl while they went on a getaway. It was so much fun and so easy to care for her. Don't you just want to squeeze those sweet cheeks?! I'm going to miss her. Especially hearing her say, "Oh yes" and singing Amazing Grace.
10k race with Jen

Cherry Blossums in DC!

Two weekends ago, I ran the Cherry Blossum 10-mile Run in Washington DC. The weather was beautiful at a high of 68 degrees and sunny. Being my first race, I wasn't sure how it would turn out. Training had been really good for me, but definitely hard at times. I am glad to say that I had a great experience and a lot of fun too. I was also able to meet my goals of finishing the race and ran the entire time. Yay!

The race course was picturesque and beautiful with the Cherry Blossums in bloom and memorials/monuments/capitol in view. (Enjoy these pictures, Allyson!)

The start/finish line was at the Washington Monument.
One of the ways that motivated me to keep runnin' was looking forward to seeing this handsome face at mile 3, 7, and the finish line. My biggest fan!I am so glad I did it!

The Trumps run loose in DC!

My sister and her family came to visit and we had an absolute blast with them! We miss them so much and look forward to living back in the same city with them soon. Here are some highlights from their visit with us:

Riding the Metro with the kids was an adventure because it was their first time. As you can imagine, they were so excited! Jake LOVED it and could not take his eyes off of the windows while we sped through the stations and tunnels. He kept on saying, "Wow, we're going really fast!"

The kids love going to the zoo, so of course we packed our lunches and headed to the National Zoo and loved every minute of it!

We love this family so much!

The giant pandas were incredible. I usually don't think bears are cute, but this mommy, daddy, and baby panda were so adorable. I am so amazed at God's creation.
We also saw a Mommy Gorilla holding her newborn baby girl (born January 10th of this year). It was really cool to see. Sorry, no picture!

Tiger Crow orchids at the National Museum of Natural History - yet again - I am in awe of God's creativity!

Sweet Jake

Racing to the White House

Walt and Chris made homemade potato chips! Mmm..mmm..good!

Love you, Diemmie!

Of course, we ventured to Eden Center in Arlington, VA to enjoy Vietnamese food together. The center is filled with many Vietnamese restaurants, jewelry stores, hair and nail salons, bakeries, and music stores. My sister and I are blessed to have husbands that LOVE our culture's cuisine. The food was fabulous!

Thank you for coming to visit us! We love you guys and miss you so much already!

Snow, snow, snow!

On Saturday, Walt's parents came up for a visit and were delightfully greeted by 6-7 inches of snow over the course of their stay.

Celebrating Jeanie's birthday with a home-cooked meal and Judy's Chocolate Pie

The backyard of our home is surrounded by woods and a walking path, so we trekked out for a snow walk. Of course this included making snow angels and snowball fights.

Shoveling snow off the cars

Dined at Gadsby's Tavern in Old Town Alexandria
Walt's dad and entire family are HUGE Wake Forest fans. Every game viewed with them is always intense. For Christmas, we had the idea to get him tickets to the WF and MD game. So, we made the trek to College Park and the Deacons won! It was such a good game.

Coming up: My sister and brother-in-law along with my niece and nephews are coming to visit next weekend! I am SO excited about their visit! We have missed them so much!