Post Bar Trip 1: DC and Alexandria

On Saturday, after breakfast with Hannah, we drove into DC to meet up with Chris, Kate, and Alana for the day. It was such an enjoyable day - hanging out with good company and just enjoying being done with the bar is the best feeling. :) Since it was a warm day we first walked around several of the gardens looking for different fountains. Alana was quite enamored with ALL the fountains so we visited quite a few. This one below was her favorite as you can see.

To cool off we visited the air conditioned Natural History Smithsonian. Alana was a pretty big fan of the mammals, especially the elephant and lion. Sadly we didn't get a good picture of the lion.

Some of the museum's "science" was a bit funny, but their mammal exhibit is great and we really enjoyed walking around and exploring it with Alana. We can't wait to talk our little girl back in a year or two! :)

Alana hadn't been on a big carousal so of course we had to take her on the big one on the mall. She was NOT sure what she thought of it at first, but relaxed and seemed to be enjoying it more by the end. The loud bell, music, and sudden motion I just think was a bit much at first.

Our baby enjoyed her first ride as well. :) (the sticker says "I rode the Carousel on the Mall" :))

The highlight of the day was visiting the Newseum. It's a fascinating and very well put together museum. The suggested time to allow to go through the museum was 8 hours. Thankfully none of us are *that* into museums so we managed to do it in 3+. :) Alana really enjoyed it as well, she found the information in the brochures especially fascinating.

Here's Nathan and I from the top floor observation deck. It was hot so we mostly just stayed inside. :)

9-11 exhibit…

Nathan with Elvis's guitar, of course… :)

After we were done in the Newseum we had a bit of time before dinner so we headed over to the Botanical Gardens since I had never been and we were sure Alana would love it. :)

She of course did, although I think the ducks in the pond outside were a bit more exciting to her (especially since "duck" is one of her words in her vocabulary).

Nathan and I spent the night outside the city and headed over to old town Alexandria a bit the next morning before we had to head back to W'burg for his firm's summer picnic. We really liked Alexandria and would enjoy going back sometime when we have more time. There are many quaint, beautiful streets to wander around.

AND, of course, we had to stop by Robert E. Lee's home since he is simply the best… (this is obviously not Nathan ;))

On the way home we stopped by Ikea - it was a my first visit and I'm a slightly overwhelmed and quite addicted. :) I can't wait to go back again sometime this fall!!

Post Bar Trip 1: Annapolis

Being finished with the bar may be one of the best feelings ever (for both of us)! I took Friday off and we headed up to Annapolis/DC for the weekend. We both just felt the need to get out of town and do something different since we've been around Williamsburg most of the summer.

We got up early on Friday and drove to Annapolis. We stayed at a really cute (and tiny :)) bed and breakfast over the famous "Chick and Ruth's Deli". The room, although small, was quite cozy and nice and the location right downtown on Main St. was perfect.

Steve, Liz and Sam were on their way out of Annapolis on Friday but managed to squeeze some time in to go for a quick walk and give us a tour of Liz's beautiful home city.

 Unfortunately we were so busy talking and catching up that we forgot to take any pictures with them. :( It was wonderful to see the three of them again!  Roanoke is just too far away!

After our walk with the VanStemp's we headed down to the docks were my friend, Hannah, is working the Woodwind sailing ship for the summer. Their afternoon sail had just 2 spots left so Nathan and I were able to go out with them. It was a gorgeous day for a sail and we had a great time. Since Annapolis is the sailing capitol of the world, it was the perfect way to spend the afternoon.

I even got to steer the boat for a bit.

Here is a picture of our ship's sister ship, Woodwind II, to give you an idea of what it looked like.

There were some pretty sweet yachts anchored in the harbor as we sailed in in out, below is an example. :p Apparently this row is called Ego Alley because all the yacht owners like to come and park their ships here and then sit on the decks to watch people gawk as they walk by. :p

We loved the sail though! Definitely a highlight of our trip!

Steve and Liz as well as Josh and Jessica recommended the "Penguin ice cream place" to us. It was just up the street from our B&B and it was just as amazing as they'd said! Here's Nathan posing with the Penguins. ;)

Annapolis is a beautiful city and rather small as well which is perfect for me now that I get tired a bit more easily. After our sail we headed over to Naval Academy.

We even got our own personal marching band performance! Not sure why these students were there in July, but it was fun to see them marching around.

We finished off the day with the most amazing dinner at a french restaurant, "Taste of Normandie". This restaurant is famous as it is where Steve took Liz before they got engaged - good choice, Steve. ;) We loved Annapolis and look forward to going back again soon!

Stroller

Since the bar consumed most of Nathan's free time earlier this summer and I don't particularly love working on baby things by myself, the day after the bar was a big baby day. We found a really nice glider rocking chair on Craigslist; the current cover is a bit ugly but it should be quite nice once we recover it. We haven't taken pictures of it yet because of the cover. ;) Based on Kate, Kjerstin and other's recommendation we've been planning on getting a Maclaren stroller for Baby Mortier. The color we like best is being discontinued so we were able to get a great deal, over 50% off! Below is a picture of me (26 weeks) practicing with the stroller. ;)

Alana's 1st Birthday

Since Nathan was studying quite diligently, the weekend before the bar I drove up to Baltimore to see Kjerstin and Nick and meet baby Bridget now that they've moved to the east coast! We're so excited to have them closer! Bridget is almost exactly one year older than our baby will be and we're sure they will be best friends. ;)

Although I did have to call Nick to ask him to parallel park my car on their street and I did get Kjerstin lost driving around Baltimore, ;) the visit overall was wonderful. They live in the cutest apartment right down town and Kjerstin's eye for decorating along with her Pottery Barn/Williams-Sonoma discount over the past two years has made it quite lovely. :) Sadly I got no pictures of their apartment or their cool street.

The trip to Baltimore coincided with my niece Alana's 1st birthday party.  Kjerstin and I share Alana as a niece so she and Nick were going up to Lancaster for the party and I was able to ride with them. It was great to see Chris, Kate and Alana again as well as most of Kate's family and my mom, Em and Caroline. Alana had a double birthday party with her cousin Thomas (turning 2). It was a Robin Hood/Maid Marian themed party, thus the fancy party hats and little Robin Hood that you see running around.

Can't you tell that Bridget and Alana are cousins? We'll see if our little girl gets the same chubby cheeks and big beautiful eyes. :) Both Alana and Bridget preferred chewing  their party hats to wearing them.

There were lots of party games, tons of delicious food and somewhere around 30 people at Chris and Kate's for the party.

On the way back to Williamsburg Kjer, Bridget and I stopped by Annapolis to see our good college friends Laura, Tiffany, and Hannah. Tiffany now lives in Texas so we of course had to all get together while she was back east for a few weeks. Laura hosted a beautiful brunch at her apartment.

Her apartment is on a farm consisting mostly of hens and sheep. The sheep were hilarious and got so excited when we went down to visit them

I was of course very glad to be back in Williamsburg with Nathan, but it was a very fun girls weekend and gave him time to study without me interrupting every hour asking if it's time for a break yet. ;)

Flying Squirrels!

We've wanted to go to a Richmond Flying Squirrels game ever since Drew came back raving about them (and especially his Flying Squirrels hat ;)) as has the Youth Group. We were finally able to go mid-July with the YG. It was a sweltering night with I'm sure at least 110% humidity, but we still had a great time. Sadly the Squirrels lost, but they kept it an interesting game!

The park is pretty small so all the seats are great. I think the boys mostly watched the game and the girls mostly stood in line for food, however everyone enjoyed it, so that's good. ;)


Nutzy, the Flying Squirrel mascot, even came up and visited us - definitely a highlight. ;)

We missed Drew and Rachel a lot, but are glad they gave us such a great outing idea!