Washington D.C. 2012

We just got back from our last trip for a while and we had so much fun in Washington D.C.! We are so lucky we have friends up there and I'm really sad that they are all moving away soon. That will make it much less fun, so I'm glad that I was able to go up with Jordan for his training!

As usual, we had to stay at the FDIC Student Center. It's pretty lame but it's fine to stay in. Nothing fancy. I was really glad they got new TVs because the old ones were really lame. But it's nice that they let me come with him.

I've been really bored when I've gone up with Jordan before so this time I came prepared. Before we left I baked a cake and then froze it because I really wanted to try the ruffling technique, so Monday I busted out my cake decorating stuff.

Impressive, no?

Ha ha, just kidding. That's the cake after I dirty iced it.

Here's the first squiggle.

I look a little creepy in this picture.

So, funny story, about halfway through icing it I realized that I only had half the amount of icing I needed. It's a pretty icing-intense way to frost. So I was only able to frost half of it.

But if you only look at the frosted half, it's really fun!

Unfortunately, it only took me about 45 minutes to frost the cake. It's SO easy. And very adorable, in my opinion.

Anyway, I also worked out every day while Jordan was at work until I hurt my foot on Wednesday. LAME. I got off the treadmill and I could barely walk. I must have strained something. Big bummer.

I also interviewed a girl for an article I'm writing for Southwest Georgia Living magazine, so that took up some time too. Other than that, I watched a lot of "House Hunters" and "Say Yes to the Dress" while Jordan was at work.

After he got home was when we really had some fun!

On Tuesday I was able to go out for shakes and fries with my good friend Laura, who was my roommate my sophomore year at BYU. She is so awesome and independent and capable. She told me she is considered moving to NYC! I will definately have to go visit her there too.

We were lame and didn't take any pictures, but here is a picture from BYU:

I look pretty dorky but I only had one picture of JUST Laura and me!

It was really fun. I got to go see her cute little house and hear about her fun single life. It made me reminisce about being at BYU in apartment 55!

On Friday Jordan got done with his class at around 11 so we headed down to the National Mall with our friend Calmann. Deise had tried to get work off but her boss wouldn't let her. Sad day! But we took a tour of the National Bureau of Engraving and Printing. That's where they make all the money.

I could really use a million dollars. And it was just sitting there!

After that we went to see the WWII Memorial. They had all the names of the states around this pretty fountain, so of course we had to pose.

I reluctantly posed by this one.

Calmann declined to pose by a state. He wanted Texas (they are moving there next year!) but we would have had to walk a long ways.

Then we visited the Lincoln Memorial, which I hadn't seen before. It was pretty cool. It reminded me of temples for Greek gods...which I'm sure was the point.

This is where Martin Luther King, Jr stood while giving the I Have a Dream speech. It was pretty neat to see that.

After Deise finally got off work (YAY!) we all went to eat at Maggiano's, which was an awesome Italian food place. When I saw it was next to a Cheesecake Factory I insisted we go there instead, but Calmann convinced us to go to Maggiano's for dinner and then get cheesecake after. Good plan, Calmann.

Aren't they such a cute couple?

And, of course, our cheesecake.

Snickers for me, please!

Deise got some amazing 30th anniversary cheesecake,
 which was ridiculously good.

We played ticket to ride and then went to sleep. They kicked us out of the FDIC hotel on Friday, so Deise and Calmann were sweet enough to place host and hostess at their place so we could spend some extra time in D.C. with them!

The next morning we all just hung out and then in the afternoon went paddleboating in the Potomac. Deise and I let the boys paddle us around while we relaxed in the back of the boat. We felt like royalty!

We make those lifejackets look good!

The boys did a good job, and they let me take pictures of them! Yay!

Here's the dirty water. Yuck.

And the Jefferson Memorial.

We posed by the Washington Memorial. Deise was awesome enough to get that helicopter in the background. Jordan was pretty sure Obama was flying in it to go grab a hamburger.

That night the boys when to a sports bar and grill to watch the BYU game with a bunch of Calmann buddies. Of course the game didn't start until 10 Eastern time so it was going to be a late night! Deise and I dropped the boys off (because there is no parking anywhere in D.C.) and then went to the Cheesecake Factory...yes, again. And it was still awesome. We got an appetizer and then some (of course) cheesecake! Deise got the Oreo Dream cheesecake which was SO good. I got the carrot cake cheesecake which tasted more like carrot cake than cheesecake. It was a bit disappointing, but we still had so much fun! We didn't leave the restaurant until midnight since we were just chatting and having so much fun! 

I didn't take a picture of us but I found these old ones of Deise and I and thought they were pretty funny. So for your viewing pleasure:

We knew we'd have to get the boys around 2:00 so we decided to rent a movie we watched The Lucky One since we wanted a chick flick and there wasn't a whole lot of good stuff at RedBox. Besides, I'm a Zac Efron fan. And it was pretty good! My favorite part was the 5 seconds where Zac does dog agility with one of the dogs at the kennel he works at. I got a kick out of that!

Anyway, definitely the best Nicholas Sparks movie I have seen. We both enjoyed it. (Meagan--if you haven't seen this yet you need to! It's your kind of movie!) We left to get the boys and got back around 2:30 (AM! I am almost never up past midnight. It was crazy, and yet fun). We crashed in our beds and the next morning got up and left for home around 9. We were so tired! But we made it home safely. 

I'm so glad Jordan's job pays for us to go see our friends! How fun! Woot woot!