On the way home...

Once the summer ended and we were able to take our little season-ending New York trip (which I had ALWAYS wanted to do), Aaron, was able to do what HE most wanted to do: see Chapel Hill in North Carolina.

The trip from Baltimore to Utah takes about 3 days at a steady pace, traveling just through the days. We, on the other hand, chose the long route, and had driven from New York basically, so our return trip was 44 hours long, crammed in our little Honda civic! But we figured there wouldn't be any other time in our life that we could actually take our time seeing things on the east coast that we otherwise probably wouldn't. We took the southern route, stopping in North Carolina to see the Tarheels campus. Aaron was pretty much in heaven, since he is obsessed with their basketball team and blew a good amount of money in the gift shop! Aaron snuck into the basketball court while I sat in the car, protecting it from getting a ticket. I guess he tried asking to meet the coach, but that didn't really pan out. Too bad...
Yes, Aaron did buy this hair.

University of North Carolina campus, in front of the football field.


As we were leaving the gift shop, I spotted this picture of Tyler Hansbrough, and Aaron wanted to stalk him.. or at least find out where his classes were and get an autograph. That didn't happen either.

After North Carolina, we headed down through South Carolina where I hoped my brother Craig's mission president would let us see him, but he didn't. So we continued on to Atlanta. My cousin, Amber & her husband Brandon live just outside of Atlanta so we stopped and said hi to their family for a bit then headed to one of Aaron's best friend's house, Sam, whose family actually helped him get baptized. It was really good meeting them. We stayed the night there, then took off to Memphis.

We love Mississippi for this reason: we were looking for a bathroom break as soon as we crossed the state line, so we get off on the exit that says Rest Stop... and I have never seen anything like it. As this sign says, "Mississippi, the south's warmest welcome," they don't mess around. The "rest stop" was almost like a mini museum, with the cleanest bathrooms ever, and little old ladies inside, offering free soda! It was beautiful in that state too, and Aaron even entertained the idea of us moving there... but I don't see that happening.

You probably can't see this very well, but this is also at the rest stop, Aaron is gesturing at our EXCEEDINGLY full car, with all of our belongings crammed into the back and trunk! After that road trip, I didn't want to sit for 2 days.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

The summer has finally ended!!!
Aaron had extended so we were in Baltimore an extra month, and then after 3 weeks, Aaron came home from knocking and decided he was done selling and that we should take off that night and go to New York!! And I did not hesitate. We drove the 3 1/2 hours to New Jersey, stayed the night in a crappy, smoky hotel, then took the train into the city 10 minutes away the next morning. We ended up staying right in Manhattan at Aaron's friend, Sara's apartment the rest of the time, and it turned out so nice! Here's some of our adventures to mark the first 5 months of our marriage, and the end to an Apx summer!!

The first night in NY, we decided since the Yankees (who Aaron hates) were playing the White Sox (who Aaron loves), we bought scalped tickets once again and were able to see one of the last games in the old Yankee stadium. Yankees won and Aaron was pissed.Here was Time Square, I was loving all the shopping and how everything was so bright and crazy down there! More of Times Square... I thought of how cool it would be to be there for New Years when the ball drops!You can't go to New York without seeing a Broadway play, so we decided on Young Frankenstein, since I'd only heard of it but never seen it, plus I thought it wouldn't be too obnoxious for Aaron. He actually really liked it! It was funny and entertaining although the play started an hour late because of technical difficulties and everyone was annoyed and wanting their money back...
We took a double decker tour bus around all over Manhattan and Brooklyn and learned about some of the cool sites. This building is where Ghostbusters was filmed, at the end with the crazy, scary lady that used to freak me out as a kid.
We were on the bus in the middle of the busy city, and as we were passing, I saw The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on a building, and I'm like.. "Aaron, there's a church!" And then we realized, oh wait, that's the temple!! We barely snapped a picture of it before we barreled down the street.
This is Seaport, the dock that has a little shopping mall, and where boat tours take off. I liked this fancy little Statue of Liberty =)The real thing, from our boat tour! It was really cool seeing the Statue of Liberty, I felt patriotic.
With so many restaurants to choose from, we settled on Bubba Gumps one night, and Aaron is posing in front of a mural of the Jenny boat.

While at Seaport and killing time before our boat tour, we found a Halloween store and messed around.
V for Vendetta... this movie was weird and I didn't get it, but apparently Aaron liked it!
The Empire State Building by day, from the ground...On top of the Empire State Building at night, with Sara, Aaron's friend we stayed with.Gorgeous view!! The city is SO HUGE.Ground Zero: where the World Trade Centers used to be. There is construction going on, where they are leaving a void of where the towers used to be and putting fountains instead. There was a Memorial/museum that we went to, and it was really sombering to be so close to where 9/11 happened, and it felt more real to be with New Yorkers and the fast paced way of life and to realize how recent of an event that was, that it's still a sensitive issue for so many people.While taking our 3-day bus tour, we meant to go downtown, but ended on the route to Brooklyn which we hadn't planned on, but it was fun nonetheless. We ended up hopping off the bus and walking back across the Brooklyn Bridge. I love MACY'S!!! This Macy's in New York is the largest store in the world and it's where they have the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade every year. I was determined to buy some boots while I was in New York and I spent a good hour or 2 trying on tons at Macy's, with Aaron even looking at prices for me! I couldn't justify paying $500 for boots (everything is more expensive in New York) so I came home with clothes instead.. no complaints from me =)Just lovin the tour bus!Beautiful Central Park: New York is soooo busy and has people everywhere, and as soon as we got to Central Park I realized, wow this is the first time I've seen grass anywhere. It's so relaxing and the only getaway from city life.Aaron in front of the famous bridge we saw pictures of all over the city that peddlers were selling and suckered us into buying.Sportin the I love NY t-shirt in front of Central Park with the city skyscrapers in the backgroundThe Bull in the Financial District, by Wall Street I insisted on finding F.A.O Schwarz just so I could play on the piano from BIG! Apparently it's a popular spot- there was an obnoxious lady with her 3-year old that kept taking up the entire keyboard and all we wanted was a few pictures but she was always in the way!! Yup, that's her on the side..Harry Potter made totally out of Legos!! This was pretty sweet.. I wonder how long that took
The little square/fountain outside Sara's apartment where we would buy breakfast and eat it every morning. This was our last day in New YorkGettin ready to leave and catch the train back to New Jersey to get our car. I kept making fun of Aaron because he would carry his duffle bag on his bag like this, like a back pack. How embarrassing! But he wasn't huffing and puffing like I was, hauling my bag around normally so I think this little idea worked.

Welcoming in September

Embarrassing story of the week:

This Sunday, we had slept through the family ward that we usually attend that starts at 9, so we decided- No big deal, we'll just go to the singles ward in Baltimore (30 mintues away) that started at 1 pm. So we took our time getting ready and making peanut butter pancake sandwiches for breakfast. We jump in the car, and drive down there, so proud of ourselves for making it on time! We walk into the chapel and I'm thinking there's an awful lot of people there already for Sacrament and they're starting to sing the opening song already. We go to the back where some of the Techs from are team are sitting, while everyone stares at us. We open the hymn book to the first song, and realize that's not right.... turns out church ENDED at one, and started at 10 and we had walked in to catch the closing song and prayer during the last 3 minutes of church!! We couldn't understand how we both had thought we'd made it on time because we'd been to the singles ward a couple times before, and then totally missed it this week! Luckily there was a baptism after church, so we played it off like we had come specifically for that! Even so, we felt like total IDIOTS!! The techs had a good laugh, as did we, but hey at least we tried!!

Baltimore: Home of the ORIOLES

We didn't have tickets so we scalped them off a guy for $10 a piece and they turned out to be great seats! They killed the Minnesota Twins, who didn't even score a run til the last inning.It was SUCH a humid day in Baltimore, I was dying, since I can't stand the humidity. ( I still can't believe I survived 18 months in Brazil- it was only by divine assistance that I made it day in and day out!) But we had a great time watching the ball game.




Standing outside the gate after the game. Why I wore pants on such a humid day, I have NO IDEA.

Fans after the game

With 2 more weeks to go, we finally made it! We'd been planning on going to an Orioles game all summer, but always ended up doing something else.. til this weekend.

After the game, we walked around downtown, to check out the Lexington Market that we had heard was cool, but ended up being closed already. Walking back to the car, we happened upon this lovely building, and decided it could be our new home. Baltimore is SO rundown and ghetto!
We were also able to go to the Temple this week, back in Virginia. It had been a while but we were glad to finally make it again since the DC temple is so pretty. I even randomly ran into an old friend there that I had met while in Guatemala 5 years ago. Such a small world with Mormons!Aaron's buddy, Erick Martinez hung out with us for a few days, since most of our friends had left already after the normal selling season. Last Saturday was pouring rain and no good for knocking, so us 3 ended up going to the Towson mall all day, it was great! Erick ended up taking off for home last week, so that was kinda sad.

Our outing to DC for the last time of the summer:
From the freeway, the DC Temple pops out of nowhere, and it looks like you're going to drive right into it! Several people have told us that they thought it looked so cool & always wondered what it was. Apparently a few years ago, the lights were so bright on it that people were getting in crashes because they kept staring. They've dimmed the lights since then!We went on a scenic bike ride through beautiful trails outside of DC. I hadn't ever really ridden a bike since I was a kid, so I was nervous about it, but then 16 miles later, I didn't think it was too bad! We met up with Aaron's cousin & wife: Randy and Lisa, whom we've visited a couple times this summer. They showed us the way around and to the best trails. It was such a beautiful day to be outdoors!

Aaron, me, Lisa, and Randy on a bridge on the trail

Well although it looks like all we do is party and visit really cool places out here,(which we do) we really DO go to church on Sundays! Here's another cheesy smile picture driving home from Church last Sunday, which happens to be about 25 minutes away, so it is quite an effort to get there by 9 am! Okay I love this cute little picture of Aaron, sneaking a taste of dinner! He's always wearing his light blue Apx polo and shorts, which I'm sure we're both sick of, and the other night we went to a movie (House Bunny- it's hilarious!) and he actually dressed up in a new brown shirt we bought a few weeks ago- PLUS he had a new haircut that morning, so he was looking pretty studly! And he's going to just LOVE me for posting this for all to see...
Storytime:
I might have to tell about how I was really retarded the other night, and experienced one of those married moments when you freak out over nothing!!.. Aaron loves the entertainment of me screaming when he jumps out and scares me all the time, whether I'm in the shower, or when it's one of those rare occasions when he gets home from work before I do, and he keeps the lights off, then jumps out of the kitchen and gives me a heart attack!..

The other night, we had watched a movie, then were getting ready for bed, and I had gone to use our other bathroom and assumed Aaron was still getting ready for bed. I turned around the corner and saw everything was pitch black- he had turned out all the l ights and wasn't answering when I called him, and I thought for SURE he was going to jump out at me. And even when I know it's coming, I still get scared, so I opted to not go into our room yet, hoping he'd give up eventually and come out of his hiding spot. After several "K, it's not funny anymore," or "Let's just go to bed, I know you're hiding somewhere," I still was too chicken to go in there.. stupid, I know (and I was making a fool out of myself too!!)

I pouted on the couch for 20 minutes before I realized I was beieng ridiculous, so I ran through the hall to our room, to find him not hiding, but sound ASLEEP! You'd think I'd be relieved but alas I was ticked off! One of those girly emotional things where you feel like crying over nothing and making a big deal out of things, which I DID- for like 20 minutes for really no reason at all! I felt like an idiot in the morning, but I'm a lucky girl to have a husband that gets yelled at for doing nothing but then can laugh about it later with me!