A Day at the Zoo

March 23th & 24th

This weekend we headed up to Washington DC to meet Ben, Shelby and Ryn. After a relaxing quiet evening Friday night, we were up and out ready for adventures Saturday morning. (Ben was up so early, he took apart his truck, brought it into our hotel room, worked on it, fixed it and put it all back together before we all got us!! That dude is crazy!)

Our first stop was a little morning shopping. We headed down the road to the Leesburg Outlets. We didn't find a lot of great deals but we had a great time running around with Ryn.

After shopping we headed into the VERY CONGESTED Washington DC to go to the zoo. We struck out with find lunch in a near by neighborhood and after so ridiculous traffic situations we decided to just go park at the zoo and eat there.

The zoo was great! Even though it was pretty chilly, we were able to see the panda bears, monkeys, an elephant, and tons of birds. It was so fun to watch Ryn run around and check out all the animals and people.

That evening we were able to meet up with one of Ben's old buddies for dinner at a diner near our hotel. It was so great to see him!

Sunday we headed down to the outlets south of DC and the IKEA. We even got play with Ryn in the play area at the outlets and grab lunch at IKEA. But it wasn't long before it was time for everyone to head back. We had such a great time with them and I look forward to our next adventure.

On our way back home, we made a quick pit stop to visit Jordan & Charlotte. It was so great to see them and catch up on life before hitting the road.

Unfortunately, we ran into a snow storm so we got to extend our weekend by an extra night. We made it as far as we could before we found a place to stop for the night. We got back on the road early the next morning and made it home in time for work and plenty of snow!

The National Zoo

July 13th - 15th

Jed and I headed north this weekend to visit our friends, Jordan & Charlotte in Washington DC. We started the weekend heading out to some live music at Friday Night Live on the lawn in Herndon. We spent the evening talking to new people, hanging out and listening to music. It was such a nice night. Before heading back to the house, we made a quick stop for ice cream at Milwaukee Frozen Custard.

Saturday was a fun day. We spent the morning just relaxing and catching up of life before heading out for an afternoon of adventure. Our first stop was to the National Zoo in Washington DC. I have never been and I was really excited to see the panda bears since we didn't get an opportunity to see any in China.

It was a super hot day so we only walked around the park for a few hours before finding a place for lunch. We made our way down to Dupont Circle and found a pizza place called Pizzeria Paradiso. It was really good and a great place to escape the heat for a little while. After pizza, we had heard rumor, that there was a Jamba Juice close by and we HAD to check it out. Much to our surprise, we found one that had just opened a few days ago. We were so excited!

After Jamba Juice, we headed back to the house to regroup for the evening festivities. We were meeting Brian, Alayna and there 3 kids at Great Falls National Park for a picnic dinner. Thankfully the weather cooperated and we were able to grill out and walked to 2 of the 3 lookout points before it was time to call it a night.

To finish our evening, we were able to watch Captain America in Jordan's movie room. Very impressive. I wish I could watch all movies that way.

On Sunday, Jordan and Charlotte were gracesion enough to tackle the craziness of Tyson's Corner so we could go to the Switch Store to get Jed's watches fixed. The Switch Store was a bust but we were able to get some stuff taken care of while we were there. Jordan and Charlotte were even able to take care of a few things too before we stopped for lunch at Cafe Deluxe. Not long after lunch, we had to hit the road. But on our way back we had a few stops. We stopped in Gainsville to meet up with Mike, who used to work with Jed at Tech and catch up for a little while and then we stopped in Lexington to have dinner with Jeremy & Remy as they were traveling home from Charlotte for the weekend.

We had such a great time spending time with so many friends for the weekend and look forward to the next time we get to see them all during football season.