Washington DC

Micah had a leadership conference to go to at the end of April in Washington DC, and we decided to turn it into a getaway for us. The boys went to Arizona with Micah's parents to visit the great grandparents (I'll post about that soon) while we were away. So it was a lot of packing and preparation for the two trips. Also during our stay we flew up to NYC to visit a few of our friends for a day...that will be posted about later as well. Here is all we did while we were there...it rained the whole time we were there, except for the day we lobbied on the Hill, which worked out well because we weren't soaking wet during our meetings with the congressmen. So I tried to fix my pictures and brighten them up as best as I could to make them a bit better. So don't be surprised if you see a lot of umbrellas!

Our hotel was just down the street from the White House, so we took a walk over there and on our way we passed the Treasury

and the statue of Sacajawea

It was raining out, so I didn't notice any patrolmen on top of the roof where they usually are.

We then took the Metro to Arlingotn and walked 15 minutes to see Iwo Jima

Here is a veiw from Arlingon on our walk to the statue. Keep this in mind as we then continued and walked all the way from here back beyond the Washington Monument! (and this was at full zoom on my camera).

Iwo Jima

Finally making it to the Lincoln Memorial. We really wanted another picture here since the picture we took together during my semester in DC was small (below).

Vietnam War Memorial

WWII memorial

Washington Monument

Jefferson Memorial

My shoes that I was stupidly wearing while we went on this tiny walk of ours...I was expecting to just go to some museum since it was raining...but we just kept going. Those cobblestones didn't help at all either! And this was our first day out there. I had to wear heels that night for a dinner, the next day for the Hill visits, and the banquet in the evening too! I was dying!!! I was just short of begging Micah to carry me the rest of the way to the Metro.

Micah had drinks here at the Willard Hotel's infamous Round Robin Bar while I was shopping for a dress for the banquet. I was supposed to have High Tea at the Willard that week, but when we got there, someone mixed things up and they weren't prepared to have our large party there. We ended up eating in their cafe, but it wasn't the same experience.

Lobbying on the Hill

With Health Care Reform on the agenda this year, we are concerned with how surgical specialties will be addressed, if at all. It is vitally important that patients have access to these specialties, and if the government is going in the direction we think it's going...access to care and compensation are going to be dramatically decreased. In the end we recognize that the public will inevitably be unhappy to wait 6-12 months for a knee replacement, but that will be the price to pay for "free" health care!

We were getting ready in our room when we heard all these sirens going off...and we looked out the window at the police and secret service brigade going down Penn Ave toward the White House...so Obama is probably in one of those limos!

It was crazy to see the Blazers at the end with the hatch open and snipers hanging out.

I had drinks with Joseph, one of my best friends from my semester in DC. It was wonderful to see him again and I was so happy that he was still working in DC and loving it :)

Pat, who was the director for Indiana and Wisconsin during the conference received an achievement award during the banquet.

On her last day she took us out for dinner at the Oval Room (because we were the only ones still around). We did their tasting menu (hence all the wine glasses) and had such a great time!

The next morning I met Jen, one of my friends from middle school, for brunch. It's crazy who you find on Facebook and connect back with!

We walked some more-I was still dying by the way, but dying in gym shoes this time-around DC. Here is a mural on the side of a building in Adams Morgan that Micah loved.

We relaxed at Dupont Circle for a bit and did some reading. There were a ton of bikers taking off from there, but my camera was too slow to get the mass of them taking off.

We had reservations at a restaurant in Georgetown that night, and while we walked, yet again, to our dinner we passed this huge mass of people and found out that Obama was having dinner at this particualar restaurant. So I snapped a few more photos and continued to our restaurant down the street. So here is our second Obama "sighting" ;)

Dinner at our favorite restaurant in Georgetown, Mei N Yu. I should have taken more pictures inside, because the atmosphere is amazing along with the food. www.meinyu.com
And I think my friend Jen did their website!

Micah wanted his picture taken. I guess even on vacation you can't get medicine off the brain!

After we got back from our mini trip to NYC we stayed with one of Micah's friends from mission trip. We told them we wanted to Sushi, so they ordered for us and we at it all! It was so good!! It was great to meet his friends, and thanks to Yuneng for letting us stay at his place our last night :)

Yum :) I never thought I'd enjoy sushi...but it surprised me. I reccomend to everyone to at least give it a chance. It helps to go with friends who know what to order though!

Our last day we did some more...walking! I was meeting up with another friend of mine who works on the Hill. So it gave me another opportunity to take more pictures. Here is our great Capitol.

My friend Lauren who was one of my roommates during our semester in DC.

This is how dark it was the whole week!

Library of Congress
The Lincoln exhibit was great, and I believe it's on tour now...so if you have the chance be sure to check it out!

Supreme Court
During my semester I attended a hearing, and it was one of the greatest things I did. It's hilarious to read up on the judges and their views, and then sit and watch them in action. Their mannerisms were so funny to me, I really really enjoyed it.

Here is Union Station. I didn't retouch the photo above to show how our weather was.

Union Station

Yuneng took us to the National Building Musem, which was really fun. It's a great place to take kids if you are visiting.

Chinatown-can you tell how tired I am??

Smithsonian

After enjoying some Starbucks here we went back to Yuneng's to pick up our suitcases and head off on the Metro to the airport for home. It was a great trip and we did so much. I was so happy to see all our friends again, and have some time with my husband without the boys. I'll be posting our NYC trip and the boy's Arizona trip soon :)

SOLD!

Here's the picture with the SOLD sign...it's not a fantasy anymore-it's reality!! :)
We sold our old house!! It has been on the market for over two years now, and if any of you know me personally-you understand the nightmare it has been for us these past few years. This was the house we bought after we found out we were pregnant with Aiden. We had what was thought to be a great Realtor and had a guaranteed buy out from her. The long and the short of it, she fixed it so she could back out due to a loophole in the purchase agreement and told us she was not buying the house as we're on our way to the closing AFTER she put us up in early possession of our current house with papers signed. We were really in a pickle, and greatfully had the graciousness of our family to help us out of our predicament. A lawsuit was filed-etc...it's been a long process.
But now, after over 2 long years of waiting it seems like the headaches will finally go away :) We are set to close by the end of this month, so we'll finally celebrate properly at that time when the papers are signed at the closing table. Until then we are walking around with huge smiles on our faces :)
Thank you so much to our wonderful Realtor Dawn for all her hard work and dedication...we only had to go through about 5 other Realtors to find her...but it is working out in the end.
Many lessons learned from all this, I must say. I still don't think I regret our decision to buy the house in the first place, I just regret who we trusted.
Thank you to our wonderful family for all the patience you have had with us during this ordeal. We are so greatful for all the support you have given us. All of your help with taking the necessary steps to rectify our situation has been invaluable, thank you for all you have done!
We love you :)
So I'm hoping to get a picture taken of the house with a SOLD sign out front, that way it won't seem so surreal to me...haha :) WOOOOHOOOO!!!!!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all you Mommies out there! It has been a crazy couple of weeks, and I have a lot to post about. Micah and I left for DC and NYC on the 28th and got back really late on the 5th. The boys went with Micah's parents to Arizona to visit Great Grandma and Grandpa on the 29th-3rd, and then got back home to us late on the 6th. Then Sandy came here to have shoulder surgery on the 7th. It's been very busy, especially with Micah's crazy call schedule-he still has to get all his call in basically 3 weeks. So he's sleeping upstairs right now after a very long call night last night. And to top it all off...we got an offer on our house that's been on the market for over 2 years now! So I had to figure out our next move for a counter offer, only having the chance to talk to Micah for a minute inbetween cases. We are waiting now for a response, and we're praying that this will work out! They want to close by the end of the month, which is great-except that my surgery is the 29th and then we are supposed to leave for California June 3rd...
I think we're going to wait on that until after we find out what, if anything, is going on with the house. At any rate, Micah may just go for the conference and then come back instead of extending it into a mini vacation as planned.
But we're not jumping the gun and we're just waiting for some good things to happen right now. Please pray!!
I can't wait to finish getting the pictures from our trips ready to post for you all! It was a great time, and I'll share soon :)