Ma, Pa and Em come to visit

 My wonderful parents and sister came to town a couple of days ago and we had a blast with them! I loved showing them my new home and showing them around town.  Our first stop was Good Stuff Eatery. Friends, if you come to visit me I will take you here and your mind and mouth will be blown. Best burger, fries and shakes on this planet earth. And I am not lying when I say that. Seriously, sooo good.

Oh! And I dyed my hair back to brown... what a surprise!

After we stuffed ourselves good we went to the Nationals game. It was lots of fun and the stadium is so nice. But it still doesn't compare to BOB. 

The next day we went to Annapolis, Maryland.  It is a cute little town on the ocean and the Navy school is there. It was cool seeing tons of students walking around in their white nave suits.  For lunch we ate some yummy sea food, of course!

On Sunday we visited the temple and saw an amazing are exhibit in the visitors center.

Sure do love these two.

And Monday we went to the outlets in Leesburg and boy was that dangerous. I told myself I am not allowed to buy anymore clothes for the rest of the year! My parents and sister are gone now and I miss them loads but can't wait to see them at Christmas!

Camping in Shenandoah Valley

Nathan and I went camping in Shenandoah, Virginia this weekend and it was awesome! The weather was perfect except it rained both mornings while we were sleeping. It was so gorgeous and so green. Nathan's dream job is to one day become a park ranger and I wouldn't mind living in a beautiful forest :) We saw lots of wildlife while there too.

A deer

A butterfly

Or two

Some Monarch cocoons, it looks like there is gold beading on them!

This picture breaks my heart. Nathan and I were driving back to our campsite after our hike and saw two cars pulled over. So we pulled over and I grabbed my camera to see what everyone was looking at. There was a little black bear wondering in a field of flowers and he popped his head up for about one second and I snapped a picture. I was so happy because I knew I got it on camera! I went back to look at the picture and it focused on the trees... If you look towards the middle of the picture the black smear is a bear, I promise!

A leaf in the shape of a heart

We went on a really beautiful hike along a river and some cascading falls

 Nathan says I am dressed like a mom in this picture...

And of course we had some foil dinners and smores!

We also got to try out a bunch of our new camping gear including out new tent from Rivka. Thanks Rivka!

It was lots of fun and I can't wait to go camping again!!

Orangutans

Well everything at the zoo has been going great! This last week I was with the orangutans. Although I do love the orangutans, I love the gorillas more. Orangutans are just not as nice as gorillas! For example, the orangutans like to spit water on people they do not know. I had been warned and was trying to be extra cautious. Every time they would make a dash for their water hole to get a big mouthful of water I would make a run for it, then they would chase me till I was out of sight.  Some of the keepers told me that is the exact reaction they want to get to I just have to let them spit on me and not react or this little game will never end... So I only got a total of two mouthfuls spat on me. It actually really wasn't that bad, orangutans are really clean animals. Orangutans are also really smart, quite a bit smarter than gorillas. There was some research being done about their ability to count. A researcher would go to each orangutan and put a screen up to them and there would be three rectangles.  One rectangle would have a lot of dots, then one would have two dots and the last one would have one dot. The orangutan then would put them in order from most to least and would get a grape if they got it correct. They are so smart!! I found myself over by the gorillas after work though, I just love them.

My mom sent me a video clip of two brother gorillas that had been separated for two years. This is a picture of their reunion. Isn't this the cutest thing you have ever seen?

Harper's Ferry

Nathan and I took a day to trip to Haper's Ferry, West Virginia today. There are so many fun places to go to near here! It was only an hour drive and there is so much history there. It is mostly known because of John Brown. He attempted to start a slave uprising but they were stopped by federal troops. It put the slave question at the front of politics and was an important precursor to the Civil War.

 It is so green EVERYWHERE out here. I guess I am just not used to it! It's gorgeous.

There was a candy store that was basically a candy museum. Had different candies all the way from the 1700's. Here Nathan is drinking a soda called Dandelion and Burdock from the 1800's.

Enjoying some ice cream at an old fashion ice cream shop.

Union troops

John Brown's fort

the general store

This was an old pulp mill that made paper.

It was a fun little trip and we look forward to many more!

Our New Home

I know this post is a tad bit late but I wanted to show you pictures of my new home! We moved to Arlington a little over two months ago and are loving it! The library, park and grocery store are right across the street and the metro is about a five minute walk away.  And we are only ten minutes from the mall and downtown DC. I couldn't ask for a better location! We have a nice one bedroom apartment in a six story building. Here are some (crappy phone) before pictures:

And after:

I found all these printables for free on Pinterest 

A few of the countries we've been to, another Pinterest idea. 

The view from our balcony. 

We love our new home and visitors are always welcome!