DC Adventures and...Meet Henry!

We had been really wanting to experience DC since we had been here several weeks and hadn't even driven into the city.  In one week we experienced DC more than we anticipated.  During Memorial weekend my parents and Alena came up to visit.  We had so much fun.  Ian had to work, but the four of us spent our days touring the "mall".  I feel like we saw the majority of the sites.  It really is a neat place..and a busy place.  I think we got honked at nearly 10 times.  It was of course because of the crazy DC drivers and not dads driving!  Ian got to come with us to the Arlington cemetery.  I thought it was a very reverent experience.  I think we were all overwhelmed with gratitude and respect.  It was a great blessing my parents were here when they were because....

 OUR CAR GOT HIT TWICE IN ONE WEEK!!  The drivers here really are crazy!  First, the Monday before we had visitors a girl plowed into Ian at a stop light!  Our car was already totalled at that point, which lead to many of our DC adventures at the insurance adjuster.  We were going to say our goodbyes to Gracie (that's what Ian named her) on Tuesday.  To our great surprise, Sunday morning we woke up to this!  At least no one was in the car, but what are the odds of that!  It was a hit and run which was annoying, but it was already totaled so it ended up ok!  We saw many tender mercies as all these events occurred.  We were truly blessed, and it was comforting having my parents here!  We were forced to get a new car.  It was a quick, non-stressful experience for the most part. We are enjoying having a new car that Ian so creatively named Henry ( I guess its a tradition to name cars).

Update!

We finally made it to Virginia!  We finished our semester at BYU-Idaho and got out of Rexburg as fast as possible.  We loved our time there, but we are definitely excited for our new adventure living outside "the Rexburg bubble".  From Rexburg we drove to Salt Lake where we enjoyed spending time with Alena and our friend David.  We also had a chance to go to the Salt Lake Temple and do a session.  It was a neat experience to do a live session.  From Salt Lake we headed for Arizona.  From there we took two days to get to Mississippi.  We unloaded our things there, stayed a few days, and kept driving.  After driving over 3000 miles over a two week span we arrived in Centreville, VA where we will stay for the summer. We got to visit both of our families while on our journey, and we were so grateful for that.  We had a chance to see each of our parents, siblings, and even both sets of grandparents, as well as many friends!  

I have decided to start a blog so we can keep in contact with our friends and family.  I am kind of an anti-blogger and swore I would never start one again.  I just feel like we don't really have much to share nor do I really like telling people what's going on in my life!  However, I know that is horrible, and I want to stay connected and let everyone know what we are up to.  I am not very good at calling or keeping in contact so this is my attempt to let everyone know we do want you to be apart of our lives.  With that said...we'll see how long this actually lasts!  

Ian works crazy hours so we haven't had many opportunities to actually go into D.C. yet.  However, on Saturday we decided we would go to the temple!  We've been looking forward to seeing it in person!  I found it odd that the D.C. temple is actually in Maryland.  It wasn't a bad drive, and it was beautiful!  Next time we will actually take a picture in front of it.  There weren't many people outside to ask to take our picture because it was a little cold!

Our first fun trip to DC.

Ian is enjoying his job so far...well he says he is anyways, but he isn't hard to please so I never know!  I am working in the office of the company he is selling for so I get to see him when he comes in at night which is kind of fun.  We love the area!  It is very pretty, and the weather has been fairly nice.  The down side is it's expensive everywhere!! We are still excited to be in a new place for the summer, especially to be so close to DC!  We are looking forward to having Alena and my parents come to visit so we can actually plan some touring!

I found something I wanted to share!  This morning I got an email from the LDS living magazine.  Usually I disregard them and wonder how I even got on their list, but this morning there was an article that popped up that I thought was really neat.  It was about President Packer's new book of his Artwork.  This was one of the pictures.  It is President Packer painting "The Bishops Team".  The painting goes along with a talk he gave.  Here's a portion of it

"The image of that team of horses standing for hours in the field symbolizes the dedication of the bishops in the Church and of the counselors who stand by their side. Every bishop and every counselor, figuratively speaking, leaves his team standing in an unfinished furrow when someone needs help" It just melted my heart.  First, because it reminded me of my Dad.  Second because I just thought "What a sweet man Elder Packer is".  I just thought it was so cute!