Spring in Washington DC

Well even though there is song written Christmas Eve in Washington, nothing compares to Springtime in Washington. People travel from far and wide to see the Cherry Blossoms. Cherry Blossoms are fickle little things and bloom time is short and dependent on the weather. I can't imagine making plans to travel in advance and coming during a time when they were not in bloom. Thankfully it is a quick trip into the city for us.

This year the blooms were behind schedule due to the unusually cold weather in March. We planned to make a Sunday trip into the city at the first sign of 70 degree weather. Our plan was to visit the National Zoo and then stop by the Tidal Basin in the afternoon, allowing more time for blooms to open. The best thing about DC it was all FREE!

We LOVE metro-ing around the city. When you know how to do the metro right it is such a breeze. I'll tell you our insider tip...ALWAYS go to the very front or end of the train. On a busy day in the city, with thousands in for the Cherry Blossom Festival, we found seats on nearly empty train cars. This was not the case for the middle cars which were packed with standing room only. We also rode one stop past the zoo to have a flat walk instead of an uphill walk to the zoo.

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Arriving at the zoo, we immediately hit up the Asian Trail-aka Panda Exhibit :) We got to see other bears and then waited in line to see the pandas. We got to see a brief glimpse of the panda moving and eating. He then headed outside. By the time we got around to the outside, he headed back inside. We walked around to look at the birds (I was not interested, but Nick likes the birds so I tagged along) We got to see elephants playing. We then grabbed lunch satisfying my craving for a hot dog.

Afterwards we visited the monkeys and apes and got to see quite a show. They have a rope to climb across the zoo, so they can pick between two houses to stay in. We got to see them make the trek!

Next we visited my favorites! The cats! We got to see great action of the lions, tigers, and cheetahs. We also visited the Amazon exhibit where we walked through the rain forest environment. As we made our way back to the zoo entrance, we walked through the American trail. We got to see the otters playing with the kids at the exhibit which was very entertaining.

We made our way back to the metro (downhill thankfully) and headed downtown to the Tidal Basin.

 

 

 

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Easter Dinner

Weeks ago I suggested that I cook dinner one night when my mom visited and of course invited my amazing Uncle Jay who lives nearby over for dinner. Knowing 95 traffic and figuring I'd be to tired after driving on Saturday, I thought it'd be best to plan for dinner on Sunday. Little did I realize at the time, Sunday was Easter. I spent a few weeks trying to decide what recipe to serve for dinner. When it finally hit me, I was nervous, but relieved I at least had a menu now. Before heading out of town, I made my carrot cake and put it in the freezer.

Mixed and ready to add carrots and pecans

Ready for the oven

I got into town on Saturday, I walked into these beautiful flowers Nick bought for Easter. Hydrangeas are one of my favorite flowers. He is so thoughtful!

Flowers that Nick put together himself

The table is set for dinner

I love these place mats we bought for springtime!

Saturday I frosted and decorated the cake and made deviled eggs.

Sunday afternoon, I started cooking our ham. I cooked it for two hours at 325 degrees in my Pampered Chef deep covered baker. I took it out and glazed it with

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3 Tbsp honey
• 1/4 cup yellow mustard

I returned it to the oven 375 degrees uncovered for another 20-30 minutes

We served it with mashed potatoes and steamed green beans.

My Uncle Jay brought more flowers for Easter and supplied us with the wine for the night. So beautiful and thoughtful!

While Easter diner was delicious, our leftovers were much better. We got more of the glaze with our leftovers than our original meal just from how we served it. More for future reference!

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Spring Break

This past week was Spring Break. Unfortunately, it wasn't so much of a break and it definitely wasn't spring. While Nick had off for the entire week, I still had to work Monday and Tuesday. We started the break dog sitting for a friend and getting quite a bit of snow. Definitely not spring! Once I was got those two days of work behind me, Nick and I headed to Richmond for a wedding planning extravaganza. The first day we had  our food tasting and meeting with our venue. The food was delicious! The real task for the day was deciding between chicken dishes. It was a unanimous vote that one dish stood far above the others. Although it has a weird name, Chicken Saltimbocca was enough to sway Nick from getting prime rib to chicken. Now that has to be some good chicken! I know it will all be delicious.

Nick headed out of town while I kept on checking things off of our list: purchasing a veil, meeting with minister, hair and makeup trial, dress fitting, meeting with the coordinator, meeting with DJ, and meeting with our photographer. All of the above people are so wonderful and gracious in their work for our wedding. After my whirlwind in Richmond, my mom drove me back home and stayed to visit for Easter.

Nick and I love our new apartment and are thrilled with it's close location to a park along the river. From our apartment we can walk right down to part of a river. We can't wait for nicer weather to take off on walks more often, but we had a nice day when we arrived back and took the opportunity.

Resuming Blogging

Well I am taking up blogging again! It's back to summer time when the weather is nice and we are actually doing things exciting enough to share. Nick and I recently purchased a new camera for our upcoming honeymoon which has inspired me to take more pictures. Now I have a place to easily share all of these photos. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep up again with the blog this time ;)