Gary and Lori(n)

Spring has sprung, but a tad too late. My parents were here the last few days of March and the first few days of April--due to DC's unusual winter spring arrived about 48 hours after they left. Bummer. That didn't stop us from seeing the places the blossoms should have been. The nice thing was it wasn't too hot!  We did quite a bit of walking but we didn't have to worry about a blazing sun making us wet from sweat, instead we had to work with the rain, which got us wet anyway.  It rained for the first three days. Straight. It was a little discouraging, but I think we managed to make everything work.

Riley had to spend a lot of time at school so I was Mom and Dad's personal tour guide. Luckily he snuck away for some fun activities! They were excellent guests and Benson really loved having someone to play with. Dad may have been in dog or monkey mode for the majority of the week.  

Let's begin with pictures- there aren't many.

Dad took Benson swimming - he really loved it. He even dove in when dad wasn't looking. I guess we'll need to do swimming lessons soon!

Benson learned how to climb up on the balcony. He is really careful about it but I always have to watch him. Sneaky boy.

We visited the National Zoo. We were so excited to see the new baby panda- only she was sleeping where no one could see her. That is twice now that I have gone. She needs to wake up!

Dad went to the Air and Space museum one afternoon- It is a goodie!

Here is the mama panda. They eat most of the day.

Lunar landing module. Dad, is that right?

We took a drive up to Delaware to visit Aunt Jenny, her family and new dog! Oh Benson had a wonderful time following Nick around and playing with Charlie. 

"He's nothing but a big sweetheart"

Dad was so nice and drove us across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Thank you, Dad.

On the way home from DE we stopped at the Outlets and Benson got to ride the train-go-round :)

Ha, back to the zoo. Cute baby tiger.

Benson and Nick at the Longwood Gardens. We had the best lunch before going there. Capriotti's. oh. my. the sandwich was soooooo good.

Bens got to go on the merry-go-round at the zoo too! 

Charlie.

The "O-line"  Orangutans cross right about you! Riley never believed that they actually did it, but they definitely do! It was so neat. 

At the Post Office Museum- a new favorite. Across from us, in the stage coach were three statues that were scary looking. Benson didn't appreciate them.

Other highlights:

-We the Pizza

-American History museum war exhibit

-WWII memorial with veterans being honored. (one even stopped to talk to benson, so sweet!)

-Walking around the tidal basin with dead looking cherry trees

-Watching Downton Sixbey

-Watching Lip Syncing battles

-The Amish market

-The almost trip to Fort McHenry

-Having mom and dad around, Thanks for visiting! 

To all other potential visitors- we need you! We know some great places to eat and sight see. We also have two twin beds. and a couch, and an air mattress. Let's just say we can accommodate several visitors at one time. See you soon! 

we all scream for ice cream!

For most of the drive to Maryland I promised Benson ice cream cones if he was good.  But we never actually did it... until last week. Riley and I got ice cream and we got Benson his very own cone.  Needless to say he LOVED it. He was a little protective of it.

When he was almost done he just started screaming. Oh it was sad. We think he had brain freeze. Poor guy.

Kneader's pumpkin bread

If you "knead" a tasty treat this Christmas season you must try this:

I found the recipe here. This bread made me think I am a really good cook. The people at work and Riley all agree with me too!  But all I did was follow the directions, it was really really easy and super delicious. I even had all the ingredients sitting around so I felt like it was free, too!
It has a nice balance of pumpkin flavor.  Perfectly crunchy top and moist inside. So so good. I even ate it for breakfast this morning with hot chocolate. Healthy, I know. (It doesn't count at Christmas time, right?)

the corolla club.... kind of like a camry!

Introducing.....

We did it. We bought this lovely thing! We've been looking on and off for a few months and suddenly on Saturday we stopped at a sketchy family dealer on state street. Sketchy. But they had a picture of the temple on the background of their computer, so that was comforting. Anyway, we convinced them to drop the price 60 bucks! It is a dark blue and very nice inside, except the fact that the stereo and clock don't have power, but we are pretty sure we just have to plug something in. We just hope this car lasts a while and takes us to many wonderful places. 

Then on Friday we went to the BYU/UCF game. Glad we won, no matter how close it was. We got very lucky. Dad, being the wonderful BYU fan that he is made the mistake of sporting his Jazz t-shirt. Don't worry, I didn't let him live it down.  He even had to hide if for the pictures.

 Cute picture of the parents though!

 If you look closely you see Heaps on the very left in action.

 Jimmer walked past a few times :)

 We made a delicious dinner for today! Riley invented something new. He made some homemade bread dough and then instead of making cinnamon rolls, he made pizza rolls. Delicious! 

We ate them with a nice salad and salt and pepper corn on the cob. They were  so yummy. Also, I made homemade Chocolate chip cookies from the two peas and their pod blog. They were delicious. I had to add an extra cup of flour so they weren't flat. But here is the recipe! I didn't use M&M's... but here it is

http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/recipe-for-chewy-chocolate-chip-cookies/

Happy Sunday to you all!

then came Vegas

We took a long weekend and went down to Vegas with the fam for Paul and Karolyn's wedding. We drove down with mom and Kelli. When we checked into the Condo at like 11 pm, the front desk guy asked if we were hitting up the strip that night. I think our answer was, "oh no, we're getting up early to play tennis". Which we did, by the way, and had a blast despite the heat! Riley and I went to the concierge to see if they had discount tickets to the New York New York roller coaster, she didn't. Instead she gave us some coupons and show brochures and then asked us, how adventurous we are, or something like that.It was weird. Then there were people in the hot tub at noon drinking coffee. It was so hot, I just don't understand!

Anyway, we ran into some Lions at the MGM grand. Hit up a pretzel stand in new York. Saw the Eiffel tower. Went to Rome. Watched a water show (which was one of my favorite parts of the strip). Went to Serendipity 3. Finally drank some frozen Hot Chocolate!! Bought a shirt at H&M. Ate at the Claimjumper. Walked through a sketchy casino. Had to convince Jake and Kelli that David Copperfield isn't magic... he's just an entertainer. (Jake, the duck was in the bucket the whole time. We watched it on youtube). Played tennis. Swam. Played with Graham. Listened to a crazy man bbq hamburgers by the pool. Went to the Las Vegas Temple for the wedding. Desperately called Mandy for driving instructions. Drove on the strip-it's SO crazy.  Hung out with the Family. Ran into some Russians from Riley's mission! All in all the trip was successful, but I think we've had enough of Las Vegas for a few years.