We're still alive!

Just in case anyone was wondering.
School has started for both of us and it keeps us very, very busy!  Dallin is still working part time at the International Trade Commission and for the most part is loving it, except when he has to read really long reports.  He's also taking a very full course load and is on an economic law journal this year.  He likes most of his classes and is making good progress on his law review article, but it doesn't leave him time for much else.   He has been applying for internships and we are hoping one of those will pan out.
I am still working on my research.  I think everything in our lab broke at least once this summer and now that it is finally fixed, I think we need to retake some data, which means another week of sitting in a dark room! yay!  I am also enjoying my classes, though not the time... they are both from 6pm to 9pm.  Doing math at 9pm is kind of hard.  I'm going to be presenting my research at a conference in Long Beach, CA a few days before Thanksgiving which means I get to go home for Thanksgiving and don't have to pay for the plane tickets! The only down side is I have to leave Dallin behind because the school won't pay for his plane tickets, and that is definitely not in our budget :(  I'm also working on submitting articles to a couple journals, hopefully I'll be published before the school year ends.
So between my late classes on Mondays and Thursdays, and Dallin's late classes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, we're not  home very much and most of the time we are is time to sleep.  Or eat, although most of that is done at school and work as well.  Our Saturdays have also been full of studying, which is kind of boring but we have high hopes of taking a break next Saturday, we'll have to wait and see if we actually can.
We are still teaching the 12 and 13 year olds for Sunday School and we love it.  They keep us on our toes, and we never have  a dull Sunday!  We are also excited that fall has finally come to the east coast.  The weather is nice and the leaves have started changing!  If only it would stay this way and not turn into winter!

Happy Birthday Dallin!

Dallin's Birthday was today.  He had to go to school but we had a nice dinner and some cake! and he's been on the phone with friends and family all night, so I think he's enjoying it.  O and the presents I ordered him didn't come yet, but the pens that I ordered so that we could get free super saver shipping on amazon came... it was pretty funny.

California

On Thursday, Dallin started school and I took off and went to California for a little vacation.  I visited with my mom and my old roommate  Jessi came up from Arizona.  We went shopping and hung out at the beach. It was really fun to see her and to catch up and talk! Then on Sunday we headed down to Carlsbad where our friends were camping and stayed until Tuesday when I came home.  It was so good to go to a beach with waves!  I had really missed the sunsets, on the east coast there are so many trees that you can't really see the sun set, and I got to see a really pretty one while I was there.  I also got to see a ton of dolphins on Tuesday morning which was pretty cool (Dallin asked if they were bottle neck dolphins, but we're pretty sure they weren't, bottle nose maybe, but not bottle neck).  While I was there I got a much needed tan! and Susan and my mom say I am a normal color now and don't look sickly and pale which is good news. I am now all rested and relaxed and ready to start school on Monday.

Monuments

We went to look at the monuments at night last week, it was still really hot, but there was a concert by the U.S. Army Band was playing a free concert so we listened to that for a while and then walked around, it was really pretty. 

Bethany Beach

So Dallin and I were finally able to get out to the beach here on the east coast!  We started the 3 hour drive at about 9 am and in true Dallin and Autumn fashion we picked a busy weekend and got stuck in a ton of traffic.  So five hours and one really long bathroom line later we made it down to the beach.  We managed to find a meter (that still had some time on it!) and walked a few blocks down to the beach.   It was the first time either of us has ever been to an east coast beach so we were pretty excited.  We found out that the Atlantic Ocean is really warm which made it more fun to swim in, but the waves were really small so there wasn't much to play in.  Dallin went on a mission to find me some good sea shells and did really good until the tide came up too high for him to find any.   After our 2.5 hours was up on  our meter, we went up the coast a bit to Rehoboth Beach where my friend said there was a really good Italian restaurant and had dinner there and then splurged and got some ice cream too.  The drive back was much better since there wasn't any traffic and we made it back in under 3 hours with a little bit of a tan! hooray! 

Lots of Posts

I've been really bad at posting things for the last few months so I decided to do a bunch of posts today!  If you want to read them all then scroll down!

A few other things though.  Dallin just found out that he got on one of his school's law reviews!! I'm not sure exactly what law review is but I know he gets to write some articles and it's a really good thing for his resume!  He is also finishing up his summer class, his final is this week.  He is excited because it is a night class and it's not very fun being at school until 10 at night, even if it is only 2 days a week.  I am going to be starting my research for my masters thesis this week!! hooray!! Hopefully I'll be able to finish it before Christmas and then start writing my thesis.  The goal is to graduate by May but it's gonna be a lot of work to do it!

Happy reading!

Fourth of July

For the 4th of July we decided to brave the crowds and watch the fire works show in DC.  There was a free concert on the capital lawn before the fireworks but you had to get there at like 3:00 to get seats and there was no way we were going to go sit in the heat for 6 hours just to see a free concert (plus church doesn't get out until 4).  So at about 6 we met up with some friends and took the metro to the national mall.  It was kinda crowded but not too bad... yet.  We found a good patch of grass at the base of the Washington Monument and spread out our blankets.  The fireworks didn't start until 9 so we spent the rest of the evening playing games, eating snacks, listening to the live bands, and chasing down our friends son every time he tried to escape!  As it started to get closer to 9 the crowds around the mall started really getting thick.

Here is a video showing where we  were watching the fireworks.

By the time the sun was almost down, the whole national mall (and probably more) was packed with people, you couldn't see an empty spot anywhere. Then the fire works started.  It was a pretty good fireworks show, and the setting was great! They light off the fireworks from the reflecting pool in between the Lincoln and Washington monuments and we were close enough to see them lighting the fireworks. 

The Grand Finale

   Once the fireworks were over it was time to try and get home.  We decided that the bus was the way to go since the metro was going to be SUPER crowded.  We walked down 17th street for about 8 blocks to catch the bus and the entire time we were just surrounded by a mass of people.  There were people filling the street from side walk to side walk as far as I could see in front and behind us.  For at least half of the walk the street was blocked off to traffic, but a few blocks from the bus/metro stop, traffic was allowed to drive.  The problem was there was still a huge mass of people.  A few cars tried to push their way through, but for the most part they ended up having to pull over and just wait because they couldn't get anywhere.

This was the street right next to the white house as we tried to walk home.

It was a little difficult to find the bus in the huge mass of people, but we found it just before it left! It took us about an hour and a half to get home on the bus, the metro might have been faster, but at least on the bus we got to sit! So all in all it was a really good fourth of July! (next year if we're here though, we'll watch the fireworks from across the river.)

Great Falls Park

A few weekends ago, Dallin and I decided to go and enjoy the great outdoors.  We had heard that Great Falls Park was a fun place to go and see so we packed a picnic and headed down there.  This park is only about 20 minutes from our house and has the steepest waterfalls of any eastern river.  As we drove out to the park we were surprised to see how fast we went from being right in the middle of the city to being almost in the country.  We went from crowded city streets to a two lane highway in the middle of a forest in about 15 minutes.  We got there and parked and then decided to take a little hike to see the falls before we ate dinner. The hike to the falls ended up being really short which was good because it was super hot and humid, but the views were pretty good.  The Potomac is a big river and so it in this gorge that it goes through there are a ton of water falls! We also got to see some crazy kayakers going down the water falls.  Here's a picture of the falls.

And here is a picture of Dallin and a fuzzy little friend that he found on his water bottle after dinner.

It was a fun Saturday and we were excited to find some outdoor things to do close to home!

Texas

In the beginning of June, my mom and I went to Texas to visit with her Aunt, Uncle, and Cousins.  It was a really fun time.  We spent a few days with family just talking and eating and stuff.  I found out that my great-grandma gant's favorite color was purple, just like mine (it must be in the genes).  And we got to share old pictures of our family.  It was neat to see some of the old pictures, and to see the family resemblance between myself and some of my ancestors.  We also spent some time sight seeing and shopping.  I got a cowboy hat! And we were able to meet up with one of my friends that I grew up with and have dinner with her! It was way fun!  O and I got to see a great sun set!  I've been missing sunsets out here in Virginia because there are so many trees and no hills, you just can't get above the tree line to see a good sunset, or sunrise.

Memorial Day

For Memorial Day Dallin and I decided to go into DC and see the parade.  It's supposed to be the biggest Memorial Day parade anywhere so we thought it was worth checking out.  My old room mate Steph and her husband Andy were out visiting family in Maryland so they came into DC and met us for the day.  The four of us chatted and watched the parade for a while, but it was probably the hottest day of the year so far and so we left before the end of the parade to find water and air conditioning.  After a bit of a break from the heat we went to Arlington to see the cemetery and watch the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier. It was a fun way to spend Memorial day and it was great to see Steph and Andy again!!

Airshow

On May 15th we went to the Joint Service Open House at Andrews Air Force Base.  It was pretty fun.  We weren't sure exactly what to expect, but we knew that there was an air show and the Blue Angels were supposed to be there so we decided to head down and see what was going on.  We took the metro down to the end of the green line and then got on a school bus which took us onto the air force base while our marine tour guide told us about some of the things that we could do.  When we got off the bus we walked around for a while and looked around at all the big planes and fighter jets and helicopters and things that were sitting around on the base.  Then we got some kettle corn and settled in to watch the blue angels.  They did a pretty impressive show and I was able to get a few pictures, but it is really hard to take pictures of things that are flying that fast!

A Matter of Perspective...

So 2 or 3 weeks ago Dallin and I were both extremely busy and a bit stressed trying to finish up the semester and get ready for our finals.  Dallin said that we were in a sprint to the finish but I told him I thought it was more like a death march. I guess it's a matter of perspective, but I don't think it can be called a sprint. I mean who sprints for 3 weeks straight?  We'll Dallin does like to run so maybe that is the difference.  In any case, we survived!! YAY!

So as I mentioned before, I was a tad bit busy this last month and the death march of the last month of school kept me from doing things like updating our blog.  But now I am free, more or less, and actually have time to write, so this is might be kinda long :)

Dallin got an internship with the International Trade Commission doing "legal stuff" (that's a direct quote, he's so descriptive).  We are pretty excited because it pays for part of the summer and is awesome experience! The last few people to intern here have gone on to get really good jobs. He might even be able to keep working there into the school year.  This also means that we are still free agents next summer, we are hoping to be able to get internships out west next summer so we can be closer to family!

Dallin also went to the tea party rally in DC with a friend from institute to listen to Ron Paul talk (I stayed in my office and worked).  He said it was pretty interesting and we had a good chat with an older couple about politics and stuff on the metro ride home, they had come all the way down from northern New York to go to the rally.  He also went to listen to Ron Paul talk, again, Thursday night (again I stayed home and studied).  He really liked it, and is happy that we are near DC right now and he can be involved in politics so easily.

I have been working my tail off trying to finish my research for the semester as well as do all my class assignments.  I now know quite a bit about blood flow in arteries and about the design of stents.  It's pretty interesting.  I can also design a zero-net energy house!  So if anyone wants to make their house more energy efficient, just talk to me, I have some pretty good ideas.  I made a poster for our college's research and development showcase about my research I've been doing.  I then stood in front of it for a whole day defending it to judges and answering questions.  The showcase was a contest and I won 3rd place out of about 60 entries!  It was pretty exciting.

In other news, we planted some new plants this week.  We found tomato seed in target's dollar section and are hoping that by next year we will have some tomatoes growing.  We also bought a sweet pepper plant and some flowers.  Hopefully I'll be able to keep them alive, I have bad luck with flowers.

Oh, and we've been married for two years!! I know hard to believe but we actually have!  We didn't do anything exciting because it fell right smack in the middle of finals and if you haven't figured it out yet we were both pretty busy.  We are going to go down to Williamsburg some time this week though to celebrate!

I know I left somethin out so if I remember what it is I'll put it up later, I also have some pictures, but I'm not sure where they are right now so I might put those up later as well.

Ode to Cherry Blossoms

This weekend we were able to go down to the national mall for the cherry blossom festival.  It officially started this week!  Peak bloom time isn't supposed to be until about next weekend but since general conference is next weekend we decided to go today, and it was sooo worth it!  The cherry blossoms out here are incredible.  After a long snowy winter it was great to see the trees in bloom.  They were really beautiful, if you've never seen them you really should. We walked all around the tidal basin and mostly just looked at the flowers.

We also lucked out and it happened to be the Smithsonian's kite festival.  I have never seen so many kites in one place before it was crazy!  The pictures I have don't really do it justice, it was hard to get all the kites in one shot.  Unfortunately we didn't know about it or we would have brought ours.  We are totally going to go next year with our own kite!

Update *anyone got a better title for this?*

I couldn't think of a name for this update because, once again, I have waited too long to update and have a bunch of things to put on here so... I'll take suggestions.  Anyway, we had a great Valentines Day, we got a gift card for Chili's from our credit card rewards and used that to go out to dinner, then came home and made a heart shaped pazooki and watched a movie.  By the way this was way too much dessert for two people.

Dallin just finished his spring break which was unfortunately for him, rather uneventful because I had to go school everyday, and  so he did too.  He was able to beat some new levels on bloons though, so the week wasn't a complete waste.  My spring break is this coming week and now he has to go to school, bad planning on our school's parts, I wish they would have worked that out better.  My mom is here though so we are going to go have some fun!  Dallin has also started interviewing for summer internships, we are praying he can find a paying one so that we can try and keep our debt down as much as possible, he's had some really good interviews so far so we are pretty hopeful.
I have been working hard on my research and after an epic battle with MATLAB (a computer program that makes cool graphs and things), was able to write a program that does all my work for me.  Unfortunately I'm not sure if it would have been quicker to just do it all by hand than to write the program to do it, it made a pretty graph though so I'm still excited about it.
In other news, we have been able to have the missionaries teach one of our neighbors in our home for the past few weeks and she even came with me to the relief society birthday thing which was a lot of fun!  It has been a real blessing to have these lessons in our house.  The spirit has been strong and we look forward to them.
O and  I almost forgot! We moved! We now live in an apartment that is about 3 miles closer to school than our last one is.   We are still in the same ward, which we really like!  Our new apartment is a little smaller than the last, which is really only an issue with the closet space, but we've just about worked that out.  It is a lot more quiet than our last place though and the rent is cheaper, which is a huge plus.  We can also walk to the grocery store from here (if it ever stops raining), and I can finally play my wiii fit without feeling bad because there is no one below us.
And last but not least, it was my birthday today! Happy Birthday to me.  Thanks to everyone who called or text me.  It was a pretty good day, we went on a tour of the white house today, which actually was a little disappointing, you don't get to see much. And went out to lunch.  We got to have some friends over for ice cream cake too which was really good!
Now we are going to start writing our family newsletter... maybe... so we can give it to Aunt Lisa before the day that it's due, or the day after :)

Christmas, School, Snow...

   Well life has gotten pretty crazy with a new semester and stuff, so I haven't updated this in a while (this might be a long post).  We went to my mom's house for Christmas! It was great, California was sunny and warm which was way better than the 20 inches of snow we left behind here.  We got to spend time with friends and family and my mom is back in my old ward thanks to another ward boundary change so I actually knew most of the people there and didn't feel like a visitor. Dallin took the patent bar while we were there and passed!  He can now file patents, hooray! Hopefully that will help him find a paying job for the summer.  The down side to this was that Dallin had to study while we were in CA, but the upside was that my mom and I got to go shopping and not feel bad about leaving Dallin at home so he could study (he doesn't really like shopping anyways).  We also went to San Francisco over Christmas.  We went up there for my great aunt's funeral but we were able to spend a few days and sight see.  Jessi and Natachia came over for an afternoon and had dinner with us, it was fun!  We got some great Christmas presents and decided to try and put most of them in our carry on bags so that we didn't have to pay for another checked bag.  This led to some interesting conversations at the security checkpoint... Needless to say when you try and walk on an airplane with several board games, some kitchen utensils (including a few whisks), and some other random things, they search your bags.  It took the security guy a few minutes to get my bag closed again because it was so full, I did warn him!  We also found out that the Milwaukee airport doesn't have any good food places, so if you have a layover there, pack a lunch.
   When we got back we started school again.  Dallin had to wait a few weeks to get his grades from last semester and he was pretty nervous.  He ended up doing really well and was in the top 17% of his class!! So now he's still working hard to try and keep it up.  He is really liking his founders constitution class this semester.
I got back and started my research. I finally know how to use most of the equipment and have started taking data.  It's kind of tedious but I'm doing well I think.  Hopefully we will be able to find some useful things from all the images I'm taking.  I have two pretty fun classes this semester, energy engineering and biomechanical engineering.
   Also, Dallin and I are moving at the end of February, YAY.  We decided that we really needed to try and find a new place because our upstairs neighbors are super loud and the apartment we're in is not worth listening to them (and our rent would go up in March).  So we're moving into an apartment a couple miles down the road, we'll still be in the same ward so we at least don't have to try and meet all new people.  Our new apartment will be a little smaller, but it's cheaper and the floors don't squeak when you walk, we checked!  I'm excited to move but not excited to pack.  It should be better than the last move because it's only like 3 miles instead of 3000 miles.  Hopefully all goes well with that.
   Now for the last item of business, we got a TON of snow again!  Whoever told us that it didn't snow that much out here (David and Nic) were totally lying.  We had a huge storm this weekend and got about 27 inches of snow!  The tree behind our apartment lost a bunch of branches and is now leaning at a weird angle. We heard about the storm on Tuesday and decided to buy a snow shovel so that we didn't have to try and dig our car out with a cookie sheet again.   Dallin spent yesterday afternoon digging our car out (I helped a little bit) and then finished it off this morning.  Church was cancelled again, so he also spent a few hours this morning helping people dig out.  We even met a few of our neighbors, apparently when you have a snow shovel everyone wants to be your friend.  Some good things did come from the snow though, I got my first snow day ever! Actually two snow days!  School was cancelled Friday and will be closed Monday too due to the snow!

This is Dallin shoveling off our car, yes there was so much snow on top of our car 

we needed a shovel, not a snow scraper.

Our car is the one in the center

If you can't see it, it's around 26.5 inches!

We also learned the importance of food storage.  While almost everyone else was storming the grocery stores on Thursday and Friday to stock up for the weekend, Dallin and I were home in our warm, dry, mob free house!  This is proof that following the prophet only brings joy!! :)