Bethany Beach

This weekend we went and spent a few days at Bethany Beach Delaware to relax and enjoy, especially with Jess and Carter's wedding in just over two weeks. Getting there was quite the blast for Dustin and me since we had to drive a massive thunderstorm. But it was worth it!! Such a cool house and huge and the beach was great. Not Hawaii but I'll take it! Most of all it was fabulous to be with family. I think we want to do this every year now. So you can come and join us. :) We learned that getting a beach house before May is WAY cheaper. Here are a few pictures of the house an dus playing games, and watching movies.

 Here we are playing frisbee on the beach. This is also something we really like to do, play sports on the beach.

 Then we decided to try and brave the freezing, and I mean freezing water. They designated it the polar bear club. I am proud to announce that I am not one of them. Dad, Jess, Carter and Josh were the bravest. The rule was you had to get your head all the way in, and then they came right back in. Notice the photos of them fleeing the cold!!

 

Here are are having an impromptu dance party. As you can see this is why I fell in love with Dustin in the first place. He just loves to have fun! And fits in so well with my family!! 

We are super excited about Jess and Carter and can't wait for the wedding in two weeks!

Hawaii Trip

Dustin and I had another amazing opportunity! We got to go to Hawaii, and it was amazing! It was fun to see some of our family and stay with them as well.

Here we are at the point of Oahu watching to amazing ocean!

There here we are at the Polynesian Cultural Center waiting to go into the main stage show. The show was so amazing! They did dances from all sorts of islands such as their war dances, wedding dances, they spun fire, and it was SO incredible!
Here is one of the people from the center climbing a palm tree in like 7 seconds. It was super cool!
We also went to a Luau. Here is the Kalua pork. Yum!!

We also were able to go see the Hawaiian Temple and it was also so beautiful!

Here we are enjoying the clean, clear and amazing beaches!

While Dustin was working I toured Pearl Harbor. Then Dustin joined me and I gave him the "Nicki tour" as well. This place was so interesting and I was so glad that I went. Here is the memorial built on top of the USS Arizona.

Dustin and I are standing by the original anchor from the USS Arizona. The blast was so powerful that it blew this 19,000 lbs anchor over 200 feet from where it originally sat.

We also stopped by the Dole Plantation. I had no clue what a pineapple plant looked like...but there it is for you! We also learned how to cut a pineapple, grow one, and ate some pineapple ice cream.

We are so grateful for this experience and to see all that we did. We are also grateful for the hospitality of Brad and Autumn and their adorable kids. I loved it, but next time I think we will wait to go back when we live a little bit closer to the west coast....the 6 hour time difference and 12 hour plane rides was pretty intense. But you can't beat the beauty of those beaches!! We snorkeled and watched whales while sitting on the beach...things you just will never forget!! We are soo blessed!

Wolf Trap Race

Early morning on Dustin's Birthday I was able to run a race with a group of ladies from our ward. I had been running with our friend Ashley, who is a great running partner! It was a great experience to be able to share that with other ladies and make friends and I'm sure glad that we all did it! Here is the group before the race.


Above: Ashley and I going through the tunnel with just the home stretch on the way! Right after this was a big hill and I got a little sick so Ashley went on ahead and then I tried desperately to catch up. Below: finishing! It made me feel good. I ran it in 28:38 and was super glad because my goal was under 30 minutes. It makes me excited to start running more races! And Dustin wants to run some too!
We finished!!

Dustin's Birthday

It was fun to celebrate Dustin's Birthday a few weeks ago! He is such a great husband and let me run a race the morning of his birthday. Then we ate some bacon and eggs for breakfast, one of Dustin's favorites! And watched some amazing conference, spent time with family, played games and we went and got some AMAZING hamburgers at this place in Arlington called Ray's Hell Burger. It is good! You should go!! We were very excited about all the games Dustin got and have loved playing them. We recommend the Nordic Ticket to Ride since it was made for 2-3 people and it works great for couples.





Here is Dustin's cake, I tried a recipe I got from a friend, an ice cream roll cake. As you can see the ice cream all melted out, but it still tasted great! This is also about the time that the camera battery died and so we didn't get any pictures of him actually blowing out his candles....but he did!! Happy Birthday Dustin!

National Cherry Blossom Festival

A few weeks ago Dustin and I went to the National Cherry Blossom Festival. We tried to go last year but we were too late to see the blossoms. 

We had the privilege of taking our friend Flat Stanley downtown with us to get picture of him at the nations capital. Our niece sent him to us for a school project and we took him around so she could tell her class about his adventures. 

The blossoms were beautiful!! We sure love this time of year and all it stands for with the bringing in of spring and all it means. It also makes us appreciate where we live and all that we get to see and do around here.

Utah Trip

Back on February we went to St George to surprise Dustin's sister for her Birthday. It was a great trip and we were glad we were able to spend so much time with Dustin's family. We played and ate great food, and enjoyed seeing everyone. It was fun that some of Dustin's siblings came down to see us and spend some time together.

It was fun for me to go to the temple since I hadn't seen it before. It is SO beautiful!

Melanie sporting her new boot. And a picture of one of our nephews we got to spend time with while there. We look forward to our next trip!

Valentine's Day

On Valentine's Day I had just one more reminder of how blessed I am to have such a wonderful husband. I had to work and got off work late and didn't get home until later and had a long day at work. But I came home to a wonderful dinner prepared by my amazing husband who had music on and was wearing my favorite outfit on him. So we enjoyed a wonderful evening of homemade lasagna and garlic bread. He is so great! I am truly blessed! 

 

See!! The dinner still looks good!