DC Trip!!!

Its been a while since I last blogged due to the fact that Trey and I just got back from a mini vacation in Washington, DC!!!! It was AMAZING! We flew out on my birthday, November 13th, and arrived around midnight, luggage-less. Lovely huh? We have the worst luck with luggage not arriving to our destination - this is the third time it has happened! So, we stayed at the Capital Hilton on Friday night and then moved to the Hilton Garden Inn on Sat - Wed. It was very nice and smack dab in the middle of downtown DC which was perfect. I got an unbelievable employee rate since I work for a Hilton hotel so that was definitely one of the main reasons we decided to go ahead and travel, sort of last minute, to DC.

Definitely one of our best vacations - filled with lots of history and yummy food - you can't beat that combo!

Saturday we ventured out into downtown while we waited on our luggage to arrive and we walked around...


You gotta LOVE these old buildings, I cannot imagine seeing them daily if you worked downtown...



Washington Monument...


World War II Memorial...

We met up with Kaitlin and Ray for dinner Sat night which was a definite treat because we haven't seen each other (other than our weddings but that does not really count) since Montreat in 10th grade!!! Kaitlin is my penpal of roughly 13 years and we still write letters to this day. I wrote all about our trip to Virginia for her Wedding in May. But this is the first time we have hung out and really talked, face to face, since Montreat church camp. I was a little nervous since it is very different to write letters every month or so for years, and never really have a conversation in person or on the phone. It went perfectly, of course! We didn't skip a beat, we all talked and laughed the entire dinner and had the best time. Our friendship is so amazing, for two people who live so far apart and only write letters for communication, I can honestly say we would still be dear friends if we lived closer to one another and hung out all the time. I am truly blessed to have her in my life!

We ate at a yummy restaurant - this is my salad...

Trey's soup appetizer...

My snapper...

Trey's lamb...

Since it was my Birthday the day before, Kaitlin mentioned that to our waiter and they brought me this YUMMY dessert!!!

The four of us! (dont know what look I am giving - ha!)

Kaitlin and I....

It was wonderful to see them and spend time together and I so appreciate them coming in town for the weekend to see us! :)

On Sunday, Trey and I made plans to eat lunch with Kristen Pryor, one of my friends from elementary school that I was super close to when she lived in LR. In early HS she moved with her family to Florida and we have tried to keep in touch through facebook, emails, etc through the years. I didn't realize she lived so close to DC (in Fairfax VA which is like 20 min away!)
We walked to lunch and went to this Fabulous mexican tapas place called Oyamel. On the way here is what we passed....

Doesn't this cheese shop look to die for???? I heart cheese!

The Restaurant..

I got this super delish drink called prickley pear juice - look at that Hot Pink color!!! It was made for me!!!!

The Guacamole was AMAZING!!!

We had churos for dessert which were rich - but tasty!!

Kristen and I....

After we had lunch, we went to visit the museums - we hit the Natural History, American History, and Art Smithsonian Museums - tons of walking but they were very neat.

A very cool silver tree that an artist created - way cool in person!

We got to see the Hope Diamond!!!

Gotta love those Teenage Mutant Turtles!!

Trey and I standing in line with the statues waiting for the train to come. Mine is a little blurry!

The back of the White House....

We got to take a tour of the Capital which was one of the highlites of the trip. Trey called our Rep and scheduled a tour with Vic Snyder's office and she was the sweetest thing - very knowledgeable and we learned a ton of information that we wouldn't have known if we had just done the self lead tour. Awesome experience!

This is the art winners from Arkansas - they hang the winners from every state on this very long wall where the people walk daily to get to their offices in the Capital. it was pretty neat.

Look at this Goregous chandlier!!!!

Great pretzal - love it!

Vietnam Memorial - it was so emotional seeing all those names.....

Lincoln Memorial

Our last day we went to the famous Ben's Chili Bowl which was DELISCIOUS!!!!!

It was WELL worth it and we even got to meet the little old lady that owns it - her husband, Ben, passed away a year or so ago, but her sons run the place and she was the sweetest thing ever!

We also went to the Holocaust Museum which was very emotional. We were there like 5 hours taking our time, it was very well done and we were glad we went.

We had such an awesome time in DC - would love to go back at some point to see all the museums and sites we didn't get to see. You just can't do it all in four days - but we sure tried!!

I heart vacations - always have, always will!

Projects Projects Projects!

I am TIRED. Soooo tired of projects - when will they ever be complete????? Unfortunately, that answer is never! ha! At least the big ones will be over and done and checked off the list ;)

I am late getting this up, but Friday and Saturday we started and completed Project Hinge and painting the entire kitchen 2 coats yellow and 2 coats white on the bottom. Trey also stripped the chair rail and baseboards and then painted them twice - whew - he is exhausted. I am exhausted. It is getting to the point where it is not fun anymore, we are just so ready for it to be done and to enjoy the finished product! I think we are at that point!! All we have to do is let it dry and then we can begin moving the table and other items back into our kitchen.

This is what my entire living room/hallway area looked like most of the weekend! Adorned in cabinets...


The old knobs...



Random pic of Soph - she is always right there with us - hoping we will hurry and finish and pick her up!



Old gold hinge...



Spraying the hinges and nails - this was one of the toughest projects I have ever - and will ever - do! I personally used Trey's electric drill and unscrewed each hinge and then once they were dry, I screwed the back onto the cabinets. Oh, and we had to sand EACH and EVERY hinge! UGH! That was torture.........

Trey's project - yellow and white paint, chair rails/base boards...

Letting the stripping do its job...

Ta Da! The finished product! Well, almost, I didn't take a complete finished picture - but you get the drift... silver hinges and matching knobs!!!! YAY!

Once everything is put back into place I will take "After" pics and put them up. We still have to put the Chandelier up along with lights. I have a party the day after Turkey Day so it will definitely be ready by then :)

Other exciting News! This Friday is my birthday - the Big 28! ( I cannot believe I am that close to 30!!!!!! OMG) It falls on Friday the 13th this year which is neat because I was born on Friday the 13th - how cool is that? ;)

I. Am. In. Love.

This is such a glorious day! I came home to two brand new appliances - washer/dryer and they are AMAZING! Okay, so they fill up the ENTIRE laundry room - yeah, we didn't measure - but who cares? They are brilliant, beautiful, fabulous pieces of technology that I am already obsessed with. Hands down, the best money we ever spent - more than our kitchen appliances! I know, I know, it is crazy to say that, but I love to wash clothes so this is very exciting to me.



I loaded the washer and pressed all the buttons and waited. Finally I heard ticking noises as it warmed up and prepared for its job. I could see the water trickle in and suds fill up and then whoosh! The washing went into action - and let me just say, that I head nothing. It is the most quiet thing ever - I had to hold my ear up to the washer to hear the clothes....ohhhh pure bliss!


We wanted to get fun colors - but of course those are hundreds of dollars more, so we were fine with the white, we will definitely be taking these babies with us when we move in the future!



So, funny picture, because they don't really fit well into our laundry room - like I said, we didn't measure. But, at least the cleared the cabinets and we can close the doors! We never use this room anyway, just to enter from the garage and wash clothes, so we can make it work. Plus, with this great washing/drying experience it is totally worth the crowded space. ;)

We got a good deal and the drawers will be great for storage - those were thrown in free!

And here you see the golden yellow color of the walls - Trey has been painting - first coat - and it looks great! It is much brighter in these pics than the actual wall - but you get the idea. We are probably going to pain the white on the bottom half of the chair rail.

We should be done by this weekend - crossing fingers - so I can put everything back together in our kitchen. YAY! :)

Whew!

We have had a super busy weekend - clearly I forgot to blog so it must have been busy - but here is the update. After three long and tedious trips to Home Depot and Lowe's this weekend, we finally have our paint selected, the chandelier for the Kitchen, silver spray paint for the gold hinges, and tons of other necessity items that will help with painting and finishing the baseboards. WHEW! When will this end?????

We are on the last little bit of the kitchen - Trey started painting it today - YAY! And my part will be what I like to call "Project Hinge". I will be removing all hinges and spraying them silver to match all of our other hardware. This is seemingly simple, but I am quite sure it will be a challenge this weekend. This is my first serious project all by myself so I am kinda excited. :)


These hinges will soon be silver! And the knobs will be replaced with silver ones - we purchased them at Home Depot, and I will put them on when the cabinets are off due to the hinges. Also part of Project Hinge.



Here is a picture of a new knob that was our tester - love it!


And here is Miss Soph trying to wait patiently for us to get finished in the kitchen on Sunday. Such a good sit!

The other exciting news is that we just purchased a brand new Washer/Dryer tonight!! This is bittersweet because this was not part of our remodel plan, but it is exciting to pick out brand new items! I will show a picture tomorrow when they arrive - I so desperately need to wash clothes - so I will be using that baby tomorrow night ;)

Hope everyone is doing well - we had a low key Halloween weekend. We saw Amber and Andrew which was nice and just did household projects - YAY FOR NOVEMBER!!!!!