synonym PART 1

Chaos
cha-os (key-os): a state of utter confusion or disorder 
SYNONYM: AUGUST 2012

I have adventures and pictures to share! YAY!

August started out much like the rest of the summer, with conferences and scheduling and all that good stuff. THEN the fun started! We finished up with our last week of Especially For Youth, and geared up in extra high speed and effort for student prep (with prep for Education Week as well). During this time, I hightailed it out of Utah and headed to the Washington, DC area. Why?

FOR DEANNA'S WEDDING!!!! That's right, I went with my friend, Kendra, to DeAnna's wedding. We headed out on Wednesday, and I will let the pictures do most of the talking:

This is the car they tried to give us. Yes, it looks like a clown car. I took a regular suitcase, and it didn't fit in the trunk. PLUS, it did not have GPS...a must for the 2 of us never being in the DC area before. (Kendra was there in the 8th grade, but we won't really count that for this).

Kendra: ARE YOU SERIOUS?!!
Me: NO WAY!

 Honestly, we were going to try it out anyway, but as we were at the last station to check-out, the lovely girl asked us if we needed maps or anything, and we gave her a resounding YES, and she told us to drive to another area, and pick up another car. Which we did without a moment's hesitation. This is what we ended up with instead:

 MUCH BETTER!

 PLUS, we got Maggie. Well, we named her Maggie, because it is a Magellan. She saved us SO many times and it is true that we were never lost! We loved her 'ding-ding' when we were following her directions correctly :)

We decided to head to the Mall in DC, to get some sightseeing in right off the bat. We were able to see the Washington Monument.

 

 The flags were flying at half-mast and it was a beautiful sight.

We then headed to see:

 This is a part of the World War II Memorial. It was beautiful, with many of these types of etchings and art. You can tell there were many hours, much effort and a lot of people put a piece of themselves in the memorials.

 These stars each reprent 100 people that died in service during World War II. There are over 4,000 stars.

 The Lincoln Memorial is about where my batteries died for the night, but here it is! Kendra has more pictures, thankfully!

It was about here that I realized how surreal this trip truly would be for me. I have seen these sights on TV and movies my whole life. I was now seeing them in person. I felt the same way after going to England, but it is even a little different being in Washington, DC.

 

The next day, we helped decorate for the reception, and then headed to have dinner with 2 of my favorite people. I told Kendra that she would love them...and she did!

 

 I absolutely ADORE Don and Heather Bugg. I call them my England parents because I stayed with their family while I was in England. We have stayed in contact, and whenever we are remotely close to each other we get together for some awesome quality time. It was so fun to just sit and chat (and of course eat). They honestly just make my heart happy!

 

After dinner, we headed to take in a few more sights. It was really nice to go at night because A) The monuments and memorials were all sorts of lit up B) It was relatively less yucky, weather-wise C) Minimal traffic!

 

So, this cougar (we think) was at a car dealership, and as Kendra and I both attended BYU, and it just looked fun, I caught a picture as we were driving by.

 

Our sightseeing adventure of tonight was the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. We first stopped across the water way, and it was beautiful. Then we realized there were still people there, so we went for a closer look.

This is the front, closer view.

 The man himself

 I have a thing for ceilings. This one was pretty cool!

 

The next morning we were up early to get ready for the BIG event! It was a beautiful experience! DeAnna was a beautiful bride and Tim looked so sharp!

 Jenny, the lovely, with her camera!

 Flocked by nieces and nephews! They love them SO much! It was funny, before DeAnna came out, 3 of the boys were sitting and asking each other, "How long does it take to get married in the temple?" PRECIOUS!

 The McGraw crew!

 The rain couldn't stop the fun! We just shifted everyone to under the walkway and continued snapping pictures. They made it look so fun!

This temple is just so beautiful!

During the break between the temple sealing and the reception, we heading off to have more adventures. We ended up at the National Zoo: 

 

 We hung out with the Pandas

 And the cute lil' elephants

 

 We then headed to a very moving place.

We went to see the gravesites for the Kennedy family.

 As you walk away, engraven on a wall is part of President Kennedy's inagural address.

Quite moving.

 We then headed to the Tomb of the Unknowns. I love the inscription, "Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God".

We were there for the changing of the guard, which was a moving experience, even when someone's cell phone went off in the middle of the changing. What an amazing honor to protect this tomb.

 

After visiting Arlington, we headed back to the reception.

 

I was surprised that I got to see so many old friends!

 

Jessica, who was our unofficial weekend roommate when DeAnna, Jessica, and I lived in Branbury.

 Jenny, who is so FANTASTIC!

 Shauntelle was in our ward when we lived at Branbury!

 Jessica was my roommate for part of the year at Branbury, and then we lived together in Alta Apartments. She is a dear friend!

Kendra and Molly were both my residents my first year as an RA (as was DeAnna).

THEN the McGraw children performed a moving rendition for DeAnna and Tim.

 

Gotta love it!

 

 

The next morning, before heading to the airport, we headed to the Marine Corps War Memorial (aka Iwo Jima Memorial)

 

 

Wonderful. It was near the Netherlands Carillon, which was playing while we were there.

 

It is SO big!

 

Our last stop was to Dunkin' Donuts because Jenny and DeAnna have been telling us for years how amazing the donuts are, and so we went for it! They were pretty good. I especially liked the strawberry frosted one.

 

We then headed home. It was a great trip, and just the beginning to the chaos that is August. More to come soon!