2013: A Year in Review (Part 1)

This has been a crazy busy two years and pretty eventful, so I figured I might as well just catch you up with one(or two) posts.

January saw our return to Provo (sadly) for our last semester at BYU. However, I did enjoy the semester by taking a fun class:

Dinosaurs!

We also added a member to the family: Kirby! He's been the PERFECT dog! He loves cuddles and sleeping in fun positions as evidenced below: 

We also got to babysit for the Birds as we were in the same ward as them. We had gotten lots of practice with Nadya in Jordan. Here she is in the Minnie Mouse outfit I bought for her:

Also as a requirement of my Gilman scholarship I had to give a presentation on it. It was a rather cold and icy day but I was able to make it. It was nice talking to people about my experience in Jordan.

February found us deeply entrenched in a bad winter; ugh, it was rather gloomy. However, I got some great shots of BYU in it's usual appearance: covered in snow.

A little later on in the month we had a fun visit by the fire department. Apparently there was a gas leak or someone thought they saw a fire or something. I'm not entirely sure what happened. Either way, we were fine and none the worse for wear.

March we started the process of saying goodbye to Provo. On the list was showing our dear friend Lucy our hedgehog Sir Richard. It's one of the best pictures I have of him. She was quite surprised by how soft he was underneath. It's always funny telling people about Sir Richard and seeing their reactions. 

Up on the list that was an absolute MUST was Cafe Rio. We knew that we were headed to DC and that there were some locations out there, but we didn't know how close the locations would be to our apartment. Here is a pic of our usual: Him: pork barbacoa burrito with pinto beans; Her: chicken and steak mixed fire grilled quesadilla. And a drink to share. It is SO yummy!!!!

Another favorite that is sorely missed is Sammy's. I have such fond memories of this place. My roomates Rachel, Eva and Alyssa took me here as a treat when I found out that I got into the Jerusalem Center. And thus I was introduced to their AMAZING pie shakes. Drew and I made sure to come here at least once (usually more) a semester. We soon found out that their food was just as good as their shakes. (Umm...California Chicken anyone? Grilled chicken breast with avocado, and provolone cheese on a buttered bun with ranch sauce). Sadly we were so hungry that we snarfed the food without taking a picture of it. Hopefully it will still be there if we ever visit in the future. 

I also had a chance to go to Color Me Mine. It was a nice and fun relaxing trip (even if this did not survive our life in DC). I had no idea at the time that it was a chain, but I thought for sure that Provo was my last chance to enjoy this activity. It's definitely more expensive in DC, but still fun once in a blue moon. 

This year was an early Easter. We headed up to Idaho with Matt and Sarah and a certain little cutie. It was really nice to spend some time with family. 

He has a fun time playing in a real backyard and chasing the neighbors chickens. However, it wore him out so he passed out in Drew's arms.

We started April off with some fun activities with friends and family. Christian (my friend from Jerusalem) had come home from his mission and was taking a lot of ancient near eastern classes and Hebrew and he decided to host a Seder for Passover! We had a mock Seder while in Jerusalem so it was neat to do it on the actual day. I also hadn't seen some of my Jerusalem friends in a while at that point so it was a nice mini-reunion. Of course we had to have it at Riley's place since he was essentially the Jerusalem Dad for everyone. 

The Seder Set-up:

The Group:

April was also Sarah's birthday. Seeing as it is Drew's mom's (as well as Drew's and my) greatest ambition to fatten Sarah up, we decided that this year, we would go in together on a food gift. So we bought a Godiva Cheesecake Factory Cheesecake and gave it to Sarah with a few stipulations. She wasn't allowed to share other than a 1/2 piece to each of us (of course) and 1/2 piece to each of her roommates. She had to finish the REST of the entire Cheesecake. And she wasn't allowed to substitute it for a meal. She could only eat it AFTER she had had a full meal. 

(Of course she only gained 1 pound from the whole thing....)

There were also a few random fun things that happened on campus. I was walking along one day and they were giving out free cotton candy outside of the creamery outlet entrance in the Wilk. So that was a pleasant surprise on a nice sunny day. 

I had also realized (much to many people's dismay) that I had never really gone to the Duck Pond. I mean, I had walked past it a few times, but I had never gone out of my way to stop by it and see the ducks and just chill. 

 

This was the view from our apartment. Pretty nice huh? I just wish that I had gotten a picture of it in the snow. Oh well. It was a rather lovely scenic place to see out over the valley and see the mountains up close. (Along with the various flora and fauna). 

While waiting in line for the testing center (which...I had NEVER seen it that bad before, at least it was my last test ever!) I saw this on the ground. I laughed because any other university and that first word wouldn't have said "Screw" and even then it was worn out by someone. 

Also in the middle of all of the craziness of classes, finals, general conference and spring FINALLY coming to Utah, Hannah got married. I've previously talked about doing the flowers for her wedding, but here are a few more pics. She was so lovely. :)

We went to Hawaii. It was amazing. 

After Hawaii we packed up our stuff and left Utah. It was crazy to realize that we really had finished and wouldn't be returning there in the fall. Drew was off to American, and I was still waiting to hear back from Georgetown. 

I lucked out and my friend Stuart from Emory was in town. He graduated in 2011 and has been working in the Cayman Islands since then for Ernst and Young. It was so great to see him. He was one of my absolute best friends at Emory and he's been one of the best to chat every now and then. 

The summer also brought with it a new opportunity for Drew. At BYU, he hadn't ever been able to grow a beard, not that I really would have let him anyways. (They're scratchy). However, since we were graduating and it was the last chance he'd really get to grow one out and be scruffy before entering a more professional atmosphere, I let him grow it out. He did about a month of it until it was full and then decided to shave it off again. It was a little scruffy anyways. :P

Being back on the east coast meant that we got to hang out with his mom and little brother. On one of our visits we went to this battle place I can't remember if it's the revolutionary or civil war, but either way, it was some small skirmish that doesn't even show up on google. Either way, the park was nice and it was fun to explore.