5 Years Ago on a Beautiful Day Like This One

On Wednesday Kim and I celebrated our five year anniversary, which means that we've finally been married longer than we dated for (the tenth anniversary from our first date will be December 5th). People who were there for that beautiful October day will remember it as the best wedding they've ever been to.


We decided to celebrate by having a picnic on the national mall. Unfortunately, we didn't count on the Solar Decathlon taking place on our anniversary, so after 30 minutes of driving around looking for a parking space while our lunch got cold, we finally gave up and drove over to the tidal basin in front of the Jefferson memorial.


The aroma of this rotisserie chicken was enough to nearly kill me as I frantically looked for a parking place. We've officially found a second restaurant to add to our favorites list here in D.C. -- El Pollo Rico (along with Five Guys burgers). El Pollo Rico is a Peruvian place that does only rotisserie chicken, fries and coleslaw. You can get a quarter, half or whole chicken. We got a half, and it was awesome.



Megan had a great time dancing around the monuments, as usual. I should do a post with Megan dancing and singing around every one of our national buildings.




After Megan's nap our friend Amy was nice enough to watch Megan for us. We went to eat at Old Ebbitt Grill across from the White House, and went to see Angels in the Dust at the E Street Cinema. It was a really moving documentary about orphans of HIV/AIDS in Africa. We had a great anniversary, and it was nice to get out on the town together.




P.S. We also wanted to thank Grandma Frost for the Halloween package she sent for Megan this week -- she loved it.

Playing

Megan seems like she gets a little older every day, and she is starting to play like a kid instead of a toddler. She's a lot of fun. Make sure to look for her new favorite ability: jumping.

Backpacking With the Girls

Some ladies in our new ward have a tradition of going on an annual hiking/camping adventure. I was lucky enough to get here just in time for this year's trip, and Mike was good enough to stay home with Megan (who told everyone she saw "Momma's hiking, she come back tomorrow.") I've always wanted to try backpacking, and this was my chance. It was great. We left Friday and did Stephen's Trail along the Massanutten Mountain ridge line in the Shenandoahs, camping on top of Kennedy Peak.


Here is a picture of our mountain crew. From left to right: Heather, Rene, Jesse and Amy. Rene and Jesse were in charge, and they brought the tent (which we didn't use) and the camp stove. Mike let me use his favorite backpack that he got for his Chile trip last summer.


The trail was beautiful, the leaves were just starting to change colors.


We hiked 5 miles, and stopped and spent the night at this structure on top of Kennedy Peak. We didn't really know this thing was here, but when we saw it we decided to spend the night here under the stars rather than set up the tent. It was a good choice, the stars were fantastic.


The first part of the trail was not too bad, but the last mile or so rose in a steady incline and we were pretty tired once we made camp. I had some dehydrated beef stew for dinner. It was way better than I expected it would be. We also roasted smores over the camp stove.


We watched the sun set.


And rise.


In the morning we got ourselves together, and I was real glad that Amy brought hot chocolate. We shot the BB guns that Jesse and Rene brought. I was a pretty good shot.


We hiked 5 miles back to the car, and got some terrible Mexican food on the way home. I didn't struggle too much on the hike, but now I am hobbling around the house and I'm glad it was conference weekend so that I didn't have to limp around church today.

I had a great time, and I can't wait to do it next year.