Water Socks

This is what happens to me when I apply SPF 30 at home and then again upon arriving at the river and then spraying SPF 50 twice while at the river...

12 States!

Ryan and I had a super adventurous day today! Well, some parts were mildly adventurous and some parts were extremely relaxing, but it felt adventurous because we were in "Wild and Wonderful" West Virginia. We went tubing on the Potomac River with Ryan's friend, Ian, and some of his friends. This was our first time in West Virginia together (our 12th state!) and our first time tubing! If you're not familiar with tubing, it's mostly floating on an inner tube down a river. In the area were were in, we experienced some class I-III rapids between stretches of calm water. We stopped a few times to eat snacks (and drink a few beers (I just had water!)) we brought along in the floating cooler we tied to Ryan's tube. The rapids were a lot of fun! Ryan was practically giddy with joy whenever we went through them and we got a really good workout paddling to get to the best ones. The calm water allowed us to soak up some rays and just enjoy being in the water. The water felt great! Having spent so many summer weekend in Laughlin, we imagined the Potomac would feel just like the Colorado River but we were so wrong! It was delightful- perfectly refreshing on a sticky 90-degree day! We loved it! It was a great way to spend our 7 1/2 years together and we can't wait to go tubing again!

10 weeks to go!

As of tomorrow, there will only be ten weeks remaining until the wedding! Since recovering from the crazy illness I had two weeks ago (and managing to knock out half of my office like I started the plague), I've been busy with some of the little details for the wedding. I finally restocked our invitation supplies so I can finish making them and sending them out (I ran out of some of the paper, ink for the printer, both types of stamps, and the ribbon!), I've been working out menu details with The Cannery and set up an appointment for a tasting with my Dad in July, my Mom sent me a piece from my gown so we can start looking for Ryan's snazzy outfit, Jacque booked a room for the girls and me at the Marriott for the two nights before the wedding, we finally booked our flights to California, and we finished up the registry. Yeah! Other than that, we've been taking it easy while we can, knowing that the next two and half months are going to become crazier and crazier by the day. For example, tomorrow we get to go tubing on the Potomac River and Jenn and Jac will be here one week from today for our girl's weekend! So much to look forward too and we love it!

One Sick Puppy

The week started off great! I felt so good after spending Sunday biking and Monday hiking, but I should have seen what was coming. My moments of greatness tend to be followed by moments of weakness. After biking Sunday, I had a little tickle in my throat. I thought it was just allergies, which is normal for me, so I took a Zyrtec D, rinsed my sinuses, and drank some chamomile tea before going to bed. Monday morning, I woke up feeling great and ready for our big hike. By the evening, the tickle was back. Thinking allergies yet again, I repeated the same steps from the night before and felt fine before going to bed. Tuesday morning was not so great. The tickle had turned into a sore throat which is very bad news for this girl! I had a really bad throat and sinus infection in February and another in April. This is my third so far in only five months! My tonsils are doomed! By the time I got home from work on Tuesday, I knew I would be going to the doctor Wednesday. I went straight to bed after getting home on Tuesday and woke up Wednesday knowing it was going to be a heck of a day. Fortunately, I was able to get an appointment for Wednesday afternoon. The doctor took one look at my throat and said, "ugh, that is an ugly looking tonsil!" He gave me a prescription for antibiotics and sent me home. By the time I picked up my prescription and got home, I was ready to collapse and by the end of the day, I had a fever, body aches, and couldn't swallow food. Thursday morning saw me up at 3am, unable to sleep due to strong chills followed by hot flashes, body aches, dizzyness, a pounding headache, and an infection that made both tonsils looked like beaten up golf balls. That's how things continued until Friday evening when my fever was so bad, it climbed to 104.3 while I was laying in a cool bath. After consulting with both of our dads (his is a health administrator and mine is a retired medic), Ryan decided the best thing to do would be to take me to the emergency room. Good call! They hooked me up to an IV with a mild pain killer, antibiotics, and steroids. It was a dream combination! My fever dropped, the pain subsided, and I was able to fall asleep. In just a couple of hours, I felt like a whole new person! We checked out at 1am and when we got home, I finally accomplished a restful sleep. I think I really needed a strong dose of meds to kick this infection. After taking it easy yesterday, I'm feeling pretty good. My tonsils are still a little ugly and scratchy, but they're definitely not as bad, and most of the other symptoms are gone. My goal for today: finish sanitizing the house and eat something that requires chewing. I miss chewing... haven't really done it since Tuesday when I ate a grilled veggie sandwich for lunch. What a week!

Thanks Ryan for taking such amazing care of me! I love you so much!

Active Holiday

Planning for this three-day weekend was difficult! We wanted to spend the weekend with Averi and the kids, but the weather called for rain all day every day. We didn't think it would be wise to sit in holiday traffic to be stuck inside due to rain the whole weekend (even though I think every moment with Bear and Kalee is fun!).

We waited for rain all night Friday and it never happened! We woke up to gorgeous day Saturday, so I went for a bike ride. Ryan still doesn't have a bike, sadly, so I went out alone. I rode along Arlington Blvd and the WO&D Trail. I stopped in Shirlington for some lunch, then headed out on the Four Mile Run and then home on the Mt Vernon Trail. I had to stop on the Mt Vernon Trail for a little snack break and enjoy the gorgeous view. The areas that many of our trails go through are so lush and green. Riding through them is pure pleasure. Here's a little video of what I saw:



The water from the Potomac lapped at my feet as I watched the boats cross in front of all of DC's major monuments while military veterans on Harley Davidson motor cyles buzzed all around me. It was a beautiful moment.

Today, we enjoyed another day of sunshine (the weather people were so wrong!). Well, I would like to say enjoyed... we were not as prepared for our hike as we should have been! We drove out to Great Falls in Maryland to hike the Billy Goat Trail. On our walk to the BG Trail, we stopped at the Great Falls overlook to see the Potomac River's gorgeous waterfalls. Who knew this was in our backyard the two years we lived in Maryland?!


A lot have people have recommended the Billy Goat Trail, so I didn't think it would be difficult. This picture is not of us, nor did we take it, but we did climb this same rock! It was the steepest of many scrambles! Ryan actually had to push me up over one rock!


I think we were only an hour into the hike when we both began thinking, "are we done yet?" We couldn't deny how gorgeous it was, but climbing those hills and rocks, up and down, up and down, was exhausting! The length of this trail was 1.7 miles. The overlook trail was .4 miles in and back and the towpath from the end of the BG trail back to the tavern was 1.1 miles. In total, we hiked over 3.6 miles in 3 hours! We are going to be sooooo sore tomorrow!

By the way, this is our "before" picture... there was no way we were taking an "after"!

13 weeks and counting!

We didn't have too eventful of a week. Last Sunday, "Lost" ended... holy moly! We were dedicated followers from season one and were pretty satisfied with the series finale. My softball team lost again... I think it's our 5th loss in a row! Nevertheless, we probably have the most spirit of any team in our league and we always have fun! We wore our Tree Slugger shirts and really looked like a team! I got to see "Sex and the City 2" with some of my new friends and it was as fabulous and cheesy as I expected it would be. It was so nice to see it with such fun girls!

The highlight of the week was definitely today. Following a morning walk to the farmer's market and Whole Foods, we headed to the Pentagon City Mall and I bought Ryan's wedding ring! We checked out a few different places and at our last stop, found the perfect ring in the perfect size! I cannot wait to place it on his finger during our wedding ceremony!

Only 13 weeks left until our wedding! Time is just flying by! There is so much to look forward too this summer, we know it will continue to fly on by! In two weeks, we may take a trip up to New York for Ryan's grandma's birthday; in four weeks, Ryan may go camping while our apartment is taken over by all of my east coast girls; in eight weeks, I'll be flying out to California for my bridal shower and bachelorette party; in ten weeks, Ryan will be in Vegas for his bachelor party; and then, in thirteen weeks, we'll be married!!