One Last Run

To finish off my time in DC I made sure to do one last run of the monuments. The national mall is where I spent most of my time when training for my half-marathon and it became one of my favorite parts of DC. But before we get to that there were a few things that made my last week so great.
There was a Redskins game and even though they lost it was a blast! My first NFL game! Ice skating, seeing Christmas trees, and eating at all the restaurants I hadn't been to yet!

My office threw me a great going away party with customized Sprinkles cupcakes and a beautiful picture of the Capitol signed by everyone!

After staying up late all week and checking things off our list I woke up early Friday morning and went running. It was nice to run the mall on a Friday morning when everyone is at work because it was pretty much deserted. It was a beautiful morning and a great run!

After running I checked out of my room and went for one last meal in Georgetown with Sean, Trevor, and Jason before catching our shuttle to the airport. I was sad to leave DC but it has been so great being home! It is definitely an adjustment but a good one. And it's not like I won't be going back to visit right?

Skating in the City

We had one last FHE activity this past Monday and after our epic fail of not skating on Monday we thought it would be the perfect activity! There were definitely some skaters in our group. Let's just say I was one of the people attempting to get their balance on the ice for the entire hour and a half. Lucky for us one of the girls came a little late so she decided to become the photographer for the night!

There hasn't been many times this semester where a large group of us have been together so it was a lot of fun for everyone to hang out. I got to spend some time with people that I haven't spent much time with which I loved!

Our final week in DC continues with us checking off our last minute things one by one!

The spreading of Christmas cheer continues...

Oh Christmas Tree

Last weekend after the tree lighting we decided to go back and get a closer look! Of course we had to have ourselves a little adventure first. We walked or more like roamed around the city looking for a place to eat. You wouldn't think that would be difficult in a place like DC but when you have 5 people all wanting different things it can create some problems. We finally settled on Chipotle. Real original right? The best part is we walked a good half hour to eat there when we have one 5 minutes away from our house. Good times!

After dinner we were going to go ice skating but they were sold out for the night so instead we made our way to the White House. I never tire of the view in DC. The National Mall all lit up is one of my favorite things especially when it is Christmas themed!

Our Utah Tree

We wanted to go say hi to the Obama's but this is as close as we could get!

The Christmas music has been playing on my computer for the past couple weeks! We are trying to see all the that DC Christmas has to offer before we leave! Let the Christmas cheer begin! 

Merry Christmas from the Obama's

Usually I am not a very lucky person. I don't really win contests and I never catch any of the prizes at Jazz games but this luck all changed last week. I entered a lottery in November to see the National Christmas Tree Lighting at the White House and I won 5 tickets!! We were really far away from the stage and the tree but it was still pretty cool.

Big Time Rush (the group from the Nickelodeon show) performed for Sasha and Malia. I personally had hoped they would ask for the Biebs but I guess they have seen enough of him. Then the President himself delivered a Christmas message and brought up the entire Obama clan to turn on the tree. It is a much smaller tree this year because the one that had been there for 30 years was destroyed in a storm.

Ella Goulding performed and if you don't know who she is look her up. She is great. Enough so that she sang at the Royal wedding. Michelle Obama read Twas the Night Before Christmas with Kermit the Frog. Santa made an appearance. Rodney Atkins, the country singer, also performed. The night ended with One Republic singing their one and only original Christmas song. They were awesome!

It hasn't felt like Christmas around here with the weather so warm and not being home so this was the perfect way to set the mood and kick off the holiday season!

Thanksgiving New York Minute

Thanksgiving weekend was spent in New York City with my sister Kacey and our fabulous hosts Catherine and Preston Wallis. Catherine and Preston got married in September and have been living in NYC and since I am so close we decided that it would be a great place to spend Thanksgiving. The only time I have been to New York is for the US Open and I wasn't able to see any of the city so this was a whole new experience for me. Catherine made sure I got the full New York experience.

We started Thanksgiving Day with the Macey's Parade. Lucky for us Preston works on 6th ave and 34th street so we got to watch from his office. We were up on the 11th floor and sat on the window seals, it was the perfect view. Our sweet family friends the Matheson's invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner. We love this family. They have the cutest kids and really made it feel like we were with family.

Friday we needed to regroup a little bit. We slept in and then took a nice walk through Riverside Park where You've Got Mail is filmed. We showered and went out for a day of attempting to shop, sightseeing, and then seeing the Rockette's Spectacular Christmas show that night. The perfect way to start off the Christmas season. We walked all around 5th Ave and Rockefeller Center before heading home.

Saturday was more sight seeing with Central Park, Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, more shopping and of course Serendipity for some lovely Frozen Hot Chocolate.

We had such a great weekend! We missed being with our family but Catherine is about as close to family as you can get for us. Thanks for such a great weekend Preston and Catherine! Thanksgiving in New York City can now be checked off the bucket list!

Go Hoya's!

Since the NBA won't be playing games anytime soon we decided to take the matter of seeing a basketball game into our own hands. Lucky for us, Georgetown's season just started and they are pretty good. We headed to the Verizon Center for the Georgetown Hoya game against North Carolina. It wasn't much of a game. The Hoya's doubled the other teams score but we made it a good time.

The Crew

Run Forest Run!

This weekend I accomplished something I had been working towards for the past 2 months. I ran the Richmond Half-Marathon! A big group of us headed down to Richmond on Friday to spend the night. There were 8 of us running the marathon and then 3 people came to be our cheerleaders. We carbo-loaded on Friday night with pasta and were up at 6:00 am to get to the race.

Pre-Race

At the starting line

I have been working hard for this. I gave up all junk food and sweets about a month ago, was drinking one diet coke a day (a major sacrifice) and running between 3 and 10 miles every day. I was as ready as I was ever going to be. I had a goal to finish by 2 hours and 15 minutes and I ended up finishing in 2 hours 4 minutes. I thought that mile 8 and 9 were never going to end but they did and I made it to the finish without ever stopping.

Post-Race

The real adventure didn't start until after the marathon though. We split up into 3 different groups. One of the guys Jordan, that had come to watch, and I were in a car together. We got stuck in traffic for about 2 hours and by this time I was starving. It was a really frustrating situation but luckily nothing was going to put me in a bad mood after that run so we were laughing the whole time. We finally made it to a restaurant and met up with another group. I ordered a nice big cheeseburger and sweet potato fries with a diet coke of course.

Cheerleaders!

From the left: Kristen, Jordan, Me, Janae (we stayed at her apartment) and Nicole

Our three cheerleaders: Kristen, Nicole, and Jordan wanted to do a little sight seeing so the four of us plus another runner Jen went off to see the sights of Richmond. Let's just say I was not in the greatest condition for much sight seeing and therefore can't really tell you what we saw but I have to say the scenery was beautiful.

The Confederate Fish

Maymont Mansion

We finally made it back to DC around 7:00 but then Jordan and I had to return the car we had borrowed and we also had to drop another runners things off at her house. After getting lost multiple times through out the day we were ready to be done and get home. But of course that wasn't going to happen. We ended up getting lost on the way to her house and then after finally finding it both our phones died leaving us with no GPS to get to the person's house to drop off the car. After realizing another girl had left her phone in the car we made some calls and finally made it to the house. Let's just say it made for a very very long day.

My Sweet Roommate

I finally made it home and took a nice LONG shower before cozying up in sweats and climbing into bed. I had slept on the floor the night before the race so this bed of mine felt mighty good! To top it all off I came home to some beautiful flowers from my family.

Richmond

Thank you to everyone who texted and called through out the day. It made it so much better when I knew how proud people were of me. I can't wait till I can run another one!

Days Go By

Tonight was a night that needed to be spent away from the Barlow Center. It is very easy to catch cabin fever around here and sometimes you just need to get out. Sean and I headed to Urban Outfitters for a little shopping. Walking around Georgetown is something I will never tire of. After that we met up with some others and headed to the GW campus for Foto Week. They had all of these National Geographic pictures projecting on the side of a building. It was pretty sweet.

I haven't really been on the George Washington campus yet and it is beautiful. It cured me of my cabin fever and it was a great fall night. I am not ready for the warm nights to be over.