July Random

This summer has been a little quiet. It is super hot here and we really don't want people visiting in the summer when it is hot and humid, but now is the time to start planning for the fall, so come visit! :) And while I do love summer, I am so looking forward to the end of August, because at the end of August I am going home for an entire week, just like I did last year!!! AHHH, so excited!!!! 

Well here are some of the randomness of July. 

Remember when I was in NYC with Kathie in May and we saw Zachary Levi in She Loves Me? If not, read this blog post. Well She Loves Me became the first Broadway play ever to live stream and I totally paid the $9.99 to watch it! It is so great and I love Zac and I can't wait until this comes to theaters in November. 

This is an inside joke, but we were so happy to have Burger King! :)

On July 12, my dad would have been 60 years old. I was only 12 when he died, so I don't have many memories of him - but this is a photo I have of him and I that I absolutely love!

I love Baylor, but he is not allowed in my room that often (because he likes to mark things), so I have slowly been letting him come visit, so as long as I watch him like a hawk. isn't he so cute?!?!

Representing Boise State in Maryland!

Dexie and I love sharing the pillow.

And now for my adorable niece and nephew. In July Hay turned 7 and Eli turned 2.

Together 2016

On Saturday, July 16, Tuf, Anthony, Sara (Anthony's little sister) and I went to the National Mall for an entire day Christian event, Together 2016. The event was meant for all Christian's regardless of your theological view to come and worship the one true God as one. 

It was a crazy hot day and maybe because of recent events there were only 2 ways to enter the area and 2 ways to leave. As we walked through the security line to get in there were protestors, not something I expecting, but should have. I just smiled and did not engage in them but rather I prayed that they would stop judging everyone and learn to love people, even if you disagree with what they believe. When we got in we were hoping for some shade, but there are not a lot of trees around the Washington Monument, so we decided to just find a spot and put up our umbrellas. Have I mentioned how hot it was? So hot! But thankfully we like modern worship music and we didn't have to wait for to long before Passion took the stage and then one of our favorite artist Crowder. 

Our view of the stage.

Tuf and I walked the roughly 1 mile to Distinct Taco. And as we were walking to District Taco we totally walked through a fire hydrant spray. Because of the heat they had opened a fire hydrant so that people could cool off. They also brought in a couple metro buses for "cooling buses". When we got to District Taco, I wiped the sweat off of my arm and instantly it reappeared again - yeah gross.

After we got back from District Taco and started eating our lunch, we all decided that it was too hot and that we could go home and stream the rest of it on our TV. As we were waiting in line to get back to our car (we parked in a government parking lot, so we had to go through security) we got an alert  that the event was canceled due to the extreme heat and that one of our favorite bands, Hillsong was going to take the stage at 4pm rather than later in the evening. I was reading on Twitter that between 300-500 people had to be treated for heat related issues, and the medical personnel was overwhelmed with everyone that needed help, so that is why they closed it. The event still went from 9am - 4pm and we were there for almost the entire thing. Maybe next time they do an event like this, they will do it in October.

I am not sure how many people actually attended but probably in the realm of a few 100 thousand people. There goal was a million, but obviously there were not that many people. It was a great idea and I am so thankful for the organizer that they did this in our nation's capitol and thankful that we were able to attend.

Taste of Idaho in DC

On a hot Wednesday night in July, I agreed to go with Monika (aka, Idaho friend) to an Idaho event. Yes, an Idaho event in DC! It was only a couple blocks from our work.

Taste of Idaho event in DC had great views of the Washington Monument!!

And a great view of Archives.

Chinatown area.

Even though it was over 90 degrees out, we ended up being one of the last people to leave. We met some great people that are from Idaho that now live in the DC area. Since we were being so social we were able to see the sunset over DC!

I am so very thankful that Monika invited me to attend and I am even more thankful that we have been friends for a year now. It is so nice to have someone that is from home as a friend in this crazy world of DC that we currently live in.

4th of July

Happy Birthday, America! I love the 4th of July! It is my favorite holiday. 

Anthony's family visited over the 4th of July. We had 8 people at our house, so I was able to do some baking in some creative ways. 

The American Flag - berry style!

 For breakfast, I made our now traditional holiday breakfast - gluten free lemon poppy seed, homemade lemon syrup, eggs and turkey bacon.

On the baking side of the 4th, I made these gluten free biscuits, topped with homemade marshmallow infused whip cream, strawberries and a blueberry. Yum! These are so cute!!!

 After breakfast we went to the Cathedral and then to Great Falls.

After Great Falls we went home to see if the rain was going to stop and if the National Park Services would call of the fireworks. They did not. So we trekked down to the mall and sat in the rain....

 We got to the mall around 7:30am and I thought for sure that being in the middle of the mall from the Capitol to the Washington Monument. We sat along 7th street.

Did I mention that it had been raining all day? Yeah, well...when the fireworks started going off we got yet another year of smoke. Boo! Not the 4th that I have always imagined DC to be like. We will try one more time, next year - our last July in DC (yes, we do have an exit strategy of when we will be coming home - not all things are finalized, but what we do know at the moment is we will all (key word - all, I am not sure on when I will be leaving) be leaving the DC area sometime during June of 2018). So, enjoy my few smoky pictures of fireworks around the Washington Monument and at least you know that mine are not from years past, like PBS did :)

Happy 240th Birthday, America!