Duay Adventures

Today I decided that instead of staying home and cleaning (who wants to do that?) I decided to get outside (again). So I went for a walk on the North Branch Anacostia Trail. I joined the trail just past the College Park Metro Station. I actually walked around the back end of the College Park airport. I came around the corner and saw Lake Artemisia. I never realized this place existed. I basically chose my trail based on the shade. I had a lot of fun photographing the area. I saw a toad, a turtle, a deer, and some geese, as well as a multitude of other birds. I had a blast. It was about an hour walk around the Lake and back to my car. I think I'm going to go back every week. If I do, I'm not going to shower first because it was hot. I had a lot of fun taking these pictures and I really enjoyed my walk. I hope to take Jon with me next time.

As I mentioned in my last post, I have really wanted to get outside and in Nature lately. So I had the weekend of the 14th and 15th off so we on Sunday, we went for a ride. I wanted to be near the water so we went looking for some beaches along the Chesapeake. Well, we found a few but they were mostly private. We ended up heading north from Annapolis towards Baltimore. We came across Fort Smallwood. Fort Smallwood is actually a county park. It was on the water a little ways from Baltimore. You could kind of see the Baltimore skyline through the haze. We got out and went for a walk around the park. And this is why I married him.

Maybe its because everyone back in Utah is complaining about bad weather but lately I just want to get outside and enjoy nature. So on the 12th of May, I picked Jon up from school and we went to the park. I made him take pictures of me on the swing and as I slid down the slide. And this is the slide. I also managed to snap a quick shot of Jon.

The day after my birthday, Jon had an awards ceremony at school. He won the Graduate Student Research Award. He had to give a presentation on his research. He was one of three graduate students to win the award. The award came with a certificate and a check for $250. We haven't decided what to do with the money yet but I am so proud of Jon for winning this award. I went into to work late so I could be there to see him. This is Jon receiving his award. This is Jon giving his presentation. I understood most of what Jon said during his presentation. I don't know if that is because I already know some of his work and so it was easier to understand or if it was because he dumbed it down enough for me to understand. The other two who did presentations I didn't really understand. The jargon seemed too technical. Jon did a great job and I am so proud of him. Afterwards we had light refreshments and we mingled with others from the Chemistry department. It was a proud day for me.

On May 10th, I celebrated my 28th birthday. Overall, it was a good day. I got up and went to Target to get Harry Potter 7 Part 1 on DVD. I then met Jon for lunch. We went to Einstein Brothers. Yum! After that I came home and read for awhile before my friend Dana came over so we could watch our movie. Here is the story. Dana and I made plans to go see Harry Potter when it came out. We had to cancel because she had something come up. So we made plans again in December. I had a car incident and we didn't make it. So a few days later we got off work and drove over to the theater by our work. They were having technical difficulties and weren't showing it that day. So we decided it was not met to be and we stopped trying to see it in theaters. Well, my birthday broke the Harry Potter Curse. After Harry Potter was over and Dana left, Jon and I went to Red Lobster for dinner. It was so good. Here are some fun pictures. Alice is ready to watch Harry Potter. The sunglasses my mom sent m...

I had the Monday after Easter off and it was Cheryl's last day in Maryland so we decided to go into DC to see if we could see the Easter Egg Roll at the White House. I had an idea that we wouldn't be able to get very close so we also made plans to go to the US Botanical Gardens. We headed to DC and walked towards the White House. We had to keep heading down towards the mall because they had the Elipse blocked off. We were nearly to Constitution Avenue before we were able to cross. There were so many kids with their parents running around. This is a picture of me in front of the White House at the closest point we could get. This is Cheryl at the White House. This is a close up of the Easter Egg. This is me in front of the Washington Monument. We took Metro back down over to the other side of the National Mall to the US Botanical Garden. This is a collage of some of the flowers. Here is another collage.