2 More Friends Officially in the Post-Grad World

This past weekend I went to down to my college alma mater, love saying that lolz, to celebrate the graduation of two of my best friends (one spent an extra year there for Nursing and one is a year younger). Since grad weekend will be way too hectic with family and logistics for the two of them, I went one weekend early and it ended up being the perfect last weekend that the 3 of us will probably experience there for a lonnng time!

I made both of them scrapbooks, which ended up being a really fun project. I haven't scrapbooked in years - I told myself I'd make a scrapbook after every year of school, but that obvy didn't happen. The hardest part is gathering the pics, getting them printed, and figuring out how you want the pages organized. But from there, I loved looking back at all the memories and creating the pages with different designs and themes. Not to mention I watched a lot of Scandal episodes in the making. They both loved the scrapbooks. And now I'm semi-confident they won't forget who I am. =D

We went hiking in the Shenandoah National Park, which includes Skyline Drive, which is something I always wanted to do down at school. Besides a rough beginning including a very disturbing porter potty and a sign that actually read: "Enjoy Watching The Bears" it was great and truly gorgeous! We were feeling adventurous and one of my friend's ventured onto a log... right when I said it didn't look very sturdy, the mossy top of the log broke off and she slipped into the babbling brook! It was too funny. (She was fine). My other friend was the epitome of the fiancé from Parent Trap with Lindsay Lohan on the way back up. Somebody hand me my Evian. At one point she was using a walking stick and asking for breaks. Also, side note: you know you've officially mastered Self-Timer Pictures on your camera when you can set it up on a tree.

Perfect day for a hike - sunny but brisk

After her fall! hehe

Parent Trap fiancé brought a purse.. enough said.

my leading ladies <3

#SorryMotherNature

Had to leave our mark ;)

The diva herself

Besides being actual productive human beings with our hike (a lot more than I can say of us for a normal weekend) we drank a lot, ate a lot, laughed a lot, acted like freaks-of-nature a lot, and just pretty much loved each other a lot. :)

For the past year, they've been at school so I've still felt connected to it in a way. So I get a little sappy thinking that this chapter of our lives is officially over, but I also know the post-grad world has been pretty great to me, and our friendships and lives will only get better from here! Ending here so I don't go into full sap-status mode. 

you can dress us up but you can't take us out.

freaks-of-nature #1

freaks-of-nature #2

great weekend with my girls. <3

Cherry Blossoms

I live about 30 miles west of Washington, DC and work less than 4 miles from the actual district line. (yea... that's a fun commute). With that said, I rarely go in to our nation's capital. I can count on one hand how many times I've been in DC (not counting for work) in the last 6 months, and most of those occasions involve alcohol - DC has some great night life.

I started thinking about this the other day and realized I really need to take better advantage of being so close to such a dynamic, historical and significant city, district, 51st state, or whatever you want to call it. I mean our nation is literally run here! From the White House, Congress, and Supreme Court to agencies like the USDA, EPA, CIA, Department of Transportation, etc, decisions that affect every single American are all made here. (Ok and maybe the show Scandal has gotten me more interested).

One of my best friends, Kelly, lives in New York City and has a bucket list dedicated to places she wants to see and things she wants to do in NYC. I want to do something similar with DC. It's a little more difficult since I don't live in the city, but I have friends all around the city - in Arlington, Alexandria, Vienna, etc and I'm going to really start encouraging us to go into the city. First thing on my list will be the DC zoo!

It was one of our friend's birthdays this past weekend, so we did venture in to the city see the Cherry Blossoms, along with 100,000 (probably more) other people. It was a little hard to maneuver so we didn't do too much exploring but it was still a lot of fun! We saw the blossoms, the Washington Monument, the White House, and saw some of the Cherry Blossom festivities. We also stopped on the street to watch break-dancers who had quite the personalities. We then met my friend's sister for a drink in a hotel with 3 different bars... I guess Congressmen and lobbyists need a constant supply. ;)

I'm excited to do some research and create my DC bucket list! I'll keep you all updated. I don't plan to live in DC on the long-term so I need to get hoppin'!

 Birthday festivities in Alrington