Rachel came to visit!

This was one of the chairs at the Dairy Godmother -

a cute ice cream shop in our neighborhood.
President Obama took his girls to this ice cream shop on Father's Day 2009.

Memorial Day weekend was amazing!

Friday night Steve and I finally finished putting our apartment together

then it was off to pick up Rachel Brubaker from the district!

She rode the bus down from Philadelphia to spend a few days with us.

We went swimming,

and to the Museum of Natural History
and attempted to go to the National Archives
(but the line was too long)
and ate burgers and fries,
played entirely too much Doctor Mario,
and watched movies,
talked about her single life, my married life and her amazing job here,
and reminsced about our high school days.

Rachel was exactly what I needed for the weekend,

after moving to Philadelphia all by herself nearly two years ago,
having lived on the east coast for 2 years now,
she's practically an expert on city living,
and she knows exactly what I have been going through over the last month.

She's so sweet, hilarious, has adorable style,
and is the most loyal friend anyone could ask for.

It was great to have a familiar face around for the weekend.
This is something I never knew I'd be grateful for until we left Utah.
I've come to realized that one of the hardest parts about moving cross country,
(with our closest family member still 700 miles away)
has been not knowing anyone.
Not just family, but friends as well.
During the first few weeks here, I told Steve I simply missed seeing familiar faces.
So take advantage of the familiar faces around you,

and hopefully I'll soon discover a few new ones here:)