spring in DC

this time of year always makes me reminiscent. 3 years ago we were packing up our provo apartment, graduating from college, leaving jobs, friends and family behind and trekking to dc with hopes of something great on the other end. 3 years ago steve & i were about to embark on the best thing that has ever happened to us. there's something about taking a leap of faith and leaving the only state you've ever known with nothing but your personal belongings and your best friend in hopes that something better is coming. of course we had plan B in case this whole adventure didn't work out but neither of us spent much time entertaining it because we so badly wanted plan A to work. not a single day goes by that i'm not grateful that our plan worked out in such a seamless way. we couldn't have planned these past 3 years better if we tried. this doesn't mean that everything is perfect because there are still things about this place that kick my butt everyday (whyyyyyy is it so far away from family?), but it means that this year, unlike every other anniversary of us moving to dc, i hope we stay here for a while. i finally feel like dc is my home and that i could really see another 10, 15 or even 30 years here (no matter how ridiculous the real estate market is). 3 years ago i never thought i would utter those words.

hello again!

it has been too long since i last posted. it's been a fun and busy winter. loads of snow, lots of basketball and even more work. welcome to the pierce family! we spent the holidays in nashville and utah with family then returned to DC to dive into our 2014 goals and resolutions. every year we try to instill a theme or phrase in our home. 2013 was the year of trying new things, and try we did! i tackled watercolor classes, lots of new recipes, a new approach to healthy eating, new work out routines and new colors into my wardrobe (hello, black). steve took on a new job, a new approach to traveling to new places (the introvert in him is a bigger fan of the familiar), first time on the radio to talk about byu basketball and trying new-to-him vegetables. we decided our 2014 phrase would be "not every hill is worth dying on" - which is more for me than steve, but we are both working to keep the bigger picture in mind at home, at work and in life in general. it's be very positive so far. oh how i love new years and new goals.

in january steve started his last 2 classes for his masters degree. i think he's been counting down till graduation since the beginning and i'm so proud of him that he is almost done and that means no more tuition. oh that's been hard to fork over a lot of money every semester for the past few years, but i'm very grateful that we've been able to do it on our own, debt free. graduation on may 17th can't come soon enough!

in february we met up with our best friends in philly for presidents day. we had the best time and just learned that they are moving to baltimore this summer, we can't wait to have them closer to dc! we also visited friends in charlottesville and ate the best chinese food ever.

at the end of february steve spent a few days in baltimore for his company retreat. while he was somehow singing karoke with the owner of the Orioles at a dive bar i traveled to utah for one of my best girlfriends weddings. rachel was the happiest bride i've ever seen! she was beautiful and the day was perfect and her new husband seems like the greatest. it was such a fun weekend to be apart of.

   march was filled with snow days, girl scout cookies and steve's birthday. he wanted to watch the ncaa tournament and eat fajitas and pie for his birthday so that is exactly what we did. we took the day off work and had a basketball watching marathon weekend. 

we are looking forward to a fun spring and summer with  lots of traveling and time with family!

this is what we call "steve works past 8pm and his work pays for dinner" 

summer recap

school has started and i've been slacking at blogging, so here's a crash course summer recap:

JUNE

-now that we've retired from nursery the kids really miss steve. just last week we were at cafe rio and ran into one of our favorite nursery boys and he said "jessie you come to nursery this sunday, ok" i told him i would (because i often do now that i'm in the primary presidency and over nursery) and then he turned to steve and said "you come too steve" it was cute. since we have retired we've started occasionally babysitting the kids so their parents can enjoy a night away, and of course we don't let them pay us. it is so much fun to spend a saturday afternoon or evening with these kids.

-four year anniversary! of course steve happened to have class the night of our actual anniversary... is grad school over yet?

-went to the nike store in georgetown to meet kevin durant, and steve just needed to have his latest basketball shoe.

 

-we made a valiant effort to go to the smithsonian museums that we hadn't been to yet. we still haven't seen them all, i just love dc.

-our bestest friends came down from brooklyn for the weekend. gosh i love it when they come to town

JULY

-4th of july fireworks at the national mall with friends from our ward

-day trip to gettysburg on the 5th of july during the week of the 150th commemoration. it was a loooong day because there is so much to see, but we had the best time and learned a lot

 -i had a root canal! it was awful, well not the actual procedure, but the infection i got in my tooth. yikes. so far we are at 2 crowns and 2 root canals for the year, and counting... (probably getting another next week.. no!!!)

AUGUST

-jay z and justin timerlake... amazing.

-steve's family came to town and we spent the weekend in a small town in southern virginia. naturally we went to a animal feeding farm. the pictures show exactly how much fun steve had with the animals. 

 

-i chopped 9 inches off my hair - pray to the humidity gods that they go easy on us washingtonians the rest of the summer!

-georgetown date nights, found a new favorite dessert place called pie sisters. super cute and amazing pie!

-roadtrip to charlottesville to visit some of our closest friends who just moved their for law school and to see byu v. uva - aka: east coast general conference, every east coast mormon was there!

...tonight we are going to a korean bbq karaoke place for a friends birthday, wish us luck!

4 years and the outer banks

to celebrate our four year anniversary we headed to the outer banks to spend a relaxing weekend at the beach. we had the best weekend with just enough beach time, and still got to explore the area and see some cool things. we went to jockey ridge state park at sunset, cape hatteras lighthouse and the wright brothers memorial. we also ate at some amazing restaurants (currituck bbq twice!) and really had the best time. i can definitely see the obx becoming a summer vacation tradition since it's only 5 hours away. there's something so charming about this place.

we stayed in nags head - take 10 steps from our hotel & you were at the beach

jockey ridge state park

steve with the panda kite, best target buy ever

climbing the lighthouse. i loved the black and white floors.

about 30 years ago they actually had to move this lighthouse because it was too close to the water and on unstable land. they moved the lighthouse about a mile inland to where it is today. it was so fascinating to learn about how they moved it.

sand for days. some points of the outer banks are so skinny that all there is room for is a 2 lane highway. the ocean is just outside this photo on both sides!

the field where the wright brothers first took flight.

that one time we went to a kenny chesney concert....

a few weeks ago 2 tickets to that night's kenny chesney fell in our laps. neither of us are kenny chesney fans, but we never say no to live music. we trekked out to the end of the blue line to fedex field (home of the washington redskins) and had a fun night. this was our first experience with the country music scene, because lets be honest, taylor swift doesn't count. it was interesting... the tailgating, the amount of beer that was consumed, the people watching... it was entertaining. steve and i have been to our fair-share of shows; from large arena shows like jay-z & kanye, taylor swift and katy perry to smaller venues and our personal favorite, small bars where some of the best bar bands play. what i'm trying to say, is this was nothing like any of those shows... it was hilarious and bizarre.

before the show started we wanted to find a good restaurant for dinner. we never go to landover, maryland so we wanted to find somewhere good. we ended up at a southern comfort food diner, which in steve's eyes, is heaven on earth. the place was packed. we knew it'd be good because we were the only white people in the whole place the entire time we were there. the mac & cheese wasn't my favorite, but everything else was awesome. highlight of the day was when we got our food steve said "i didn't burn 850 calories at the gym today for nothing!"

as fun as it was, i think that's our last country concert for a while. next up: jay-z and justin timberlake later this summer. i'm already counting down.

some nights

some nights i have primary meetings and steve works until 11pm
some nights we are both home at 6 and make the best dinner together (my favorite!)
some nights we catch up on our favorite shows
some nights we crash and are both in bed by 8pm
some nights steve has school and i go shopping, or do laundry
some nights cafe rio is necessary
some nights we go for a run on the national mall at 10pm
some nights steve stays up till 2am watching and writing about basketball
some nights we go to a movie on a tuesday, just because
some nights we decide over dinner to go to the OBX this summer and book a hotel right then
some nights we go to concerts
some nights i actually wash my hair while steve plays basketball
some nights we explore the district to find new restaurants


i'm loving these nights right now.

on our way to church on mothers day - to talk in sacrament meeting!

april: the best month to spend in washington dc

april in dc is amazing. the green on the trees starts growing back, cherry blossoms are in full bloom, restaurants open their patios up, the memorials with water fountains get turned back on, and the humidity of summer hasn't kicked in yet. it's perfect.






we've had a fun april so far. some of our closest friends came down from booklyn and stayed with us over conference weekend. michael & jess are two of the coolest people we've met. while we wish they still lived here we love that we get to see them from time to time. whenever we spend time with the barnes it means one thing... brunch!!

 


of course we had to take a quick trip to nyc to watch byu play in the mit tournament at madison square garden. i thought it was a great idea until we got back to dc at 6am and had to be to work only a few hours later! it was fun though, new york is always an adventure, even if it's only a 13 hour round trip...









andrew mcmahon (steve i's favorites of. all. time.) came to town the night before my birthday so we HAD to go. it was the best way to start my birthday celebration. [major bonus: his newest song is amazing - listen here] steve had a super busy week with work and school but luckily we celebrated all week between eating at new [amazing] restaurants in dc.


 the past few weekends we have put on our tennis shoes and been tourists in our own city! it has been a lot of fun to see things that we haven't seen yet. it's crazy how much there is to see in this town and almost all of it is free. although the tourists can get annoying sometimes (they don't get public transportation, or how to walk on a sidewalk) it's fun to explore new things. [this photo is from our visit to the national gallery of art, the van gogh and monet paintings were our favorites!]

the rest of our april has been filled with....

three crowns and one root canal later, my teet areis starting to recover!

steve is a master sunday school teacher and i am loving all the kids in primary

steve's favorite time of year has begun - nba playoffs are in full swing.

i finally have a front porch where i can plant flower pots!

this weekend is the white house correspondence dinner, so we will be on the lookout for celebrity sightings all weekend AND steve and i have been invited to the buzzfeed white house correspondence dinner party.