Cross Country Move Days 3 & 4

We left Louisville early the next morning and drove to St. Louis, Missouri. We stopped by our old neighborhood there to see our house. It looks the same as it did when we lived there, which was a strange feeling. It brought back a lot of memories to see everything look the same.

We had dinner with the Makowski's and the Losli's. We had a wonderful time catching up with them and hearing about the things they've been up to in the last few months. It was too short, though.

The next morning we got up early again so we could visit with the Gomes and the Taylor's. It was so great to see everyone again and we're sorry we couldn't spend more time with everyone. On our way out of town we stopped for lunch at Rich and Charlie's, a Zincke family favorite.

Then we left for Kansas and saw an awful lot of this:

Cross Country Move Days 1 & 2

It has been so nice to relax and just sit in the car. John and I are trying to make the most of this time off by seeing friends and family along our journey across the country.

We left Herndon, Virginia behind on Saturday morning and our first stop was to see John's Uncle Doug just outside of town. We had a wonderful visit and then headed to Tennessee for dinner with Joseph and Mariah. It was so nice to hang out with them and catch up on the last few months. (And I did say hello to JMU for you ladies out there!) I'll admit that I don't know if I could live in Tennessee, but it sure is beautiful country! We drove through lovely rolling hills, passed a Christmas tree farm, and saw the most amazing castle-like house. I wanted to take a picture, but we had already passed by the time I got my camera out.

Our next stop was Louisville, Kentucky to visit with Uncle David and Aunt Roxanne, which is always a pleasure. We're excited for Amanda's upcoming marriage and all the happiness that will bring her. And we hope Nicole and Clayton get to experience the DC area and enjoy it as much as we did!

Didn't get any pictures from our first couple of days, which I regret, but I'll have some to share from the next few days!

Almost 3 Months Later...

We are catching our breath after a few crazy months. At this moment we are in transit to Los Angeles, California. John's next rotation is in west Los Angeles and we have said goodbye to all our friends in Virginia to move across the country. John is looking forward to his new assignment and I will continue to work for Booz Allen Hamilton in California.

We were sad to leave Northern Virginia - we really became comfortable and happy there - but we are excited about our new adventures on the west coast. And we get to see a lot of our friends and family on the way!

Catching Up

As you can tell by my sudden increase in posts, I'm catching up now that I have had some down time. My job at Booz Allen Hamilton has been a great blessing and I am very grateful. And I have been really busy.

John and I have had a great time living in the Washington D.C. area and we are looking forward to our next adventure. We should find out the possibilities of our next location mid to late January and we will most likely be moving again in March. While we have really become comfortable in Northern Virginia, we are excited for what comes next.

Right now we are in Utah visiting the Zincke's for Christmas and New Years. Christmas was lovely and we've had a great time hanging out. We're going to get together with our friends from ASU on Friday, which will be awesome. Then my little brother Paul gets home from his mission to Chile in a couple of weeks so we'll be going to Colorado for a short visit to see him and the Woodbury's. So far it has been a very happy holiday season!

We hope you've also had, and will have, happy holidays!

Giving Thanks

We had a lovely Thanksgiving this year at our house. Shea and Jeremy Wilch came over and we had dinner and watched football. I forgot to take pictures of dinner, which is a shame because it looked great, but I did get dessert. I planned much better this year so I wasn't hardly stressed at all. Plus, John was a lot of help.

And we setup our Christmas tree for the first year since we've been married. It hasn't ever made sense to have one because we aren't ever in town for Christmas, but we found one on sale last year. It makes me so happy!

Phun in Philly

In October John and I took an overnight trip to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We have never been before and we figured that we had better go before we leave the east coast. We stayed in a hotel on Friday night, which ended up being an adventure in itself when the fire alarm went off at 11:00 at night. It really wasn't much of a surprise. There was a big group of high school students staying overnight for a sporting event. We overheard the fire marshal say that someone had been smoking illegal substances...

The next day we drove into downtown Philadelphia. We went to the Museum of Art to see the Rocky statue then headed over to see the historical parts. It was really fun, especially because there is such a different feeling from downtown D.C. The Benjamin Franklin house was probably my favorite. The house isn't there anymore but they have a museum underneath where it used to stand.

To complete our Philadelphia experience we went to Pat's for authentic Philly cheese steaks and they were awesome.

Woodbury's Come to Visit

Mom and Dad Woodbury came to visit at the end of September. We had a great time with them visiting Mount Vernon and hanging out. And we had leftover cake for several days after they left... We love you guys!