Trent and I, my parents and Jenn all got to go to VA from June 15th - 19th for my cousin, William's wedding. We love any opportunity to make it back out that way. Loved being back in home sweet home Vienna and seeing everything that's still the same, but also all of the changes.
We had an early flight out on Wednesday the 15th. We had to leave for the airport at like 5 in the morning for our 7 a.m. flight so we all ended up wearing our glasses :)
We got in about 1 and then went to good ol' Whole Foods in Vienna for lunch. Oh the memories!
Then we stopped at Crate & Barrel for wedding gifts and finally to the Harrison's. This was our first time staying in their new home. A big thank you to Uncle Mark and Aunt Karen for letting us stay. They have a beautiful home!
That evening we met up with high school friends at Coldstone. I wanted to make sure we got to see Maggie before she got married that weekend as well!
Shannon, Amy, Sarah, Maggie, Jenn, and I :)
It was nice to be able to take it easy the next morning. Jenn and I with our cousin Rebecca's daughter, Rachel.
That afternoon we got to go through the temple with my cousin Miriam for her endowment. We are so happy for her. She will be headed to serve a mission in Brazil in September! Unfortunately we didn't get a picture with everyone afterward b/c they had to rush off to prepare for the pre-wedding BBQ for William and Jessica that evening.
We got a few pictures though :)
That evening the Bennett's hosted a yummy BBQ for all of the bridal party's family at the Harrison's.
Jenn had said something about how she always feels like we're a couple when she has to take a picture with me since I'm shorter than her, hence our reactions..haha.
Friday, the 17th, was William and Jessica's big day! It is always such a joy to be back at the temple where Trent and I were married 8 years ago!
The Christensen granddaughters in attendance. We were actually missing 6 more!
My dad with his 3 sisters, Linda, Karen, and Jana (William's mom).
Mr. and Mrs. Bennett!!
Beautiful couple!
After some pictures at the temple we headed to Five Guys for lunch.
Before our food came out. Jenn and I shared a salted caramel shake - SO good!! As far as burgers go, I think I'm an In 'N' Out girl.
Jenn was getting a picture of her food for her husband and got me taking a big bite of my burger in the background..ha.
Jenn trying to get an artsy picture..ha. Can you tell I stole most of these pictures from her? Thanks Jenn ;)
Then we headed to Ballston to see my Aunt Linda and Uncle Bruce's new condo. They decided to downsize and I am so impressed with what they were able to do with the space! I love Linda's style! Their condo is gorgeous!
Later that evening we headed to William and Jessica's reception at the Belmont Country Club. So Jessica actually grew up right near us in McLean in the same ward as our cousins on my mom's side. We always knew who Jessica was growing up, but never really got to know her, so it was such fun news for us when we found out William and Jessica were getting married! It was so great to get to know Jessica a little bit while we were in D.C. She is so cute and fun and we are so happy for her and William. Anyway, the reason I mentioned all of that is because we got to see my cousin Jordan at the reception and her adorable family, as well as my aunt Cindy.
We got to meet Jordan's sweet new baby Ettley :)
The dinner that evening was delicious! It was a great reception!
Saturday Trent and I played D.C. tourists for the day. I forgot to mention at the beginning of this post - so earlier in the year we had been thinking about taking a little anniversary trip to San Diego, but when we heard William was engaged, I told Trent maybe we could go to William's wedding instead and kind of count it as our anniversary trip :)
So Saturday we made a point to spend the day in D.C. together, just the 2 of us :)
Jenn was headed to brunch with Colleen (our great friend from high school) so they dropped us off at the Metro before they headed to Tyson's.
We made it into D.C. and first we checked out the Renwick gallery on the recommendation of some cousins. We got to see the Wonder Exhibit which was so neat! These were made up mostly of index cards.
They were tall!
This was like a rainbow weaved from 60 miles of thread. I wish I had taken pictures of it from different angles.
These were like big twig huts that you could walk around and inside.
It was fun to walk out and see a pick up game of hockey out in the street in front of the Eisenhower building.
We got back on the Metro to head to the Mall. We were feeling ready for lunch so we got chicken quesadillas from a food truck. I was a little nervous about it, but they were pretty good and we had a great view of the Washington Memorial.
Then we did something totally touristy! Paddle boats in the Tidal Basin :)
We brought our selfie stick (ha) and I accidentally got this picture trying to get it ready..haha.
This is pretty much why we went out, to get this picture ;) The Jefferson is my favorite memorial. It was fun to be out there, but it got hot fast and we got a bit sunburned. We knew we would.
And finally we headed to the sculpture garden and walked through it.
I was completely exhausted by the time we finished, which happens every time we come to D.C. It's a lot of walking and the humidity got to us. It was so good to get back on the Metro and relax. But overall we had a great time!
That evening we met up with Jordan and Dane and their kids at Noodles for dinner. It was so fun to eat at some of our favorite places in Vienna while we were in town :) Then we headed home with them for a little bit. It was so fun to be at the Lund's chatting in their family room like good old times :) We sure miss living near them.
Then we headed back to the Harrison's. Since it was our last night we all made sure to get back together that evening. We played Heads Up (Ellen DeGeneres's game) with Sarah's phone. It was lots of fun. I'm bummed I didn't really get any pictures with Andrew, Amy, and Katy. We even had my dad and Aunt Karen and Uncle Mark play a round once they got home from their dinner group..haha.
And then Sunday we headed out around 10. We were so bummed to miss Katy's mission farewell by a few hours. She just entered the MTC this last Wednesday. She will be serving in Argentina! How did we not get a picture with Katy?!
It was such a great trip! I am so glad we made it out! And thank you to my sisters Amy and Jill for coming down to stay with our kids. Hope our kids didn't wear you out too much ;)
