Colonal Mustard, in the library, with the wrench...

Similar to the game Clue...we went to a Murder Mystery party this weekend. I can't talk too much about it, I don't want to give anything away...it was a lot of fun though. Jaron was the baseball player, Billy. I was Silky, the owner of an exclusive club. Our such for the killer of Hal Cappone was a lot of fun and came with a surprising end...you'll have to play to find out.

Here's a picture of the boys:

Here's a picture of the girls:

Happy Birthday Naomi, thanks for throwing such a fun party!

Jenn came to visit...

As I said on the previous post, Jenn came to visit us for the week. We had a lot of fun, a lot of food, and no very much sleep. She came in the evening and our first order of business was to get a REAL Philly cheesesteak...Jim's is definitely where to go for that. I know a lot of people will tell you to go to Pat's or Geno's...but seriously, they don't compare to Jim's.

The next day Jenn came with me to work and the kids loved her! The boys are still asking me when Jenny is coming back on the jet plane. The night we went to 5 Guys...a favorite around here.Thursday was the NCAA tournament in Philly, but we had enough time afterwards to go the the King of Prussia Mall...supposedly the 2nd or 3rd largest mall in the country. Seriously, it is huge! Those of you who know me well know I LOVE shopping, but even I am exhausted after a day in the KoP mall. Here we are in some store having fun with the funky sunglasses...

Jaron was with us, so after a very short time, we decided to leave and get some Rita's. The east coast is big on Water Ice. It's really hard to explain what it is unless you've had it, but most of our friends who have left here say Rita's is what they miss the most. Jaron describes it as a slurpy type substance with not very good frozen custard on top. Together it's actually very good though.

We spent Friday in Washington DC. We saw all the monuments, even took some great night shots with them all lit up. Those of you who have been here before know that you could spend a month in DC and not see everything. I told Jenn we'd probably only have time for 1 museum so she chose the Holocaust Museum...I actually went through this one in high school and really liked it...very sad, but very interesting.

I wanted to see something we'd never done before (Jaron and I try to do this whenever we are playing tour guide...otherwise it gets a little boring for us) So for all you 24 fans out there...we went to the reflection pool. This is the spot where Jack and Tony keep meeting during this season of 24.
And we also took Jenn to Union Station to eat...she said we should've taken a picture of her sandwich because it was so good.

Saturday we spent in NYC and spent way too much money...but had so much fun! Here is Jaron and Jenn while we were walking down Music Row.

We saw all the sites, saw a Broadway show, shopped in China Town, and of course, ate! Jenn really wanted New York pizza, what better place then Ray's?

After we had our fair share of hot candied almonds (my FAVORITE thing to get in NYC) we headed home. Sunday is the day of rest, and boy did we need it from a busy week. After church we drove through Amish Country and the buggies were out in full force! Everywhere we looked there were buggies, I've never seen that before. Usually we're lucky if we see more then 1. Here is one of the shots we took from the car.

Monday we spent in Philadelphia. Shopping on South Street, Rocky steps, Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Boat House Row, Love Park....etc. Jenny's favorite thing was Rocky. She said Philadelphia was probably her favorite day..."this city is so cool! Way better than Seattle." On the way into the city we were trying to figure out what to eat that she can't have in WA. We decided to go to WAWA. She said it was the best chicken sandwich she's ever had. These are one of my favorite things to get to eat...soooo good.

Tuesday morning we got up way too early and went to Rice's Market. This is a favorite of the locals here...the market started back in 1860 and farmers would get together and sell their livestock, farming equipment, and whatever else. By the 1950's it had turned into mostly produce and handmade items, and they still did the livestock auctions. Now they everything! From produce, to jewelry, to toys. But I go because they have amazing deals on designer jeans and clothes...Jenn got a pair of Se7en jeans and a pair of Joe's jeans each for $45. I got 3 pair of Rock and Republic jeans for the same price. They also have purses, shoes, bunnies, the list goes on and on. We got home just in time to load the suitcases in the car, give Bianca a chance to cuddle one last time, get Jaron and go to the airport.

**note to future visitors...When coming to visit make sure you have a 1/2 empty suitcase or even an extra completely empty one! We stayed up pretty last on Monday packing all Jenn's stuff, we couldn't believe it all fit. Jaron went to carry it down the stairs and all the sudden we hear this loud banging. We look to see Jaron holding the suitcase handle staring at the bottom of the stairs where the suitcase ended up. Too HEAVY!

We love you Jenn...come back soon!

March Madness

My little sister, Jennifer, came to visit us and we sure stayed busy. We were luck enough to get tickets to the NCAA Basketball tournament and watch BYU play. BYU didn't play so well, they didn't really play at all actually. Check out those stats...and they only got worse by the end.

The Wachovia Center here in Philly was hosting some of the teams up until the sweet 16. If we stayed all day and night we would've been able to watch UCLA and Villanova...GO VILLANOVA!...but be decided to get home, we were hungry and tired and both had headaches. But we did have a lot of fun. We ended up being part of a pretty small BYU fan base in our section, and an even smaller fan base for UCONN in our section.

While neither game was much of a game...BYU wasn't even in the game most of the time, and UCONN wasted whatever team they were playing...the cheerleaders were pretty good!

Jaron wasn't able to go because he had a job interview...but here is a pic of Jenn and I at the games.

And here we are telling Jaron about the BYU game. It was just sad really...

We love you anyway BYU!

Nickelback

For Jaron's Christmas Eve present I got him tickets to Nickelback. They are definitely rock stars! A little cruder then we were expecting, but the singing was awesome! I had just had a chemical peel, so I couldn't smile at all, but I sure felt like smiling.
The show was great, we loved the slide shows they would do during the songs. Above is just a close up of the lead singer, but below is one of the pictures from the song Photograph. They actually did pics of the band growing up, it was so good! That was our favorite song they preformed that night.

All in all, it was a great show and we enjoyed it. Love the songs, not quite sure what we think of the band as people though.

Tuesday Date Nights

Yep, Jaron and I have started going to the shooting range. On Tuesdays it's only $1 to rent the lane for an hour, so this is our designated day to go. I'll keep you updated on how it goes.

I love my family...

Not only did I get to see Craig when we went home to Washington, but we got to see almost all of my mom's side of the family, and some of Jaron's family. We don't have too many pictures, but I was so happy seeing all my cousins and aunts and uncles again. And we had a lot of family friends come for the weekend as well. It was so much fun! I don't have any pictures from Sunday when everyone was there, but these are from Saturday night.

Craig and Papa.

Craig, Papa, Shirley, Aunt Steph, Uncle Fred, Me

Rick, Lisa, Jaron, and Abel & Marsha Garcia.

All the teenagers.

Hopefully I'll have more pictures to post from Sunday.

Return With Honor

My little brother is finally home! Craig has been serving a 2 year mission, for our church, in Paraguay. We are so excited to have him home again. It was fun seeing how much he's grown up and matured while he's been gone, and we loved listening to his stories.

Here is Craig at the MTC two years ago.

I have so many pictures of us waiting at the airport for Craig...but I thought this one was funny. I don't think we were making these weird faces on purpose either. For some reason it took FOREVER for Craig's plane to land. Jaron and Dad finally started walking around and ended up finding Craig first, mom was not happy to miss the first hug! Jenn and I had to go to the bathroom, but we were afraid we'd miss Craig...finally we RAN to find one.

Yes, we were in a hurry...but we took the time to stop and take a picture.

Mom finally gets her hug, and it lasted about 20 min. We had to pry her off so we could welcome him home too!

My turn!

I thought this we a funny picture too...Craig was asking about cell phones and we all took ours out to show him.

As soon as we got home from the airport and had some food, we went home and had 2nd Christmas! We left the tree up and saved all our presents for Craig, so he got to have Christmas with the family....sort of. He also had lots of fun stuff for us as well.

Here I am trying the Matte' (no idea how to spell that) that all the missionaries come home talking about from South America. No offense, but I was not a fan. It was a fun trip, and I was so glad to see my brother. We love you Craig!