Rainy Philadelphia

Tuesday in Philly was very rainy, all day long. We still went to see a few things, despite the wet feet from all the puddles we had to walk through.

Here is the courtroom in Independence Hall. The coat of arms is there above where the judge sits. All the furniture in Independence Hall is most likely not original, but from the same time period.

Courtroom

 That area with the jail bars around it is where the defendent stood when they were on trial. The defendent was not allowed to sit all during the trial. The guide we had said that he's heard that that could be where the phrase "stand trial" came from.

Where the defendent stood

 Here is the room where all those important documents were signed!! It was very cool to be in that room where such amazing events took place. There was Thomas Jefferson's actual walking cane there, and another signer's pipe there. The chair on the platform is where the president (George Washington) would sit during the proceedings.
There was a golden sun on his chair. I thought it was interesting that it was so similar to the sunstone we see on the Nauvoo Temple. But I think it was Thomas Jefferson that said he would ponder on that figure of the sun a lot. He always wondered if the sun was setting or rising. He said, after they signed the Constitution (I think), that he now saw that the sun was rising. We had such insightful leaders.

Independence Hall

I won't lie...can't remember who this statue is or what his significance is. His last name was Barry. And he was on the grounds of Independence Hall. :)

The Benjamin Franklin Library...on Library Street. :) Another thing I loved about this city was all the statues. There are TONS of statues all over the city...and probably half of them are Ben Franklin. Also, pretty much everything is named after Ben Franklin.

Benjamin Franklin Library

On one of our tours of the city, the guide told us that there are two parts of Philly. There is Historic Philadelphia and Downtown Philadelphia.

Like I said...statues everywhere. Even though that first one creeped me out, I loved seeing them. It just added to the historical aspect of the city.

PHILLY - An Introduction

Get ready for a picture overload of Philadelphia! I'm only going to share a fraction of the pictures we took, but it's still A LOT!!
I was funded by the university to go to Philadelphia for a conference about postsecondary education for students with disabilities. I learned A LOT and I was so glad I was given the opportunity to go. All the information was great to know for my job and my future endeavors in my career field.

The perk of going on this trip for the conference is that I got to see a really cool place during the times when I wasn't in workshops. It was GREAT. I have never been to Philadelphia, so it was fun to explore a new place. And Steve got to come on the trip with me, so we got to have fun in this new place!!!

I can't remeber which things we did on which days of the trip, so I'm going to try and organize the pictures in some logical way. :)

This was one of the first "cool" things I saw on the trip. We were out on Tuesday getting ready to see some things and saw this cemetary. It was so neat because it's obviously old and historical. That was the coolest part of the trip. Everything had some history to it, and I liked being able to actually SEE the history.

A cemetary on a side street of Philly.

We ended up going to Johnny Rockets a few times during our trip. It saved my life in terms of "normal" foods in town. We liked going to some of the local restaurants and things, but it was annoying not knowing if we would like our food. So when we wanted to go somewhere where we knew we would like the food, this is the placed that saved our my life. And it was fun because it was a little retro, and we got to listen to some of my favorite songs while we ate!

Johnny Rockets. YUMMY

Sadly, Tuesday was pretty rainy weather. We still wanted to see things, so we had to just suck it up and go with wet feet all day. And it really rained...ALL DAY. Again, I really enjoyed seeing all the history and things that were still standing from the beginning our country.

Independence Hall

 Liberty Bell. I did not know we'd be standing in a line to see the bell. I thought it was just kind of outside and you go see it. But they moved it inside with cool historical facts and things to read about. I also realized how many people were at all the sights from other countries. I am always interested in other cultures. But I never think that other people are interested in my culture. But they were!! So it was neat to see all the different groups of people that were at all these sights.



Liberty Bell

 Okay. Our first night in Philly, we got in around dinner time. By the time we got to our hotel, settled, and were ready to explore town for a place for dinner, it was probably 8:30 or 9:00 at night. So it was dark. Obviously we are unsure exactly of where we are going, and hoping we'll like the restaurant, and that it doesn't take forever, etc. So we are walking down the street, turn the corner and THIS angle of the statue is the view I have. I nearly screamed! I was NOT expecting to see that right there...right on the corner of the street. After the initial shock, I thought it was a pretty cool statue...but still. Scary at first.

So there's an introduction about Philly. The rest is very exciting, promise. :) Hopefully I can remember the things I want to record and make memories of.

Rennaisance Faire

We went to a Rennaisance Faire in May and it was so fun! (I'm not sure that I spelled it right, but I'm too lazy to check it.) We may not go again, but it was a cool experience anyway. I mostly only wanted to go for two reasons: 1) The Horse Vaulters and 2) Jousting.

Here were the Horse Vaulters. It was girls doing cool jumps/moves while on horseback. They were really great and fun to watch! So much talent and it was amazing to think of the skills they have!

I got to meet Captain Jack Sparrow.

 Here is the knight we were cheering for in the jousting competition - Sir William. Their horses were trained just for this and were usually retired war horses. They had great talent too. And they really got into character and gave a flower to a girl they would win the joust for.

I think the knights actually ended up tying in the joust. They also did some other sports/contests that were done in those days. They rode a horse with a spear and tried to hit a bullseye. They also put a helmet on a man, put a cabbage on top of the man's head, and rode toward him to cut the cabbage in half. They really did it!!! I couldn't get a picture of those things because we sat at a weird angle and wouldn't be able to see over the other people.

Queen Elizabeth came to see the jousting.

The knights were suiting up!

JOUSTING

Yard Work

Early in May we decided to venture into the jungle that was our yard and try to tame some of the things growing in there. We decided to just rip everything out of the flower beds...because there were only ugly little bushes. And I eventually want flowers there. So we got to work digging up bushes. I also trimmed the other bushes in our yard.

Here is a tiny area that was full of weeds. Steven got all the weeds out before I could get a "before" picture. But it's a cute little rose bush. So far this year it's only shown us two little roses.



 BEFORE
Here is the flower bed right by the bottom of our front stairs. You can barely even tell there were little bushes in there. But there were, amongst all the jungle of weeds.

Me trimming with an electric trimmer we borrowed from our neighbors.

This has the potential to be very scary!

About half way through the flower bed.

AFTER
Here is the flower bed after all the hard work. There is still some weeds just to the left of this picture. But we got tired. And we are trying to decide if we want to keep the rocks or not. We're not worrying about the weeds between all the rocks right now. We're not THAT ambitious.



It looks SO much nicer. Steve did most of the work, and I usually helped as a lever when we needed to get a particularly stubborn bush out. We aren't sure that any flowers will get in there this year, and I'm okay with that right now. :D

More graduation

Here is even more pictures of graduation. I am really proud of myself, can you tell? And I can only brag about how nice it feels to not have to worry about homework every weekend! :)

Strike a pose

Me and Ryan - we work together on campus

Me and Vickie, my mom-in-law!

Me and my 3 best girls from my classes. They were all amazing and we worked hard through all our group projects and crazy late night papers.
Me, Amanda, Whitley, and Chelsie
(PS, Chelsie is Steve's cousin!)

We all wore wedges, and we liked that. ;)

Coming in to the auditorium!

WOOHOO I GRADUATED!!!!!

SOLD!

WoooooooHooooooooo!!!!!

We bought a house, everyone! Here are the pictures from signing the papers! Our realtor was great and was patient with us for over 2 years of looking on-and-off. But here we are, and we found a perfectly awwwesome place!!!

And drumroll, please......
THE PINK BATHROOM!!!!
That's just a preview of all the makeover projects we'll be doing in the next few years. Even though the house is old, it's in GREAT condition. So we don't feel like we're living in a dump until we re-do everything. We LOVE the neighborhood and LOVE the area. We feel SO SO blessed to have found this place and the people in the area.

Christmas 2011

Can I just say... this new set up of Blogger is very annoying and harder to work with. URG.

Anyway!! Guess what?! Christmas is back. Christmas in June. I know, it's exciting. It's just me being on vacation. And during our down time today when we were too tired of walking around, I will catch up on all our blog activity! :)

So here is Christmas pictures. I don't know that I have much to say. It looks fun to me. And we were back in Indy!! :D

Our Gingerbread Houses

Getting our nails done. Girly time!

Steve was being "sneaky" and taking pictures while we were making the cookies.
(I think he was just really excited to eat them, and was waiting nearby to get a quick bite when they were done.)

Steve really enjoys shooting and being manly when we comes out. That is something he does not get to do alot in Utah.

I know - my stance is pretty professional.

YAY! Our cute gift from Sarah and Jeremy family. Excited to paint and finally get all our wall decorations up.

Matchy-Matchy!!

The Fam - I feel like I look like a giant in this picture.

Mom and girl!

No, I did not get Steve a surround sound system for Christmas. This is actually from a little before Christmas (one of the times Steve had strep throat last year.) He got a free surround sound system for his 5 years of service working at America First Credit Union. It was either that or camping gear... you obviously see what we value...