There is no 30th in February so there is no picture this month.  (Or is that because we are new parents barely keeping our head above water??)  Either way, this month has been exciting and exhausting.  We have never survived on such little sleep as long as we have been married.  Thanks to Carolyn, Chris's mom, we got away for a "Mini-date"  On Feb 27th we celebrated.  Our child has been here one month today and we are still standing with smiles on our faces!  We've added bags under the eyes and a few gray hairs I'm sure but we are still smiling and Clayton is growing fast.  It has been a hard month though and we needed to remember US so we left Clayton for 85 minutes and went out to dinner.  Olive Garden was close and we had a gift card- sold!  Naturally, we texted Carolyn once or twice to check on the little guy and of course our conversation was centered around him but we enjoyed our time.....

Home from the hospital!

It is Clayton's first full day home from the hospital!  How appropriate.

We arrived home with him last night. 

 Our 30th celebration this month started with a 2am feeding.  

The exhaustion hasnt hit just yet.  Leigh and I are still on a "newborn high" with having Clayton in our lives....

A new vocabulary word

We're Back! Well, Kind of.... We have been having lots of fun, quick dates whenever we see each other but none have been on our "30th" date.  Chris is still in San Antonio awaiting my graduation from Georgetown CRNA school and immediate move from DC.  But we believe we will not miss another 30th together for a while...maybe even years if I get my way!  This month Chris came up to visit me in DC.  (Let's be honest- he didn't plan his trip around a 30th date- he just happened to be here at the right time!)  It being our very last 30th celebration in DC I knew we had to do something downtown.  Chris is kind of over this monthly tradition of a date night (he says we go on dates whenever possible which we do) but I want to keep it going so I planned it this month.  I packed a lunch- a fairly good lunch if I may say and we headed for downtown.  It was near freezing so we ate our lunch in the car people watching.  After lunch we ventured into the stamp museum which houses the largest stamp collection in the world.  Upon entering we learned a new word- Philately.  Neither of us knew the meaning of the word (it is the study of stamps) and now neither of us will ever forget it.  What a world we were missing- stamp collecting is a hobby of millions and have made a few lucky millionaires as well.  We learned about the history, the stories, the coloring, the printing, the famous errors of stamps.  Leaving the museum we remembered our dilettante ways and added "Philatelist" to our hobby list.  Really, though if we were observant enough to see an airplane upside down on a stamp and make millions how cool would that be?

5 Years Together

By a miracle we were able to have our 5th year anniversary off. Leigh needed to have dental work done in FL so she was able to get off work. And Chris was on a Radiology rotation, which is the easiest one of the year. The majority of the day was spent at the dentist office. Around 3:00 we were done and went to check in at our hotel at Clearwater Beach. Despite growing up here, Leigh had never stayed down here. We took long walks on the beach, swam in the ocean, enjoyed the hot tub, and watched the sunset. For dinner we went to one of Leigh's favorite restaurants, Island Way Grill. It was amazing, and we even ordered Key Lime Pie to go for breakfast the next day. It was short but sweet. The next day we went to Orlando with family for Zach's wedding and enjoyed our time there as well.

Philadelphia Freedom

Sadly our time in DC is coming to a close and we are trying to see a few things left on our bucket list despite our schedules. One of those has been the new Barnes Foundation Museum in Philadelphia, which is one of the largest collections of impressionist paintings. So we snuck away for a quick trip. Luckily, Leigh's aunt and uncle live nearby in Valley Forge and we are able to stay with them when we want to head up there. We spent time at the Barnes Foundation and then the Rodin Museum. These were both wonderful and perfectly matched our museum tolerance of 2-3 hours. Both of these museums have wonderful smartphone apps that will provide narrations for many pieces. We felt so much smarter afterwords.  If you are in Philadelphia, the Barnes Foundation should be on your list.  And now I'm just going to include several of my favorite pictures.

Bicycles, Planes and Automobiles

It has taken me a while to get around to posting this 30th. Life is busy as an intern and an SRNA. 2013 should just be an anomaly because we fully intend to continue our monthly "celebrations" of our anniversary and go on a fun date. We have still been able to go on small dates, but they rarely coincide with the 30th because of schedules.  However, January 30th happened to fall on a weekend and we were able to enjoy it together. We started out the day car shopping. Since we are moving to Texas soon, we have to get a new car for Leigh soon. There is some level of pride in being able to survive on one car for 5 years though. I'm more excited than she is and have been doing all the research, but I give her veto power and she has to sit in each one to make sure it's comfortable and she can see well out of it. I really like the Subaru Forester below.

After just a couple of dealerships, she continued to Old Town Alexandria to get on the Mt Vernon Trail for a bike ride. We actually headed north away from Mt Vernon and towards Roosevelt Island. We highly recommend this bike trail. It continues along the shore of the Potomac from Mt Vernon through Alexandria all the way up to Roosevelt Island. There are wonderful views of the monument from across the river and beautiful trees and parks along the way.

On the trail, you actually ride past Reagan International Airport. One section of the path is just next to the start of one of the landing strips. The planes fly over at fairly regular intervals and are so close it seems as if you can reach up and touch them. I felt like a like kid pointing to Leigh and shouting, "Did you see that?!" And of course we follow all bicycle safety rules. We make helmets look stylish.

It takes an idea and a plan....sometimes.

Many say that their spouse 'completes them' or is their 'better half'.  However I have always been told that a girl wears two rings to remind herself that this is not true, but rather that I am a complete person (a complete beautiful ring by myself) and am complemented by the second ring.  So I do not say that Chris is my better half, but rather that he complements me.  More specifically he completes my ideas.  You see, I was in charge this month and well, I am just not a planner.  Naturally, I stole an idea that Chris has mentioned several months ago - going to Alexandria.  I told him this about 5 days in advance.  I also was so scared that it would be a bust of a date that I planned a mosaic glass class the next day just in case.
     
 Turns out that the mosaic glass class was overkill.  We had a blast in Alexandria.  First we visited the Masonic temple.  We aren't that educated about Free Masons and the temple or lodge assumes you have some level of understanding so we were lost for a bit.  I guess the bottom line was that Free Masons are a non-denominational yet faith-based organization that focuses on self-improvement and improving the world around you.

Then we received an introduction to the city by going to a local museum.  Honestly, I remember lots of pictures and that's about it.  No education for you regarding Alexandria this post!  From there Chris planned on going on a walking tour that he printed out from the computer.  Apparently, the man was worried the day would be a bust as well with me as the sole planner.  But I was in charge and so I kindly declined that idea and went with my own plan- a walking tour provided by the museum pamphlets at the front door.  Does it really matter that it was the same one as he had in his pocket? Nevermind I didn't know it existed before we showed up!  :)
       

I love architecture and the architecture of Alexandria truly does tell a story.  It was originally a very important port that pre-dated the creation of Washington DC.  We learned about Captains Row, which was a collection of houses on land that was created by two wealthy sea captains who added to their real estate by just adding dirt onto the riverfront.  Several very old Federal style houses were here.  Here is Chris explaining to me how they used old cannons for practical purposes like watering troughs for horses.

We also saw a tiny blue house that was 7 feet wide and 33 feet deep.  Apparently it was built in an alley to prevent people from using it without permission, and thus called a "spite house."  Another interesting architectural find were "flounder houses," which are houses with an asymmetric sloping roof.  The information on our walking tour told us that windows were not put on one side of the house because then the house was technically incomplete and saved money on taxes.  Thus it is kind of like  a flounder fish with eyes on one side of its body.

Our walking tour ended at Christ's Church where we learned much much more about Alexandria that we had every anticipated from the most interesting lady who was kind enough to show us around even though it was after hours.  This was the church where George Washington and later Robert E. Lee attended church.

Perhaps the man wears only one ring so he is reminded that he is indeed married - that he didnt just wake up from a beautiful dream?  Not sure.


In accordance with completing my ideas, who do you think finished this blog?  Is it obvious?  Either way we're a team and hope you enjoy the stories of our adventures.