Summer Thus Far

Alright, I am going to do a combo of the rest of my catch up for the summer. We seriously have had a very busy summer and I have loved every minute. I can't believe it is already July... it is going by way too fast. The day after we went to Chicago, we picked up the newest addition to our family. Meet Lucy everyone! She is a Mini Schnauzer and is absolutely adorable. She was the first dog I made Mitch finally meet in person and she fooled us by acting all calm and mellow... little did we know she has the biggest personality I have ever seen in such a small body. We love her to death and potty training this pup has been an experience.

Two days after we took Lucy home (who was 9 weeks old at the time), we went on a beach trip with some friends of ours. We spent the night at a dog friendly hotel right on the beach, boogie boarded all day, fished, introduced Lucy to the ocean, and played with the little babies of our friends. It was a great trip overall.

About four days after the beach trip Mitch headed back to Chicago for another conference. About 5 hours after he got home, at 11:30pm, we went to the Greyhound station in Raleigh and boarded a bus headed to Richmond, Virginia, where we switched buses and eventually arrived in DC at 6:30am. Now, Mitch had to do some serious convincing for me to do this, but I will say it was worth it. Maybe :). Mitch's uncle was there with his cute family and we got to spend the day with them, literally running from one monument/museum, to the other. We saw the Capitol, Arlington Cemetery, Museum of Natural History, Aerospace Museum, The House of Archives, the Lincoln Monument and the White House. It really was so great seeing Mitch's family and it being my first real experience of DC, I was pretty pleased. The ride home on the bus I was not so pleased with. It was 12:30am when our bus left DC, we had another layover in Richmond and then got back to Raleigh at 6:30, getting us back to our house at 7:00. Then of course I worked from 8:30-6:30 or so... let's just say I was pretty grumpy. But hey, worth it. Right?

A week or so after our DC trip I went to Utah for my good friend, Simone's, wedding. I met Simone on our high school dance team and I absolutely love her to death. Simone is one of the sweetest, most honest, and genuine people I know and I am so blessed to have her in my life. We danced up at Utah State together and were roommates while there. She was baptized into the Mormon church during her year at Utah State and I feel so lucky to have seen her conversion. She is the only member in her family so she showed her strength when she was married in the LDS Temple with only a handful of friends to see it. Her family has been so amazingly accepting of her joining the LDS Church, they are truly an incredible family. The day before the wedding I was able to go to the Temple with my parents and do some temple work for my Great Grandmother who passed away about 3 years ago. It was a very special experience. It was a great weekend with friends and family.(I'll post photos later... only downloaded them on my parent's laptop. Oops.). About a week after my first trip to Utah for the year, Mitch and I went on our second beach trip with another group of friends for Independence Day. Mitch spent quite a bit of time looking for a beach that was not crazy crowded for the Fourth, and he seriously found us the perfect spot. We went to Cape Lookout, NC which is a small, secluded island off of the East Coast. This tiny strip of island is a national beach and it's only inhabitants were a few cabin stayers, and some rangers. It was perfect. We took a ferry to the island so we didn't have our car, and stayed in a cabin right on the beach. After spending our first day boogie boarding and fishing, we spent the night playing card games with our friends. Mitch and I woke up early the next day and tried shore fishing again, then had our last round of boogie boarding and hopped on the ferry to take us back to the mainland. It really was a blast, and with our good friends the Sweeney's moving so soon, it was our last big hoorah with them.

Our summer has been amazing and we have not wasted any time! In a few weeks I will be headed to see another beautiful friends' wedding in Utah and then will take one final trip out west with Mitch to get him set up for his away rotation at The University of Utah. I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer as well!