Cherry Blossom Fest

Dad stayed with me a few days in Bethesda to help me get settled (THANKS DAD!!!) Before he took off for Utah, we decided to check out the Cherry Blossom Festival and some of the memorials downtown.

The cherry blossoms were beautiful!




I saw the Korean Memorial for the first time... It was very moving.

At the Vietnam memorial, we tried to find a Zumbrennen. The closest we could find at 24 W line 25 was "Zumbrun". (Can you see it?)

It was a beautiful but cold evening in DC. Hopefully some of you will come and visit me in DC!

Dad and Kymmies Big Adventure

Well, it was finally time for the big trip. We had planned for 3 days to travel ~2100 miles to Bethesda.

I rented a trailer from U-Haul to pull behind my car. I know...it's hideous! Julie told me to make sure that I wear my sunglasses so no one would know that it was me pulling the ugly bomb shell! Thanks for the advice Julie. :)


We decided to take I-80 because there was a huge storm in Denver, CO which would make traveling on I-70 a little treacherous. We made good time for about 100 miles and then found out about a 100 car pile-up at Rock Springs, CO. We spent all afternoon in Rock Springs with 100s and 100s of semi-trucks!

After a few hours waiting in Rock Springs, we decided to take the long way around to get to Rawlins, WY. It was only supposed to take 2-3 hours but it took us 4. (My car could only go about 50 MPH when going uphill.) But we finally made it to the Hampton Inn in Laramie, WY.

Downtown Laramie is super exciting...not! But this was Dad's favorite hotel that we stayed in.

We saw lots of exciting things while we were traveling...

Trailer parks...

Windmills...Trains, Cows, Horses, Turkeys...

And lots of rest stops. This one had tiles showing different quilt patterns.

4 days and 2305 miles later we had finally made it. (This is a long exposure of the Washington DC Temple at night).

My cute landlords had cut fresh flowers for my apartment! How nice!

Frozen Falls

Mom and I decided to go blading up to Bridal Veil Falls before Dad and I headed out for our road trip.

We couldn't make it all the way to the falls because there was still snow on the trail but we made it close enough to see the falls. It was beautiful!

Christmas Stripes

I know it's been a while since Christmas but I wanted to make sure I posted these cute cookies. The recipe is from Martha Stewart's "Cookies" cookbook. There are hundreds of cookie recipes in the book including everything from simple chocolate chip to extravagent ginger with chocolate. I have been wanting to buy the book for months but decided to hold out to see if someone would give it to me for Christmas. Lucky for me (and everyone who gets to eat the treats when I make them) my Sister gave me the book on Christmas Day!

These cookies are a little challenging to make. You have to prepare the batter and then spread it into a thin layer in the shape of a rectangle. Red food coloring is added to some of the batter and then the rectangles are striped using a piping bag. After the cookies are baked they are rolled up while they are still hot.

I think the cookies are supposed to be crispy. Mine turned out a little chewy but they were super yummy! If you're up for an adventure these are fun to try. You could even stripe them with green for St. Patrick's Day or pink and purple for Easter!!!