We booked our flights at the beginning of March to go home and spend some time with my family, and I had a countdown on my phone.
We strategically planned our vacation, taking 7 days off of work to spend a full 11 days traveling in total, with an extra day to recover (Memorial Day) before we had to get back to work.
We started our adventure by going to Las Vegas on Thursday, May 19th when Brian got out of class. In case I haven’t mentioned this before, flying in and out of Vegas is WAY cheaper than flying from Salt Lake City, and it gives us an excuse to go see Kevin & Amanda. We were greeted by 3 enthusiastic little boys who were more than excited to show us their new pool. Kevin & Amanda are cool parents who wound up letting them stay up an extra two hours when “just showing us the pool” turned into night swimming.
Friday, we woke up early and hung out with the kids before Braxton and Corbin had to head to school. Then Amanda took Brian and I, Dylan, and Ella hiking at Red Rock Canyon State Park, which was totally beautiful. I’ll upload some photos of that because the rocks are incredible and they have some cool slot canyons. Mid-afternoon we had to head to the airport for our nonstop 4 PM flight. Because of the time change, we were scheduled to get to Baltimore at 11:45 PM, but made it in a little early and my dad was there waiting for us.
Saturday, Brian and I were seriously jet-lagged and slept until noon. To be fair it was only 10 AM for us, but we never sleep in that late, so we felt like our day was super short. But that day was the real reason we began planning our trip for the end of May, it was one of my best friends from college, Shanna’s, wedding day. So that afternoon we headed to Winchester, VA for their quaint, country-themed wedding. It was absolutely adorable and totally Shanna in a barn with hay bales for the ceremony, removed for a big dance floor after, and the best BBQ food. Our mutual friend, Sam, was a bridesmaid so we got to see her and her husband Jake, as well as my college best friend and roommate Erin and her boyfriend. Much fun was had by all.
Sunday was a relaxing day spent with my dad and stepmom, before my cousin Kimmy came for dinner. Because I have the greatest dad ever, my request of steamed Maryland crabs for dinner was upheld and I ate about 13 on my own. Literally the greatest thing on earth, and if you ever find yourself in Maryland, you should seek them out. But you’ll probably need a native to show you how to pick them, like we had to for Brian and Kimmy. It was quite amusing watching Brian pick 2 crabs in the same amount of time it took me to do 7.
Monday my Fitbit was in Heaven as we romped around Washington DC and I racked up over 12.5 miles. We took the metro in from the closest stop, bought day passes (which always winds up being the cheapest at $15ish if you’re traveling a lot like we were), and headed to the National Zoo. Last year when Brian came back east with me for the “meet the parents” trip, we briefly stopped at the zoo, but it was the last stop of our day and we mainly just went so I could see the elephants. But this time, we spent 3 hours leisurely exploring the entire zoo. The National Zoo is (in my opinion) hands down the best zoo in the United States. For starters, it’s FREE. Completely free if you take the metro so you don’t even have to pay for parking. Second, it has about every exotic animal you can think of. It’s about a half-mile walk from the metro, so it’s a no-brainer stop.
Next, we made our way back to the metro and took it into the heart of DC to go to some museums. My all time favorite (and most heart-breaking) museum is the National Holocaust Museum, and I really wanted to take Brian there, so we went.
I had to get my Panera Bread mac & cheese as well, so we stopped there for lunch. I don’t care what anyone says, Paradise Bakery does NOT compare to Panera. Then the rest of the afternoon was spent walking around to various monuments, before we met Kimmy for a Washington Nationals vs. NY Mets game which was a nice end to our day. I miss major league sports, majorly, considering Utah has like nothing. At least the Jazz are good to get cheap tickets to see other teams play hahaha.
On Tuesday, we headed to West Virginia to spend some time with my mom and stepdad. Every time I go back to my childhood home, I go through these stages of revelation. It’s like I’m back where I was in high school planning my life and I spend so much time thinking about how to improve myself and what is happening in my life. Whatever life changing thoughts I had while I was there seemed to carry over into the next day when a very exciting opportunity was extended to me. (But this I’ll save for a surprise post in a few weeks).
Wednesday and Thursday we spent time with my family, went and picked strawberries with my mom and made lots of strawberry jam, and went kayaking and boating down the river. Oh! And my mom's cat had kittens! I'll definitely add photos of them because they are SO CUTE. And the baby goats :)
Thursday was my stepdad’s birthday and two days later on Saturday was my mom’s, so on Friday night, a lot of their friends came over along with two of my aunts who came for the weekend, and we had a huge dinner and fun night together. Saturday we had to leave, but we got to see my grandma and great-grandma before we had to head back to Maryland, and got to spend a little time with my dad, stepmom, and 3 of my nieces before we hopped back on the plane.
Coming home always takes longer, so a 5 hour flight later and we were back in Vegas! Kevin & Amanda graciously let us house-sit while they went camping for the holiday weekend, so we got to wake up and hop in their amazing pool for the morning. I think I finally started getting a tan!
Vacations are never long enough but it does feel good to be home. The 6 1/2 hour drive home was definitely a long one after a 5 hour flight the night before. Since we’ve been home, a lot of things have been changing and I am so excited to announce some changes in the next few weeks! In the meantime, I will attach some photos to this. Can’t wait to head home again at Christmas!
