Spring in DC

I know I know, I got bad about blogging again. And I still owe you the Istanbul portion of my mission trip. I PROMISE to get that update up soon - it just takes forever to write it all up and sort through all of my 7,000 pictures (literally) to post. I know that sounds like excuses, but its the end of the semester and things are getting busy, but soon, I promise soon.

It is "officially" spring in DC. By Spring, I mean that most of the time it is out of the 30s. Most people have traded in their winter coats for fleeces and light jackets and we are hoping for the best. The weather is pretty up and down, but I think it is safe to say that we have survived our first DC winter!

To celebrate spring, a few weeks ago we had a visitor come to town. Flat Stanley!!! My niece Ellie sent him to spend a few days with us in DC. I hope he had as good of a time as we did. Here are a few of the things he got to see:

He went with me to my Saturday Russian class... he was a little confused that day : ) 

Of course a trip to DC in the spring wouldn't be complete without a trip to see some cherry blossoms

He braved the protestors and learned some not so nice chants like: "White House, Pentagon, CIA.... Biggest Killers in the World Today!" But he did get to see the White House!

He also rode the metro!

When Flat Stanley wasn't out seeing the sites, he spent time with Scarlett

and with Uncle Caleb

Thanks Ellie for letting Flat Stanley come for a visit!!!

Spingtime has not been all fun though. As soon as I got home from Turkey, I headed to Whole Foods to stock up on some fresh food. It was a rainy day and heading down into an underground parking garage, I got into a fight with a parking garage pole.... and lost

It could have been alot worse, but its still a big bummer. Oh well, what doesn't kill ya only makes ya stronger : )

Yesterday Caleb and I had a FANTASTIC day! We are HUGE Texas Rangers fans. We agonized last week over which MLB.com package to choose so that we could get the most out of the season as possible. A few months ago, we even scoped out their schedule and figured out when they would be closest to us. It turns out that this past weekend they played in Baltimore! We originally had tickets for the Saturday night game, but when Friday's game got rained out, our tickets suddenly became good for a double-header on Saturday. 2 games for the price of one!!!

We left early on Saturday and headed to Baltimore which is luckily only about an hour away. We got their in time for batting practice. Caleb ALMOST caught a Josh Hamilton ball, but a nasty Orioles fan boxed him out and stole it from him. Oh well. Like Caleb said, he'd rather get hit in the face by a Josh Hamilton foul ball so he could get more free stuff... haha

I'm not sure why, but the Orioles have really good ticket prices. We had fantastic seats down the 3rd base line.

As great as our seats were, the people around us were not. Thinking back on it, we both have agreed to give them all the benefit of the doubt since it was a double header and most of them drank beers throughout both games. The more the drank, the weirder they got. Here is just a few of our favorites from the day:

Drunk girl and 2 guys behind us: "You are so lucky your parents never split up..."

Drunk Guy 1: Hey man, do you follow hockey?
Drunk Guy 2: Nah man, not really. Why?
Drunk Guy 1: Well... I picked up hockey when a friend of mine was real depressed and going through a hard time. He asked me to help him get back in the game. So I said to him, anything for you buddy. And so I went out and bought a pair of skates.

Stadium employee literally cutting off a fan during the second game

Drunk Guy 1: My friend is over on the 1st base side. Let's all stand up and wave to him.
Drunk Guy 1, 2, 3 (and the cut off drunk guy behind them): stand up and wave ridiculously for about 5 minutes. At the same time, all 4 of them thought that they single-handedly started the Wave and were directing the fans.... Priceless

There were some Maryland "cowboys" who sat in front of us during the 2nd game in boots and cowboys hats with the biggest redneck accents in the world. I could barely understand what they said to us. Never knew that Maryland had cowboys. Guess I learned something new today...

The fans we sat next to originally were a bit large. We decided that they each had at least 8 beers. Special, very special.

There were a surprising number of Rangers fans there which was nice. Before one of the games, Derek Holland came out to sign autographs. Of course we had nothing to sign and didn't have a pen, but that didn't stop us! We pushed our way to the front, asked to borrow a pen and pulled out our tickets. Tah dah!!! My first Rangers autograph!!!

Overall, we had a fantastic time. We endured the cold, one shut out and endless amounts of weirdo orioles fans, BUT, we got to see our team play TWICE, got to watch one complete blowout with lots of exciting homeruns, got an autograph, and laughed ALOT! (Sorry these pics aren't great, the ushers wouldn't take a pic for us and I was afraid to hand my camera to a drunk...)

As if our day hadn't been fantastic already, they have Sonic in Baltimore!!!! It may have been 20 minutes away, but you better believe we went and got drinks! Cherry Limeade has never tasted so good! It was so good that I saved half of it in the fridge and drank it this morning : )

To top off our great weekend, we had breakfast this morning with my cousin Holly and her husband Josh. They spent the weekend in DC and luckily it worked out for us to get together. It wasn't glamorous, but who doesn't like IHOP. Plus, it was a HUGE deal for us because we don't get to see family very often up here. Thanks Josh and Holly for taking time on your weekend getaway to see us! Hopefully we can see you guys again soon!!!

Well, that's all I have for now! I promise to get that Istanbul update to you soon! Happy Spring!!