GOP Youth Issues Convention

Yesterday Don and I (I embraced the inner Republican that sometimes goes into hiding) attended the GOP Youth Issues Convention (their website is pretty old and hasn't been updated for a while). Admittedly, I was a little skeptical at first, but it turned out to be a really neat experience. We broke up into different committees to sketch out a platform of different issues pertinent to the GOP youth to then be presented to the higher powers that be in the GOP. Don was the state chair person for Utah as well as on the immigration committee and I was the chair of the education committee. It was fun and interesting to discuss and debate different issues of the day. There were several points where it got pretty heated--which, being somewhat political junkies, Don and I quite enjoyed. (We can't help it!). I was also able to meet some of the people that Don works with and some of the Hatch summer interns (where I interned last summer).

Some of the other RNC interns that Don does phone banking with on Thursday nights

Morgan & Blake's Wedding

A week and a half ago I had the chance to fly back to Utah for my friend, Morgan Brewer's, wedding. Morgan and I met a few years ago at the University of Utah when we were going through the Elementary Ed program. We had two of our summer classes together and have been friends ever since. We, along with Carol Davis (the third part of our trio), have been through alot together (college, student teaching, first year of teaching...plus everything that comes with being a twenty-something year old girl). This was the first wedding I had been to since Don and I were married, so it [naturally] brought back some nostalgic feelings. It was also fun to catch up with everyone and spend some time with my family before heading back to DC.

They were married at the Draper temple--beautiful!

Carol waiting outside of the temple. 

 

 

This picture doesn't fully capture how "friendly" Blake's nephew was being with Bailey, Morgan's sister.

Here they come, Mr. & Mrs. Taylor!

I loved her dress!

 

 

Cute flower girl in her red polka dot dress.

Outside the temple.

At the reception.

Congrats to Morgan & Blake! We are excited to have another married couple to do things with!

Post of Many Pictures, part 2

To continue with the fun, here is part two of the pictures. After this I will be caught up--glorious!

We have been lucky to have lots of visitors this summer, which has been so fun (and kept me entertained during the day). I think that between living here last summer and our visitors this summer, I can now officially become either a professional DC tourist, or a professional DC tour guide.

With my sisters, Emily & Allison at the American History Smithsonian

Elephant with the Metro map!

White House

White House & Tourist Child

Jefferson Memorial

You must indulge in cupcakes whilst in DC.

This is my favorite bench in all of DC (seriously). It's right by Tidal Basin in front of the FDR Memorial.

Hee hee. We got some strange looks. The story goes, Don was originally going to propose to me in DC, but things didn't end up working out that way. So, he just proposed again in DC this time!

Post of Many Pictures, Part 1

We now have the correct camera cord (I still have no idea how we have accumulated so many!), so here are some pictures of what we have been doing this summer. Last week I flew home to Salt Lake for my friend Morgan's wedding. It was fun to be home for a few days to catch up with friends and family. We have now ended our stint in Virginia, and are living with in a family friend's apartment in southern Maryland. We can't believe how fast our time has gone--we have only 3 1/2 weeks left! Then it will be back to school and work for us! Yesterday we also celebrated our 4 month anniversary with getting Ritas---an east coast phenomenon. Our favorite thing to get is the gelati...which has italian ice and frozen custard. AMAZING!!!! We have to stock up as much as we can since they don't have them in Utah.

Alexandria Sight Seeing...

I LOVE salt water taffy (it is amazing, seriously). They have a fun candy shop in Old Town Alexandria with an entire room devoted to salt water taffy. Delightful!

Down by the pier there is a man (I saw him last summer too) that plays the water glasses. It's pretty incredible. When we were there we heard him play a ragtime song.

 

 

Down by the water. It was HOT, HOT, HOT that day! They were passing out free water bottles!

 

Some sight seeing at the monuments...

The Capitol! Don works right across the street.

World War 2 Memorial

World War 2

Sept. 11th Memorial at the Pentagon with our friends, the Halls.

This was a first for us (it's a bit blurry...welcome to our camera at night), it's the Air Force Memorial in Roslyn, Virginia. Pretty neat.

Also a bit blurry. 

Then we had Don's sister, Lauren come and visit. The first weekend she was here, her Peace Corps friend, Amber came to stay. The second weekend (Fourth of July), Eliza came!

Capitol tour. We need a new camera.

This was the highlight of our tour. This is a famous bath tub that a certain president got stuck in, that is located in a certain building with a dome! 

Roasting.

 

RNC, where Don works, and their eternal mission! We may or may not have all sorts of paraphernalia of this sort.

Inside the studio.

RNC studio

In between these pictures and the next, Lauren and I did the "shopping tour" of DC.

Dinner out with Lauren and Eliza, Fourth of July weekend.

The Fourth is not complete without a flag cake.

BBQ with some intern friends. Red, white and blue attire was not optional.

They're ready for the Capitol concert!

And so are we! Don may or may not be having visions of Long Beach.

Capitol concert dress rehearsal.

And of course, fireworks at home.

Hooray for the Fourth of July!

18 months later

                                                                Matthew David Buhler

                                                       May 4, 1990- January 16, 2009

Where Can I Turn for Peace?

Where can I turn for peace? Where is my solace
When other sources cease to make me whole?
When with a wounded heart, anger, or malice,
I draw myself apart, searching my soul?
Where, when my aching grows, where, when I languish,
Where, in my need to know, where can I run?
Where is the quiet hand to calm my anguish?
Who, who can understand?
He, only One.
He answers privately, reaches my reaching
In my Gethsemane, Savior and Friend.
Gentle the peace He finds for my beseeaching.
Constant he is and kind, love without end.

off the beaten path

A few weeks ago (I know, I am way behind), one of the other intern's wife and I went on a little adventure. Katie had done some research of off the beaten path things to do in DC and found out that there is an island named Roosevelt Island that you can get to from Roslyn (conveniently located only a few metro stops away). So we headed out there, and it was beautiful! I realized that it's the same island you can see from the waterfront in Georgetown (taking the metro everywhere really prevents you from knowing how close things really are to each other in DC). It was so green and beautiful! While Emily and Allison are in town, I want to take them and Don out there. It proved to be a good adventure.

This statue was HUGE! Do you see the people to the left of it? They're ants!

They had alot of big plaques that had some Roosevelt quotes.

The Memorial was in the middle of the island, and then these stairs lead to different walking paths.

The stairs had such a neat pattern! 

There were so many trees!

Hello, Roslyn. 

without a camera cord, with a camera phone

In the mad rush of things to completely pack up my 3rd grade classroom and move it to the classroom next door and then pack/close up our apartment for the summer and get me and my stuff to DC, I grabbed the wrong cord to hook up our camera to the computer. Who knows what attaches to the cord I brought (I think that cords spontaneously reproduce). So, we have lots and lots of pictures on our camera and none on our computer. Luckily my little sisters, Emily and Allison, are coming to visit and will arrive with all of the camera cords from our apartment. Hopefully one of them will work!

In the mean time, I have been taking pictures with my phone and thanks to snapfish.com, you may now enjoy them. The quality isn't the greatest, but you will get the idea.

This was one of our first weekends here. I met up with Don after work and we went and saw some of the monuments at night. (They're 10 times better at night). Behind us is the Washington Monument...that you can't see, but that's okay. (The cord is coming!!). 

The last two weeks we have been lucky enough to have Don's sister, Lauren, visiting us. She returned last December from serving in the Peace Corps in Cameroon. It was fun meeting some of her Peace Corp friends and trying Cameroonian and Ghanian food (which actually turned out to be pretty good). The best being fried plantains and peanut soup (yum). While Don was at work, we shopped...alot. It was great having her and some of her friends here.

The fourth of July is my favorite holiday, and it was even better being able to celebrate it with Don, Lauren and her friend, Eliza in DC. (Plus it's our first 4th of July being married). On Saturday we had some of the other intern couples from the ward over for a BBQ. Then we headed over to the Capitol for the dress rehearsal of the 4th of July concert. While we were waiting, we played the card game, Scum. That game was a staple in high school, but Don and Lauren had never played it. We had some pretty good/hilarious competitiveness going--especially when Don ended up being scum for 5 rounds in a row. But in the end, he rose to power and I ended the game as scum! The dress rehearsal was really fun, there were some stand-ins for some of the performers, but the stand-ins were pretty hilarious. Sunday evening we went over the Air Force Memorial (by the Pentagon and much closer to our condo in Alexandria) and watched the fireworks. It was the perfect location--not too crowded and not only could you see the fireworks on the Mall, you could see them going off all across the skyline! It was neat!

    This is not the greatest picture, but you get the idea. Imagine fireworks going off all along the skyline--amazing!!

This afternoon Emily and Allison come in town to visit for a few days and then I am off to Utah for the weekend for a friend's wedding. Never a dull moment in the Willie house!