Padre gets an early birthday surprise!!

My Dad turns 50 September 3rd so we all wanted to make it a special birthday for him however Annalyn is a College Softball coach at UTPB, Luke starts football practice for Snow College August 1st, and Matt & I are both enrolled in school so after August having a off day on the same day aint gonna happen!

Barbie came up with a plan to fly us all out to surprise him in July and we executed it beautifully! Nikki was scheduled to visit July 5th so she was our spy with dad. We all flew to AZ on the same plane Nikki then got picked up curbside while we hid inside. When we got to the baggage claim Adam popped out to surprise Annalyn and the kiddos who weren't expecting him to be here from driving from Texas until that afternoon. Barbie got the rest of us from the airport and left us outside the garage so she could have dad help her "unload some groceries".

It was a great visit with the family with lots of water and great food!

Happy 50th Padre!!

Damons in D.C.

We went to D.C. in May to celebrate Paul and Kathryn's 35th wedding anniversary.

 It is a truly incredible city!! 

We went to see the play "1776" at Ford Theatre. It was very well done!

This was in the bathroom at the theatre... I am half tempted to take all of pennies and recreate it.

The box where Lincoln was shot.

The lighting was horrible but behind Matt is the recreation of a GIGANTIC snake! I cannot believe this thing used to exist...can you imagine a snake that feeds on gators?! The common garden variety creep me out!

Kathryn and I made a pit stop at this crepe stand on our way to the bus bound for Mt. Vernon.

My banana nutella crepe was epic!

Outside of Washington's home at Mount Vernon

DC Temple

We happened to be in town for Passport DC when 40 embassies opened their doors to the public. We had to take a pic at the Embassy of Trinidad and Tobago for my cousin Bryant who served a mission there!

The Monuments by Moonlight tour is lovely.

Matt cheesing it with FDR while I pose with his dog Fala

Capitol Building

In front of the Supreme Court

Matt LOVED the National Air and Space Museum

I will give you one guess on who begged to see "A Song For The Horse Nation"...

Momma Damon in front of the beaded bug!

Vietnam Memorial

Papa Damon at the WWII Memorial (one of my favorites!)

 Beyonce is to Matt what David Beckham is to me...hose who know me will now have an understanding of the depth of Matt's admiration.

 I rode the "Metro" for the first time. I highly recommend this route of transportation for my fellow people watchers...

 We saw Capitol Steps...not gonna lie a vast majority of the jokes were a little over my head but the ones I got were funny and Matt and his parents were rolling the entire show! ;) I guess I need to brush up on my politics.

It was a wonderful trip jam packed with tours, museums, amazing food, and other outings and we still did not see the half of it. The Holocaust museum was both my favorite and least favorite. It is so well done and incredible to hear and see this story from the people that went through it but it breaks your heart that man can be so heartlessly cruel to one another. We were able to see a lot and even met up with an old friend of Matt who was there on an internship. I also discovered that no one can flag a cab quite like my Father-in-law. 

Not going to lie I was quite proud of myself on not losing my camera, wallet, or phone this entire trip. Well at least until we were headed to the airport and my ID was nowhere to be found!!!!!

Thank You TSA for letting me get home!

Boys will be boys...

Woohoo finals are finally over!! Matt and I are heading to Washington D.C. with his parents early in the morning and I am so excited. 

Matt is quite the movie lover and has been looking forward to the Avenger and new Batman movies for awhile now. Last week he asked me if I would like to attend the MIDNIGHT premier for the 2 1/2 hr Avenger movie the night before the morning we have to get up EARLY to catch our flight for D.C. ... I selflessly encouraged him to have a bro night.

He had his friends, Tyler and Jon, met up at our place before heading out to the movie and it turns out dressing up for movie premieres is not reserved for the younger crowd attending Harry Potter and Twilight.

Hope you guys had a good laugh, I know I did!

Easter Weekend

Saturday Matt and I woke up early and drove outside of Green River, UT to meet up with my mom and the Ellison Clan to 4 wheel in the desert. It was a lot of fun in the sun with a bit of dust thrown in the mix!

 So I saw this herd of wild horses and got sooo excited! I leapt off the 4 wheeler before Matt could even completely stop and started to slowly work my way closer and closer and closer at which point I started thinking wow these horses haven't tool off yet. Then I became suspicious and clucked and sure enough a palomino comes trotting my way... wild horses my butt!

 Luke decided to climb the mountain and toss rocks like a "real" man.

 and almost started a rock slide.

 I kept thinking about how my little sister Nikki should be riding behind Matt so she could admire her reflection the whole time.

 We climbed up the mountain and climbed up this this rickety busted up wooden ladder to reach an abandoned mine.

 It was such a small jump over a VERY DEEP ravine.

After the ride my mom and I made my favorite camping meal: tin foil hobo dinners.

Sunday we had Easter Dinner with the Damon Family followed by a round of Apples to Apples. Momma Damon made us really cute Easter egg basket with loads of candy!

Hope Everyone had an incredible Easter!!