Meema and Buppa come to visit!

One of the hardest parts about leaving home, was leaving behind family. And while technology is awesome and allows us to text, call, FaceTime, and use Facebook Portal with family members, its just not the same as being with them in person. So from the moment we got to our apartment in January we had already begun the countdown to when my parents would be coming to visit.

Before getting here we told my parents to make a list of must see and go to places while they are here. Now, for those of you who know my dad, he is a MAJOR history buff, so narrowing down this list for just a weeks visit could not have been easy considering where we live. Now what was on my dad’s must do list? Manassas, Gettysburg, and Arlington Cemetery. Thankfully due to some pretty decent weather he was able to do all! If you want to read more about our days in both Manassas and Gettysburg, check out Joel’s previous blog post (he loves battle grounds as much as my dad!)

We made sure to go to the National Zoo, (told you would be back!) The weather for the day was suppose to be in the 50s but sunny and zero wind, so the zoo was PACKED! Everyone must have been waiting for a great weekend weather day to check out the zoo. Thankfully most of the animals thought it was a great day to be out as well. We were able to get through most of the Zoo with a pretty pleasant toddler, thank goodness! I think each time we go back she gets more and more interested in all of the animals, not just the sticks and rocks on the ground haha.

During my parents stay they got to be apart of Flag Day, gosh this day was SO EXCITING! Flag Day is the long awaited day where Joel and I would finally find out where we would be posted. I’m not going to tell you in this post though (SO RUDE I KNOW), but I’m going to let Joel tell you the news in the next post, so hang tight!! So it was pretty cool to finally know the answer to the long awaited question of where will we be living the next 2 years, and it was just as cool to find it out with my parents right there. Some of Joel’s classmates had planned a happy hour event a few metro stops away, so thankfully because my parents were here we were able to attend the event together. It was a fun evening of meeting people and talking about where we were going to be living, and it was equally encouraging to hear from others that they were just as excited but nervous as a I was for such a big change.

Mom and Dad were able to get out on one of the most gorgeous days of the week and check out Arlington Cemetery. If it was up to my dad, he would have spent days there, probably would have even pitched a tent and stayed there if they would have left him (or if it was legal). Its totally his thing. But my parents were happy with a morning of alone time in a pretty spectacular place. In the afternoon we all decided to head out together. We decided to go to the National Mall and see all of the monuments, it is so awesome that all we had to do was hop on the metro and a few stops later we were there, enjoying it all! There is something breathtakingly awesome about walking off the escalator from the metro. You get to the top and the first thing you see is the Capitol, but then when you turn around you see this long expanse of green space with the Washington Memorial towering at the end. They might be man made, but I still find myself catching my breath each time I get to the top and see these views. Its fantastic. We walked all the way down to the Lincoln Memorial and because the weather was so awesome we decided to walk back to our apartment from the mall instead of taking the metro. My dad had on a watch that kept track of his steps for that day, and he said it read over 33,000 steps by the end of our day. We were wiped!

Now I could go on and about the details of each day, but really that’s not all that exciting unless you were there to hear the laughs and see all the sights that we saw. However, the best part about this jam packed full busy week was that it was memorable time spent with my parents. And for my parents not only memorable time spent with us, but memorable time and memories made with Naomi. I know many people have said to me how hard it must be to be away from my family and friends, and it definitely is, but how many years ago looking into my future with Joel, I had a little bit of an idea that some of this craziness was coming. However, I think the ones who really need to be recognized for dealing with all of this are my fantastic parents. Joel and I got married, moved to PA, planed a wedding celebration from PA, moved back home after 4 years, lived in Appleton for 2 years, had a daughter and then picked up and left again for a new adventure. That’s not normal by any stretch, and sometimes it can be A LOT to handle. It hasn’t always been easy for them, but my parents have always been an amazing support system and have done their best to go with the flow, and there is no normal flow with our life haha. They are hands down the best, so this week was more than just getting to see all the cool sites around DC, it was taking advantage of time with people who mean the most to me. Tom and Rhonda (Meema and Buppa), you ROCK! We love you!