Weekend Recap - Day in DC

On Sunday we made a trip up to Washington DC. We picked up my brother, parked our car at Union Station, then walked over to the Capitol building. 

I was really happy to see all the trees were still full of colorful leaves! Fall came really late over here (I mean, we just started seeing the colors a couple of weeks ago!) so it made for some really nice pictures!

We spent some time walking around the Capitol, then we went in search of some lunch. The first place we were going to go to was closed, so my brother brought us over near Chinatown to eat. My mom, brother, and dad ate at Chopt, and my sister and I, who didn't really see anything we wanted there, went across the street to Chipotle. 

Anyways, after eating we walked down to the National Geographic Museum. My brother had been a few weeks ago and thought it was interesting, so we decided to check it out.

They had two exhibits: The Tomb of Christ and Titanic: The Untold Story. I found the Tomb of Christ to be kind of boring, it was mostly just watching a few short videos on a screen. I thought the Titanic was a little more interesting as there was different exhibits set up with stories from some of the passengers, items recovered from the wreckage, and several props, costumes, and sets from the Titanic movie.

After the museum was walked over by the White House.

These birds were just chilling on some bushes at Lafayette Square

Since it was Veteran's day, we made sure to stop by the war memorials. We missed the services that were held there, but we got to see all the wreaths that were left. And it was very moving seeing all of the mementos left at the wall at the Vietnam War memorial. It's just nice to see how many people still come to leave things to honor those who fought for our freedom.

Birthday/Weekend Recap

So my birthday was last week. We didn't have much planned except to see Star Wars that evening! We bought tickets several months ago when they were first released. It was a bit tricky as Fandango kept crashing, but we finally were able to buy tickets! 

There is one theater in our area that lets you select seats, so considering we were going to the movie Thursday night (the day before release day) we wanted to make sure we could have decent seats. I did not want to show up at a big movie like that and get stuck sitting in crappy seats!

Anyways, the day of my birthday we stayed home most of the day. My sister and I played some Mario Kart while we waited for my brother to get home. (He had his last final that day.)

 The birthday cake I made.

 The flowers my mom bought for me.

Once my brother got home I got to open presents (and I got some very nice things!) and then we ate some cake before my mom, sister, and I drove to Target to walk around a bit. 

After Target we went to Michael's and then my brother met us for dinner. After dinner we walked around the outdoor mall where we were going to see the movie, but it was so cold outside that we ended up just going inside the theater as it was getting close to show time!

Inside the theater there was a few Star Wars characters, so we got our picture taken with a Scout trooper, a Snowtrooper, and an Imperial Officer. We also got our picture taken with R2-D2!

 The movie was long but we all really enjoyed it! It was our first time going to a movie opening night (is it still opening night if it's Thursday night?). Anyways, the movie was really good! 

It is definitely different than any of the other Star Wars movies, and if you go, be sure to stay through some of the credits. You'll know what I'm talking about when you see it.

 On Friday my mom and I went shopping. As part of my birthday present my mom said she would buy me a purse as I needed to replace one I had to throw away earlier this year. I have a Kate Spade purse that I like, but sometimes it is just too small and not practical for what I need at times. 

My mom and I wandered around the mall but didn't have any luck. My minimum requirements for a purse were not that difficult, neutral color, big enough to fit a camera but not too big, crossbody strap, and able to zip closed. I'm always surprised at how many purses don't zip closed. Do people not think about their stuff falling out? Or someone just reaching in and taking your wallet or something?

Anyways, we ended up at Target where I found the above purse. It's a tad big for every day use, but it fit all of my requirements and I think it will work great! 

 Friday night we got our first snow of the year! It's actually pretty late in the season for us to get snow and it was barely a dusting. But it was nice to see and hopefully we will get some more!

We just hung around the house all weekend and on Sunday I spent a bit of time in the kitchen doing some cooking. First I made some caramel sauce. (I used this recipe.) I don't really like caramel myself, but my family (especially my sister.) love it, so I made it for them. I even added a vanilla bean this time which my sister really loved!

Watching Star Wars while waiting for my sister to get home from her work Christmas party. I made a batch of turkey chili and had that simmering, then once she got home we got to work decorating our gingerbread house.

 I started trying to assemble the house, but the frosting the kit came with was so stiff that it wasn't sticking to anything. It would just roll off anything I tried to stick it to. So, since the house is just for decoration and not eating, I pulled out the hot glue gun and just used that! I've been tempted to do that in the past and I'm glad I did this time because it worked really well and holding everything together! I would definitely do that again.

I did end up microwaving the frosting bag to soften it up some and it did work okay at sticking the candy to the house. 

Overall I think it turned out okay! My sister got bored about two-thirds of the way through decorating so I finished up. Anyways, it was a fun project.

Did you do anything fun this weekend?