work/play

This weekend ended up being a full one. We got together with friends at Chef Geoff’s on Friday night. Saturday morning we put in a little run, then did our Safeway grocery shopping, and took our car to the YW camp fundraiser car wash. I think the girls were happy to see our clean, small, child-free car after a long line of minivans.

We had pizza for lunch, then headed to Great Falls Park with the Evanses.

The weather was ideal: seventy degrees and no humidity. We watched a kayaker go through the falls and hiked to the loch ruins. The park was busy but not insane like it was when I visited in November.

I enjoyed getting away for a bit and am definitely looking forward to summer. I need to find me some reasonable-length shorts.

We did our Trader Joe’s shopping (their cereal bars and produce are just so much better than Safeway’s) and watched two West Wing episodes before bed.

On Sunday, we had fruit smoothies and hashbrowns for breakfast while reading the paper. Jason had early meetings, so I walked to church again. When it’s not hot, I don’t mind the walk at all, though my hair does get a little frizzy. Primary was interesting; I think the lesson was called “Emma Smith Compiles Hymns Of The Restoration”, which doesn’t make for the same thrilling storytelling as most Book of Mormon stories. Jason saved the lesson. Unfortunately, he didn’t come with me to sharing time where the kids had a lot of energy.

After church, we had dinner at the Carter’s house. They made ham and funeral holiday potatoes (hashbrown casserole, in Kentucky parlance) and green beans. We brought strawberry shortcakes. We played Ticket to Ride after dinner, which is a game I always forget that I like a lot (despite my last-place finish).

We went home and video chatted with our families and made Monday lunches. Sometimes the weekends go too fast.

(visiting) family night

The Armentrouts came to DC for spring break, so we had them over for dinner on Monday night. We had the very-kid friendly cheese pizza and chocolate chip cookies and no vegetables. Afterward, we headed up to the temple. Heather and the kids had done their research and knew all kinds of facts about its construction.

We also ambled over to the Visitor’s Center, which I had been to once before with Mariel and thought I had seen it all. Not so! There’s a whole back section with info about the Book of Mormon and the humanitarian program and The District (which I cannot and will not bring myself to watch) and other Mormon-y things. There’s also a pretty cool display about the building of the DC temple and some interactive temple-related games. While the Armentrouts talked to the sister missionaries like sociable people, Jason and I virtually built the Temple of Solomon and played the oddly addictive Find 30 Temples of the World in 90 Seconds.

We headed back toward their Rosslyn hotel, but were subjected to road closures on Cabin John Parkway (how great a name is that?) and took a very long and residential route to Arlington.

Here we are with the kids. Heather is behind the camera.

We are glad we were able to get together and hope they have a great week in DC!

good day (sunday) sunshine

This is what Utah looks like right now.

This is what the District of Columbia looks like.

It’s positively balmy.

My Uncle Derek is in town at a conference, so we got together for dinner on Saturday night. We had planned to get Vietnamese, but Four Sisters had an hour-long wait; sometimes I forget there are a zillion other people in the greater DC metropolitan area who want to eat dinner at the same time I do.

I executively decided we’d head to La Sandia instead, which was great. The wait wasn’t bad and I’m always up for chicken tinga tacos and their muy bueno salsa. It was great to catch up and Derek very kindly brought a package from my mom: my nine-inch sugar loaf pan, two of my favorite trivets, and a gallon-size freezer bag full of cinnamon bears! He also provided some great book recommendations and a family update.

When I got home, I watched a little bit of the BYU football game slugfest and decided to go to bed at halftime.

Today was the primary program. It went pretty well. I hiccupped in a quiet moment before one of the songs and a kiddo from my class turned to me with a disappointed look on his face and said, “That was terrible timing, Sister Frost!”

Uncle Derek came to our ward, and then I conducted the Dolley Madison Boulevard/GW Parkway mini-tour. We went into Georgetown by way of the Key Bridge and found parking in Penn Quarter. For lunch, we picked up sandwiches at Potbelly’s and ate them outside a Cosi (because there was insufficient patio seating at Potbelly’s).

After lunch we went to the National Gallery. It was awesome, as usual. We did the West Wing’s east second floor, so Sargent, Homer, some giant portraits, Cezanne, Cassatt, Monet, and Van Gogh. My favorite piece of today was this one:

It’s an olive orchard.

I love the National Gallery and especially love that it is close and free. I should get down there more often. That’s one of the nice things about having people come see us: excellent excuse to do touristy things.

While walking back to the car, we spotted this excellent capitol view.

Thanks to Derek for making time to hang out with me this afternoon! Now it’s 9:51 PM and I am full of chocolate chips and pizza and want to go to sleep.

balance of the pullan visit

I remembered while my family was here that I am lousy at remembering to take pictures, which is why there are so few photos of my actual brothers and their actual faces. Also, half of these photos came from my mom (and I’m waiting with bated breath for a CD of images from the trip).

Until there are more pictures, here’s how the rest of last week played out:

TUESDAY
- Jason and I went to work.
- Fam went on Capitol Tour and to the Library of Congress with my Aunt Amy and cousin Robbie. I met them at Good Stuff Eatery for an Obamaburger and Milky Way milkshake.
- Post-lunch, the Pullans went to the Air and Space Museum.
- We ate homemade pizza for dinner and Trader Joe’s ice cream sandwiches for dessert and played Settlers of Cataan. As always, Adam didn’t want to play and still won.

WEDNESDAY
- Fam went to the National Gallery, the Building Museum, and the American History Museum and ate at the food trucks.

- Jason and I went to work.
- I showed the fam my office and metro-ed home with them.
- We went to the temple in the evening, and picked up Safeway take-and-bake pizzas on the way home–and also quite a lot of ice cream.

THURSDAY
- Jason and I each worked a half day.
- The fam went to Falling Water and the house where my Grandma Henderson grew up in Pennsylvania.

- Jason and I attended a work picnic, then went home and fell asleep while sort of watching the Nats game. We keep late hours when guests are in town.
- I made roasted poblano corn chowder for supper, after which we played Boggle on the floor and half-listened to the VP debate.

As much as it pains me to admit it, Grant beat me at one round of Boggle.

FRIDAY
- The fam went on a midday White House tour.
- Jason metro-ed in with them and picked me up at work. It was a beautiful day, so we strolled through downtown and headed up to Georgetown. We had lunch at Clyde’s, then grabbed a sundae at Hagaan-Dazs.
- We hit some traffic on the Circulator bus and finally met my family at the National Gallery in the late afternoon.

- For dinner, we met Kathleen and Bruce at The Cheesecake Factory.
- Following dinner, we drove into the city to see the monuments at night. Per usual this trip, Grant fell asleep before we’d hit the GW Parkway. I kept poking his leg to rouse him (“Grant! Grant! You’re going to miss the Barlow Center where Jason and I lived in early 2010!”) until my dad told me to give up.

SATURDAY
- We were all exhausted from the many adventures of the week, so no alarms were set and we slept in.
- The fam checked out of their hotel and came over to our place.
- I made blondies–since I hadn’t had a chance to yet during their visit–and ate many.
- We went on a walk around the neighborhood, then sent the Pullans on their merry way to the airport.

30-6 + 365(5) + t minus 25

That BYU played the first football game of the season last Thursday means that we were at the Ole Miss game a full year ago. While this year’s inaugural game-watching did not feature chandeliers, pimento cheese sandwiches, or friendly Mississippians, we did make a special pizza.

Jason’s reaction: “Are we actually going to eat it?” Yes. We did.

We stayed up for the entire game (though I may have dozed off during the fourth quarter), finally getting to bed around 2 AM. Friday was a little rough exhaustion-wise at work, but the 30-6 victory was worth it.

Saturday was our 5-years-of-being-friends-iversary. Five years seems like a long time (over 20% of my young life!), but I also can’t believe there were nineteen years of my life where I didn’t know and love Jason Richard Frost. We marked the occasion with Chinese take-out and the movie Breach.

Labor Day/the last day of Onion Days was celebrated with steakburgers at the Oswalds’. I intentionally commemorated my Paysonian heritage with a pasta salad that called for both red and green onions. I know everyone thinks their hometown is the best, but Payson really is. Where else can you–every single summer–witness the Scottish Festival, Salmon Supper, and Onion Days (which of itself features pig wrestling, lawn mower races, and a competition for growing the largest onion).

Now September is in full swing. While this blog could normally be re-titled “Amanda loves fall, Trader Joe’s, and Wallace Stegner (and Jason)”, I think the rest of September is going to be my least favorite autumnal month of all time.

down by the waterfront docks

Saturday was a perfect day. We woke up early and went to the Washington D.C. temple. The drive was only twenty-five minutes, as opposed to 1.5 hours-ish to the Louisville temple (though I’m sure going on a weeknight would take significantly longer).  All temples are awesome, but the DC temple is where both Jason’s and my parents were married, so it is kind of significant to our families.

After the session, we went home and did our grocery shopping. We ate lunch and decided to head out to Old Town Alexandria, a neighborhood of actual Alexandria described by Wikipedia as a “compact, walkable, high-income suburb of Washington, D.C.” We’d gone on a Sunday afternoon in 2010, and one evening to meet our friend Chad for dinner, but haven’t been back since.

As we wandered down King Street, we passed through a mini arts festival, which  brought back memories of hanging out at my dad’s show’s in Jackson Hole and Park City. We browsed a few of the booths before heading to Candi’s Candies, home to sixty different flavors of saltwater taffy. We loaded up (as we had the last time we were here), with two each of all the not-gross-sounding kinds (maple bacon? No thank you).

Taffy photo by moi. The arts festival, Masonic temple, and bird’s eye of King Street by Jason.

We hung out on the waterfront for a bit and picked up ice cream cones at a nearby creamery. The weather was perfect: mid-seventies, slight breeze, no humidity; if only the rest of the summer could be like this.

We had planned to investigate new running shoes for Jason on the way back, but missed Pacer’s closing time by fifteen minutes. Instead, we meandered back toward the metro and back home for pizza and taffy-tasting.

downtown date

Jason met me downtown after work on Friday. We had planned to go to Jazz in the Sculpture Garden (in which, of course, jazz bands perform in the sculpture garden at the National Gallery). When we got there, the place was packed. We couldn’t find anywhere to sit and hadn’t brought a blanket anyway, so we decided to do forgo jazz until another time.

We walked up the mall toward the Capitol and ended up at We the Pizza, sister-restaurant to Good Stuff Eatery. We split a tasty pie topped with a potpourri of peppers and thick-cut mozzarella cheese. It was fun to sit and talk and listen to the hill-speak from the interns on a date next to us. (“Wow, you got to meet the administrator of the SNAP program? All I do is make copies.”)

After dinner, we headed home by way of Capitol South. We finished off our caramel swirl ice cream (though we still have two waffle bowls left) and read our books.

Carrying The Fountainhead on the streets of the District makes me feel like an cynical twenty-something. Laura: the Q’doba pic is for you; I always think of you when I see one! This particular franchise is where Jason and I ate before seeing a play about the Lincoln-Douglas debates at Ford’s Theatre in 2010.

in which Mariel comes to visit

Things we did today:
- went to the American History museum. We both especially enjoyed the First Ladies exhibit and the Strativari cello.
- walked around the mall…the national one.
- checked out the Washington, WWII, Lincoln, and Vietnam memorials.
- ate lunch at Potbelly’s (a Frost family fave)
- rode over to the Kennedy Center and went on the longest tour in the world. Ask us anything about any item within the Center and we know the answer!
- placed hand over heart at the Barlow Center, where Jason and I lived for four happy months in 2010.
- wandered through Georgetown (and reached the very pretty main campus).
- headed home via metro and enjoyed pizza for dinner with Jason.

Thus far, I’d say this has been a successful visit. If I can still walk tomorrow after all of today’s circumambulation, we will have another full day.

not granola, but we did like the farmers market

2. Go to the farmers market.

We’re moving right along on our goals.  Our weekend began with a morning trip to the Lexington farmers market.  We just wanted to check it out, peruse the wares, etc.  Then, we saw the beautiful peaches and knew we had to bring some home.  We also scored a pint of fresh blackberries.  I witnessed Jason eating more fruit this weekend than any other period in our marriage; this farmers market thing may become a habit (at least until the end of summer), even if Grant makes fun of us.

Jason and I went to the gym after grocery shopping, and then he helped with a move while I talked to Mariel on the phone.  When he returned, we had pizza for dinner and watched a West Wing.  Those two things never get old. 

On Sunday, Jason helped in the sunbeam class, so I was a lone adult in Sunday School.  I had a (long) nap soon after we got home, and Jason had a (short) nap later.  We took a little walk around campus after dinner; I quite like UK.  The grounds here have nothing on BYU (maybe I’m a little biased), but parts of campus are really pretty.  I love the brick buildings especially.  When we were dating, I informed Jason that we would never live in an all-brick house because when I think of all-brick, I think of the brick-enthusiast’s house in Elk Ridge (if you’ve seen it, you know what I mean.  So bad).  However, Kentucky has converted me to (tasteful) red brick.

In the evening, we happened to catch President Obama’s press conference re: the debt ceiling deal, then played Settlers with the Thompsons.  I think that is a game we should own someday. 

Now it’s Monday.  Jason kindly got up at 5:40 AM to go to the gym with me; he’s one good guy.  It’s going to be a great week.

Consolation win

Jason destroyed me in our New York Times March Madness pool, but I learned yesterday that I won the Frost extended family pool. I had forgotten that I picked UConn to go to the final! This makes me feel moderately better about my team-picking abilities.

I have this pain in my knee/leg, so I haven’t gone running in three days and I feel like the laziest person in the world.

I am having way too much fun with this Instagram thing.

Vegetarian week continues with success.  Tonight we ate margarita pizza (on our favorite dough) and salad.