Our Adventures Continue in.........DC!!!!

For the past 8 months Dan has know that he wanted to intern at the United States Treasury in August....bad. He has been dilligently preparing to apply and interview, trust me, no one was prepared as him for an interview ever. He kept up on the financial current events EVERY day, read tons of boring  informative financial books, worked on his resume until it was near perfection, and of course practiced interviewing with me as the stand in interviewer time after time. It was pretty stressful becuase we moved out to Miami for the Citi internship with no way of knowing what would come next. They didn't start accepting applications for the treasury until the SAME week his Miami internship ENDED. That's right, we packed up and moved out of our apartment in Miami having no idea where we would be heading to next.

We took our stuff to my parent's house and headed out to Hawaii for two weeks on vacation without hearing anything from the Treasury. (PS the internship was set to start on August 15, we left for Hawaii on July 11, talk about cutting it close). Well a few days after we arrived in Hawaii, the Treasury called Dan for an interview, which he did at 4 am Hawaii time. This interview was pretty easy, just discussing the internship and they asked a couple basic questions. He was then invited for a second phone interview. If the first interview was slow-pitch style, this was was fast-pitch. Rapid fire questions one after the other, but Dan did great! A couple days later he was offered the internship! So we left Hawaii with no word and came back with an offer! We will be heading to DC in a couple of weeks where Dan will intern at the U.S. Treasury in the Capital Markets Room until the end of December and we are feeling even more blessed for my job that I can do from any part of the country from home.

Now I just have to express my gratitude for being married to such a motivated, hard working man. His dedication was inspiring. He sets goals and does not expect the acommplishement of those goals to just fall in his lap. He goes above and beyond and works hard for what he wants, and that hard work paid off. Congratulations Dan Dan. I couldn't be more proud.

Now we just have to survive the apartment hunt....

Dear Miami...

Well its official...our time in Miami has come to an end. We made it through the last couple of days while we both worked full time and packed up our apartment into a million plastic bins, which by the way are the only way to go when moving, especially if you move often. Yesterday we loaded up a uhaul trailer and drove to South Carolina to my parent's house. As we were moving out, the next couple arrived and started moving in simultaneously...not the best scenario. We ended up rushing to leave and it felt so strange to see people moving things into our home. We may have only lived there for six months, but at this point it is the longest we have lived anywhere as a married couple. It was definitely bittersweet. We grew to love Miami but we are ready to start another chapter in our lives, whatever that may be. For right now...it's Hawaii. I am actually writing this post from the Dallas airport on my phone. We had a long drive from Miami to Goose Creek through many rainstorms and we made it too SC around ten last night. We unloaded the trailer, visited family, and prepared for our early flight this morning for Honolulu. It was craziness but we are so excited. So with all the craziness I haven't had the opportunity to reflect on our amazing adventure in Miami...so here goes...

We had our first experience living downtown in a high rise, we hot tubbed ALL the time, we strolled around the Miami Zoo, we belonged to a spanish speaking ward although we spoke zero spanish, we saw whales, dolphins and all kinds of sea creatures at the Miami Seaquarium, we learned the art of defensive driving, we were rear ended by a guy who offered us fruit to let him drive away, we went to the beach as often as possible and lived the high life a few times in our comfy chairs, we cruised to the Bahamas with Dan and Kelsey, we took in a spring training game in Jupiter, we welcomed Wyatt Waltrip into the world and spent lots of time with his mom and dad, we went to the Orlando Temple, we lived my dream of visiting the Kennedy Space Center with my family, we rode an air boat through the Everglades with the Gould's, we had lots of visitors including The Gould's, Courtney and Caroline, Kelly and Jackie, my momma, and Dan and Kelsey Itri, we watched the Florida Marlins play the Philadelphia Phillies,  we had an amazing view of Biscayne Bay every day from our balcony, I got to get some gelato from the Jersey Shore Gelato shop, we got to walk to a couple of Miami Heat games and attended a road rally during play offs, we discovered the joy of food trucks, I burned my leg pretty bad with boiling water and got a rash on my face from my translation headphones from church (haha),we para sailed and jet skied, Dan got some valuable experience at Citi and much much more. It was a great time for us to grow and learn as a newly married couple. We will always hold Miami close to our hearts.

*I know this post is late. My phone wouldn't let me post from it, so I wrote this before Hawaii and now I'm posting it after. Hawaii Posts to come!*

Happy Birthday America!

I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July! I personally love this holiday and all that comes with it. This year Dan and I had a simple and relaxing fourth. We were going to go enjoy our last beach day in Miami but the cloudy weather put a damper on that plan so we went out to lunch, did some shopping, and went down to Bayside Park which is right next to our building for some fireworks. I must say, Miami knows how to do fireworks.

When I Grow Up, I STILL Kind of Want to be an Astronaut

When most girls were little they dreamed of being a vet, or a rock star, or a horse trainer.....me not so much. I wanted to be an astronaut. I even went to Space Camp....twice. I was always fascinated with Space and the idea that humans had actually been on the moon...I seriously could not think of anything cooler than that. Anyone remember the glow in the dark stars that you put on your ceiling? Well I not only had a ton of those, I also had all of the planets....placed with thought as to the actual placement out there in the universe. I was SO not a dork or anything though.

This past weekend we had planned to meet with my parents somewhere halfway between Miami and Charleston to switch cars for our upcoming (this Saturday...ugh) move. Well somehow the Kennedy Space Center popped in my head and I became determined to go. All of the sudden halfway, turned into Orlando and we were going to rendezvous at the Kennedy Space Center.  Not only do I adore weekend getaways, especially with my fabulous mom, dad, and little sis....I was SO stoked to go to where space shuttles are actually launched into space. Dan was baffled by my utter fascination by the way. I guess he learns something new about me everyday. Well my visit to NASA was everything I cracked it up to be. I was in Space Geek heaven. Everyone else thought it was fine and occasionally interesting but I was enthralled. I really appreciate my loving family indulging me in my childhood dream.

Touching a moon rock! Waiting to see if he has any super powers...

Caroline decided it was just as good to pose with the sign

We waited in line to take this picture, most people sat in the seats but this pose came so natural

Just chillin in a mercury capsule..

realizing I'm not as young as I used to be when trying to get out

Caroline in a Gemini Capsule

The whole fam bam!