Thanksgiving takes on a whole new meaning

Thanksgiving has already come and gone....geez! Now we are already coming up on Christmas...the holidays sure do FLY BY!

This year we spent Thanksgiving with my family in South Carolina. Of course I brought my camera but took NO pictures...WHY can I not pull my camera out when I go home? It's SO annoying.

But it was a fabulous Thanksgiving (besides the AWFUL traffic on our trip there). I love to cook so I enjoyed every second of cooking all day.

The menu at the Morris residence consists of...

1. Turkey (usually fried, this year brined...turns out turkey is turkey...still gotta pile on the gravy or cranberry sauce in my opinion)
2. Homemade macaroni and cheese
3. Sweet Potato Casserole
4. Southern green beans
5. Cornbread casserole
6. Spring's (Paula Dean's) Yummy sausage and cranberry stuffing
7. Collards
8. Ham
9. Caroline's Homemade rolls
10. Pumpkin Roll
11. Apple Crisp
12. Heathbar Cake
13. Cookie Bars
14. Whole Cranberry Sauce (I make this every year and I am consistently the only one who eats it every year, no on in the fam likes cranberry sauce!)

YUM! I always forget how much I love Thanksgiving dinner (but secretly I could do without the Ham and Turkey)

Black Friday came early for us this year. The outlets opened at 10 pm on Thanksgiving day and we were there! Dan got some great stuff at his favorite store Brooks Brothers, and I got to raid Banana Republic and J Crew. I ended up staying out with my Mom, Caroline, and Courtney until about 3 am!

The next day Dan watched football and I went back out shopping with my momma. Dan and I had dinner with our fabulous friends Kelly, Darryl, Stephanie, Chad, Kristin, and Justin  at Wild Wings that night.

Saturday we had a lazy day with my mom, dad, and little sister. It was a blast just laying around chatting it up. We all watched the Carolina vs. Clemson game that night and cheered as my GAMECOCKS WON!!!

Sadly, we had to return to DC on Sunday. However, our trip didn't go as expected.

Dan and I got into a car accident on our way home. Witnesses said we flipped about five times. Both of us agree we have never been so terrified in our lives. After it was over, the sound of Dan's voice was the most comforting, joyous sound I've ever heard. We walked away with bumps and bruises.

I wanted to write about this because I never want to forget the feelings of gratitude that Dan and I experienced and continue to feel. If a million little factors would have been different, the outcome could have been a vastly difference scenario. The experience of us having an everyday conversation and suddenly finding ourselves in a very dangerous situation is extremely overwhelming. Two days later and we are still very shaken by that very idea.

We are so grateful for our Heavenly Father and his love and protection. We are making the commitment to never forget that moment that we looked at each other and saw that we were each ok. We are going to use this as motivation to not sweat the small, and I mean tiny, things that we let fill our hearts with worry and fear everyday. Our perspective has been forever changed and I'm so grateful for that.

Great Falls...exploring outdoor DC

As I type, Dan is in New York meeting with a bunch of different bank guys in NYC. He has worked so hard to get his own contacts within the industry and has done a great job. This is an important trip and day 1 went really well. The banks that Dan wants to work for do not recruit out of BYU for the position that he would really like, so he is doing what it takes to put his name and face out there so that they will give him a chance and, fingers crossed, an elusive interview. 

This is what our journey is all about. Seeing him fill a two day schedule full of appointments through his own networking was definitely one of those small victories we are SO thankful for. We'll see where its leads...

So this past weekend was a long weekend for Dan (government jobs rock) but not for me. Lame, right? 

Since I don't work until noon, we decided to get out and about on Friday morning. We FINALLY finished going through the American History Museum. That thing is unreal. We saw the original Star Spangled Banner and that was a pretty cool experience. It must be all this DC spirit, but I almost teared up looking at the flag that was raised to signify that we as a nation had survived. 

Ok enough of my DC-ness. 

Then I spent the rest of the day working while Dan chilled....typical. Haha. 

On Saturday we got up and went to the DC Temple which was amazing as usual. I am really going to miss that Temple. I have really felt a special spirit there and have learned so much. 

Then I had planned a surprise outdoor adventure for Dan. I was quite proud of myself since Dan loves outdoor activities and I found a great place to go called Great Falls National Park. Well, the surprise turned out to be a bit of a disaster due to the fact that there was supposed to be a hike involved and Dan forgot his tennis shoes at work (there is a gym there that he uses in the morning). 

There was horrible traffic on the way there so it took us an hour, and we were STARVING so we started on my picnic in the car. Then we got lost (darn GPS) but nothing a quick stop at the gas station to try and understand the guy's directions didn't fix.

When we FINALLY got there it turned out the "hike" I thought existed was more of a nature walk, but oh well. Worked out well since all Dan had were sperry's.

BUT after all of the mini disasters we got there and saw this. 

The Great Falls. They were HUGE and pretty much breathtaking. It was well worth the hassle. We enjoyed the waterfalls, had the rest of our picnic, and meandered on our nature trail previously known as "the hike". We even participated in a man hunt for a lost child. He was found and all was well. 

We are so grateful to spend this fall here in DC. It is so beautiful with the changing leaves and cool crisp weather. I fear winter is right around the corner so we are taking advantage of every fall day we can. 

Pandas and My Quarter of a Century

We haven't had too much exciting going on around here lately. Our weekends have been more crash and relax rather than go out and explore and we even had one weekend with SNOW! Yeah...WAY too soon!

Most of our time has been spent working on our next step in our adventure, aka, preparing for Dan to apply for summer internships and take the CFA exam. This involves a lot of resume tweaking, cover letter writing, interview question prepping and networking galore. It has certainly been a roller coaster, but we have had several small accomplishments and victories that we are SO grateful for. Only time will tell what happens next. 

No matter what happens for the summer we are definitely going back to BYU in January for school so the apartment hunt is in full swing as well. We are yet again on the hunt for short term, affordable housing....sigh. The bright side is that Provo affordable is actually affordable compared to Miami affordable, and DC affordable....haha...big relief there. 

So with all of that going on, we decided that we WERE going to go out and resume our exploration of DC this past weekend. 

Friday night we went to this Mexican restaurant we have been wanting to try...it was the fanciest mexican food I've ever experienced (seriously, we are talking 13 dollar guacamole)  but it was delish!

Saturday we got up and went shopping! I told Dan that I wanted some clothes for my birthday (which was yesterday) so he took me shopping! I loved every second and got some super cute stuff! 

Then we headed to the DC National Zoo. I have been dying to go there as it is FREE and they have PANDAS. It was a little chilly but nothing a salted caramel hot chocolate from Starbucks couldn't cure. The DC Zoo did NOT disappoint. 

My little sis Caroline sparked my love for Pandas when she was little b/c she was OBSESSED. She had a million stuffed panda bears and even would fall asleep in a pile of them. When the San Diego Zoo got the first Pandas, they had a live web cam where you could watch them online. My dad would set it up for Caroline and she would sit there for HOURS if you let her watching them. THEN, pandas came to Atlanta and my family braved an ice storm to go see them. Worth every second as Caroline LOVED them and had the best day. 

So anyway, after experiencing that how could you not love pandas? Well they were amazing and I could be found chasing one of them back and forth as he went inside and out. Dan didn't participate in this particular activity but kept encouraging me to go find him while assuring me he would, "be right here" when I got back. Haha, yes I am now 25 years old. But they were pandas and pandas are really cool. Caroline would have definitely chased them with me, but I had to settle for a 4 year old boy clutching his stuffed panda...haha good times.

Then Dan got to be the little kid as we sat and stared at the Tiger forever b/c he was growling and pacing non stop. I must admit it was pretty awesome. It was the most entertaining Tiger ever. Usually I can't even find the Tigers at the zoo, or when I do they are ALWAYS sleeping...not this guy. He took his job seriously.

There was also a BILLION Lions.

And a very friendly Orangutang who may or may not have been picking his nose and then putting something into his mouth...must have been a boy monkey.

After the zoo we went and checked off another of the restaurants on our must eat in DC list, then went home for some football. THE GAME OF THE CENTURY turned out to be a snoozefest...who would have thought?

On Sunday we had a great day at church then had dinner at a couple from our ward's apartment. They were super nice and it was a great time. Another fabulous weekend was had by all. 

Now to the main event....Yesterday I turned a Quarter of a Century old...dun dun dun...aka 25. 

This was the first birthday that age started to bug me. I'm done with the aging thing so from now on I will always be turning 25 so nobody act surprised.

I started my birthday off by finding several strategically placed Happy Birthday notes from my hubby...great way to start a day. Then I took myself on a little mini shipping trip to supplement my Saturday findings...ya know...treat myself a little. Then I had to work, ugh, but after Dan surprised me by taking me to a seafood dinner! He hates seafood, but I happen to love it so it was perfect! (I may or may not have accidentally ordered a roasted fish, which means you get the whole fish and I mean WHOLE fish on your plate....and I may have a slight weirdness about food that looks like the animal it was...so that was interesting, but it was good anyway...I just kept my eyes closed)

Then we came home for some cookie cake (my fave) and a movie! 

It was a great day and I'm excited to see what 25 has in store!