Aunt Jessica in DC & NYC

I'm going to miss waking up to my niece putting. No, dropping. her green monster, Nibbles, or her baby doll, Molly, on me and then running to tell her mom, "I gave Aunt Jessica Molly [or Nibbles] to sleep with!" 😂  I'm also going to miss her turning to me and telling me, "Aunt Jessica, I love you all of the time!" or "AUNT JESSICA!" whenever she'd see me again after having left to another room.

The past week and a half I spent in DC and NYC with my sister and her family.  The first half of my time in DC there was rainstorms all day everyday.  But that turned out to be a-OK because I actually got a tad sick from my stress caused by airport struggles two weeks ago.  So with the weather, we didn't do as much and I got to take some naps/try to get over some jet lag.

It was a fun time stlil! We did lots of touristy things. Smithsonian museums, White House, Capital Building, National Mall, Tour of the Pentagon, Strawberry Picking, Boat Rides in the Tidal Basin, Bike Rides in Central Park, the Met, Anastasia on Broadway, Times Square.  Ya know-all those cool things:)

I'll be honest, I'm not a huge museum type of person. So going through them at the speed of a toddler wasn't too terrible. Hahah! And if there's interactive stuff inside - all the better!  Makes it much more enjoyable!  But goodness. Going through a museum with more than a dozen toddlers-YIKES.

My second day here we went on a field trip to the Museum of Natural History with my niece and her class and some other classes. Kudos to the preschool teachers out there!  Don't get me wrong - I loved it still.  I love kids and I loved being able to see their eyes filled with wonder as we walked through the rooms filled with different creatures.  I also wished that the animals would come to life as in Night at the Museum, but no such luck.  Bummer.

Anastasia was pretty great too.  Ever since I was young, I have loved Anastasia.  I remember i got an Anastasia board game once for my birthday and Dmitry was definitely by "prince" crush.  Him and Alladin.  And then I served my mission in St. Petersburg, Russia, making Anastasia so much cooler!  I loved the show and would recommend it.  It had a neat little twist, as they took out Rasputin for the show but added a different antagonist.  It made it feel more real, which I liked.

Another highlight was strawberry picking.  We started off our adventures Friday by going to a farm and picking strawberrys in the rain!  Ever since my mission I've absolutely loved berry picking.  I think it's because I can sometimes sneak some bites of the berries I'm picking...YUM. ;) No matter the reason - strawberry picking this day was fun!  We ended up picking 13 lbs of stawberries.  Strawberries for DAYZ!!!  Seriously though.  We've so far made strawberry pancakes, strawberry syrup and Petunia's Strawberry Trifle (a muggle favorite), strawberry jam, and just eaten strawberries for almost every meal.  Delicious. :)

Anyways. Now I'm off to Iceland to start the Europe part of this trip.  How am I feeling?  Same as before - Nervous.  Excited.  Scared.  Still don't have everything planned.  Which is hard for me because I am a perfectionist and like to have details planned.  But with this trip I'm kinda just going to go places and explore and learn from the people.  I don't want to be much of a tourist - although I still hope to see really neat things!  I just want to adventure.  So, here's to adventureing and fulfilling a dream!