December trip to Washington, DC.

It has taken me so long to get to upload these photos and pick a few that were my favorites. In December I flew to DC to visit my husband and met up with my in-laws there for a small family reunion. I sure hope our next home is closer (and cheaper to travel to) than DC. This trip was so much fun, and I wish I could have stayed... but luckily while I was there we signed a lease to an apartment that I will be moving to in one week from now!! Anyway, I want to share some of my most favorite little memories from this trip so that I don't forget them. 

Chelsea, Dillon, Opal, Karla, Doug, Jeremiah, Jerrod. December 31st, 2014.

We really didn't take any photos the entire trip, and this was the only real family photo we took.... on the night before Dillon's parents and brothers left! I wish we took more, especially while we were out exploring DC. We had brunch at Eastern Market, went to Ben's Chili bowl, ate dinner (a couple times) at Hop's, and more. Opal loved eating goldfish with her grandma, and playing hard to get with her uncle Jeremiah. By the end of the tirp everyone knew all the words to the Taylor Swift song "Blank Space"... because that was the only thing Opal wanted to listen to or do!

Lovebirds. January 1st, 2015. DC.

Dillon and Opal, Washington Monument, January 1st, 2015.

Chelsea and Opal, Washington Monument, January 1st 2015.

Dillon and I found a beautiful hotel that made itself out to be located on/ near the Dulles airport, which is a pretty reasonable drive (40 minutes) to save some bucks. WELL, turns out this hotel was actually 30 MINUTES PAST Dulles...... and requires tolls. $8 in total! meaning $16 a day! This was an awful thing to come to find out, and by the end of the trip we ended up just getting a room at the Americana Hotel (literally love this place and how reasonably priced it is for being in Arlington!) So we spent New Year's Eve there! We promised to stay up this year for the countdown and ended up all falling asleep about 30 minutes before. (ha-ha!) We are officially old birds.

So being that we were already in Arlington, we walked a couple blocks bright and early on New Years day and caught the Metro. We definitely thought we would see more than lost gloves on our walk. We even made a game out of it and tried to find other things like shoes! Drunk people always lose things on the walk home! :-) Our first stop was the Washington Monument. I wanted to go up since it is open now, but it was MUCH to clod to wait in the long line that had already formed. Thankfully I am moving back so I have more time to try to get up in there!!

We sat and ate hotdogs on a bench next to the monument to warm ourselves up. Have I mentioned that I love hot dogs? Whenever I see a hotdog stand, go to costco, SAMS, or Ikea, I HAVE to buy a hotdog! I seriously do.

I love little things like that. Eating a hotdog with my husband in the Nation's Capitol on a beautiful morning... and New Year's Day at that! How amazing is it that I get to share this life and these experiences with my family. I will cherish these memories for the rest of my life.

One of the reasons I love living in Washington, DC is all there is to do. My favorite museum is the National Museum of Natural History. It was the one place I wanted to take Opal because of all the things there is for her to look at.  The line was too long that day, but I will go back and experience the butterfly room with them. I have to! I have been wanting to go in that magical room for so long now. Opal always loves to look at the animals in the North American mammal exhibit. This is also Dillon's favorite because of the wolves, bears, and deer. He's a big fan of our beautiful woodland animals. (Reason why the nursery will have this theme!)

Papa bear and baby bear. DC. 2015. Natural museum.

Washington, DC is such a beautiful city. It is a magical place jam packed full of history, art, and undiscovered gems all over the place. I will miss this city when we leave.

Dillon being the best daddy in the whole wide world. Washington, DC, January 1st 2015.

I loved seeing Dillon bounce back into daddy mode. He was buckling car seats, hauling the stroller around and fixing apple juice sippy cups like he hadn't missed a beat. I can't wait to get back to our normal family routine! I'm so excited for it.

Our sweet babe.

Opal's poor little nose was red pretty much the whole trip! Except for being in the hotel where we kept it too warm according to Dillon! :-) We just drove him bonkers! We wanted all of his attention and wanted to be so silly together. She wanted to show him all of her toys, read all of her books (at once) and kiss him allllll day. Her sweet little kisses were all for daddy the whole week we were there. I absolutely loved seeing her love on him. She misses him so much, and I know he must have been so glad that she felt that comfortable with him again.

 After we left the museums we headed to Ted's bulletin in Eastern Market and ate lunch. I seriously fell in love with their tomato soup and then had to pack my sandwich to go because I couldn't eat anything after! (this darn pregnant belly is already messing up my appetite!)

Opal at DC-3 (hot dog joint on 8th ST) Last day of trip.

 On our last day we went to the barracks and packed our bags there. We had lunch with daddy at DC-3 and spent the last hours laughing and having fun in our favorite neighborhood. This trip was so much fun. It has me so excited and giddy about my move back the Nation's Capitol. I can't wait to share more of our explorations of DC and more cool memories.

Why I love having a long distance relationship with my husband.

Hey y'all. So I have been reflecting a lot on my life lately, and I think I'd like to share some personal thoughts on long distance within my marriage. I know that saying things like, "long distance relationships can be a blessing," may seem extremely nuts.... but I promise I'm not going crazy.

Okay, so I'll cut to the chase. Here's a couple reasons why I am grateful for our LDR.

• Communication

Dillon and I were in a rut when I decided to move to California to help my family. I wont go into great detail, but every marriage has highs and lows, and we were feeling pretty low. His work schedule was insane and only getting worse, we had a newborn, and the stresses every couple has on a normal basis. We were hardly talking, and when we were... it ended up in bickering half the time. It was hard on us. We were both fighting really hard for our relationship to have an amazing line of communication, but we were going about it all wrong.

When things got hard for my family, it was a no brainer that I needed to move home. Even with a 6 month old baby. Dillon's schedule was so busy that it was actually okay with him to let us go. I'm telling you, he was never home anyways. I was very afraid that by me moving home, he might let the distance further himself away from me even more, and let work take the last 5% of him he had designated for me.

I was so wrong.

After we got use to not living together (about a month after the move) we got into a groove. He actually made SO much time to talk to me. I couldn't believe the effort that was flowing out of my once distant husband. He realized how little of himself he was setting aside for our marriage and transformed into this amazing guy who was excited to share how his day was, his thoughts, and time with me. He even told me a bit later that he had the prayer group at his church pray for us and was asking for council from his pastor.

The distance was actually the answer to my prayers. I asked God to strengthen my marriage. I thought I was going against my own wishes (and honestly feared the "D" word was in our future..) But I know now that God had this in His plans. He gave us the space we needed and built us up separately so that we could be stronger together.

Not everyone will have this same situation, of course.. but I am just so blessed to have a husband who was willing to see how he could better himself and his marriage.

• Patience.

I know it might seem like I just threw my husband under the bus, but I promise that's not the case. And to prove it, I will now out my own downfall. Patience. I have none. I will have an anxiety attack in an instant over the littlest things if I cannot control them.

Being a military wife is especially hard for women like me. I have literally no control over a majority of my life. It is hard being married to someone who has to "ask permission" from his command for ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING.  I don't like that aspect of my life. I also hate that my husband can be at work from 4 am until midnight and on top of that, he can't answer his cell phone because someone in his office had a melt down and restricted them from everything.

Do you know how frustrating that is?

I would be so mad at him for things completely out of his control. He signed his name on a contract that basically says they can work him however they please....and he just signed another of those.

The distance has given me the freedom I was missing while there. I needed it. But it has also given me patience. I am learning that I miss him so much, and I don't want to waste the hour I get to speak to him after work. I don't want to spend that short time fighting. So now I let things go a lot easier and I just breathe.

I can't say that my anxiety isn't still there, it is. I just don't let it ruin our time together.

• Perspective.

Dillon and I met online. We had a great friendship over the internet and telephone. Once we got married we never really spent time apart after that. He never had to "miss" me, and vice verse.

Being in the same shoes that I was in before, only with such a great bond, a baby, and history.. It brought back some of those memories. The longing to be with eachother, just to hold his hand and see his smile (not on a phone screen.) I see now, all the happy times. The weekends that we would go thrifting and he would take me to do everything that I wanted to do to make up from only seeing eachother about 4 hours total Monday through Friday.

I am homesick. Not for my big house, or living in D.C. .... I'm homesick because my husband's warm embrace is my home. I can see that now.

We were babies.

This is a photo of our first kiss as husband and wife. 

I'll always love this photo.

I'll always love this man.

We have no been married for over 2 years and some months. It hasn't been a walk in the park... Unless that park has a lot of hot lava, dragons, and sword fights...

Marriage is something that takes a lot of hard work.

It is like a garden. Unless you water it, shower it with lots of love, attention, and faith; it'll never blossom.

That's something you can never lose sight of.. Because when it is blossoming and full of love, man... Life is great. Marriage is awesome.

I can't wait to be back under the same roof.

Here are some throwback photos of us.

Distance.

Being away from Dillon is so hard. It is so hard to show someone all the love in your heart for them when you are 3,000 miles away.

I am guilty.

I get upset over really small things so easily because I am upset with the situation. I really need to work on not pushing the people I love the most away from me when in reality I want them closer than ever.

Siiiigh.

I wish I was stronger.

Do you ever have that struggle within yourself when you want to be vulnerable, but for some reason you just can't seem to be 100% out there? I find myself in this situation often. 

Sometimes, I wish my husband was a mind reader so that I didn't have to explain all of my crazy actions and whatnot. For example: On some days, when I just need some extra loving... If he somehow knew it without me asking.... That'd be like a dream come true.

But he's not a mind reader, and I'm still crazy...

Sigh...

Oh, distance.. Can ya give me a break.

P.S. 

Dillon, 

our love is bigger than the distance inbetween us.

I love you with my entire being.

Xoxo