Rebekah's Wedding Weekend!

Yay! My friend, Rebekah, got married this weekend!!! Rebekah and I have been friends since the summer before our freshman year in high school. We were best friends all through high school and have remained close through college and out of college. She is great! She is really one of the most thoughtful people I know! I was sooooooooo excited when she asked me to be a bridesmaid and soooooooo excited for her wedding. Sadly, I don't have any pictures from the wedding because I was running around and dancing like a crazy woman, but we have pictures from the rehearsal dinner. They had it at her grandparents' neighborhood clubhouse. It was so fun! I'm so excited for Rebekah and Danny! They are perfect for each other!

Here are all of the bridesmaids with Rebekah. From left to right on the bottom row, we have Elizabeth, Rebekah and Ashley (maid of honor). On the top row left to right we have Erin, Paige, me, and Julie. I went to high school with all of them except Paige and Ashley, who went to USC with Rebekah.

Here we added Emily (reader for the ceremony), who I also went to high school with, and either Mary Leigh or Mackenzie...I can't remember which one. There were two junior bridesmaids, but only one of them could be there that night.

Rebekah and Danny!!!

Me, Elizabeth, and Julie. If we had Rebekah in the picture, our group would be complete! The four of us were always together during high school and in the summer! We had some fabulous beach trips to Julie's parents' place at the beach, we went on a cruise after graduation as a present to ourselves, we played basketball together, were our own little group for prom, etc! They are the best! I love being their friend!

Me and Jules! She is the tall one of the group!

It was seriously such a fun weekend! I can't wait to see the photographer's pictures. Hopefully they are good and not too embarrassing! We were some dancing fools on Saturday night! It was fabulous! :)

DC for the 4th!

I can finally say that I have been to our Nation's capital. Actually, now Ben and I can both say that because neither one of us had ever been to DC before July 4th! That's sad! So, I was extremely happy when Ashley and Carleton invited us up for the July 4th festivities! Ben and I thought about going to NYC for the 4th, but after Ben talked to some partners at the law firm in NY and they told him the only place to be for the 4th was DC, we were sold. So, I drove up with Ashley, Ali and Josh on Thursday, and Ben rode a bus from NY. We all met at the DC temple. Sadly, I don't have pictures of that here b/c they were taken with Ashley's camera, and I haven't loaded those pictures to my computer. Anyways, that was awesome to be at the temple where my parents were sealed. I definitely know why my Mom loved that temple so much. It is sooooo beautiful! After the temple, we walked around Georgetown, and then made it back to Carleton's brother's house where we were able to stay for free! Yes, I love it!
Friday morning we woke up early and went to Arlington National Cemetery. This is a cool place. It's kind of mind blowing to think that all of those little white stones represent a person because they go on forever in every direction!

We were there in time for the changing of the guard ceremony...whoa, they are so serious!

After Arlington, we went to see Lincoln.

And then we played with Washington...

And then we visited Vietnam...

And Korea.

Carleton and Ben at the Korean War monument.

We were able to visit the World War II Monument. This was cool for me because my Pappa has a purple heart from serving in World War II.

We saw the Constitution.And an old man playing trumpet outside the Nation Archive building.

After a long walk, we also saw Jefferson.

On Saturday, July 4th, we signed a traveling I-beam that will be part of a 9/11 Memorial in NYC at the World Trade Center site,

visited Obama at the White House,

saw the July 4th parade...hello, those outfits have got to be so hot!

We saw dinosaurs...

and I found my birthday present! Yay for me! :)

We rested near the Capital Building,

and then took pictures with the Capital Building.

Will our children have blue eyes or brown eyes? That is the question!

The Holts, Connells, and Clausses on the back steps of the Capital Building.

Ben and Carleton looked tough on the steps of the Supreme Court.

Ben and Josh waiting outside of Carleton's law firm.

Lastly, we saw some sweet fireworks! Seriously, I know a lot of tax dollars were blown up this night, but the fireworks were so cool! I've been to some pretty cool firework shows, but these fireworks literally lit up the whole sky! It was crazy! They were huge! And we had a nice view from the top of Carleton's law firm.

We saw Washington again.

We finished it off with a drive down Embassy Row and by the National Cathedral.

Yea, I was definitely dead tired after this trip! I think we pretty much saw everything there is to see in DC...it was so much fun! Between the three couples, we have close to 900 pictures! Crazy, I know! Next on our places to visit is Charleston! Woohoo! Ben and I are the only ones who have been to Charleston, so I can't wait to show them around one of my favorite places ever!