Easter

This year I found a Brazilian store and did Easter Brasileiro style! We kind of ended up throwing away most of the candy but it was so fun buying it! I loved the store and it brought back so many memories. I miss Brazil a lot!

We went to Corey's brothers house and their side of the family has the cutest kids so I got to take pictures of them. We had a great time, like always, and are so glad we live close to them.

Annapolis

We got a late start on the cherry blossoms this morning so while trying to find parking we gave up and decided to go somewhere else. We're not very determined.
Corey didn't want to fight more traffic at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore so we decided to checkout the Maryland state capital. Once again, very historic and we read a bunch of informative placards. I looked at them, pretending to read as I usually do. Corey is taking American History right now so it was a little more relevant to him.
We scored free parking since EVERYONE was at the National Mall and had a nice time walking around Main St. We had the best crab dip in the world at McGarvey's Saloon & Oyster Bar then walked it off at the state capital building. It's the oldest one in the country that is still in legislative use. Not sure if that's why Maryland has the most ridiculous laws in the U.S. or if it's something else?
We highly recommend Annapolis to anyone in the area. There's lots of kayaking and other boating adventures available but we were not only not determined today, we were not adventurous either.

Spring Time!

Spring weather is here and I love it so much! I got up early today just so I could be outside and feel the morning time. I love how morning feels. It's one of my favorite sensations.
Doug came to visit so Corey and I drove up to PA to hang out with the family. Carrie made a cool promotion/birthday cake for Corey. We celebrated his promotion to E5 and 24th Bday! Unfortunately we didn't get to hang out with Doug very long but hopefully we'll get out to Switzerland soon.
This weekend the weather has been so nice! We spent all day outside at the farm Jason hunts on. They have a nice pond so Christina and I watched the dogs swim and jump off the dock. It was very relaxing and the sun felt so good!

Trying not to be shut-ins

With this winter being the coldest in the history books we've been more apt to stay inside and not be outside. The longer I stay at home the harder it is to leave. Corey and I love going out and having fun but not when it's cold so we've done nothing that requires leaving the house in a while. Well, I've done nothing. Corey killed a deer a few weeks ago so we discovered the joy of making jerky. If you haven't done it you're not able to read the sarcasm because really it is disgusting and I had no idea. I'm not against killing animals for food and didn't think it would bug me so I was surprised when I felt like crying/vomiting at the sight of the fresh deer meat in the sink. A. It is a dark, weird color. B. It still had some hair on it. C. I kept thinking about how it had been alive only hours ago until someone (my husband) lured it into a trap with corn stalks and shot it unsuspectingly. Ah, so many confused emotions.
Once Corey ground it all up and squeezed the meat onto the dehydrator, we fired it up and started the long process. The first few minutes smelled like meat cooking and it was nice. After about 30 minutes it smelled like meat dying and it was HORRIBLE! I could barely breathe. Corey turned the stove vent on and put the dehydrator right under it so that helped but it was much more unpleasant than I ever imagined. I will never take homemade jerky for granted again!
This weekend the weather looked like it would be alright so we decided to get out of the house finally and we went to the National Zoo then the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. It was fun and free but most of the animals were inside since it's still pretty cold. I'm just happy I made myself get out and try to have some fun. Plus, I need to work off all the baking I've been doing while enjoying my time inside. I make really good treats :)

Airstream Dreams

Well, since I have nothing exciting to post since the only thing going on around here is snow, I am just going to ramble about my lifelong dream of owning an Airstream. Since the first time I laid eyes on an Airstream I've wanted one. I love vintage things and so these trailers are right up my alley. I also love being free and able to go wherever I want and a trailer is very conducive to a gypsy lifestyle. But please, I don't want to sound too whitetrash. Airstreams are the Cadillacs of travel trailers so it adds a hint of class...maybe. Either way, I love them and I want one.
Corey has been a little hard to convince that this is something we absolutely need. Maybe it was the all the snow or the hours upon hours of being trapped inside that has made him sway an inch or two over into my world? But, this weekend he said, "Ok Carrie, when do you think you want to get an Airstream?" After I peed a little I said, "Maybe in about 4 years." To this he said, "That sounds reasonable."
Marriage is all about breaking the other person's resistance down to get what you want. He's had a tough will for a while but somehow the incessant nagging has broken his spirit and he now wants an Airstream! We want an Airstream! Ok, so I realize this is still mainly MY dream, but I'm very excited that he's at least indulging my dreams and giving me hope.
So, what are we going to do in our Airstream? Just travel the United States and see everything! Spend a month driving up the West Coast, a week or two at Yellowstone, camp in the Smokey Mountains. Definitely see Mt. Rushmore, visit as many National Forests as possible, canoe in as many lakes as we can, Zion National Park, Goblin Valley, the Grand Canyon. Do I really need to go on? I love traveling outside of the US but I would really love to not ever have to deal with another airport so I think I'll give the Airstream a try for a while. After 4 years of international travel.

Work Trip

I went to Langley AFB which is actually in Hampton, VA for 2 weeks to work on medical equipment and QA their work. This trip was great for several reasons. #1. Ashley, my tech school roommate, is stationed there. #2. Langley is close to Virginia Beach and other cool cities. #3. Langley is close enough for Corey to come down and visit since we had a 3 day weekend. #4. We did not have to pack our stuff and the truck up everyday to go to other bases. We just stayed there the whole time. Much easier. #5. Devin and Sarah and Eva met us in Yorktown so we could hang out and then they took us to a really cool restaurant in Williamsburg.

City Cafe & the Moscow Ballet

Last night Jason, Christina, Corey and I went to see the Nutcracker. Christina found an awesome restaurant near the Opera Lyric House in Baltimore and it was delicious! Of course any trip to Baltimore includes detours through the hood so adventure always accompanies. City Cafe was worth the peril. It was part cafe, part nice restaurant. We ate up in the loft where it was nice and warm and the service was great. We all got different entrees and all were mouth watering. There, I'm a food critic.
Next, we went to the Opera Lyric House for the Moscow Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker. It was awesome! I'm no ballet critic but I thought it was fantastic. Plus, the butts were phenomenal. I had also never seen the Nutcracker so now I'm a little more clued in on things cultured. I did not understand or really like the rats and I kind of think this little girl was dropping acid.
We had so much fun and we're glad it worked out since the original show was cancelled due to the blizzard so luckily we made the rescheduled show.