THE BIG APPLE!

I did the Big Apple in approximately 30 hours. 

Straight up PACKED that city in!

It was my first time, and I loved every minute of it! It was sooo crazy with all of the people! Just like the movies! After the 30 hours, I was definitely ready to go back to DC though. DC just seems cleaner and less crazy. Instead of doing a recap of everything I did (cause it's A LOT), I will explain in pictures:

1. Times Square:

2. Ground Zero:

This is a piece of the tower that was carved into the skyline!

3. The World's Biggest Wall of Chocolate:

4. Brooklyn Bridge:

5. Some of New York's finest pizza in Brooklyn:

6. New York style hot dogs:

7. Central Park:

8. Trump Towers:

9. American Museum of Natural History (As seen on Night at the Museum):

10. Ferry Ride to Staten Island to see Statue of Liberty at sunset:

11. Wall Street:

The Bull at the beginning

The Wall Street Sign

New York Stock Exchange

So there you have it. It was quite the trip. I carried everything I brought with me in my backpack. Definitely a poor man's trip to the big city, but totally worth the bus ride! I am completely exhausted today and my legs are SUUUPER sore, but I got to see most of what I wanted to see, and even hit up 4 out of the 5 bureaus (not bad for 30 hours in the city). For those of you in the Park 6th ward, I also got to see Junior Lartey at church, which was pretty crazy! I now declare today a "Kelli Day" (a day that I give to myself about once a week to do whatever I want to do...it's very good for my mental health) to recover from a busy busy weekend!

HAPPY PRESIDENT'S DAY!!

Valentines

So Valentines was the first time since I have been out here that I got SUUUPER homesick! I missed seeing the fam and of course my Valentine back home, Alex! I missed seeing the kids in all of the Valentine excitement and eating tasty treats! I actually didn't even eat Valentine treats, my mom sent me money and I bought some caffienated beverages, a tabloid, and Milk Duds for myself! Luckily, I have THE BEST roommates out here and we were each other's Valentines! We went to The Vow right after work...I'm still trying to decide how I feel about that one....

Anyways, hope you all had a GREAT V-day! Stay tuned in...I will be in New York this weekend!! I have listened to Empire State of Mind ALLLLL day!

My DC Valentines

My Orem Valentine!

I want my six dollars!!!!!!!!

National Geographic Museum = Biggest waste of six dollars. I was so pumped up to go to this museum, and was COMPLETELY disappointed!! If you ever come to D.C., then make sure NOT to stop by this museum. There is SO much better to see in this town. 

At least we had a quality lunch. Potbelly's never lets us down! This is our favorite sandwich place in D.C. I also had a revelation that sandwiches are my all-time favorite food!!

DC Life...According to Phone Pictures

These are in a very random order, so bear with me...

Sometimes, when I walk to halls of Capitol Hill...I stumble upon "big deals" offices and get really excited that I am in the middle of all the action! 

Michele Bachmann

Sometimes, people who work in the Capitol need a reminder of how elevators work....

I'm a REALLY big finance nerd, and get really excited about strange things related to finance...

Like the oldest bank of Washington!

I may or may not have looked like a creeper taking this picture...considering the door right next to the name plate was opened and his assistant could definitely see me!

We went to the White House, which is right next to the Treasury building. Guess who we saw walking from the White House to the Treasury? Oh just the Secretary of Treasury himself: Mr. Tim Geithner! I definitely showed my true finance nerd colors when nobody in my group knew who he was except me...

Some might ask, "How did you forget to dedicate an entire post to your tour of the White House?!?!"

...Well, it's very simple: It was an absolutely forgettable experience. My least favorite tour so far. Very boring...didn't get to see much...just didn't live up to all the hype, BUT we did get to see the President's dog Bo!

What DID live up to the hype was Georgetown's Sprinkles Cupcakes! We were running an errand and ended up right next door to the cupcake joint. Of course we looked up the special word on Facebook and got the last TWO free cupcakes!! It was a GREAT day in Georgetown!!

So some guy gave us this flyer the day of the State of the Union....

Hip Hop Caucus??!!? I REALLLLLY wanted to tune in to BET and see all the coverage, but unfortunately we didn't have it!

A Girl's Version of the Super Bowl

I am pretty sure I have previously expressed my feelings about football. I don't understand it AT ALL. It is typically four hours of boredom/confusion. The only time I enjoy watching football is with Alex, because I know how much he likes watching football. So you can imagine my anxiety when everyone wanted to spend FOUR precious weekend hours watching football. 

Until I came up with a brilliant alternative...

Eat all of the delicious Super Bowl food (because that honestly is the best part),

And watch an all-time favorite movie: Baby Mama.

It was the best Super Bowl Sunday of my entire LIFE!

The after-party may or may not have included making a Spice Girls music video with my roommates...and I thought moving out here would make me grow up...

Ice Skating!!!

Tonight was SO MUCH FUN!!

It was our good friend Trevor's birthday today, so we let him decide what we did tonight. He wanted to go ice skating right outside of the National Archives, which was AWESOME! It was one of those times in my life that made me feel like I was in a movie!

Thanks Trev, for being born!

ALSO, Shout out to our OTHER friend Trevor who has never skated before and skated like a straight up pro!!!

 My cute cute roommates Lauren and Sadie

The birthday boy/our brother out here: Trevor Long!

There's the view of the Archives, such a great place to ice skate!

Neither of us fell the WHOLE time!!!

These guys seriously are rad!

The whole group! (Hey Jentry, Trevor has the same problem as you)

One month down, I can't believe how fast it has gone!!