Apple Pickin'

I don't know how this Apple Orchard made money, there were more apples on the ground then in the trees... but we went along for the fun anyway.

The Bowens and the Essigs with the handy dandy apple reacher.

Turns out it is a lot harder to pick apples this way then you think. Everytime we picked an apple it was a huge success. Most apples fell to the ground. And Lincoln was so happy because the green apple trees were hard to come by.

We were told not to eat the apples...

There were small ones

and big ones

City girl in the country...

Before

During

After

There goes Idaho! Mandy was not affraid of climbing trees.

And those apples made the best apple crisp around.

But as Lincoln made note, apples from costco are much cheaper. We paid for the "experience" and it was well worth it. Thanks to Trent and Mandy for inviting us!

Election Night

This picture is hilarious on so many levels...

My face is saying, "Oh no you better not wear those ugly glasses in this picture!" Lincoln's face says, "just doing what my wife says" and Stephanie is laughing like a muppet.

And then we took this shot.

On election night the place to be is in DC.

The Famous Wedding Dress

Going with the "couple costume" theme like we have for the past two years, this year for Halloween lincoln and I decided to be newly-weds. I had my parents ship me my DI wedding dress and an old tuxedo that I got back in the day from working at a tux shop when they were going to throw all the old stuff out. It turned out to be a great costume for Halloween.

This wedding dress has come close to ruining my life, and then saving my life a couple of years later. Let me explain.

I got the dress for $20 when I worked at the DI when I was 17. From that point on, whenever an occasion would permit, I would throw the dress on for crazy stomps, pranks or anything else exciting in high school. But when I reached the age of 18 and was "hanging out/dating/seeing" a guy that I totally liked, I pulled one too many pranks with this dress and showed up to his work with it on one day. Lets just say our "relationship" ended after that.

But I didn't let it end the good times in this old dress. When I was 19 and one of my guy friends would leave on a mission, I would put it on and show up at their house... just to let them know I was waiting for them. (in a wedding dress :)

Then the weekend I met Lincoln, he wanted to do a little background check on me so he g-chatted with his friend Matt who he thought might know me. Here is the chat:

me: I met another one of Cam's friends yesterday...Alicia Omburg or something like that she just got home from a mission to Argentina

6:02 PM cute girl

Matt: Ali? I know who she is. She's kind of weird but I like her

me: she's weird eh? i haven't got that feeling...

6:03 PM she and her ex-comp are staying at our place for 2 days while they're visiting out here

Matt: once she showed up at cam's in a wedding dress just for fun. i think she lost a little of that on the mission.

if it's who i'm thinking of

me: i'll have to ask her about that tonight

burnette

she goes by ali

so i'm thinking you're right

6:04 PM Matt: ask her about the wedding dress thing. if it's her, she's one of our favorites.

she's a sharp girl

me: she seems like a sharp girl...i'd take her out if she lived out here

6:05 PM

Matt: don't let that stop you!

me: well she's here tonight and heading to jersey tomorrow, so i don't think there's much i can do about that

6:06 PM

Good thing Lincoln didn't let the long distance stop him. He did follow Matt's advice and asked me about my "wedding dress" the very next day. I about freaked out when he asked that specific of a question--I was worried that he was talking about the story about the relationship that ended because of it. But later on I discovered that he was talking about the time I showed up at my friend Cameron's house in the dress before he left on his mission. And after I told Lincoln the rest of my wedding dress stories, we started talking about other things.... which led to emails.... which led to more phone calls.... which led to the best relationship of my life.

So it was only appropriate that we create more memories in the famous wedding dress.

But enough about the dress, look at Lincoln in his sweet tux!

I love this kid. I am glad The DI Wedding Dress helped make a way for me to put on a much prettier wedding dress and marry him.

california, california

Turns out going on a business trip with Lincoln isn't as fun as I thought it would be. I ended up hanging out in the hotel while Lincoln worked most of the time... Don't get me wrong, sleeping in and exercising whenever I wanted was nice. But after the second day I was getting a little bored. Good thing Logan and Laura live close to LA!! I called Laura, my sister in law, and she had the brilliant idea of going to the fashion district in LA. Turns out the Fashion District is actually little Mexico. Everyone spoke spanish and you could haggle the prices down. I felt like I was in Argentina again--therefore I was in heaven. Cheap prices for clothes and getting a chance to practice my spanish again=happiness. Laura and her cute daughter Ellie were so fun to be with. They saved my sanity. Way better than watching movies on TV in my hotel room!

Then when the husbands got off work we all had dinner together. It was so good! (both nights)
After the rally this past weekend in DC I was reminded that Colbert really is restoring truthiness and running to keep fear alive in California!!! (JK, this guy is not to be confused with Stephen Colbert. But kind of funny for those political pundints out there. )

And then after two weeks of being away, we came back to DC. Home sweet home.

Pilates Update

This is going to be boring for most people, so feel free to skip over and just look at the pictures :)

When I originally certified in Pilates Mat I went through an online certification course. It worked out really well for what I needed at the time. I was able to work at GW without a problem. But when I decided that I wanted to work at a pilates studio, I knew that I needed to get a better certification. After a lot of research, and paying a pretty dime, I signed up for the BASI pilates Mat certification. It was an interesting experience and took a lot of time and effort to perfect the practice. About 5 months later I finished my hours, took the test and received my Pilates Mat Certification through BASI. I almost regretted not doing the full comprehensive certification (with the machines). But BASI only offers certification classes on weekends, which includes 6 Sundays. (For religious reasons I prefer not to work on Sundays) So I decided to wait and see if there were any other options out there. Also, my experience with BASI was that they are the best around for technique, but not the most reliable when it comes to actually teaching the classes when they say they are going to teach them.

A couple months later I ran into a local pilates studio in Arlington called Thrive Pilates and Yoga. They offered me a job teaching mat right away. I also learned that they had their own certification course for the machines that didn't require any classes on Sundays (all on Saturdays). So I signed up for it, spent ALL of my free time this last summer completing the hours required (and I basically dropped off the planet to my friends and the blogging world). I would literally go to work and then go to the studio for 4 hours everyday. (I got into great shape though!)

Anyway, after finishing months of training, I now teach reformer classes at Thrive, as well as mat classes (4 hours of teaching every Saturday). I also bought a reformer (those things are not cheap...) and I teach private lessons out of my home. I love it. I am glad I did it. I am glad that I got a job teaching and found a way to not certify on Sundays.

Although, part of me really wishes there was a way that I could have worked things out with BASI. Like I said, they have the best technique around. So I thought that while I was on vacation in California that I would stop by the BASI pilates headquarters. I signed up beforehand for a class, and as the usual BASI way the instructor didn't show up. (What the heck!) It is such a big studio and there are a lot of people there, so they offered to let me work out on the machines without the instructor for free. I took them up on their generous offer (although I know that many of them were thinking that I wasn't working out the BASI way and probably thought I was doing everything wrong) I felt stupid, and wished the instructor had actually shown up so I could have perfected my technique which was the whole reason why I came... but anyway....

The highlight of the hour was when Lisa came in to do her pilates workout. Lisa is famous in the pilates world. She is in just about every book I own, not to mention she is on the cover of Pilates style this month. I introduced myself and asked if I could get a picture with her. She said yes but asked if she could go and touch up her make-up first (too funny).

Lisa on the cover of one of my Pilates books:

Lisa and I

The studio in Costa Mesa CA. They show this studio on all their online software, so it was neat to see it in person.

So thats that. I am not done with my pilates education. There is always more to learn and perfect. But despite it all, I do love pilates. In fact, I played softball with Lincoln and his co-workers while we were in Palm Springs this past weekend... and all those 4th grade memories came back... I am not much of a sporty person, so I am glad that I found pilates. Something that I love to do that will help keep me in shape. It has been a great hobby.

NYC work trip numero tres

Since I have been to NYC about 9 times or so in the last couple of years, there isn't much I haven't already seen. Although, I absolutely love going to NYC for work and it is never dull. Directing the Congressman from one media hit to another in NYC is about as exciting as it gets for me. We were in NYC for 4 days. (his wife joined us, who i absolutely adore) We had a packed schedule with multiple hits for MSNBC, CNBC, FOX, and FOX BUSINESS. Since I am working, I usually don't take a lot of pictures, but I did think to take a couple at the hotel we stayed at. I had the most gorgeous view from my hotel room window, but that was nothing compared to the hotel restaurant's view. My boss liked to eat there a lot just for it's amazing view. I made sure to take a picture of it before we left.

The view is right onto Times Square. Amazing.

Not so good at taking pictures of myself with the camera, but you get the picture :)

I was also able to meet up with Allison and Noah Riley for dinner while I was there. And of course, after work hours I got in some good shopping (the Forever 21 in Times Square is HUGE). Lincoln was also able to join me for the first day, and then he went off to CA for work. While he was with me we met up with one of his law school friends Chris for dinner.

This was definitely one of my favorite trips to NYC. I love this city, but I love living in DC more. (DC is a big city without the big city feel. Love that.)

Recap

Due to my lack of blogging the last few months, I found a bunch of pictures on our camera that I hadn't uploaded. So I figured, what the hey? I might as well blog about it.

This summer after we came back from Egypt, Lincoln's brother Lee came to visit. He left on a mission to Peru soon after his trip, but it was good to have him out East with us!

And Lincoln grew a gotee

Then for the Fourth of July we went to see the fireworks on the roof of Lincoln's office. (He works right by the White House) We brought some friends to join in on the fun.

Nickie and David

Jon and Melissa

Trent and Mandy

and the Essigs.

The view was fantastic.

And so were the fireworks

And fast forward to October. We threw a surprise party for Melissa and Jeremy's birthday.

Good times.