Winter Trip to DC

Wow..... it's been a really long time since I have posted!! I can't believe March is almost here and I haven't posted anything since New Years!

This past week, I was working in Pennyslvania, yes Pennsylvania (yuck!) and Watson had to go to Iowa, yes Iowa (who goes there?!) for a work banquet/conference so we decided to meet up on Thursday night and head to DC. I have been flying in and out of Baltimore for work, because it's close to my PA client, so Watson flew to Balitimore and we took the train into DC for the weekend. One word describes our trip - SNOW! I have never seen so much snow in my life!

Here are a few pictures of the trip. We also toured the Holocaust Museum, but could not take pictures (if you've ever been there, you know why).

Capitol

Greeneville's finest...

Washington Monument

World War II Memorial - (new since '98) - Awesome!

Lincoln Memorial - (pool in front was completely frozen!)

White House

Needless to say, DC is nothing like I remembered from my 8th Grade Class Trip back in '98! Maybe it was because of the snow or maybe because when I was in 8th Grade, all we wanted to do was socialize, not tour museums. Either way, we had a lesiurely trip of touring the Nation's Capitol!

2010

2010 - really?! "twenty ten, two-thousand and ten, zero ten ..." Whatever it is, I still can't believe it's been 10 years since we celebrated the new millennium!

Watson and I made a last minute trip to the condo in Hilton Head to ring in the New Year! Nothing was going on in Greeneville, so we decided instead of doing things around the house, we would rather be at the beach :) The first day was great weather - 60 degrees. We slept late, ran, ate, hung out at the beach, ate some more then watched the Vols get beat. The rest of the weekend was a chilly 40 degrees, so we went to the outlets and went to see It's Complicated (very good movie). Some would say we were boring but we had a great relaxing 4 days and DO NOT want to get back to the real world tomorrow!

Practically empty beach...

Now, we are back home and freezing!!! Still not wanting to go to work tomorrow and by the way, the house chores are still waiting on us... I guess we can get to that in 2010 :)

Happy New Year Everyone!

It's really over??

I still can't believe Christmas has come and gone... Everyone spends so much time decorating, shopping, cooking, traveling and preparing for Christmas, then it ends so fast. Why is it that the older you get the faster time flies??

Last year, Watson and I decided to alternate Christmas with our families and this year was with mine. It was a special Christmas for the Riggs Family because we all were home! Clint has been in Afghanistan the past 2 years so it was a blessing to have everyone home again!

Riggs Family

Jason & Lauren

Clint & Kristin

Watson & I

The coolest brother :)

Hope everyone had a great holiday!

Snowy Saturday

We saw the first snow of the year today and woke up to a "Winter Wonderland"!

and had enough snow to build this...

tried to make it life-size but no luck - next time!

and do this...

While I had the camera out, I decided to take a couple of pictures of our house decorated for Christmas.

Our 4th Christmas Tree together

New Breakfast Room

Card Tree/Holder

Been there, seen that!

We can check London and Paris off our "wish list" of travel spots! After months and months of planning this trip, it ended so quickly, as all trips do!. I guess that happens when you have fun! Packing in all of the sites of those 2 major cities, in one week, was not easy but we saw everything we wanted to see and experience. After an all night flight to London, we had a great few days seeing all of the famous landmarks, listening to the British accent and eating the well-known, not so good food. After the train ride from London to Paris, we went to museum after museum, made numerous trips to the Eiffel Tower, ate our weight in crepes and baguettes and walked until our feet fell off! It was definitely an adjustment not being able to read signs or speak French but thanks to Watson's ability to say "I don't speak French, do you speak English?", we made it through the city with our TN accent :) Needless to say, we are jet lagged and are wanting to go to bed at 7:00 pm. Hopefully, we will get back to a normal schedule shortly!

Of course, we took way so many pictures that posting them would be impossible. Here are a few to enjoy...

Houses of Parliament

Big Ben

London Eye

Tower of London

St. Paul's Cathedral

Trafalgar Square

Rain, Rain, Rain

Buckingham Palace

Westminster Abbey

Kensington Palace

Army Museum & Napoleon's Tomb

Orsay Museum

Arc de Triomphe

Eiffel Tower

Rue Cler Neighborhood where we stayed

Notre Dame

Louvre Museum

Mona Lisa (really is that small & look at all of the people!)

Orangerie Museum - Monet's "Water Lillies"

Seine River

Versailles Palace

Gardens of Versailles

Yummy nutella & banana crepe