washington D.C. day 3.

on the first and second night jon and i were in D.C., we stayed at the Red Roof Inn, located in Alexandria. it worked out really well because it was close to the metro and close to where my sister lived. sweet, sweet lizzie let us borrow her jeep for the week. it was so nice of her, we wouldn't have been able to see a lot of stuff that we did without it. 

 unsurprisingly, the red roof inn didn't offer a continental. so we drove to Bolling Air Force Base to go to their commissary for breakfast. we bought this baby food. maybe one of us ate some of it for breakfast? i cannot confirm nor deny this.

after we ate, we parked the car in some sketchy neighborhood and jumped on the metro!
we made a quick stop at the museum of natural history. i hate to say it, but it was subpar compared to the one in manhattan. it was fun though, and the two of us learned a lot...

this looks busy, but its not nearly as confusing as the nyc subway.
(okay, enough of the comparisons.) 

 we zipped our way to arlington national cemetery. this is such a serene place to be. i was somewhat disappointed with the dead grass, but it was beautiful nonetheless. 

the iwo jima memorial. i've seen it before, but i had forgotten how big it was. and it has so much more meaning now. it was awesome to be there with my marine. 

it was ridiculously hot.
every morning, when we left our room, we'd take 3 bottles of water each.
this is us taking a break. when we first got to arlington, we thought it'd be possible to skip the bus ride and just walk. after we walked to the marine corps memorial, we knew that we wouldn't be able to see everything if we walked. anddddd it was way too hot. so we bought bus tickets instead. :)

the tomb of the unknowns.
definitely one of my favorite things in washington d.c. 

JFK is one of only two united states presidents buried in arlington. 

this is his headstone and the eternal flame. 

arlington was beautiful.
it was a quiet and peaceful day spent there. 

after hiking all over arlington, we. were. starving.
lizzie-beth heard of this really yummers place to eat in chinatown, so we met her there after she got off work.

uhhhh YUM. 

it was the cutest atmosphere, and had really great food. 

also, they have one in palm springs. hmm...

this is before they ate, that's why they look grouchy.

after dinner, we went back to Bolling AFB. jon and i had reserved a room at the Bolling Inn about a month before our trip out there. we had called the day before we left for DC, and then we called the day of to make sure our reservations were still good. honestly, we were both a little worried about it because their rooms went for $45 a night. that's pretty ridiculous, especially considering the prices of other hotels nearby. so something seemed fishy... they kept reassuring us, and telling us that our reservations were all set. well, when we got to the check in desk, the sassy lady at the front was 100% frazzled. the phone was ringing off the hook, and there was a line of people waiting to be helped.
to make a long story just a smidge shorter, they overbooked their rooms. meaning....we didn't have a place to stay that night. that wasn't going to fly, because we were leaving straight from there to pick up my dad and mei at the airport and bring them back to the room.
i guess you'll find out in the next post what happened........

however, 

this is how happy we are to all be reunited in washington!!

washington d.c. day...2.

when jon got home, we decided that we definitely wanted to go to washington d.c. i could not be more thrilled. jon was iffy about it-it doesn't really scream honeymoon. i knew he'd enjoy it though, and i thought it was important for not only him to see it, but for us to see it together, especially so soon after his return from afghanistan. 

it worked out beautifully:

lizzie got a summer job in D.C. we decided to go while she was out there. and hey, while we are there, why not invite the whole fam? my dad went to george washington university, and lived in dc for a few years. he knows all things washington, so we decided to coordinate so that we would all be there at the same time. jon and i were lucky enough to spend 9 whole days there. my dad and mei came out for a weekend we were there, and spent four of those days with us. it was so much fun. but, more on that later. 

our first FULL day there. first impression: SO HOT! coming from hardly humid and always breezy san diego, there was a very apparent climate change.

can i tell you a [not so] secret? i really like humidity. 

here we are at mount vernon. i went to take a photo of jon standing in from of that fence, and that HUGE snake was there instead! ick!!!!!

 the grounds were beautiful. 

i am oh so intrigued by washington. 

his home sits right on the potomac river. 

this is where the first president and his wife are buried.

 it was so awesome seeing jon put the wreath in the tomb. 

it was definitely a good start to the trip.

 purple heart memorial.

"The [purple heart] award was first given by General George Washington at Newburgh, New York on August 7, 1782 during the Revolutionary War to recognize distinction for meritorious action. The Purple Heart is currently awarded in the name of the President of the United States to members of the U.S. military who have been wounded or killed in action. According to the Military Order of the Purple Heart, an organization for combat-wounded veterans, the medal is “the oldest military decoration in the world in present use and the first award made available to a common soldier.”" link.

after seeing washington's home, we went to his distillery and gristmill. 

we met up with lizzie and ate dinner, then explored georgetown. 

 when i'm old and rich, this is where i'll reside. 

even if this idea is based on the font those house letters are in. 
and the color of the door.

 we stood in line for 45 minutes to get these. worth it.

here is jon at the swedish embassy!!! 

one day, he will work for a swedish embassy. 

or an american embassy in sweden. 

it will be done. oh yes. it will be done.

we made it. d.c. day 1 & 2.

 we had a layover in philadelphia. we went to the USO where they have volunteers taking care of our military. they have beds, tvs, chairs, food, etc etc etc, all free. loving people volunteer there. we stopped and got hot food. pork chops/hot dog, drinks. i got hot mac and cheese. it was really nice. 

 this is cutie-jon when we landed in DC. we love it here already!

 this is retro-jon on the metro. today, we spent our day at mount vernon where george washington lived. it was really cool. they have a ceremony every day at martha and george's gravesite. they asked for a veteran volunteer. jon was the only veteran there (my veteran, swoon), so he was selected. a little boy led us in the pledge of alegience, and then Jon put a wreath in between george and martha's headstones. they opened the gate for him and he walked INTO that little room and placed the wreath. then someone read Washington's Earnest Prayer. it was a really cool thing to see. then we went to see where washington's workers made whisky, om nomnom.

 after we learned about G.W., we went to pick up lizzie! we got to see where she works! and the cute little neighborhood she works in. we ate hotdogs and fried pickles, then took the metro/bus to georgetown and marveled at all the cute houses. then got some cupcakes, duh.

 that's my white slip showing through. not sure why they didn't sew a black slip in it? maybe it shows the lace better. just wanted to make that clear.
nevertheless, this is us on the metro. 

and this is what we found on one of the seats. a mormon passalong card. :)

house tour: family room.

thank you for all the sweet comments. coming home was such a fun experience. i watched our clip again, and i really liked it...again. it was such a special surprise for john, and i'm so glad that we have it permanently captured. 

well, i stopped doing the house tour!! no one commented on the posts that i put up, so i thought nobody cared to see our little home. my oldest sister asked me about it, and then hannah asked me about it. sooooo, for those two people, i'll continue on. ;)

when you walk in the front door and walk through a little hallway, you get to our family room. we decided to keep our spare bedroom as a sewing/guest room. so we put our 'office' in the family area. 

in this photo, the front door is on the right side. you can see a litttleee bit of the string of cards i have hung up:)

we got that alphabet right when we got married. its the swedish alphabet, so jon loves it. i'm not feeling it here anymore. we bought it before we had a color scheme or anything, so i feel like its just THERE. i'm frustrated with this whole area. it looks so cluttered. i think i'm going to take everything off of this wall and leave it blank for awhile. i'd like to get two shelves to hang above the desk to hold random objects and lean pictures on it. 

i still really like the alphabet and it's special to jon. good thing i found this photo and decided what i really want to do with that picture! hang it in our future baby's room! 

(in a few years!)

like so:

super cute, right? those swedes are amazing.

back to the office area. that desk is a million years old. or something like that. it was my dads a long, long time ago. then my sister took it to her townhouse when she got married. she'd had it in her new house's garage for at least a year by the time jon and i got married, and she was more than ready to let it go. so we brought it with us here. it is a nice desk. it has a file cabinet on the left side which is so nice for filing away school papers and receipts! 

the little green chair. i bought that at the DI for $8 before jon and i got married. i'm a sucker for designer chairs, or at least knock offs...

it was yellow when i got it, so i spray-painted it green to match the rug in front of the door. i had no idea where i was going with our front room until i bought that rug. i am using colors from the rug in the living area, its a slow process, but it's coming together.

i got that lovely printer off of walmart.com for $30. yep, you read that right. my sister and i follow all these blogs that tell you where the best deals are. i jumped on that one real quick. 

those speakers=jon's homecoming gift. he'd been obsessing over them since before we got married, so we decided to finally get them. they're pretty cool i guess.............................................they really come in handy saturday mornings when we are fight cleaning. we turn the music on really loud so we don't have to talk. haha.

(I read that line to jon and he said "We don't fight clean anymore!" and he is right. that is my disclaimer.)

i haven't been posting much. jon's dad and step mom were in town this weekend, and things got crazy. and, well, we've been busying ourselves with thoughts of this:

yes, we are going to washington d.c. i can NOT WAIT!! we've been planning and looking forward to this for months and months. planning is a term used loosely. we booked our hotel for tomorrow today...i feel like we need close parental guidance, and we aren't getting it. being married is funny.
we thought about going somewhere tropical for our honeymoon, but i thought washington was especially important right now. jon has never been before. i think that every american needs to go to there.
see you when we return! mmmm, maybe sooner if you're lucky. ;)

wk 48.

for memorial day, we went to fort rosecrans national cemetery to watch a little program about americas military history. it was a beautiful day. 

lifetime original series.

well, we were on national tv tonight. 

it was somewhat anti-climactic. 

when they finished filming us, they told us our clip would probably be on June 5th. 

we never heard anything else. then someone text me tonight and said "i'm watching you guys right now!" total bummer. i was hoping to write on here and inform you when it'd be on, and be able to tell my friends. 

nevertheless, it was really cute. they did such a good job. I even teared up, and i hadn't cried the actual day it all happened, haha. 

so, jon decided that he wanted to surprise his dad at a harley dealership. they're both really into motorcycles, so he thought it'd be really special to do that. i don't really know anything motorcycle, but i knew that idea was great, and it was even more special that it was jon's idea. 

so on April 11th and 12th, Jon and I hung out just the two of us. no one really knew that he was home, and his entire family especially didn't know. his mom and brother did a good job at keeping it secret. john and kathy got into town late on April 12th. the show had flown the two of them out here, reserved them a rental car, and reserved hotel in oceanside, so they drove up and crashed in their room. 

april 13th, kelly, the producer, calls us early in the morning to ask if Jonathan has his uniform ready. uh, what? we forgot that we had decided on that uniform. whoops! so we took it to the tailor the second they opened and paid extra for it to be done in two hours. we picked it up at noon, went home and got ready, and then left for the surprise at 1. 

jon and i were both a nervous wreck!! 

we got to the harley dealership at about 1:30 and planned the whole surprise. then we started filming. we filmed for about 1.5 hours there. they didn't show any of that on the episode, which i was glad about. i felt like the biggest tool in front of the cameras. 

then, i left to pick up john and kathy. ummm, talk about anxiety! i had to pretend nothing was up. kathy knew we were surprising john that day, but she didn't know how or when. john started asking me questions on the way to the dealership like "did they have you sign a waiver?" and "what is the title of this show?" and i just had to brush him off! 

he was probably like "ugh, my daughter in law is such a snob."

when we got to the dealership, they mic'd all three of us up. then, we got back in the car and drove up to the dealership again to make it seem like it was the first time on camera. so when you watch the show and see us pull up to harley, that was the second time:) (third time for me, since i'd been there already with jonathan!)

i had to pretend it was the first time meeting everyone at harley, because john didn't know i'd already filmed there that day. it was crazy. i was such the ball of nerves. 

we walked around the dealership for awhile, looking at motorcycles and talking about them.

one of the guys, mike, that was helping us looked a little bit like jonathan; kind of short and stocky. mike was actually a former marine with 3/5, which was cool. he has dark hair, you'll see him on the show. he came up and talked to john about the motorcycles before asking if he wanted to test drive one. john didn't know they were going to let him ride one, but he was hoping they would, so he said yes! and things fell into place. mike told john that someone would bring a bike out for him to ride, and that he(mike) was going to go in the back to get all suited up. he said that john could follow the camera van, and that he would just drive behind john as a liability.  john didn't ask any questions. so mike went out back, and told jonathan that everything was ready!!!! 

 jon out back, waiting for us to tell him its time to go!

jonathan riding behind his unsuspecting dad :)

they brought a bike out for john, and then jonathan drove around the dealership and started driving behind john. they drove around the block for a short period of time, though it seemed really long while we were all waiting for them. all of the employees came out of harley and were all waiting for the two boys to get back! it was so cute! 

 

scary and exciting waiting for them to arrive!!!

so john drove up and pulled in front of me. i was in charge of saying the punch line for the whole surprise. they didn't tell me that until john and jonathan were gone. i could have been going over what i was going to say!!! 

anyway, john pulls up and i start asking him how his ride was and if he liked the bike and if jonathan would like it etc etc etc, while jonathan is getting off the bike behind john and SLOWLY taking off his glovessss and unbuckling his helmettttt and just taking his time. finally, when it looked like jonathan was ready, i said to john "why don't you turn around and see who your escort was?" so john turned, and jonathan took off his helmet.  

it was so cute. john said that when i told him to turn around, it registered before he saw him. he was still SO surprised that jonathan was home already! the whole weekend, john dad kept telling us how happy he was and thanking us for surprising him. he also said (on camera) that i'm too good and keeping secrets, but i didn't take it to heart. 

we had a good day wednesday. jonathan and i got to sleep at the hotel with john and kathy, which was fun. we went out and walked around the beach in oceanside. i didn't think i liked oceanside, but this area was actually nice! then on thursday morning, April 14th, we went to a condo for more interviews. they interviewed me, kathy, jonathan, john, and then john and jonathan together. it took so long!!! about 4 hours. then we were DONE! 

the people working on the show were so much fun, and had such energy!

Jon Surprises His Dad for an Episode of the TV Show "Coming Home" from Double Scoop Photography on Vimeo.

Melodee wrote about the homecoming here and the surprise here.

it was such a fun experience! it was crazy watching the show and seeing how much they didn't put on there. hours and hours of filming for five minutes of air time! i guess that's how it goes. 

i'm sorry i couldn't tell you sooner when it'd be on, but watch it tomorrow (monday!) here! it's episode 12, "three cheers for dad". 

or watch it on hulu here.

by the way, no, jonathan didn't get a motorcycle out of it, but the four of us did get free harley swag. ha!