D.C.

Obviously mama and I went to D.C. & Boston in the same trip, it's just taken me a while to make separate posts cus they were very full and unique experiences in their own right.

George Washington University,

the first of many schools on our week-long trip to visit!

Behind me would have been "my" building.

They presented a very nice and comfortable open house and everyone we met was very kind.

~I was just way more excited and impressed with Boston~

The Smithsonian

We attempted to see as much as we could in just 4 short hours.

Trust me, you get lost in those museums. There is SO MUCH stuff to see and read and learn. Really an amazing public facility. It's a must-do-again-when-I-have-my-own-kids attraction.

We hit the Air & Space museum as well as the American History museum. Above is the historic 'Spirit of St. Louis' plane flown by Charles Lindbergh.

Below is the first plane to ever successfully be "in flight", made by the Wright brothers. A-mazing that it was right there! In a world where anything can be digitalized, virtualized, recreated, forged, mimicked, waxed, etc. it was crazy to be in these museums with the actual honest-to-goodness real things of so many items from history.

This was a big highlight for mama because years ago she was able to visit Kitty Hawk and has wanted to see the Wright brothers' famous plane ever since.

And I was super excited about seeing Lincoln's hat because I'm reading a book on him right now, Lincoln's Melancholy, and his memorial was my favorite of all we visited. I just have some "no real reason why" interest in him as a person.

Can't really see the excitement in my face because I was really hungry and tired and was just a little bit cranky. haha oops. Happens~

That's the actual suit he got painted in who knows how many times.

Seeing as how we had just visited GWU...seemed appropriate.

Julia Child's Kitchen

I'm pretty obsessed with food and cooking so this was for sure a highlight.

Enter..... CuPcaKes

So there's this show on TLC about a cupcake shop in Georgetown.

Naturally, we felt it was our duty as D.C. visitors and just chocolate loving women in general to grace this lovely little shop with our presence.

The daily line out the door speaks for itself. They give you a little menu with all the options for that day and mama and I took, I don't know, maybe about 30 seconds to zero in on the two most chocolate decadent choices offered. Pretty sure one of them was called "chocolate cubed" as in chocolate to the third degree.

Yup

The country seems to be in an all out craze with cupcakes as of late. Throughout our trip we continued to 'sample' these little treats wherever we found a shop, but some of them unfortunately went straight to the trash after only a bite. Not even close to D.C. cupcakes.

So if you're ever there, try them.

{We even bumped into the sister missionaries there! If that's not classic, I don't know what is}

~The CapiTAl and all the sites~

All these Elders were leaving the next day.

We just happened to be there the two weeks of the year the Cherry Blossoms are in bloom.

*Night* Tour

(My camera was wiggin' out in the photo above.)

Loved loved loved the Lincoln Memorial.

So stoic, grand, and clean. Mama and I felt reverence there.

WW2 memorial

It was a fabulous trip. All good and fun things to see all in

one little area.

Placed

It's official...I've chosen a grad school.

Now I'm freaking out that it's really happening!

Massachusetts General Hospital

Institute of Health Professions

*an academic affiliate of

Massachusetts General Hospital*

Ranking third on the U.S. News and World Report's

Honor Roll for best hospital and hospital affiliate's

for 2010-2011...it's an impressive facility.

For the next two years I'll be walking through these doors towards my future. Well, maybe more like walking towards the clinic and classrooms, but it's finally the first step towards becoming "what I want to be when I grow up."

I mean please...doesn't this just scream, "When I grow up I want to be a speech pathologist?!"

(Some people might think I was a little more on point with the BS in Psychology since this outfit is a little psychotic haha.)

But this just felt like home, and I'm so happy.

The institute is located right in Boston's Old Navy Yard of Charlestown and all the water and seagulls just made it feel like San Francisco...so familiar.

(Emerson College)

Mama and I kept plenty busy visiting other schools too, like George Washington University in D.C., Emerson College in Boston, and Boston University.

(Boston University)

While we were out there, I got accepted to Columbia University, too. I tried to 'joke-call' daddy and tell him we were just ganna add another week to our trip and go to New York too. Ironically it was April fools day so he didn't believe me. Didn't matter...after being in Boston, I didn't even want to go look anywhere else. It's a beautiful city.

Mama and I were actually quite impressed with how our timeline of "To-Do's" and "Want-To-Do's" blended so perfectly. We were very efficient and busy with the important open houses, housing hunts, and decision making.

But hello! It's Boston! You can't come all that way and not play.

(Mike's Pastry is famous for their Cannoli's)

Way too many choices. And there were people literally pushing against us from behind vying for a position to see all the pastries in the case. Super busy. Mama and I were like, "Too much pressure! Let's just pick one and get out of here." haha. And like the words in "The Sound of Music," they have string coming down from the ceiling they use to tie up the packages of treats.

Brown paper packages

tied up in strings...

The simple joys of room service.

Night life. Woo hoo!

Brumsy and Abbala

Prom 2011

Missed it while we were gone, so they kept us posted with photos.

(Harvard Yard)

They have a gorgeous library. The ladder was so 'Beauty and the Beast'.

Hello Michael Kors.

As soon as we saw this we knew I was ganna be just fine here. This store owns half of all the Singer sewing machines ever made and they display them in the window (in each of their establishments around the world) as an enticement to get people to come it. Let's just say it worked for me.

Who wouldn't fall in love with a place where you can find Vera Wang on one street (ahem...by appointment only as we were so informed when we tried to go look), hundreds of sewing machines on the next, then wrap it all up by eating lunch IN a window. Yes, we are sitting in the window booth where they put displays. Quaint~

(Boston Museum of Fine Art)

Beautiful glass work and impressionist paintings. When I asked if I could get a student discount, they asked if I was in high school. Awesome.

All glass. So cool.

This has been a magnet on our fridge forever, so mama and I just love this one.

There is something so cool to me about actually 'seeing' the signature of the artist. So real. Monet actually touched that canvas; he stood as close to it as I was!

Then, lunch with Michelle, my cousin who lives there. Her husband is graduating from Harvard this year and they are moving away. Such bummer timing.

Her little babe.

So, I may not have known since I was this little guy's age just what I wanted to be when I grew up. But I can't deny that I have truly been led to finding and deciding on studying speech pathology. I wanted, and actually quite expected, to walk onto the the different school campuses mama and I were going to visit and almost get an instant 'read' or feel for the place; like a strong "yes" or "no" that would tell me which one I should choose.

That didn't happen.

What did happen was something much more thought out and I'm sure better for me and my peace of mind. I really had to 'study it out for myself' and look over the small but potentially important differences between the programs of the various schools. It was scary for me to not have this overwhelming "yes!" of an answer. But I do have an answer, and I do feel peace.

The morning after mama and I visited the schools was Sunday; General Conference morning. I turned on some quiet music to at least let a tone of calm in, since unfortunately we weren't sure how much of conference we could catch with our other obligations of the trip for that day. The words of one of the songs struck me as I sat looking out our window view of the city in the morning. It was mercifully quite perfect for reassuring me that my leaning towards MGH was a good and correct decision; giving me not an overwhelming loud answer, but a peaceful calm.

With life up in the air

my faith has learned to fly.

I know who's hand

is covering my eyes.

Wherever I land

will be hallowed ground to me.

I will know that He has placed me

where I should be.

I am still nervous about this big change in my life. Logically, I know it's all very exciting and new. It's the right time in my life to move in this direction and there is so much I'm going to learn and experience. Emotionally, I am still a little bit shy of everything. Sometimes the heart is a little bit behind the knowledge of the mind. The blessing is, emotionally I also know that my Father in Heaven knows my concerns and will continue to guide me to find the emotional wisdom, strength and excitement for this next step in life that I could never come by logically~

Boston...here I come!

Flower Patch

Yeah...work is soooo hard when you have this face to look forward to.

MDT & Snails

My good friend Hailey Holtzclaw {Hay Hay} was in the MDT Showcase a week or so ago.

Ky and I both went with friends to support.

Hay Hay had a closing number that brought down the house.

So glad I have friends who have talents for dancing I never got so I can enjoy the activity vicariously through them and all their shows.

(Sorry for the lighting. It's theater!)

~~~~~

This is a little tribute to my 'snails.'

For any who don't know......

6 of us girls formed a group in elementary school called the 'Snails.'

-Me

-Kylie Falke

-Hailey Holtzclaw

-Augusta Bates

-Ashley Falzone

-Amanda Adams

We were inseparable and still get together often to catch up whenever we're in Turlock. We had a notebook Ky still has somewhere, a chant, and ceramic pins Ashley or Augusta made. We were so legit.

We have all tried to bring little trinkets home for each of the 'snails' whenever we travel abroad. You might be surprised just how not-difficult that actually is! I've managed to find things in France, Peru, Africa and Utah and Ky brought us all home a little glass snail from Italy!

Going to watch Ky Ky in Dance Sport in 1 week!

Go snail #2 (???)

(We all had numbers. Forget which one she was but I was #4. Oh the things you do when you're little.)

Friday Night Fiasco

So we had a minor emergency.

Call cut his finger and took a little visit to the E.R.

We were both laughing when I showed up (at my second hospital of the night because there was a minor 'miscommunication'). After saying to the receptionist, "Um, I think my little brother is here?" I heard a voice from behind a curtain, "Anne Marie?" followed by a laugh. It was all a very calm experience...let's be honest...this wasn't Call's first trip to the E.R. for cuts and bruises. This little love isn't exactly known for his finesse.

He was very pleased to report that he hadn't gotten one drop of blood on his nice shirt or suit.

Said as soon as he cut himself with the knife he just looked at it and thought, "Hospital".

Has to come back in a few days if numbness doesn't go away so they can check for nerve damage. Oh dudes...

{On the phone with dad}

Before running out the door I grabbed a Luna bar as 'emergency food'.

(Anyone who knows me knows I always always have at least some form of 'emergency food' in my purse). Good thing, cus Call started to feel light headed and was pretty stoked when he scored today's emergency food options, "Caramel Nut Brownie"...my personal favorite.

We both thought it was fun to watch someone besides our Uncles stitch him up. I said, "Huh, seems funny not to have this be Uncle Steve or Uncle Kevin doing this." and Call said, "That's just what I was thinking!!" Seems like no family reunion is complete without one of the uncles on either side stitching at least one person up. Thank heavens for Dr.'s in the fam.

And...my date tonight was SOOO nice to come and pick me up all the way from the Orem hospital so I could leave Call my car since Whitney had his car.

~~~Never a dull moment with this brother~~~

Friday-Night-Fiasco turned FuN!

Blood

My little brother Call lives here in Provo. The other night he stopped over for a visit in the evening. I told my roommates after he left that I knew we were, no doubt, for a fact, true blood siblings because the first thing he asked me after walking in the apartment was,

"Hey, do you have any chocolate?"

Please...

do you even have to ask???

I stocked him up on my homemade cookies, then tried to balance out the damage by giving him wheat thins and carrots. The carrots were vehemently refused, but a sister's gotta try right?!

Made the Cut

So you all remember my little Mish (Misha) right? He's one of my little babes I do ABA therapy with at work.

He was sick the last two days so didn't come to school. I missed his little voice so much. He is one of the few kids we consider more 'verbal' than the rest. Most of the time the little ones just cry, scream, or make random noises. {You could probably blindfold me and I could tell you who's cry/noise/squeal was who's very accurately. I used to wonder how moms, of all species really, are just wired to know their own child's cry. Now I have a better idea how!}

Anyway...

I missed him.

Today he was back.

My co-worker was doing a therapy session with him today and afterwards told me something I thought was so cute that Mish did. We are working with him to learn the names of his family members. We'll say, "Misha, what is your mom's name?" Or, "Who is your sister?"

Well...

I made the cut!

When asked today, "Misha, who is your sister?" Yes...you guessed it...

He said, "Ammawee!"

L.O.V.E.