Update...Finally!

Hello All!  I realize that this post is long overdue.  It has been a busy couple of months.  First, as promised, photos of our new townhouse!

The three pictures below are pictures of our first floor. 

Living room looking out on our front yard

Dining room looking out at our back yard



Kitchen

 The next few pictures are of the upstairs.

Bedroom 1

My closet

Bedroom 2

Upstairs bathroom

View from the top of the stairs looking to the first floor living room

The last few photos are of the basement and the backyard.

Backyard

Basement

Basement bathroom

Laundry room

I will post more pictures of the house now that we have mostly finished the moving process.  I haven't yet taken them, so that will be another post in the near future!

Since moving into the townhouse, we have made a couple of purchases, some because we needed too and others because we wanted too.  One of the first items that we purchased was a barbeque!  Since we now have a backyard and a small deck, we decide that it was it would be a fun to cook on a barbeque instead of cooking steaks and hotdogs in a pan or microwave.  Also, we had to purchase a lawn mower and a weed whacker because we have a yard now!  The good news is that we don't have to mow the law ALL winter long because grass doesn't grow while it is cold (freezing) outside. We also purchased items to finish our guestroom!

Speaking of guest, we have had a few people stay at the house since we moved.  Tyler Cronk, Jack's friend from college, took the train from Boston in October to hang out for a long weekend.  We explored various places in DC and spent quite a bit of time in Old Town Alexandria.  The boys also made a stop by our favorite butcher shop in Del Rey and picked up steaks and kangaroo.  That was an interesting experience!

Meg and Cole, Jack's sister and nephew, also came to stay with us during October!  We explored downtown DC as well as the Natural History Museum.  Cole's favorite things were the "Lincoln Ammorial" and playing video games in the evening after long days of walking.  He also enjoyed riding the trains to and from DC! Below are pictures from their visit!

Cole and Jack waiting for the train

Meg and Cole with the Wright Flyer

Meg and Cole on the National Mall



Lincoln "Ammorial"

Cole making faces at the camera

Fall in DC

World War II Memorial

White House

Cole posing for the camera

Jack and I also have made it to Mount Vernon and will be traveling to New York in two weekends.  I will leave those adventures for later blogs though.  : )  Enjoy family and friends and Happy Holidays to everyone! We miss you. 

Lots of love,
Jack and Jill

We Moved!

Jack and I made the one-way flight to Washington D.C. on September 6th.  After a slight delay, we made it to the East Coast in one piece right before Tropical Storm Leigh rained down on the the DC area.  Fortunately, Clare also flew out that day, and she made it the next morning at 9 AM in the pouring rain! She was a bit frightened at first and a bit stand-offish.  She made it clear that she needed her space by lying down on the opposite side of our hotel room for the first couple of hours.  She eventually came over to join Jack and I by the bed.  We were relieved that she didn't stay mad at us for too long. 

We have since then introduced Clare to our new townhouse (pictures to come later when I am able to download them).  She absolutely LOVES the new place and all of the space.  She spends a lot of the time in the backyard rolling around in the grass.  Jack and I have never seen Clare's tail curled up so much (indicating her happiness)!  

Before we made the one-way flight, however, we temporarily said good-bye to our possessions on August 31st...and those have not yet arrived.  At first, we were told that we would be receiving our stuff on September 7th or 8th.  After a couple of days of no news (and several attempts to contact the moving company), we FINALLY heard from the movers with good and bad news!  The good news:  Our stuff was still in one piece!  The bad news:  It wouldn't arrive for another week.  We heard today that it will definitely arrive on Wednesday, and we are SO happy.  It has been quite weird to live without the items that we have grown accustomed to like...chairs...towels...and a variety of other items.  Luckily, that left us with an excuse to buy some new essentials!  We have found all of the home stores in the area:  IKEA, Crate and Barrell, the Container Store, Bed Bath and  Beyond, Target...all of Jack's favorite stores.  : )  Our first car will also be arriving this week!  MY car!  I have missed that car. 

Since our arrival, we have managed to set-up a few things, but unfortunately, until our furniture arrives, the house is still bare.  We will surely post pictures once we get the house set-up!  I have several pictures of the moving process, our last night in Seattle, and the inside of our new home.  I will post these in a later blog as they are still sitting on the camera.  I just wanted to update everyone before too much time went by! 

As of today, Jack and I are both back to work.  I am in Minneapolis, MN, and Jack is working from home. (He is still working for the Seattle office until October when he starts his program.)  Everything is still really busy as we are still handling moving, working, and traveling, so if you don't hear from us in a while, I promise we aren't ignoring you! I hope all is well. 

All of our love,
Jack and Jill

More Pictures of DC

I don't have cute anecdotes or stories to tell, and, quite frankly, the last one was pretty good.  I did however want to share some of our pictures from DC from the last couple of trips and more pictures of our new townhouse!  I promise I will post more once we can take photos of the inside.  Enjoy! 

Home sweet home!

Lincoln Memorial

Washington Monument at night

The White House

WWII Memorial

The Hope Diamond

The Wright Flyer

We're Engaged!

As the title may suggest, Jack and I are engaged!  We couldn't be happier about it.  We are in the process of deciding where and when to have the wedding, so we will keep everyone posted as we iron out our plans. 

I am guessing what is at the forefront of most people's minds (at least the women) is, "how did Jack propose?"  Well, he tricked me!  First of all, I need to give some background information and then I will take you into the actual proposal. 

On Friday morning, August 19th, 2011, Jack and I drove to Tacoma to drop off Clare at Blake's house at 7:30 AM!  We were headed up to the family cabin for the weekend, and Clare frequently stays with Blake when Jack and I are out of town.  (Blake lived with Jack during college, and he helped raise Clare!) 

After dropping off Clare, we headed to a leisurely breakfast while killing time as we were waiting to pick up my parents from the airport.  They were coming into town to join their friends, Pam and Bob, on a boat trip through the San Juans.  It has been tradition for the last couple of years for Jack and I to pick them up and take them to Anacortes, WA.  So, FINALLY, at 9:45 AM, we pick up my parents and start the drive to Anacortes.  This was nothing short of one of the most hysterical car rides of my life, although, I would expect nothing less from my parents (much less the Westbrook family).  It was great to catch up and enjoy the beautiful Washington day!

On our way up to Anacortes, it is also tradition for us to stop at a little fishing shop to pick up bait for my parents boat trip.  My dad does quite a bit of fishing over the week that they are gone.  Little did I know, while mom and I were making fun of the ridiculous, I mean awesome, fishing hats, Jack was asking my father's permission to marry me!  According to Jack, my dad just about had a heart attack when he asked because he was caught so off guard.  Did I mention that they were in line at the cash register?  So needless to say, I had absolutely no clue what was going-on, for all I knew they were talking fish bait and ridiculous, I mean awesome, fishing hats. 

As the trip goes on, my dad and Jack keep this little secret to themselves, and they don't even tell my mother!  We were with my parents for the next two or so hours, and I never caught on once.  Apparently, my dad almost spoiled the surprise, but caught himself each time, and I never knew a things. 

After leaving my parents in Anacortes, Jack and I made the trip back toward the cabin.  This was the first time that Jack and I had been to the cabin by ourselves in a LONG time, so we were looking forward to a quiet weekend.  We do love going up to the cabin with others, but it was nice to have some time to ourselves.  Jack and I settled in and watched our usual Friday evening programs, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy.  After these programs ended, Jack told me that he had a surprise for me.  This is where the trick happens!  He told me that it was a small gift as a thank you for moving to DC with him, however, it isn't the small gift that I have been expecting.  So, immediately, I am thinking, well GOSH, what could it be.  He comes out of the bedroom, with a little red box with a bow in hand.  I am thinking, this must be earrings or something really small!  As I open the bow, and pull out the box, I still am not yet sure of what I am getting.  I finally get the box open, and I look in side, and sure enough, it was a ring, a gorgeous sparkly, diamond ring.  I immediately start crying (tears of joy), and Jack looks at me and says, "You weren't supposed to cry."  And as he is hugging me as I am shaking and crying, he says, "Will you marry me?"  Of COURSE, I said yes! 

Many of you were involved with the conversations to come afterwords, so I will spare you the details.  However, I would like to say this, I was COMPLETELY surprised even though there were a couple of tell-tale signs that I didn't realize were tell-tale signs until after the fact.  Also, we are just so thrilled and excited to be moving into this stage of our life.  Thank you family and friends for all of the love and support! 

House Hunting Trip to DC

Over the fourth of July Holiday, Jack and I made the six hour plane flight to the nation's capitol.  This was my first trip to Washington, D.C. and Jack's second.  It was a whirl wind of a trip, but it was also very successful.  We found a place to live! 

Through various searches on Craigslist and various discussions with our realtor (who ended up being useless), we found a three-story brick townhouse in Alexandria, VA!  The rental is about 15 minutes south of DC and fairly close to the Potomac River.  The townhouse suits us perfectly, and we are fairly certain that Clare will love it.  Not only is the townhouse in a great neighborhood and near Old Town Alexandria, we have a front yard AND an enclosed backyard.  We are simply thrilled, and we are looking forward to the move. 

While we weren't house-hunting, we spend the majority of our time in downtown DC.  We saw the various monuments including the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, Vietnam Memorial, and the WWII Memorial.  We also walked through two of the Smithsonian Museums, Air and Space and the Natural History Museum.  Both of the Museums were free, and of course ALL of the monuments are free for viewing.  We walked through various parts of DC and saw the Ford Theatre, the White House, the Treasury Building, the IRS Building, and the Egdar J. Hoover Building of Investigation (A.K.A the very undescript FBI building). 

While driving around DC and the surrounding Virginia, we spotted all of the Embassy buildings, the National Cathedral, Georgetown University, Dupont Circle, China Town, the Capitol Building, the Pentagon, and Arlington Cemetery.  Most of these areas we plan to explore once we move.  There isn't enough time to fit everything into one weekend! 

I have pictures of all of the above, however, they are still sitting on my camera.  I do have a couple of photos of our new place.  More to come! 

Front door to our new home!

The full front of our new house!

Fence to our new backyard. : )