Greg & Kailee Schroeder: July 2013

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Our visit back home...

Greg and I were able to go home to Utah to visit family and friends just a couple weeks ago. We realized just how much we missed everyone, which made it harder to return home to Virginia. We were super busy, but had a great time. We arrived late on a Thursday night and were so tired from jet lag. My mom and brothers picked us up at the airport. Friday night, we had a BBQ with all our friends. It was so good to see everyone!

Danny, Kim, and Thomas

Staci, Blake, Thomas, Mike, Meagan, Lainey, Ric, & Grant

Kylee & Lily

This was the first time Greg & I got to see Lily, we were so in love!!


Greg manning the grill

The next day on Saturday, Matt (Greg's brother) came home from his 2 year mission! We all went to the airport to greet him at the gate.

Kim & Kathy picked Matt up in Argentina

Greg was so excited to see Matt!

Steve & Jane


Greg, Jordan, & Staci

That Monday, Greg and I went up to Bear Lake for my family's reunion (Nielson side). It was great to see that side of the family again. Camille & Chris rented a beautiful beach house for everyone and it was amazing!!! We only stayed until Tuesday afternoon since we had to get back to SLC for family pictures.


The view out these windows was of Bear Lake and it was gorgeous!

Greg showing Jeffrey some wrestling moves

I taught the kiddies some gymnastics! Will is doing a back roll.

This is my cousin, Bradley, he is my uncle Stuart's son. He looks exactly like my brother Christian when he was this age. It was so weird cause I thought it was little Christian running around!


Playing some football while enjoying the view.

Greg and Thomas goofing around during family pictures


Greg thought he would start preparing for Trek :)

Family pictures at Wheeler Farm

The boys

The Caldwell's

The girls

It was so good to make a trip back home to visit loved ones. We sure miss everyone and can't wait for Greg's family to visit in several weeks and my Mom & brothers to visit in two weeks!

Summer 2013, thus far

This summer, I have a break from school and I am loving it! I was able to pick up another nanny job and am loving it so far. I enjoy the families I work for and enjoy taking the kids to parks, swim lessons, pet stores to look at animals, the splash park, and much, much more! Greg has been super busy with planning the youth conference Trek for our church. He is currently on it right now and I might be joining him tomorrow after work, however, with this heat wave, I might reconsider!
We celebrated our four year anniversary on June 6th. We went to a fancy restaurant called 1789 in Georgetown that weekend to celebrate. Greg also got me my first Kate Spade purse! I was soooo happy because I love it. He also gave me a beautiful necklace. I made him a photobook of his trip to Egypt three years ago. I also painted a canvas of the TV show Mad Men for Greg, which he LOVED!

Georgetown

Greg and I have also started our very own garden this year. This is my first time gardening. I never thought I would say this, but I LOVE gardening! It's amazing to see your plants grow and eventually produce chemical-free food! As of now we have cucumbers, green peppers, onions, and jalapenos. We are still waiting for our squash and zucchini to produce, but I'm not too hopeful. We did have peas, but those died long ago. I am still waiting for my romaine lettuce, broccoli, butter leaf lettuce, and spinach.

When our peas were alive


We finally bought Greg a new suit since it's only been four years since he bought his last one!

So, I'm sure many of you have heard about the cicadas. This was supposed to be the year where they come out in swarms! Luckily, I only saw a handful in the city/suburbs. We did encounter many on a beach at Pohick Bay, though. They are so disgusting looking and HUGE! What was so interesting is that they just fly right into you and will keep running into you. They will also just sit there on the ground and let you squash them. They won't even move! My guess is that since they only come out every 17 years is that they don't have as much time to evolve as other insects do. I'm soooooo grateful that this year of cicadas was bearable.

So, Greg and I are Game of Thrones fans. Michon and I threw a party for the season 3 finale in early June. We can't wait for season four to begin!!!

We are excited for the rest of the summer and the adventures it holds for us.

Saturday, July 6, 2013

NYC & Charlottsville, VA; A much needed vacation!

Our friends, Kylee and Thomas Hezseltine came into D.C. to visit Greg and I in May. We toured around D.C. We went to the crime and punishment museum and saw the hope diamond in the natural history museum. We then did a little shopping in Chinatown and then made our way over to happy hour with Greg's coworkers. Greg & Thomas went to the Nationals game while Kylee and I went home to get ready for dinner.
The next morning at 7 a.m. we boarded a bus headed for NYC! We were so excited, but so tired since we only got about five hours of sleep. We arrived about 11:30 a.m. and had the whole day ahead of us. We got some lunch and shopped around until we checked into our hotel. Greg got us an awesome hotel in Midtown East, Manhattan. It was close to everything! That night we went to a yummy pizza restaurant and then hung out at Bryant Park. We were so exhausted by the end of the night that Greg & I didn't even care that we had to sleep on a twin bed together!
The next morning was the Gossip Girl Tour!!!! Kylee & I have been wanting to do this forever and it was finally our time to enjoy it! We absolutely loved it! However, many of the sites were under construction and had scaffolding all over buildings. After our tour, we met up with Greg & Thomas and headed down to the 9/11 memorial. It was amazing! This memorial is one of my favorites I have seen. We then made our way back to the hotel to get our bags and board the bus at 7 p.m. It was a short trip, but so worth it.