Miles of Smiles

HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

How is everyone? We are doing fine--very, very busy though! We have probably spent two hours home over the last three Saturdays! Sheesh!

Well here are some things that we can not cover with the pictures below.

• Cristy and I have begun Marathon training training, meaning we are building our base-mileage up before we actually start training for the Marathon. Confusing, I know. The Marathon will be in April.
• Cristy and I have dug up our Christmas decorations from storage and will be putting them up within days (if not tonight!) I think you will be surprised with how much stuff we have...I kind of "like" Christmas. Du Du Dah! More to come...
• Cristy and I are still looking for new jobs; I had a job interview today that went pretty well. Our move-out date for this apartment is November, and we are pretty excited. We don't really love it here and look forward to becoming ambitious enough to move again. Will that move be the West Coast? Du Du Dah!

OK, now for the pictures...

Our pumpkins...from left to right (Cristy, Nathaniel, Carly)

The pictures we took at my company's Election Night party. We didn't know what was going on in the first picture, we were looking "political" in the second one, and we kissed on the third.

Cristy's nifty coupon book--she made it herself!
Cristy PROUD of her coupon book :)

The ballroom where we had our Election Party. There were actually about eight rooms that we went into, but this was the main one. D.C. is VERY liberal, so there was a lot of cheering that night.

Kodak moment! Our badges could be flipped around--one side was blue, the other red.

We found this creepy light on the walk back to our car. There are lots of them in D.C. and they are about as big as me. None of them as supposed to be green though...

My siser turned eighten the day after! What a bummer! Cristy doesn't seem to mind :)

The Moreira's are a people of many talents, and many faces...like this one...

...and this one...I was asked to give my John McCain impression...needless to say..I am not going to be on SNL doing impressions anytime soon.

And this is my best Barack Obama impression.

And my parent's plants in for the first frost of the year--Brrr...shiver me timbers!

My sister got a Mac! Yippie!

We went to "Tents for Hope" on the Mall, an event sponsored by DarfurNow. Basically, people assembled these tents to certain specifications (PVC poles and canvas cloth), painted them, and after this event (four days long) they were sent to Darfur to home refugees. It was a very moving experience.

A close-up of one quilted tent. I thought it kind of epitomized the event.

These people were really getting into the music. You cankind of see them dancing a little in the shot. It got us thinking about how these people see our country (many appeared to be native Africans) compared to how we see it. Kind of brings a new meaning to "freedom," if you ask me.

Sometime I will try to get a close-up of the Capitol rotunda. (We were in a hurry and had to beat the sun for some of the other pictures shown below). It is beautiful and extremely detailed. (Note: it was dedicated by George Washington in a Masonic ceremony).

A part of the Mall--very spacey and pretty in the Fall.

National Air and Space Musuem. In here you have many historical artifacts, including the Moon Lander and the original airplane from the Wright brothers, to name a few.

The Smithsonian Institute. This guy here in the statue made it so all of the musuems could be funder and built. He is also the reason it's all free. Yay for Smithsonian!

The White House from Pennslyvania Avenue. Very far away from the public, as you can see.

With some zoom...

The Washington Monument from another angle.

Blurry Cristy by another tree and another monument. Shoot! My favorite picture ruined by blur...if only I had a brother-in-law who rocked out at Photoshop...hmm...

This is actually the building where we had our Election Night party--The Widorf Hotel or something like that. It's a few hundred meters from the White House and EXPENSIVE!

Contrary to what this administriation would have you believe...not everything smells like roses at the Treasury Department ;)

These people have been here protesting for a long, long, long time. Like over a decade or something. I've seen them in person twice, and both times one of them were getting arrested (it first time it was violently--this cop jumped off his still moving bike and tackled the guy--it was awesome)

The back of the White House, where you can get a much closer (and scenic) view. Less tourists too :)

A CRAZY squirrel attacked Cristy.

ANOTHER crazy squirrel staring her down. Note: this tree is seven feet wide!

I have no idea. There are way too many monuments and statues in D.C. for me to know what this one is. It looks cool though.
My favorite drive in the whole world, and it just happens to be the short cut from our house to the Temple. Thereis almost ten miles of this--beautiful when the seasons change. Can't wait for snow!
A scenic overlook off the side of the road. I work in one of those buildings off in the distance.

The San Fernando Valley in CA. Also, why I will never move to the hills in California!
Who says man can't fly? Ask this guy, who flew 90 mph a few months ago, making aeronautical history. Yawza!