Take me out to the BALLGAME!

We took another step towards becoming Washingtonians by going to see the Washington Nationals play. They are one of the best teams in baseball this year and the city truly has embraced the team over the past several years. The Nationals were established as a new MLB team in 2005 -- they were previously the Montreal Expos. DC has a number of good sports teams and we are determined to see them all! There is the Washington Wizards (basketball), DC United (soccer), the Washington Redskins (football), and the Washington Capitals (hockey).


After buying a couple cheap tickets off Groupon we were ready to enjoy America's past time. Joe was even sporting some home team gear. His office bought him a jersey and he haggled his way into a $4 hat outside the stadium.



The only thing left was a bag of sunflower seeds and of course the sun. The latter of which we were not lucky enough to get. There was a light drizzle all day, but not enough to call the game or keep us from yelling insults at the Atlanta Braves.


Luckily our cheap seats paid off. We were pretty high up, but we were also under an overhang that kept us dry.

Even with our rally caps in the 9th inning the day ended with a 4-0 loss, but we still enjoyed the tradition of a fun baseball game. We chewed sunflower seeds and sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" at the 7th inning stretch. We will definitely go back and hopefully the next game will include some sun! Oh, and it's Blake's new bucket list item to make it onto a KissCam. Embarrassment is sure to come.

Come Whatever, We Will Still Be Friends Forever

The Birthday Boy! 

I couldn't help the Vitamin C reference. We ought to bring back the 90's more often.

Megan, my best friend, came up to see me before she moved to Boston in order to start her job working for Proctor and Gamble. She came in on Wednesday, also Joe's birthday. We went out to this French bistro-- whose name I won't even try to butcher-- in Dupont Circle, which is the northwest side of the city. Yes, I checked with Joe before I posted directions.

The next day, was filled with sight seeing. We got off the metro at the Capitol building and walked our way across the mall, through a few museums and the memorials, to see Honest Abe. Of course, we couldn't help but dip our feet into the WWII memorial fountain. We meant no disrespect, I mean, it was 98 degrees outside! After 3 hours of walking, we dragged our blistered feet across the Arlington Memorial Bridge to the Arlington Cemetery metro station. I was later told by Joe that we took the long way home. Well, everyone saw that coming.

Soaking Our Sore Feet!

Friday, we went wedding dress shopping!!!  Megan is one of my maid of honors. Yes, I have two. My sister, Morgan, understands there's more sister than friend in Megan. They have both graciously accepted to be assistants to my neurotic, quirky self. I don't know what I would do without them. It was my first time foraging through the bridal boutiques and after a few fun hours playing dress up, I found a dress that I absolutely loved. It's beautiful, romantic, and just "me".  I think it was the first time in my life I ever received a nod of approval by both Megan and Morgan on my fashion sense. I will not be posting a picture here because, of course, Joe can't see it until the big day!

Yes, It's Worth The Wait!

We capped off this perfect day with some Georgetown Cupcakes, which we waited 35minutes (a whole city block!) to get. The red velvet was absolutely worth it.

The Marine Barracks

Friday night we partied with the marines... well, watched them party. Here's a picture of us at the Marine Barracks watching the President's Band perform. The best part was the silent drill team-- flipping rifles with bayonets in perfect synchronization!






It was a great way to say good-bye before we entered the real world. Megan and I have been friends for nearly nine years, roommates for five. We've come to realize that we may never find ourselves in the same state ever again. It's bittersweet, but we figured we'll take our families across the country together! Well, Joe, her boyfriend Sam, and I will make that cross-country trek. She'll just fly there and meet us. If she doesn't know already, I love her and miss her. Thanks for being, forever, my sister and friend!

Welcome!

Hi everyone! Welcome to our blog! Neither of us have much experience with this, but we wanted to keep you all up to date with our lives and all of the excitement that comes along with it! We figured this would be a great way to be certain that we didn't forget to tell anyone about all of the fun details of our new life in DC.

As some of you know, this has been a whirlwind start of an amazing adventure!  So let's review:

- Friday, June 8th, Joe proposes. Blake says "YES!!!"
- Also on Friday, June 8th Joe officially accepts a full-time position to start in DC in just over two weeks
- On Sunday, June 10th we become graduates of THE Ohio State University. Whoa.
- On Wednesday, June 12th we left for D.C. in search of an apartment... any apartment.
- On Thursday, June 13th we found our apartment.
- On Friday, June 14th we plundered through rush-hour traffic and managed to beat 3 other people and sign the lease for our apartment.

After that craziness, we returned to our hometowns to say goodbye to family and friends and then made our way down to our new home. We officially moved in on Friday, June 22nd. Shout out to Joe's dad, grandpa, and D.C. friends for lugging all our furniture up to the top floor and squeezing it through practically impassable door frames :)

Joe started his position on Monday, June 25th. Blake staked out a favorite coffee shop (Starbucks won because of their stellar sweetened iced coffee and impeccable internet connection) to study for her upcoming NCLEX exam--the national nursing board examination.

Slowly but surely, we started putting our humble abode together (pictures to come soon!) to make it into our home away from home.

We will be updating the blog every week so please check it out to see what is going on! We did not make it public and we don't want it to be shared with everyone (Facebook style), so just let us know if someone wants to follow it and we can send them the link!

We love you all! Talk to you soon!

B&J

Our First Days...

Here is our new place! You can't quite see it but it is about 4 miles to the east of here. 

On our way to DC! This was completely safe... by West Virginia law.