Washington DC

WARNING! THERE ARE A LOT-and I mean A LOT of pictures in this post. Feel free to skim. If you can believe it, I actually tried to limit the pictures considerably.

On August 1st, we went to Washington DC with some of Josh's family. We have wanted to go to DC since we've been married (Josh has already been, but I hadn't.) Josh's sister has a house just outside the city, and her renters just moved out, so we figured this was the perfect opportunity. I have to tell you, that I LOVE cities and again, I was not super happy about coming home. I'm still working on convincing Josh to find a job back east. 

We flew in late on the 1st, and started our vacation on Thursday morning with a tour of the Capitol. I promised myself that I would remember all the interesting facts that the tour guide told, but even a week later, they're already gone. So we'll just mostly skim through pictures instead.

 The people at the time really wanted George Washington to be buried in the Capitol, but he said that he wanted it to be "the people's capitol," and even wrote in his Will exactly where he wanted to be buried. This spot is supposed to bring you good luck if you step on it. (Although our tour guide said he broke his leg, the day he did.) So far, Meili's limbs are all still in tact!

 There are statues throughout the Capitol-2 from each state. So here is Brigham Young.

This is our whole group. Josh's sister Liz, Kami (Josh's brother Jake's fiancee), Jake, Amy (sister-in-law), Jared, Me, Josh, and Meili.

 We took a quick stop at the Library of Congress. It was not even like National Treasure. They did not show us the President's book of Secrets!

Everyone else went in the Supreme Court while I waited outside with Meili so she could have a quick nap in her stroller. 

 The Holocaust Museum was amazing, but we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside. So this was the best I got. We spent a few hours inside, and it was so well done.

 We went to the Washington monument to let traffic subside a little, and to get a little snack for all of us.

 Then we raced off to the Arlington cemetery to see the last changing on the guard of the night.

That was an experience. We got to the gate at 6:45 and asked someone where the changing of the guard was. He told us the last one would be at 7:00, so we ran (with Meili's stroller, and a 23 week pregnant Amy) uphill, in the humidity, after walking all day to make sure we made it...

 ...which we did, with minutes to spare!

 This is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier where they honor all those who have died in war but their remains are unidentified. The tomb has been constantly guarded since 1937.

Our day still wasn't done, as we walked the streets outside DC trying to find a restaurant called The Shake Shack that Amy had heard about. I don't know if it was all the hype from walking all around the city, but it definitely didn't live up to our expectations. 

And all that was just DAY 1! Can I say we spent the week exhausted?

 On Friday, we stopped by the Masonic temple which is near Liz's house. But they wanted us to pay for a tour, so we decided against it.

 Then we took a tour of Mount Vernon, where George Washington lived.

Even with all that Washington did, he considered himself a farmer first. And his residence showed it!

Check out the view!

This is where Washington was eventually buried. He was first buried in a much smaller site, as per his will. But I guess it wasn't fitting for such a great leader.

Then we stopped by the DC temple. Talk about a great location! It is like a beacon on the freeway.

The Iwo Jima monument

Jefferson memorial

On Saturday morning, we stopped by the Pentagon to see Josh's brother in-law's bench at the memorial.

I thought it was beautifully done.

Then we went to Ford's Theater to see where Lincoln was assassinated.

This is the house across the street where Lincoln actually passed away.

We took a tour of the White House. If I'm being frank, it's only about the third most disappointing landmark I've seen in my life, preceded only by Idaho Falls and Crazy Horse. 

It may sound bad, but let me tell you what I mean. First off, my birthday was listed wrong on the records so I spent most of the tour in a holding area outside with 20 others miserable vacationers, and one little girl who desperately needed to got to the bathroom, and wasn't afraid to tell everyone. Then, Josh and I sped through about 4 rooms in the White House, on a self-guided tour (which only means "Kaleena doesn't know what to look at or what questions to ask.") 

I wasn't expecting to see everything, and I had already been warned about the tour, but still. I thought at least we could walk around on the grounds a little bit. Don't get me wrong, I totally get why high security is necessary. I was just expecting a little more. 

Then we just had to find another food place that Jake had seen on the food network of something. We got lost walking around the streets of the city again, only to find this very po-dunk looking one-room, hole-in-the-wall. But it was voted "Best in DC." Jake wasn't lying.

But it was totally worth it, just to see how excited Jake was. Like a kid on Christmas.

And the pizza wasn't half bad! Look at the size of that slice!

Then we did the speed tour of the zoo, all for Meili's benefit.

And the reason for which this vacation was planned... Baseball games. First off, the Washington Nationals.

On Sunday, we hit as many Smithsonians as all of us could handle, starting off with the Air and Space Museum. 

This is Charles Lindbergh's "The Spirt of St. Louis."

Meili's highlights of the trip were...

-The plane ride to and from DC

-The Metro where she constantly said "choo choo"

-The planes at the Museum where she constantly shouted, "plane! plane!" 

-And, last but not least, the new toys I got her to keep her occupied in the plane and car

Since she loved the planes so much, we got her her very own plane.

Then, we went to the Natural History Museum.

I thought Meili would really like the animals, but she of course fell asleep the second we walked in the door, and woke up the second we left. Oh well! A nap's a nap!

At the American History Museum, we saw the Sunstone from the Nauvoo Temple.

But Meili's favorite part was drawing on the wall!

Then we toured a few more monuments in the rain...

...Starting off with the World War II memorial.

Then the Lincoln monument. We were sure the rain would just blow over...which it did...right after it soaked all of us.

They were doing work on the reflection pool, so there was no water it in, which was disappointing.

 The Memorial for the Korean War

 Martin Luther King Jr. I took a picture of the quote so I could remember why the monument was created the way it was.

 Vietnam War Memorial

On Monday, we drove up to Philadelphia for the day. Funny story... 

Josh and I had our Garmin set to guide us to Philly using the shortest distance, rather than the least amount of time. So we took the LONG way to Philadelphia and had the pleasure of driving right through the ghetto. But it was a straight shot to steps in the movie Rocky.

Doesn't this look just like Sly running up the steps?

Of course we had to eat a Philly Cheese Steak, and this place was highly recommended by Google. It was actually quite the phenomenon. Kind of like the soup nazi on Seinfeld, you have to order exactly right. There were even word for word instructions right next to the window, and at the bottom it said, "If you don't get it right the first time, don't panic. Just go to the back of the line and try again." I ordered my sandwich, paid nine dollars, and had a sandwich in my hands in five seconds flat. They were pumping people through the line like nothing I have ever seen. We guessed they made between $500 and $1,000 just in the 15 minutes we were there. But, now I can say, I've had a true Philly Cheese Steak.

 Then we took a tour of Independence Hall

A courtroom inside

The room where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were written and adopted. The chair in the back of the room, is the actual chair that George Washington sat in.

The Liberty Bell

That night we went to a Phillies game.

Thank goodness for the little parks at stadiums

Meili was so hungry, she ate all the food that we put in front of her. That has NEVER happened!

On Tuesday we drove through and saw some of the sites at Gettysburg.

 We hiked up Big Round Top, and there were little walls of rocks that they would hide behind all along the trail.

 This is looking across the water from Fort McHenry where the Star Spangled Banner was written.

 And the last game we went to was a Baltimore Orioles game on Tuesday night. The game actually went into 13 innings, and Josh and I ended up having to leave early so Meili could go to bed. At least the Orioles won in the end.

On Wednesday, we had a pretty relaxing day, since we were all so beat from our busy week. But we wanted to see what the monument was that we could see from the freeway. It ended up being an air force memorial.

And we went to Arlington cemetery one more time, since we had gone through so fast the first time.

 The eternal flame at JFK's gravesite

Robert E. Lee's house

I took so many pictures trying to capture Arlington cemetery, but there is nothing that can do it justice. The rows of head stones go on and on and on.

Sadly, this was the best picture I got on the flight. But I had to document one of Meili's favorite parts of the trip.

We had so much fun, and, as you can see, saw so many sites. Josh was ready to come home, even if I wasn't. And I just have to say that Meili was such a trooper. We drug her all around the city, and she went to bed later, and got up earlier than she ever does at home, but I think she enjoyed doing some new things and getting attention from lots of adults 24/7.

That's Not Sweat...It's Liquid Awesome!

I promise (hopefully) this will be my last running-related post for AWHILE. There is a possibility that I will randomly decide that I have had feelings in my toes for too long, and sign up for another race, but so far, this was as much as I planned to do. 

On the 24th, I ran the Deseret News Marathon. It's been 3 years since I've run a full marathon, and the longest total miles I was able to run in training was 16ish. With that being said, I feel like I did as well as I could have. Of course, I didn't quite reach my goal-because that's the way I roll, but I cut 17 minutes off my fastest marathon time so far. So there you have it!

I actually really enjoyed this race. For the most part, it was downhill (besides about a mile & a half around mile 7), it was really beautiful, and there was a big downhill in just the right place: we ran past Rice-Eccles Stadium-which is a pretty steep downhill between mile 21 and 22. Also, around mile 25, the race joined the Days of 47 Parade route for a couple blocks, and you can't walk when that many people are watching, so that helped the motivation a little.

Some of the downsides were...

     -The race started at 5:30 in the morning which meant, yes, I had to be on a bus between 3:15 and 3:45, which meant, yes, I woke up at 2:30 in the morning, which meant, yes, I got about 3 hours of sleep. For me, it worked out fine, but people who need sleep before a race, may not want to sign up for this one.

     -There was ONE, count it, ONE, honey bucket (pardon my frankness) at each aid station. Anyone who has run a race, will you tell, this is not acceptable. So yes, my time could have been cut significantly had I not had to stand in line at mile 9.

     -The shirt I got is a men's size small, which means it's too big for me. I just think that they should have had women's options...that's all I'm saying 

This is around mile 25 1/2. Yep, I'm sick of running.

 Luckily, Josh brought Meili because that's the only way he would have gotten a smile out of me at that point.

 I turned the corner, saw the finish line, and, yes, started crying (tears of joy....and a little bit of pain). But I held it in enough to finish!

Lovely Kaleena (sarcasm). Yes, I look like death, but I finished, and that's what matters. My time was 4:28:29 which meant I had about a 10:15 minute pace. 

It took a few days for me to be able to walk up and down the stairs without cringing, and I'm not sure if my toe nails will ever be the same. Boy, I love running!


(P.S. The title is from a poster that I saw. FAVORITE POSTER EVER!)

Pioneer Day Celebration

The weekend before Pioneer Day, Josh had to work, so Meili and I headed to my parents' house, so we could enjoy the Bountiful City parade without Josh telling me over and over how much better the Honeyville parade is because it's only 10 minutes :) I'm kidding, but not really-we all know that's what would have happened if he had come.

The parade really was fun and it seemed shorter to me than it has in past years. Plus, they assembled over 2,000 young men from the area so they could recreate Helaman's Stripling Warriors. That was pretty cool!

One of the local formal dress stores passed out small plastic "glass" slippers, which Meili, of course, tried to put on her foot.

Meili and "Poppa" waiting for the parade.

I thought this picture was cute of my sister Emily and her youngest, Ruby.

My sister's in-laws came with us.

And here's the rest of the party: My dad, Chloe, Meili, Gigi, and my mom.

The next morning, the city also had a little carnival. One of the few rides that I thought Meili stood a chance on was a little train.

 I should have known from her face that this was only foreshadowing what was to come. They didn't make it 20 feet before the train had to stop because she was crying. At least we got the picture eh?

 My mom thought his picture was cute because Meili and Ruby looked like they were trying to talk.

 I thought this one was funny because as soon as Meili tried to join Ruby in the stroller, Ruby grabbed her face. That'll teach her!

 Oh, if only my child took cute pictures like Gigi!

 Instead, I get this :) Actually the saddest part about this picture is that Meili has started doing this when I am singing in the car!

 Since I did a little face painting in my former life :) I had to add this picture of Chloe's awesome face paint!

All around, we had lots of fun!

Star Valley

(I haven't posted for a little bit, so I did four today. The ones below have pictures of Meili, and she's always more fun to look at than me running. So be sure to scroll down!)


My college roommate, Hope, recently moved with her family to Star Valley Wyoming. She had a baby a couple weeks ago, so I told her that I wanted to come visit her for a couple days. My plan was to go up and make meals for her, watch her kids so she could take naps, and of course, see her cute family. But instead this was our text conversation:


Me: Let me know when I can come up, maybe when [her husband] goes back to work so I can help you with the kids.
Hope: No, you should come run the half marathon and we can party!


I can't even tell you how characteristic that is of Hope. 


I ended up getting a free entry to run the half marathon, and Josh had already taken the time off to go to Scout camp which he ended up not having to go to. So we got there Thursday night and came home Saturday. Hope, of course, would not let me help out at all, and she is such a trooper! She had her baby two weeks ago, and has two other kids, and she was the perfect host. We had so much fun just visiting for a couple days! (And I, of course, didn't take pictures. Because that is so characteristic of me.)

The half went well. K, are you ready for this? The thing I have said before every race this year? 
I was feeling sick the week before and hadn't trained very well. But for this one, I can honestly say, that I feel like I did about as well as I could have. So far, the races I've run have been downhill,  but this one, besides the first couple miles was pretty flat, and even had a few hills. So, around mile 6 and 7, I walked a little, and was getting down on myself, but somehow, pulled it back together, and ran the rest. I felt like I finished pretty strong. 


The course was really beautiful, and I couldn't have asked for better weather!

 Since it was so flat, I already knew that my time wasn't going to be great, so I decided to have my little running buddy finish the last 20 yards with me. 

(Maybe my time wasn't so bad after all. 0 seconds flat!)

I finished in 2 hours and 55 seconds. Maybe if I hadn't had an extra 20 pounds with me, I could've been  under 2 hours, but I think it was totally worth it!

Thanks for the great weekend Hansen family! We miss you!

Random fun

I didn't do a post about Meili's new tricks in June, so this will be a combination of June and July. 

Her obsession with Pooh continues and it's gotten even cuter. And because she has Josh wrapped around her finger, he keeps adding to it. So she now has about 6 or 7 movies and 10 books. This is my favorite new conversation that we have daily...

Every day when she wants to watch Pooh she comes to me with big, bright eyes and says, "Pooh?" I try to limit how much TV she watches so I say, "No Pooh." But she's a determined little girl so she will say, "Roo?" Then I say, "No Roo." And then we proceed to go through all the characters.

Meili: Rabby? (Rabbit)

Me: No Rabbit

Meili: Pigdone? (Which somehow translates to Piglet.)

Me: No Piglet

Meili: Or? (Eeyore)

Me: No Eeyore

Meili: Ti (Tigger)

Me: No Tigger

Meili: Owl?

Me: No Owl

She's relentless! Today, she actually had the entire conversation with herself in the mirror. She said, "Pooh? No Pooh. Rabby? No Rabby..." 

 I got her this little Aggie chair this month and she loved it. She also loves her little Tiger baby-well babies in general.

 Isn't that the cutest picture? (Notice that she has her baby in the camera case.)

 On this day, I let her pick out her own shoes.

Which, of course, are boots that Josh got her that are two sizes too big. She's so much like her daddy it's scary!

I know I say it every month, but the older she gets the more fun she is. We finally converted her to a forward facing carseat, and I think she's loving being a part of things. She's starting to put multiple words together, and I love that now we can have conversations and she seems like my little buddy!

Independence Day

For people that know me well, it's not news that I have mixed feelings about certain things about Honeyville, and small towns in general. But I have to say, that over the last few years, I've really grown to love their Independence day celebration. In the morning, several members of the Anderson family run the Honeyville 5K, then they have a breakfast, a 10 minute parade (which Josh would tell you he absolutely loves. I think it could stand to be a few minutes longer), and then they have festivities for the children in the park. This year it was especially fun with Meili.

(But before we get to all that,) on the 3rd, we watched the fireworks at Romney stadium from a church close by with Josh's brother, Jake, and his fiancee, Kami.

 Someday, I'll learn how to use my camera better because it has a "firework" setting, and the fireworks were SO cool that night because the moon came up right behind the fireworks. It was beautiful, but this was the best I got.

 The fireworks, like everything else, were so fun with Meili, because with each one, she would say, "Wow!"

 These pictures are from the festivities on the 4th in Honeyville. Our whole family (Josh, myself, and Meili) ran the 5K. Josh decided that morning that he was going to run and he pushed Meili in the stroller, (on gravel, dirt and fields, mind you.) He hasn't run anything over a mile and a half in 3 years, and he ran the entire thing, pushing a stroller! I was so proud!!! I, with the help of Josh's nephew Jensen, and his niece, Chalisse, finished in 25 minutes 50 seconds. Of course, it was not as good as I was hoping to do (the story of my life), but for me, for the Honeyville 5k (which is a cross country course) it was great!

At the park, (the picture above,) they had a fishing pond. Meili wasn't too stoked about that.

 There were also several bouncy houses. Meili couldn't get enough.

 Which lead to a lot of this-everytime we took her out of one of the bouncy houses.

 Too bad little girls need food and naps, or she could have stayed there all day.

 She didn't even need the slide, she just wanted to bounce all day.

 There was also a fishing pond with live fish. Ever since Memorial Day, when we went fishing, Meili loves fish and has no fear. Every time she sees water, she points and says, "Peesh." The kids are supposed to just catch the live fish with their bare hands.

 Too bad Josh sent me in with Meili, because that meant there was no way we were getting one. She may have no fear, but I have enough for both of us. (And she's still a little slow.)

 But in the end, she was perfectly content just playing in the water.

Here's Meili after her very long exciting day. (This is Josh's favorite picture because you can see that she takes after him.)