Dawg with a Blawg

Oh man. This blog is such a middle child right now. This blog is like, "Hello is anybody out there Rick? Rick, Rick, Rick!" (Kaitlyn at the Mall moment). Basically, it's been a month without posting. Every week come Sunday I feel this little itch right in the center of my back, the part you just can't reach no matter the arm contortions. The itch whispers that it's time. And i'll look at Dalton and say, "it's time for dawg with a blawg"…. and then we'll watch some TV or play Monopoly Deal. 

I'm kind of having a struggle with this blog as of late. It's like, i'm so grateful to have a way to record our experiences here on the East Coast with words and pictures and videos, but at the same time it kind of sucks. I'll be in the middle of having a wonderful time with friends or my husband, when a sneaking thought will whisper, "you better take a picture of this for the blog".  It's a funny balance between living your life in the moment, and recording the moment so you can remember living your life in that moment. I'm still trying to figure it out, but I can't record (or even remember) every thing that we do, or places we see. So, we'll just make do with what we've got. 

AROUND HERE LATELY:

We celebrated our first anniversary on August 15th. What an eventful, exciting, scary, amazing, happy happy happy year. 

I woke up to Dalton saying, "I'm embarrassed about something…", but he wouldn't tell me what. When I finally got out of bed this was waiting on our table:

"I couldn't find a vase…"-Husband

We wanted to spend our anniversary in the city. We found a snazzy restaurant in the District and had a delicious meal. 

 

We both felt so giddy and totally out of our element. I mean, who knew the top ramen eating undergrads could behave in a fancy restaurant?!

Seeing the memorials at night is like a-whole-nother world.

Honest Abe wishing us a Happy Anniversary

It was a great day! 

Other things we've done in the last month:

(Aside from our big trip to NC, that deserves its own post)

Food Truck Taste Off Competition: 

Venezualan corn-pancake-thing 

Dalton channeled his inner Patti/Lexxy Nackos and helped me dye my hair:

Indie Film Pop-Up Theatre in the District: 

Mount Vernon:

I know my hair looks bad ok?

Comical Cooking Attempts:

simultaneously burnt and undercooked a homemade pizza

homemade corn dogs…there's just no words for this one

We love and miss you, family and friends! 

where the ponies run wild

WARNING: My head is filled with desires to thoughtlessly online shop and eat the cronut that is waiting for me in my kitchen, not fancy words. So todays post is going to be just a whole lotta pictures. (Sometimes it makes me sad to think of how disappointed Mrs. Clark, my high school AP Literature teacher, would be if she knew I used words like "lotta" and "gonna" …oh well, my cronut will cheer me right up;) 

Last Saturday, a group of friends from our ward headed to Assateague Island for a beach day. The island is a strip of land accessible through Maryland, but crosses over the Virginia state line as well. It is a National Park dedicated to preserving the wildlife of the island, hence the wild ponies. We started the day at 6:00 am…woof… but it was totally worth. 

Do you ever wake up and think, "You know, I just know today's going to be a good day"? I get those feelings when I have a fresh baked donut waiting for me. (Seriously, how much am I going to talk about donuts in this post?)

ginorm.

Do you want to know something funny? As we arrived to the island and were in line to get our parking pass, I looked to my right and there was a pony. Just hanging in the parking lot, looking at cars and stuff. 

this is as close as I got to the ponies. the strategically placed posters of "don't get too close to the ponies or they will bite you and you will die" (i may have added that last part, don't remember..) along with pictures of bloody pony bites on innocent civilians, was enough for me to keep my distance. 

dalton made a friend. 

he's just cute, you know?

We spent the day relaxing, playing in the water, playing a little bocce-ball (and no dad, those family nights playing in the back yard did not pay off, I'm bad), and making new friends. 

One friend in particular had jimmy-rigged this contraption on the shore with a few stakes, a wake boarding rope and a wake skate. I don't quite know how to explain what it was or how he did it.. 

But, here it is in action: 

Mom, I am totally your daughter. "Danger! That's dangerous!"   Oh dear..

At first, I sat with the other girls in our group who were saying they were definitely not going to participate. I didn't even bother voicing my nervousness. If Dalton Nackos is your husband, you are most definitely participating in anything that you would be inclined to squirm away from. He keeps me young. 

I'm convinced there's no better way to end your day than with homemade ice-cream on a quaint, East Coast farm. 

i saw that sign and just knew. 

oh, you know i'll support my local cows.

Another great weekend! 

Dilly-Dallying in the District

Last week, Dalton was working down in Virginia Beach and I was a lone little lady, hanging out with the Real Housewives of New York and dried pineapple. He was gone three days, and oh how I hated those days! I missed my best friend so much. So when he got home (new car in tow…Bye Carmen!) every second was spent together. We slept in until an embarrassing hour on Friday, saw Wish I Was Here-LOVED, played Banangrams and ate chocolate ice-cream in bed. That's my kind of night. 

We woke up early on Saturday to meet some friends (I know, I know, Friends! It's still a budding relationship, but holy cow i'm so excited to have friends in this place) at this wonderful thing called Eastern Market. It's like your typical Farmer's Market times three. After the renowned Blueberry Buckwheat Pancakes and the best Eggs Benedict Dalt has ever had, it was time to explore. I was leaving no booth unturned. 

A plethora of fresh fruit

Is there anything better than mini doughnuts? I praise those machines.

After a nap…it was an early morning ok?…we hopped in the new car, name to be determined, and crossed the yellow bricked bridge to The District. 

Still dreaming about that queso. We decided when we have family/friend visitors this is where we're taking them. So, I don't know, like, COME!  

my cute date

Ended the night promenading Georgetown. It's like a mini SoHo! Yeah, I like that place. 

Our church isn't until 3:00 on Sundays, I know…I knoooow. So instead of watching Netflix until 2:30, we headed to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History for an intensely educational morning ;) But not without brunch! 

This is how the French do hot chocolate, apparently.

THE MUSEUM 

Trying. That's the caption of this photo. We try. 

The Nackos' had a fun weekend familiarizing ourselves with our city. I think we could live here forever and still not experience all this city has to offer. We are lucky. 

Concrete Jungle

And on our second weekend in Virginia… We went to NEW YORK! 

Once Dalton and I decided we were "doin this Virginia thing", our seemingly everlasting relationship with Google Maps was birthed. We would jump on Google Maps every day to research new places we could travel to back east, and seeing how far we were from New York was the first thing we looked up. Four hours. It was so easy! So attainable! 

Let it not go unmentioned how incredible Dalton's parents are. They had a tripped planned to New York, and invited us to crash on their hotel room floor! The heavens were aligning. Bus tickets were purchased, bags were packed and off we were! (Not without barely catching the bus by our chinny-chin-chins..Never underestimate the displeasure of DC traffic. Picture me standing outside a bus full of impatient people telling the driver, "he'll be here any second, I promise" as Dalton sprints across traffic with our bags in tow, sweating profusely, cars honking, our car abandoned in a sketchy parking lot…but that's just a side story and I should move on with this post already!) 

The second we got to New York I was instantly overwhelmed with the unrestricted life of the city. The lights! The people! The noises! The smell… Not my favorite part. 

We got there late and expected dinner at McDonalds would be our only option, but the city was still pulsing and we got to explore Times Square and eat at Juniors, which was fun. 

SATURDAY//

We got up early in anticipation for an eventful day. We walked to Central Park with Patti and Kelly after breakfast. 

I was so intrigued with the way the city just stops at the edges of the park. You're allowed a bit of peaceful quiet in the hectic city.

We walked through the park to get to the Met. It's hard to explain the excitement I was feeling. 

Claude Monet

I felt so torn between my desire to go through every room of the museum and to see the rest of the city. I saw a few amazing pieces by Monet, van Gogh, Degas, Seurat, and a few of the more famous artists. 

And of course, Picasso. Sigh. I'll leave it at that to prevent this post from becoming a small novel on my devotion to Pablo. 

I, of course, drug Dalton to the forsaken Modern Art gallery in the farthest corner in the basement, because that stuff is my jam-and mine only apparently. 

Georges Braque

Dan Graham created the most beautiful rooftop gardens on the roof of the Met with the best view of the city.

After our adventures at the Met and the Upper East Side, we ventured to SoHo to grab some gelato, shop and explore the city. I really liked SoHo. I loved the contrast of old brick buildings with modern store signs and crisp interiors. 

We devoured carbs of all genres in Little Italy for dinner, stopped in Greenwich to see what it was all about, grabbed a treat from Magnolia Bakery and headed back to the hotel with full stomachs, blistered feet, and happy hearts. 

SUNDAY//

No sleep till Brooklyn! We loaded our MetroCards and ventured across the East River to see Dalton's side of NY. The subway ride was a compilation of Dalton pointing out everything of importance in his Brooklyn world. He was a bundle of excitement. 

We got off the Subway and Dalton was back. 

Dalton took us to one of his favorite branches in Brooklyn. The church was merely one floor in a Hasidic Jewish building. The back of the building was covered in graffiti, and the only signifier was a small plaque next to the door that said Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was such a special experience for me to see Dalton interacting with his old mission friends. They all embraced him with huge hugs and the ladies exclaimed, "My Son! My son is back!", they were so surprised and ecstatic to see him. 

It's a beautiful thing to take a few steps inside the foreign world that is your husbands mission. It's like, you've listened to all the things he has to say about it, but you don't really know it, not really. It was an experience I will not soon forget. 

After church we headed to the Brooklyn Bridge. Dodging angry cyclists and bad picture after bad picture. That was our experience at the Brooklyn Bridge. 

I love that American flag waving at the peak of the bridge. 

We tried to get fancy and grab some Arvo shots..Once again, not photographers.

Is any trip to the Brooklyn Bridge complete without a trip to Grimaldi's? They tell me it is not. The pizza did not disappoint! 

If you wish to be considered a New Yorker, there is a specific approach to eating your thin crust pie. A precise maneuver of folding the piece in half and going at it like a taco. Here is my attempt at that.

Our time in Brooklyn was limited and we left with promises to come back. My last request was a black and white cookie from William Greenberg in the East Side. YUM! 

We left NY the same way we left DC, sprinting to catch our bus. This time rain was involved. 

It was a wonderful weekend. I heart NY.