Virginia is for Lovers

My cousin and I bought our tickets for Virginia back in June or July. We picked the dates of travel to fit in with my cousin's schedule, after she finished her classes and took the GRE, and then back in time for her faculty meetings. I went along with whatever she needed, it much more fun to travel with someone else. We took the red eye out to VA so we could get there Tuesday morning. If I could have gone back and changed our dates of travel I couldn't have picked better (unless we could have extended our trip).

This has been quite the summer, even thinking back on it still feels a little surreal. Before I get into the details of my Virginia trip, here's a recap of my summer -
Finals week at USU, then the next Monday I started my Internship at Rice&Strand Interiors in North Salt Lake, the details and my thoughts can be found on my design blog: http://anchaleedesign.blogspot.com/. The First day post is here, one of the highlights was helping with the NW Parade of Homes, the post about that is here. Then I decided that I needed to get out of my Mom's house so I went to stay with my cousin for a bit. In the mean time I also decided to start my own business - so Tari Anchalee Design was born. Everything is all set up now, just waiting on some registrations so I can work with the Design Department at the Veteran's Hospital. I am excited to take on some projects there. In the midst of sorting out the details of my business, going to weddings, volunteering at the MTC, and helping my cousin get ready for teaching a new grade level, and changing classrooms, my StepBrother Raphael was killed in Action while serving with the US Army over in Afghanistan. I have 3 posts dedicated to him. 1 2 3 There's lots of links to news stories, pictures and my thoughts. The viewing was Friday, then the Funeral and Interment on Saturday, then Monday night I went to the airport. I am so glad that it all worked out so I could be there for my family to help behind the scenes and then make it back to Payson to ride up to the airport with my cousin.

We went to the airport Monday night and then our plane took off earlyTuesday morning - we had a layover in Atlanta and then flew in to Patrick Henry. My Aunt and cousin were there to pick us up. We took it easy the first day, we were super tired. I ended up getting a bad head ache that evening so I took a couple hour nap and felt much better. I woke up to their dog pawing at my door - she had decided that I slept long enough. Logan is such a funny dog

She is a gorgeous Siberian Husky (1/4 wolf)

The next morning we woke up early and went up to Williamsburg for Water Country. That is such a fun water park! We ended going four times while we were there. We would go up and spend most of the day. One time we stayed there until 7:30pm. It was fantastic! We took a day and went to the beach. Let me just say how much I love the water. I love the smell of sea air, the sound of the waves crashing on the sand, the feeling of sand between my toes, the sea gulls, and of course the sun. Mm I am so glad that we went to the beach! Once my younger cousin started Band Camp, my Aunt, cousin and I took a day for a girls shopping trip. I got some darling shirts from Macy's, and found a new favorite store: Charming Charlie's I got some awesome jewelry and hat. I know shocking, I am not usually a hat person but I am excited to wear it around campus. Speaking of campuses, we went up to Colonial Williamsburg, which is right next to the William and Mary Campus. It was great to walk around there and just soak it in. We had the best fish and chips ever in one of the restaurants up there.

We spent some time around the house, watching episodes from Season 4 of Doctor Who, playing Mario Party, and Apples to Apples... and Apples to Apples Disney Edition! The Disney Apples to Apples was my favorite - it has pictures on the cards, they are soo funny! While we were there, we went to go see Captain America, and Zookeeper, out of the two I would have to say that Captain America was awesome, and Zookeeper was funny, but not great.

We had cook outs and made tons of treats - even home made peach ice cream - YUM! I'm glad I have a couple of weeks until school starts to get back into shape... otherwise kick boxing is going to kick my butt!

So in a nutshell, my trip to Virginia was fantastic! It was nice to relax after all the stress of the weeks before that. Now I get to prepare to go back to school! My LAST semester as an undergrad. I am so excited!!