A Weekend of Crime... and Punishment

Suspects: The Manns and the Kings
Date: Sept. 26, 2009
Scene of the Crime: The National Museum of Crime and Punishment, D.C.
Charged with: Shooting, reckless driving, and possibly eating in "NO FOOD OR DRINK" areas.



On Saturday we headed downtown with our longtime friends, the Kings, for free tickets on National Museum Day to the Crime and Punishment Museum. After waiting out a longer-than-anticipated line, we made our way through the museum, brushing up on our shooting and cop-car driving skills. We learned all about the infamous old gangstas and saw where America's Most Wanted is filmed (luckily we got out of there before they recognized Makenna). The shooting and driving simulators were completely awesome, but made me motion sick (leave it to the pregnant lady to want to vomit after shooting a man).

Afterward we headed up to Ben's Chili Bowl where we sat in the EXACT same spot as President Obama the day after his inauguration. It had a humongous picture of him with Mayor Adrian Fenty above our table. If you go there, everything was deliciously covered with their signature chili, but you HAVE to get The Works (an insanely big order of chili cheese fries) and a shake... TO DIE FOR.

Here's the evidence:

It's Time...

...to let you in on a little secret.


I wrangled and wrestled with this for awhile now.

Is this a secret you share on a blog?



I'll give you a few hints:

1. My secret is only about 3 inches big.

2. Makenna says the secret is "hiding."

3. My shoes still fit, but my cool summer shorts don't.

4. In March it won't be a secret anymore, but I didn't want to wait that long...




WE HAVE ANOTHER LITTLE MANN ON THE WAY!



(Our scanner recently died, otherwise I'd post a picture of the ultrasound. I felt a little funny about downloading someone else's ultrasound image and posting it on our blog. Call me old-fashioned.)

(I'm 13 weeks and I feel like I look about 26 weeks...hooray for gauchos)

Can You Say: "Best Weekend Ever?"

...or at least one of them.

I ADORE three-day weekends. This one was no exception. Here's why:

DAY 1: The Manns got up early so we could drive down to Charlottesville and go apple picking; same place as last year. Makenna was in heaven eating all the apples she could fit into her little hands. She was much more content sitting in the wagon, giving Drew and me moral support than actually picking them herself. We picked Gala and Golden Delicious apples, both superb. Afterward we could not resist heading to Michie Tavern to stuff ourselves silly with their delicious southern buffet of fried chicken, apple cider, buttermilk biscuits, pulled pork and potatoes. Making my mouth water this very second.

We raced home after our day of fun to arrive in time for kickoff of the BYU/Oklahoma game at the new Cowboys stadium. I knew our beloved Cougars would be blessed for their righteousness and pull out a miraculous win against the Sooners (14-13).

DAY 2: Attended church where in all three meetings (YW's included), the historic BYU game was referenced, some even bearing testimony of the truthfulness of the church b/c of it. Gotta love testimony meetings after the Cougs win.

DAY 3: Fun ward party/softball game. Then Drew and I "got our CAN on," preparing and canning 7 quarts of apple pie filling which turned out fabulously delicious. I added some dried cranberries to the jars to make them look pretty. What else do you do with 17 pounds of fresh apples?

We then took advantage of Chick-fil-A's one-day offer of free chicken sandwiches to anyone who would don their favorite sports team's apparel. Three free tasty chicken sandwiches to round out our wonderful weekend.