*Can we all give a round of applause to my Papa, who subscribed to my blog via email and was able to send me all of the originals of the “lost blog posts”?*

Monday evening, I went to jujitsu class. The crew at EvolveAll are so much fun! I met a fellow Ohioan, which was lovely. It’s a running joke that Ohioans will meet each other anywhere and everywhere because they don’t want to be in Ohio. (It has just occurred to me that I identified myself as an Ohioan, which is interesting. I suppose, since it is my mailing address and I will be returning to it as my garaging address in TWO weeks, that only makes sense to identify as such).

Tuesday evening, Carly and I had a part two dinner with Dan and Elad, friends of Carly’s who have now become friends of my own as well. We scheduled a follow-up dinner after 1.) enjoying each other’s company so much and 2.) not accomplishing the original goal, which was to revisit my and Carly’s Israel trip and discuss it with them, since they were born and mostly raised in Haifa.

We were able to stick to our goal moreso than last, but still found ourselves in that pleasant meandering that occurs when a group has so much in common to explore and so many differences to learn from.

Wednesday evening, I spent a really wonderful evening with the Bean’s. I really enjoy spending time with the whole family and being immersed into their life, but my conversations with El were particularly sweet.

Thursday evening, the plan was to meet Kathryn at the Library of Congress, where they were showing The Sound of Music. Unfortunately, we got rained out, so instead we hung out and played games at the apartment with Carly and a visiting friend of hers. Not too shabby of a substitute!

Friday evening, Kristen and I had dinner at Ted’s Bulletin (I know, I know. BUT IT’S JUST SO GOOD!) and savored some edifying conversation over some delicious food. I treasure friendships like hers, in which one can’t help but walk away feeling better for it. After eating, we watched another movie on our list (another one of my recommendations): The Peanut Butter Falcon. Kristen said later that it was probably one of her favorite movies she’s ever seen!

I was pitifully poor at taking pictures for a majority of the week, but I feel I made up for it somewhat on Saturday.

The Bean boys and the Hudalla family were attending a Lego convention in Virginia, on which me and a few other gals tagged along.

I told Rusty that the world of Legos was a realm of nerdom that was unexplored territory for me. While I certainly didn’t dislike the event, any pleasure I had paled in comparison with theirs.

One build I could appreciate was a scale model of the Saturn V rocket!

Here are the deets!

There was also a recreation of Endor from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, with running water, an electric train, and background music to boot!

Some Star Wars helmet builds were there. I should have asked if the Clone/Storm Trooper helmets were wearable!

It’s a’me! Mario!

This shield had straps on the back, which the booth owner displayed for those of us admiring his work. It WAS wearable!

There were a couple of tables dedicated to military aircraft.

And they just continue getting more and more impressive as one explored.

Like this guy! Builds on top of a build!

I wish I had taken a snap of the different stats on builds such as these. My military knowledge has improved, but is still comparably lacking.

The neatest part, in my opinion, was a collaborative mosaic!

The way it worked is that they had a stack of prints of block patterns. You grabbed a black 2×2, referred to a color key, then went to work!

Kate, Darby, and I all contributed!

Over time, it became more and more clear what the final picture would be! It was so neat!

Saturday evening, Carly, Kristen, Kathryn, and I all went to a Washington Nationals game!

The weather was beautiful and the seats weren’t too shabby, if I do say so myself.

What was hilarious was that our seating was very much arranged. Kristen and I wanted to follow what was going on in the game moreso than Carly and Kathryn, which we thankfully knew beforehand.

We sat accordingly and had such a great time!

We ate good food (crab dip nachos! I mean C’MON!) and though the Nats didn’t win, it was still a fun game to watch. I’m really grateful that I had friends that were willing to indulge me in this “DC To Do”, even if it wasn’t something they were really into. I had an awesome time and the good company was a huge part of that!

Sunday was chapel on base and hanging with the Bean’s afterwards. Then, I attended evening service at CHBC and immediately after, went to a movie night/birthday celebration for Destry.

Our watch that night was Get Out. While I hadn’t seen the movie before, it’d been out long enough that I had enough exposure to not be COMPLETELY scared out of my mind. The jump scares got me several times though.

I’ve learned that the real treat is not the movie itself, but the discussion afterwards. There was so much laughter and nerdiness that I don’t think anyone really wanted the night to end. We ended up departing at around 11:30 and, I imagine, all went to bed with smiles on our faces.

What a blessed life I live! Glory be to God!