Sometimes you just need a laugh.

So there are some people at my work that used to drive me crazy. Not them as a person, I love my coworkers, but particularly their laughs. They are not the most common laughs, in fact, they are so unique that sometimes they give me a headache.

One day when I could hear it over and over and over...and being a little on edge trying to focus on my work when I realized I was totally being a SCROOGE!!! They laugh every single day and even though I do, too, I changed my attitude and decided I wanted to find something to laugh at just as much as they were.

Today, has been a little hard so I looked up some past email forwards that I had kept and definitely found some laughs. So I'm sharing...happy smiling everyone :)

 

Trip of a Lifetime: Day 4-8

For the next four days we stayed in the little town of Cooperstown, New York.
For those of you who are baseball fans, this rings a bell.
Cooperstown is the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame!

The whole point of this trip was because my little bro is in a tournament here with his baseball team. I absolutely loved having the down time and just hanging out with the families of our team, they were so much fun and I met a lot of new people! Utah Aces rock.

There was like 10 of us that rented out a house near the park. It was up on a hill like all by itself, so so green there! It was a cute, little red house. It's definitely the way to go if you ever get to go there. The best thing was probably going out onto the deck at night and seeing all the fireflies! The coolest thing, I wish I could catch some and bring them home.

I made this picture extra large so you can see that yellow light right in the middle of the picture...firefly.

This is the view from the porch of the house we were staying at. Sooo green.

Opening ceremonies of the tournament.

We sat for 4 hours waiting for the rain to stop before they ended up rescheduling for the next morning. I love rain though! It rained a couple days there.

 At the baseball Hall of Fame, my mom has most of the pictures so I'll have to do a post with pictures that I missed. Braves girl.

These are seats from the original Red Sox stadium and the "9" which stands for one of the greatest players of all time...Ted Williams...used to hang when they retired his jersey.

The Hall of Fame was FILLED with the coolest memorablia, everything and anything you could ever think of. From Babe Ruth's bat to Cy Young's shoes to Buster Posey's catchers helmet. Everything just had you in awe, very very cool part of the trip!! I'll definitely post the pictures from it when I get a hold of my mom's camera.

My brother's team ended up doing really well. They made it to the 3rd round of the tournament placing around 20-30 out of 100 teams across the country...BOOM! My bro even hit a home run in one of the games, we were beyond excited for him after he hit the top of the fence a couple days before.

Anyway, that was the bulk of the trip, story of being a Hardman=baseball games. But I wouldn't have it any other way, I love it. We went shopping quite a bit and just hung out and had a blast with the other families. Soo much fun and the best part was it was relaxing, no planning needed. Just chill and baseball, what more could you ask for.

Next Part of the trip was my favorite part, I'll try to post that asap :)

Trip of a Lifetime: Day Three

Day Three: Pennsylvania.

We took off from a town called Fredrick, Maryland. Coincidentally where Francis Scott Key is buried. We saw it off the side of the road and decided to take a detour to drive around inside the cemetery/memorial. There was so many graves and so close together, it was definitely different. 

We then took off until we got to the town of Gettysburg. Pennsylvania is probably the most beautiful state to drive through, no joke. When they say "rolling hills" in songs about America they are definitely talking about Pennsylvania. The road twist and climb and fall but not in a way that makes you car sick, it's just a gorgeous ride. 

We stopped at a gift shop in downtown Gettysburg and found costumes...

...Mom said no. 

But we did make a great purchase. We bought the Auto Tour CD. I recommend this to anyone who doesn't want to pay for the tour bus. You just stick the cd in your car and it just guides you all around Gettysburg with facts, telling you about the things you are seeing, and even tells you where to go. Even if you don't understand where to go from the lady on the cd, there are signs about where to turn all over the city. Brilliant!

You get out there and it feels as if the area hasn't been touched since the historic event. The fences are the same and there are stones piled up as if it is a wall to hide behind. Really neat place to visit.

Something I learned fast about Gettysburg....its a statue town. There is statues EVERYWHERE. 

At first you just start snapping and then you realize most of them are of people that you've never heard about. For example, the picture below you can see 4 statues...that's just one part of ONE road.

But I'm not complaining. It's cool to see how sacred the people keep this place. There are even canon's on the side of the road everywhere...some are even still able to work.

No, I didn't try.

Because I have just a ton of pictures of statues I decided to just cut this one short and show what it's like. But probably my favorite part of the whole tour was getting to stand on the top of Little Top. 

For all you history buffs, you know this is one of the hills that was crucial but absolutely bloody part of this battle. Again, it seems as if the battle happened yesterday because the area is kept up so well..besides the cars and people with cameras everywhere. Just imagine they are soldiers in the next picture.

Each state made a statue in honor of soldiers that fought in the battle of Gettysburg from their state. New York, North Carolina, Virginia, Mississippi, etc. Every single one of them made a memorial in honor of the men from their state. 

Below is the largest, obviously from Pennsylvania. It contains the names of all who were lost in the battle along bronze plaques all along the bottom so you can search for your ancestors. 

And then this was one of my favorite statues, General Meade.

It doesn't look big in this picture but when standing next to it I was only up to the middle of the plaque on the side. It was so grand and awesome. 

I think the best part of this day was just feeling the hushness about people, knowing that the ground they are walking on is sacred. It's where the river turned red from so many casualties, it is probably one of the most crucial battles of the war for the North, and it feels as if it hasn't been touched. It kind of gives you chills thinking about what happened there and knowing where you are. 

Anyways.

If you get the chance to go there I would suggest grabbing some food at Pike's. I just chose something off the menu super quick because we had to get going and it was the best thing I had eaten. I got a lemon pepper chicken sandwich. So rich and soooo big. I love the dining out here because it's big portions and you can really find some good home cooking. Where as in Utah everything is cheap because of the consumer type and therefore the outcome is cheap food. 

I will definitely miss the food out here but not the prices of grocery shopping.

One of the highlights of my trip was getting to drive through the all famous city...

Scranton, PA.

If you haven't seen Office, I'm sorry.

It was so cool!!! I wanted to roll down my window and ask someone where Dwight was but decided that they would probably pull a gun on me because they've heard that line so much.

Leaving Gettysburg, we are on our way to Cooperstown, New York. Home of the baseball Hall of Fame. It was our destination of the trip because of my brothers baseball tournament up here.

Again, Pennsylvania was such a gorgeous drive! Until you hit the New York border and then suddenly it is straight out of a horror movie. You know the ones where teenage girls are practicing witchcraft in the woods and then they are randomly standing in the middle of the road when you turn a corner....I was really scared. For absolute reals.

But it's all good now, I'll tell you more about the place we are staying and the tournament when I finally get caught up (today is really day 5 in real time) on posts.

Goodnight from Cooperstown, NY!!

D

Trip of a Lifetime: Day Two

Ok so Day #2. We stayed in Baltimore the first night then woke up early to drive to Arlington, Virgina.

Arlington is literally right across the Potomac River from D.C. 

Totally saw the National's ballpark. The day before we saw Orioles and Ravens, too.

Ok so this is when you are heading into the Arlington Cemetary, I'm sure many of you history buffs recognize this view. The house you see up there on top of the hill is the Arlington Mansion which I'll get to in a minute.

This place is so sacred and peaceful. People are respectful and quiet which is such a cool thing to be around especially when you just came from D.C. where everyone is loud and pushy. Everywhere you go there isn't an end to tombstones it seems, its definitely breathtaking to see.

These are the Kennedy graves. On the far left is their infant son who only lived two days, then President John F. Kennedy, Jaqueline Kennedy, then on the right is their stillborn daughter. You can see inside the circle above their graves is a small fire burning, it constantly burns in honor of him.

We then went up the Great Wall of China {or so it felt} and finally got to the top of the hill where the Arlington Mansion is. (Remember from the picture at the beginning) This piece of land was originally owned by George Washington Custis, who is the step-grandson of President George Washington.

He inherited Arlington and built the Arlington mansion in honor of the President. Only one of George Washington Custis' children lived, a daughter, who coincidently married the famous General, Robert E. Lee. Even though it is called the Arlington Mansion, this is technically the Lee home where they raised 6 kids. They have a room with his uniforms in it which is cool.

This is the front room. Unfortunately they just happened to be restoring a lot of the furniture so when you walked into rooms you just had to look at the pictures to see what the room looked like normally. But it seriously is a gorgeous house!! Also, because of the earthquake they had last summer they wouldn't let us into the upstairs...big bummer.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We timed it right so that we also got to watch the changing of the guard which was way neat. I can't even imagine having to pace for hours in that uniform in the hot summer sun. But it is such a neat place and you can tell they take it seriously and consider it an honor.

Something I never knew, they have schools come on fieldtrips and they have four students walk out with the Captain and place a new wreath on the grave. Below is the picture of one of the soldiers bringing down a new wreath.

The Tomb of the Unknown soldier is located right by the new Ampitheater that makes you feel like you are in Rome or something. It is like pure white stone and absolutely huge. The architecture is gorgeous, it really does make you feel Greek or from Rome or something, very cool.

These are the steps you stand on when watching the changing of the guard. You can see the soldier pacing on the black carpet.

After Arlington we went and got lunch in the beautiful city of Arlington and did a first for me....

..we ate at Cheesecake Factory!!!! Oh my goodness, it was heaven. Kind of funny I had to go all the way across the country to finally try it.

Then we went and finished visiting a couple of things in DC. After walking more than 20 blocks (these blocks are bigger than you think) we came across this....

EINSTEIN!!!

Archives of the United States which is the house of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Unfortunately you cannot take any pictures inside so this is me outside the building.

And finally we finished the day by visiting the Washington D.C. temple. It is so gorgeous, kinda reminds me of Provo mixed with Logan or something. It is set in the middle of thick trees so you literally just feel alone and clean from the outside suburbs of D.C.

This was an exhausting day. But it was absolute heaven to walk among  the places that our founding fathers once were. Memorials, museums, buildings that you learn about in textbooks and movies are sitting right in front of your face. It's insane, I am absolutely loving life right now. 

Tomorrow: Gettysburg.

Trip of a lifetime: Day One

This trip of a lifetime has officially started (actually I'm on day 3 but I just got wifi)

Fair warning: I am a complete history nerd so obviously this trip is like heaven every day. I'm sorry if some of these get lengthy, I could talk about this trip for hours and as long as some of these might get, there is still a lot that I'm leaving out...your welcome, enjoy!

Ok so Day 1 Adventures.

We had a straight shot red-eye flight to JFK airport {NEW YORK CITY}

and arrived there at 5:30 am.

It was gorgeous!! Such a pretty view to watch the sun rise on the ocean and New York City.

After walking around with the word "LOST" on our forehead we finally found our way to the car rentals who conveniently rented us a Dodge Avenger. Not too shabby.

The second we left the airport we made the first wrong turn of millions of wrong turns that have shown us a great side of this country.
We borrow a gps system from our cousins and the most popular word she says so far is "Recalculating"
aka....we made a wrong turn.
The picture above is of the houses of New York, it is exactly like the movies. They are small, tall houses that have zero space between them and their neighbors. Which is fine because just like the movies, they sit on each others porches and probably converse about the silly white people in the car with the gps stuck to their face.

We even saw a real Orthodox Jew. {no offense intended}

Because we arrived so early in the morning and because we were in the slums of new york, we got to drive around everyone going to work, kids going to school, lots of trucks making deliveries, and shops opening for the day. VERY COOL!! It was crazy to watch little kids who weren't older than 7 or 8 walking to school by themselves across very busy streets...that would never happen in Utah.

Also, we didn't see a white person until we got to D.C.

At first, you are so excited because you get to cross famous bridges and its a gorgeous view....and then you get to the other side and see these...

They are a freakin gift-shop-fund-drainer. SOOO annoying. The first one coming out of New York going into New Jersey is the worst at $14. Crazy people.

After finally finding our way out of New York we made a journey across 4 states.

Back east, you can make cross-state trips in a matter of hours in not sooner. It's crazy how close they all are. No wonder people live in New Jersey and work in New York...there is a HUGE difference.

This is Baltimore. Very beautiful city! 

Funny side note: if you didn't already notice, when I looked at this picture on my computer I noticed the street sign...."Gay St.".....awesome.

After finding our hotel in Baltimore, we headed to Washington DC!!! Literally 30 minutes from our hotel.

Capitol Building.

White House!!! I about passed out thinking I was really in front of the White House!

The Jefferson Memorial.

Tips if you go to Washington D.C.:

1) If you drive in find the nearest 'public parking' sign and go in. You will end up somewhere you don't want to be if you go around trying to find something cheaper. We went to the ones on 6th and 10th (10th=right by Ford's Theater)

2) You DO want to walk everywhere because every other form of transportation is just ridiculously high priced. So make sure you find the nearest Smithsonian, museum, etc. that has a map. You will be incredibly lost without it.

3) You have to do the "Big Bus Tours" especially, if you can, the night tour. It is a red double-decker that starts when the sun is setting making for beautiful kodak moments as well as the grand finale of the Lincoln Memorial all lit up at night (pictures of that is on my mom's camera) Also, tell Miss Michele hi from the Georgians.

4) You cannot possibly have time enough to see everything unless you spend at least 3-4 days there. For short trips, do the bus tour!

5) I would suggest going with a grown male. Especially when it starts getting dark, it starts getting sketchy.

I know your all wondering about the story of how I ended up being known as the girl from Georgia by Miss Michele. So here it is: Miss Michele is the bus driver for the tour and has that heavy black-easterner accent. My mom was wearing a shirt with my brothers baseball team's logo on it which just happens to look a lot like the Braves logo.

One thing after another and I realize that she is telling her partner "hey these are my georgians" and naturally I feel pretty cool so I just roll with it haha. She is very cool and for the three hour tour where she thought I was from Georgia...I was too.

Well that was just Day 1.

I'll post day 2 and 3 tomorrow...Goooooooood night!