Well, it's been a busy few weeks, but we've finally arrived at our goal. We are completely moved, both of us, and are settling into life in Alexandria. As I said, it's been busy. Poor Chris has been living with his clothes, a few camp chairs, an air mattress, and a small tv. The Thursday before I started work, the movers came and loaded up. Mom and I drove part of the way that evening, then finished the trip Friday morning. We got the chance to run around a bit, so we went in to town to find the building entrance. It's harder than it sounds. After wandering a bit, we went back to Alexandria and explored. Then grabbed dinner at a cute little place on the water that most of you will be dragged to if you visit. Alexandria has a free trolley that runs up and down King Street, so it's easy to get around down there. After the movers unloaded on Saturday morning, we wore ourselves out unpacking and have the place pretty much settled in. 

I'll skip the play by play and get to the part about work. I love what I've been doing. It's been exciting to get to work on a lot of different things. The people I work with are exceptionally nice. There are a few other fellows nearby, so I can ask them questions about our program as needed. Even our building is interesting, with things to discover all the time. I'm that dork who enjoys my ride on the train. I've started knitting on the train, working on a sock so I don't have any complicated stitches to do and can still look out the window. I did some exploring before Chris got here, and the weather was pretty much perfect. See?

I also managed to visit the local farmer's market last weekend, and it was lovely and busy and it has a little bit of everything. It's my goal to not get bored of living in such a cool place. Chris has been here for a week, and has finally gotten rested up from all the hard work of the move. I had Friday off, so we went exploring in DC for the day. After a visit to the DMV, that is. We got to see Marine One come roaring right over our heads while we were out. It was undeniably cool. 

We also got to see the new MLK monument. I don't think photos in the news have done it justice. Today we watched football. It was a good break. Not much to say except point out that Clemson shut out NC State. The weather has been beautiful. All you South Carolina people who have been wondering where the 70 degree weather is? It's up here. 

We'll be visiting a local church tomorrow morning, and there's another one we plan on visiting before we join one. 

I've got nothing else to share. I'm also a smidge tired, so I'm having trouble finding a way to end this post. 

On The Road Again

Hi to our one reader! In a fit of irony, our last blog post was from our anniversary trip to DC. Now I'm here to share the news that we're moving there! That's right, Chris and Laura are relocating to the DC area. I'll be doing a postdoc fellowship at the DOE, and we will be living in Alexandria. I just wanted to pop in with a (empty) promise that we will try to update a little more now. 

We are really looking forward to our new adventure, what with all the history and museums. I plan to fully embrace my new home. We have taken to calling Alexandria the Charleston of the North. It's got the same old town feel and even a King Street. We're also looking forward to the likely constant stream of visitors, since we've landed in a place people live to visit!

I head up there next week, and Chris will be following me at the end of the month. I was going to share a random photo of us to end this post, but I am lacking in photos right now. I'll just have to share some when we get settled!

Also, no, I don't know why the font changes halfway through the first paragraph. I just don't care right now. 

Mr. and Mrs. Hill go to Washington

Chris and I decided to go to DC for our anniversary this year, and there was more than a little nerdy museum-going and a lot of airplanes. Like this one!

 And this one.

And all these! This is the new extension of the Air and Space Museum that was built out by Dulles on enough land that they can always expand. Well, depending on the money. It's a really well done space, because the hangar allows so many layers of planes, but they have catwalks so you can get up close to the ones hanging from the ceiling. 

And this one...wait. That's the space shuttle Discovery. For reals.

Really really cool. Can't explain how cool it was to be that close to a REAL space shuttle. 

Tiles! Yay materials science!

Our hotel (go Groupon!) was only 2 blocks from the Capitol building.

Remember that hat Chris hijacked from me at Christmas? He really needed it. It was very very cold, which would have been tolerable if we hadn't been walking through the wind. But we strove on and had a good time!

And I got to use my orange coat with its marvelous tall collar.

Go tigers!

For some reason I got fixated on Sputnik on this trip. It amazes me that you could see this from earth when it's only the size of a basketball. Or a little bigger. 

While there, we got to visit some friends from Clemson who live in Maryland now, which was nice, but I didn't get a picture of them. Just take my word for it.

Oh, also, if you ask Chris about our trip, his story will likely start with how bad the roads up there are. Granted, we were in his car, which isn't exactly a floating cloud, but the roads were pretty rough.

Happy Holidays

Okay, so it's May, but I came across the holiday photos and thought I'd share. I'll do our vacation from March in the next post. :) Lucky thing I'm not paid by the blog post or something.

A few photos from Christmas at the Hills'...

Not drinking it, just making sauce. Really...

This one is my favorite, because of the photo-bombers in the background. 

Pardon the poor lighting, but this is our lovely Christmas tree with its new tree skirt. It's reversible, so the other side is green. Oh, and I made it.

Some photos of the sunrise over Mt. LeConte.

The annual hike in the woods. This year, it was actually cold, instead of being tee-shirt weather. Somewhere toward the end of this hike, Chris adopted the snowflake hat (not the one he's wearing) I had just finished making, and he hasn't given it back. This from the guy who doesn't want me to knit him anything.

Miss Wendy, rocking her new pink cowl. All the knitting ladies in the family put in a few rows to make it for her. 

We made one for Serena too, but she didn't like it. She was an excellent reading buddy in the mountains. Serena, you need a book read? Just call cousin Laura, mmkay?

I'm sure this was a serious conversation. I'm pretty sure he was giving her a talk about the safety of walking on those rocks. 

And, well, this just pretty much sums it all up. 

So, happy holidays in May!

Lucky 2013

It's been go-go-go all fall. Lucky we had that nice vacation to tide us over, because we've been busy since then.

There seem to have been an inordinate amount of cars in the last six months. First, there was the NASCAR thing. Mom and Dad and Chris and I drove up to Charlotte for the boys to do the NASCAR experience. There were a lot of grown men acting like boys, and two of them were ours. They had a great time, Mom and I enjoyed watching them and acting like their paparazzi, and Chris even got to drive Jimmie Johnson's car!

 

After all the racing, Chris and I had the chance to visit his grandparents, the Goodwins, since they live in the Charlotte area. It's always nice to have a chance to see them, and this time we remembered to take pictures of us together!

I managed to get us hill tickets for the first home game this season, and it was about a million degrees out. Granted, it usually is. Perhaps we're getting old. Anyway. We sat on the hill for a while, then snuck over to some empty seats nearby. Because they were empty. It was a pretty good season for our Tigers, and it ended with an exceptionally nice bowl game win against LSU. Woo! 

We are blessed to be a part of a great small group. Usually our gatherings are simpler, such as game nights and knit night, but we took advantage of some great weather this fall to go apple picking together.

Don't be fooled. I didn't pull the wagon. Just holding the handle out of the mud. 

Susan kindly put this photo of the group online. And I kindly borrowed it. :) We are certainly fans of these folks!

 In October, we went with some friends to Road Atlanta for the Petit Le Mans. Cars. Fast cars. Like I said, lots of cars.

My future ride. According to Chris. I'm not opposed. 

And if Patrick Dempsey wants to come along, I wouldn't be opposed to that either.

Like I said, we went with friends. Friends like Jen. This is Jen. She makes me feel short. 

I met Bib. He's a Clemson fan!

The boys played with tiny racing cars.

We watched the real things.

The food was excellent, BTW.

I haven't gotten my pictures from the holidays uploaded yet, so here is a silly outtake from our Christmas photos. Gracias to Amy for taking the pictures and putting up with her models. She deserves a gold star!

The Dog Days

It's school time again. I love this time of year because it's the start of fall. And fall is pie and sweater season. And everything smells fresh and crisp. But back-to-school season is just as exciting, even though it isn't cool out yet, because everything is new and fresh, and I always get the urge to buy school supplies and shoes. If we're realistic, however, it's still summer--the dog days.

Chris and I have been busy busy busy this summer (though not as busy as last year, when we were collecting wedding invitations as a hobby). We've done a variety of things and, as always, I've got pictures!

We had a few weddings to go to in May and June. The first was the wedding of some friends from our small group, David and Sarah. Here are a few of the ladies from our group:

And proof that Chris and I clean up nicely!

The second wedding was another David, this time one of Chris' old roommates, and his lovely bride Jen.

And we had some photo crashers...

We celebrated dad's birthday with breakfast. Here's a grumpy picture of him.

 Mom and I drove up to Knoxville to take G-ma and Aunt Rose to the shower in Mt. Juliet for Scott and Abbie. But, before we went to the shower, I got to swing by and visit Jeff and Julie and the fabulous Miss T! She has learned to pose for the camera well. But (gee, Julie, I wonder how she learned this), she poses even better for an iPhone, and even demands to see the picture.

Then we went to the shower and Scott and Abbie happily posed with their cake.

And Scott is now way better at showers than any guy I've seen. Granted, I haven't seen too many guys at showers.

Then Chris and I went to Chicago.  Here are lots and lots of pictures of us in Chicago!

Dinosaur faces are required at dinosaur exhibits. That's a dinosaur footprint I'm standing in.

 We also had THE Scabbie wedding, but I haven't got any worthwhile pictures from it, so stalk them on facebook if you want one. That's all. Got lots to do, so I won't ramble!