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It's definitely one of my favorite places to be :).

I am catching up on laundry...and wasting time aimlessly reading blogs instead of cleaning or running ;)...before going in to work for a half day this afternoon. Feels good just to sit on my butt by myself. I haven't had a chance to be by myself since Wednesday...and it feels good. Nothing against people...my family, friends, etc....but I do just need some time to wind down. By myself. Does that make me strange/anti-social/psychotic? Probably not really. (I have plenty of other attributes that lend to my strange-ness, I am sure)

We had a great trip and I am very thankful for the time I was able to spend with my family. It would've been even better if my husband Jer and Megan's husband Danny were able to join us (they both had to work a lot over the holiday weekend)...but it was still a fantastic time. These memories, sorry to be completely cliche, will definitely last a lifetime.

I LOVE DC, and hope that Jer and I can return next summer! Dan will be at TBS (The Basic School) after graduating from Purdue...he will likely go out East again sometime in June and will be at TBS for six months. So, that would give us lots of time to visit! Maybe I see the Marine Corps Marathon in my future for October 2011! We'll see.

Here's a few of my favorite pictures from our trip....

(Meg, Me, and Laura after the Family Day Orientation at Officer Candidacy School at Quantico)

(Meg, Dan, and Me after Dan and the other Marines were "released" to their families for a few hours of "liberty" on Friday. We went to Chili's :))

(Dan with his girlfriend Laura after the graduation parade)

(Dan and Meg)

(Dan and our proud parents)

(Me with my dear brother. Notice his huge smile...he smiled all day :). I had truly never seen him smile that much in my life :))

(Me with Christian at the World War II Memorial in DC. Christian and Dan recently moved to MD and took the metro down to hang out with me Saturday afternoon on July 3rd! It was soooo wonderful to see them :))

(Some nice girls offered to take our photo at the World War II Memorial...me, Christian, and Dan. I am so thankful we got to spend time together! :))

(My dad, Meg, and my mom on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial)

(Matyasse girls! ;) Meg, me, and our mom in front of the White House)

(Waiting for the fireworks! Meg, Me, and Laura...pink ladies! ;))

(The three of us girls with the Marine before the fireworks)

(Fireworks over the monuments in DC! Spectacular!)

(Dan was a little tired when we finally made it back to our hotel in VA after the DC fireworks!!!)

Sigh.

Have a great day, all!