Washington DC!

This was Matt's and my first roadtrip we had ever taken together and only vacation other than our honeymoon. In the days prior to us leaving, we were anxiously counting down the days.  I couldn't help but assume our vacation would go a lot like a National Lampoon's Griswold family vacation.

And it actually almost did -- in the beginning.

If any of you have seen the movie, you may remember Clark and Rusty picking up the car in one of the first scenes. He was hoping for a brand new hot rod car and ended up getting a station wagon that he was not happy with. Well...

Two days prior to us leaving, Matt took his car into Chevrolet of Madison so they could rotate the tires, change the oil, and update the radio -- (there was a newer version available for a free update). After two hours of Matt waiting in the waiting room, some guy came out to tell him that they burned out the radio, had to order a new one, and it would be available on Monday. We were leaving for our roadtrip on FRIDAY.

A ROADTRIP WITHOUT A RADIO!? 

You have got to be kidding me.

Luckily, they put a rush order on a new radio - One arrived in Madison the next day - and it was installed just fifteen minutes before we had to leave.

Lulu did not want us to go at all.

But we were excited to get on the road and knew that they were in great hands. We loaded the car and were on our way.

We had a fourteen hour trip to Washington DC and left at 5pm on Friday night.

Matt's not too thrilled about the 800 mile drive.

Matt drove until 3am and switched places with me at the boarder of Ohio and Pennsylvania. I contemplated waking him up because the sunrise in the mountains at 4am was quite possibly the most beautiful I had ever seen, but I didn't think he'd be able to enjoy the "beauty" after driving for 10 hours through the night. So I let him sleep.

Around 8am, we arrived in DC. We were so excited to see the sights that our exhaustion didn't even phase us.

Enjoy the pictures.

Our Hotel - The Washington Plaza -- which was only a 10 minute walk to The White House (we will be back there someday! It was amazing).

After we checked in and parked the car, we went to see the town.

At the Holocaust Museum

We couldn't take pictures inside of the museum, but know that it was so moving, so real, and so incredibly sad. I highly recommend it to anyone who is planning a trip to DC.

Gluten Free Jimmy Johns

World War Two Memorial

The reflecting pool made us think of only this.....

Forrest Gump

In fact, all we kept saying was, "Forrrrrresssstt!!"

Sitting on the stairs.

Earthing.

After we walked all around DC, we headed back to the hotel for some drinkies and Gluten Free pizza. Yum!

We went to bed around 7pm (the consequences of driving through the night) and the next morning, we loaded our stuff back into the car and hit the road for OBX!

We found the pentagon on our way out of the city.

BUT THEN!

We saw an exit sign for Quantico.

What's Quantico, you ask? Only the FBI headquarters!

Side Note: Matt and I are obsessed with Criminal Minds. Like, obsessed. Every episode. Every night.
In the series, they live in Quantico and work at the Quantico FBI headquarters. 

We had to go check it out and see any of these people were there.

Just Kidding.

But for real. We got off the exit and went to explore. It wasn't until we got to the privacy gate that was protected by two armed Marines that we decided to turn around.

At least it will be a great memory ten years from now.....

Long time no see??

Hello Loves,

It has been way too long since my last blog, but we have B-U-S-Y!

In the past three weeks:

We roadtripped to Washington DC. Then roadtripped to the Outer Banks. Stayed for a week. Went to Charlotte, NC to visit amazing friends, then drove the 18 hour drive back home (in one day).

After working for four days, I boarded an airplane for Nashville with my favorite bestie to celebrate her Bachelorette party (17 days until her wedding!!!). And now that I have time to breathe and relax (AKA blog) on this holiday weekend,  I will be able to share with you all the AMAZINGNESS of the past few weeks.

I will also be blogging about our TRASH THE DRESS session and sharing all of the awesome pictures, telling you all about our home improvements, and share more pictures of our cats. Ha!!


I hope you are all as excited to read these thousands of blogs as I am to write them. I've got a bottle of wine, a three pound container of chocolate covered raisins, and two memory cards worth of pictures. I hope you all have at least.... two hours.

Gluten Free (Update)

So I'm almost two weeks into my Gluten Free life and I am thrilled with how well I've we've done. Matt has taken on a lot of the GF meals with me (like promised) and surprisingly, our meals taste just as good as before, if not better. After reading several blogs, I promised myself I wouldn't try gluten alternatives until I was at the point where I wasn't craving wheat. So for the past two weeks we've eaten completely fresh foods -- lots of fish, brown rice, sweet potatoes, and veggies.

Its amazing how much two weeks of healthy eating will do. I haven't had any pain issues and my stomach was much more happy than it usually is.

I could get used to this.

Like recommended, I also cut down on red meat, pork, and dairy. I thought reducing red meat and pork was going to be the worst thing ever, but I've actually come to learn that I like seafood.

WHAT?!

(I can only imagine the look on my Mother's face after reading this....)

This is coming from the young lady who refused any kind of strange dish as a child and didn't tolerate "fish sticks" any night. I could handle canned tuna, shrimp was good, and I liked sushi. The seafood list ended there. But this week I learned that Tuna Steaks are just as good as normal steaks (and whole hell of a lot healthier) and Tilapia is delicious when blackened with spices. I've cooked Salmon twice in the past and "got through" the meal, but didn't enjoy it. I hoping tomorrow and a new recipe will bring a better outcome. Fingers crossed.

The only thing I've really craved this week and couldn't have was...

Pita Bread?

You better believe it. Hence my status on Facebook the other night that admitted I was eating Hummus out of a spoon. I guess I can make GF pita bread from scratch, but that sounds like a lot of work. So a spoon will have to suffice until I decide to get up and bake.

I will also full heartedly admit that for a split second this week, I contemplated ripping a PB&J sandwich out the hands of a precious two year boy I know and love, so I could stuff it into my mouth as quickly as possible. WTF is wrong with me?? I don't know. It just looked good at the time.

Withdrawals, I tell ya......

Good news is he was able to finish his lunch without any of Miss Jaclyn's GF binge eating sprees interrupting him.

This past Sunday, Matt and I nearly froze to death while trashing my dress in Lake Michigan (Milwaukee, WI). It was a whopping 51 degrees outside --- which I seriously think made the water no warmer than 35-40 degrees. The shock of a wave getting me soaked from the waste down should make a great picture. We will see.

My wedding dress literally trashed.

Hanging to dry in our garage.

Matt and I sat with the butt warmers on and the heat blasting the entire drive back to Madison (from Milwaukee) and as we pulled into Pizza Ranch's parking lot, I was just starting to get feeling in my toes. A little over exaggerated? Maybe....

I know what you are thinking.

But wait, Jaclyn, didn't you just say Pizza Ranch? Aren't you GF?

Oh yeah, Pizza Ranch has a GF pizza crust. The one alternative I ate since going GF. We had never been to Pizza Ranch before and went solely because it was the one place we knew I could eat GF. It was 8oclock on a Sunday night and we were starved after not eating all day in Milwaukee.

So, how did I feel after?

Like Shit.

It was the first "heavy" meal I've had in almost fourteen days and I was shocked at how horrible it made my stomach feel. BUT with that being said -- Pizza Ranch was never going to be favorite place in the world. For starters, it was a buffet. Secondly, I'm 99% sure the crust wasn't fresh and it was most likely frozen before. Third, it was loaded with grease. I've recently learned that Roman Candle (one of my beloved pizza places in Madison) has a GF crust, too, so I'm excited to check that out soon.

In other news: Matt called me a Hippie this week. You guys are probably all thinking it. He's just the only one who will say it out loud.

(Here's us in forty years)

The poor guy is married to a completely different woman than who he married a short three months ago.

Me on our honeymoon (when I was normal) I probably ordered steak, mashed potatoes, ate 500 dinner rolls, and polished off a brownie with whip cream. (oh, and drank a million glasses of wine)

I'm not completely or totally different than what I was 90 days earlier. But all these extreme ideas of going Gluten Free, Juicing, using Essential Oils as opposed to pharmaceuticals, wanting to spend more time outside, doing yoga, and joining a co-op is grounds for any husband to be concerned.

Rest assured people, I will not be doing this anytime soon.

And definitely not this.

Also!

The Fennels have officially started to listen to Christmas music.

Yes, people, we're Christmas crazy. If you already didn't know......

In August, we will head south to Galena, Illinois to visit some wineries and breweries, eat a fancy dinner, and to stay in the Heart's Delight (oh la la) designer suite --- complete with a heart shaped bed and heart shaped Jacuzzi tub. We'll be celebrating our BIG six month anniversary!!!! While booking the hotel, all I could think of was this.....

But I've heard fab reviews and received a discounted rate from attending The Madison Bridal Show with my beautiful, dear, Bride-to-be friend, Chelsea.

(PS: Chelsea, this is one of the only pictures I found of us. WTH! We need an updated picture asap! This is FIVE years old). (PSS: I'm so so excited for your wedding!)

Speaking of weddings, I have officially received a wedding invite for the Evans/Boris wedding! Woohooooo!!!

Our roadtrip vacation is coming up so quickly!!!!!!!!!!!

WE CANT WAIT!!!!

Until next Thursday.... Lots of Love Blogger Buddies <3