Washington Monument State Park

When a drive around town turns into a spontaneous hike in a small state park that we stumbled upon...

This was the first monument to be dedicated after George Washington. And we were surprised that you could actually go inside and climb a spiraling staircase up to the top for a beautiful view. (But lets be honest, Brandon and I were wusses and didn't last long on top. Haha.)

After we came back down we went around back and found a little courtyard where we could enjoy the view on ground level. It was a little chilly and it was close to sunset so we didn't stay long, but we added this to our list of things to do/explore this summer.

Catoctin Mountain Park

I'm trying to ignore the fact that Brandon is on his way to North Carolina for the weekend right now and that I have to work tonight, so I'm just gonna blog about our fun day from yesterday. Like I should have snuck into his suitcase and tagged along with him for this work trip because...

staying in Maryland because of work < being with Brandon for the weekend

Cafe Rio for lunch. And Catoctin Mountain Park for the afternoon. 

Thurmont Vista. A one mile round trip to a pretty outlook. 

So I was looking through my progress photos tracking my weight loss journey... And wow. December 2016 to April 2017 (P.S. Ignore my pajama shorts that I've had since Jr. High.)

Catocin Creek Park.

Catocin Creek Park was the major adventure this weekend since I had the whole weekend off and we finally had a decent warm day since the snowstorm that we had this past week. Other small adventures this weekend were: watching four movies, getting Izzy's nails clipped, Cafe Rio (I'm pretty sure this is becoming a weekly tradition.), and lots of relaxation. 

Actually used our nice camera instead of our phone's camera for once. 

The more I lose the weight I gained from antidepressants and the closer I get to my original weight, the more comfortable I get with having the camera on me. 

Snow day!

Well, we finally got our first snow storm of the season (and our last one too) last night/today.
Because of it I ended up calling out for work; I was scheduled for 8AM, but it was still snowing and the road conditions were awful so I ended up not making it very far (I live about 15-20 minutes away from my job and that is on a good day) before turning around and calling in. So I ended up getting an unexpected day off. Can't complain about that, though I felt awful about calling out. Haha.

And since I wasn't going into work, Brandon called the day off of work too and we spent the cold, dreary day together. Pajamas. Netflix. Cuddles. Sleep. Warm soup. Games. Relaxing. Just what a girl needed. :)

White Oak Trail

Even though it was still cold, without the wind chill like yesterday, it felt great so we decided to make a trip to Gambrill State Park (we hadn't been since November) which lead to an unplanned 1 mile hike in the 36 degree weather. The original plan was to just walk on a trial for a little bit and then turn around, but after reading over the trials map, we decided on White Oak Trail and to walk the whole loop since it was just a mile long and the difficulty was easy. 

 Found a woodpecker... Brandon was very fascinated with it.

 Went to the Middletown Outlook before heading back home for the day.