Hello blogosphere! Last time I posted (early May) I had just finished finals and so I have a bit of catching up to do . . . These last few months have been a whirlwind, and here is my lame attempt to summarize everything in one post. This should give you a brief overview of the Dawsons’ life in the mid-Atlantic (and beyond) for the past few months.
May 14th-16th – Fishing Trip
Fishin' In The Dark, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
In mid May, the weekend before I had to start my internship, I flew home to attend our annual fishing trip at one of my favorite places on earth – my grandpa’s fishing cabin on the Cottonwood River in the Flint Hills of Kansas (no girls allowed). As always, we caught more fish than we could handle and drank enough beer to make it difficult to handle the ones we could. It was another successful weekend at the cabin and it was nice to get away and forget about school and work for the weekend.
 |
| The fish we caught - day one of two. From left to right: Andrew (my cousin), Ryan (my bro), Yours Truly, David (my pops), and Randy (my uncle). Grandpa (not pictured) is taking the picture! |
Hard Workin’ Man, Brooks & Dunn
Monday morning following the fishing trip I started my internship as a Summer Associate at an intellectual property law firm in Washington, DC. During my tenure this summer I have had the opportunity to draft and argue patents for some pretty cool companies and technologies. I even drafted and submitted a motion to a federal district court that was argued before the federal judge by one of the partners at our firm. I have no idea why they took a shot on me, but the experience has been challenging, educational, and memorable. I wrap up my summer this Friday (Friday the 13th. . . .) but am so thankful for such a great experience.
May 28th-31st – Memorial Day
American Soldier, Toby Keith
What a great way to spend Memorial Day weekend – with Anna Brawner in DC! Brawner came up from Nashville and we tore the town up! We started off the weekend by hitting the Irish bars in Old Town Alexandria and hanging out with none other than a real-life “well-oiled” (hammered) soldier we met that night. This guy: (a) loved – I mean loved – Anna’s hair (and the rest of her too), and (b) swore he was a cousin of my brother-in-law John Rhoads (the next day I called John – he had never heard of him). Saturday we walked around the national mall where there were thousands of veterans who had rode their Harleys in town for “Rolling Thunder” (consequently I happened to be wearing a lavender polo and drinking a frappuccino at the time – I felt a bit out of place . . .). It was pretty powerful experiencing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial with veterans who had been in the war and whose friends’ names were on the wall. Sunday (I was wearing a black t-shirt this time to blend in a bit better) we went to Arlington cemetery and capped off the night with a memorial concert on the lawn of the capital building featuring none other than the great Brad Paisley! Great weekend!
 |
| Ice cream in Old Town, Alexandria |
 |
| Lauren, Brawner, and I at Rolling Thunder. Notice the motorcycles in the background and that great lavender polo I decided to wear! |
Mountain Music, Alabama
A mid-summer break from our calendar allowed Lauren and I to try out our new tent given to us by the Scotts and Burresses. We packed up the pickup and headed to Shenandoah National Park (about 2 hours west of DC) for a weekend of hiking, fishing, and camping. Unfortunately after pulling in and setting up the tent, it turned into a weekend of heavy thunderstorms. So we scratched all plans and sat in the truck drinking Bud Light. We had a great time anyway. It was nice to leave the city behind and see the beautiful scenery located only a few hours west of us. We can’t wait to go back!
 |
| Look at that tent! Nice! |
 |
| Drinking beer in the pickup while waiting out the thunderstorm |
June 18th-20th – Pool Party
For those of you who haven’t seen our apartment yet, our complex is sort of like a small city – it has over 100 buildings, a grocery store, dry cleaners, ATM machine, and a Chipotle. As such, we have four large pools (with deep-ends – diving allowed!) but with our full schedule this summer, we had not had a chance to try them out until we finally stole a weekend in mid-June. The rest of the summer has been great, but there is nothing like a lazy day at the pool!
June 25th-27th – Joel and Hannah’s Wedding
She’s In Love With The Boy, Trisha Yearwood
For the last weekend in June we headed home to Kansas City for Lauren’s step-sister, Hannah’s, wedding. It was beautiful ceremony and an awesome time! It was great getting to see family and friends and getting to meet everyone from Joel’s family. Congratulations to the Delagardelles!
June 29th – Brittany’s Birthday
Here For The Party, Gretchen Wilson
Happy Birthday to my cousin Brittany! We are excited you had your 21st in DC and we had a great time in Georgetown celebrating it with you! Manhattan, look out, Brittany is 21!
July 1st-5th – Fourth of July
God Bless The USA, Lee Greenwood
The Fourth of July in Washington, DC! Woo-hoo! Chase and Meghan came up for a long weekend from Bartlesville and we had patriotic-hell-of-a-good-time! We had a drink on the roof of Hotel Washington (great views of the city), went to a BBQ at Chase’s friend’s house on Capitol Hill (literally the only house on Capitol Hill that has a swimming pool – confirmed by Google Earth), and saw the country’s best fireworks show at the Washington Monument. We even rode the Metro home with millions of other fireworks watchers – Lauren riding for four stops with her head in some random guy’s armpit. Once again, a great weekend. We are so thankful we have such awesome friends and family who come see us and help us enjoy our time here.
 |
| This has nothing to do with our weekend. I couldn't find the pictures of Chase and Meghan from that weekend so I creeped this one off of Chase's facebook . . . . Hope he doesn't care . . . . |
 |
| Lauren and I at the Fireworks |
July 10th – First Year Anniversary (Holy Cow!)
Keeper of the Stars, Tracy Bird
On July 10th Lauren and I celebrated the best year of my life. I cannot believe it has already been a year since we were married – it seems like only yesterday we finalizing our seating chart for the wedding, stressing over which ones of my non-RSVPing friends we thought would actually show up and trying to remember their current girlfriend’s last name for the place cards. I miss all that wedding planning . . . . Anyway, we did what every normal couple does on their first anniversary – went to a company barbeque (seriously, we did). So, maybe we didn’t have the most orthodox first anniversary, but we were able to eat our frozen cake (just not on the 10th – we had to wait until we were back in KC – sorry Lauren) and we did have a late dinner downtown just the two of us (although we were a bit full from the BBQ). We chose to spend our first year together in a strange place, full of very strange people, but I wouldn’t take a minute of it back. It has been great.
 |
| One year ago in Maui |
July 16th-18th – Guy’s Weekend
Drinkin' Bone, Tracy Bird (I know, two Tracy Bird songs in a row . . . weak)
So technically this weekend was a "girl’s weekend" for Lauren and the women from my family, but, in order to not feel left out, John Rhoads and I had an impromptu guy’s weekend. This consisted of batting cages, pizza, beer, and, of course, Zombieland! Great flick and great time! Thanks for putting up with me John!
July 23rd-25th – Taylor and Molly’s Wedding
Something Like That, Tim McGraw
Congratulations to the Hartleys! We were able to come back to Kansas City in late July for our good friends Molly and Taylor’s wedding, and it was another beautiful ceremony and another great time! It was so nice seeing the whole K-State crew and it made us realize that there is no substitute for the friendships we created in college. As a bonus, since the wedding was on a Friday night, we were able to go out Saturday with Donna, John and Marilyn, David and Lynda, Chad, and Ryan. The night started with Ryan making pitchers of his famous Margaritas, and ended with Lynda forgetting people’s names and Donna trying to leave by walking into a closet. That story needs no picture – it pretty much speaks for itself. It was great seeing everyone!
July 28th-August 1st – Chi Town!
These Are My People, Rodney Atkins
Following a short three-day workweek, Lauren and I met Ryan in Chicago for a long weekend. What a great city Chicago is! Lauren and I met up with Maggie and Dwayne on Thursday night and saw a sketch comedy show at Second City. They did a sketch about Alf that I literally almost died laughing from. My favorite line (said in Alf’s voice): “Relax, Brian, the cat is in the dryer.” Ryan got in Friday morning, and while I was busy all day, Lauren and Ryan saw the city from the comfort of a top deck of a double-decker sight seeing bus. We left Friday evening for Naperville and spent the rest of the weekend with the Wands. Our weekend was so fun and action packed, I couldn’t possibly tell you everything that happened, so I will summarize the highlights in list form:
• We stood in the middle of a golf-course community and shot cans with a red rider BB gun . . .
• Ryan gave us a five minute lecture on how he doesn’t use lids on his fountain drinks because it is his “one thing” he does to help the environment. He then subsequently dumped a full sprite, sans lid, on himself in the back of a cab and had to walk around damp for the rest of the afternoon.
• Hayden got us tickets to Blue Man Group. Awesome! If you are in Chicago, go see it.
• Everyone made fun of me for the cocktail I kept ordering, and Hayden eventually renamed it the “Bachelorette” – not sure yet if the name will catch on or not.
• We spent Saturday night bar hopping in Naperville and ended the night by sharing a bar with a Bachelorette party and their blowup “props.”
Needless to say, we had a great time and can’t wait to spend some more time in Chicago!
 |
| Trump Tower, Chicago |
 |
| The Chicago Skyline |
August 6th-8th – Winding Down
All Summer Long, Kid Rock
We started this last weekend with a happy hour (that turned into a happy 5 hours) in Dupont Circle on Friday night, and then spent Saturday catching our breath and hanging out at the pool. On Sunday, we met Donna in Baltimore and went out at the inner harbor. Lauren and Donna got on a plane early Monday morning to head to Seattle for the week, and I stayed home to finish up work and catch up on blogging! We have had a great summer and can’t believe how fast it went. We are looking forward to football season (Go Cats!) and another great year of teaching (Lauren) and of being taught (Chris). We miss everyone and can’t wait to see you all soon!
