Ashley and Dylan are both Arlington transplants. Ashley is originally from the little city of Oswego, NY, but she moved to Virginia to escape the cold winters and lake effect snow of her hometown. Dylan moved to Arlington from his even smaller town of Little Silver, NJ in 2008.
Ashley’s day (and night) job is fourth-grade teacher. She loves her school and especially loves teaching Virginia Studies! Dylan learned early on that every new place they visit can become a teaching opportunity and he often becomes the cameraman to capture an image for one of Ashley’s lessons. Dylan works in IT as a K-12 Solutions Architect. He gets to see the big picture of the school districts’ operations and humors Ashley by claiming he gets the scoop from her insider’s knowledge.
Dylan is an avid runner and can be caught running with the DC Road Runners at least twice a week. Ashley is technically an official member of the club, but would define herself as a walker. Ashley prefers to dance at Kazaxe. They both love to read and are huge fans of the Arlington Public Library! They play one round of Jeopardy each night before going to bed and their current life goal is to have a (legal) drink in every Smithsonian museum.
Our Timeline
2015
September 10 – Ashley invites Dylan for ice cream at the Dairy Godmother. After walking around Del Ray for nearly an hour, we decide to continue with dinner at Del Ray Pizzeria. Dylan suggests the Barack My World pizza, and Ashley agrees. Dessert before dinner continues to be a common indulgence.
One week later – We plan to go kayaking on the Potomac after work. Ashley gets stuck at school, so we decide on dinner at Lost Dog Cafe instead. Dylan should have known then that Ashley, teaching, and clocks are a dangerous mix.
October 10 – We drive to Fredericksburg, VA and conquer the corn maze at Belvedere Plantation. Ashley tricks Dylan into staying for dinner/an intense interview with her friends.
October 31/November 1 – Dylan returns the favor by inviting Ashley to his friend’s Halloween party and other friend’s son’s third birthday party. He dresses as Marty McFly for the Halloween party (since 2015 is “the future” in Back to the Future Part II). Ashley wears her homemade school costume: a peanut, one of Virginia’s main products. Dylan continues with his costume-making by presenting a custom-made Captain America shield to the birthday boy. Ashley is somehow undeterred by this lunacy unique skill set.
New Year’s Eve – We ring in our first New Year’s together in Fredericksburg. Dylan is subjected to further interrogation by gets to spend time with future bridesmaids, Emily and Liz.
2016
January – We hunker down with lots of wine for Snowzilla. Ashley makes Dylan trek over a mile to her house and dig out her car. No school for two weeks!
February – Meet the Parents, Part I. Barry’s birthday provides the perfect opportunity for Ashley to meet Dylan’s mother, stepfather, and cousin. Dylan makes custom ice cream. The picture on the right is from a later Thanksgiving where Dylan made more ice cream.
March – Dylan introduces Ashley to their first Lit Up Ball. Can you guess the theme? Although we don’t win the costume contest, we start our tradition of supporting the Friends of the Arlington Library. Not accustomed to losing costume contests, Dylan begins thinking about how to up the costume game for next year. (The theme is Alice in Wonderland)
May – Meet the Parents, Part II. Dylan meets Ashley’s parents and grandmother for the first time, and astonishes her mother by inhaling a plate of eggplant parmesan in two minutes. There’s no pictures from this meeting, so here’s a picture from a later trip to the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte.
June – We make our way to our first after-hours Smithsonian events: A Night at the World’s Fair (Arts & Industries Building) and We the Party People (National Museum of American History).
July – Meet the Parents, Part III. We travel to NJ for Dylan to run the Belmar 5, Ashley meets Dylan’s father and his partner. Ashley decides that it is worth it to travel to/participate in this race each year so that she can go to the beach afterwards. We have no pictures, but we did take a nice picture at the wedding of Dylan’s brother, Sean and his wife, Katy.
July – We spent a night at the National Postal Museum for the PostSecret Revealed after hours event. For those of you who read PostSecret, Ashley wrote her biggest secret on a postcard with two parrots. Dylan claimed he had no secrets. (For those of you keeping count, this is museum #3 on our list.)
August- We travel to the Finger Lakes for a wedding. On the way, we get a flat tire and discover that not only are we missing a spare tire, but we are also missing a tire jack. After AAA refuses to come out to help us at 1:00am, we use some good ol’ Fix-a-Flat. Ashley does some donuts around the gas station parking lot and thinks we’re set. Dylan spends the final 100 miles to our destination serving as pit crew to re-inflate the tire every 10 miles. Ashley decides he may be worth keeping around. After a long nap, Dylan makes it to the rehearsal dinner.
September – After a long first week at school, Dylan takes Ashley to Glow in the Garden at the Smithsonian Castle to celebrate their anniversary (museum #4).
Halloween – Ashley casts a spell on Dylan’s Samsung phone. Ashley has still not fully mastered the make your own costume plan.
November- We hunker down for the election of a lifetime. Ashley wears all of her Hillary gear and puts the election champagne in the refrigerator. Ashley cries all night and insists that we keep the champagne (It is still in our refrigerator.)
December – In the waning hours of the Obama administration, we tour the White House holiday decorations.
2017
March – We attend our second Lit Up Ball. Ashley loves the theme, Harry Potter, so she gets on board with the costume making. As the Whomping Willow and flying Ford Anglia, we win Best Couples Costume.
April – We take our first international trip together to Cancún for a friend’s wedding. Ashley proposed this idea for our wedding, but her mother said no. Sorry!
September – We spend a traditional back to school week museum night at the Enid A. Haupt Garden. The theme is Return to Summer Camp and museum #5 is crossed off our list.
October – We visit Boston for the B.A.A. Half Marathon – Ashley’s first. Katy joined in on the fun and Sean served as cheerleader. Fun fact: Ashley and Dylan have very different definitions of what constitutes a hill.
Halloween – By this time, Ashley has become a full convert to Dylan’s Halloween making ways. We win the D.C. costume scene with James “hiding in the curtains” Comey and Sean “among the bushes” Spicer.
November – We visit one of Dylan’s favorite museums for the 40th Anniversary party. We make it to museum #6 with Found in Space at Air & Space.
2018
March – Our third Lit Up Ball (theme: Darkly Ever After). As Hansel, Gretel, the witch, and the oven, we win Best Couples Costume again.
March – We travel to Denmark and Norway. Dylan meets Ashley’s host family and experiences the joys of hygge. The Danes invite Dylan to be a part of our years-long international mini-golf rivalry and then they proceed to kick our butts. A rematch is coming on August 4, 2019.
April – Dylan proposes and Ashley accepts.
July- We travel to the Berkshires to visit Dylan’s mom in her summer oasis. While we’re there, she agrees to be photographer for all of the lovely photos of us on this website. Ashley also gets to visit the goats at Hancock Shaker Village.
September – In order to celebrate the beginning of a new school year, we once again head to the museums for a Burning Man party and exhibition. We try not to Leave It All Behind at the Renwick Gallery. Museum #7?
