Yup... We're still alive

Hey blogger friends/family! Its been so long you may have forgotten that I exist. If you did that's okay. I forgive you if you'll forgive me for not updating you on our lives for the last 5 months. It has been a crazy semester and I can't lie- I am SO happy its over. I learned a lot of things about myself and about life, about my relationship with Steve and with my Heavenly Father, but I can't help but be happy that I am reunited with my husband and that this extremely trying semester is finished. I will only post briefly about our past five months, though I'm sure it will turn into a novel by the end. I think because we were apart during the week, we made sure the weekends were fun. We tried some new things this fall including apple picking at a local orchard, a 19 mile bike ride from our apartment to Lexington, Mass where the "shot heard round the world" was fired and the American Revolution began.

Apple Picking!

Steve of course got right up in the branches to pick the perfect apples! The man is part monkey I swear!

We had heard that you have to try apple cider donuts when you live in New England- this orchard had an apple cider donut factory going on. They were delightful and so was the apple cider there. We guzzled it in a couple of days and bought more from the grocery store almost all fall. I love apple cider!

Our 15 lb bag of apples! We made a lot of apple crisp. I had plans to make a great variety of apple yummy-ness but got too busy. So we like I said we ate a lot of apple crisps!

This is random... but so typical of Steve its funny. The day we went apple picking, we stopped at 2 or 3 farmers market stands, Trader Joes, and our regular grocery store. This is Steve carrying all like 15 bags of groceries up the stairs so we didn't have to make two trips! What a guy :)

These pictures are from our 19 mile bike ride. It was on the Minuteman bike path which is a nice path for pedestrians and bikers only. It was pleasant to have a bike ride where I didn't have to worry about drivers at all. This is the side of the Buckman Tavern, where the Lexington Militia gathered to meet the British army. They went to the Lexington green (pictured below) and then the first battle of the revolutionary war ensued.

A mini-replica of the battle of Lexington

Later in the fall, one of my best friends from college and her sister came to Boston for a weekend and stayed with us! Our first visitors ever! We took them to see some of the sites, shopped and ate great Italian food in Boston's North End. On Sunday we went to Walden pond to look at the beautiful fall colors. That is such a pretty place, I can see why Thoreau chose it to escape.

Glimpse of the fall colors...

I had a birthday this fall- #23 for me. I can't believe it. Sometimes I can't believe I'm only 23 and other times I can't believe I'm already 23. Steve got me some awesome kitchen gadgets that I have been wanting for a while.

The famous "Make Way for Ducklings" statue in the Boston Public Garden. Its cute huh?

So this fall was also another round of interviews for Steve except this time they were for real jobs! He had one very intense week of 12 interviews. He was exhausted by the end you can imagine but he did really well and got some second round interviews! One of the companies he interviewed with was Boeing, and they flew wives out for the interviews as well so we could see what the city was like! Cool huh? So I flew to Seattle on a Friday morning and we spent the weekend exploring what the city had to offer and enjoying a free vacation together!

This sculpture was in a 'sculpture' garden. What I want to know is how this is considered art? Hello its just a bunch of random pieces of metal thrown together and painted red. That's what the whole sculpture garden was, random weird pieces of 'art', I suppose some people think this is art. I guess I am more of a DaVinci girl. I want to see some real effort go into something called art. However, we thought this picture was cool with the space needle in the background :)

Pike Place market was fun, very touristy and crowded but I love all of the random things that the peddlers were selling.

We meant to go out for a fancy dinner on Saturday night but we were tired after a long day of walking around and exploring some of the suburbs. So instead of going out we ordered room service! I'm holding up my mini ketchup bottle- cute huh?

This is like the only picture of Steve from the whole trip- We were at brunch- which was delicious if you were wondering :)

This was a huge Christmas tree in the lobby of the hotel we stayed at. They were having a festival of trees the weekend we were there and they were beautiful. The hotel was really beautiful too, it really reminded me of the Joseph Smith Memorial building in Salt Lake. We had such a great weekend in Seattle- Thanks Boeing!

More recently- Steve finished his internship, I finished my semester and we moved back in together! Yeah! We finished unpacking his things today and then immediately began packing for a holiday adventure in Arizona and Salt Lake City! We are so excited to see our families! I can't wait till tomorrow afternoon when I see them! Woot woot! On the job front, Steve has received two offers that we are seriously considering. One is for a biotech company in Boulder, CO and the other is for Boeing in either Seattle or the Portland, OR area. We have to make a decision pretty soon here, so wish us luck with this! I'll let you know when we decide where our next step will take us!

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to all of you!