Monday, March 21, 2011

Life since the winter vacation

When I arrived home from NYC there was SNOW all everywhere! I had to dig our car out of at a least a foot of snow (Last year, it snowed once or twice and there was little to no accumulation). Over the next three or four days it snowed another foot or foot and half. Steve got home a week after I did and I expected it all to be melted. I was wrong. So wrong. He was greeted by feet of snow and temperatures below freezing on his return home. Over the next two weeks it snowed practically every other day and the temperatures stayed in the teens. The snow accumulation was incredible! There is absolutely no where to put snow in this city. Cars line every street and there is no such thing as an empty field to pile extra snow. So the aftermath of our Snowmageddon was that two way streets became extremely narrow-- Sometimes just wide enough to allow two cars to pass and other times not wide enough for two cars side by side. Bike lanes were obliterated by cars parking in them and piles of snow 6-8 feet tall in parking lots etc. Driving in Boston the past two months has been like playing Mario Kart. You were constantly dodging potholes, pedestrians (who decided that walking on the super narrow streets was safer than the sidewalks?), bikers, and cars that were parked far into the street. Can anyone say nightmare?

We got sooooooo tired of snow! Luckily it decided to melt {mostly} this past week. Let me tell you, the snow overstayed its welcome.Unfortunately, I never took any pictures of the craziness but I found some online that illustrate the conditions... and yes, all sidewalk walkways were approximately the width of a snow shovel.






And today, yes this the first official day of spring we have been "blessed" with yet another snow storm. Fortunately, no snow is sticking so far.


I don't think I've ever been as excited to see Steve as when he got home from his trip. Luckily he had a few days before he started school and I had just started school so we were able to catch up and spend time together before the craziness began. Below is from some random breakfast we had... I just like the picture and it shows off his beard nicely. He grew the beard in South America and I let him keep it. He still hasn't shaved it and I've actually become rather fond of it. I think he looks handsome and very rugged with it :)



For Christmas, I gave Steve tickets to a Boston Celtics game. We got to see a good game between the Celtics and Golden State Warriors a few weeks ago. We had the most "Boston" night ever. We ate at Boston Chowda Co. (yummm) for dinner, followed by the Boston Celtics game and we ended the night by eating Boston Cream Pie at the Omni Parker House hotel where it was invented. Such a fun night!


They won!
Steve's first taste of the delectable Boston Cream Pie. Come visit- We'll take you there!

The second week of March was my spring break. It was mostly uneventful. I tried to get organized for my comprehensive exams, did a little studying, made some baby gifts for my newest niece and was able to get to the gym everyday. It really was just what I needed before the last half of this semester. One of the nights, I was able to go candlepin bowling with my Emerson girls! It was so fun to get to hang out, outside of school, which is very rare. I definitely couldn't have made it through this much of grad school without these girls!

Friday, March 18, 2011

New York City

Welcome to the Concrete Jungle!

We had so much fun in New York. It was a total girl trip. We saw four Broadway plays, slept in late every day, ate girl food at a local deli/market for almost every meal, shopped and just had an overall good time. In no particular order here is what we did...

We took a pedi-cab ride through Central Park on our way to Metropolitan Museum. When we were booking the pedi-cab, a homeless man with very bloodshot eyes approached Laura, and just busted out a "rap" about how he was homeless and needed money. We were all a little shocked by that, but even more shocked when the pedi-cab driver asked him to leave and he told us all kinds of craziness (e.g. he had just got out of jail for killing a man, he wouldn't be scared to pull a gun on the driver etc.). After these confessions, he said just kidding and walked away. I've never wanted to laugh and run for my life all at the same time as much as I did right then.

The pedi-cab ride was awesome though. Our drivers were hilarious and kept us entertained despite the very cold ride.
At the Met :)
Hangin' out for the night in our hotel room

After seeing Mary Poppins- front row!
Erin and I at Mary Poppins or Mama Mia...
Hydrocephalus Laura and Erin enjoying their pre-breakfast dessert. No judging- our breakfasts normally began at about 1pm.
After my favorite show, Wicked. If you haven't seen it yet, do it!

Rach was wayy to hungry to shop- so she turned her dressing room into a restaurant!

We spent hours here. It is a huge H and M.
I think it is hilarious that we actually went into the official NBA store on our girls trip. We were looking for souvenirs for the boys but still...

Comparing our hands with NBA greats.

First night in NYC- the Lion King. The costumes in this play were absolutely incredible.

A beautiful painting at the Met
Erin and I met Spongebob and Elmo in Times Square. We snapped a quick photo and as we were walking away we saw them chasing after us requesting money. It was a little frightening so we just kept running and got lost in the crowds. We didn't make that mistake again.
At Mama Mia with Rachel and Erin. Sandra and Laura went and saw the Addams Family instead.

We had such a fun time on this trip! Thank you so much Mom and Dad Hale for the gift! I can't wait to do a girls trip with the Lund women now!

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Hale Family New Years trip

After our Arizona Lund family Christmas we drove up to Salt Lake with Seth and Kiersty to spend a few days with the Hale family. It was a fun filled time, and unfortunately Steve did contract the stomach flu (a less intense version than most of us had), but fortunately he felt better after just one day. We saw a lot of family and friends and had a great time, snowboarding, watching movies, playing Beatles Rockband and eating fantastic food.

We got Mom and Dad Hale a ladderball set for the coming spring. We love this game and if nothing else will enjoy playing it when we're around :)



Isn't this series of pictures with Steve and Lucy so cute! Steve is helping her open a little book we got her for Christmas. She was the star of the Hale holidays! She was talking up a storm and loved to show off her labeling skills. Everyday we got to see her point to her nose, belly button, eyes etc. She also enjoyed pointing out our noses, eyes, ears etc. and telling us animal sounds. What a funny girl.

The one day Steve and I got to go snowboarding together it was well below freezing. I seriously don't think he or I have ever been so cold in our lives (okay maybe just me). We covered every square inch of skin we could and huddled around our hand warmers on the lifts. It was so cold that if a puff of breath got on my ski goggles it instantly turned to ice. Then I had to take off my gloves, and scratch the ice off so I could see. This resulted in completely frozen hands over and over again! Thank goodness for hand warmers. It was a first for us as we left the mountain an hour early because it was just that cold. Woah- you know its cold when a Hale man leaves the mountain early :) When we got back to the car I looked in the mirror to find icicles in my hair and ice crusted to my fleece gaiter. I think it took us about 3 hours to thaw out :)

Playing a nightly game of rockband. It was hilarious when the boys were singing to hear their falsetto voices. That was the best part of these nights for the wives!

Who doesn't want to wear tissue paper crowns at dinner?


Steve with his Grandpa and Grandma Hale

Lucy showing off her mad eating skills. This girl will eat anything, its incredible!

I got to go out to lunch with one of my old high school friends while in Utah. Love seeing old friends!

My best friend from Tucson. We used to hang out weekly and hadn't seen each other since Steve and I moved to Boston. It was so wonderful to hang out again!
The Hale men left on a backpacking trip to Argentina after being in Utah for a few days. Steve was gone for two and half weeks. I was so anxious about him leaving! The longest we have been apart is two weeks and we had daily communication. When he left I had no idea how often I would hear from him and was so nervous! We ended up communicating just enough to keep me sane :) They had a fantastic time in Chile and Argentina (I'll have Steve post pictures as soon as he gets them). They definitely saw some breathtaking sights and got to have "the manly bonding" (... name that movie...). The boys were greatly missed by their wives!

The night the boys left, we women drowned our sorrows in take out from the Mandarin, fro-yo and a chick flick.

I spent the next week at Kiersty and Seth's house hanging with them, shopping, and seeing old friends. Brittany even got to come up and hang out with us for a few days! Kiersty and I spend many of the nights looking for home decor and making her new house look awesome :) As usual with us, we only got like one picture and unfortunately, it was on Kiersty's camera. Just trust me that we had a fantastic time. After spending a week at Kiersty's I packed up my bags and the Hale women headed out on an excursion to NYC.... Stay tuned for details :)

Lund Christmas

This year for Christmas we were able to go to my parents' house in Arizona and meet up with my whole family! We had such a great time, especially when everyone (minus Steve and Kiersty) got the nastiest stomach flu :) I have very limited pictures from Christmas because we were all sick at different times and I don't think anyone felt like taking pictures.

Stomach flu aside, we had so much fun hanging out together! We made good food, made sweet gingerbread houses, went bowling and got to go see the lights, nativity displays and a Christmas concert at the Mesa temple. My cousin BrieAnn and her cute family were able to come over on Christmas. I was unfortunately sleeping the entire time they were there but I was able to visit for a little while. The sickness really put a damper on so many of our plans though. We were going to have a family party to celebrate little Andrew's 1st birthday, go to the Phoenix zoo, and other plans that had to get canceled because no one felt well enough to do anything except sleep and watch movies!

One of the highlights of Christmas was to see our little nephew Andrew. He was so fun and happy. You can see in the pictures below that he was highly entertained by his Aunt Megan and a party favor. What a cute little guy! All of his aunties are smitten :)

I absolutely love my family and am so happy we got to spend Christmas together. I don't think there's anything quite like the whole family together for the holidays.





Steve and I got to AZ a few days before the whole family so we were able to see some of our best friends from Tucson. Eric on the left was Steve's roommate who we hung out with all the time and on the right is my roommate Whitney. I was so happy that they were both in the area for the holidays. I love love love seeing old friends, especially after not seeing any for so long while we've been on the east coast.