Best Ever!

For Steve's break from school we went on a six day camping trip. It was the best vacation ever, besides the fact that we got rained on everyday besides the first and last (the two days we spent mostly in the car). It was so nice not having to share Steve with mountains of homework! Everywhere we went we took the scenic route and just basically marched to the beat of our own drummer, if we wanted to stop at look at the scenery we did, if we didn't eat lunch until 3:30 in the afternoon and dinner at 10 pm-- no big deal right?! We were on vacation! It was lovely.

Our trip started in south eastern Maine. I wanted to see some of the lighthouses that are there. We ended up seeing three (one up close and two from afar). We also walked up along the coast at this beautiful state park. The rocks on this coast seriously look like petrified wood-- it's crazy! Maine was beautiful though, I want to be one of those old retired people who "summers" in Maine :).

One of the lighthouses we saw from afar-- It took something like 10 years to build because half of the day the bottom part of it is underwater. Crazy huh?

These are all pictures of 'Portland Head Light', it is one of the most photographed lighthouses in the U.S, I think you can see why. The grounds for the lighthouse were beautiful and there was this huge park. If you ever drive through Maine- drive by here!

This is the restaurant we picked to eat Maine lobster at (well Steve at lobster-- I ate a cheeseburger!) Steve didn't order a lobster though he ordered a lobster roll which is lobster, mayo and lettuce in a bun. He loved it! The restaurant was so nice and CHEAP! We ate outside and listened to the waves crash up on the rocks

Entering New Hampshire....

Best tinfoil dinners ever.
They were a little unconventional because the day we had them there was a torrential downpour and our campsite-including our fire pit- was under like 3 inches of water. We ended up having to go into town and buy a tarp, some rope and some stakes and make a 'shelter' (pictured below) just so we could have a place to be dry. Instead of heating these up in the fire we heated them up on a griddle on our campstove. They were seriously so good though, we are going to make them at home just for fun!

Our awesome shelter, that made a great clothesline too!

The next couple of pictures are of the place we stayed in New Hampshire, White Lake state park. The lake was beautiful and had a nice sandy beach and surprisingly warm water.

Our friends, the Dawsons, met us in New Hampshire for a night and then we camped in Vermont together too.

All kinds of crazy mushrooms grow in the mountains of New England. We saw different varieties of mushrooms everywhere we went!

White Lake

Entering Vermont....

We got to Vermont and decided it was time for a hike. After all we had been camping for three days and no hike yet because of all the rain. So we set up camp and headed out for out hike. Almost as soon as we started walking, it started to pour. And I mean POUR! We decided to keep going. We got half a mile into our hike and these pictures show how wet we were. You can see the dry patches on my shirt.

This was the only part of my shorts that was dry. We were SOOO wet!

The vista we hiked to see...

Most of this hike looked just like this picture- LOTS of trees... everywhere!

On Monday we went for another hike but FORGOT OUR CAMERA :( I was sooo sad when I realized one mile in that we didn't have it. So no pictures but oh well. We hiked Mount killington in Vermont. I'd like to say I loved the whole thing but it was HARD and I didn't feel great therefore I became tired and irritable. I eventually came out of it and the hike ended up being fun.When we were half a mile from the top it started to... guess... RAIN... so most people we saw were telling us the hike to the top wasn't worth it because all you could see was white and nothing else. However we decided to keep going, right as we came out of the trees the clouds parted and the view from was incredible. You could see green mountains for miles. We stayed up there for probably half an hour just looking. But once again the clouds moved in and we started the descent.

This is the view from our campsite! We looked at this while eating dinner and playing games! I've never had such an incredible from our campsite!

Steve staked our tent into a tree stump and it definitely got stuck. We started calling it the sword in the stone. Finally our friend pulled it out though...

Our campsite had this cute little lean-to shelter. It definitely saved us from some rain!

Some of our other friends met us in Vermont. From left to right it's us, the Dawson's, and the Segrera's with their little girl Elana.

We were planning on going to Six Flags New England on our way home but in the end decided it was going to be too expensive. Instead, we stopped a roadside ice cream shop for some vermont maple soft serve and drove to a ski resort that had an alpine slide. It was almost like a roller coaster!

This was so fun. I can't wait to do another one!

A couple of days after we got home Steve got a fly fishing bug (haha no pun intended) and we ended up driving to Western Mass. so he could do some fly fishing. I think it might have been his favorite day of all! He caught some fish, and I set up our hammock between some trees and read my book. It was great.

Steve tying some expert flies.

Where I set the hammock up

Steve's awesome get-up :) Love it.


On Friday we went to the Museum of Science, spent 5 hours and still didn't see the whole thing! Some of the highlights were the lightning show, the huge stuffed moose, seeing a saguaro cactus (well it was fake but whatever), and the giant ear. We also saw a cool exhibit on pregnancy and child birth. There was really exhibits for just about everything. I can't wait till someone comes to visit so we have an excuse to go back!










Now Steve is back in school (he started today), I'm feeling pretty nervous about this semester, it's going to be a new adjustment and I might never see Steve but, it should be ok right?Anyways, I go to Utah for a week tomorrow cause my best friend from high school is getting married. I will get to meet our new niece and get spend time with my sisters!

P.S. Sorry if you are inundated with pictures but I couldn't help myself! I wanted you to get a taste of the New England.

I must be going crazy.

For those of you who don't know, Steve is a HUGE BYU football fan. He loves it, as he puts it, his "blood runs blue" and their first game of the season is less than one month. Normally by this time of the year, I have been inundated with BYU football stats, expectations, who is going to be a star etc. When I realized the other day that I haven't heard ANY of this talk I began to wonder if I was in some alternate reality, or if my real husband had been abducted by aliens or something crazy like that.

Then I asked Steve when the first game was... and he DIDN'T know.

It was right about now my heart started beating faster, and my breathing became shallow as I thought-- my husband doesn't know when BYU football starts-- He really must have been abducted by aliens.

All of a sudden I realized it was my real husband, he has just been so stinkin' busy he hasn't even had time for one of his favorite hobbies (reading ALL material related to BYU football and then giving me the breakdown!).

It was then that I told Steve to take a break from the endless studying and give me some BYU football information so I could feel normal! This is when he looked at me like he was the one in an alternate reality-- Did his wife just demand that he take time to read about sports and then tell her about it???? Seriously???

I think I am going crazy because it used to drive me crazy when he would spend so much time reading up and telling me about football. This year I kind of missed it :)

What Have I been up to.....

I thought I should give an update of life around here. Since quitting my job I have had ALL KINDS OF FUN! In no particular order here are some of my adventures (and occasionally Steve comes along).

There is a small lake right in the middle of Cambridge with a nice walking path around it. Steve and I went and explored a little at sunset, it was beautiful!

Last week I had some girls over and taught them how to make strawberry jam. We had a great time and the jam was delicious!

There was a free Beach Boys concert at the outdoor hatch shell. Steve couldn't go because he had to much homework so I went with a friend and met up with Steve's classmates and their wives! We all brought picnics and played games while we listened. The weather couldn't have been more perfect for an outdoor concert.

Our friends' cute daughter stuffed like 4 giant grapes into her mouth and this was the result...

So I'm thinking about changing my profession to a hairstylist... just playing. However I did learn to highlight hair. My friend Brittany taught me and another friend to highlight her hair in exchange for doing our highlights. I do say, I think we did a pretty good job!

A couple of weeks ago I went ate Boston cream pie at the Omni Parker House hotel where it was invented. I hadn't ever had it before but it was soooo good, and so pretty that I almost didn't want to eat it.

That's what I've been up to!

As far as other stuff goes, Steve is busy as always but he is doing well. He pretty excited for the end of the semester coming up in about two weeks. We are planning a camping trip that takes us through Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont! We can't wait!

Second Anniversary!

Last Tuesday July 14th was our second wedding anniversary! I can't believe that two whole years have passed since that wonderful day. I don't think either of us would have ever guessed we would be celebrating it in Boston! It has seriously been the best two years of my life and I wouldn't change a single thing about them. Happy (late) Anniversary Steve, I love you!


We waited to celebrate until Saturday and had a great night out! We went to a local Brazilian bbq (like Rodizio Grill) where we enjoyed lots of good meat. Our favorite was the Brazilian sausage. Then we walked down the street to a local ice cream place. It was SOOO GOOD! This place had crazy flavors like bacon, lemongrass, and lavender, just to name a few. We chose pretty normal flavors and enjoyed it very much. We also wanted to see Harry Potter 6 but since it was opening weekend we were worried we wouldn't even get to sit together-- so we decided to watch a movie in the comfort of our own home and are saving HP for another weekend :)

As for the rest of life here, I quit my job at the pharmacy. My last day was last friday. I am so relieved not to be working there anymore. It was a TERRIBLE job. I am looking for new jobs, I am officially an employee of a temp agency and am hopeful I can find work through that for the next couple of weeks. In the mean time, I am loving being at home for a bit and playing house wife-- Cooking and cleaning never felt so good! Steve is constantly swamped with work and projects and never gets enough sleep. Luckily, he likes his classes, his group and the subject material a lot, so that makes up for some of it. He is doing really well in his classes and gets good grades!

As a side note, Steve's sister Laura just had her baby girl on Monday! We are so excited to have a brand new little niece. She has a head full of thick dark hair and is adorable. She doesn't look like a wrinkly old man which is great! We can't wait to meet her!

Life in the big city

After Lake Powell, Steve flew home to Boston and I stayed behind for a couple of days to hang out with Kiersty and Brittany! We had a ton of fun and I was sad to go. These are pics from Gardner Village-- we spent an afternoon there shopping. If you live in Utah and you haven't gone to Gardner Village, I highly recommend it! There are a whole bunch of cute cute boutiques and home decor shops, I LOVE this place and could spend thousands of dollars there (if I had thousands to spend). I can't wait for another Sisters' Trip!

Boston:

So we've been in Boston just over a month now and are adjusting and really liking it for the most part! We really love our location and apartment. Our ward is full of young couples/families most of whom are in graduate school. Steve LOVES the weather here. I think there has been like 3 or 4 really sunny days other than that it's either overcast or raining. The hottest temps we've seen are around 85 and the coolest around 55 degrees. Needless to say- Steve is in HEAVEN since he hates being hot, and he gets hot when its about 75 :)
The city is awesome with lots of things to explore and YUMMY places to eat. So far, we walked the freedom trail. There is a painted red line that runs through downtown Boston and snakes around to most of the Historic sites that were key in the founding of America. Some sites include: Sam Adams, Ben Franklin, and some other important people's graves, and the Old North Church, the place where the Declaration of Independence was first read, King's church and lots more!

The Old North Church (Where Paul Revere hung the lanterns to warn the British were coming)

Paul Revere's ride

Paul Revere's House

Mass. State House

Another weekend we drove to New Hampshire with a couple from Steve's program and hiked Mount Monadnock. It is the second most hiked mountain besides Mt. Fuji, and is the tallest peak in New England standing at 3,165 feet (so not exactly the tallest mountain you've ever seen.) The hike was a 2 mile uphill rock scramble! It was hard!!!! However it was all worth it when we got to the top. The peak is just rock, no trees or anything so you have a 360 degree view! It was a beautful day to go too- no rain, just cloudy skies and like 75 degrees and everywhere around was SOO green.

We went with some other friends to the nations largest 'scooper bowl' which is where a bunch of ice cream vendors (local and national) come together and you get to sample all of their ice cream (with an $8 fee of course!). Some of our fave's were Ben and Jerry's oatmeal cookie dough, Haagen-Daaz lemon sorbet, and Brighams cookies and cream!

It's a good thing we did all of this stuff early because Steve is so busy now the poor man hardly has time to eat and sleep! His program was smart and gradually eased them into school but now it is in full swing. We are adjusting (I think I'm having a harder time than Steve!) and life here is becoming more normal so that's good. I found a job working full-time as a pharmacy technician but for a number of reasons I am going to keep looking for another job.I am happy to have a job in this economy, I just hope I can find a better one!

Yesterday we celebrated the 4th by going to the fireworks extravaganza here. It was hands-down the most spectacular fireworks show I have ever seen! The Boston symphony played and Neil Diamond sang a few songs including Sweet Caroline.

So this is our life right now! I will post pictures of the apartment as soon as I get pictures up on the wall!

the usual catch-up!

Sorry I have been such a bad blogger-- I know I don't really have an excuse because I don't have a job nor do I have school or really anything to do all day. However, I have been busy exploring Boston and making friends- So there you have my excuse! I will make this one short with a lot of pictures so I can catch up to what's going on lately!

We took some family pictures with the Hales before Lake Powell. It has been two years since the WHOLE family was together and there has been a new addition to the family since. We had a lot of fun taking them and I am really happy for some new "couple" pictures of Steve and I!

We also celebrated Steve's 29th birthday while we were in Utah! I can't believe another year has gone by! He already got his birthday present back in February (Recall his mountain bike aka his mistress). But Sandra made him a delectable birthday dinner and a really yummy cake! Abbie and Landon helped him blow out the candles on the cake because 29 candles is a lot of candles :)

This was the first time we got to meet Mike and Erin's new son Noah-- He was ADORABLE. He was like the happiest, most smiley baby ever! Aww I miss him!

Next we left for Lake Powell and had a week full of soooo much fun! It was awesome to be with the whole Hale family and lay around in the sun, play cards and play on the boat! There isn't much to be said except for Wow what a great vacation!

Steve taught Abbie how to fish!

Sandra got duped into taking a crazy tube ride with Erin- I just feel like her face says it all!

Just Steve being awesome on the wakeboard- what's new!

The beautiful canyon in the early morning...

I had a major face-plant on the first run of the week. I didn't really want to do that again so I wasn't very adventurous on the wakeboard this year. I did enjoy the new girl's wakeboard though!

Hahahahahaha

Steve doing his traditional 'party trick' on the slalom ski

The May's, some the Hale family friends came with us and one of them set up a huge rapel! I didn't try :)

Girls special swim! haha.

We did water weenie wars and jumped from tube to tube. No one was hurt and we had so much fun! I think everyone came away with some awesome bruises though.

That's the end of lake powell! I will get caught up soon!