Vermont

Our first destination was to Joseph Smith's birthplace. Now, normally, there is no way that I go to some touristy site and walk around with an elderly tour guide, but it was a Sunday, we just got out of church, we're still dressed up and we're visiting the birthplace of the man who restored the Lord's church, the very same church that we just spent 3 hours attending. This all came together to force some immense spiritual peer pressure on me and we ended up going on the guided tour. Not only was the tour the snoozefest that I was expecting, but the guide quizzed me on scripture, questioned my member missionary dedication, and challenged me to share the gospel more... awesome. Of course, he's right, but can't you just make me feel good and pat me on the back for even showing up, I mean come on, I wore a white shirt and tie for goodness sake.

We were ripping through the woods in this rugged six passenger golf cart with another couple (he took the picture) and this Elder/tour guide (not the same one that made me feel really good about my scripture studies), I just thought it was pretty funny. The other couple was taking pictures of all the sites and what do Ginger and I want to remember. Hey, we all have priorities, ours are just dumber.

Forget the monument, what you need to take from this picture is the fact that I set the timer on our camera, put it on this wall and ran up those stairs to pose with Ginger, all in under 10 seconds.

The next day we, of course, had to go to Ben & Jerry's. Ginger was pretty determined to be Ben in this picture, I thought she had some weird affinity for the the hat or something, but she's telling me it was the shorter face of the two, very practical of her.

This is the flavor graveyard, which is what it sounds like, flavors that didn't quite appeal to the masses. There were definitely some interesting concoctions.

Now this is a very special find. Let me introduce you to... the world's largest filing cabinet. I'll give you a moment to take it all in. This is our favorite so far, incredibly ridiculous and absurd, made even better with the rust and the half opened drawers.

Costco Shopper, you should be ashamed!!

I just hate it so much when this happens! Come on people, you really can't put the turkey back in the refrigerated section. What a waste. I have to admit that I am guilty of not returning items to where they are supposed to be if I decide I don't want it later. I would never do this though. I will at least return it to the refrigerated section so it doesn't have to be thrown out. Some people!

Sam's Birthday Fun

Sam's birthday was last Thursday. Let me tell you this, it was way better than last year's birthday. I made Sam a Texas sheet cake which he loves. I always have the hardest time thinking of what to buy him. He just tells me that he doesn't want anything and to just get him a nerf basketball and hoop to hook on the door. He tells me that every year. I ended up giving in and getting it for him and it is really his most favorite present I have ever gotten him. He absolutely loves it and plays it every day. Who knew that I just needed to think what I would buy for my 4 year old nephew and he would be happy. It is fun to see how much he really does love it though. We then went to Fuddruckers for dinner for his birthday burger. The fun didn't last too long or should I say the burger. The food made him sick and he had to stop on the way out of the parking lot and throw up in the bushes (maybe a little too much info). He felt a lot better after that and just went back to playing with his nerf basketball. He told me that I am going to regret getting it for him, I am thinking maybe I will. I am just glad he actually liked a gift that I got him this year and it was only $5, you can't beat that. We also went to Vermont for his birthday but we will post about that later.

Whale Watching

While my parents were in town My mom, dad, Kelly, Zack, Sam & I went whale watching. My sister, Kelly heard of this place called 7 Seas Whale Watch out of Gloucester, MA so we gave it a try. It really was one of the coolest things that I have ever done. We went out on a yacht looking boat and were out in the water for about 5 hours. We ended up seeing about 12 whales (humpback, finback & minke). We mainly followed this little family of humpback whales.

Matching, matching green squared.This is my mom posing inside where we hung out while we were riding out to the "whale hotspots". It was fun to have the tables so we just played a few rounds of Idiot (card game) while we were waiting.

Zack got to come with us mostly so he wouldn't be a home to bug his sisters. It was fun to have him there.

Here the whale was waving to us and putting a little show. It was so funny.

Here are the 3 whales that we followed a lot of the time. I just loved to see their tails. It was such a perfect day to go.

Family Overload!!

The past couple months have been jam packed with family. It was so much fun. It all started back the end of June, yep you heard me right, the end of JUNE! My parents came out to visit for 1 1/2 weeks and then the day they left my brother, Paul and his fam came for a 1 1/2 and then the day after they left, I flew out to Utah and just got back 2 weeks ago! Wow that is some extra extra family time.

Here are just a few highlights from the last couple of months of family fun.

Boston with Paul & family

Paul, Rachelle and kids and I went downtown to Boston and toured the USS Constitution.

At the USS Constitution, they had a museum with a lot of fun interactive things that the kids could do. This is Sadie and Spencer.Yes, this is the only other picture I took on our Freedom Trail walk of Boston. I am really bad at remembering to take pictures. This is the robot girl. She would just stand still and then move like a robot if you gave her a tip. A little creepy but well worth the picture!


Sand Sculpturing at Revere Beach
Brooke and Sadie came and slept over so we headed over to see the sand sculpturing at Revere Beach. It was so amazing to see the detail of the projects. We only saw the finished products. I wish we would have been there while they were working on them.


East Canyon

We went to East Canyon with the family for a week. It was fun to hang out. I only got a few pictures of some of the little kids while we were watching some movies. I think they are pretty cute!


Bowling & Arbys Tradition
Sam and I have an ongoing tradition with the 3 oldest nieces and nephew (Sadie, Brooke & Christopher) to go bowling and then to Arby's after. We do this every time Sam and I are in town. Brooke was actually able to join us this time since she was visiting from New Hampshire. Oh it is hard to believe that 2 years ago we drove across the country with these 3!

Mini GolfFor one of Brooke's last nights in town we hit the mini golf course.

Seussical, The Musical

I heard on the radio that Seussical was going to be performed at the Sandy amphitheater. I just had to go! It is based on the Dr Seuss books (mostly about Horton). I absolutely love the music. I did see my nephew, Josh in the production of it at his school but I wanted to see it again. It was so worth it even though it was like 45-50 degrees outside! It was fun to go with Cami, Juan, Heather, Sami, Griff, Adrian and Hayley. If you ever get the chance to see it you must and you can invite me to go also.

It is good to be back home and have things back to normal! Sam only has 1 more year of school before he gratuates. Hooray!

Mary had a little lamb

We were reaching on this one, but Ginger's nieces were staying with us and we couldn't travel too far, so this was the best we could do. Besides, Natalie was weirded out by the largest set of wooden praying hands that I wanted to see. I know, unnecessarily oversized religous artifacts and the opportunity to traumatize my niece, how did I get talked out of that.

This is supposedly the schoolhouse that Mary and her lamb went to. Brooke and Natalie were kind enough to act it out for us. They were surprisingly very excited and actually regretted that they didn't have costumes to go along with their reenactment... um, yeah. It was about this time I was having a few regrets of my own.

We wanted to see Mary's house, but it was burned down by arsonists a couple years ago and all they have now is this monument in the town center of Sterling, MA.

So that was our visit into the world of nursery rhymes. It was fun, but I'm thinking our next trip needs to be somewhere in "Guinness Book of World Records" territory. I would love, for one day, to just visit something so horrendously ridiculous and absurd that it makes people question my ability to reason and make judgements, not that people don't already.

Saved by the Bell Reunion

I have been a supporter of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon from the start. I listen to it while I am working during the day. Jimmy Fallon has been trying to get the cast of Saved by the Bell together for a reunion show. There have been a few that have committed. Mark-Paul Gosselaar was on last night and acted like Zack Morris the whole time. It really was the greatest. You can watch for yourselves. I just love Saved by the Bell and have even got a few of my nieces and nephews addicted to it! Great times. I am excited for when they have the reunion show if they can get Kelly and Screech to commit!! See the clip below, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Video Recaps | Full Episodes | Webisodes

Conan time is here again!!

Is anyone else as excited as we are for The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien to start tomorrow? Sam and I have always enjoyed Conan and have missed him the last few months that he has been off. Jay Leno and Jimmy Fallon just aren't as entertaining as Conan is. It is good to have him back!

Chipotle Obsession!

We have been loving Chipotle ever since it opened near us. Here are some signs that I know we go there too much.

-When I went to visit Utah about a month ago, we made a trip to Chipotle! This was breaking my #1 rule while in Utah: Do not go to any eating places that we can just go to out here in Boston. I just couldn't resist!

-the manager practically knows us by name (well I am sure he would remember them if we told them our names of course). Whenever we go in he always says "Welcome back!"

-The funniest thing of all happened yesterday. My sister, Kelly had me watch Carley while she went to the temple and then she wanted to try the famous Chipotle after she got back. We went there and my best friend, the manager was there. He greeted us and said to me, "You came alone?" I then explained that Kelly had never been there so I was introducing her to it. He then went and got us some chips and guacamole and said they were on the house. Wow we felt so special with the VIP treatment! Sam was mad that he wasn't there for the free guac.

I am starting to think that I even like Chipotle better than Cafe Rio. I know that is terrible to say but I think it may be true! I crave Chipotle way more than I ever craved Cafe Rio. Chipotle is here to stay!!

More Birthday Fun!

The rest of my birth week was wonderful. On Friday (my birthday), I had to work but it wasn't too bad. I was surprised with some flowers from my work. That was so thoughtful of them to have them delivered to me. Sam didn't get home until 6:30 but then we drove up to New Hampshire and met my sister, Kelly and nieces, Brooke, Natalie and Carley. We went candlepin bowling. I just love bowling the New England style especially with the disco ball and black lights. You would think this type of bowling would be easier but it is a lot harder for me than regular (big ball) bowling. We then made a yummy trip to Coldstone and played cards at Kelly's. Perfect Birthday!!

(I couldn't resist posting Natalie's ghostly picture)

On Saturday, Sam and I wanted to go to a double feature. We are so obsessed with the double features lately. We first went and saw Star Trek which was so wonderful! I am not a Trekkie by any means. I really have never seen an episode of the show and I did see one of the movies, I think it was number 6. I couldn't tell you one thing about it though. I was so surprised by this movie. I highly recommend it. Our next movie was State of Play which was also a really good movie. Russell Crowe and Rachel McAdams are both great actors. Definitely not as good as Star Trek but still entertaining.
Sunday, the last day of my birthday week was great. Every year for my birthday, I have a strawbery pie instead of cake. This has been a tradition for a while now. My dad has always made it for me and this is the first year that we didn't happen to be with him so Sam took over the role as pie maker. It was so yummy. He passed the test! We also had chicken and steak kabobs for Birthday/Mother's Day. Sam also got me a game I have been wanting forever! Stratego! I loved this game growing up and have been wanting it. I am thinking Sam is going to regret this purchase. We are going to be gaming it up all of the time now. I also got a new purse (started using it about a month ago, I couldn't wait), a new nice shower head and Ranch Rush (a computer game to play while I am "working").Overall the first Birth-week celebration was wonderful. I am sure there will be many more... right Sam!

Today is my Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to me!! I am the Big 2-8 today! It is so crazy. I feel so old now. A couple of months ago I was talking to Sam and I was saying how I was 26 and he just looked and me and said, "I thought you were 27." I did the math in my head and then was a little sad that I had lost a whole year of my life without even knowing it! I have decided I am going to embrace my new mature age of 28. I possibly may even stop making Sam play Life and Disney Scene It with me. Probably not but I will at least think about it.

I started out the week with expressing to Sam that I though this year we should really start celebrating birth weeks instead of just the birthday. He wasn't totally on board with that but he played along. To kick off the week, on Monday we went to my favorite eating place, Chipotle and then rented Bride Wars (wasn't the greatest but still a little entertaining) and we played one of my favorite games rummikub. Wow what a fabulous way to start my birth week! Well let's just say that we kind of forgot to continue on with this fun streak. Dont get me wrong, those days were still enjoyable, I love just hanging out. They just weren't as "birth week" worthy as Monday was. (yes, there were guidelines) Last night was a continuation, we went to PF Changs (crazy busy for a Thursday night!) and then were going to go mini golfing but we were at the restaurant until 10:00 so mini golf didn't happen. Well now there are a few days left in the week and they are going to be wonderful. I love birthdays!! This birth week is going to be a hit.

Back from Utah

It is nice to be back with my own stuff. I hate living out of a suitcase! It was so much fun to be able to go to Utah for these last 2 weeks. It was kind of sad that I had to work most of the time but I guess I will let it slide since they are the ones that flew me out. I got there right before Easter so I was able to be there for the kiddies' egg hunt.
My sister, Crystal was my own personal driver. Anytime I was going somewhere, I would ask her if she and Judson wanted to come and if she could drive. (it kind of reminded me of when I first met Sam. He was my FHE brother in college and anytime my roommates and I would want to go anywhere, we would "conveniently" invite Sam and then throw in at the last second that he was also driving us there. We didn't have cars so he was always a good sport.)

We went bowling with my niece, Sadie and nephew, Christopher (pictured above). This is always a tradition when Sam and I come to town. It was so much fun. It does seem like I get worse and worse every time I go and I even took 2 semesters of bowling at Ricks! You would think I would be professional by now.

(only picture of bowling I had. Oh...isn't Judson so cute. And that is Crystal's half face)

I got in all of my favorite places to eat: The Old Spaghetti Factory, Cafe Rio, Paradise Bakery, Noodles & Co, Training Table, Pei Wei...etc. If it wasn't on my list then I wouldn't go, oh except for Geckos thanks to Cami.

It was fun to have several game nights with the fam, go to my nephews, Griffin's soccer game and Josh's musical, and hang out with friends a few times. It is hard to shove everything into 2 weeks so it will be nice when I come out to Utah again in July. I will be there for my usual month and can do more things.

Griff's Soccer Game. He was so much fun to watch.

The best part of the trip was to be able to see my new nephew, Benjamin. He was born about a month ago and I wouldn't have seen him until he was 3 months so that was a fabulous surprise. He is so precious.

Benjamin's Family

I had a great time but I was so happy to come back to Sam. It is hard being away for so long and talking on the phone for a couple hours a day just doesn't make up for it. It is good to be home again! Plus he is the picture taker so sorry about the pics. I just took most of them with my phone because I was too lazy to go into my suitcase and find my camera. Ooohhh... Sam, you were so missed!

200,000 Miles

Our cute little camry has grown up so much. It just hit 200,000 miles. Now that it has so many miles, we are all of the sudden freaked out that something is going to happen to it. We have never had any problems but now it just seems like it is so old. It has treated us so well. We have had many adventures with this car and plan to have many more. We have gone across the country 3 times and on many other road trips. I bought it back in 2002 before Sam and I got married and it only had 40,000 miles on it. Wow! We travel a lot. Thanks Camry, you have been wonderful to us and we look forward to many more years with you! Oh that just brings tears to my eyes!I knew you all would not want to miss the changing of the mileage either. So enjoy!

Office Drama

Crazy things have been going on with my work. I am working from home for the appraisal company that I used to work for out in Utah. Just a few weeks ago, a few of the appraisers decided they wanted to go off on their own. They are just going to work from their own homes. Now there are only a few of us left. There has been some shuffling around and I think we are starting to get things figured out. It is a huge change for everyone but I think it will work out for the best.

My boss called last night and wants me to come out and train someone that he has just hired. So now it looks like I am going to be heading to Utah on Thursday and will be gone for a couple of weeks. It will be sad to be away from Sam for so long but I am excited to see my family and my new nephew, Benjamin (born just a few weeks ago). Sam will be alone for Easter but he has tons and tons and studying to do so it will be better that I will not be a distraction in the nice weather. (I think he is excited that he won't have to do all of the little kid activities, when we don't even have kids.) All I have to say is that my boss sure has good timing with flying me out to train someone. I went out last year to train and it was conveniently the same time that Crystal was having Judson so I didn't miss out on all of the fun. Get ready for me Utah, here I come!!

Plymouth Rock

Not quite sure what we were expecting, but it wasn't this mausoleum. I think on the plaque it said pilgrims landed here and killed the rock and now this is it's eternal resting place, who knew. By the way, that is Ginger standing inside.

This is the actual rock itself with "1620" carved into it and to lend some perspective I have crouched down in front. Now granted, I have a huge melon for a head, but the rock is tiny. I think that with a really good grip and some stretchy pants, I could lift that thing. The best part is that there are all these pennies that are thrown around it like some kind of weird wishing rock. I just like the idea of people being confused by the fact that they actually chose to stare at a rock and then thinking there must be something more, so they pelt one of our oldest national treasures with pennies and turn it into the equivalent of a mall fountain.

Yes, I was voted most photogenic in high school, why do you ask? My gosh, what is going on here. It's like my own Benjamin Button happening and I've reverted back to my baby hair. Anyway, this was actually after visiting Plymouth, we headed down to the Cape and went to the tip and it was a little windy (hence the Bert and Ernie hairdo). On a side note, what's with highly prized coastline property being inundated with mini golf courses? I guess you go to the beach and suddenly you have a yearning for salt water taffy, bad driftwood art, and mini golf. So that was our Saturday outing, it was fun and hopefully next time we'll get to see something a little more unusual.

Mini Pepperoni

Okay many of you are going to think I am dumb for even posting about this, including Sam but I don't care! We were making our favorite pasta salad yesterday for the Linger Longer that we had after church today. It is a recipe that I think we originally got from my sister, Kelly. It is one of those that of course has the pasta, broccoli, cauliflower, olives, pepperoni and then a cheese & garlic dressing over it. Anyway, when we get the pepperoni, we have to cut each piece into fourths so you don't have too big of pieces in the salad. This has always been annoying to us even though it really doesn't take that much effort. We recently discovered at Costco that they sell a bag of mini pepperonis. Genius idea!!
Right when we saw them, we knew they would be perfect for our salad. They were more that perfect, they were also really cute. I find myself now trying to think of other ways to use the mini pepperonis. Maybe this week, we will make mini pizzas for the mini pepperonis or on the back of the bag they had a few more recipes to use them in. I know you are all jealous and are probably planning a trip to Costco to get some. If you don't have a membership, I can always just go with so you can share in my excitement for the mini pepperonis!

Happy St Patrick's Day!!

Our St Patty's was very low key. I did wear green but then didn't really even go anywhere since I work at home. I still didn't want to take my chances of being pinched. I had a lot of different things I wanted to do but thought I would give Sam a break on this holiday. It will be so much more fun when we have kids. I love doing all the theme activities. I did put together a little pot of gold (twix & rolos, what could be better that that) but that is about it. Don't be too disappointed, I did put some asparagus in our pasta and we had green salad. I will have to save making green mashed potatoes for next year.

Nevermind...

Interesting! Ice cream for $1.99 or carrots. Obviously we know what this person chose. We thought it was funny to think of the thought process of the person that ditched the carrots. I bet they were trying to stick to eating healthy but couldn't resist a bargain. I promise it wasn't us, we wouldn't have even messed with the carrots.