New York City and Becoming Urnal

This week has been a busy one for us. This week, I went back to working the night shift, 7pm-7am. Jeremy and I have a joke that since I stay up all night I'm not diurnal any more, I'm just plain urnal (just because it's sounds like a word you would use to describe someone who is grumpy). Although, Jeremy can vouch for me, I've actually been a lot less grumpy with this round of nights.

This weekend, Jer and I took a little day trip into New York City. We had been pretty busy all week with work, and so we didn't realize that it was only going to be 32 degrees and we were going to be walking around all day outside. Jeremy was really sweet and made a midnight run to Walmart to pick me up some pink long underwear and hand warmers. We were actually both pretty comfortable all day, those hand warmers worked great. I stuck a couple in my back pockets and gloves Jer put some in his hat and in his shoes.

First, we went and saw the tree in Rockefeller Plaza. You can't really tell in this picture, but it was huge! It looked so pretty lit up when it got dark.

Afterward, we walked over to Bryant park and went iceskating on the pond. They had a special promotion going on that day where you could iceskate for free, your rentals were free, and they even gave you free hot chocolate We thought it was a pretty good deal! I think this was my favorite thing we did all day. It was just kind of magical, everyone was just so happy and frolicking around on the ice.

That afternoon we went and saw "Newsical" on broadway. It came very highly recommended from the people in the discount line, but we both thought it was just ok. I think next time we'll try and see "Wicked." After the show we did a little bit of window shopping on 5th Avenue and went to FAO Schwartz. It's a pretty amazing toy store. Jeremy had a great time looking at all the Lord of the Rings stuff.

Afterwards we went out to dinner at Broadway Joe's on restaurant row. They have amazing cheesecake! As we were walking back through Times Square to the train station, we noticed an little convention of Santa Clauses


All day we had seen people dressed up as different things...a toilet, bacon, the statue of liberty...Elmo (he looked as if he had fallen on some hard times....) I guess it's a New York thing. I'm really glad we got to see the City during the holidays, what a fun day!

Thanksgiving

This year we hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for the first time, and we think it was a success. Jeremy's family flew in from Dallas and Jeremy's brother came from BYU to spend the holiday with us. I made cranberry sauce, rolls, and apple pie, and Jeremy was in charge of the Turkey (he did a really good job!). It was an awesome experience finally finding out exactly what giblets are...


The next day we took Jer's parents into Philadelphia. We went on a tour of Eastern State Penitentiary and saw Al Capone's cell. We also went to Reading Terminal Market for lunch and then took a tour of Independence Hall. That night we went to Gino's for cheesesteaks to complete the Philadelphia challenge. Jeremy thought that Pat's was a little bit better, but I thought they were both equally good. The next day we drove out to Lancaster county to a little town called Lititz. First we visited the Wilbur Chocolate Factory. They have pretty much everything you can imagine covered in chocolate. I think my favorite were the chocolate covered potato chips. We also went on a tour of the historic Sturgis pretzel factory while we were in Lititz where we all became certified pretzel makers. Apparently, pretzel makers were the second highest paying profession at one point in the United States...sometimes I question the accuracy of the information on some of these tours...

Saturday night we visited Longwood Gardens with Jer's family. We had heard a lot about the gardens from everyone here, and it definitely lived up to the hype. The outdoor lights were gorgeous, it reminded me a lot of temple square

They also had some pretty spectacular indoor displays


The trail you can see leading up to the tree is made up of lots of poinsettias and ivy. All of the garlands around this tree were made up of beautiful real red flowers. There was another tree there that had hundreds of blue butterflies on it. Every now and then, one or two of them would flap its wings slowly, just like a real butterfly. It was amazing. We were really sad to see Jeremy's family leave. We don't have any visitors to look forward to for awhile, so you should come out to PA and play!

History and Cheesesteaks

Last weekend, my parents came for a visit from Boise. We had a great time, it was sad to see them go. On the first day they were here we did some sightseeing in Philadelphia. We saw the liberty bell, Independence Hall, and went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art

That night we decided to get a taste of true Philadelphia culture and get philly cheesesteaks at Pat's. I was a little bit nervous because we heard that they get mad at you if you use too many words when you order. You basically want to communicate three things: 1) that you want a cheesesteak, 2) what kind of cheese you want, and 3) with or without onions. Chad did the best..."American with" The cheesesteaks were amazing, we'll definitely be back.
On Saturday we drove out to Gettysburg and spent the day exploring the park. We saw the cyclorama (which I thought would be a movie where your chair would spin around a little bit) it's actually a huge old painting that goes in a circle around a whole room that shows all of the major events in the three days of the battle. We also went to little round top, the devil's den, and then went for a ranger walk on the spot where pickett's charge took place. It was great having my dad there with us, it was like having our own personal tour guide.
Gettysburg truly is "hallowed ground." It really makes you feel reverent when you think of all the men who died there and what a significant event took place on that battlefield. I think Jeremy and I might come back in July to see the reenactment of the battle. I am so glad that we are both nerdy and like those kinds of things.

Avoiding the Swine Flu

I came home from work on Monday to what seemed like an empty house. Instead, something I can only characterize as an undead Ben Franklin jumped out of the closet to greet me. Melo said that my reaction was half scream, half hysterical laughter. I guess this was Melo's way of encouraging me to get into the Halloween spirit!

We are definitely in full Halloween mode this time of year. This was always in contention with Christmas as my favorite holiday as a child. We had a great night decorating halloween cookies with some of our friends in the area last week. Here are some sample cookies:


As you can see Melody made some jack-o-lantern and manatee shaped cookies. We're planning on going to a pick-your-own-pumpkin pumpkin patch tomorrow. We'll see how they turn out.

Swine flu hit home this week as some of the members of our church congregation came down with it. On another note, Melody and I had a good time walking along the Perkiomen creek trail this afternoon. It's really incredible how vivid the trees become in the fall up here:



I'm settling into my new position as an 11 year old scout leader. I've really enjoyed it so far. My old scout shirt even fit! Apparently I still need to make some modifications to my old shirt for it to be suitable for a scout leader (i.e. removing some badges, changing epaulet color, etc.). I guess I could still pass as a Boy Scout however, because one of the scouts asked me if I had "received any of my eagle palms yet". I laughed and could only reply that I was still working on them. (For those not in the know, eagle palms are an award available only to scouts 18 years of age and younger).

We had a lot of fun baby-sitting for a couple we know recently. One of the children referred to Melody as "Jeremy's mommy" haha. This coming on the tail of the comment from the scout was just too much! At least Melody knows that I'm a full-grown adult... Right Melo?

Fall Is Here!

This has been a fun week for us. Tuesday was my birthday, I turned 24. Jeremy surprised me with a "pajama gram" filled with a really soft pink robe. Apparently this particular kind of robe is one of Oprah's favorite things. I think that is cute that Jeremy did his research! That night Jeremy took me out to an Italian restaurant by our house called Maggianos. They had such yummy food!


This weekend we went for a little trip out into Amish Country. We stayed at a little bed and breakfast called the Inn at Twin Linden. It was such a fun place. They had a beautiful grounds and an amazing three course breakfast in the morning. The owners gave us a lot of great tips about what to do in the area. We have decided that we are definitely bed and breakfast people. Here is a picture of the Inn, our room and one of the grounds.


We spent the rest of the day exploring Amish Country. We stopped by Kitchen Kettle village and did a little bit of shopping. My favorite thing there was the petting zoo The leaves are really starting to change now. It's amazing how bright some of the trees are! The whole time we were driving through Amish country, I kept wanting to stop and take pictures because everything was just so gorgeous


Afterwards we went for a genuine Amish buggy ride


On our way home, we stopped by Reading Hospital so that Jeremy could see where I work, I think it is a really pretty building. Here is a picture


We're excited to come back to Amish country in the future and do even more exploring!

Our New Home

Here are a couple of pictures of our new Apartment. It's still a work in progress but it looks a lot better than it did a couple of days ago. We made the long drive to Pennsylvania on August 25th. It took us 3 days to get there. (Thanks Matt for the tip about the rolling sagebrush...definitely not to be missed...it was definitely the most exciting thing we saw along the way.) Once we got to Pennsylvania we camped out for a couple of days until all of our stuff got there. (It's so nice to sleep on a mattress again...still haven't quite gotten over it!) Jeremy started his new job as a building consultant for Sustainable Solutions Corporation last Monday and he is loving it so far. It seems like the perfect job for him. I recently got a job at the Reading Hospital on the labor and delivery unit. We feel really blessed that I was able to find a job so quickly because it's a tight job market for nurses here as well as in Provo. Although both of us miss being in Provo in the fall, we really like Pennsylvania a lot. Our new ward has been so nice, the area where we live is beautiful, and there's a lot to do nearby. We're going to try to take little trips on the weekend as much as we can.
We took our first little trip to Valley Forge National Park last weekend. It's only a couple of miles from our Apartment. We plan to visit Amish Country and Gettysburg in the next few weeks.

A Few Summer Updates!

It's been a busy summer for us, so I feel like I need to give a few updates before I start with current posts, here goes...


This April we attended my graduation ceremony at BYU. I actually graduated from the nursing program in December, but it was fun to come back and kind of put closure on my BYU experience
In May we took a trip to the Washington D.C. area to go to our friends Matt and Kim's wedding. We had a blast!


One of our favorite things that we did while we were there was visiting the Civil War battle site, Antietam. Jeremy was in his element there. I think our move to Pennsylvania in a few days is all a strategic move on his part to be in the right place to be a civil war reenactor after retirement



In June we took a trip to McCall, Idaho and stayed in a cabin with my family. Jeremy, Nic, my dad and I went on a river trip on the Canyon Run of the payette river. It was pretty intense. The right side of our boat ended up getting launched into the river. Check out Jeremy's facial expression in the first picture. In the second picture, you can actually see my dad in mid flight...priceless.


On August 8th our little nephew Luke arrived. He is adorable. We are sad that we are moving away and won't have more time with him!
In August, we took a trip with Jeremy's family to Yellowstone National Park. It was just gorgeous. We were actually at old faithful the same time as President Obama. He was on our list of "wildlife" to see, but unfortunately, we didn't get to cross him off our list

We really liked all of the educational pictures posted around the park. This one was our favorite. We learned not to stand on top of old faithful.

Although we didn't get to cross President Obama off our list, we did get to see a grizzly bear!

Jeremy graduated from the construction management program at BYU a few weeks ago. He has accepted a postition with Sustainable Solutions corporation in Pennsylvania. We will be making the long drive to in just a couple of days. We're both a little bit sad to be leaving Provo, but we're excited for our new adventure together. Our next post will be from Pennsylvania!

Of Kuhres and Koorays

Melody and the world at large have beat me in a long war of attrition today. I never thought I would be posting anything to anyone’s blog, much less my own. Through long therapy and sleepless nights however, I have come to realize that blogs can be a great way to stay in touch with friends and family. So, hopefully we'll see you around here from time to time!

Part of the reason it's taken us so long to get a blog going is that I didn't want to put anything out there that wasn't perfect. As you can see, we aren't perfect yet, so consider this blog a work in progress. While the design and even title might change, the url will always be the same, so feel free to bookmark us! Our first title, "Of Kuhres and Koorays" will be familiar to many of you. Ever since I gave up on other people pronouncing "Kuhre" correctly (i.e. at about 12 years old), I've accepted the most common mispronunciation, "Kooray," as a nickname. Please note that Melody has not adopted this nickname as of yet :)

Well, see you later!