Ocean City

Last weekend we took a little road trip to Ocean City, New Jersey with some friends from the ward, the O'Farrells. I wasn't sure what to expect from a New Jersey beach, but it was actually really pretty. There was a cute little boardwalk with an amusement park, shops, and every kind of fried food imaginable. I think something about being next to the ocean makes it taste even better. We had heard rave reviews about one of the restaurants along the boardwalk, Mack and Manco's pizza, so we made that our first stop.

Very yummy! After that, we spent some time on the beach.

It was definitely a bit chilly. Jeremy and Mike actually got all the way in and went body surfing. They were just about the only people in the water. I heard the people next to us on the beach saying that they "must be from Canada." Afterwards, we took a walk along the boardwalk


and tried a few more of the restaurants. The funnel cake, fried oreos, and salt water taffy were amazing. I think we all left the boardwalk very satisfied!

Sunny Dallas

Jeremy and I got home from our trip to Dallas yesterday. I had forgotten just how much I like Texans, they are great.We had a really fun time spending time with Jeremy's family and relaxing a bit. The first night we were there we spent at rough creek ranch. It was a really fun place, they had swimming, rock climbing, biking, fishing, and lots of random puppies to play with. This was in our welcome bag when we got there.

I appreciate little touches like this! Here is a picture of all of us at the restaurant at the lodge. The food there really was amazing.


The next day we stopped by Fossil Rim, which is an African animal preserve. They give you a bag of feed and then you just drive through the park. The animals come right up to your car. I loved feeding the giraffes

The zebras were a little bit too grabby for my taste.

The rest of the week we did a few things around the Dallas area. We were able to tour the new Dallas Cowboys stadium, which I now know has the largest high definition television screen in the world. Jeremy was really excited about seeing that! We also went to a western mystery dinner at the Gaylord Texan resort.

Our table (the Macgyvers) even guessed right about who had committed the murder. It was a little bit sad coming back to Pennsylvania, we had to ride back on a tiny turbo prop plane (I hate throwing up on planes, everyone just looks so horrified) and we got to drive home from Allentown through a monsoon. Welcome home!

An Ode to Lasagna

Those that know us, will also know our love for good food and cooking. With that being said, we had the Stouffer's over for dinner last night...

Please note the words at the top of the packaging - "Party Size" - Giddy up. It takes Melo and I about three or four nights to finish this, but it gets better every night. My favorite three things about Stouffer's Vegetable Lasagna are 1) Stouffer's doesn't use any preservatives, 2) you don't even miss the meat while eating it, and 3) it tastes great!

Anyway, you should pick one up at your local grocery store. On another food related note, my brother, Brandon, recently gave a speech at the Sloan Showcase at BYU. He describes the science behind spicy foods and even includes a practical demonstration. Wait till the end to see the volunteers choke over a dot of special hot sauce.



Well, now we say goodbye to our Pennsylvania friends for a week as we are heading to Texas soon. We'll see if we can't bring back some of the good Texas weather with us.

Trip to Boise

Last week I was able to fly home to visit family in Provo and Boise. I get a little bit more time off than Jer does, so unfortunately I had to go solo this time. It was so much fun to see my nephew, Luke. Last time I saw him, he was only about 3 weeks old. He is the cutest, most social little guy.


I had a great time catching up with some friends in Provo. I was able to attend one of my favorite nursing professors' "last lecture." I was so glad I was able to be there, she had a lot of great advice. It was so much fun walking around campus, it made me want to be a student again! My friend Merrilee and I made a much needed trip to Cafe Rio. Cafe Rio is hands down the restaurant I miss most in Pennsylvania!

After spending a couple of days in Provo, we drove home to Boise. It was so good to be home and to spend some time with my family and with another special friend...


It was great to spend some quality time together going on walks, eating meat, and finding ned (he finds his teddy bear named ned when we hide it). It was also really good to have some girl time with Brooke and Cami.


I had a great time seeing everybody, but it was really good to get back home and see Jeremy. He had a big bouquet of flowers waiting for me at the airport, what a good husband!

Spring is Here!

Spring has finally come to Pennsylvania and snowmaggedon is over! On Saturday Jeremy and I went out to enjoy the sunshine with a picnic at Valley Forge. We weren't the only ones who had the idea, there were tons of people there. We met a couple with a cute little dachshund named Duncan. He was very pleased to share some of the fried chicken from our picnic. I thinking that when we move in August, we definitely need to go someplace where we could get a puppy! On an unrelated note, We are so excited that Nic and Noelle will be in New York City for the summer, only 2 hours away!

Spring Mountain

Melo and I went to Spring Mountain Ski Resort this weekend. Think bunny hill, not multi-peak ski resort. We decided to go tubing. You start by hooking your tube to a wench that pulls you to the top of the mountain. When you get to the top, you choose a lane and let her rip. You can actually get going pretty fast (maybe 25 mph?) if you get yourself into an aerodynamic position and limit contact with the snow. Anyway, here's a video I took that basically explains it all:

Melody's lesson for the children at church was on light and dark (these are 3 year olds so they keep the lessons pretty simple). We went to the library across the street from where we live to see if we could find a book on light and dark. They didn't have Goodnight Moon, a childhood classic; but they did have this book:

I would have totally gone for it. I can think of few illustrations of light vs. dark that are more memorable to me as a child than this.

Snowmageddon

Yes, snowmageddon has officially arrived in Eagleville, PA. I'm not sure who coined the term, but they certainly succeeded in creating mass hysteria in the mid-Atlantic region this weekend. My theory is that the weather stations have a racket with the retail stores where they get a cut of any snow shovels, melting salts, or other snow-related purchases. To be fair, Philadelphia did receive over two feet of snow, setting a record for 2nd highest accumulation for any snow storm ever in the area. The western suburbs received much less, probably 12" to 18". Here are some photos of our apartment complex:






We are also in the midst of purchasing plane tickets for our travels this year. Already purchased are the tickets to Dallas in April. We will be visiting my family for a week. We're biding our time on tickets to Hawaii to see if the price comes down. We're also looking at tickets prices to SLC to get Melody home a week with her family. By the way, if you have not used farecast.com, you should. It searches all flights and predicts trends in pricing. It will even recommend purchasing or waiting and give you a percent confidence that it is correct.

I will be doing a weekend winter encampment with the scouts this weekend at Valley Forge National Park. This particular encampment is the longest running encampment in the United States and is the only encampment that takes place in a National Park. I think it will also be cool to remember George Washington and the other soldiers that made it their winter home so long ago. Needless to say, these are my justifications for (potentially) freezing this weekend in (potentially) a foot of snow. Good times.