Colonial Williamsburg

Last weekend we took a little mini vacation to Williamsburg, Virginia with my parents. The weather was gorgeous and we had a great time. The first day we visited colonial Williamsburg. In the early 1900's, the historic district of Williamsburg was restored by the Vanderbilt family to look like it did during the revolutionary war. A lot of the buildings are original. It is pretty amazing (we are big history nerds). We went to the reenactment of a trial in the old courthouse, went to the actual jail where blackbeard's pirates were held, and toured the governor's mansion


They also had a bunch of cool reenactments, like when the town was captured in the war by Benedict Arnold. The next day went to the battlefield at Yorktown, where the last battle of the revolutionary war was fought. We went on a pretty great ranger tour of the battlefield (I do love those rangers!). We also went to the original settlement at Jamestown. My family is pretty big into genealogy and family history and while we were there we saw a picture of one of the ancestors on my dad's side, one of my great great (lots of greats) grandfathers, Thomas West the 3rd "Baron de la Warr."
(can't you see the family resemblance?)I didn't know anything about him and I guess he was the first Governor of Virginia and was a big reason that the Jamestown colony didn't fail. Thanks mom and dad for a really fun weekend!

Lots of Updates

It's been forever since I updated our blog and a lot has happened, so the task is a little bit daunting...We moved into our new house on August 27th, the same day that hurricane Irene hit. We were lucky that so many people from our ward came out to help us in the morning so we missed the deluge later on that day. Our neighbors were shocked at how quickly we were able to move in...they had never witnessed the marvel of efficiency that is a Mormon move! Here are a few pictures of the house that I took today. It's still a work in progress, but we are mostly settled in. We bought a townhouse about 15 minutes away from the old apartment. I've always had a love for townhouses every since I studied abroad in London during college. We'll grow out of it at some point, but it's perfect for what we need right now

This is the BYU london Center. Loved that place!
This is the exterior of our house, it was taken before we moved it...it was just rainy today and so i didn't want to go outside
Here is the kitchen
And the dining room
The sun room. It's a perfect place to curl up and read a book. I'm still looking for a rug for this room, let me know if you have any ideas!
This is our deck, we're going to refinish it in the spring.
This is the family room. I'm still a little bit unsure about the furniture here...let me know what you think
And the basement
The guest room...where you will stay when you come visit!
The master bedroom...Jeremy did a great job painting this room. The whole room was moss green before...gross.
This is our master bathroom
and finally, my favorite room in the house, the closet! I think it makes Jeremy nervous just how much room there is for future clothing purchases!
In other news, I had my 26th birthday in October. You can see in the picture the cute flower cake Jeremy sent to my work.
We had a great time having some visitors in October. Our friends the Vaughns came at the beginning of the month. It was so good to see them. The next weekend, my good friend Merrilee came to visit from Provo.
We went shopping, watched gilmore girls, and went into New York City and saw Mary Poppins and went to the French Culinary institute. Jeremy did a great job as our designated tour guide.It was so great to have her here!
The last week in October, my parents came to visit from Boise. We went into Amish country, toured an old Amish farm, browsed in the shops, and went to Wilbur Chocolate factory. I love Amish country, it's just gorgeous in the fall.

Jeremy was so excited that we were going to get trick or treaters this year. He decorated the front of the house. He had scary music playing in the background and even a fog machine. Pretty sure next year he is going to be one of those creepy guys that dresses as a scarecrow and then jumps out at people when they try and take a piece of candy
We feel really grateful and blessed to be in our new home. We love visitors, so come visit anytime!

Oregon Coast

Last week, we were able to go on vacation with my family to the Oregon Coast. We all stayed together in a cute beach house in Depoe Bay

I have great memories of visiting the Oregon Coast growing up, and it was really great to visit again with some new members added to the family this time.We had a great time looking in the tide pools, playing games, making sand castles, eating yummy sea food and roasting smores on the beach.

Jeremy was very serious about the moat on this sand castle. It actually held out for while against the tide. On our second to last day, Jeremy, Heather, Chad, my Dad and I took some kayaks out on devils lake. It was really beautiful. We even saw a couple of bald eagles while we were out
We had such a good, relaxing time. Now it is back to the gross reality of packing, cleaning and moving, yuck!

Kuhre Reunion and New Home

It seems that we've been on a plane every month this year. In mid-July Melody and I attended our first ever Kuhre family reunion in Brighton, UT. It was a very brisk retreat from the oppressive late summer heat of Philadelphia.


This is a special spot for the Kuhre clan as we used to own a primitive cabin that the family would visit from time to time. I believe there were 26 people present, with only three Kuhre descendents (of Calvin and Roma Kuhre) not present. Lots of memories were made through hiking, searching for and replacing time capsules, story-telling, family history, game-playing, and getting to know each other better. There were also some epic meals eaten and enjoyed by all.


It was strange to now be in the "middle generation" and to see our parents become the grandparents. Everyone seems to be doing well, and we loved seeing all! We are looking forward to the next reunion in Santa Cruz, CA in a couple years.


After returning from Utah, Melody and I went into "home closing" mode. For the uninitiated this basically consists of intermittently being excited out-of-your-mind about the prospect of owning a house, and getting cold feet and wondering if you are making a mistake. There's also plenty of papers to review and correct leading up to the closing date.

Well, we closed on the 29th (an interesting story, ask us about it sometime...) and spent the last few dollars to our name (just about) on a nice dinner at the Capital Grille, which also served as our three year anniversary. Here are some photos:


This is just a preview, we'd like to have a housewarming party once we get settled in, maybe October or so. Melody has taken on the job of being the interior decorator, which I'm sure she'll do a fabulous job with. I'm not sure if she's going to go for the "Lord of the Rings" themed master suite idea I've been looking into...

Atlantic City

Last weekend we went on one last beach trip with our friends, The O'Farrells. We are so sad that they are moving! We went to Atlantic City, New Jersey. We had a great time walking the boardwalk and playing on the beach.

One thing all of us didn't quite understand was all of the lifeguards on the beach. There were like 4 of them every 20 feet(why not just post a sign that says "no lifeguard, swim at your own risk"? Sometimes i still do not get the East). They had this little rowboat that they took out to go "save" people a couple of times we were there. It was weird, none of the people looked like they were in any trouble. The boat itself seemed kind of dangerous though, it could really do some damage if it came down on someone' s head or someone got hit by the oars
I thought the boat was pretty great, so while Jeremy and Mike were out swimming, I asked the lifeguards if they would go out and pick them up as a joke. They told me no. Here is a picture of them frolicking in the water
It was nice to just have a day to relax in the sun and fly a kite. We'll miss you O'Farrells!