A Wicked Fun Anniversary

This past Monday, Jeremy and I had our second wedding anniversary. To celebrate, we took a little trip to visit New York this weekend. On Friday night we went to the temple and then took a little walk in Central park


The next morning we took the ferry and went out to visit the statue of liberty and Ellis Island

Ellis Island was so interesting. We went on a ranger tour when we got there and followed him from room to room. He gave us a pretty good idea of what it was like to be processed through Ellis Island. One of the most interesting things he told us was that as the immigrants were walking up the stairs, they would watch them really carefully and then put different chalk marks on the clothes of the people, depending on what they thought might be wrong with them. If they put an X on your clothes you were "likely insane." If they put and X with a circle around it, you were "definitely insane." (We saw quite a few people on the New York subways that I think might have gotten that mark). The main building at Ellis island is beautiful, it's crazy when you stop and think about how many millions of people came through there.

After Ellis Island, we went to see "Wicked." It was fantastic, we loved it!

Afterward, as we were leaving the theater some of the cast came out to sign autographs,

This is the actress who played Glinda, she was my favorite! As we were window shopping on 5th Avenue after the show, we just happened to see Glinda and Elphaba again, hehe
Definitely my favorite part of our trip was our dinner that night at L'Ecole, the restaurant associated with the French Culinary Institute. The food there was some of the best I've ever had. Here is a link to the menu for the night we ate there: http://www.frenchculinary.com/pdf/TRS060710.pdf. They even brought us out a special dessert for our anniversary!

Row Row Row Your Boat

Yesterday, Jer and I went to Fitzwater station in Phoenixville and rented a canoe to take down the Schuylkill river. To get to the river, you row to the end of the canal and then walk over a portage to the river. That canoe was actually really heavy. I was not a fan of the portage. The rest of the trip was really fun though. The river was beautiful and there was a lof of wildlife.



Captain Jeremy!

There were a couple of little islands along the way. We thought it might be fun to take a picnic next time.

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!