Strolling in Philadelphia

Ava and I spent the night at Nicole's apartment in Philly near Thomas Jefferson University, where she is getting her masters. I just love this girl, she was an incredible hostess and could not wait to take us around the city.

Woke up and walked to Whole Foods for breakfast and then just walked and talked and looked at cute shops along the way.  We didn't get down in the heart of the sight-seeing downtown which was fine because it was a chilly day and Nicole showed me some places that she and Kurt took engagement pictures.  So, the photo buffs that Nicole and I are - we spent most of our time taking fun pictures with Ava!

^^Somehow the trees are green and the leaves on the ground were yellow.  Strange to still so a lot of green around! But everything was so beautiful :)

 ^^Don't worry, this wasn't a stray cat, it belonged to someone on the street. Ava went nuts as soon as she saw it. She's a total animal lover

I love the charm and history of old cities.  You can feel the love. 

Nicole and I were talking on the way home about how refreshing it is to see houses along a street that don't have the cookie cutter mold and have big trees in the yards and nice space between the houses.  I loved driving up and down hills and turning corners. 'Til we meet again, PA!

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2013 Trip to Pennsylvania

Had a blast last week while spending time with family and friends in Pennsylvania! I hadn't been home for 2 years so there was a lot of catching up to do!

HIGHLIGHTS:

• FLYING:   Delta was the BEST choice for flying with a baby! They were so accommodating, I rarely even had to ask for anything.  I called a couple days before the trip to declare myself as "infant in arms" so they already had that on my boarding pass and new to help me.  I got a whole row to ourselves on 3 out of the 4 flights we had!  Seriously, SO lucky.  And Ava slept through almost all of all the flights and was pretty happy when she was awake.  Even on the way home when she had been up the whole previous night throwing up and was on the verge of cutting a molar.  Angel baby.
• FALL: Huge trees/leaves, and we went to my high school's Friday night football game! Ava clapped along with the cheerleaders 
• PHILLY: Visited Kurt and Nicole at her adorable apartment. It made me want to come home and totally redecorate mine! We satisfied each other's urge to just stroll through the city and talk and take lots of pictures.  I'll be doing a whole other post with those  :)  She was the perfect hostess and I miss her so much already!  Can't wait to go back next August for her wedding!
• LUNCH in Wayne: Nicole and I went to Panera Bread for lunch with her Aunt Gretchen.  Ava instantly made a friend with her daughter, Bea.  We then went and toured the home of an incredibly successful business woman in the area - we're talking Forbe's Top Earning Women successful.  I love Wayne, PA.  The homes and streets and shops are so charming and cozy and inviting.  I could drive those streets every day.
• DOG: Ava loved my dog.  Every morning Ava would get so excited to come down the stairs and see Molly waiting for her at the bottom.  She also loved my stairs and having lots of people to walk her up and down the stairs multiple times a day.
•  PARTY: We had a little birthday party for Ava at Aimee's apartment and got to see some more HS friends.  Julius tried to impress her with his dance moves.  Aimee and Nicole got her some adorable outfits and Trader Joe's catered :) 
•  FAMILY/FOOD: Lots of yummy food with my family - mexican, cheesesteaks, Shady Maple smorgasboard (Amish country), Double D diner for breakfast.  And got to visit Aunt Cricket's antique shop which got me totally excited for Christmas!
•  COUSINS: Went to New Jersey to see Lori and Allison who I haven't seen since our wedding reception! 

          Ava got to play with their handsome little boys, Quintin and Xavier, that I'd been dying to meet. They'll be her 2nd cousins.  Wish their sister Kelly could have been there! These two are amazing moms that just exude joy :) totally fun to be with them!  Lori was the sweetest and got Ava a birthday cupcake to celebrate along with Aunt Kathy's birthday that day. She was turning 66 and looking 26! ;)

• SHOPPING: Met Nicole again at Exton Mall where I spent most of my days ;)  Ava tried her first Auntie Anne's pretzel and LOVED it. I think I know what we're having at her birthday party...   I also had to go to Wegman's before leaving PA.  If you know Harmon's out here in the West, it's kind of like that.  I took a picture of their enormous refrigerated section dedicated to ravioli, tortellini, other pasta, and ricotta cheese because you won't find that in Idaho.  They also had a huge bulk candy section with California mints that I brought home for Devin to try.

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Friends

I decided to do this post now for a couple reasons.
1) This weekend I wish a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Nicole, Scott, Becca, AND Sam! 4 birthdays in 3 days always meant F U N.
2) Alex and Zach are currently starting their 6 week long backpacking trip through Europe. awesome.

Devin asked me, "Are they dating?" I was like, no. They're just best friends.  And that's what I love about it.  That those two are who they are to just plan a trip to backpack through Europe before having to settle down and commit to their AWESOME jobs they have lined up in the fall.  So, good for them - I will visit Europe vicariously through them :)

It often surprises people to hear about my group of friends from high school.  6 boys, 5 girls - no crazy love triangles, etc. And that we managed to find all sorts of fun things to do that didn't revolve around alcohol or drugs.  And that we've managed to stay in contact...mostly thanks to Nicole because she would never let it be any other way!  Now we just have to wait for this wedding to bring us all back!

So...

Blast From The Past

Off-roading in Scott's jeep through awesome forests!

The EPIC trash bag sliding

 This all started because we wanted to do a slip and slide but didn't have one so we figured it'd work to put trash bags over our bathing suits.  Well, I don't remember it working out so well as a slip and slide but they were just awesome for running around and taking stupid pictures and going to Burger King and Dairy Queen in to visit our friend Aimee :)

  Probably one of the best days ever.

Zach's surprise birthday 

 We got him a bunch of dumb presents from the $ store, namely some XXL red women's panties which he later went up to the ice cream man with and tried to use them as payment.  Don't think it worked out so well :)  Then we had races around Alex's couldesac on skateboards, scooters with recycling tubs on them, etc.  We're so awesome.

Countless bonfires :)

Senior yr spring break

  Me, Aimee, and Alex went on a FANTASTIC trip to Clearwater, FL.  We spent a day at Busch Gardens, went to a couple Phillies spring training games, and countless hours on the basically private beach behind our hotel.  LOVED IT and LOVE THEM - we had a blast! 

Zach is in all of the silly pictures, of course, because he really wasn't ashamed of anything.  Good for him :)  But we often found ourselves out and about just driving around and ending up finding something really random to do in the summer.  I think those days led us to the most adventures and made us who we were!

 Let us not forget the famous "Zach in the Box" who walked around West Chester asking girls to "turn him on"...Don't know why we saw a big box in an alley and thought to do this but it was so worth it!

Well, we've basically all graduated from college now and have big things ahead of us! I'm so proud of all of them and am so glad that even though I am far away I still feel so close to them and love them tons. 

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These Are a Few of My Favorite Things Part II

Three hour layover in the airport calls for a Christmas update! 

 

 

As far as Christmas festivities go, we: decorated new stockings, decorated the tree with great help from little Lily, played with Chauncy and Kitty, ate delicious food (ham beats turkey at Christmas, people), enjoyed a visit from the Molen Tuba Carolers, played lots of games: dominoes, Likewise, and "I doubt it", watched lots of movies on our new Clearplay, stayed on Utah schedule by going to bed at 2 a.m. and waking up at 10:30 a.m. everyday, went to people's houses that actually have bathroom scales and realize we're each 5 pounds less than we thought (not having one is so nice), King of Prussia shopping, LOTS of cheesesteaks and birch beer, went to Wegmans, saw the movie War Horse (so good!), hung out with friends, went to church on Christmas in between opening presents - loved seeing old and new faces, as well as listening to and singing beautiful music to remember the birth of our Savior - 'tis the reason for the season!

We also took an AWESOME getaway to NYC for a couple days...more on that to come

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Celebration!

Finals aka "celebrations of my knowledge" if you will are officially O V E R!!  Never again will I take a test in that blasted testing center :)
Here's how I celebrated:

 Finally redeemed free car wash. I. love. car. washes.

 Finally ate this little delicacy that I got from "Bread and Jam" (best party ever - all you can eat Great Harvest bread and jam) in The Dean's office last week.  I knew it'd be worth the wait.

I didn't fully satisfy my sweet tooth so our friends the Luckys came over and the boys went out and got Cold Stone for us!

...Which I ate while I packed for PENNSYLVANIA! :)

p.s. Did you know Cold Stone has "Waffle Wednesday"?  Free waffle cones on Wednesdays!

p.p.s. Did you know there's only 10 more days until Christmas?

p.p.s. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! (12:15 a.m. - it's officially your birthday, as I write this) See you soon!

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Groundbreaking

I remember the exact moment I heard the temple was coming: I was a freshman at BYU and it was my first time EVER attending General Conference in person.  There I was, in the conference center, where President Thomas S. Monson announced that Philadelphia, Pennsylvania  would be getting their (OUR) very own temple.  Tears immediately streamed down my face and my mind flooded with thoughts of the the prayers that have been said for so long, the people who have never been able to travel to D.C. to go, that my family might go more frequently...all of which brought tears of joy and I don't know if anyone around me knew what a big deal it was, but in that moment I was in such a happy place.

This morning Devin and I got to watch the groundbreaking of this future temple at the home of some friends of ours.  Look at that beautiful structure!  One of the speakers said it was unlike any of the others being built.  I love that it will fit in with the historical structures all around it, but still be unique in design and purpose.  Construction won't start until spring with the completion estimated to be sometime in 2014...it sounds so far away!


The plan was to go camping last night.  As excited as I/we were, I'm kind of glad it rained because we were able to go watch this with some friends this morning and I get to see April who is in Provo today, before she leaves on her mission!

Life is just good....we're going to hike the Timpanogos ice caves today and then go meet up with a bunch of friends (Red AND Blue) to watch the BYU vs. UTAH game!

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Wanna Get a Cheesesteak?

Devin asked me thisTuesday morning, no more than one minute after waking up. Could have been for a couple reasons:
1) We got some on Saturday and Monday afternoon - they're good enough to have 3 times in 4 days
2) We were trying to get ourselves on Alaska time zone, so we stayed up late and woke up late almost every day...usually around lunchtime, hence the craving.
3) He realized that Joey's is better than Jack's because their bread is better (baked at an Italian bakery in Conshohocken) and they have Italian guys who work there, versus Jack's who are mostly Mexican.  Which would be great if we wanted a burrito.
On another good food note, we stayed with Derek and Talane the night we got in and then met my parents in Philly the next night for dinner.  We ate at "The Clam Tavern", a place my dad has loved for years (like 30+) and let me tell you - YUMMY seafood...and fries :)  Great prep for Alaska!

The weather was GREAT!  Rain threatened us almost every day, but never interfered.  

 

We took Molly (dog) to the dog park which has a river that runs through it, such a beautiful day!

Ben took us on a hike up to Mushroom Rock at St. Peter's Village.  Aren't those roots so cool?! I'm so glad someone painted this.  I'm actually standing on a huge rock across from it to take this picture so the rock Devin on is actually much bigger and higher up than it looks. 

Herr's Chip Factory!

At the end of the tour, the guide goes in and gets a tray of hot potato chips off the belt for you to try - nothing like a hot potato chip!

Gettysburg - Museum, Cyclorama, and auto tour around the battlefields

 Devin was pretty excited to go to Gettysburg, hoping the whole way there that they'd let him "shoot a cannon, or a musket, or something". Yeah right. But the displays of them were great!

I simply LOVE Abraham Lincoln, I just have total compassion for him as a leader and how much he dealt with.  What an inspiring man.

The cyclorama is a 360 degree display of the battle at Gettysburg.  It is the largest oil canvas painting on display in the U.S.  

 

 Devin and I have a thing for taking pictures under arches when we go to PA. I think this is our third.

Devin and I gained so much appreciation for our nation's history this trip, between Gettysburg and Washington D. C.!

We were so lucky to come out of the session and catch this picture as the sun was starting to set and cast that beautiful glow against the temple. The grounds are covered in tulips, loved it!

(We're not standing together because the sun came onto the temple right before the guy took a picture trying to get the fountain right between us, haha)

Oh and, Happy Easter! After not getting to spend Thanksgiving or Christmas with my family, it was so nice that Easter happened to be when we were coming to PA. I feel like it is the only holiday where the true meaning is easier to focus on because hardly any of it is about ourselves, except being thankful.

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