Taste of home

I spent one afternoon skyping with my niece Valentina - she was only about 7 weeks old at the time, but she maintained pretty good eye contact. It was lots of fun. We did it again tonight and she was exceptionally good - such a content, happy baby!!  So thankful for this technology!!

At the end of July we met up with our friend Dan from back home who was in Boston for work. We met him at the amazing tapas place in the South End, Toro, and then drove over to Harvard Square for some dessert at Finale. We also checked out some bookstores and took a late night stroll on the Harvard campus. It was so wonderful to see him again here in Boston. We love visits from our CA friends & family! :)

Trip #2 back to Cali

My sister was due June 5th and we arrived back home late June 6th...no baby yet! So on Thursday, my sister met up with us, I went and got my hair done while Brian and Crystal hung out in Corona. Then us two pregnant ladies went and got our nails done, and then the three of us went to Oma and Opa's for dinner. My dad goes over there every Thurs night for dinner, so he was there too. From there, we went to Kate's new house in South Orange County. We had some dessert while we put the guys to sleep with all our nursing talk. :)

On Friday, we met up with Jon and then drove down to San Diego, stopping at our friend Zach's summer house in La Jolla for a manly feast of hot dogs, burgers, chicken, and more! It was a gorgeous San Diegan afternoon with a nice view of the ocean. Then we got ready for the wedding rehearsal and drove over to University of San Diego. Zach gave us a little tour of the gorgeous USD campus and then we went to the rehearsal & dinner afterward. I went back to the hotel with the girls and Brian hung out with the guys.

Saturday was the beautiful wedding of Megan and Casey, with the reception taking place at Balboa Park.

After the wedding we drove to Dan and Angel's (our Boston friends) new place, about 20 min from the reception site and stayed the night with them. Sunday morning, the 4 of us went breakfast at The Cottage in La Jolla, which is the same restaurant that Brian and I ate dinner at this past Valentine's day (the couple owners are from CA and MA). The food was excellent and it was so nice to catch up with them!

After breakfast, we met up with the lovely Hurwitz family just down the street in La Jolla for brunch (lunch for us). While we waited for a table at the Brockton Villa Restaurant, we caught up overlooking the ocean and seals. Unfortunately, this was as close as we got to the ocean on our trip. We had such an amazing morning in La Jolla and then we headed back to OC for church and then dinner with some friends.

To start the week off, my sister went into labor on Monday! It was perfect timing because we were back from San Diego and my dad and Sandi were on their way home from Vegas. Brian and I got to the hospital around noon and my little niece Valentina was born at 6:55pm. It was truly a happy day! A beautiful and healthy baby girl! I couldn't be more excited that we were in town to be there for this special day!

Throughout the rest of the week we met up with various friends and family, often going from one place to the next keeping us very busy. I ate various meals with some nursing school friends:

We spent our last day in town by attending the wedding of our friends Mike and Corey. The ceremony was at San Antonio and the reception at Astor Classic Events Center in Anaheim, where there were all sorts of old, classic cars and antiques. It was really neat. We had to leave the reception early to catch our flight back to Boston...ending our wonderful visit back home. As always, it was so great to see and catch up with our family and friends!!

Earth Fest 2012

Last year my mother-in-law and I were wandering around town and stumbled upon the Boston Earth Fest, sponsored by a local radio station and Whole Foods. There was free stuff everywhere, so I was in heaven! I, of course, couldn't miss it this year, so Brian and I headed to the Hatchshell on a hot day in May for some free food, household samples and a concert. The Whole Foods tent always has great stuff - this year they were handing out reusable grocery bags, chapstick, cookies, crackers and more. Plus then there were all the other vendors - we made all the samples our lunch for the day. :) Then we stood and enjoyed the entire hour of music by the Spin Doctors, which was a ton of fun. It was a beautiful day by the river and a fun afternoon in Boston.

From there, we drove directly to Chelmsford, MA to meet Amanda & Josh for dinner & a fiddle concert. Amanda has been taking lessons and this was her fiddle teacher performing a benefit concert for Haiti relief. It was a blast! Her teacher, Hanneke Cassel, is really good and has several CDs - she is quite well-known! Check out her site for a little glimpse into what we got to enjoy that night: http://www.hannekecassel.com/

Heading Home

First, I must announce on our blog that we are pregnant! We told our families around Easter time and then started spreading the news among friends when we went back home in April. Our trip back to California was the first one since November 2010!! It was so nice to be home, but it was a quick weekend trip for a wedding. We were so busy with wedding events and visiting friends and family that the time flew by too quickly. Our first stop was to In-N-Out since we don't have that on the East Coast (who knows why!). The wedding was on Saturday the 19th and it was a gorgeous day in Orange County. The bride, Kimi, was a bridesmaid in our wedding and I was one in hers. It was a beautiful wedding! That same day was my sister's baby shower, which I was sad I had to miss, but we spent the night at her house that night and got to see all the gifts she got.  It was great to spend time with my sister who was about 33 weeks pregnant at that time and I was around 12 weeks.Our last day there was spent with our families. It was a great, busy trip!!

 

Our 1st Trip to New York City!

In February, we joined Angel & Dan and Amanda & Josh in a trip to NYC! Friday morning we met at South Station and took an early bus from Boston to NYC, about a 4 hour trip. Once we arrived, I realized that I forgot my camera charger and the battery light was already flashing low. I was so bummed! We, first, headed to our hotel to drop off our bags and freshen up. Then we started wandering around town to Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick's Cathedral, the impressive Lego Store, NBC studio store...and stopping along the way to buy a camera charger. There was just no way I wasn't going to take pictures all weekend! Friday evening I let my camera charge while we went to dinner at Landmarc in the Time Warner Center. After dinner we went to see the play War Horse, which involved several horse puppets that were incredibly impressive. It was a spectacular play!

Saturday morning, we went to the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) with Amanda & Josh, while Angel & Dan went and met up with a friend. I got a little sick that afternoon, but thankfully felt better by evening. We went to Times Square and waited in the TKTS line for discounted tickets for a play that night. We then decided that we wanted to try a Ramen noodle restaurant, but the one we had been eying had a really long line. Joyce, Angel's friend, knows the city pretty well and she knew of a Ramen place that would be opening around 5 (it was about 4), so we hailed our first cab and headed across town to the other place. There was already a line forming outside (a good sign I suppose), but once they opened we still had to wait over an hour because we had a party of 7 people. We all thought it was worth the wait because it was some good food! We didn't have much time after dinner, so we quickly headed to where our show was. We saw Avenue Q, which was a funny musical, also with puppets. It was another good show - the actors were all very talented. Afterward we wandered around looking for a good dessert place - we found a place with amazing, giant slices of New York cheesecake! Yum!

Sunday morning we woke up early and headed across town to a well-known breakfast place, Clinton St. Baking Company. They definitely had the best pancakes we've ever had. They were amazing! We felt the need to burn some calories after breakfast and did a lot of walking that afternoon, browsing through stores and stopping for snacks. We had lunch at Katz's Deli, which is a completely unorganized, busy sandwich place, but well-worth it. Brian says it was the best Pastrami sandwich he has ever had. This is also where the famous scene from When Harry Met Sally took place. We rested a little that afternoon and then went to dinner for some New York Pizza. Then we walked around Times Square more, going in the Hershey's and M&M stores. Times Square at night is quite extraordinary!

Monday we went to the Chelsea Market and the High Line, which is a raised park made from old railways. We grabbed a quick bite to eat in the market, headed back to the hotel to grab our suitcases and got on the bus back to Boston. It was a fun trip! We didn't do too many touristy things because our friends have already been to NYC many times and we figured we can do the touristy stuff on our next visit. We are so happy that we got to go on this trip together, especially since Dan & Angel moved back to California just after returning to Boston.

Now for the pictures!! Click on this link: New York Photo Album

February

February consisted on more housesitting, resulting in us living at our own home for only 15 days of the month. We enjoy housesitting - I love spending time with the furry critters. :)

I forgot to mention in January we met an old friend at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA). Katherine, a girl I grew up with in Girl Scouts & Confirmation, lived in Boston for a few years before we moved out here. By the time we moved here, she was already back in California. Anyway, she was back visiting with her boyfriend so we met up at the MFA, browsed around and caught up on the past 10 years. It was wonderful to reconnect. Since we didn't see a whole lot of the museum that trip because we were talking so much, Brian and I used our tickets (within 10 days for free) and went back at the beginning of Feb with Brian's classmate, Joe. This was our 3rd time there, but Joe knows a lot about Ancient Egypt and gave us an awesome detailed personal tour of that entire section of the museum.

On the first Friday in Feb, I went to the South End with my co-worker, Roni, to browse around art galleries and vintage shops. Some of the art was very interesting (and odd) and the vintage shops were fun, but almost like a big garage sale. For $5, I bought an old Alice in Wonderland book from 1963.

We met up with Christina (my cousin Ian's girlfriend who is at Boston University) and her roommate Erin for dinner and then came back to our place for some cookie baking. Since it was right before Valentine's day, we decided it would be perfect to use my "L-O-V-E" cookie cutters that I received a few years ago at a bridal shower. The cookies turned out great and ended up making a ton! The girls took a bunch back to their dorm and I ended up taking the rest to work because they were really yummy and I didn't want to eat them all! haha. They were a hit. :)

Also in February, we learned how to make Lefse, a Norwegian flatbread made out of potatoes. Lefse making is a family tradition for our friends Ben & Tara and they taught us how to make it using their new Lefse griddle. It is quite a process, but super fun and they are so tasty with a little butter & sugar! Mmmm!

That just about sums up February (except for our trip to NYC, which will be in the next post)! Another fun-filled month! :)

January 2012

Since it has been so long since my last post, I will do a little catching up over the past couple months. January was spent mostly housesitting for my co-worker, Roni, and also for our usual 2 Beagles. We celebrated a few birthdays of friends, starting with our friend Patrick (left), who is someone we knew in CA, but recently moved out here and is also going to BC.

Brian took me on a surprise date night to a Catholic worship event called Lift Ministries. It was held at a school about 45 minutes away. It was just like old times! There was an amazing pro-life speaker, adoration, and praise & worship (right). I was in tears within minutes just by being there because it brought me right back to our youth ministry days, reminding me so much of the retreats and events we were involved in. There is something so powerful to me when I hear Christian music being played and the feeling of singing along, praying the words as loud as you want. We haven't found anything like this in Boston yet and I realized that night how much I missed it. (Although, one of the churches we attend regularly has 24-hr adoration, which is definitely awesome, but that's the closest thing we've found. -picture to left). It was the perfect date night!

There were a few snowy days, but this winter has been very unique in that we hardly had any snow on the ground! I was a little bummed, especially since I didn't get any pictures on the days we did have some snow. Brian, on the other hand, was super happy that it barely snowed and wishes every winter was like this one. We have now experienced the extremes of winter in New England!!

It's been TOO long!

My apologies for not blogging more, and I am going to try to be better about it!! Here's a little update on the past couple months - I'll try to include lots of pictures.

- - - SEPTEMBER- - -

My friend Alice from nursing school is in the Army and she was in Boston for a conference, so we met up for dinner. She brought a friend she met that day, Heath, who is also a nurse and in the Air Force. We had a lovely Italian dinner in the North End. It's always so good to meet up with friends from California!

Brian's dad came to visit and stayed for a week. Although I had to work a lot, we enjoyed having him here and Brian loved spending quality time with him. We wandered about Boston...




...we napped on Bunker Hill
(my first time here! Brian went when Daniel visited in May)






...and we walked the Battle Road in Lexington and Concord. (A first for us all!)

Brian & his dad also visited the Adams National Historical Park/House, which they really enjoyed.




- - - OCTOBER- - -

We started off October by heading to Cohasset, MA for a retreat for Theology doctoral students and their spouses/significant others'. The retreat house is right on the water and is the coziest house ever! There is nothing like drinking wine and sitting by the wood-burning fire, talking to wonderful friends. It was a beautiful weekend with some beautiful people. We were very thankful that I was fortunate enough to get 3 days off in a row, allowing us to retreat for the entire weekend.

The picture on the left is me with two of our favorite couples - Conor & Kate, and Ben & Tara. We spent Saturday afternoon walking around the small town of Cohasset town and this is a pic of us eating some whoopie pies!

We came across a little obstacle in our path on the way back to the retreat house - the tide had come in, blocking the one road that leads to the house.













It was a wonderful weekend of relaxation, prayer, and fellowship. I really enjoyed getting to know some of Brian's classmates too. At the end of the retreat, we were helping clean things up (part of our youth ministry nature I guess) and we stumbled upon the biggest book ever! Look at that thing!







The wonderful Wintheiser's were visiting a friend in Cape Cod, so we drove down and had dinner with them. It was our first visit to the Cape and it was a memorable one. Mike & Angie drove us around a bit and gave us a little tour of some of the Cape. It's beautiful down there and the beach was perfect (although it was quite windy and cold!). Here's a picture of us at the Chatham Lighthouse.

We went back to the house (which is the vacation home for Angie's childhood friend, Bev) and she and her husband were making a perfect lobster dinner. They had a lobster for everyone and one of them was a biggie! We held it while it was still alive and it was heavy!!! I want to say it was about 5 lbs? That was our first time holding a live lobster - thankfully his claws were still banded together!




Here is Mike with the lobster after it came out of the hot tub.

And the beautiful dinner table (by the way, she made the best homemade Caesar salad dressing EVER!)

After dinner we sat by the fire in the back - it was so peaceful and it felt like we were in the middle of the woods. It was such a wonderful evening!!!
Brian got sick the following week, which resulted in a trip to the ER one evening. He's been having chronic headaches for a while now and we were worried about meningitis when he woke up with fatigue and stiff neck. The ER ruled out meningitis and sent him home with pain meds. The next day he had nausea and vomiting all day but thankfully started to feel better at the end of the night. He woke up the next day - still with the headache, but no more flu-like symptoms, so he headed to the airport to pick up Dick, our long time friend from youth ministry who came to spend the weekend with us. I worked the first day, so Brian took him around town. I was off the next couple days, so the first day we drove to New Hampshire to see some fall colors. We just picked a random place on a map, drove there and found somewhere to have lunch. Then our friend Conor, who's from NH, suggested we drive to Mount Monadnock, so we went there and did some hiking. This is a picture from the top of the mountain...on the other side you could see Boston on the horizon. It was a beautiful place for hiking and we saw some great fall foliage there. Afterwards, we headed to the Boston Seaport for seafood.
We had a great day.

The following day we went to see the Head of the Charles Regatta - an annual world rowing race that takes place on the Charles River in Cambridge. I was super excited because there were lots of vendors handing out free stuff/food, which ended up being our lunch that day. It was fun and I just love checking out events like this around Boston!

We then just wandered about Boston, looking in antique shops, strolling through the peaceful Public Garden, and eating Italian dinner in the North End. After dinner, we went to the Top of the Hub, the 52nd floor of the Prudential Center for drinks...but we soon discovered that we could just get pictures of the view (what we really wanted) without spending a dime. So instead, we headed to Finale, our favorite dessert place. A lovely ending to a lovely visit! :)

The last week of October was going to be spent with my grandparents visiting, but my grandma got sick and they couldn't make it afterall. :( So, this pretty much sums up September and October! We keep ourselves busy and are enjoying all that Boston has to offer (which is a lot!).