First 4th of July, Bostonian style

 Last year was our first 4th of July in Boston and I had to work that evening - at least I was able to watch a little of the Boston Pops show on the TVs in the patients' rooms. This year I worked the day shift, getting off at 4pm, went home & changed, and then met up with some friends on the Cambridge side of the Charles River for the big 4th of July celebration. I knew it was a big deal, but I couldn't believe how many people were there for it!! It was a gorgeous day and many people just hung out all afternoon to get good seats. The show started at 8, but during the Boston Pops performing we could see some lightning in the sky. At first we weren't sure if it was someone's fireworks or if it was in fact lightning, but then they announced for everyone to seek shelter for about 20 minutes as we wait for the storm to pass. Tons of people did just that, but we stayed put. We didn't want to lose our awesome spot unless it got really bad, so we stayed there and the rain never came. They started the show back up, but just as it started to get windy and stormy-ish, they decided to stop the music (Jennifer Hudson) and get on with the fireworks. So, about 3-5 minutes into the fireworks it POURED! These were some huge drops of water and they would fall right into our eyes as we were looking up in the sky at the fireworks. Let's just say everyone was drenched by the end of the show. It was definitely a memorable and wonderful Boston 4th of July!! And definitely the best firework show I've ever seen! Go Boston!!!

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!!

Our little one...

Here's is our little one at 18 weeks! Showing off those cute little hands with a thumbs up! :)

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/

Mac & Cheese!

We are still cooking up some new and creative dinners. We made our first homemade mac and cheese back in May. It wasn't just any ol' mac and cheese - it was butternut squash with kale mac and cheese...and it was good! The picture isn't so great, but at least the food was! :)

I came home from work the other night to an awesome baked whole chicken with a super yummy pasta - who knew I married a chef!! It was so delicious! I am going to try to be better about taking more pictures of our fancier meals...I usually am just too excited to eat it that I don't want to go look for the camera. Ha! Just wanted to let you know that we are still cooking in the kitchen! :)

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!!

 

Springtime

Boy do I have some blog-catching-up to do!! We'll start by backtracking a little to April. Springtime is such a beautiful time - it's quite amazing watching the trees go from bare twigs to full greenery! And all the flowers that bloom just add to the springtime beauty. 

On Easter Sunday I had to work at 3:30, so we went to church in the morning and then had a few friends over for lunch. Brian made Ham and Fontina cheese sandwiches, which were quite amazing. It was a nice little Easter celebration considering my time was limited. 

The Chen family (I used to housesit for them in CA - they had the mastiff) was here visiting, so we joined them for the afternoon on our first Duck Tour. The tour goes around Boston on land and then we get to view Boston from the Charles River when it turns into a boat. We had an awesome tour guide, which made it extra fun.  Then we wandered around the North End, of course getting some Mike's Pastries along the way. It was so nice catching up with them while touring the city.

To end April, Brian and I went to the last showing of Riverdance in Boston - I've always wanted to see this show and I had the night off from work so we went! It was fantastic!!! I loved every minute of it! It was showing at the Boston Opera House, which is an impressive, gorgeous historical building. We had such a nice time.

Gronk!

How could I forget to include meeting Gronkowski in my February post?! The Thursday after Super Bowl, when Patriots lost to Giants, Rob Gronkowski stopped by the VA to say hi to the patients. I was supposed to leave at 4pm that day, but decided to stay and help for overtime. He showed up around 7ish (glad I stayed!). I didn't recognize him (especially since I didn't watch the super bowl since I was at work), but someone asked me if I wanted my picture taken - I thought it was for the newspaper or something, so I said no (it was a long day and my hair was a mess - HA!). But then people were saying "You don't want your picture taken with Rob Gronkowski!?" Then I slowly figured it out and asked a bunch of co-workers to get in the picture with me. And here it is! He was very tall, quiet, and nice. My co-workers in the picture, from left to right, are Craig, Lauren, Ilia, & Merideth.

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! :)