Enjoying Summer

As usual, on nice days (when I'm off of work) we like to get out and try to go somewhere new. One afternoon we went to Castle Island/Pleasure Bay in South Boston for an afternoon walk. It was quite windy with a little rain, but otherwise a beautiful day.

Hurricane Irene ruined my Cape Cod birthday plans last year, so we decided to use our hotel credit this summer. We drove down to the Cape and wandered around Chatham for the afternoon. One of our favorite things to do is walk around little unique town shops. After exploring Chatham, we drove to our hotel in West Dennis, MA. It was so nice to just relax and enjoy being near the beach. We saw our first East Coast sunset! Then we watched some of the Olympics (which we were pretty into this summer) and then went to dinner at The Ocean House. The food was amazing - Brian, naturally, got lobster and I got a steak. We slept in and then read a little out on our little cottage porch, then checked out and headed to the other side of the Cape to explore and shop. We headed home in the late afternoon and had a nice phone chat with Angie to catch up while driving home.

Our Cape Cod Cottage at the Lighthouse Inn

 Dinner at the Ocean House

The young crowd at work requested a night off work so that we could all go out for dinner. We sat on a rooftop in downtown Boston on a lovely summer evening. My co-workers in this picture are (from Left to Right) Merideth, Jill, Kristen, (me), Lauren and Rosalind. We had a great time, even though we still talked a lot about work  haha.
 
Dinner at a friends house for his birthday. The Kelly's on the left and the Jones' in the middle. These two ladies will be throwing me a little baby shower here in Boston in a couple weeks. :)

Brian and I went to a farm one afternoon to pick our own vegetables. We picked green beans, corn, tomatoes, and apples. We used all the veggies for our next two dinners - they were all yummy!! It's super fun to go farming and we plan to do lots more of it!

After coming home from the farm, we stopped by the little summer festival that our apartment complex was having. They had a BBQ, games and activities for the kids, tons of bounce-houses, and a little petting zoo. We didn't stay long - just enough to check it out...and get some free water haha.

That's a little of what we have been up to on my days off! :)

Our New Place

We are finally settled in to our new place - only a few small things left to do and then the baby's room. Here are some pictures of our new space!

The Kitchen

 

The Dining Room

The Living Room

 

Top of stairs, Brian's desk

 

Bathroom

The office/nursery/guest bedroom for now

Our bedroom

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! :)

The Bump

 The baby bump at 23 weeks - just a couple days before the movers arrived.

The bump at 25 weeks - settling in to our new place!

Moving

We've moved, but this move wasn't quite like the last (CA--> MA). We only moved about 10 minutes away, a little outside the city. It's a nice area with some hiking trails, tennis courts, and a small shopping center all within walking distance. There are lots of trees and shade, providing us with a nice summer breeze. Our little townhouse apartment is much more spacious than the last and we are enjoying it very much here.

These are a couple pictures we took the day we got our keys, which ended up not working in the door! It was a Saturday afternoon, so there wasn't much anyone was going to do - it was a good thing we didn't have a moving truck there ready to bring things in! (Because we wouldn't have been able to lock the door when we left). We did a walk-through of the place and were a little disappointed - the previous family had marked their childrens' heights with marker in the bedroom, in a spot where no furniture would go and there were markings in other places throughout the apartment. So, it was clear they didn't paint. There were a few other little things that we weren't happy with, so we wrote it all down for maintenance and then brought our complaints to the office (which was closing in just a few minutes). Since we weren't able to leave stuff in our unlocked apartment and because they were hopefully going to be painting soon, we decided to head down to Ikea and get some furniture. By Sunday, we had new keys and by Tuesday, the place was painted and all our complaints were repaired. We were completely 100% satisfied and happy with the results and promptness they delivered in getting it all done.

Then on Thursday, we had movers come and move all the big stuff. The whole process took much longer than we anticipated, but they did a great job - I don't think they made one mark on the wall... and we have some pretty tricky stairs!

We are officially out of our old apartment and just about settled into the new one. One of my favorite things with our new place is having the washer and dryer two steps from the bedroom! It has just been so wonderful to be able to do laundry without having to walk outside! And no more quarters!! One of my least favorite things about the new place is the child next door who screams constantly (I especially don't like it when the screaming takes place outside at 9am on a Saturday! It doesn't matter if the windows are open or closed, you can still hear him!). Anyway, we love our new space and will post pictures soon!!

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! :)