fall is my favorite

it's actually a toss up with summer but fall here in pittsburgh is just beautiful and so much fun!! we have been pretty busy these last 2 months!

1. we moved!! only 3 houses down...but if def. still counts. we now live in a duplex next to abi and arie and little evelyn (rich's sister. her husband is going to business school so we will be neighbors for the rest of our time here!!) it is much bigger and we have such fun neighbors. we have a little dinner group going and see each other most days. it is so nice to have family close by.



2. ligonier days! someone at my work told me about this fall festival last year and i never got to go. so rich planned a fun day for us to go this year and i was so excited!! ligonier is this quaint little town about an hour away in the middle of nowhere. for being such a small town there were TONS of people there! they had a parade, tons of craft booths, so many delicious foods and a battle reenactment. my favorite was apple dipped in batter, deep fried and dipped in caramel. SOOO GOOD.



3. radical days! each year in pittsburgh they dedicate a week to the people and all different venues/events are open to the public for free!! the zoo, museums, canoeing, film festivals, art, so many fun things!!! one day abi, evelyn and i went on an adventure to phipp's conservatory! it was SO COOL. it is this crazy huge greenhouse with the most interesting things! they have a butterfly room, a chocolate tree, a rainforest, banana tree-- so fun! we had a great time exploring--and best part of all--it was free!!



4. halloween party! abi and i (with lots of help from our husbands) threw a halloween party this year. we had so much fun planning and preparing and i think it was a hit! we had pumpkin bocci, a cake walk, homemade rootbeer (my FAVORITE PART)lots of treats, a costume contest and rockband going over on our side. everyone's costumes were great! if you want to see more pictures click here.



looking forward to thanksgiving in CA. can't wait to see my family!!

so long sweet summer

Why is it that summer always goes by too fast? Since I have been a slacker, you get one large update on all of our summer adventures!

To start off the summer with a bang rich and I were able to take 2 weeks off school/work and head out west. We flew into SLC and spent a little over a day hanging out with friends and family. From there we drove to Idaho falls to spend a week at the Williams family reunion with rich’s side of the family. The week included golfing/swimming at hicee, a family talent show (rich and I sang a duet “you and I” by Ingrid michaelson complete with rich playing the ukulele), a 80th birthday celebration/decades dance in honor of rich’s grandpa, a tennis tournament, softball, frisbee golf, 4th of july parade/fireworks and a trip to Rexburg to see my cute school. It is changing so much I can’t believe it! We had such a great week spending time with family, I wish we could see each other more often. We were also about to see my grandparents and spend a night with them, as well as see cami, mark and all of their cute kids.



From Idaho falls we drove to seattle, Washington to spend the next week with my family at my grandma’s. it was SO good to see them! I was able to spend my birthday with my family. birthday festivities included a much needed hair cut, shopping, claim jumper for mud pie and a birthday dinner at grandma’s house complete with aunts and uncles. I love seattle. It was fun to show rich around where I grew up. We went by my old house/school/church. We went to pike place market which is my favorite place. We went to game works. We played tennis with my dad and sister. We went to the lake and saw my friend Alicia. We saw a movie (Last Airbender—don’t see it! The TV show is sooo much better) Rich and I went to work for my dad one morning. I was able to work on a craft project with my grandma just like old times. We were also able to see where Abi and Arie live and spent a day with them—favorite part was going to their local farmers market and finding these cute hats. It was great. I love my family and was so happy with how many people I was able to see on this trip!



Back in Pittsburgh we managed to have tons of fun as well. We saw a pirates baseball game, played some tennis, volunteered for the Special Olympics, went to two concerts in the park (Ingrid michaelson and Guster), Rich went on a canoeing trip with the young men. we also volunteered at a fancy pants art gallery/party called cosmopolitan pittsburgh with our friends brook and linwood. Two weeks after we got back Abi and Arie and baby Evelyn moved out to Pittsburgh! In just a few weeks we will both be living in a duplex together. It is going to be a party! It has been great having them here. We went to Ohiopyle, about an hour and half from here and had a picnic and played in the water. They are famous for their natural rock water slides. The water was a little low (and cold) but we had a blast.



The perfect end to our summer was a week at Outer Banks, NC. On our way we were able to spend some time visiting Rich's cousin Patrick in Charlottesville, VA. We had so much fun seeing where he lived, the University, eating delicious food and wandering through their wonderful farmer's market. he even cooked us some chard (still undecided whether i like it or not) :)So back to Outer Banks... We stayed on a huge three story house right on the beach with some dental school friends. We had SO much fun!! The weather was beautiful, the water was so warm, it was perfect. We spent the majority of our time at the beach/pool but we did venture out and did a few things. We saw the Hatteras lighthouse which was really cool, went to some sand dunes (close to where the wright brothers first flew their plane), had some Carolina BBQ, went on a bike ride, and explored some of the shops around. We didn’t want to come back that’s for sure.



p.s. sorry about the collages, they don't do the pictures justice but i hope you at least got a little taste for what each place was like!

NYC

over memorial day weekend (we left thursday night, came home sunday night) rich and i went to new york city with our friends brook and linwood. they were the best tour guides. brook's parents live in queens right now so we were able to stay with them which was so nice!

we decided we saw everything we wanted to see and more on this trip.
a few highlights of day one:
we took the ferry and were able to see the statue of liberty along the way.

we wandered through china town. we tried bubble tea. we saw many interesting forms of meat hanging in windows.

we went to the art museum. there was so many famous paintings there we were able to see which was awesome.

for dinner we had the best korean bbq chicken EVER and then for dessert something even better. we went to a store where all there is are cupcakes. i think it is my favorite place ever now. rich and i could hardly choose one, but in the end we chose one called half and half. half chocolate, half vanilla with a cream center and chocolate chip cookie dough bits on the top.


a few highlights of day two:
we had a picnic in central park. it is HUGE. i couldn't help but sing enchanted songs every time i saw a bridge.


we saw the temple. it really is in the middle of all the hustle and bustle of new york.

we went to some fun stores, FAO shwarts-- where the giant piano in BIG is, rich and brook played for us. we went to the apple store, nintendo world and brook and i drooled over all the clothes in anthropologie.

for dinner we had new york style pizza. also very tasty. for dessert we went to the stardust diner. it was SO fun. people that want to make it to broadway but haven't quite gotten there yet work there and sing for you all night long. they were great! our favorite performance was love shack complete with banging our silverwear on the table when they sung "bang bang."


both nights we walked around times square. the lights and billboards are unbelievable. it was so fun walking around!

day three highlights:
we went to church and really enjoyed meeting so many people from around the world. rich was able to speak to a few people in portuguese which i always think is fun to hear (not so sure about how rich feels about it :). we had a nice dinner and then on our way out visited the place where the world's fair was held and went in the queen's museum.

a midwest spring break

so rich and i have are loving being out in pittsburgh because so many great places to visit are within driving distance to us. for rich's spring break this year we decided to go out to chicago. i had never been before (besides the airport) and we thought it would be nice to drive through elkhart indiana to see where rich went to high school and everything too. my parents so graciously let us use one of their weeks so we got to stay in a nice condo (bigger than our apartment i'm pretty sure) about an hour out of chicago.



our week consisted of a lot of relaxing--reading, watching movies, sleeping in, eating junkfood; a lot of fun--playing golf, tennis, horseback riding, going out to dinner; and a jam packed day of adventures in chicago. i loved it! we went to the hancock observatory and got to see the whole city from high above, we took the metro over to a cubs game, we went to the chicaco art institute, we had the best chicago style deep dish pizza i have EVER had and just enjoyed walking around the city taking tons of pictures along our way.





we came back rejuvenated and ready to jump back into work and school. we feel pretty lucky we were able to do this, and are already looking forward to our next adventure, new york city for memorial day !!

st. patrick's day

this year, march 17th happened to be a beautiful, sunny 62 degree day for us here in pittsburgh. i am so happy that is warming up you have no idea! my husband is so wonderful and humors me in my crazy love for holidays and wore green all day. i still couldn't convince him to pinch anyone but that's okay i guess. :)



i came up with a great menu for our st. patrick's day feast including soda bread, irish mashed potatoes and salad with everything we could find that was green (and some red peppers too because we couldn't let the poor little guys go to waste. for dessert i had big plans of making rainbow cupcakes... they didn't turn out quite the way i planned but we ended up with some pretty sweet tye-dye cupcakes instead!

snnoowww

so rich and i have had quite the eventful weekend. friday afternoon it started to snow and didn't stop snowing all through saturday. we ended up getting about 21 inches!!!!!! we decided to go out saturday morning to explore and and ended up spending the entire day outside. our car was completely buried. it was a good thing we had nowhere to go! :) (our car is the one in the very far back!)

we wanted to take a walk and decided to go see our friends ben and kelly. we found them outside shoveling out their cars and we helped shovel for awhile. it was CRAZY outside. everything was completely white! the only people out driving were trucks and EVERYONE was outside shoveling and marveling at the snow that was still coming strong!

we took a little break inside having some delicious soup and playing cards. then our friends drew and lindsey joined us. luckily, they have a gigantic truck and we were able to get around and see more of our surroundings. we went back to their place and went out and built my very first snow fort. it was pretty cool if i do say so myself!

now you might think this is the end of the story...but no. rich (and everyone else in the city) has had school cancelled the last 3 DAYS. tuesday night and as we speak it is snowing again. we have received another 4 inches so far. no end in sight yet. craziness i tell you! i have never seen so much snow in my life. all in all we have loved the snow... we have had a blast. let's hope it stops soon though because let me tell you, driving our little car in the snow is not very fun! hope everyone is enjoying this february and doing something fun for valentine's day. i love you all!

christmas in california

this christmas rich and i got to spend two weeks in san diego with my family!!! i absolutely loved being home. we fit in a lot of fun activities in those two weeks...

ward christmas party complete with matching sweaters.

looooots of game playing. this particular game is great dalmudi (sp?) zack has a collection of hats that we like to wear while playing. :)

christmas eve: we all built a totally awesome fort upstairs and slept in it christmas eve.

and of course we had to take tons of pictures posing in front of the tree...




christmas morning! traditional picture of all the kids on the stairs...youngest to oldest.


great gifts all around. i love christmas! and i love my family!


we saw avatar in 3d and loved it!!!!!


celebrated our one YEAR anniversary!!!!!!

drove over to sedona arizona to visit rich's grandparents and had a great time seeing them.

played some tennis which i have missed wayy to much!

celebrated the new year with fondue, a movie on our new projector out on the deck, ping pong and looots of good food. an added bonus to our new years festivities was maryanne (rich's sister) and her family came to help us celebrate!

it was a GREAT christmas break! i couldn't ask for anything better. we are back in pittsburgh now and were welcomed back with lot and lots of snow. i miss the sun already!