Back East

***Disclaimer: It's a long post with quite a few photos.***  

So at the end of May, (I know that was forever ago!!!) we were able to go to Connecticut to visit some great friends that we met in Pullman, the Barnes'.  These two were the glue that kept everyone we hung out with busy with a social life for the first 2 years we were in Pullman.  Then everyone else left us cause they graduated and shortly there afterward Mike finished his research and paper and got a job clear across the country in Hartford Connecticut.

So with the buddy passes that we got from Brek (thanks Brek!) We flew out to stay with them over Memorial day weekend.  The first day we spent flying.  Since we fly standby, we missed 1 of our connections and that put us getting in to Connecticut in the late evening around 10:30 if I remember right.  It was a long day, but was so good to be there with the.  Thanks for coming to pick us up even though it was later than we thought!!.  And to be greeted with the heat and humidity mixture was crazy, but we enjoyed quite the rainstorm that cooled everything off.

Thursday night we went and ate at a Guatemalan restaurant.  We all ordered way too much, but it was good. 

Here is us at dinner and you can see Chad's plantains.  he was way excited for them

Here are my sopas.  Reminded me of a tostada, they were great!!! 

 I also ordered a tamale, thinking they would be like what I was used to, but I thought they were nasty.  Chad realized afterward that he shouldn't have realized they weren't what I was thinking.  But Mike and Chad both had ordered them.  I figured they had to be great right!!  Not really.  I didn't mind the part that actually had some meat to it though.    Over all it was an awesome experience and I'd totally eat there again.  

Here are pictures with the owner and the top one is with the owner's daughter.  The restaurant was run by a family.

So the next day Mike got off a little early from work and we drove to Vermont to see Joseph Smith's birth place.  Above is the picture of the visitor's center that has a replica of the area at the time of his birth and the hearthstone that he was most likely born by.

This is the monument that was built to commemorate Joseph Smith..  On the tour they explained how they shipped and found the materials to make it.  Crazy amount of work went into it.  We also got to go on a ride to see foundations of the houses that were at one time there and went through beautiful trees.  I've never been to the sacred grove, but these trees reminded me of the pictures that I've seen of the area.  Made it come to life for me and strengthened my testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith

What a great experience.  Our favorite spot we visited while in CT.

We then visited the Ben & Jerry's factory for a quick tour and got to try some Boston Cream Pie ice cream.  It was so good.  I haven't seen it in stores out here though. We were informed that you can basically get any of your favorite flavors through your grocery store if your willing to buy 6 pints of it, since that is the amount they are ordered in.  (I think that's how many don't hold me to it).

Then that night we headed to Boston..... and checked into the fancy hotel Omni-Parker House, where they were hosting prom, so there were quite a few dressed in formals

We then walked to dinner and around the area.. Very nice weather in the evening to go for a stroll

Here is the fancy restaurant that we ate at.  Definitely the most expensive place I've been too.  Chad and I's dinner came to $60, but it was neat to be able to have the outdoors brought indoors, by having windows that totally opened up except for a few pillars.

Here's a shot of the fountain with the moon the in background. It was a beautiful sight and to hear the water as you walked was fun....

Until we got to the Garden center and the Celtics had just won the last game to get into the finals.  Those fans are crazy!!  They kept chanting "Beat LA, Beat LA!!!" and at this point Lakers hadn't even won their last game yet.  It was crazy.  

So the next day we walked most of the Freedom Trail. 

We started out int he Boston Commons gardens

And since it was Memorial Day it had a a great flag display.  (picture from Mike and Jen, cause mine didn't turn out as great!!  Thanks guys)   We used a free app on my iPhone and learned all sorts of things about the stops we made.  The Boston Commons is a 44 acre park and oldest in the country.  Up until 1817 the park was used for public hangings but the past years it's been the host of citywide festivals and performances.

We stopped at the State house, and the Park Street Church.  The 4th stop was the Granary Burying Ground, where Paul Revere was buried, along with Samual Adams, John Hancock, and Robert Treat Paine-3 signers of the Declaration of Independence.
We then hit the King's Chapel and burying ground,, and the Benjamin Franklin Statue, Old Corner Book Store, Old South Meeting House, Old State House, an we saw the site of Boston Massacre.  What I didn't realize was that only 5 people were killed in the Massacre.  I always pictured it being on bigger scale than it was..

 We visited Faneuil Hall, Paul Revere's House. 

The Old North Church that held the lanterns that signaled to Paul Revere and William Dawes.  

We then went back near Fanuiel Hall and ate a fun lunch and headed back to Connecticut.  And avoided going to Bunker Hill since it was a hot afternoon to do all that walking. And Jen was such a sport.  I was tired and I didn't have the excuse of being pregnant. Although it was way neat to see the historic sites for Memorial Day weekend.

So then we went to Jen and Mike's friends the Shamo's on Sunday and got to meet all their friends.  They were great.  Makes me realize how Mike and Jen surround themselves with great people...and we're privileged to be part of the group.  Then on Memorial Day we did the cinnamon and orange rolls in the morning and went to the parade.  It was great to be there with them, and we were sad to leave, but we headed out that afternoon to make it to SLC that late evening, due to rain storms in Detroit.

After being home we realized that our favorite part was probably just hanging out playing games like we used to.  Love you guys and so glad we got to visit you while you were in CT, but we're super stoked that you got to move closer.  Guess we'll have to plan a trip to Seattle now!!

Decmeber 15th-Mormon Tabernacle Choir Concert

So from New Plymouth we made our way to meet more Christensen family for the Mormon Tabernacle concert!! We made our way past Burley (we didn't even have time to stop for a visit!! How sad!!) and then headed south to Salt Lake City, UT!!! We were meeting Mom Christensen, Derik & Megan Christensen, Shandarae Williams(nieces and nephew), and Kim Jensen( Derik's date) for the concert. I had made arrangement with my brother, Brek, to meet for dinner and we came up with game plan of what would be some good restaurants to go to, but they all had long waiting time. So our big plans to stop for dinner before we went to the concert were crushed and then we left our plans into Brek's hands cause we couldn't even get reservations for one reason or another at any of the places we'd picked. So our concert was 6:30 pm and lasted about 2 hours. We were so hungry and new it'd be worse by the time we got out.

But we went to the concert and loved every minute of it. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Temple Square Orchestra and Bell Choir performed with the King Singer's from England. I can hardly wait until it comes out on PBS to be seen again. It was wonderful and we even had dancers to watch during a few of the numbers. I only had my cell phone so the picture of the set isn't that wonderful, but it was spectacular and we decided it would be worth putting in for tickets every year!!

But I do suggest that if you go, don't have it on the night that a Jazz game or another ballet!! We took about 50 minutes to drive 3 blocks to Buca di Beppo's the restaurant that Brek was kindly enough get us all reservations for. We didn't walk cause it was really cold out side and I already had blisters on my feet from the walking we already had done, but I'm sure we would have made it there faster had we gone that route. It was painfully slow, especially to start with because we sat with in the 5 car lengths from were we started for over 30 minutes of the travel time. And who could forget when Derik got caught in the intersection on a red light and almost ran over some pedestrians trying to get out of the way!! Here's Buca's during the day light, just down the street from Brek's apartment!!

We were all starving by the time we to got the restaurant, but we enjoyed the food(the lemon chicken with artichokes was my favorite), but it was even better to spend some time with Brek! We don't seem to see him as often as the rest of the family since he lives right there in SLC and not closer to home.

Brek also gave a great Christmas gift of 2 buddy passes to fly on Delta sometime in the next year!! Thanks Brek!! We're so excited to actually be going somewhere for a real vacation!! That means I really need to get my new passport with my new married name!! Anyone been a great vacation that you would strongly suggest?

So I think we left the restaurant about 11:30 pm and still had our drive to South Jordan to stay with the Larsen's (Chad's cousins). They were gracious enough to put us all up for the night and we didn't get settled until about 1:30 in the morning!! What great sports!