MAINE DAY 2

I am worried that no one reads my blog anymore. Although I did say that this is mostly for journaling purposes, which it is, it makes me a little sad that no one comments or lets me know they care:). Haha!

The second day we were in Maine was a Sunday so the first thing we did was attend church with Adam and Tonna. We actually went to all three meetings, Sacrament Meeting, Sunday School and Priesthood/Relief Society. I went to Young Women with Tonna, which was fun. It's been a while. We really enjoyed their ward and the people in it. Sunday School was especially fun:) One thing about Maine is that the people are very proud of where they are from. True Mainers...

After church we went to see the Portland Head light. This light house is one of those places you see in pictures all over the place. It is gorgeous.

I also thought this was so awesome, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow walked where we were walking and sat right here. It was inspiration for one of his poems...so cool!

After seeing the Portland Head light we went to Two Lights, where you can supposedly see two more Light houses. We only saw one, but loved it any way. We were able to go down and put our feet in the water and although it was SO cold, it felt great since it was so hot. We were in the East during some of the hottest months ever, so the cold water was just what we needed (oh, and all the home made ice cream, yum!)

One thing Portland, Maine is known for is it's food. They have practically no chain restaurants, which opens the doors for many small, local restaurants. We had some great food while we were there. Sunday night we went for sushi and it was Yummy!

Maine Day 1

Maine was definitely the most relaxing part of our vacation. It was full of seeing beautiful places, eating great food and spending time with family! Adam and Tonna have been living in Portland, Maine for the past year and have learned the great places to go.

This was the first place we ate in Maine and it was everything you would expect. Red's Eats with their 1lb lobster rolls, amazing onion rings, haddock sandwiches and crab cakes. It was definitely worth the 1 hour wait.

Later that same afternoon we drove up to Camden Maine to an overlook. It was so beautiful! Adam and Tonna were great tour guides.

Looking over the beautiful shoreline.

It was so much fun to hang out and spend time with Adam and Tonna. Aren't they cute?

Adam, Ben and myself waiting to see Inception. If you haven't seen it, you should. Literally boggled my mind...in a good way.

Maine is a beautiful place and we are so glad we got the chance to go. We figured we wouldn't be going back there any time soon and this was the perfect opportunity. We are glad we followed our instincts.

BOSTON DAY 2

The 2nd day we were in Boston we knew we wanted to see as much of the history of Boston as we could. So, we got a free tour of the Freedom Trail and really enjoyed it. It was very hot again, but hearing about the "Boston Massacre" and the "Boston Tea Party" and the start of the Revolutionary War made it all worth it. I am not a big history buff, but it was so amazing to be there.

This is the where the tour began at the State House.

I thought this picture was quite amusing cause you can see Ben wiping the sweat from his forehead. It was ok when we were in the shade, but in the sun....SO HOT!

Part of the Freedom Trail is to see Paul Revere's House....again, not a history buff, but seeing it and being there was such a different experience than reading about it in a book.



This building isn't historical, but it just epitomizes the beauty of the old brick buildings in Boston. I loved the way everything looked. Oh...and the restaurant in this building was called "Carmen" so I am sure that had something to do with why I liked it so much.



Ben standing by The Paul Revere statue in the North End (which was also where we had our dinner that night and it was THE BEST Italian food I have ever eaten)



This was in one of the places on the Freedom Trail. It is a memorial to all of the soldiers lost in the War in Afghanistan. Each of those silver things is a set of blank dog tags representing one soldier lost. It was very moving.







I do not like this picture of myself, but who cares, I need to record our trip and if that means posting pictures of me I don't like, then so be it. This was us before we got on our "duck tour" of Boston. They use these WW II style amphibeous vehicle to take you on a tour of Boston on land and on the river. It was pretty cool, but I was TIRED and HOT and kept practically passing out during the trip. Plus, it was too long for any of us.




Adam and Tonna on our duck with us. We were so glad they could come down and spend the day in Boston with us on Friday. It was more fun with them.

After the duck tour we went to the Boston Public Library, which is the first public library in the country. The building was gorgeous inside and out, but it was closing as we arrived. We just had to make sure we got pictures of Ben being "gallant" or maybe just a little nerdy.

Sadly enough I left my camera in the car when we walked down to the North End and went to dinner. It was such a yummy dinner. Then we went to Mike's Pastry and got like a billion different kinds of Canoli's and an eclair that was to die for. It was very yummy and the perfect end to a great day in Boston. It did start to pour on our walk back to the car, but we welcomed the rain after how hot it had been.

The Boston part of our trip was over and we left and drove back to Portland Maine and to Adam and Tonna's cute house that night. Boston was awesome and we could not have asked for a more fun start to our trip (although Ben didn't get his Celtics hat or to get into the Garden..)

BOSTON DAY 1

We flew out of SLC late. It was about 11:50 PM on Wednesday, July 14th. That was also my last official day in my current position so I had been very busy and pretty stressed up until this point. But, hey..who isn't, right? Anyway, we got on the flight and I pretty much slept that full flight. Poor Ben didn't sleep at all. We flew into JFK and had a 3 hour layover until we flew into Boston. Needless to say, Ben was extra tired when we got into Boston. We couldn't check into our hotel until 4pm, so it didn't matter how tired we were. We had to keep ourselves busy amd keep Ben awake. That didn't end up being an issue.

Boston is a beautiful city. Just stepping out of the subway station and looking down the street was inspiring. We dropped our luggage off at our hotel and then walked over and got lunch at the Prudential Center, which was attached to our hotel and close to pretty much everything we wanted to see. We then walked outside and got to see the beautiful city of Boston.

This was a large fountain with tonz of kids running through it. It was SO hot and humid and I really would have loved to run through it too!

We went and took a tour of the first Christian Science church building. It was very beautiful, inside and out. We enjoyed learning more about this religion that we knew nothing about.

After leaving the church and deciding we would walk to Fenway park...my shoe broke. So, I improvised and pulled out a hairband and tied it around my foot and shoe...and then proceeded to walk a few miles. It worked.


We walked to Fenway Park where the Boston Red Sox play. Ben was happy.

This was even cooler though. This is the Bleacher Pub (I think that was the name). We were walking by Fenway Park and saw a sign by a door that said "come in and see the Sox play" so we did. As you can see behind me, there was an opening in the wall and there we were, right at field level. There was a game that night, so the teams were actually on the field practicing. It was awesome!


It was a better view that you could ever get with tickets. We ended up getting gravy fries and a sandwich to take some time to really take advantage of the view. You don't get that opportunity every day.

On the walk back we saw this firehouse. I thought this was so neat. It looks so old, like something you would see in a movie. That was my favorite part of Boston, the old historic buildings and the feel they give the whole city.

We took the subway to TD Garden, where the Celtics play. Both nights we tried to get in, but it was already closed. Ben was pretty disappointed, but we tried.


That first night we went to the Omni Parker House Hotel. Talk about a historical spot. We ordered the Boston Cream Pie, which was actually invented at this hotel. Other historical events took place here like John F Kennedy announcing his candidacy for Congress as well as proposing to Jackie Kennedy there. Plus, Malcolm X and Ho Chi Minh both worked there. I am not someone who is really into history, but standing in places that you have heard about and read about your whole life is a thrilling feeling.

This was just the first day. As you can tell, it was a packed day, but a great one.

The Big Trip

I would love to write about every detail of our amazing East Coast trip, but I do not have the time and I am pretty sure none of you have the interest :). I am going to write enough though because I really need my blog to start acting as more of a journal. So bare with me...or don't, either way I will continue writing. It will probably be 3 or 4 blog entries, this one being the first.

It was a long trip, 9 days in all.

We spent Thursday and Friday in Boston

...then drove up to Portland, Maine for Saturday, Sunday and Monday to hang out with Adam and Tonna.


..then off to New York City until Friday.


It truly was a whirlwind, wonderful, crazy trip. It felt like the ultimate 'bon voyage' USA trip. It was kind of strange leaving for vacation when we have such a short time left here with family and friends, but we have always wanted to go to New York City and this was just our chance. Adam and Tonna have been living in Portland, Maine for the past year while Tonna is her Physicians Assistant program. She will be done in less than a year, which means that when we get back from our two year stint in the Philippines they will be somewhere else. We don't really think we will ever have another reason to go out to Maine, and since we were going to be there anyway, why not go see some other great East Coast places, right? So, off we went for our adventure.

I forgot to mention.....

They are just finishing the LDS Temple in Cebu! How lucky are we to be moving to a foreign country and still be within 30 minutes of a temple! This makes me happy.

Not Baby News, But Still Big News!

This is where we are going to be living in 4 months. The Philippines! I am sure I probably picked out the most beautiful pictures I could find of Cebu and Mactan, but hey I give you what I have got. Hello.......gorgeous right?



I know this comes as quite the surprise to all of you. It came as quite the surprise to us as well. Making the decision to go was a hard one, but for as long as I can remember I have dreamed of living overseas. The fact that I work for a company that has it's main offices in Orem, Utah and Cebu, Philippines can't be a coincidence, right? We are so excited about this opportunity. There will be more details coming up. I promise I will write more than once a month now...