I'll be home for Christmas

Christmas break was so sweet.  

It was packed full of fun & I hardly got any pictures of the festivities.

Here are a few we managed to snap on the iPhone-

Movie time! Trevor wasn't mad, I almost considered cropping him out of this picture because he is scary in it, but just know that is not his real face.  We saw Sherlock Holmes (so cool!) & Mission Impossible (so ridiculous.) 

 

Sister love. We had a great time together. I could never love anyone as I love my sisters (as Jo of Little Women would say). Sharing make-up, clothes, hair products and ridiculous/stupid jokes never gets old with those two.

Christmas Day right after church.  I love that Christmas was also on a Sunday; that made it so special.  I also love that Trevor was telling us something very important and it was caught on camera.

Christmas Eve! 

The beautiful temple, we went and saw the lights with some friends and it was amazing. There were nativities everywhere, I loved it. I haven't been in a long while & it was so nice to go again.

Things I wish I had pictures of:

Our family ski day up at Beaver Mountain.  It was beautiful!  I don't think there was anyone on the entire mountain who was worse at getting off the stupid lift. I fell, collapse-sprawl-yelp style, ev-er-y single time. Poor Mckay, it was usually pathetically right onto him.  His bruises are all from me. Besides the falling, it was so much fun. 

The day we spent with Grandma Dunn & Grandma and Grandpa Craven.  It was so wonderful to spend time with them.  It will be a day I will never forget.  I love them so much, we are so blessed to have them in our lives.  

Breakfast with Shanna Tavenner, one of my favorite college roommates.

Breakfast with Krissy & Ali.  

Dinner party with a bunch of girls I went to high school with.

Dinner with Mckay's good friend Shea & his girlfriend.

Lunch with Ethan (the wonderful soul to whom we attribute our meeting/being together).

Lunch with Ben & Holly, good friends Mckay went to SVU with.

Always fun to get together and reminisce and laugh with good friends.

Trev & Mckay battling on the Wii.

Christmas this year was a perfect success.  We were so happy to get to spend our Christmas with my family for the first time.  It did not disappoint.
2012 is going to be a good year- I can feel it.

Winter Love

Time is flying by.  We've been busy little bees, going nonstop.  I am really looking forward to Christmas break so that we can relax and just spend some lazy time together with our families.

On November 30th we scored sweet tickets to a party at the Rockefeller Center for the lighting of the Christmas Tree.  It was magical & such a fun kick-off to the holiday season.  Justin Bieber was prerecorded so we totally missed out on his performance!  I thought Mckay was going to cry.  JK.  We were mostly there for the food (amazing) & the glowing 80 foot tree.

(The artsy shoe shot by mckay, cutie)

A few weeks later (Dec 9) we flew to LAX to attend a wedding in Palm Springs.  Not just any wedding, a gay, 60's themed wedding, quite the experience.  The ceremony, reception and farewell breakfast were held at the legendary Riviera Hotel.  The groom (well, one of them) was Mckay's college roommate, football teammate & good friend. 

Saturday morning we strolled around the downtown area and I got a pedicure, Mckay got a massage & we had a delicious Mexican lunch together.  That night was the wedding ceremony & reception, the venue was fabulous & everything looked perfect.  Ryan (groom #2) is a Hollywood/Broadway-type so all of the entertainment was provided by their Broadway-type friends.  One song was performed by "Christine" from Phantom of the Opera, yes, my jaw was on the floor.  We had a grand time dancing & mingling with all sorts of souls.

 (Immediate stop an In-n-Out the hour we landed, I've missed it.)

(Poolside heaven)

(11pm, right before we left the wedding, which went until 2am.)

(Mckay & blinking Graham)

(Funny "do not disturb" sign at the hotel, I was so amused.)

Lest I forget to mention- our weekend highlights:

Mckay: Meeting Stephanie Tanner from Full House.  She is (of course) a good friend of the couple & Graham introduced us.  Mckay had stars in his eyes, apparently she was the hot-ticket item for him 20 years ago.

Nicki: Nothing so life changing as Mckay's, BUT I did meet Kristina & Zack from Oprah's Own Show.  Kristina & I had on very similar dresses & she was so darling & said she loved mine.  I loved it.  If you didn't watch the show (we did because Ryan was on it) you have no idea who these people are, but they're great.

It's official!

We're moving!!! Just to Darien (a skip and a hop away) but definitely an upgrade.

Bye, bye Stamford, you truly were good to us. Bye, bye little top apartment house. I will miss you because you were the first place we called "home" together. First of every holiday. First dinner together as husband and wife. First big project. It was the perfect backdrop for the first 14 months of marriage. But I am really ready to say goodbye-

Goodbye:
Moldy bathroom
Slowest sink (the latest hoopla, we timed it-29 minutes to drain!)
Broken tub faucets
Yucky, dull, stained wood floors
Dust bunnies galore from radiant heat
Cold, drafty winter windows
Bacon smell every Sunday (3pm on the dot), apparently the landlords need their weekly pork fix (!!??!!)
Cat smell, thanks for that one too, landlords

But there are things I'm sad to say goodbye too as well:
Kitchen pantry
Separate his and her closets
Front and back deck
Arched doorway
The charm of a house almost 100 years old

Hello to the new! A DISHWASHER, thank you. A sparkling new bathroom, a sparkling new everything. No landlords on premise. Pretty, dark floors and over sized kitchen sink. Beautiful fresh paint I deliberated on for hhhhooouuurrrsss. I think we're really going to like it here (there).

Wedding in Palm Springs this weekend. Finals next week. Christmas in Utah the following week. Oh, and we're moving somewhere in all of that. Perfect. I am elated.

Oh! The primary reason for this post... Since we are moving we are also SELLING a few things:
LG  24" A/C unit (6 months old) 12,000 BTU
Grill (also 6 months old)
Microwave (1 year old)
and a rug, possibly two.

Be in touch if you are interested in any of the above items, or pass it on!

happy thanksgiving- seven things i'm thankful for.

for him. for his sweet words. for tickling my back whenever i ask. for doing the dishes after every meal i cook. for letting me sleep in the middle of the bed snuggled up so close to him. mostly for loving me, even when i'm not the best.

for nursing school. i took my last test yesterday (besides the final), phew! i feel so blessed to be in school, in such a great program, with such wonderful people. i love my new school friends & i have some of the best teachers i've ever had. and somehow i've managed to do well, i'm especially thankful for that.

for my family. immediate, in-laws, extended, new members i haven't met, those living and the special ones in heaven. i love them all dearly.

for our corky home. slowest-ever draining sink, unreliable heat and all. it's ours and i'm so grateful to have a place to call home.

for what i believe and know. for my church and the gospel. it makes me happy, it buoys me up, brings tears of joy to my eyes, makes my heart swell and grounds me in something that is so good.

for the beautiful temple and to have been married inside of it.

for christmas lights that make me feel happy & so excited to be spending christmas in utah this year.

crazy times square this thanksgiving

Boston is for lovers.

On Thursday Mckay called me from work and told me that there were open casting calls in Boston for The Amazing Race over the weekend and asked if I'd want to go.  It is our dream (especially his) to make it onto that show.  So we went!  Luckily, our wonderful friends Ashley and Scott recently moved to Boston -all the more reason to make the trek! They only live 2.5 hours away from us. Love!  We arrived at their house at 10pm on Friday night and chatted and laughed until 1am.

 On Saturday morning we stood in line with approximately 2,000 other people.  We got there early (7:45am) and there were already 500 or so teams lined up.  We stood out in the autumn chill for three hours chatting with two funny guys.  This picture is the crazy line. The right side is people almost into the interview area, the left side is the last of the line, after it wrapped around the entirety of a massive furniture warehouse.  We had 1 minute to impress the judges!  Pressure!

I also have to mention that Mckay tried to convince me to go CAMP OUT at the warehouse with him that night.  When I flatly refused he tried to convince me that he would just go and "scout it out".  Ridiculous?  Yes.  He was trying to convince me at 1:30am that it was a good idea.  He lost big time on that one.

We went back to Ashley and Scott's and the four of us drove to Lexington & Concord.  We learned all about the first shots of the revolution and Paul Revere.  It was really cool.  I love having access to so many amazing places as a result of living in the East.  The battles of Lexington and Concord marked the first armed outbreak of the colonists against their King.  And this lovely little house we're standing in front of is the Orchard House of Louisa May Alcott, it's where she wrote one of my favorite books, Little Women.

"The shot heard 'round the world"

This nice man was dressed up as part of the colonist militia and taught us all about what happened and guns and officers and bayonets and other intense things (see Ashley's and my face).  Behind us is the North Bridge where 500 militiamen fought and defeated the King's soldiers.

After Lexington & Concord we went to downtown Boston for dinner in Little Italy. 

And you can't go to Boston without a stop (or two) at Mike's Pastry for some to-die-for cannoli's! 

Back home to devour our cannolis and play a game of Life.  The boys were mad because we were "cheating" but that is a subjective statement I think.   

Sunday best!  Went to church on Sunday afternoon before saying goodbye.  It's so great having them "close", it makes being so far away from family seem not very far at all.  Thanks for a super fun weekend Ashlot!!!

*Have to put a plug in- while we were together in Boston we were missing our dearest Rachael's baby shower.  We missed her & our other friends who got to be there (jealous is right!!!) desperately.  Hopefully one day we can all be together again. 113!

Broomsticks are for sweeping.

Friday night we went to the city for a fancy-schmancy dinner at a chic, french restaurant -thank you Groupon! It was so fun. I love to eat out at new places... little did we know the night would take a turn for the interesting, in an assault and battery type of way.

So we're on our way to the restaurant and mistakenly got too close to Times Square which means we were slowed down by traffic and a million pedestrians swarming all over. We ended up on 40th, stopped at a red light with 15 or so other cars. It was a one-way street and there were two lanes of cars, we were on the right side of the street. I looked over to the other side and saw a scary looking man wielding a broom stick. I thought to myself how funny it was that he was just carrying a broom stick that he obviously picked up out of someones garbage pile on the sidewalk. He was walking with arms flailing, in the street, looking all around icky in appearance. I pointed him out to Mckay when two seconds later,
WHAM.
Psycho man starts assaulting cars. Literally, taking huge swings at the sides of people's cars. It was insane, wish I had a video for everyone to see. Imagine a baseball player, dressed as a bum, swinging with all his might into innocent, stuck-in-traffic cars, causing the loudest commotion and crunching sounds heard over the city noise. It was so scary. The light would not turn green. He got 4 or 5 cars before things started to move.

We were so nervous that he would cross the alley for us.
What do you even do in that situation!?!? I kept asking Mckay, "What would you have done?!!" and he just kept repeating, "You don't mess with crazies." and telling me that his adrenaline was pumping.

Thank heavens (seriously) we weren't one lane over, or our lovely Subaru would have a nasty wound and I would have peed my pants on the semi-new seats.
Uhg. That poor soul.

Weekend got less exciting from that point on.
Dinner was fabulous and we left the restaurant stuffed to the brim. We went to bed at 2am that night, I really hate doing that because the next day is painful, but he is a night owl so on the weekends I humor him.

Saturday we cleaned the apartment together. Mckay cleaned the tub for me! He even wore my purple cleaning gloves. It was the best.
Then we both studied for hours.
Watched a football game with friends.
Went grocery shopping at 1am. Seriously. Again, the worst. That was a case of bad time management, not Mckay wanting to stay up late and grocery shop with me :)

Sunday we went to the city for a few hours to cheer on a friend as he ran the NYC marathon, which was super cool. Initially, I had a bad attitude about going (too cold, traffic, Sunday, studying, blah...) but it was awesome. We were lucky and spotted our runner and cheered our little hearts out and then got back in the car and had a nice drive home together.
Sunday dinner with friends, always so enjoyable.
Study time.
Relax time.
Foot massage time.
Football time (those coincide).
Sleepy time.

A wonderful & eventful weekend.
Hello, Monday!

Yes. Perfect. This is what I love to see.

SO HAPPY!

My Mom & Dad are visiting right now!  It's been 21 years since my parents packed up the little gold car and their brand new baby girl and drove from their tiny apartment in Hartford, Connecticut to Moscow, Idaho.  This is the first time Dad has been back since.  It's been 13 months since the four of us have been together, this trip was long overdue I'd say.

Dad and Mckay are golfing now.  Mom and I are about to go shopping, could there be a more perfect Saturday?  I love having them here.  They're sleeping on an air mattress that literally takes up every inch of spare space in our living room, we're all packed in here like sardines.  But having a blast, my plan is to show them such a fabulous time that they'll realize they need to move closer to their super fun daughter and son-in-law.  

Days go by

Our first year absolutely FLEW by.  Our anniversary was on the 17th of September and during the days preceding it, I felt a sense of melancholy and nostalgia.  The sweetest, best year of our lives, thus far, over and done with?!  No, thank you.  We were laying in bed one night, about to fall asleep and I mentioned to Mckay that I was a little bit apprehensive about our anniversary.  I think he was perplexed (possibly just sleepy) so I (dutifully) went on to explain to him that OUR FIRST YEAR was OVER.  Ugh, I was not ready to say goodbye.  It was a... there isn't even a word for it... first year.

Eventually I came to terms with the situation.  And now that we're getting settled into "year 2" of this journey, things are still looking pretty good.  We decided to keep it low-key this year, just a romantic dinner in the city and then back home in PJ's for cuddle/movie time, those are my favorite nights.  And I know Mckay was looking forward to the sweatpants/sweatshirt look again.

Friday night came and we were ready to go to the temple.  Dressed up, temple bags, cut up pineapple for the drive, ready to go.  Don't worry that it took me an hour and a half to realize that we were actually not headed to the temple.  "Yes honey, you can get to the temple this way, there is bad traffic on the 95".

At 8pm Friday night we arrived at The Inn at Lake Joseph for a romantic, rustic, fabulous Autumn weekend anniversary getaway!  I was stunned.  He packed for me.  HE PACKED FOR ME?!!! A little hilarious, don't worry, I had 4 pair of jeans for the two days that we were away. 4 pair of jeans but no hairbrush.  But like he said, "It's really hard, there is just so much stuff!"

We spent the weekend riding bikes, lounging in hammocks, rowing on the gorgeous lake, watching the BYU game/studying while the BYU game was on, taking nature walks, and enjoying the beautiful scenery.  On Saturday night (our actual anniversary) we had dinner out at a yummy Italian restaurant.  Sunday, before heading back, we hit up the Woodstock Farmers Market for some fresh produce and homemade pesto, yum!

It was a chilly, wonderful, romantic, lazy, cozy weekend. 

 (No zooming on this picture, we took it with M's iPhone, so close huh? Pretty!)

I love him so.  Marrying Mckay was the best decision I ever made.  It's funny that I was so scared to make it (initially).  Now, looking back, I just think how silly I was to fuss over letting go of single life, or whatever my issue was.  Dumb, dumb, dumb.  This past year has been more fun, adventurous, happy and silly than any other year of my life.  I learned and grew and stretched a lot and I like to think this "wife" role suits me.  I am so thankful that our lives crossed paths two years ago in Norwalk, Connecticut!

Hey y'all!

We spent the weekend of September 11th in Houston with Mckay's family.  The occasion was his Father's retirement party (he worked at NASA for 20+ years).  We flew from JFK to Houston on Thursday night and got in reallllly late; his sister Texas offered us a comfy bed at her house for the weekend.  On Friday morning, we somehow managed to get up at a decently early hour (after a 3:30 am bedtime) and Mckay was off to golf with his brother and two brothers-in-law.  

While he golfed I had a girls day!  Love those.  We went out to lunch, did a little shopping, and ended our day at a specialty chocolate shop, where I accidentally spent $15 on tiny treats...those things add up fast!  I love my sisters-in-law, they really are so fun.  After our "girls day out" Rachel (his youngest sister) and I got our hair cut, which always feels so great.  She looked like a beauty queen with her long, thick hair and I was jealous.  

Then there was the infamous surprise party for Dale that night (amazing that it was kept secret for two whole months).  11 kids and all the in-laws and grandkids that come with them in the back room of a restaurant, "SURPRISE!!!"  It was great.  We spend the evening together eating tons of food, visiting, laughing and enjoying each other's company.  After all was said and done, Dale gave a brief "thank-you" speech and talked about how his family is his greatest accomplishment.  It was so tender and so sweet, it brought tears to my eyes.  He is a great man, I'm glad Mckay had such a wonderful Father to teach him how to be a good man.  They both are just incredibly good people. 

(Dale and Penny and their 11 children, best.)

Saturday we loaded up in Mckay's brother's RV and drove to Austin for the BYU/UT game, which was a riot.  You KNOW it was my first BYU sporting event, aaaaannnnndddd I even had a special shirt for the occasion.  A bunch of his family came and we "tail-gated' (it's for real) which was so funny and weird.  Pull up in RV, take 35 minutes to park it, pull out BBQ and get the meat going, watch pre-football game stuff/other football games... legit.  Oh, and do all of that when it's 106 degrees outside.  Welcome to Texas!  I was so amused and sweaty.

We love our cute nieces and nephews.  SO MUCH.  This little one (Alyssa) was a brand new baby at our wedding.  
This time around she was crawling all over the place.  

The game was sad because BYU lost, but we had fantastic seats, so that's a plus.  It literally (LITERALLY) makes Mckay sad when I tell people I don't like sports, so I'm making an effort now to try to broaden my horizons in the athletic department.  Watch out!

The next day was Sunday and we hung out at his parent's house & chatted with family.  Mckay's Mom made him a pumpkin pie because it's his fave.  So that morning he had french toast and pumpkin pie, part of a complete breakfast.

The entire Dale Dunn clan!  Minus 5 (3 grandkids and two in-laws).  Plus Vera and Dennis- Penny's brother and his wife.

We love spending time with family, it's so fabulous.  It just puts us in such a happy place.  Wish we lived closer & could see our families more often.  I guess seeing them so infrequently, although it's not ideal, makes visits so exciting and special!

Labor Day Weekend

camping in Rhode Island

blazing camp fire (isn't it the best?)

games

s'mores

tin-foil dinners

falling in love with the instagram app

talking and laughing until all hours of the night

the whole shebang

is there anything better?

i think not

except maybe

when the next day includes

morning canoeing

lobster lunch in Mystic, CT

fresh ice cream on the river

and shopping 

before a beautiful drive back to home sweet home

Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Rexburg anymore.

How you know you're not at BYUI:

• Everyone shows up to class on the first day with their #2 pencils and their Dunkin Doughnuts coffee.
• The professor is wearing flip flops with her two-piece suit.
• She uses four-letter words when the computer won't work... and a few other times, too.
• And refers to "God" as a "she".
• There was no prayer to start class... but I always thought that was a little much.
• The building is freezing from AC & I still got eye fulls of flesh I would have rather not seen.

It was a great first week! I say that in complete honesty. And no, I am not at BYU-I anymore. But that is okay, it's preferable even. There are some splendidly nice people in my class & every professor I've met so far is a hoot. They've all smiled and said funny things and tried to make the wide-eyed, overwhelmed, 1st semester Nursing students feel comfortable and excited. (Except one, who glared at me when I saw her in the bathroom. Awkward.)

Mckay made it a great first day for me, complete with a heart-shaped love/back-to-school note taped on the door for me to find before I left for class. And when I came home that afternoon I was met by that handsome guy and pretty "happy first day of school" flowers.

I am excited to be in this nursing program, I feel so fortunate and blessed.  I am a little book worm, already trying to stay ahead in my reading and notes and flash-cards.  I am going to try to get through these next two years in the most organized and un-frenzied manner possible.  The organized part is doable for me, it's the un-frenzied part that will take some major effort.

So here I go.  It's the start of months of CLEW plans, heavy books, heavier reading, stethoscopes, gloves, gowns, brain overload, new material, new people, Greenwich hospital, drugs and dosage calculations, and I'm sure an entire plethora of other things I don't have the slightest clue about.

Cape Cod

 the famous lobster pot in provencetown

 we love good taffy: coconut, pb & chocolate, butterscotch.

 face plants in the sand are so yucky

 the edwards

 plymouth rock

The first weekend in August we stole away to Cape Cod with our good friends Megan & Braden & their little girl, Eve.  We stayed in Sandwich Friday night and spent Saturday in Provencetown and at Meadow Hills Beach.  We had the. most. fabulous. lobster/sea food feast for lunch on Saturday, then loaded up on taffy and fudge, and fell asleep to the sound of the waves.  It was wonderful.  Sunday we got rained out, which was such a bummer, as I wanted more gorgeous beach time.  Instead, we drove to Plymouth and saw Plymouth Rock and learned about the Pilgrims.  It was cold and rainy so we made it a quick trip before we were back on the road to sit in lots of traffic.  It wasn't all bad, we munched on treats and snacks and had lots of time to talk to each other.  Love a fun weekend!

i made that!

Mckay isn't a huge fan of pies (barring his Mom's pecan and pumpkin ones)... actually he's not a huge fan of any fruit + dessert combination.  Which is really disappointing to me sometimes.  For him its cookies, cookie bars, cakes, ice cream, brownies... that makes him happy.  But I love tarts and pies and sorbets and crumbles.  I decided I wanted to try and win him over to my side by making a delicious pie.  I chose strawberry, his favorite berry, to up my chances of him liking it.  Then a few girlfriends told me, "it has to be strawberry rhubarb".  So not even knowing what rhubarb looked like, I went off to the grocery to find some.  If you're naive like me, it's basically over-sized, sour, pink celery.

I found this recipe & it turned out beautifully.  I didn't use her pie crust recipe, only the filling.  This picture is my pie before it's baked.  I opted out of a top crust & just did crumble instead, which was fantastic to have the super sweet crunch top with the juicy-tart filling.  There is no after picture because we devoured it.  1 pie, 2 people, 24 hours and it was GONE.  That is sad, but it was irresistible.

I've always been a coconut cream pie kind of girl; now I have completely reconsidered my allegiance. 

& those beautiful hydrangeas were borrowed/stolen from the "gardens" of a medical office building on my street.  Hydrangeas have been in bloom all over these parts and I love them.  In a moment of covetous weakness, I decided I would steal.  I figured a medical office building was a much less offensive choice than a random neighboring house.  And they had  20+ bushes anyway... aren't they lovely?  I loved the bushes that were pink & purple on the same blossoms!  Flowers in my kitchen are one of my most favorite things.

Scones & clotted cream, please.

Being in the city was amazing, but so was the second part of our trip, the countryside.  We put over 700 miles on our rental car.  We left London and drove south to Dover & then wound our way through Canterbury, Hastings, Battle, Salisbury, Bath, Stratford-upon-Avon, the Cotswolds and Cambridge.  It was a dream.  I loved driving the tiny roads with Mckay & taking in the beautiful scenery together.  The beauty of this place was astounding to me.  

Dover Castle.  We spent 4 hours here.  It was amazing.

Medieval castle wall at Dover Castle.

The White Cliffs of Dover.  So romantic and breathtaking.  This was my favorite "countryside" part of our vacation.  It was peaceful and picturesque.

Canterbury Cathedral.

Jeake's -the most adorable house we stayed at in Rye.  Our room (the Apothecary room) has been standing since 1589.  Charming.

Herstmonceux Castle.

Jane Austin's home where she wrote & finished all 6 books.

Jane Austin's grave site, Winchester Cathedral.

Stonehenge.  Unbelievable.  

Bath Abbey & the ancient Roman baths.

17th-century farmhouse we stayed at 5 miles outside of Bath.  Every night of the countryside we stayed in a different B&B.  They were so beautiful.

Avon River in Bath.

Castle Crown voted "most beautiful village in England".  It was too adorable.  There was one street, named "The Street".  

Antique shop in Stow-on-the-Wold in the Cotswalds.

 Driving the countryside was so fun.  I loved the sheep grazing everywhere.

 He became the best wrong-side-of-the-road driver.  & I the best navigator (with the help of our best friend the GPS).

Ended our trip back in London & saw the wonderful Wizard of Oz!