October review.

I cannot believe that the end of October is upon us.  October is my very favorite month (after September -the month in which we were married that will forever hold the softest, warmest place in my heart).  The leaves are to die for.  Every autumn I think "how could we ever dream of moving away from here?"  It is staggeringly beautiful.  So beautiful that as I look around on a drive to or from the hospital, or even just around town, a huge smile breaks out on my face. The beauty of this earth, it's truly something. (at this point I'd say 80% of our trees look like this one.  AMAZING!)

Anyway- October is nearing it's end. & it's time I throw an update on ze blog.

Along with this update I'd like to offer a blanket apology to friends, family and neighbors who have been neglected over the past two months.  I know I should call, visit, text, etc. but my life is consumed.  Nursing school has me barely keeping my head above water day in and day out.  Otherwise I'd be a better housekeeper, cook, friend, & wife.  Thank you. & thank you for blogging because it pathetically keeps up some level of connection.

I'd also like to apologize to any family members who read my blog and were cheerleaders at one point in their life.  My Mom told me that I am offensive because I don't like cheerleaders (in reference to last post) in general and some read my blog.  So sorry.  I like you.  Just not the choices you make (hehe).

Update-

We are good.  Keeping busy, keeping healthy.

We spent last weekend in Chicago with Mckay's brother Jared and our good friends Danika & Kevin (& their three adorable girls).  We went to the Notre Dame v BYU game, which was a blast.  BYU was ahead and it was quite exciting, but then they lost it (shocker).  It was sad.  We explored Chicago on Friday and had a wonderful night out to dinner with D&K.  I came home on Sunday and Mckay stayed for one more "man day" with his brother (NFL game, Ditkas steakhouse, shopping... only manly shopping of course.)

Mckay left for SF this morning for a meeting he has to go to tomorrow.  It's only for two days and I miss him.  I don't think I'd love if his job required a lot of travel.  Home seems really empty and lonely without him in it.  But he likes to get out of the office & do something different. 

The air is getting colder and the leaves are starting to fall, which is bitter-sweet.  As much as I love autumn, the frozen mornings and massive snow falls are my least favorite time of year.

Cannot believe Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and then Christmas after that! 

This semester of nursing school has been a big one for me.  The heaviest work load I've yet to encounter but I've learned so much.  I did my first catheter and trach tube suction, which were two very big deals.  Nearly cause for celebration.  Except Mckay has a rule that I don't talk about gross nursing school stuff at home.  So I only celebrate inside, or with  my Mom! :)

That's about all the update I have.  Here are a few Chicago pictures...

The Dunn clan at the game.  It was cold.

A cold but magnificent day in Chicago.  This is a little beach at the end of the Magnificent Mile.  

The BEAN!

Beachy.

They love BYU football.

Mckay and Kevin (they grew up in the same ward and have always been great friends) and the sweet little Hannah baby. 

The girls were so excited that there was a real life Dr. staying at their house (that would be Jared).  The first thing we heard in the morning was, "Is the Doctor awake?!"  But even a finance guy will do for playing pretend with little Leah.

the weekend of football

We went on a little trip South last weekend- to beautiful Virginia.  Mckay went to college at Southern Virginia University after two years at BYU & absolutely loved it.  He played football there and every year since I have known him he goes back down in September for Homecoming.  This year it wasn't Homecoming but the 5 year anniversary of the 2007 (his last year of football) football team's winning season (one and only).  So we left Thursday night to make our way to Buena Vista (& the people there pronounce is Bu-nah, which is funny to me).  

 Craven love!  

We stopped in Baltimore Thursday night for the Raven's game.  My first pro football game (his 2nd) & it was pretty neat.  We went for a couple of reasons.  #1 because I love Ray Lewis.  Mostly because he gets emotional during the National Anthem and then when he's done he's back to looking like the scariest man alive.  But he's obviously a sweetheart.  #2 because I am married to a Dunn, the Dunn men love football.  #3 We didn't want to drive the full 7 hours in one night (that wasn't really a reason). 

 The annual golf tournament in BV.

 What I did during the annual golf tournament.  Hid out in SVU' stuck-in-the-70's quiet room of the tiny library.  It served me all too well for five hours of COPD & acute respiratory distress syndrome.  

 The Banquet.  Too many speakers, and lacking a highlight film, but still lovely.  He played with some really great, stand-up guys.  It was fun to meet new ones, and spend time with friends.  Mckay and I had very different college experiences-- as in, he is super enthusiastic and loyal to his.  There's a lot of camaraderie and devotion to their school & the team.  

 The lovely Jill Lund who Mckay absolutely adores.  He was good friends with her daughter while he was at school and was always hanging out with all the other guys at their house.  She makes his favorite cake ever (besides anything I make, of course) Molly Cake and every time we go she has it waiting for him.  It's the sweetest thing. 

 The 2007 team was honored during half time.  Don't know why I wasted picture space on the cheerleaders (barf) when I could have captured more of the team.  Oh well.  They gave a little highlight on each player-  my proud wife moment of the weekend.  Mckay holds all the WR records at that school.  I didn't even know.  

& our weekend wouldn't have been the same with out the Whetstone's (Chelsea is the Lund's daughter) and their hospitality.  I had grits for the first time -they were made with cream cheese and... other fattening things, and they were dangerously tasty.  Chelsea cooked us a wonderful breakfast and their daughter Maggie provided us with hours on entertainment.  She is probably the happiest baby I've ever met, even though she doesn't look it in the picture!  So content to just do whatever the adults were doing.  

Go knights!

2 years ago-

2 years ago today, I woke up on my wedding day & it felt like any other day.

Kind of the way birthdays go when you're little. You think you'll wake up feeling different, but you realize everything is pretty much the same as it was yesterday.

My soon-to-be in-laws were staying at my parents house. My mom made everyone german pancakes & peaches for breakfast. I ate a little, but the nervous excitement was starting to creep in.

I got my nails done, the color looked too white to me, but it didn't matter.

I ran some errands (can't believe i left buying frames for the reception table until the morning of!).

Family started to show up. Everyone hugged but it all felt slightly surreal. Happy & wonderful, but not really different- not how I thought it would feel. Almost like it could have Thanksgiving; it was funny to think that they were all here for me, for my wedding day!

The clocked ticked on and finally I decided I'd better get ready. I started my make-up & my best friend curled my hair for the up-do that I had in my mind but hadn't thought necessary to practice. Then time flew and Mckay was there to pick me up and take me to the temple. My hair wasn't working. It wasn't holding curl, there was "too much of it"... none of that mattered (surprisingly, and thank goodness), I pinned it half up and it looked like my hair on any other day of the week. We hurried out the door & I looked at my freshly cleaned & sparkling engagement ring in the afternoon sunshine.

Next, Mckay & I were riding in his rental car up to the Logan temple. And all of a sudden, there it was, towering above me as we drove up the hill. Standing so majestic and grand, beckoning two people on a lovely September day.

& that's when it felt different.

When he took my hand and we walked from the car to the doors of the temple. His hands felt familiar and warm and his grip was gentle yet firm. That walk, brought the weight of everything down on me, our wedding day. We saw more family & friends to greet, I was aware of how my grey jersey-cotton dress felt so soft on my skin, I hugged my sweet Aunt Debbie and felt her hair brush my face, everything felt heightened.

We walked hand and hand into that beautiful temple and walked out sealed for eternity. Two people, one life, forever. I hadn't felt peace or love or hope like that before. I remember looking into his eyes as we were married and feeling an unexpected calm wash over me.

Happiness shook me to my core that day. The reality of the commitment we had made was etched deep into my heart. He was mine and I was his, & I don't think there has ever been a sweeter feeling than to know that we were each other's.

It certainly hasn't been perfect, but it has been wonderful.

We're still babies when it comes to this marriage thing and some days I certainly act like I need a Marriage 101 class. But these two years have been the sweetest two years, & I look forward to many more with him.

welcome to kennebunkport! -snippets of our labor day in maine.

With our lives about to get pretty busy (with work + school) we saw this Labor Day as a good opportunity to go do something fun without the guilt of neglected homework.  So we up and went to Maine!  I had never been & Mckay had been once before, but only for a football game and he didn't really see any of it.  I was so excited for the long weekend and the chance to explore the coast.  We camped for two nights in Kennebunkport and then spent one more night in a B&B (lest we get too nature-y) in Rockland & made a quick brunch stop in Portland.

We had such a blast!  The camping made my weekend.  We had such a fun time snuggling in the tent in the early morning sunshine and sporting our new head lamps -two camping musts.  Friday night we made it to Kennebunkport & set up our tent in the dark then had fabulous lobster dinner at Nunan's Lobster Hut.  

Saturday we:

 hit up The Wayfarer for breakfast 

window shopped downtown Kennebunkport 

stopped in at an "upscale church tag sale" where cute old ladies tried to sell us old table linens (I did score a vintage milk glass vase!)

took a glorious nap at Goose Rocks Beach

ate dessert before dinner 

built a monstrous campfire 

made tin-foil dinners 

talked for a few hours by the heat of the fire 

had a second dessert of s'mores 

& finished the night off with a few rounds of Speed  [not of the methamphetamine variety] under the stars.

The next morning we left Kennebunkport and drove another two hours north to Rockland for our last night.  We stayed in a cute B&B, The Captain Lindsey House and I was most excited for the fluffy duvet cover and TV in the bedroom (we have neither).  We shopped a little more, had a fabulous dinner at In Good Company, saw a movie and then lounged and watched TV in the comfy bed.  On Labor Day we woke up to a yummy breakfast and then walked to the Rockland lighthouse.  It's 7/8ths of a mile out on a granite breakwater in the harbor.  It was a long walk, but gorgeous and so fun to walk hand in hand with Mckay and laugh and have such an enjoyable time together.  We stopped at another lighthouse on our way out and then hit the road for the 6ish hour trek home.

Lastly, we stopped at a farm stand!  One of my top favorites of the North East is the plethora of fresh produce stands you can find dotted across this part of the country.  We loaded up on fresh everything including blueberry pie and apple cider.  

It was such a perfect, fun, relaxing, romantic weekend.  I sure do love Mckay more than anything in the world & spending time with him makes me a most incredibly happy girl (mush).   I feel so lucky to live the life I do.  

our last jaunt with kenna.

to Beantown!

 

It was Kenna's last weekend with us and so we decided to take her up to the beautiful city of Boston!

We left on Friday and drove the three or so hours to Ashley & Scott's (our most gracious, fun & wonderful hosts) house.  She cooked a delicious feast for us upon arrival and we stayed up way too late that night talking and laughing and having such a good time.  The boys were tired of our antics around 10:30 but were such good sports and let us do our chitty-chatty-ing until nearly midnight. 

 

Saturday we started out at Walden Pond in Concord.  If you've  been to Boston & haven't been to Walden Pond you are missing out! It was the most gorgeous lake (I would classify it as a lake, definitely not a pond) I've ever been to.  The water, which is 100 feet  deep in the middle, is incredibly clear and it's completely surrounded by trees.  Ashley & I swam out to the middle of it and just floated and talked.  We can't wait to go back, and you can't beat a $5 parking fee!

 

Next up-

Boston!  Freedom trail, Quincy Market, Faneuil Hall, Paul Revere's house, Old South Church, Mike's Pastry, the best pizza of our lives (Regina's Pizzeria!), New England Holocaust Memorial, & a street fair in Little Italy! 

 

Sunday we went to church with them & then skipped out early (hush/hush) to climb up to the top of the Bunker Hill Monument before taking off.  Ashley and I were neither excited about or happy to climb those 300 stairs.  We've both done it before & in Sunday clothes didn't sound appealing at all.  But 20 or so minutes later we were all up top looking out over Boston, a pretty view no matter how much your calves hate you.

 



 Love him so much.  Also love Ash looking on so sweetly.  And he loved his mega-treat from Mike's: the Lobstertail.

 I know this picture isn't cute, but it makes me laugh.  We were waiting for our table at Regina's & Kenna snapped it.  What is Mckay doing on his phone? Looking up Mean Girl quotes, what else?  The restaurant sparked it, and we knew there were a plethora of funny lines besides the "You go Glenn Coco!" we were stuck on...

 1.... 2.... (snap)  Mckay didn't wait until 3 & I love the outcome.

 

 It was almost noon but the sun was hiding.  Luckily it came out and shone is beautiful rays on us for a few minutes, it was glorious and sparked an impromptu session of water acrobatics, which was probably not as pretty as if felt :)

 

Thanks Ashley & Scott for such a fun weekend.  They took good care of us. 

A few days later Kenna's summer of East Coast lovin' & adventures ended and we put her on a plane back to Utah.  It was so very sad, but we're thankful we got to spend such a fun couple of months with her.

 

Two weeks ago-

 My good friend Jacki & her sweet husband (who were living in NJ for the summer) came to CT and visited us!  We had a yummy Sunday dinner together and after we were stuffed to the brim, we took them to the beach to relax and enjoy the beautiful scenery.  It was fun to catch up with them and have an excuse to spend a few hours on the shore. 

 Us at the beach that Sunday afternoon.

 Kenna brought Ariana over a bunch these last few weeks and we've been swimming and having so much fun girly time together. I love this cutie pie. 

 Sister who shop together...

Have too much fun.  Kenna needed some new clothes and so we spent an afternoon at some of my favorite places outfitting her.  No amount of persuasion could convince her to purchase that outfit!  Isn't is so darling?  I should have gotten it for me.

 Mckay folded my napkin into a heart. (Although he wants me to tell everyone it's the batman symbol, which it clearly is not.)

 We are so lucky & live next door to our good friends Dave & Lizzy (and their beyond darling little baby Tillie).  Lizzy's sister came to visit for a weekend and we all had Sunday dinner together.  Couldn't let Sarah go home without first snapping a picture of Lizzy & I with our look-alikes.  What sweet, good girls they both are.

 Mckay agreed to see Hope Springs with me over the weekend.  We were the youngest people in the entire theatre by maybe 20 years.  It was so funny to feel out of place at the movie theater!  The movie made us laugh a lot although there were a few squirmy-awkward sex scenes made worse by the fact that the actors were "old people" & I knew that I was in a theater full of grandparents.

 Took Kenna into New York City for the last time this summer.  We ended the night by seeing a Broadway, Mamma Mia and we all loved it.  A lot.  I've always said Mary Poppins was my favorite (barring Les Mis which is in another category altogether) but now it's definitely a toss up.  This one completely blew my socks off. 

 Dinner at Extra Virgin did not disappoint.  I had the pistachio crusted goat cheese salad, need I say more?  It was beautiful and delicious.

& last but not least...!  We found out that Mckay passed level II of the CFA.  We are relieved and so grateful, and I don't think I've ever seen him happier or more proud of himself.  He is amazing! 

italy love.

It was dreamy and delectable and so inspiringly perfect.
We spent 16 days in Italy this summer. Our itinerary went something like this: 
Rome (3 days)→  Siena (2 days) → Florence (2 days) → Venice (1 day) → Verona (1 day) → Cinque Terre (3 days) → quick stop in Pisa to see the leaning tower → Siena (1 impromptu day because we'd fallen in love) → Amalfi (1 day) → Sorrento (1 day) → Back to Rome for our flight home.

It's over whelming to try and sum up 16 crazy days into one blog post... and I don't have the steam to devote much more time to it. So here are 16 of my most favorite pictures to hopefully give a little idea of what we did!

Climbing up to the cupola of St. Peter's Basilica. The camera is not rotated! It was so disorienting to climb in the slanted parts. It was hot and cramped and exhausting but the view from the top was incredible. We sat up there for a long time enjoying the most spectacular view of Rome.

A favorite of mine, one of the smaller dome's on St. Peter's Basilica.

In front of the 2,000 year old Colosseum. We spent a few hours exploring the interior. It's amazing to think that gladiators and lions fought there and ship battles took place where we were standing!

Duomo di Siena.
Made of dark green (so dark it looks black) and white marble. Siena was my favorite city we visited while in Italy, although all of them were a close second. It's Italy's mid evil city and it feels & looks like you stepped back in time... to the 12th century. We missed the Palio by one day but saw horse hoof prints left in the sand from the race!

Beautiful Tuscany, on our way to our B&B.

Admittedly Florence was not my favorite place. We spent 1.5 days there and after the first day I was ready to be done. A friend of Mckay's did suggest a restaurant for us to try and we had a fantastic dinner that night. Here is Mckay with his Florentine steak, a local delicacy that looked completely unappetizing to me but he seemed to enjoy. I had lobster risotto that was to die for.

Venice, the sinking city. I wish we would have spent more time here. It's crowded and touristy but the ambiance of a city on the water is so incredibly mesmerizing. We loved it! We paid a stupid amount of money to take a gondola ride, but when in Venice, right?

We stopped in to Verona to see an opera (Romeo & Juliet) in the arena that was built in 30 AD. In 1913 it was used for operas and has been used for them ever since (minus during WWI & WWII). In 1913 audience members brought candles to light the stage because there was no electricity. In the 80's the tradition was brought back to represent the significance of each member of the audience being in such a historic & ancient place. It's a neat tradition and fun to see thousands of candles lit through out the arena.
*As amazing as the arena was, seeing an opera in a foreign language gets boring fast.

I never tired of the grapes! They look so pretty & perfect all lined up and so lush & green. I took this picture in Cinque Terre, five brightly colored villages carved into the mountain side right on the Italian Riviera. Right when we arrived we took a boat to Riomaggiore and hiked back up to Monterosso al Mare. It took us 4.5 sweaty, tiring hours but I don't think I've ever seen such beautiful views.

Monterosso al Mare (Cinque Terre), enjoying the sand, sun & sea.

Vernazza (Cinque Terre)
This was part of our hike, as we were coming down into the village, so picturesque!

After Cinque Terre we made that little detour back to Siena because we couldn't get the town or our B&B out of our heads. It was so perfect and peaceful and serene. The woman we stayed with (Marie) cooked us the most incredible food we've ever had. Ever. I have no words to describe the caliber of her cooking. Or the perfection of the setting.

Then we went South. Here I am early in the morning floating in the Mediterranean ocean in Amalfi town.

This picture makes me want to go back maybe more than any other one... dreamy.

They have lemons growing everywhere! And they are HUGE! I saw some the size of mangoes. They have this icy/lemonade-y thing with shaved ice and whole cubed lemons. You just eat it right up, peels and all. It's tasty & tart, great for the smoldering hot summer days.

Sitting out on the pier at sunset looking back to Amalfi.

Our last day we were in Sorrento and we spent a good portion of it exploring Pompeii. That was fascinating. The mountain behind us is actually Mount Vesuvius which erupted in 79 AD and buried an entire civilization. It is incredibly preserved, down to the "artwork" in the brothel.