~First Visitor~

We had the privilege to have our first Utahn visitor tonight!

Mike! It was SOOOO wonderful to see a familiar face, and especially his because he is so fun to be with. Mike was Brian's first friend when Brian's family moved to West Jordan when Brian was in middle school, and I had a crush (who didn't?) on Mike in middle school, so we all go way back;-). He has been back here for work for the past few days and we finally got to meet up. He came over for dinner and then we headed to Sweet Ashley's around the corner for some ice cream.

Mike and his future wife are moving to Rhode Island in September and will only be a short 2 hour drive from us! We are so excited to have friends close by and are already planning monthly (at minimum) get togethers. Mike was such a sweetie with Thad and we really enjoyed the company...See you soon, Hawkers!

Great Weekend

Connecticut has yet to fail us on weekend fun, and we're not planning on it to do so any time soon. On Friday night we went to Jordan's, a Greek and Italian restaurant for dinner with 3 other couples from the ward. Hanna and Tracy of course came, Braden and Megan and Camille and Scott. Braden came and helped us (by us I mean Brian and Russ) move in the first day they got here and come to find out he is another Aggie Alumnus! At dinner we found out that he was really good friends with a group of roommates that we really liked at Cobble Creek Apartments where we managed! It's so funny what a small world it is:) They have a sweet 5 month old named Eve and Camille and Scott have a little 7 month old boy, Payton. We each got a large pizza at dinner and shared...needless to say it was a fun night and wonderful to have friends while being so new in the area.

Saturday was a great day too! We got up and unpacked some more decor for the house because we finally got the bookcase we had been wanting from IKEA, and then Brian helped me organize the basement because it was kind of a frightful scene down there. I also vacuumed the floor and some cobwebs because I don't think that basement has seen any sort of cleaning in it's entire life. I hope it will get me down there some more to get some laundry done!
After our productive morning we took Thad over to Hanna and Tracy's and headed to the Manhattan Temple. We were daring and drove into the city because we heard there are good, cheap places to park so it makes it less expensive than a train ride in. The drive went very smoothly and we are officially city slickers now that we have driven in NYC;-) As we made our way towards the temple I was really excited to see it, but I didn't notice it till we were RIGHT across the street! It snuck up on us, but it was so neat to see the temple amidst the craziness of the city.

Can you see how it sneaks up on you?

The inside was gorgeous, and it is so cool to see how the space is utilized when a lot of space isn't available. It was so amazing to be inside the most sacred, peaceful place we could possibly be, and then to walk out onto the crazy streets of Manhattan! It was awesome and I'm so grateful for our proximity to the temple so that we can go back often.

The Lincoln Center is just down the street from the temple, so we stopped and enjoyed it for a minute.

We had a wonderful weekend and just love going into the city! I am so glad Brian got the opportunity to be out here because it is exactly what we needed right now in our lives. We still miss everyone and hope you'll make it out here so we can entertain you!:)

I Heart NYC!

Saturday was my first time to New York City, and I'll have to say that it not only met, but exceeded my expectations! I was told to go in without a major agenda, and just explore for the first time and it was really great advice. We went with Tracy, Hanna and Sophie and they had been before like Brian, so we planned some things that weren't so typical of NYC trip since I will have lots of trips to come and they had all already seen the major sites.
We rode the train in from Norwalk,

 getting off at Grand Central Terminal and walked down 5th Ave, through Rockefeller plaza

(We seriously LOVE 30 Rock, so this pic was a must:)

And straight into Central Park:

It was so fun to be in the thick of the trees, but then see the buildings standing so tall over them.

After the kids were soaked and we got their clothes changed, we headed to Pronto's Pizza for a classic New York Slice.

This filled us up for the rest of the day to say the least.

We jumped on the subway, strollers and all, and headed over to the Brooklyn Bridge

At first we went down to the pier under the bridge and got some yummy ice cream. We also got a great show from some sweet rappers filming a rap video:

Yeah, it was pretty hard core.

We wanted to walk across the bridge because we had heard good things about it and even though everyone but me had been to the city, none of them had walked across:)

It actually turned out to be the best part of the day!! It was a perfect view of the city and also nice and breezy to cool us off a bit.

The kids were pretty pooped by the end of our promenade...

And we gladly let them sleep --- zzzzzz

While they were sleeping we walked through the Financial District

And headed to the Staten Island Ferry. It's free to the public and goes past the Statue of Liberty, thus eliminating the crowded, costly trip to Ellis Island which I'm sure I will make eventually:)

Hanna and Tracy stretching after our long walk to the ferry...and across Manhattan!

It was a perfect way to end the day and not have to be on our feet for 45 minutes. Thad and Sophie loved to look at the water and sit by each other on the benches...what sweeties!

Again, the day was absolutely amazing and I couldn't have thought of a better way to spend my first day in the city. It is such a fun adventure to be out here and I can't wait to go back with all of our visitors. Speaking of which...We already have 4 in the works! Heidi booked her flight the other night to come September 16th and I thought she would be my first, but my sister Brigitte is coming out August 24th! Breanne and Taryn and Todd and Kelsie are also planning for mid October and I am just seriously SOOOO excited! We love visitors and would love to get anyone else on the calendar that is interested. Let me know.

Oh Connecticut...

So we've almost been here a week and it truly is crazy how time flies! The trip out here went very good for Brian and I. Brian drove a 26-foot moving truck out here with his step-dad, Russ and it all went pretty good except for at the end of the first day driving, Russ' motorcycle had fallen over in the back of the moving truck (they were brought it out because Brian's mom, Teresa flew out w/ me and they are riding it back to UT) and they weren't able to figure a way to keep it standing w/o falling, so Russ ended up riding the bike behind Brian for the next 2 days:( They were both really good sports about it and they kept each other awake while driving next to each other. When they got here last Tuesday night there were 5 people from our ward ready to help move things in! The church is true is all I have to say...I didn't have to move one box into my new place:) Teresa  and I flew out Wednesday and Thad was an absolute gem on the flight. What did I do to deserve this kid?

He was awake for the whole flight except the last 10 minutes we were descending! What a silly kid. 

After we landed it took 2.5 hours to get home from JFK...it's only 40 miles away! I chose a bad flight (all future visitors take note;-) and it landed right during rush hour. I mostly slept, so I shouldn't complain too bad. In between cleaning and unpacking our new place we went and did some fun things while Russ and Teresa were here:

We ate at this fun little sea food shack just down the street from our house and ate out on this dock. Listen people...COME VISIT...this is 2 minutes away from my house!!!

After that we drove on over the the beach ONLY 5 MINUTES AWAY (hint hint) and were introduced the rocky beaches of New England.

Then we went to Stew Leonard's (that's what the orange sign says) and it's a fun grocery store that is featured in Ripley's Believe it or Not as the largest dairy supplier in the country. You should come to Norwalk...

We also got some ice cream at a little shop that is just around the corner from our house called Sweet Ashley's and it is super yummy. You may have to come out to try it;-) Russ and Teresa are so amazing for coming out and helping us with our move. I would have been a mess w/o Teresa here and I am so grateful for her support and understanding. We were definitely sad to see them leave:

But at least they left in style! They are so fun and adventurous for riding the bike across the country and they are having a blast stopping and seeing a lot of the church history sites. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all your love and help! We miss you already and hope to see you soon.

We went to church on Sunday and have already made some friends. A sweet couple that helped us move in invited us over for dinner on the 4th of July along w/ Hannah and Tracy. Tracy and his wife just moved out here too this past week from BYU because he is doing the same thing as Brian. Hannah and I didn't meet til last week, but we feel like good friends because of the whole process:)

Sophie (Hannah & Tracy's little girl), Hannah, Aubri, Me & Thad at Aubri and Thomas' house for some awesome 4th of July BBQ.

The guys: Brian, Thomas & Tracy

After dinner, another sweet couple called us to come over for dessert so we went over and had a blast with them and another new couple that just moved in the ward from Manhattan. Thad got kinda bored and this is the entertainment we came up with for him:)

Now for the MAIN EVENT - - MY HOUSE! 

Isn't it cute! I am going to give a tour of it in pictures. I am mostly posting these messy/stark house pictures so that the before and after is more shocking. We have mostly everything unpacked, no decorations up, and a few more things to purchase before the space is complete. I just wanted to give you an idea of where we're living. (Also, it's kinda like "Where's Waldo" but with Thad)

The view from the front door

The family room

Dining Room Area

The Kitchen

This is to the right of the dining table:  A pantry, half bathroom and stairs to the basement.

Up the stairs we go:)

First stop: Full Bathroom

Thad's Room

Master Bedroom

I hope you enjoyed the tour and look forward to seeing the improved version of our new place. Things are going great so far and we really like it here. Brian started his job yesterday and knows already that he is going to have a good time. He is on two different project teams and is excited to get working. Again, if you are at all interested in a visit back east, you know who to call: Free lodging, free dinner, free tour guide and lots of other perks! We love and miss you all!