Portsmouth, New Hampshire

I forgot to mention that we visited part of Juan's mission also in this trip. Juan served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints in the New Hampshire Manchester mission. We borrowed Kelly's car one day (thank you Kelly) and took Brooke and Natalie to visit the charming town of Portsmouth. Juan spent 7 months there, was transfered for a little while out of the area, and then was transfered back and lived in Portsmouth for a total of 14 months of his 24 month mission. He loves it there to say the least so we spent a day there, walked the whole town, went to the outlets. It was a lot of fun!

Juan in front of his old missionary apartment. He knocked on their door but they were out working as they should be. Good for them!

Random abandoned telephone booth in the town. Some of the houses dated back to the early 1700s. Old town.

Natalie had to have me take a picture of this. She thought it was hilarious. This was at a prank store in town.

Juan and the girls on the bridge.

Boston, Bowling

All of us out to dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse. Yummy food. And note Kelly's new haircut!

Juan and Ginger on the Subway.

Paul Revere's grave. He just happened to be there standing in front of it!

Juan and I in front of the building where they read the Declaration of Independence. (Juan correct me if I named the wrong document).

This man is a street performer in front of Quincy Market. He got mad at the audience and packed up and left before he even started. None of us knew why. Ha ha.

Juan and I in front of Quincy Market. It is their famous farmer's market, but we mainly just went inside for the food court!

We were walking through downtown Boston and heard this yelling and it was the navy coming through and shouting out Navy sayings as they came.

Ginger and I eating at Quincy Market.

Juan and I on the Subway into Boston. It was my first ride on a subway.

Out east, they have candlestick bowling. They use these tiny balls, and taller, skinner pins.

Brooke Ann and Carley posing.

New York, New York

We love Reeses.

Juan wearing the hat the right way.

I thought it went on like this. Why would anyone every hold it on their face like this all night? They wouldn't. I obviously don't think first.

Juan and I in Times Square. A lot of New York was dirty. Times Square was a little better, and once we got not so much in the heart of dowtown, it got nicer.

Empire State woot woot.

The statue of liberty from the Jersey side. The camera didn't capture how close we were. I felt like we got close!

Our camera has a delay, so Juan always pretends like he's smiling and then changes once I push the button.

I got him back in this shot.

Washington, DC

Here we are with Craig, Lorel, and Ella all ready for church.

Me and Ella.  I got a little sunburnt from touring DC the day before.

Ella chillin in her stroller.

Juan and I at the War Memorial with the Washington Memorial in the background.

Good ole Abe Lincoln.  I loved seeing the Lincoln Memorial.

Juan and I with President Roosevelt.

Lorel and I at the Jefferson Memorial.  Sorry I cut Mr. Jefferson out.

We're back from our huge vacation!

So Juan and I just went on the vacation of a lifetime.  We saw so many things, DC, New York, Boston, beautiful New Hampshire.  We are soooo grateful to all our family and friends who let us stay with them and drive us places and eat their food.  So the origin of the trip was to visit my sister Ginger and her husband Sam out in Boston since they've lived there 2 years and we hadn't even seen their place.  Come to find out Ginger is a decorator and a perfectionist when it comes to her home.  It smelled perfect and was clean and she really made her little studio apartment feel like a home.  It has motivated me to work harder on my tiny apartment! 

Then my oldest sister Kelly and her husband and 4 kids live in Milford, New Hampshire which is about 45 minutes from Ginger.  We visited with them all day Thursday.  We hadn't seen them or the kids for a full year, so that was so fun to see how they all had changed.  Brooke is exactly 10 years younger than me and we're still bffs.  Natalie and Zack are crazy, they fight hard and it's quite entertaining.  Reminds me of Ginger and me.  Carley is the youngest and so sweet and fast moving and the faces she makes are the best!  

Then we headed down the Washington, DC with Ginger and Sam as a little "road trip within a vacation" extravaganza (an 8 hour drive).  Ginger has a college roommate who lives in the area, and we have our good friends Craig and Lorel who recently moved from Provo.  It was so fun to see them and their little baby, Ella!  I will be posting all sorts of pictures.  I am also jealous of Lorel's 3 bed 3 bath townhouse!  Lucky.  We saw all of DC and were exhausted at the end.  And we stayed in Charlottesville with Craig and Lorel for day.  Then on the way back from our road trip we stopped in New York for only a few hours.  We saw the essentials, statue of liberty, empire state building, times square, and the temple.  

Phew, after all that, we spent the rest of the time relaxing at Kelly's house.  We did visit Boston one day, road the subway in.  We had already toured the city a few years back, so there wasn't so much pressure to see everything.  It was such a fun vacation and long and the best way to end our summer!  Pictures will follow this post.

Ward Campout

We went camping this last week with the ward and had many fun times that us city people don't get to experience often. The best part... the sheep.There were tons and tons of sheep in the road on our way up and I felt bad, some of them would dart away running. I tried to tell them we were nice and wouldn't hurt. We saw the sheep herder and dog later, and the dog chased our car for a mile or so! That's a long time when we're only going 30 mph. It had rained before we got to the campsite which was at my bishop's property in Fairview. It was extremely muddy, but it never rained while we were there so that's good. Campfire poses: I told him it looked like he had nothing on under that blanket.