Goooooo Mets!

Being our last summer, we've had a demanding bucket list. I declare 2013 the year of professional sports teams and musicians!! 

Our favorite PA romance and occasional babysitters, Austin and Dan, treated us to a double date at CitiField. We had been shopping around for tickets, but in the grand tradition of getting things for free here, this escapade would come at no cost, thanks to Austin donating blood and later passing out during surgery. I vowed I would have fun, but not too much fun!

 Our seats were total nose bleeders, but thanks to the skeptical weather and less than famous opposing team (I can't even remember who they played), we later hiked down for a closer view. However, I was perfectly pleased with where we were.

Hunky, me, Dan, and Austin

Center field was the coolest, I thought! Like a mini-Time Square complete with Shake Shack...our kryptonite.

Center Field

View from our new seats 

The sky turned a deep purple later in the game....it was a little foreboding but nothing came of it.

Mets...check. Yankees, Jets, and Knicks....still to come!

1 Year Anniversary

It's official! I've been in New York a year, and I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate than with a free concert by one of my favorite bands! 

Fist pump!! 

AND this may have been my favorite event to date (how many times can I say that? I keep one-upping myself). BUT it did combine a few of my favorite things: skateboarders, bands, Julie Pearson and free stuff. Hard to top that.

I am such a geek for good alternative rock bands. I may suffer from a "pre-occupied with 1985" syndrome However, AWOLNATION drew a pretty diverse crowd, so I was able to bypass the awkward/confused stares from adolescents. I will always believe I'm cool enough to be here! Period. Ninjasonik opened for them...they're kind of one hit wonders from Brooklyn. Their song "Daylight" is the ONLY good song in their repertoire. Ugh, they were pretty awful. 

Of course, AWOLNATION was great live. And the best part of the crowd, was it wasn't too crowded! Which, whether you like the band or not, free anywhere tends to draw a ridiculous crowd. So that was a pleasant surprise. I got to walk off into the sunset with "Sail" playing live...yeah, we left mid-song. Kiddos had had enough amps for one day!

New York and I have had our rough times. REALLY rough times. But, this city spoils me so I keep coming back for more. This trip downtown really marked the day that I decided to get over my issues with public transit and make it work. Funny how we can just stop bad attitudes if we really want to. Something that once made me sick to my stomach and was probably the center of my outings, is now just a small part of getting where I want to be. Sigh, it's so liberating. Our relationship promises to be an everlasting love! 

Come on, Dover, move yer bloomin...

This was almost too random to not blog about. Boise now has horse racing, and it only costs $2 to get in. Brandon and I are always up for some cheap entertainment so we decided to go check it out. It was awesomely fun! Tori and I were only able to last through 3 of the 8 races, but she loved the "nays" and I found the EXTREMELY diverse crowd overly amusing. Super glad I'm not a gambler, because my bets wouldn't have been successful! I was basing them on which horse I thought was the best looking haha, shallow I know, but it's what scored me my husband but apparently not a race winning horse though!

The only thing lacking in the whole evening was a floppy billed hat and perhaps a flowy dress of some sort. Sigh!

Boise

Well, it's official! I unpacked our last box, or at least stored it away in our downstairs bedroom so that I'll forget all about it, so I guess I can say we're moved in! For those that don't know, Brandon is back in school (and doing really, really well I might add) acquiring the pre-reqs needed to apply for a physician's assistant program. The PA program is 2 years, and we'll be here in Boise until August 2012, maybe longer depending on WHERE we get into a program. So, by my calculations, we'll FINALLY be done with school by sometime in 2014. Seems like forever away.

In the meantime, Tori and I have managed to keep ourselved busier than expected, thanks in great part to visiting family, half price Thursdays at the zoo, the library, Adobe Photoshop, and a lot of space that needs decorating! Most recently, my Mom and Jake came to visit last weekend, since Brandon was out of town again. EXTREMELY grateful that they came, and it was fun to get in some shopping with my momma!

Here's Tori and Grandma playing in the sandbox in our backyard!

AND...she even made time to build some castles with Brandon as well : )

Our Grandpa and Grandma Dean also came for a visit, but being the bonehead that I am, I didn't get any pics of them and Tori....like I need more of me and Tori, haha. But, they took us to the zoo which Tori just LOVES, and then thanks to them, Brandon and I were able to have our first date night in Boise at the BSU/Oregon game.

Our Aunt Brit came for a visit as well! Since she's moving to Salt Lake we were grateful to be able to spend some time with her before she left!

Our first outing as a family was the balloon fest, which as already reported, was amazing! It was such a fun way to initiate ourselves into the Boise scene. Brandon has been very awesome at trying to find creative fun ways to get out as a family and try new things.

And of course, the zoo is quite a regular visit for me and Tori. It's been a fun day to look forward to for both of us. Tori is so interested in learning right now, it's so fun to expose her to new things and see her eyes light up!

Against all odds, because I WAS very against this move, I feel very settled in Boise. We've been blessed in a lot of ways which makes me feel like we're heading the direction Heavenly Father would have us go. These kind of adventures really help you see the important things in life and have helped Brandon and I grow closer together too....even though it feels like I hardly see him : )

Alice in Wonderland

I'm almost embarressed because this blog may give away the fact that I have little going on at the moment, but at the same time I can't seem to contain my excitement. As most of you know Brandon and I are pretty big Tim Burton fans! As some of you may not know my two favorite movies growing up were Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland. So, alas, I have discovered a match made in heaven to appease my quirckiness...Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, and I'm thrilled!

So last fall while we were in Orlando, Universal Studios held their annual Halloween Horror Nights. Each street is decorated with a different theme and this one was my favorite, The Asylum in Wonderland...dun, dun, dun! This girl was just a pion...I was too scared to try to take a picture of the Mad Hatter and the Red Queen, because they were seriously freaky! But I fell in love with the whole contemporary and darker take on the Wonderland. So again....super psyched for this movie. Here's a few images that were released of the set and characters, and this week they're premiering the preview.

Oh yay, one of my favorite scenes from the cartoon!!

Anne Hathaway as the White Queen. I'm not really a huge fan of the White Queen character, however, I love Anne Hathaway so I think it's going to fabulously cooky!

And of course, who else for the Mad Hatter but Jonny Depp! Yay! They also cast Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen...really it would almost be weird to watch a Tim Burton movie without these two in it!

Buried Treasure

Whenever Brandon gets home from being gone all week, I seem to have tons more to blog about. So today was our first documented geocaching success. Apparently, most people have heard of geocaching, but I just found out from my visiting teaching partner this week and haven't stopped talking or thinking about it since. For those that don't know the game, it's basically a treasure hunt in Laman's term. People all over the nation (and I'd assume the world) hide little containers here and there and then record the GPS coordinates online for everyone else to find. In researcing I found that there are 50 caches in or around Salmon alone. So basically when we come to visit anyone, we'll probably be hitting up some of your local caches as well.

Our maiden voyage proved to be fairly easy, a good starter off course, but even though we found it not two yards from our car, there was still a huge jolt of excitement in finding the buried case. We have to thank my brother Ben for letting us be the first to use his handheld GPS.

How I miss dancing......

I caught wind tonight that some people I know don't watch So You Think You Can Dance. Thus, I take it upon myself to post the occasional blog about it. However, keeping it short and to the point, this week I fell in absolute LOVE with this routine performed by one of my fav gal contestants Kayla (from Colorado making her even cooler) and her recently elimanated partner Max (shame, shame judges). Hope you enjoy!

Jenny

If you couldn't tell Brandon and I are trying to keep ourselves occupied while we wait on our little miss to arrive. So while he's been busy digging around for dinosaurs, my sister-in-law Britney had the perfect cure for the late baby blues...a comedic duo from New Zealand called Flight of the Conchords. They are HILARIOUS and my current celeb obsession! We stumbled upon this particular sketch called "Jenny," awesome already I know. It reminded me of myself, haha, for obvious reasons, but moreover because most of you have probably been on one side or the other of this conversation or in my case...both. So I hope it brings on a good laugh for those of you that have time to watch it!!