Boston and Maine

Last October I went to a work training in Lewiston, Maine. I wish I had had more time to take pictures, as the leaves were just beginning to change. Imagine street after street of cute new England houses with pumpkins on the porches and gold leaves on the trees! It was gorgeous, in other words. Here's the only picture I was able to take. It was outside where we had our training.

After we had finished up on friday, I was able to go visit my darling Hayley in Boston. Hayley is probably one of the funniest, most gorgeous, free spirited girls you'll ever meet. I didn't get a picture of the two of us unfortunately, but here is quick snap of her cute house in Boston:

On saturday, we took a drive out to Newport, Rhode Island. Newport is/was quite the wealthy town. In one area we found a long avenue that was lined with mansion after mansion house.

After getting our fill of mansions, we took the coast highway for a bit and stopped to play on the beach and skip rocks.

Hayley taking a picture of me taking a picture of her.

The last thing I got to see in Boston was by far my favorite and that was Walden Pond. The place is very peaceful and doesn't have that "touristy" feel at all. Hayley was brave enough to take a swim. I enjoyed walking the paths and checking out the site where Thoreau lived.

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately,
to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not
learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die,
discovered that I had not lived"-Henry David Thoreau

Mesa

 Recently I was in Arizona to attend the wedding nuptials for my adorable cousin Jenn. Jenn wore the prettiest princess dress and seemed soo happy to be married to her love Jp. It may have rained at the temple but it was absolutely gorgeous outside (Az usually gets like .5 days of rain per year, so we'll take it!). I ate a ton of fro yo (frozen yogurt) and had a blast catching up with family.

Melissa and I in the temple waiting room

Trying to take family pictures in the rain

The girls take shelter under the roof

I love this. My grandma, mom, and aunt pam

Jenn reaching out to us girls huddled
under the temple roof

So cute

Since when did May fro get yellow cake batter? Mamma like!

cousin chronicles; kristin, me, katelyn and tash. 

Cupid, pull back your bow

I love Valentine's day! Even if you don't feel romantic love for someone, it's still a really good day to do something nice for those you feel friendship love for.

I found these bad boys at Wal Mart:

Recipients so far have been co-workers, friends, and the homeless man who sits at my freeway offramp.

I've also been jamming out to the station pandora made with "Cupid" by Sam Cooke. Love!

Poor Sister Hakes!

I hope you stay by the fire and eat lots of warm soup!

Amis

About a month ago I traveled to Thousand Oaks, California to reunite with some friends from the BYU days. Leland and Tash were gracious enough to host all of us at Leland's parents house. We watched movies, ate delicious food and burned christmas trees on the cold and beautiful LA beach. 



Rochelle and I on the ride to the beach,
it was bit bumpy hence the blurrieness

 





Tash, Mimi, Gabe, Jacob and Leland
in the driver's seat





The beach provided plentiful ponder
moments





I call this the "Dawson's Creek" picture







Mimi skips rocks in front of the

sunset

Reunited: Four members of the orginial Flat 21 from
my 2005 study abroad. I love these girls!

Mimi being a pirate. Some things never change.



Snow Day!

Winter weather brought us 4 inches of snow last night. My boss just called to say don't come in because our office has no power. Only in NM could a little bit of snow do so much damage. So I'm blogging in bed and thinking about how I want to spend this precious free day! It doesn't hurt that I get to look at this out the windows:

My car 

I think I'm going to bake some bread and work on a little filmy project. There's also a possibility of snowball fight later on. What joy!

Things that make me laugh

My sister Melissa doing her impression of Corduroy:

If you've never read this book you probably won't get the reference: