Somerville Castle

Can you live less than two miles from a castle and not go see it? We didn't think so. Hence our detour to the Prospect Hill Castle in Somerville, MA. The castle was really more like a tower, and not nearly as impressive as the view of the surrounding city, but we can now check that destination of our list of "Things to See Before Leaving Boston."

Road Trip in New Hampshire

Since the weather forecast was so good, we opted to take a trip up to New Hampshire to see America's Stonehenge! (We almost went the week before during Winter Solstice, but after checking out what the website said about their pagan ritual, we decided against it.) Unfortunately, when we got to Mystery Hill, the Stonehenge was covered in eight inches of snow and some of the formations weren't even visible. We'll try again with Junior in the spring.

(Check out Brandon's beard!)

We then had the much better idea of checking out the New Hampshire coast. We drove the highway that borders the entire coastline, so not only was it a beautiful drive, but a lot of fun to stop whenever we wanted to get a closer look. Now we know where to go the next time we have a free weekend!


Come visit us and we'll show you the beauty of New Hampshire!

Christmas Day!

We woke up [relatively] early Christmas morning [somewhat] excited for the festivities. [Obviously, Felicia's not a morning person.]


After a raucous time opening presents, we reveled in our spoils. [You can tell what the pregnant Felicia is most excited about.]

Merry Christmas

Snow Day!!!

Winter officially arrived this week! New England got dumped on this past Thursday, the 13th, and then a follow up storm today, Sunday the 16th, left well over a foot of snow on the ground. Today's storm was so bad that a friend of ours asked to sleep at our place last night so that he wouldn't have to fight the storm to make it to his scheduled exam this morning. (You can't beat our commute - we're right across the street!). It took Zach's wife 8 hours to drive 3 miles during last Thursday's storm. I guess people just abandoned their cars in the middle of roads because they were sick of waiting. Ridiculous.

Things were so bad because of this morning's storm that they canceled Church! Felicia was supposed to teach today, so it is probably fair to say that she was not disappointed by that bit of news. So what do we do when Church is canceled? Play in the snow!



Felicia was seriously bundled up for our walk. Check out this picture of Felicia as a Ninja from the wild lands of Zelenskii!



In the end, I think she ended up more hot than cold. Go figure. In this next video, the crackling you hear is actually [really sharp] ice crystals hitting my coat. It was a little windy.



We didn't go too far on our Winter sojourn. We just went from our place to Cambridge Common and back. Cambridge Common was fun though.



This past Friday I took the exam for my Administrative Law class (taught by the Dean of the law school - if you ever find yourself taking classes at Harvard Law School, I really recommend getting in Kagan's Admin. It's a gem.). Some exams are 3-hour, in-class exams, whereas others are 8-hour take-home exams, like my Admin test. So I staked out a spot in the library and got busy. Felicia was kind enough to bring me lunch (isn't she just wonderful!) and on the way to and from the library she took a few pictures, which I thought turned out really well. Check 'em out! Oh - and keep in mind that the snow in these is from the FIRST storm; now there's even more. Madness.

This is right outside of the Law Library. Good times.



This is on the way to the undergraduate campus - their buildings are arguably prettier.



Here's Hogwarts.



This last one is our apartment building. Sure looks nice in the snow!

Gloucester When it's Cold

Since Brandon didn't have school, we decided to take a day trip up to Gloucester with our neighbors, the Beasleys.
Side note: How do you pronounce Gloucester? After visiting, we're still not exactly sure. We should have asked a local. In my mind, I keep hearing the voices of the Russian sailors from The Russians are Coming while they practiced saying it aloud, and it just got me more confused. As we drove through Gloucester, I kept thinking about how much it didn't look like it did in the movie, and discovered why when I was working on this post--the movie was actually filmed in California. What a bummer.
So, our first stop was the Hammond Castle. Didn't know there were castles in Massachusetts? Neither did we! Unfortunately, it was closed for the season, so we had to admire it from afar.

We drove through town and stopped to see some impressive views of the ocean and statues honoring lost fisherman.

We finagled our way to one of the many lighthouses in town, but opted not to go all the way to the end of the breakwater because it was so cold!

After our excursion, we took the scenic route through Gloucester and ate at a little diner called Charlie's. Brandon ordered their fried cod cheeks, which are exactly what they sound like--the meat of a cod's cheek. They were actually very good! What can top eating cod cheeks while in Gloucester? We'll be sure to let you know.

Thanksgiving!

Our Thanksgiving this year was spent with many friends--the Johnsons, the Beasleys, the missionaries, and a random guy named Trent we happened to know from BYU. Much of our day was spent with Brandon doing homework, Felicia watching the Thanksgiving Day parade, and then preparing food (we made our very first pies and they turned out great!) and rearranging our living room furniture.

Finally, we began our festivities!


It took what seemed like an hour for Jeff to get the whole turkey carving thing figured out, but it was worth the wait!


Hope y'all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Early Christmas Presents to Ourselves

It all started two weeks ago when our old neighbors, the Morgans, gave us their desktop computer. We were glad to have it, but we didn't have any place to put it. Fast forward to today when we decided to make the hour commute to IKEA to buy ourselves a desk and revel in furniture goodness. Oh how we love the Swedes!
Yes, we found a desk, but we also found a sofa. Brandon went out to our Chevy Malibu to do some quick measuring. It'll fit right? Uh...no. We were all set to go back into IKEA and return our brand new couch without ever bringing it home. Thankfully, our good friend Walter (of IKEA) came to the rescue and helped us strap the couch to the roof of our car.

After another hour commute back to Cambridge, and with some help from our neighbor, Ben Beasley, we finally got our new couch (and our desk) into our apartment. Within moments, our new furniture was assembled! Our first major furniture purchase!

Wicked!

One of the best parts of living where we do is that we enjoy all the amenities of living in a big city, without having to actually live in a big city. Case in point: Yesterday we took the T downtown to go see "Wicked." Although Felicia didn't quite understand all the hype around it (we know several people whose parents have flown them to various parts of the country to see the show) we both thought it was really well done. The only downside is that for the first time in his life, Brandon actually wants to see the "Wizard of Oz." Or maybe even its scary sequel. Maybe after finals . . . ?

What's it gonna be?

So after much anticipation, we finally found out what we are having.

(Drum roll please!)

It's a boy! Neither Brandon or I were surprised--we've both felt like it was a boy the entire time, but we're still very excited! Half way there to baby!

A week in DC! And Brandon's birthday!

For three weeks, Brandon interviewed on campus with law firms in order to get an internship for the summer. A week later, we went to DC so Brandon could interview some more, and Felicia could stay at a nice hotel and do touristy stuff. The result was very little free time for Brandon (there's so much schmoozing to do!), a great deal of free time for Felicia (there's so much to see!), and rain almost everyday. And it was also Brandon's birthday.

Here's the view of the Capitol Building from our hotel.


During some rare free time, Brandon and I wandered around a bit and saw the Old Post Office (Hi Ben Franklin!) and Ford's Theater...which was closed.


Brandon happened to run into one of his old coworkers from BYU, who is doing an internship in DC. He invited us over for dinner and we had some exceptional steaks. Room service couldn't have done better.


While Brandon was busy interviewing, Felicia visited a different Smithsonian every day. (Tip for all you tourists: if you're going to eat at a Smithsonian, go to the National Museum of the American Indian. Among other things, they serve elk and buffalo.)

Brandon's 26th birthday was on Wednesday; however, he had two back-to-back interviews and then a firm reception, so there was limited partying. By the time Brandon got back to the hotel, he was pretty much exhausted.


Brandon didn't have any interviews on Friday, so we were able to do some touristy stuff together while trying to dodge the rain. Our plan to go to the Washington Monument was foiled when we learned all the tickets for the day were gone. (Tip for tourists: get tickets early! They start giving them out at 8:30 am. We got there at about 11.)

Here's the view of the Washington Monument from the Smithsonians.


We then headed to the Natural History Smithsonian so Brandon could see the dinosaurs, and ended our touring with a trip to the International Spy Museum. Our last night in town, we went to a Lebanese restaurant with our good buddy Baxter. Brandon and I had never had Lebanese before, but we recommend it!

While figuring out where to dine, Brandon gave his synopsis of our crazy week.

Dyal Parents come for a visit--for less than 48 hours!

Although a super short visit, we were excited to have our first visit from any family since moving to Boston--courtesy of the Dyal parents. Of course, we had typical Boston weather their entire time here, but we didn't let it stop us from having a rip roaring good time!

Mom and Dad and I checked out the USS Constitution, as well as the USS Cassin Young. After an afternoon of war ships, hot chocolate, and Coldstone milkshakes, we called it a day and went back to Cambridge for dinner with Brandon.


For their second (and final) day in MA, we went to Lexington and Concord to see the Revolutionary War sites--the Minutemen memorial and the Old North Bridge, to name a few. We also had a fabulous dinner at the Colonial Inn. Mmmmm for Indian Pudding!


For their next visit, we're hoping that we'll actually make it to the Freedom Trail and possibly see some sunshine. Come back soon!

Puzzle and Squirrel

As we were cleaning out our camera's memory, we came across the following:

I recently finished a 1000-piece puzzle. It took about a week and sat in the middle of the living room floor until it was finished. Let's just say I have all sorts of time lately.


And then there's this video. We thought it was funny.

Behold the Squirrel!

And now a word from our sponsors...

We're going to have a baby! The due date is March 13! Of course, we'll post more pictures and news as we go. We're very excited and can't wait to meet this little person!


Isn't baby cute?

Visit from Anna!

There's nothing like a visit from one of our BYU friends to make us feel special! After missing two flights, Anna (and boyfriend Steve) finally made it to Boston! We were able to spend a few hours with them during their whirl-wind trip and had time enough to give them a quick tour of Harvard and Harvard Square.


In front of Hogwarts (or whatever this building is really called).


In front of the Widener Library--pretty impressive!


Anna and Steve at Cambridge's oldest cemetery near Harvard Square.

Of course, we didn't have time to give much of a tour, so all the really great stuff we saved for their next trip out. (The secret is to keep them wanting more--then they're bound to come back!)
It was great to see Anna! Come back soon!

Red Sox and Plymouth with the Rosses

We were able to have our friends from BYU, Bob, Erin, and Nate Ross, stay with us for a few days. They showed us the beauty that is Fenway Stadium and Red Sox fever. The game was great, but it was also fun to see all the people getting thrown out of the game for various forms of "disorderly conduct." Go Sox!


We also made the drive down to Plymouth to see the rock. Turns out Brandon really is related to William Bradford!



We found the closest thing we've seen to Soviet sculpture since we left Russia when we went to the Forefathers Monument. The big lady even has a star on top of her head!


Brandon with the original Massasoit statue! Utah is the only state besides Massachusetts that has statues of Massasoit. Why? Apparently the sculptor was LDS. Go figure.

After seeing what there was to see in Plymouth (you can only take so much pilgrim), we stopped for lunch at the Lobster Hut and walked around the ocean. Nate loved pointing out the water to us.

It was great to have the Ross family stay with us and we hope to be able to stay with them sometime soon in Chicago!

The last hurrah in Utah (for this summer)

Since we had a couple of weeks until our subletter (word of warning: bachelors don't clean so well) moved out of our Cambridge apartment, we spent the extra time visiting fam in Utah. We had a niece and a nephew we'd never met, and a brother and a sister back from missions (F's brother, Adam, back from Japan and B's sister, Steph, back from Brazil), so we had ample reason to spend our ample time in Utah.

Felicia received a Japanese kimono from Adam...


And Brandon got a Brazilian shirt from Steph.


Amidst our family gatherings, we found time to take a hike (literally--haha!) or two. First we hiked to Donut Falls!

(Don't you love Brandon sporting his dad's sunglasses?)


And we also hiked to Ensign Peak...


We really enjoyed our last hurrah for the summer. We're glad to be back in Cambridge, but there's just something about Utah that we really like. Maybe it's the green jello. Or the dry desert air. Or maybe it's that our families and friends are so close by there.

It's probably the family and friends stuff.

The Last Days of New York

To top off our New York adventure, we took the 2 hour metro ride to the Bronx Zoo on free zoo day. This was our only attempt to venture into the Bronx territory (our neighborhood was sketchy enough), but the zoo was pretty great. I had never seen a tapir before or a black leopard.



For our last full day in town, our friends and long-time New Yorkers, the Heywoods, took us to see the Met...

...and for a canoe ride in Central Park...

...and to the Whitney Museum for some psychedelic exhibits. I have never been to an art show that requires you to take off your shoes before entering. Very interesting. All in all, it was a great New York day and a great ending to our stay in The City.