Christmas in the City

A few weekends ago Ben planned a whole day for us in the City to see all the Christmas decor.  The day before we were planning on going I got a text from one of my best friends, Whittney, from college telling me that her and her family were going to be in the City as well. So we of course met up to have some lunch.  It was so much seeing her especially now that she lives in Texas.

Then we met up with our friends Mike and Kristin to explore the City for the day.  We first went to the Met to see the Christmas Tree. I wish I had a picture of it but for some reason you are not allowed to take pictures of it.  Then we walked around Central Park and watched some ice skaters and drank some heavenly apple cider and hot chocolate.  Then we made it to Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas Tree. Now this is the first year that Ben and I actually made it into the city to see the tree and I am so glad that we finally made it. It was so beautiful.

After looking at the tree we went to dinner at an Italian restaurant.  It was sooooo good.  Then we went back to Rockefeller Center and went to the top of Rockefeller Center to see the city at night. It was so amazing to see the city all lit up.  So glad we did that.

Overall, it was such a fun day but very exhausting. I think I had fallen asleep within ten minutes after getting back to the car.

SNOW

A lot has happened since I last posted and maybe today I can get caught up because it is a snow day. It started snowing while we were at Church yesterday and did not stop until about 5am this morning.  When we looked out the window this is what we saw.

So it snowed about a foot over the past 24 hours and as you can see because of the wind there is about 2 feet of snow surrounding our cars. Now we are just waiting for a snow plow to come and get us out.  But since it snowed so much I get the day off!!

Fall

I know it has once again been over a month since I have posted anything.  So on Saturday Ben and I drove around CT and NY to look at the leaves.  We didn't really know where we were going since we just hopped in the car and just drove where ever we felt like. Can I just say that is the perfect type of day trip.  But we did all the things necessary to make it an official fall trip.  We stopped at a apple orchard and bought some apples (we didn't feel like picking them ourselves), got some apple cider, and of course saw tons of fall colors.

 This is overlooking West Point. We wanted to walk around West Point but we found out you can only go inside from 9-2 and we did not make it there till about 4 so we will save that for our next trip.

4th of July

Yes I know this is late. But still....so we went to Kentucky for the 4th of July this year to visit Nate, Stacie, and the girls. Can I just say after this visit I want to move to Kentucky. It is seriously beautiful there. There are rolling green hills, horse farms, and open land (one thing I miss living in CT). It was so much fun spending time with Nate's family and to take a little 12 hour road trip with Ben.

So as you can I was a little nervous to get too close to any of the horses.

But of course he had no fear.

One of the horse farms around Nate's house.

Seriously love this girl.

We had bought a bunch of sparklers to take with us so Ben had fun lighting them for all the kids.

Bella

Sophie was terrified of all the fireworks so I think this is the only picutre I got of her before she retreated to the car.

My Golden Birthday

Let me just start by saying this is over a month late. But hey better late than never. Right??


This year I turned 23 on the 23rd hence the title My Golden Birthday. So Ben asked me if I wanted to have a party and told him it would be fun to have a small get together. But once we started inviting people we realized that it was not a small get together. We ended up renting a common room in one of our friend's apartment buildings so we could all fit. It was seriously a blast. But I must say the highlight of the night was the cake Ben made for me.

Now this cake has quite a story to it. So let me begin. Now I am not sure if you all know but Ben loves to cook. He has always made me great birthday cakes. This year's cake was amazing. Let me give you a breakdown in order of its layers. Chocolate cake...Cheesecake....Chocolate cake....Chocolate Gnash....Chocolate cake. Then over the whole cake was homemade chocolate frosting. I hope you all followed that long explanation and can just imagine how amazing this cake was. Now the story begins. Ben and I were trying to load everything in the car quickly to take over to the party. Ben took the cake down to the car and set it on his seat so he can run upstairs to grab more stuff. We both go back upstairs one more time to get the last items. When we get back downstairs our landlady was outside and Ben started talking to her while we are getting into the car. He opened his car door and was saying goodbye and then WHAM he sat down on right on the cake. While this was happening I of course let out a scream and tried to stop him but I was too late. I saw the whole thing happen and couldn't stop it. Luckily he did not completely sit down due to my scream so only half of the cake got smashed. Please see photo below. Now many emotions were running through us at this moment.....shock....sadness....laughing hysterically.

Now don't worry we had some friends pick up a new cake so we didn't have to serve everyone cake that Ben sat on. But then as I was showing everyone the cake they all thought it looked delish so we ended up just cutting off the piece Ben sat on and ate the rest. And let me tell you it was AMAZING. I don't know how I got so lucky that I have a husband that will spend 8 hours on a birthday cake.

This is right after he sat on the cake.  Sadly we didn't get a picture before the disaster hit.

When they came out they brought the mangled cake and instead of writing happy birthday he wrote happy "butt"day.

The Reenactment

I was really bad at taking pictures and I actually stole these from Kristin so sorry for the lack of pictures.

NJ Nets

Last night Ben and I went a NJ Nets basketball game (yes I am aware that they have one of the worst records in the NBA but they did win the game last night).  I ended up getting some free tickets from work so we thought hey why not. We drove down after work and sadly because of traffic we didn't get there until half time. But it was still really fun. Our tickets ended up being in the center on the 8th row. So pretty much they were really good. I had never been to a NBA game before so I was quite excited. But I totally forgot to take my camera with me. How I did that I have no idea....I am still a little upset. But Ben brought his phone so maybe I will try to figure out how to upload those.


I will post some pictures from my birthday really soon!!

The Lovely Weather of Connecticut

So last night was the worst rain and wind storm I have ever been in. It was seriously insane.

This is what I woke up to see:

This is down the street. How we still have power I have no idea. But apparently it is going to be a while until someone can come and cut it down bc so many trees fell down last night.

This is our back yard.

So maybe this is a little unrelated but..... these are our snow angels we made during the last snow storm.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if a snow plow ran into your car?

Well now you will no longer have to wonder.

Last week Ben was driving and a snow plow turned right into him and it seriously sliced our car as you can see.  Ben was fine but I wish I could say the same for the car.

Christmas in California

So I might be adding posts in reverse order. Anyway, Ben and I went to California for Christmas this year. We only were in Bako for just enough time to throw Erin a bridal shower. After the festivities we headed down to a beach house in Newport for about a week. The house was seriously amazing. Our balcony had a perfect view of the ocean. So let’s just say after spending a week on the beach we did not want to leave.

Sophie is seriously darling. I am kinda obsessed with her.

Bella reading her note from Santa. She was so excited.

The girls at the bridal shower.  I don't have a lot of pictues yet. But I have to say all the deocrations turned out so good. Stacie should serioulsy be a party planner.

Everyone at the shower.

Please notice Ben's impeccable posture.

As you can tell Ben was really exicted to be at the beach.

The fam after Erin went through the temple.

Erin GOT MARRIED

Last weekend Ben and I flew to California for the weekend for Erin and Warren's wedding.  It was a very quick trip but I enjoyed every second of it.  We took a red eye flight on Thursday night and got to LA around midnight.  It took FOREVER to get our rental car so I did not make it to the hotel where Erin was having her bachelorette party till like 2am.  Once I got there everyone was going to bed but it was still fun.  The next day was the day before the wedding. So as expected Erin, Stacie, Bella, and I went to go and get manis and pedis.  Right after that we had a family dinner on Erin's roof in Huntington.  It was seriously so cute and the food was amazing.

All the girls

The rooftop

 The Fam

The happy couple

The next day was the wedding and reception.  Everything turned out so beautiful including Erin.  Her dress was seriously amazing.  I still cannot believe Erin got married last weekend.

Coming out of the Temple

Darling

The Fam

The girls

I think this is my fav pic

The tables at the recpetion. I wish I had more pictures of the room. It was stunning.

Their first dance

Outside the reception