Pie Class

Before everything got too crazy with graduation and moving I took a fun pie class with a few of my good friends. It was the "Creamy Dreamy Pies" course at the King Arthur Flour headquarters in Norwich, Vermont. It was such a fun night with friends and I learned so much about pie crusts, how to make a meringue, how to make homemade pie fillings, etc. It was awesome!

Candace and I stirring up our lemon pie filling

Ashley and Catherine spreading their meringue

 Stephanie and I with our beautiful meringue pies (mine pre-oven, Steph's post-oven)

 I need to include a close-up of this chocolate cream pie because it was incredible. We each made a lemon meringue pie and a chocolate cream pie and while the lemon meringue looked fancier the chocolate cream was maybe my favorite.

 Such a fun, fun night with wonderful friends. I'm really going to miss these girls when I move!

Mya's 2nd Birthday...a little early

 Mya turns 2 years old later this month, but we decided to celebrate her birthday early while my family was in town because this month is going to get so crazy with our move. We celebrated with cupcakes and icecream and a very simple family party.

Mya didn't want to get her fingers dirty by touching the frosting, so she used a spoon the whole time :)

 The best part of her "birthday" was spending with with her grandparents and two of her uncles. 

She opened up her presents early... so that we can pack them. This little train was one of her favorite gifts.

We love Mya so much and are so grateful to have her in our family. She is the sweetest little girl, very tender, cuddly, sensitive, easy-going, and so easy to love! She is talking a lot now and cracking us up with her little sentences all day. She says so many cute things, but one of my favorite things is what she calls me- all day she grabs my hand and says one of these two phrases "Come on, Mamasita!" or "Come on, Sweetheart!" She is usually pulling me towards the couch with a pile of books in her arms. 

We love you sweet Mya girl!

Maine

 On Monday we spent the day in Maine with my family and it was a perfect day! We started out in York with the Cape Neddick "Nubble" Lighthouse.

After playing on the rocks and enjoying the scenery for a while we took the Shore Road and drove up the coast to Perkins Cove in Ogunquit. 

 We walked around Perkins Cove and had lunch at the Lobster Shack.

 We all got lobster rolls and clam chowder and it was great!

Those are "lobster hands" if you couldn't tell :)

We joked with my mom that she was wearing the perfect red pants for a day in Maine eating lobster!

 After lunch Mya napped in the stroller while we walked along the coast on the Marginal Way trail. It was really beautiful!

Afterwards, we headed to Ogunquit Beach for the rest of the afternoon. It was a perfect sunny day for some time at the beach.

 Bryn had the time of her life, just like her beach days in California!

Mya was really nervous about the water and the sand so she wouldn't even let us take her shoes off. She loved walking along the shore with my dad and watching Bryn splash around in the ocean.

 Jordan had some bad allergies/cold while we were in Maine so he napped on the beach. My mom and I just lounged around and chatted.

 Mya had fun with the sand toys but was quite concerned when the buckets and shovels got too sandy. "Bucket dirty, Mom! Hands dirty, Mom!"

 Logan and Josh braved the cold ocean water and swam for a while, then spent the rest of the time doing sprint races on little courses they marked out in the sand.

 After the beach we headed further up the coast to Wells. My Dad's co-worker had told him about an awesome ice cream place called the Scoop Deck, so he wanted to check it out. Sure enough, it was great! I had mascarpone ice cream with a fresh berry swirl and it was amazing. My best ice cream experiences are always in Maine - I'm convinced they make the freshest, most delicious ice cream. 

Such a fun day!

Graduation

It seems like just yesterday we were sitting in our living room in California editing Josh's admissions essays and crossing our fingers we'd end up at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business. I can't believe we've already been here for two years and that Josh's graduation was last weekend. It was a gorgeous day and a wonderful celebration of all that Josh and his fellow "Tuckies" have accomplished.

Tuck's graduation - a.k.a. "Investiture" - was held on Saturday afternoon right in front of the Tuck steps. Other than being quite toasty, it was such a beautiful afternoon.

Now for loads of pictures...

I am so grateful to my parents and my brothers for flying across the country to support Josh. It was so wonderful to have family with us during this exciting time.

Josh's parents couldn't make it to graduation because they are in Spain right now on an LDS mission. We wished they could have been with us, but we'll send them plenty of pictures :)

It was a bit crazy after the ceremony and we missed getting pictures with some of our good friends, but here are a few...

Joey Monteleone was the other LDS student in Josh's graduation class and one of Josh's good buddies.

Brian McKenzie and Josh met way back at ASW and the McKenzies are some of our very best friends at Tuck.

Samer Sayigh and Josh played basketball together a couple times a week.

Luke Nomura is a Japanese classmate with one of our favorite little babies in the neighborhood!

A couple of my good friends Jenny Park and Candace Monteleone. 

(Steph, send me that pic of you and I ;) )

On Sunday morning was the Darmouth graduation ceremony - a.k.a. "Commencement" - with all the other Dartmouth graduate students, as well as the Dartmouth undergraduates.

I know Josh doesn't like me to gush about him, but I think it's allowed at graduation, right? I am truly so proud of Josh. When we started dating he was studying accounting at UVSC and didn't know exactly what he wanted to do. I knew he was a hard worker and would be successful but it's amazing how hard he has worked to get to this point of Tuck graduation - first, applying to BYU and getting into their business school, balancing a full load at BYU and a busy job so that he could pay for tuition, getting a great summer internship that turned into an awesome job in California, months of studying for the GMAT and 3 years of studying for the rigorous CFA exams, applying to business schools and getting accepted to his top choice MBA program, surviving the busy first year at Tuck, interning at Google last summer, making it through another school year, graduating from Tuck, and about to start a fantastic job in New York City. Josh hasn't had things handed to him and he's worked his tail off all along the way. I know I am totally bragging about him and he might make me take this down, but I am just so grateful for all his hard work and I couldn't be prouder of him! 

Boston Lot Lake and Quechee Gorge

The best way to show off our beautiful area was to take my family on lots of little hikes, so that's what we did! The morning of Josh's graduation we fit in a quick hike to Boston Lot Lake and it was a perfect sunny morning. 

 Bryn's got tons of newts at the lake, but this was her first time catching frogs. She got so good at catching them! Here's a little one and a big one. 

 Here's Bryn forcing these two frogs to give a hug. Oh ya, and then there's the snake(!!)

The whole crew at the base of the trail. 

 Another day we drove the 15-20 minutes to Woodstock, VT where we sampled cheese at the Cabot store, laughed our way through the Vermont Toy Museum, and hiked the Quechee Gorge.

 These two are good buddies.

 Jordan, Josh, Bryn, and Logan exploring in the Gorge

 Playing in the ferns (I can't believe no one got ticks from this!)

 Bryn managed to spot a little toad (of course) and was so proud to catch it before it got away. This girl and amphibians! All I can say is thank goodness for hand sanitizer!