Oh wait, it's 2011 already??

So I know I've been a MAJOR slacker on updating the blog lately. I didn't even finish telling everyone about the rest of our New England trip back in October. For some reason, every time I sit down to write, I quickly lose motivation and move onto something else. But one of my resolutions (if you can call it that) is to write more and document more of my life, cause I know all of you are just DYING to know more about my exciting life, right? ;)

Anyway, I know we're already well into February, but I thought the best way to make up for my lack of blogging would be to do a recap of 2010.

I won't be one of those people who goes into full detail about everyt little thing that happened last year, I'm just gonna touch on the highlights and significant moments of the past year.

So here goes...

In January after ringing in the New Year with some of my good friends, Rob and I headed to Reno to see one of his close friends get married. Rob has a lot of really good friends out there and it was fun for him to be able to see everyone, catch up and see his buddy get hitched. I'd have to say, the highlight of the trip for me, was that the church they got married in, shared a parking lot with a Hell's Angels club house....awesome! That's Reno baby.

February marked Rob's parent's 50th wedding anniversary, so as a gift and celebration to them, all his siblings and their families got together in Las Vegas. We did a big Nish family photo shoot, got them a room at the Trump International Towers and had dinner together at the Black Pepper Grill out on Lake Las Vegas. Rob and I even got them a custom made anniversary cake with their wedding photo on it. It was was fun to celebrate and be with the whole family, since he has siblings all over Utah, Vegas and California, it doesn't happen too often.

March isn't ringing any bells for me as being a very significant month last year, so we'll go ahead and skip that one.

April was one of the best months for us as Rob and I lived out two of our big dreams. The first was buying Rob's dream car, a 1967 Chevrolet Chevelle. The second was driving historic Route 66. After months of negotiations, we flew out to Mississippi on April 25th to buy the car and drove it alllll the way back home, taking Route 66 as our main course. It was one of the best trips we've been on, so much fun, so full of history and so awesome to be in a classic car driving a classic Route.

At the end of May, Rob took me to Wendover to see one of my favorite bands in concert, Huey Lewis and the News! As one of my dad's favorites, I grew up listening to them and love them to this day. I'd seen them live once before, at the stadium of fire years ago, but this time was even better! We had 3rd row seats and they sounded just as good as ever!

In June Rob and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary by enjoying Sea World in fabulous sunny San Diego. We stayed at a beautiful resort right on the bay. Rob had to go for work so we just decided to make a vacation out of it, hey why not celebrate our anniversary on the company dime?

July was a significant month, after nearly 5 years at Clear Channel, Rob left and started working at the Miller Motorsports Park, a race track out in Tooele, UT. He became the brand manager for their high performance driving schools. He welcomed the change of pace and atmosphere and has been enjoying working with fast cars. In July we also went to Washington to see some of our really good friends, Darin and Jenn and their adorable daughter, Ivy. They own a recreational shop right by the Columbia River so we had a blast kayaking, biking, and paddle boarding. We also watched the boat races that were going on that weekend and I got to take part in a few photo shoots while out there as Darin is also a photographer.

August was Rob's birthday and I also got to go to Bear Lake to do a couple of photo shoots, which was a lot of fun.

In September Rob and I made our second trip to Yellowstone, I celebrated my 27th birthday, and two of my really good friends finally got married. It was a good month. :)

October is when Rob and I went to New England with his parents. We went everywhere starting in Connecticut, going all over Massachusetts, exploring deep into the woods of Vermont and New Hampshire and came back down along the coastline of Maine. It was the perfect time of year as all the fall colors were so rich and vibrant and the weather was perfectly mild. We hit all the historical points including the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock, ate at quaint little cottages in the middle of nowhere, had the freshest lobster around, walked along the sandy beaches of Cape Cod and of course, frequented all the little antique shops along the way. Later in October I also went to Southern California with my best friend, Signe, to visit her dad that lives in Pasadena. I've known her and her family literally my entire life so it was fun to spend some time with them, even if it did rain the WHOLE time.

In November Rob and I both got to go to Las Vegas for work at the same time. He was there for a big car expo and I had a bunch of photo shoots with some long time clients out there. It was fun to be able to be out there at the same time and make our work trips into a little bit of a pleasure trip as well. November is also the month that we added a new addition to our family, little Sugar, a brindle boxer puppy, making our dog count go from 2 to 3. Rob and I had been wanting another boxer for a long time and had recently started looking more seriously. One day as I was coming home from Wal Mart, I pulled out of the parking lot and saw a sign that said "Boxer puppies for sale" they were all brindle and only one was a girl (which is what we wanted). She was way too cute to pass up and the price was just right, so with only a cell phone picture and my word to go on, Rob gave me the ok and I brought her home. :)

After a bunch of traveling it was nice to spend December and the holidays at home with our families. December ended up being the most significant month of the entire year as it was when we found out that I am pregnant! (More on that in an upcoming post)

Ok so this turned out to be a little longer than I anticipated, but I guess it was a pretty eventful year. We feel incredibly blessed every day in so many different ways and we love all of our friends and family and enjoy sharing our lives with you.

Alright, done with the sentimental squishy stuff. I'll try to write more and keep it a little more interesting. Here's to a wonderful 2011! The most life changing year for us yet!

New England Update

I got a little lazy and didn't blog last night, so now I have to make up for it and cover the last two days.

On Monday we awoke in Boston and headed over to see the well known Boston Common. It's 44 acres and sits right smack in the middle of down town Boston. It is an absolutely gorgeous park that is beautifully manicured and extremely peaceful. Spend just 5 minutes inside the park and you forget that you're surrounded by a major metropolitan area.
After Boston Common we went down to Cambridge where we viewed my father-in-laws former mission home and one of the main areas on his mission. We saw Long Fellow Park and drove around Harvard University. From there we headed back downtown to grab lunch at the Union Oyster House, America's oldest restaurant.Comfortably stuffed and ready to relax, we left Boston and drove down the coast to Cape Cod where we hit up the beach, collected sea shells, got some ice cream, and went on an unsuccessful search for some lighthouses. You'd think it wouldn't be that hard to find lighthouses in Cape Cod, but by that time it was dusk and we were in a bit of a race against time. We did however find a "lighthouse hotel"...yeah, not exactly what we were looking for. But it was still a fun way to drive around and see the town. That night we stayed at the really cozy and charming Bayside Resort Hotel. It was a brief, but pleasant trip to the cod.
The next morning we went inland to Plymouth, MA and visited the Plimouth Plantation, where they have staged Indian and Pilgrim villages with role players from the 17th century. It was really interesting to see and learn the real story about the pilgrims and the relationships that were formed with the Indians when they landed at Plymouth rock. From there we went up the road to see the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock. The rock is much smaller now than it's original size due to past visitors chipping pieces off to take home as a souvenir. What's left of the rock, is now surrounded by bars and can be viewed from a small platform above it.
It's been really cool being able to view and experiences some of theses significant places in our country's history. After Plymouth we headed up north to New Hampshire where we had lunch reservations at a place called Pickity Place, which is a small cottage style restaurant/herb garden that serves a 5 course gourmet lunch using herbs and vegetables grown in their own gardens. The food was really good, the atmosphere was unique and pleasant and the view was unbelievable. It sat comfortably nestled deep in the woods of New Hampshire off the beaten path and it definitely beat eating at another restaurant chain.
After lunch we drove into Vermont where we headed out to find the birthplace of Brigham Young, which was in the very small town of Whitingham. The monument was small and hard to find, in fact, it was so hard to find that we never actually found it. We did find the sign that talked about is birthplace, but couldn't actually locate the small stone monument in his name.
Along the way to Whitingham, we stopped at some scenic overlooks, viewed a couple of covered bridges and took a few photos of the amazing landscapes and architecture around us.

That night we stayed at a really nice place called the Inn of the Six Mountains, in the ski town of Killington, VT.

That sums up days 3 and 4, I'm getting a bit of a cold and feeling crazy tired from all the traveling, so I'm gonna succumb to my laziness once again and leave you all hanging for my next blog post. Cause I'm sure all of you are just waiting on pins and needles for my next update ;)

"One if by land, two if by sea"...

Day two of our New England adventure began in the hustle and bustle of downtown Boston, and ended in the little fishing town of Rockport. First thing this morning we embarked on our 2 hour drive from CT to the Charlestown area where we toured areas of the Freedom Trail starting with the old North Church, where two lanterns where hung as a signal from Paul Revere that the British were coming by sea. We took the behind the scenes tour where we got to view the bell ringing chamber and the crypt where they had buried priests, military soldiers and indentured servants.

We also ate at this little Italian eatery called Dino's where we enjoyed sandwiches and pasta before our tour. It was a small corner restaurant situated between an Italian bakery and an Italian gift shop...I sense a theme going on here. Reminded me of being back in Italy, it was very authentic.
After North Church we visited Copp's Hill, a cemetery that dates back to the 1600's and looked like something straight out of a Tim Burton film. The head stones were all cracked and either falling over or sinking into the ground. It had a lot of character and was pretty cool to see. We then went to see the U.S.S. Constitution, also known as the "Old Ironsides" down at Thompson Square. From there we went to Bunker Hill to see the monument where the first major battle of the American Revolution was.
After brushing up on our war history, we decided to slow things down a bit and drive about 45 mins North to Rockport where we indulged in some amazingly fresh lobster at Roy Moore's lobster company. A highly recommended (via Trip Advisor) lobster shack that sits on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. I make no exaggerations when I say "shack". This place was the epitome of the word, with no dining room, only 5 or 6 crates and boxes used for tables and chairs that sat on their back deck. This place barely had a bathroom, let alone a kitchen and everything was prepared, served and eaten in a 600 square foot area. But don't let the description deter you, this places lived up to it's name.


After dinner we grabbed some ice cream and browsed the local shops that line the narrow streets of this quaint and colorful town.

It's been a good trip so far but it has only just begun. Tomorrow we will be exploring more of Boston and then heading down into Cape Cod.

P.S. I will be posting some more of my interesting and "artistic" photos once we get back and I have access to my computer and photo programs. :)

Bucket List

So I can't really say I have an official, "Bucket List" but if I did, it wouldn't so much be the THINGS I want to do before I die, but more the PLACES I want to visit in my lifetime. Anyone that knows me knows that I have a passion for traveling and in my lifetime I've made a decent amount of trips to a lot of really awesome places. One of the places on my "Bucket List" is seeing New England in the fall. Today, I made the first step in crossing that off my list. :)

Rob's dad served a mission in the New England area over 50 years ago and has since always wanted to go back and bring his wife. Rob's mom has also dreamed of seeing the fall foliage back east and for a long time they have talked about making a trip out there and bringing us along with them to do just that. Several weeks ago, we made that dream more of a reality when we booked our airfare, and today we embarked on our journey. :)

We're planning on spending a week here, indulging in amazingly fresh seafood, exploring antique shops and lighthouses, photographing the vividly colorful landscape, driving the vast scenic routes, frequenting country stores and chocolate shops, and taking in all the history that this eccentric part of the country has to offer. I plan on blogging the latest on our trip every night to bring any interested parties along for the ride.

Today, Rob, my in-laws and I flew out to Connecticut as the first stop on our 'Tour De New England'. There really isn't much to blog about, as we spent most of the day traveling, but I do have to make note of the AMAZING chicken wings we had at Buffalo Wild Wings (Mine and Rob's favorite wing joint) tonight once we finally landed and got settled.

Tomorrow we will be heading into Boston to enjoy fresh lobster, tour the old iron sides museum and North Church, visit Boston Commons, walk the arboretum at Harvard and view some of the places from my Father-in-law's mission.

For now, I'm gonna try and recover from my jet lag and attempt to go to bed "early", (even though it's already 11:00 pm here) and I'll write more tomorrow once we've done something a bit more interesting.

Our Labor Day Vacation

This Labor Day Rob and I decided to spend it out in Yellowstone. This was our second time at Yellowstone, as we went two years ago in July. Since we saw a lot of the main attractions last time we went, this time we tried to do something different and see a different side of the park. We arrived late Friday night and the plan was to go kayaking in Grand Tetons on Jenny Lake at some point on our vacation. The first day we were there we wanted to just take it easy so we spent Saturday driving the grand loop of Yellowstone spotting wildlife and taking photos. We started at the very south entrance and went all the way up the East side to the North entrance and saw mammoth hot springs, then went all the way back down the west side and stopped off at old faithful. We were going to go kayaking the second day, but mother nature had other plans. It was cold and rainy all day on Sunday so we decided to take a scenic cruise on a covered boat on Yellowstone Lake instead. It was stormy and the boat ride was a little rough but it was still a lot of fun and very beautiful. We also spent Saturday and Sunday night in Jackson Hole.

Rob had been wanting to see bears the whole time we were there, that's all he talked about. Anytime we'd see a bunch of people pulled over on the side of the road viewing wildlife he'd say "is it a bear??". We had seen more buffalo than we could count, some Elk, a family of marmots, deer, a pronghorn or two, some swans, and we even saw an otter swimming in the lake by our boat. We finally we saw a bear way off in the distance on our way to mammoth hot springs but it's a good thing we brought binoculars or we wouldn't have seen it at all. Then, coming back from Jackson Hole on Sunday night I looked over and there was a little baby black bear only about 30 feet from our car, walking through the bushes. I had Rob quickly turn the car around and we pulled off the side of the road, rolled the windows down, and watched as two or three more bear cubs came over the hillside. We were so close and there was no one else around. It was just us and these baby bear cubs in the middle of mother nature. They were so cute and it was so cool to just watch them from our car. Being dusk at the time, the sun quickly set and the bears set off back over the hill. I think THAT bear sighting was much more satisfying for Rob. :)

Monday morning we were both just anxious to get back on the road and get home so we didn't get back late, so needless to say, we never did get to go kayaking. But overall it was a fun little weekend get away. Here are some pictures from our trip.

Mammoth Hot Springs

Old Faithful

Somewhere in Hayden Valley

Hot Pots

A herd of Buffalo