Happy Thanksgiving!

I am currently at my parents' house on the Cape with my boyfriend, parents, brother, and 9 members of Dad's side of my family. We are all looking forward to a day of cooking and playing with the younger cousins. We anticipate being hungry before the actual Thanksgiving meal is ready, and later regretting having eaten anything other than the amazing meal that my parents have planned for us. Then as the day turns into night we will be enjoying some wonderful Jets Football and, as mentioned in a previous post, Chocolate Chip Cookies!


Today is a day to be Thankful for all of the wonderful people in your life, to stop and smell the crisp cool air indicative of this time of year, and to stuff your face as if you'll never eat again!!

I wish you all a well-accompanied, cool and clear sky, gut-bustin' Thanksgiving!!

(Photo Courtesy of Google Images)

Overlapping

I think this is my word for this time of year.

Everything happens at once, and there's too much going on to do everything and see everyone. However, the good thing about all of this is it also means that no matter which road is chosen, friends will be sharing merry times, and there will be fun times galore.

This past weekend was all about prepping for the socializing and holiday activities that are to come, and a big part of that meant Baking!! Bryan and I made 2 Huge batches of amazing chocolate chip cookies on Sunday in between Jets' first downs and touchdowns. (Go Mike!!) They will be just a small piece of the massive amounts of food that will be shared among family and friends in the coming week.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Parker Colorado

is a very beautiful place!

Well, Parker itself is kind of "eh," but what's IN Parker is what makes it really special...LIZ!!!


I finally made the trek out to CO to visit her, and the weekend was amazing.
First, her professors at her 24/7 medical school decided that they'd give her a weekend off from studying from her normal 18 exams on Monday mornings so that we could spend quality time together. Then, she told me I should fly all the way across the country for a 48 hour visit, and lastly I said "Hells Yea!!"

Liz was an amazing host all weekend. The first order of business was to see her school where she spends approximately 85 hours a day working in labs or lectures or studying. Then over the 2 days I was there we shopped on the promenade, we drove to the top of a mountain where the wind chill put us at about -15 degrees F, climbed on gigantic Red Rocks, had friends over and enjoyed a lovely dinner that Liz & I made, watched crazy people participating in a work-out boot-camp at a natural amphitheater, had a leisurely dinner of excellent Sushi, and of course took lots and lots of pictures!

Everywhere we went I was impressed by the expanse that is the landscape in that part of the country. The roads are bigger, the stores are bigger, the landscape is bigger, and the air is clearer. From the top of Pike's Peak Mountain you can see 4 different states! That's how clear the air is (and how high up we went, and yes it was scary!).

Colorado is very different from anywhere that I have seen before in its landscape and general atmosphere, however, I'm definitely an ocean girl! :)

At the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.

The top of Pike's Peak. "I can't feel my face!"

Yes we drove on that road!

Liz, Sammy, and Bayla, aren't they just so cute?

I Love Weekends

This weekend's adventure is a first for me, so I look forward to enjoying every minute of it and updating you all when I return.

Meanwhile I hear that the weather in MA is supposed to be quite nice for Saturday so I hope everyone gets outside to enjoy the sunshine.

ta ta for now....

A Weekend on the Cape

Sometimes it's nice to just hang out with someone that you love and do nothing all weekend, and this past weekend was one of those times for me.


Bryan and I did a lot of staying indoors out of the wind, cooking & eating good food, and just for good measure we threw in a few hours hanging out with a good friend. I was run down by the typical fall-time cold, and the weather on the Cape was not ideal for outdoor activities so there was a lot of time to just sit around and be cozy at home.


Sunday we did manage to make it to my parents' house. We made a really nice chicken salad for lunch and then watched the Jets game on the big screen. And thanks to the Morrises who were kind enough to lend us their oyster shucking knife, we had some lovely baked oysters for a half-time snack.


The highlight of our Sunday was definitely Chocolate Chip Cookies that I made from a new recipe. They were better than store-bought, and for being made by a Ferro, they came out pretty darn good.

I Can't Count High Enough...

...to tell you how many people were on the National Mall on Saturday! I can tell you that it was A LOT!! And I don't believe that I have ever seen so many people in one place.

So, while Ashley and I planned our trip many weeks before Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert announced that they were going to be joining us there, we went to their Rally anyway. In between all of our museum going, history fact discovering, and site seeing, we managed to participate in a Wave that took approximately 5 hours to get from the front of the crowd to the back.

All in all, Ashley and I had a great weekend in our Nation's Capital. Ashley got to see both of the American Meccas, the National Archives, and The American history Smithsonian. And I got to visit the major war memorials and tour Arlington Cemetery for the first time.

The thing about being in DC is that it makes me realize how much I really didn't pay attention in history class! And let me tell you, if you are like me and have had this feeling about DC on previous occasions, going with your History Teacher friend is not going to help this little complex!! Ashley impressed me with her history knowledge, while simultaneously creating in me the desire to buy out entire bookstores worth of history books in an attempt to catch up.

Here are a few images that aptly depict our weekend....