Happy Birthday Nicole!!

Yesterday was Nicole's birthday, so of course we had to throw her a big party!! It was our Christmas/end of the year/Birthday party. I ate way too much food, but we had lots of fun. We ended the night by watching a Christmas movie. And of course I had to turn around and get up super early to put out the breakfast, so we will see if I can stay awake today!

Here comes the snow!

I guess we can't avoid it any longer. Here comes the snow! Of course, we really didn't get that much. In fact, it never really stuck to the ground for very long. But we did get a few flurrys and the temperature is sticking around the 30's. I now have finally made use of the winter coats I brought with me. We're expecting more snow tomorrow, so I guess we'll see what happens.

Christmas in November?!?

We got super excited this last week over Thanksgiving and we got our tree up and decorated the lobby. Michelle and I have a new favorite activity. We like to bring a good book and sit in front of the fireplace at night with the Christmas lights surrounding us and read. It is awesome!



On Thanksgiving Day, I got a message on my phone asking me to give a talk in Sacrament Mtg. It was my fourth one this year! I'm getting pretty good at it now. Not only did I have to speak, but I was the closing speaker. It was a good opportunity, but I'm glad it's over! :)

New York, New York!!

It's been pretty crazy around here lately, so I forgot to update my blog. Here are a few pictures from New York. It was an awesome trip! We had a great time. I was pretty tired by the time I got home, but it was worth it. Now we are getting ready for Thanksgiving. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!

These pictures were taken at the Today show. We all had matching sweatshirts and signs. Most of us actually got on TV because we were in a really good spot. Elijah Wood was on the show that day and he walked right by us. It was pretty cool. The hosts (Meredith, Matt and Al) each came over at different times and took pictures with our group. We had to get up super early to get there, but we had fun!




On Saturday, Nicole and I toured lower Manhattan. We took a ferry to Staten Island that went right by the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. You can't go to New York and not see the Statue of Liberty. That's just crazy! :)



On Thursday night, we went to see Wicked. It is a broadway play about the Wicked Witch of the West and how she became wicked. It was sooooooo awesome!! We bought the soundtrack, and have listened to it many times. I have seen a few broadway plays, but this one is definitely my favorite. All of the girls dolled up to go to broadway, so we had to take some pictures. On Friday, Nicole and I went back to broadway to see The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. We really liked it, but Wicked was definitely the best!




One of my favorite parts about New York was just walking the streets. There are so many fun things to see there that you could miss them if you weren't paying attention. Radio City Music Hall is not far from Rockefeller Center and Times Square. These blocks were decorated with lights and Christmas trees. The big tree at the Rockefeller Center had not been lit yet, but it was fun to see it up anyway.



Have a Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Our Nation's Capitol-Welcome to DC!!!!

I just got back yesterday from a quick 4 day trip to DC. It was so fun! My parents and I just visited there in May, but there is never enough time to see everything. The first picture is, of course, the White House. The President was in town this last weekend for Veterans Day. We actually got to see him. He gave a speech at Arlington Cemetery on Saturday. We also saw him in his car along with his security detail. :)



One of our favorite spots was by the WWII memorial.



Our hotel was in Fairfax, VA. It was at the end of one of the metro lines. When we were ready to come home for the day, we called one of the host couples and they came to pick us up at the metro station.

Wakin' up with Krista :)

Today was just one of those lucky days where I get up abnormally early to get breakfast ready for everyone. It is getting a lot slower now, so I've been able to come in at 6am rather than 5:30am. That's been nice. These are just a few pictures that I took this morning.

I have never made coffee until I came here. I am now the expert at using our coffee machine (I'm only the expert because no one else ever uses it, not because it's hard!). Michelle had to work at 7am, so we sat and ate breakfast while waiting for everyone else to get up. I actually enjoy doing breakfast because I am done with work for the rest of the day, and it gives me other projects to work on. I help with inventory and actually go to the store to stock the food. Keeps me entertained!

One picture is of my house, in the rain. Not an uncommon sight around here. Especially in the morning!

Winter is here!!!

So I guess Fall couldn't last forever, but I was kind of hoping it would. I'm not ready for the snow yet! We had our first snow flurry this last week. The leaves have all fallen off the trees and the temperature has gotten a little cooler. Michelle and I went out for the first snow storm and took pictures and danced around for a little while.

This last weekend was really good. Nicole's parents came out here from Utah, and so we got to know them a little bit. On Friday, I was at work when the fire alarm went off. The students were lighting candles on a birthday cake, and it set off the alarm. We had to evacuate everyone and the fire department came. We can laugh about it now, but it was all pretty crazy that night. Here are some pictures showing what things are looking like right now.

The Valentown Museum

On Saturday night, I went with Michelle, Nicole, Rachel, and Chelise to the Valentown Museum. It is a Museum that was built over a hundred years ago. Someone was murdered there, and they still believe that it is haunted. They even had the Ghost Hunters come from the Sci Fi channel to check it out. People say that they hear music playing and that they see strange things all the time. They do tours of the Museum, but they also do a Haunted House in the basement. It was really cold that night, but we still had a lot of fun.

As I was standing by the museum, trying to take a picture, one of the witches came up behind me and scared me to death! I took off running back to my friends. My friends insisted that I take a picture with her. Come to find out, she was the curator of the museum. It was pretty funny!

And still there is more...

This is the site of the Boston Massacre. This event was a catalyst for the Revolutionary War. It was blown out of proportion to be used as propaganda. This spot is located in the middle of a street in downtown. It was pretty cool.




Last Friday, we stopped in Boston's "Little Italy" for lunch. I got the traditional spaghetti and meatballs. It was really good!



These pictures both come from the Boston Commons. It is a public park in the middle of downtown. They have a small pool there that is filled with water in the summer and then turned into an ice skating rink during the winter. They have a playground right across from it. We stopped to have a little fun before our tour started on Friday.
On Saturday, they had a pumpkin festival going on. There were thousands and thousands of carved pumpkins. They were trying to break a world record. It was definitely crowded, but it was fun to walk through and see all of the different carvings.

More from Boston :)

While in Boston, we ate at two taverns. The first one was an Irish Pub where we ate a brunch. I had an Irish omlette. It was really good! This picture is of the 2nd one that we went to for seafood. I played it safe and had a really good salmon. Michelle got a lobster and Nicole got hadduck (or something like that). Don't worry, we only had water to drink in case you were wondering. :)



This picture is one of the buildings at Harvard. It was a really beautiful campus. It's sad, but one of the first things I thought of when I went there was Gilmore Girls. You will understand if you've seen it. We didn't actually have time to wander around inside the buildings, but we did get to see quite a few of them. Of course we had to stop by the statue of the man Harvard (who the school is named after) and rub his shoe for good luck!



There is actually a funny story that goes along with this picture. As you can tell, we stopped by Fenway Park. I didn't actually buy that flag that I'm holding. It was sitting on top of a garbage can that I'm standing next to in the picture. That is why I'm only pinching the ends of it. I don't know what I was thinking, but it made a great picture. :)



This picture was taken in one of the most popular tourist attractions, Quincy Market. There are tons and tons of shops, restaurants, and booths inside and outside the Market. This is where I bought my Boston sweatshirt. We stopped here a few times, and there was always something going on. Once there were break dancers out front and we stopped to watch their performance. The replica of the Hollywood bar set from the show "Cheers" was also here. It was a pretty happening place.

That's all for now, but tune in later for more! :)

Boston!!!

We had a great time in Boston! Michelle, Nicole, and I left on Thursday and came back yesterday. We had very few problems and got to see everything we wanted to. We planned the whole trip ourselves. I thought that I would post a few pictures a day to show you what we did.

We split up the Freedom Trail (a 2.5 mile stretch that has historic stops along the way) between Friday and Saturday, but I think we ended up walking that stretch many times over. Even though we rode the metro, or "T", back and forth from the hotel, we walked all over downtown Boston. We went to the harbor, and to famous bar that inspired the show "Cheers", and to Harvard (but I'll tell you about that later :).

The Fall of the House of Usher....

Yesterday, my roommates and I came home to find that the roof in our house was leaking. It happened to be just over my bed, so I had to move it out of the room to dry. Luckily, no permanent damage was done. I'm glad that we are going to Boston tomorrow!
I have now purchased a camera, so hopefully I will be able to keep up with posting different pictures. Michelle, Nicole, and I are heading out to Boston (finally!) tomorrow afternoon. It will be great!

Whitmer Farm in Fayette

Well, I can't really say that I have done anything out of the ordinary this weekend. The Inn was booked both Friday and Saturday, so that kept me pretty busy. I could tell you guys some crazy stories about the things that people do. I will never look at a hotel in the same way again. I have become a handy-man, an electrician, a computer whiz, a banker, a secretary, a guide, and a weatherman.
I haven't got a new camera yet, so I thought I would post some of my old pictures. These pictures come from the Peter Whitmer farm down in Fayette. It's about 40 minutes from Palmyra. The farm is out in the middle of no where (which is really saying something out here). But it is in a beautiful area. Here are some of the pictures we took the day we were there.

Niagara Falls

As some of you know, my camera is temporarily out of commission; so I have been a little slow in getting any pictures to post. I finally got some from Niagara Falls to show you. We had a great time on Friday. We left around 10am and didn't get back until midnight. We went to both the American and the Canadian side. It's funny, but we actually had more trouble getting into Canada then we did America. Funny how that works :) Anyway, here are some pictures from our trip.

While in Canada we stopped at the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. I spent more money on that meal than I would usually spend on 3 or 4 meals, but it was fun!

This is Nicole, Michelle and I on the Canadian side of the Falls.

This is Ali, Kelly, Me, and Nicole showing off our cool shoes that we got while touring the "Cave of the Winds." We got up right next to Bridal Veil Falls (off of the American Falls). Even with the ponchos and shoes, we were soaked by the end!

The House of Usher and A walk through the trees...

Last night, Nicole and I were at home when all of the sudden we started to smell something. The furnace had just kicked on, and the air coming out of the vents smelled really bad! I went to grab my neighbor, and by the time I came back, our house smelled like a sewer. It was horrible! We checked the basement (with great sacrifice on my part since it was dark and scary!) but we didn't find anything wrong. We turned off the heater, but we couldn't leave our windows open to air the house out because we don't have screens. So me and my 2 roommates came over to the Inn and took refuge in one of the empty rooms until around 12am. Our manager was not here and I was tired, so I went back to the house and turned our fans on and went to bed. The smell was definitely not as strong, but it was still there.
On a more positive note....Since I don't have my car out here, I get a lot of chances to walk. I thought that I would take you with me on a little walk today. One of the things that I love about being here is all of the trees and how green it is.

More from Naples...

My camera ran out of batteries over the weekend, so I have not been able to take any new pictures. I thought that I would go ahead and post another picture that was taken over the weekend in Naples at the grape festival. These last few days have been pretty quiet, but I'm looking forward to going to Niagara Falls this weekend! This picture is of Tricia (my manager), Michelle, and me! :)

Yummy grapes at the Grape Festival....

On Saturday (after I worked the night shift from 12pm-7am), we went out to breakfast and headed down to Naples to a grape festival. We had a lot of fun! I had my first grape pie. They had several antique and vintage stores that were fun to go through. They had booths everywhere with all different kinds of grape foods (and other things too!). It was a cute little town. You could smell the grape vinyards in the air. Even their fire hydrants are painted purple. They have several wineries and juice stores. We had a great time!
This picture is me with my manager-Tricia, my roommates-Michelle & Nicole, and two of the other interns in front-Rachel and Chelise.

Commemorative walk....

Last night and this morning we celebrated the anniversary of the appearance of Moroni to Joseph Smith on Sept 21, 1823. This morning we walked 4 miles from the Joseph Smith log cabin to the Hill Cumorah. It was a beautiful morning! These pictures are of me with my roommates, Michelle and Nicole. They are supposed to put an article in the Church News about it, but we'll see. You guys will have to keep your eyes open for it because we don't get it here!