Lobster and stuff

John and I have settled into a routine...probably a boring one, but at least it's a routine.  We are still working on getting settled in our apartment and we probably won't really feel settled until we get the rest of our stuff out here, which will hopefully be happening in December.  We are coming to UT the first weekend in December to visit and hopefully load a moving truck with the rest of our stuff.  It has been frustrating not having some of the things we need and super sad that we didn't get to bring all of our sweet wedding gifts.  So if you are in Utah, be sure to mark your calendar for Dec. 4-6 and hopefully we will get to see everyone we want to see.  It is going to be a quick trip, but we are happy to get to go.

Another reason for our visit is to meet our new nephew, Grant Daniel McRae, born 10.16.10 to my sister Rachel and her husband Dan.  I am so excited to (finally!) have a nephew and for Rachel and Dan to have their healthy, cute baby join their family.

Baby Grant

Overall life is going well.  I am enjoying my job and am getting into a good schedule with the kids.  My main responsibility is watching 10-month old twins Hannah and Adam.  They are really, really good babies and we have a great routine and my days are pretty easy going.  I know things will get busier as they get older, so I'm enjoying the down time while I can.  I love my schedule because I'm home by 4:00 every day and I love having my evenings.  John is working a lot, which is pretty normal but at least he is staying busy.

On the weekends we are trying to get out and do things and experience Mass and the surrounding areas.  This last weekend we decided we wanted to check another state off our list and headed down to Rhode Island.  We got to the shore just before dark and walked on the beach for a little bit and watched the moon rise over the ocean.  Then we drove around for a bit and found a place to eat, George's of Galilee right by the water.  I decided to get the lobster special because I've never eaten a whole lobster and it seemed like the thing to do. Actually, I had 2 lobsters.  It was quite the process to eat them, but it was fun and super delicious.  Unfortunately, I am worried I may have a lobster allergy due to the severe reaction I had on the way home.  I am still going to try it again though to see if I respond the same way, just to be sure because that would be super sad if I couldn't eat shellfish anymore.

Atlantic Ocean...it was almost eerie how still the water was

Rhode Island shore

moon rising

yum (and yes, the bib is necessary)

Anyway, I just wanted to post a little update so everyone would know we are still alive and doing well.  We miss our family and friends so much but we are having a great time here in Mass!

Apples

The last week or two we have been really busy-me with my new job and trying to get in to a routine and John with an upcoming deadline for work that has him working really long days (and nights!).  So when the weekend rolled around we were ready to catch up on sleep and just have some time to relax.  By Sunday I was restless and feeling like we should have an activity, so we decided to go apple picking.  There are a lot of pick-your-own farms and places like that in the area and we missed most of the harvests, but we made it in time for the end of apple season.  Anyway, the place we went is called Berlin Orchards and we paid for our bag and took a wagon ride out to the orchard and we were able to fill our bag with a variety of apples.  It was a beautiful day and it turned out to be a lot of fun.

John and the ponies

John picking apples

his pick

cheesy, I know :-)

my tasty apple

our driver kept us entertained with his apple-balancing skills

So now we have a lot of apples so we have been trying to use them.  My mom makes a great Dutch apple pie so I thought that would be a good way to use a bunch of our freshly picked apples.  Last night I put the pie together and into the paper bag where it is supposed to be baked (I know it sounds a little crazy but it works and it's how my mom has always done it, and I've done it before too) and then I realized I didn't have a stapler to close up the bag and that my oven is kind of small.  So I took out one rack and was really careful to make sure the bag wasn't going to touch the heat coils and it looked like it was going to be fine.  Well, about 10 minutes later I started to smell smoke.  The bag had started on fire (not huge flames or anything though) so it was a crazy minute when the smoke detector was blaring and I was trying to get a window open and the pie out of the bag and the burning paper bag into to sink.  I had to yell to John to help me (while he was on a work call) and he did and everything was fine.  Well I had used a small sauce pan to keep the bag closed and I had set it on the stove but it was right on the edge so I went to move it over, forgetting that I needed a hot pad because the handles that don't get hot on the stove get very hot while in the oven.  So I burned my hand on top of everything else that was happening.  I kind of feel like a failure of a wife when it comes to baking tasty desserts for my husband.  Good thing he doesn't care about my baking skills and he loves me anyway. :-)  

Well I wasn't about to waste all those good apples so we decided to just bake it anyway and covered it in foil instead hoping it would be good enough (and the baking was delayed a little further because I forgot to turn the oven back on after the fire was out).  Anyway, the pie was still really tasty just maybe not as crisp of a topping as it is when it's cooked in the bag.

yeah, it turned out all right

So for now I'm going to let John do the baking, which is what he likes, and I will stick to cooking dinner for us.  Our next apple-inspired meal is going to be pork chops with an apple chutney...hopefully it's a lot more simple than the pie!

new job!

I got a job!  Yesterday was our 1 month Mass anniversary and the day I got and accepted a great job offer.  It's been a long month, but I feel really grateful I was able to find something so quickly and even more grateful that it is a good job, basically exactly what I was looking for.  It's a nanny job and I am taking care of 3 kids: a 4.5 old boy and 10 month old boy/girl twins.  Most of my day is spent with the babies because the older boy is in full day pre-school so I see him in th morning and for an 1-1.5 hours at the end of the day.  He is great with the babies and they love him.  They are really good kids all around (the babies sleep 12 hours at night and nap 3 hours in the day too) and I love the parents too and I think it's going to develop into a great relationship.  The hours are good, the pay is in the range I was looking for, the commute is just 10 miles with no freeways or toll roads, and of course the kids are adorable.  I have already started and I'm so happy to be working again and that my days have a purpose again.  I miss seeing John during the day, but it's better for his work schedule to be home alone anyway.  Yay for my new job!  I'm really excited!

Vermont

This last weekend we were able to go up to Vermont to see some of the pretty fall colors.  I've learned I should just refer to it as the "foliage."  I think growing up we just always said we were going to look at the leaves or whatever but everyone says "foliage" here, among various other words I never/rarely use that will take some getting used to.

Anyway, we are lucky to have one of John's friends from USU/Delta Sig living out here (he's from here, but randomly went to USU), Shawn, and his family has a friend with a ski cabin in Vermont he is able to use a few times each year.  We felt lucky to be invited and we had a great time.

We got up there late Friday night and got settled and then enjoyed a great breakfast with everyone Saturday morning.  We set out to do some hiking but had to alter our plans a little when one of our friends wasn't feeling well and so we took a detour to a hospital in Middlebury, VT (she ended up being fine).  While there we explored the town a little, took a nature hike, ate at a great little bakery, and got some sweet new Chaco's for half off (sandals for John, flips for me).

cool river we came across on our nature walk in Middlebury

it had this bridge over it

some train tracks

being cheesy :-)

it was a cool town, very "New England"

ha ha I can't believe they really posed for this one

I loved the town, the vibe, the shops, and the good deals

and this waterfall in the middle of town

We were still determined to go hiking though so altered our route a bit and ended up at Mad River Glen ski area where we had planned to take the lift up and then hike down.  Well, we missed the last lift ride so we decided to hike up as far as we wanted to/could before dark and then just come back down.  You probably could do this on a couple of green runs in Utah I suppose, but not with hope of getting to "the top."  The hike was actually pretty cool and had some great views and lots of pretty water falls, streams, and fall colors.  I wish I had a better camera because mine doesn't do the colors justice-so much prettier in real life!  We didn't quite get to the top because it was starting to get late, but it was still a good hike.

Some pics from the resort/hike:

single chair lift.  crazy old school.

There were some great views

lots of waterfalls

and great colors!

the easy way down :-)

John and Ken climbing the lift tower

I heard it was a great view

Later that night we ate at American Flatbread, which serves some very delicious pizza, which we had previously sampled at the Big E the weekend before so it was great to get the real deal...even if we had to wait nearly 2 hours for a table.  Sadly, my camera ran out of batteries at the end of the hike so I didn't take any more pictures to include the rest of the people we were hanging out with, there were 11 in all at the ski house for the weekend.

Sunday we took a very scenic way home (on purpose) so we got to see more of the quaint little towns of Vermont and enjoy some more foliage.  Vermont seems to be big on Maple syrup and other maple products, so we bought some maple cream and now we now why, it's delicious!

We had a great weekend, but it's always good to come home.  Our little place it feeling more and more like home all the time.  We hope to keep getting out on the weekends to experience more of the area and see some more great sites.

For all of the photos I took go here.