If You Say Come with Me, Off to Massachusetts...

Then to Massachusetts, we will go!

So... I've been doing a bit of traveling this year. (If you haven't noticed yet... you can see my trips: here, here, and here... That's 3 trips in one year. A record!). I thought I was done. I mean I had come to grips with it, accepted that it was time to settle in and start focusing back on schoolwork and my job. 

And then my friend, Beth, surprised me with a ridiculously crazy idea. Fly to Boston. She had to go for a work conference and I could tag along and meet up with her in the evenings to party it up and see the sites. I thought it was a brilliant idea. So I said, "YES!" with hardly any hesitation. Because Boston is on the list of places I wanted to see. So we coordinated and went.

So as to not completely overload you, I'll only do a couple of days in a post at a time. But I fell in love with Boston. I just wish I could talk with that accent. It was pretty awesome. As per usual, I was asked directions twice. 

But our first day we arrived and got into our hotel room:

We were pleased that we each got a bed to stretch out in.

We also got turn down service. Chocolate pieces on my bed, every night. That was heavenly.

This is how I pack for almost everything. One suitcase, a backpack and my camera bag.

This is how Beth packed. A small suitcase and a laptop bag. 

My goal for my next trip is to pack like Bethany. 

After that, we took a stroll to discover the surrounding area and find some dinner (we were hungry!). Of course, it's Boston so we walked across the street and went into the Boston Public Library as our first stop. Our second stop was in front of the Trinity Church:

And there I am.

We grabbed some dinner and headed back to the hotel to get some shut eye.

As mentioned, Beth was there for a work conference so she was up bright and early and off to her conference. I worked for a little in the morning and then got ready and headed out. I grabbed some breakfast and then went to the Boston Commons. It was so peaceful. I found a park bench and alternated between people watching and reading. That's pretty much how every day was spent, if I'm honest. 

I posted a picture on my Instagram and learned that my YW president from my growing up years was in town. We agreed to meet up for lunch. She was there to take her daughter back to Utah (who I should mention is beautiful and I used to babysit so I'm starting to feel quite old).

Me and Janette. Always fun to see her. It only took going to the East Coast to make it happen.

I went back to the hotel after lunch and took a long nap. That evening, Beth and I went on a cruise through the harbor. We got to see the USS Constitution as they lowered their flag at sunset. It was beautiful and I forgot how much I love sunset and the city looked beautiful.

Unfortunately, I discovered that I had accidentally left my camera on all day so my battery had died and I brought the wrong charger (oops!). So I had to take a lot of pictures with my phone. 

For dinner, we went to Regina's Pizzeria in the North End. Best pizza I've had. EVER. Hands down. For dessert, we wandered through the streets until we found Mike's Pastry. Everyone said that we had to put this on our list. We fought the crowds and got cannoli and went back to the hotel to watch a movie (Miracle on 34th Street... not joking people. We watched it while we worked and ate cannoli). 

So good. SO good.

And that was days 1 and 2 in Boston. Stay tuned... eventually I'll get days 3, 4, 5, and 6 written down too.

Brides and Bridals

So my friend's little sister got married last week. A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to tag along as the 2nd photographer for her Bridal shoot. I'm so pleased with how nicely these pictures turned out so I'm sharing them. It's been so long since I've been able to play photographer that it was fun for the afternoon and I can't wait to try it again. Hopefully soon.

Stadium of Fire

Yep... it's catch up day. I'm finally getting all of you up to date on the haps before I set out on another adventure a week from tomorrow. I'm heading to Boston for a week with my friend. I have a bug. I have to travel. And I'm getting it all out now I suppose.

Because the family reunion fell so close to July 4th, I chose not to head to my parents' house for the holiday. I was pretty depressed about it because I'm really unsure of what people do for July 4th around here. I'm never around! But luckily, my friends Linds and Julia (aka my Disneyland partners in crime) were kind enough to think of me when they had an extra ticket to Stadium of Fire. I've only been one other time and it was Brooks and Dunn so I kind of had low expectations. 

But it was Kelly Clarkson. That made it all good. 

Linds and me. 

Trying to fit into the selfie portrait is really difficult. 

It took us FOREVER to get out of the parking lot. An hour in fact. So while we waited, we took pictures. Brilliant, right?

Really, it was just a fantastic night with a fantastic group of girls. I sure do love hanging out with them! And it made me forget my homesickness for the night.

Before the reunion

Here's the thing... if I'm going to use my vacation hours, I might as well do something fun. Especially if it's at a point where I'm about to "use or lose". So I took an extra day off and went to visit my friend Michelle and her family. Big thank you to them for letting me crash and interrupt plans. 

I arrived on Tuesday at about noon. Michelle graciously picked me up. We dropped my stuff off at the house then went to the fruit farm nearby to get some peaches and whatever else that place had. We also wrangled the three kids and got them to the community pool for the two older ones' swimming lessons.

Cute cute Michelle and her daughter at the pool.

Tyler, Michelle, and I played games that night. I forgot how much I love playing games with these two. 

The reunion started on Wednesday evening with dinner, so in the morning Michelle and I packed up the kids and went out to a berry farm and picked berries. I don't think I've ever done that before! It was so fun! We got strawberries and olallieberries. Delicious!

These would be the olallieberries...

They don't look like that in Utah. Yet another reason....

Weighing them out and paying. YUM!

Afterwards, we ran back home and got the kids ready for another pool time and then ditched Tyler and his mom with the kids so that Michelle could drive me the hour to Santa Cruz (basically Michelle and Tyler are the best people ever because no one should have to drive me an hour one way to my family reunion). 

Family Reunion

This was another family reunion year. Although I sometimes dread using my precious vacation days at family functions, I do love getting together with the family for a few days. 

Luckily, this year the reunion was in California. I sure do love going back to my home state. It was in Santa Cruz so somewhere I hadn't been before is also a plus. 

There was a lot of beach time and fun time. I loved working on my tan and I have a pretty awesome one on my legs. And I also got to cross something off my bucket list!

So here's the recap:

Day one started off at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

J&H were kind enough to allow me to tag along with them and their adorable girls because let's be honest, it's lonely wandering the aquarium by yourself. 

Also, I may be a little obsessed with sea otters. The co-workers are enjoying that.

After that, we headed out to the beach to relax and have some fun.

Kids dug in the sand...

Moms took pictures...

I discovered that this little girl has some serious personality. She is adorable.

Big brothers played frisbee.

Most of the adults relaxed under the shade.

Then they played some organized games... and things got a little rough. 

Because we Teuschers are pretty competitive, if you hadn't noticed yet.

But seriously.

And that night as I watched the sunset, I wondered why I'm still in Utah and started to make the plans that I always talk about but am starting to seriously consider. Because... well... I mean, look!

Day 2:

We celebrated this little girl's 1st birthday (YAY!!!)

We headed to the Boardwalk and then took a train through a redwood forest up to an old mining town. The train ride was pretty cool and was a nice relaxing journey up.

Let's stop for a minute and bask in the cuteness of this little girl...

The forest. So shady. So cool. So nice.

So... Hansom Jack was pretty darn handsome. I swung around to check him out. *sigh* But he was pretty much like 18 years old so there was no hope.

I'm not sure what we ended up doing that night. I can't for the life of me remember. I know we hung out at the Boardwalk for a little longer and ate tons of awful food.

Day 3: 

This is it! This is when I marked sea kayaking off the bucket list. Sadly, I have not pictures of me actually *in* said kayak but I was there. I promise.

Yep... another beautiful day with lots of cloud cover.

We had the option of putting on wetsuits and such. Unfortunately they didn't have enough for the little guys. I opted out. I had a sun shirt and shorts. I was good.

After kayaking, we found a foster's freeze. Oh my heavens! I forgot how much I love root beer freezes. YUM!

Then to another beach to hit up the tide pools. 

And finally family pictures. Here are the majority of the nieces and nephews (with a few exceptions).

And that concludes the 2013 festivities of the Teuscher gathering. There will hopefully be one in 2015. And possibly a gathering of the adults in 2014 to celebrate the parents' 50th anniversary. Who knows?