Joisey

Thankfully the weather has finally warmed up and pretty much stayed warm with only a few rainy muggy days here and there. It is definitely a different experience living in a place that is so humid! We try to take advantage of every nice day and play outside. We go to the zoo, play in the pool in the backyard, the beach, any and every park, etc haha Braden and Heleyna are so cute and we have a great time! Braden is so smart and I love seeing him learn new things, it is so crazy everything he understands! He signs a lot now and has started to say a few words it is adorable! Here are a few pictures of some things we've been up to....

riding the train at the zoo with Raegan

Mother's Day gift/craft

swimming in Raegan's backyard

first time at the Jersey Shore. We pretty much love it!

primary activity day, making gifts for dad's

Braden's last day of his class at The Little Gym. Isn't he amazing!?

walking on the balance beam

Now for the other part of my life....haha

My triathlon is in a little less than 2 weeks! So crazy! The training is going well and I'm both excited and nervous. I'm sure I will eventually post pictures after that happens.

We basically live for the weekends around here and try to pack them full with as many things as possible. Get ready for an explosion of pictures I will describe the activities with the pictures....

So Alex came to visit! Not really, but she was on a study abroad and their first stop was NYC so of course I had to go in and see her. We got to see Wicked on Friday night and it was just as amazing as the first time I saw it! AHHH so incredible! Then one of Bex friends was nice enough to let me stay at her apt so I wouldn't have to go all the way back to Jersey just to get on a train the next morning. Saturday we walked around seeing sights. It was so much fun to hang out with Alex wish we could have played longer, ahh i miss her!

I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge for the first time with these cute girls from Alex's study abroad. She had stuff going on in the morning so I was lucky enough to hang out with them!

There was some crazy riot going on all over the city about the new Arizona law..

At my ward party :) (Me, Rachele, Lydia)

Our friend Kristie's birthday dinner at Olive Garden

(Rachele, me, Kristie

Lydia, Jessica, Kayla, Richard)

Lauren and I went to the T-Swizzle concert!! (aka Taylor Swift) AHH it was amazing! She is very talented and definitely one of the most entertaining shows I've ever been to! She is so fun to watch!

This is at our Stake YSA event. La Paella, it's a spanish dish, it was actually pretty good minus the seafood. Bro Bean was nice enough to let us help :)

Dan, me, and Olivia cooking the chicken

what it looked like after everything was in it..don't worry it was still cooking

friends

We went to a random fair/carnival in a town close to where we live. It was pretty great...kind of like Lagoon, but with less rides. haha We had a good time though

Chris and Abby

This is mine and Megan's favorite ride at Lagoon...I haven't been on it in ages and this one even went backwards!

Next is the crazy weekend we spent in the city. We went in on Saturday morning, walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and stood in line for an hour and half to get this amazing pizza from Grimaldi's.

So funny random story...as we were walking across the bridge I was like "wouldn't that be so crazy to randomly run into somebody you know while you're walking across this bridge"...probably about 15 min later a little further down the bridge I ran into a couple of friends from BYU haha one of them is living in NY for the summer and the other was visiting from DC. hahah so random, I love it! Tabby and Rachele couldn't believe it. haha

We wandered around the city seeing other fun things and then met up with my friend Kristen Gulledge who had just moved to NY a couple days before. She is living here for a couple months doing an internship, so fun! Our friend Alysha had gone to see "In the Heights" again so of course we decided to meet up with her and say hi to our BFF Corbin once again. haha he probably thinks we're stalkers at this point...we hung around Times Square for a little while after and then took Kristen home so she didn't have to walk around Harlem by herself at midnight, but unfortunately because of that we missed our train so we had to wait an hour for the next one. There are always interesting people in Penn Station at night so that was entertaining haha we didn't get home until about 3:30 am :P We all stayed at my house so we could get up the next morning and head back into the city for church. We had a great time at the singles ward and I ran into some old friends, which is always fun. Tabby and Rachele are beginning to think I know everybody...the church and BYU make this a very small world. :) We decided since we were already in the city we might as well spend the day there so we walked around central park and enjoyed the beautiful sabbath day. We were pretty exhausted by the time we got home.

in front of Grimdali's Pizza

central park

In front of FAO Schwarz

playing the huge piano

The next week I actually only worked Monday and Tuesday because Brad, Dianna and the kids went to San Diego for the week. This worked out nicely because I was already planning on going down to Duck Beach, NC for Memorial Day so I was able to go to DC a few days early to hang out. But before that my friend Taylor Frey is currently performing in South Pacific at the Lincoln Center and he had the opportunity to play a lead role as Lt Joseph Cable that Tuesday night. So me, Alysha, and Kristen went to the show. I loved the show and he did a fantastic job! Unfortunately I didn't get a picture with him this time, but we might go again. so keep your eyes peeled ;) haha

The family that Kristen was staying with before she moved into her apt was nice enough to let me stay the night there so I could get up early and catch the bus to DC and it was fun to be able to hang out with Kristen longer! Wednesday I spent most of the day on a bus and got to DC just in time to drop Bex off at the airport. I know kind of lame/sad that I came to visit and Bex left. haha anyway I stayed at her apt and hung out with her great roommates! Love them! Some friends from Jersey drove down Thursday and spent the night so the next morning we could head down to North Carolina.

The weekend and Memorial Day were spent enjoying Duck Beach, seeing old friends and meeting new ones!

me in front of the Lincoln Center

I ran into some of Tara's friends (I guess kind of mine too) from San Fran when I first got to the beach and we built this sweet sand castle.

Tara's flight was delayed so she didn't get in until later in the afternoon, hence why she is in clothes and not a bathing suit..but this is in front of a sand sculpture somebody else built...haha they had been working on it all day. You can't tell because we are kind of standing in front of it, but it's Squirt from "Finding Nemo" Pretty impressive

The famous lighthouse

These bikes were at our house to use so we rode them over to the lighthouse. so fun!

The Jersey crew on the beach :)

Tara and I

crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge on our way home - it is 23 miles long!

I was trying to capture the sunset..I'm sure Jersey has gorgeous ones..you just can't see them

This last week Tabby's friend Macy has been in town and it was her birthday on Friday so we all got together and went to Friendly's to celebrate.

Macy likes to design dresses and this is one of her designs. Tabby gave the cake decorator a picture of it and she made it into a cake. So impressive!

We love Friendly's :)

(me, Rachele, Lydia

Tabby, Macy)

Me, Olivia, and Rachele went to a YSA regional activity on Saturday at Jones Beach in NY. It's kind of weird cause I never really thought of the east coast when I would think of the beach, but it is actually really nice. The water was definitely too cold to get in, but it was the perfect temperature to just hang out...and a little bit windy as you can see from the pictures! A couple other friends are in NY for the summer and they were there so it was fun to catch up. I also ran into my friend Michelle Casperson that I went to high school with so that was exciting. I knew she was out here, but hadn't seen her yet.

ps don't mind the awkward tan lines...I am clearly wearing a different bathing suit then the last time I was at the beach...haha