A Guest and Recent Events

So, we've had a guest in town for the last couple of days.  Jake's dad had a conference in NYC and then met with a client in Buffalo before heading back to Utah and we were fortunate enough to hang out for a couple of days.  The first night he was in town we went to dinner at a great BBQ joint Jake and I discovered downtown.  I had planned to do a traditional Easter dinner on Sunday, but the only size of ham I could find was a good 7 pounds+, so I decided to do our big dinner last night and share it with Tom.  It's always fun to cook for a guest.  It was great having you in town Tom!

 While Tom was in Town we played a little Mexican Train.  We got to be creative in the making of our trains due to the intimate size of our table.

At the end of the first round Jake was the proud owner of the 50 piece-as this was the very last tile to draw. 

In other news, I made my first pot roast for Sunday dinner a few weeks ago, 

and Jake had a birthday which we celebrate by stuffing our faces at the casino buffet in Niagara Falls in Canada.  Are we getting old before our time???

And here is Jake with his shiny new slackline courtesy of his thoughtful wife ;-)

San Diego in Chronilogical Order

So, Jake and I were fortunate enough to go to San Diego for a couple of days over spring break in order for him to present some of his research he did in association with IADR.  It was so nice to get out of the Buffalo weather for a couple of days and sadly...now that we are back, San Diego already feels like a long lost dream.  The whole time we were there all I could keep saying is that people actually live like this!  It is an unbelievable place and so beautiful.  Anyway, I posted some pics of our trip in chronological order.

The second day we were in town we drove to La Jolla.  Here is Jake getting friendly with the seals.

 A cute mama and her pup.

 The waves were really high the time of day that we were there and kept breaking over the pathway I remembered walking on on my previous trip to San Diego.

 Apparently this is the king sea lion.

 Smash Burger!  No need to say more.

 La Jolla Shores

 I don't know if you can tell but I am SO happy to be there!

 I had to take this picture because I thought these were one-legged birds. I thought it was a terrible thing that so many of them could have lost a leg, but on closer inspection we discovered that they stand on only one leg.  The oddities of nature...

 Consequently, humans also do odd things.  Jake decided to take a picture of a group of a segway tour  mostly because they looked funny.

 Here is the old hotel on Coronado Island.  It's so pretty.

 Jake and Jake's poster at the conference.  I was so proud of him ;-).

 So, we met up with one of my good friends from High School that is now one of the lucky people to reside in the San Diego area and his wife and their cute baby.  Since our restaurant was not yet open, we went to dessert first.  Everything was covered in flowers and berries and looked too good to eat...but when it came down to it...we didn't really have a problem with it.

 This area of town is real big on putting plants on your food.  I think this is Rosemary coming out of our monumental portion of a meatloaf sandwich.  Who ever thought I would eat meatloaf on a sandwich or that I would LOVE devouring it?

 So, sadly...one thing that Buf doesn't have is frozen yogurt, so anytime I go to a place that has it it's been much a necessity to get some.

...And...after the the close of our trip Jake couldn't resist documenting our greyhound bus ride home for the last 3 hour stretch to Buffalo.  It's a long story, but after over 16 hours of traveling at 6 in the morning we finally made it home so that Jake wouldn't miss his test that day.

Random Stuff

It has been awhile since I posted last.  We have been taking and collecting pictures of our goings on lately, so here they are...

Valentine's Day

 We made tin foil dinner chicken cordon blue for Valentine's Day.  They turned out excellent and were SO easy!  Jake gave me the Julia Child pearls for V-Day ;-).

Going out to Breakfast mid-week at Amy's!

 The famed cinnamon french toast...delish!

Niagara Falls Canadian Side in the Winter

 Jake had never seen the falls in the winter and I have never seen them in the winter or on the Canadian side of the border.  It was beautiful although misty and cold.

 I took this picture to try to capture how everything was covered in ice, but what stands out to me is all the people in their colored jackets huddled together. It's always fun to people watch at tourist attractions.

So...the sad thing about this to me is looking at this magnificent natural wonder with a casino in the background....I like to close my eyes and pretend what this would look like without a devastated city in the background...

Jake tried a uniq ("ugly") fruit

I got a sewing machine!!

To get started I've sewed these two pillows...nothing too crazy yet...

Jake and I attempted Cross-Country Skiing

Valentine's Day is coming...

With the long, cold gray days of summer, it's always nice to have something to look forward too.  I think that's why Valentine's Day even exists as a national holiday anyway...because there's really not much going on in the winter time after Christmas and the New Year.  We all seem to need a little pick-me up during the dreary time before Spring.  I have to admit...I like the pink hearts and candy and an excuse to send cards to the people I care about.

Adoption

I know that I don't have many readers of my blog, but hopefully this post can be passed along in a way that could count.  We have some good friends here in Buffalo that have been on one crazy up and down roller coaster attempting to adopt a baby to add to their family.  If anyone deserves to be parents, they do!  They are loving, service-oriented, hard-working, smart and many other things. I don't fully understand the adoption process, but if anyone reading this knows of anyone looking to find adoptive parents please pass the link to their profile along. I know they would appreciate it!

Oh How Christmas Comes and Goes

With the hustle of Jake finishing up school for fall semester and trying to get on top of work so that I could have an actual break over the holidays it seems like Christmas was upon us pretty suddenly.  It's always so sad to me how quickly Christmas is over, the tree and lights taken down and real life resumes, but our breaks and chances to visit family wouldn't be as sweet if we were blessed with them all the time right?

I wanted to put some pics up of our Christmas decorations in our apartment because it's Jake's and my first real Christmas together and because I am proud of them... 

So...for our anniversary and before heading to Utah we made a stop in Chicago.  Umm...it was freezing although the city was beautiful.  

 Some of the famous Chicago style pizza.  So cheeeesy.

 At the top of the Sear's tower at the Skydeck.  If visiting Chicago I recommend getting here at sunset like we did.  :-)

In Utah at the Temple Square lights.  I was so happy that little Lucy didn't seem too scared of me.

 We like to make funny faces in my fam.

Singing Christmas carols...

Getting gifts...

Lucy putting a lid on her head...

And...it wouldn't be the holidays without good food.  Our families definitely went above and beyond in that department!

 And....when we thought our trip was nearing an end we were luck enough to have a cancelled flight to be in town even longer.  Jake and I have never seen so much luggage on the luggage corral in our lives.

So...with some of our extra time we spent some more time with the families which included a bowling trip.  Good times!  I hope all of you guys were able to have as good a Christmas as were able to.