Newport, Rhode Island & Boston, Mass

We had the best time! I'll let the photos tell the story and I'll add in some commentary :)

Once we landed in Providence, we quickly checked into our hotel, changed out of our travel clothes, and went to the party for the bride and groom! (Instead of a rehearsal dinner, they invited everyone who came into town!) Our teacher friends Heather and Jeremiah, Matt and I

A big group went out after the dinner to an 80's cover band/bar...to celebrate the upcoming nuptials!

Our FABULOUS hotel in Newport...The Viking

Rhode Island had unusually FREEZING weather during our stay. I went for a walk and to get coffee Sunday morning before the wedding, and could hardly enjoy my walk I was sooo cold! I thought it was funny how cold I was so I took a picture of myself.

Ernie and Claire...so cute!

Heather, Claire and I at the reception

Chad and Melissa Abby were kind enough to drive to Newport Sunday night to see us and get dinner! We got to meet their little man, Grant. Look at that face...I love this picture! He is adorable and SUCH a good baby!! It was super fun to know someone in RI :)

We were cracking up because Grant was looking everywhere but the camera!

Melis and I being silly in the street. It was SO fun to see you Abby's!!

Sunday night the Chargers were playing so all of us San Diegans weren't going to miss it just because we were in New England! It is so weird how late their sports come on over there! We don't need to talk about the outcome of that game.

"The Breakers" One of the famous Newport mansions. It was insane. Matt wanted to send this picture out saying "We've moved!" haha

I was excited to finally see the Atlantic Ocean! It looks a lot like the Pacific :)

cool tree on the grounds of the mansion


Monday, we left Newport and drove to Boston. *Note: Don't use GPS in the city of Boston. It doesn't work very well! We went with Heather and Jeremiah and drove straight to Quincy Market.

wet willy

We stayed at the Fiala's at MIT...so fun to see them and MIT's campus! We got to see Harvard also and this is one of the buildings at Harvard.

Tuesday morning, we woke up to pouring down rain! Perfect...the day we planned to tour the city on foot! We borrowed rain gear (thank you j and josh!) and braved the weather...we set off to walk the Freedom Trail. We got to the starting point by Subway, which was the first time either Matt or I took a subway (proved to be a good time and a few funny moments along the way).

I think I have about 18 layers on, and I was thankful for every one of them! Starting the Freedom Trail.

Stopped off at Cheers...needed a break from the rain. Matt and Norm.

me and diane.

matt shaking hands with the first mayor of Boston

Paul Revere's house! We paid 3 dollars each to get out of the rain...I mean check out Paul's digs. It was actually really cool and much of the house and contents inside were original.

Can you tell how hard it was raining? We were still having fun at this point!

After about 4 hours of winding all over the city looking at different spots it takes you by, it was getting dark and COLD. The entire contents of my purse was soaked...hence this picture. We stopped at a pub to grab a beer and get directions back to MIT.

We made it almost all the way on the Trail. Unfortunately, we didn't get to cross the bridge into Charlestown to finish the trail. We'll have to go back for that I guess :) As you can see, it was getting dark, and I was starting to get COLD from being so wet!

After one subway mistake (it was totally my fault, matt said that was the last time he listened to my advice on directions!) we made it back to MIT and were very excited for warm showers!! We spent our last night in Boston by going to one of Jeanette's favorite spots...Boston Beer Works.

Jeanette and I

Wednesday morning we woke to this BEAUTIFUL day...the day we were leaving on the train to Maine! That's okay...our adventures in Boston wouldn't have been quite as interesting had we had a beautiful day :)

We left on a train Wednesday morning for Portland, Maine. The Maine portion of this post will have to follow soon. Thanks for sticking with me this long!

a new look!

i thought it was about time to spice up the ol' blog for the holidays :)

i can assure you, oh faithful reader, that i will procrastinate this weekend on submitting grades for progress reports. what relevance is that to you? i will surely update the blog with photos, as one beautiful form of procrastination.

see you soon! xxoo

thankful

i have so much i want to post but don't have the energy at the moment! matt and i had a fantastic Thanksgiving break on the east coast! i took over 200 pictures throughout the week. i want to do this post right and take the time to document our travels. i will wait until i am inspired. hold tight.

hope everyone reading this had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving. i love this time of year...and I love reflecting on and being thankful for all the blessings in my life! tis' the season!

i will leave you with a few things in which i am thankful:
-infinite blessings in life from a loving God
-my husband who's pretty dang cool
-my parents and family
-matt's parents and family
-unbelievable friends!
-our 2 amazing pups and companions
-a job and a paycheck
-the relationships i am fortunate enough to build with awesome kids
-health
-our condo (as much as i'd LOVE a house to call home, i really am grateful for being able to pay for our condo without stress...plus it looks cute and cozy with christmas decorations up!)

Bring on Christmas!

the RED cups are here!

there is something about those red cups. it says HOLIDAY to me like no other! a few years back, my mom and i started a fun little tradition...see who could be the first to see the red cups at starbucks and call the other to say "they're here!" i don't remember how it started but it's fun :) my mom beat me this year (because i have massively cut down on my starbucks trips to about once a week) so i knew my chances were slim to catch the cups on the day of their arrival.




We are off to the east coast early saturday morning (rhode island, boston, and maine) and are sooo looking forward to the trip! however, we will certainly miss our family here over thanksgiving.

happy day of thanks everyone!! xo

random photo fun

ok, here's the deal. the order of my pictures got all jacked up and i have no clue why. i was way too tired to do this post in the first place, so i don't even want to think about figuring out which pics go with what and move them all around. so, here's a little game for you...figure out which photos go with which captions! OR just look at the pictures and call it a day. have fun :) ps. some might be correct, but at this point, your guess is as good as mine!

my old student, eric, playing football for SDHS...went to watch him play-he's super good!

so grown up :)

silly brothers. no further comment.

my wonderful sis-in-law with her "frou-frou" drink!

lyndsy's little man, landon

us girls with little landon :)

crimestoppers night time 5k run...with our friend kim, from wilson middle

kim's daughter leah...what a HAM...so beautiful!

matthew's flag football tournament

that kid to the right of matt, patrick #74, is an 8th grader in my class...yep, he TOWERS over me. good thing he's super nice!

team shot

bud and zoe went on a hike with matt's PE class, then came to visit my room! two of my students...anna and marcella, i love these girls!

rehearsing for the big one

At exactly 10 a.m. tomorrow, November 13th, about 5 million people in Southern California will drop to the ground, take cover under a sturdy piece of furniture and hold on at the same time. Radio stations and school p.a. systems will play a sound track of rumbling and crashing, along with a man's voice declaring, "If this were the magnitude 7.8 earthquake we're practicing for today, you would be experiencing sudden and intense back-and-forth motions of up to 6 ft. per second. The floor or the ground would jerk sideways out from under you. Look around and imagine." And then, when we get the "All-Clear" bell, we quickly and orderly evacuate outside, and hope there are no gigantic cracks in the earth to speak of.

Join in the fun if you wish. 10am. It's always a good time getting 1,000 middle-schoolers to cooperate with such a task. If you don't want to join in the fun physically, you can just think of us crazy Californians and our San Andreas Fault disaster drill!

where are the weeks going?

While some days seem painfully slow and long, the weeks are flying by! Both matt and I are so busy these days, by the time we get home we just sit and stare at each other... almost too tired to have a conversation. Then there's the lovely, constant conversation that goes something like this: "what do you want to do for dinner tonight?" asks whitney, to which matt replies "oh i don't know, eat it." "Ok, that sounds great....so what do you want to eat for dinner tonight?" I try again. "I don't know, what do you want?" says matt. UGH! Does anyone else have issues with this? It is mostly on nights where we are both getting home from coaching late and don't want to cook anything extravagant, or anything at all.

So, what have we been up to? EVERYTHING!

Matt is still coaching flag football and has actually just started coaching another team...the ladies! He got enough girls who want to play flag football, and has been having fun working with the girls (who are way more fun and less intense, matt says!)

I am winding down my club season (only 2 league games left, and then one final tournament in january). I have also started teaching after school extended day reading 3 days a week, and coaching soccer at Roosevelt also-only one day per week until club ends. I am also busy supporting THREE new teachers in BTSA, which is a lot! I have only ever had one or two.

So, what happened to all that time I was excited to have when I finished my masters degree? No clue, I have such an annoying habit of taking on too much! The extra pay will hopefully be worth the craziness.

I LOVE the holidays...I am sooooo excited they are right around the corner!!!

*random pictures of everything are coming soon.

halloween fun

throughout the night, the following people made their appearances (in no particular order): audrey hepburn (kenz), the escaped prisoner (matthew), disco queen with a sweet fro (deed), sarah palin (mindy), a P-I-M-P (ryan), the flapper (kimberly), garth from wayne's world (dave), the cop (me), vampire (jen), oil refinery worker (jim acting as himself)

we went to dinner at Sushi Deli, where on halloween, you vote on the waiters/waitresses best costume and get entered into a drawing for 100 different giftcards! (fingers crossed...I voted for the lobster, matt voted for darth vader). Then, we met up with more friends at The Office, a local bar in our hood for a couple drinks before calling it a night! fun times.

costume shopping

these speak volumes for themselves.

i walked around the corner of the store and this is what i see first:


then...

i had no idea he had picked up these digs, he just came out of the dressing room like this. shocking. speechless.


don't worry, nothing was purchased.