Yankees + Star Wars

Yes- it is true!  The New York Yankees embraced their inner Jedi and had their first ever Star Wars Day at Yankee Stadium!

We originally wanted to come because of the hat giveaway-- these just screamed "Christmas Present!" for my family!  But now that we have them, they are so cute we just may not be able to part with them...

It was such a fun time- Star Wars characters, even R2-D2 himself made an appearance, rounding the bases!

When they announced the starting lineup for the opposing team, they played the Imperial March (lol) and when they showed the Yankee on the big screen who was batting next, he would be wearing a Rebel pilot suit.

Lots of John Williams playing, lots of kids in Star Wars shirts, a really good time!

The #EvAnika Wedding

I came up with the # --cuz I'm amazing like that.  Its their celebrity name, fo sho.

Baby Evan married his sweetie pie in July and we went out to Utah to be there.  This was one of those rare trips when we arrived well before the rest of the family, so we had loads of time to live it up in Utah!  If "living it up in Utah" sounds like an oxy moron, we would have totally agreed with you... BEFORE this trip.  Because- WOW!- we had such a surprisingly great time!

Here's some photos from our adventures:

And these were just regular old neighborhood fireworks from our friend's street on the 4th of July!  Utahns KNOW fireworks!  (It helps that aerial fireworks are legal here...)
(( **MY BAD!  Our homie Matthew Marshall actually took this in CT.  But frankly, Utah's fireworks looked just the same... ;)  ))

Jack's absolute highlight!  Riding horses at Maria's family's farm!  Their generosity was unbelievable.  They absolutely treated us like family and we love them!

A wonderful lunch spent with Grandma and Grandpa + our very dear Darius Gray.  Always a beautiful experience to feel his spirit!

Chair lift UP Snowbird in Little Cottonwood Canyon

 Gondola DOWN Snowbird in Little Cottonwood Canyon

So we went on another hike and this happened.  Seems kind of exciting to see a Life Flight helicopter land on a mountainside.  But the truth is, we were both a little traumatized.  An avid hiker passed out on the trail ahead of us, seemingly dying instantly of a heart attack.  CPR was performed for nearly an hour by bystanders and medics who hiked up to reach him, and the team from the helicopter worked on him, too, before pronouncing him dead.  We both relived some memories, and we both were even happier than usual to have each other, to have our health, and to have peace in our hearts.  Not an ideal hike, but we are glad we experienced it together.

Lake Mary, Brighton Trail in Big Cottonwood Canyon

Beautiful view, Rest In Peace, Sir.  You picked a lovely place to cross to the other side.  Honestly, all the way down we were talking about our mutual agreement that we hope our endings are as quick, as painless, and finds us happily doing what we love.

 Moose photo bomb :)

Hmmm...what's that sound?

MOOSE!!

And a super great time and Aunt Becky and Uncle Dave's new house-- including a chance for General Jack to drive his Jeep around town!

The EPIC view from where we stayed with Grandma and Grandpa!

Oh!  Grandma C with her littlest great-grandbaby!

And here's some photos from the wedding:

Bountiful Temple^

My little niecelettes!

An eternity of wedded bliss to you both!  XO!

June sans Gloom

I was thinking that things have been more dull recently, but then I looked in my Photos and face-palmed at my ungratefulness for all the amazing little things we have done!  We live in a marvelous place and the Spring weather and abundant green leaves in New England are just lovely.

For Memorial Day we drove around lost until we found a trail head up north a bit, in one of Connecticut's many lush state forests.  We had a nice hike on a beautiful day.

 We look sweaty and gross, because that's exactly what we were.  That means it was a GOOD hike!

With friends in both parties (even though having a friend in any party is a little difficult to do right about now...) we support our friends across the political spectrum.  As such, we got to go to a dinner that, in part, honored an amazing friend of ours for her years of service across the country (we love you, Pat!).  And part of that dinner including hearing from former Presidential contender, Carly Fiorina.  And no matter how you may feel about her and her politics, let me tell you that She Is Smart!  I was really impressed with her.  Huge props to any successful female in America who has reached the top of her game against an uphill battle of sexism.  Cool experience to meet her.

And much to my great delight, we spent a day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to make sure I could see the special exhibit that opened during this year's Met Gala-- Manus x Machina.  So worth it!  

And ladies, if you think there is no such thing as a modest couture wedding gown, Chanel has something for you! 

And watch out Seminary students, next year we study New Testament and I am already researching primary sources at the Met!  That includes finding the Holy Grail; Indy really did it the hard way...  And also, I love a brown Jesus (actually I think this is another Saint, but same-same), which I think is abundantly more accurate.  Thank the Spanish for the one above.


SPRING!

Goings On

April was a busy month for us, FULL of house guests!  First Mom came out, but honestly no photos survived of us from the week!  We spent time in Milford working on a Family History Mystery, and I guess most of our camera work was spent taking covert pictures of documents with our ancestors' names on them at the Historical Society while the docent wasn't looking, to upload to Ancestry.com.  Civil disobedience for a very good cause, as always :)

And the party really got going when lil' Evan brought our new Baby Sis for us to meet.  Of course we needed her to know that we are the cool ones in the family, so we pulled out all the stops.

We enjoyed a Yankee game from the luxury box:

We also showed them where we had our ring ceremony in Central Park:

And just so she doesn't get the wrong idea, we also took her to a Bernie Sander's rally:

(He was about to lift me up to get a better view)

lol

---
PLUS!  This week just the two of us enjoyed the university's reliefs, grotesques, architecture, and niches on a Yale Gargoyle Tour!  Very fun- Jack liked all the little carved bulldogs the most.  I liked the prostitutes and bank robbers on the law school.  :)

1st Time to Vermont

Last weekend we took a trip with the Branchies to Vermont-- our first time there EVER!  Pres. Young was incredibly gracious to host us in his beautiful Vermont home AND he cooked us all a wonderful lunch AND dinner!  We were so spoiled!  One of the greatest day trips ever!

We had some fun trekking around in the snow on a little hike-- I never thought that I would ever, ever take a hike in the winter in Vermont, but it was a really great time!  We also stopped by a sugaring barn where the owners tap their own maple trees and cook down maple syrup to sell; so Vermonty!  We also ate a ton of cheese and fudge samples at the country store...oops.

Here's some tiny glimpses of our fun, photos by the indefatigable Matthew:

Pardon our funny expressions, we were eating lunch :)

Plus we got to hang with our favorite little buddy.  Does he have the ruddy cheeks and curls of a cherub, or what?!

Huddling for warmth on our snow hike, haha