Noel and Jessica's Wedding!

Last Saturday, Ryan's cousin, Jessica, got married! It was fun to go to a wedding just one day before our 1 year anniversary. It was a beautiful ceremony and great reception, with music by Ryan and Cameron! :)






(Ryan's dad, Grandma Green, Abby, Ryan, Cameron, Ryan's stepmom)

Firsts....

Well, I'm now one step closer to being an official Tucsonan, I have seen my first tarantula! It was on the pavement in a parking lot and clompletely harmless...surprisingly, I wasn't too freaked out, and was even able to stand near it long enough to get my camera out of my purse and take a picture!


While the rest of the country has been having a heat wave, we've actually been experiencing a cool front with lots of rain, which Tucsonans LOVE! I've never seen so many people so excited about 3 consecutive days of rain! I went running at Sabino Canyon with my cross country coach from college and all of the 9 bridges were flooded with water gushing over them...we were almost knee deep while crossing one of them! I've been loving the fact that I can go for a run at 9am and not worry about what the temperature will be...and that I can go a day or two without having to worry about watering the flowers....all the little joys that I took for granted while living in the northeast and midwest! The wash behind our house even filled up with water, a first in probably about 5 years!


I've been house sitting for Ryan's aunt who lives about 2 miles from our house. It's been a pretty luxurious place to hang out during the day...I've been using it as my "studio" for making jewelry....hopefully I'll be in business soon!

Bowling!

I picked Rachel up from daycare today and we spent the late afternoon/evening hanging out. First on our agenda was making "cookies" out of slime....in the picture below, Rachel has turned our "cookies" into her blue ears!


Then we played the classic game, Jacks...(sorry no photo available)

After we had our fill from blue slime and jacks, we decided to make a trip to the bowling alley for some good ol' bumper bowling fun. The bowling alley near our house gives kids a punch card that allows them to one free game of bowling every day of the summer...how cool is that?!









We made hotdogs (sans the bun) for dinner....and ate in bed while watching "High School Musical" projected on the wall....such a cute movie...Nichole, I think Lydia and Alyssa would love it!

jammin'

Last night, I went over to Melissa and Chris' house for dinner...delicious! They're such great friends, and so nice to always check in on me while Ryan is away. After dinner, Melissa and I suited up with my grandma's old aprons and made strawberry jam! I had made freezer jam many times before, but had never actually canned jammed....it's so satisfying to hear that suction "ping" sound as the lid seals! The first 5 people to come over and visit get a jar of homemade jam...buy your plane tickets fast! :)

Retreat!

Last weekend I went on a women's retreat with our church at a hotel here in town. It was definitely a retreat in the true sense of the word...very relaxing and a great time for getting to know other women at the church. The weekend was based on the book "Fresh Brewed Life" by Nicole Johnson....good book about how to take care of yourself in the midst of being pullled in many directions.

Here are some pictures of Melissa and I at the retreat showing off our mad jumproping skills! :)

Rachel for a day! :)

Today we picked Rachel up from daycare after lunch and went to Golf 'n Stuff to play arcade games (kind of like Chuck E Cheese). After winning enough tickets to "buy" some blue slime, we went home and played with it (on the tile floors, of course :).

Ryan set up the projector in our bedroom so that we could watch a dvd laying in bed (the livingroom is too bright during the day to be able to see the projector on the wall.) Rachel was cute and very snuggable with Ryan. :)


After "we" got bored playing with slime and watching a dvd, we went to Grandmo and Grandpo's for a swim in their pool. It's amazing how a token at Golf 'n Stuff = about 30 seconds worth of fun (and is slightly annoying), but a free pool to swim in can give hours worth of fun....hmmmm...we'll do better planning next time. :)

Ryan and I made a great meal (fish, veggies, pasta) tonight and ate outside while the sun was setting...


Then we played a very close game of Scrabble...who knew that "un" meant "one" in english...certainly not me! :)

smoothies and squirrels somewhere over the rainbow

On Monday, Ryan had to get a crown put on one of his teeth...he came home from the dentist in need of a smoothie to help him feel better, but not to smile b/c that hurt too much! Half of his mouth was still numb while he was trying to drink it, so he had wore an apron to protect his clothes. :)


Last night we went to a church that has open volleyball on Tuesday nights. We expected it to be a range of ages and talents and not too competitive....well, not the case. Everyone there was either in high school or college and looked as if they played volleyball on a team for years and took the game very seriously! Ryan is really good at volleyball and played on a lot of competitive teams in Boston, so he was right in his element. I, on the other hand, haven't played any form of volleyball in a few years (at least), only played for one season on the junior varsity team in high school, and even then wasn't very good...only did it to stay in shape for track....so, I was feeling a bit weak in the knees and ready to run for the door. We stayed though and played for a couple of hours...it was so much fun! I actually even dreamed about volleyball last night and told Ryan today about how much I want to go again next week! I'm by no means good on the court, in fact there were times when I thought I was going to be knocked unconscious b/c the ball was coming at me so fast and I couldn't think fast enough to hit the ball or pass it. But, aside from those times, I don't think I was detrimental to the game...kind of the neutral player...no stellar moves, but I'm not afraid of the ball (usually). :)

This afternoon there was a squirrel on our patio, but it took us about 3 minutes to determine it was a squirrel instead of a prairie dog. That's when I realized that I've lived in Tucson for quite sometime (5 months) and haven't seen squirrels in a while!! We have lots of lizards, and even some prairie dogs, but very few squirrels.


Tonight we (Lori, Grammie, Bebe (grammie's friend), Aunt Teri, Ryan and I) went to La Paloma (a fancy resort/restaurant) to hear Jim's (Aunt Teri's boyfriend's) bluegrass band play. We had appetizers and listened to the music/talked for the evening.
Just before we left to go to the resort, there was a huge lightning storm with rain, but it cleared up and left a gorgeous double rainbow that when all the way across the sky...

A Mighty Wind

We had one of Ryan's dream movie parties tonight, complete with popcorn and Dove ice cream bars provided by Melissa and Chris. We watched "A Mighty Wind"....great movie...especially for those that love dry humor! :)

Saturday...

This morning we woke up at about 7am, which is very early for us, especially for a Saturday. We ate breakfast and then watched the ending of a movie that we had started last night. I'll mention here that we actually also started Friday morning the same way...early wake-up followed by a movie that we'd started the night before and breakfast. It's a pretty enjoyable way to ease into the morning.
We spent the afternoon at Grandmo and Grandpo's pool with both of them as well as Rachel, Gary and Mary. It was a warm day, but not bad in the pool...the pool is not heated, but actually even a little too warm for my taste b/c it's been so hot here lately.


We went out for a great Italian dinner with Grammie and Sara...we got a little dressed up for the event...


After dinner Ryan and I came home and played cards (peanuts) for a while, but since one of us always seems to far out beat the other one, we decided to switch to Yahtzee, only to find out that the same is true for Yahtzee... :)

Back in Boston...

Well, our trip out to Boston ended up taking many modes of transportation.
I started out on a shuttle from Tucson to Phoenix at 7:15a.m. to meet up with Ryan and Cameron who had been out in L.A. working on the new record.
Our plane left Phoenix at noon and was to get us into Boston at 10:40p.m. Well, things didn't go exactly as planned... There was a bad storm in NYC, and our plane circled around it for quite sometime, until we ended up having to get re-directed to Buffalo, NY to re-fuel the plane. By the time we got back in the air, the storm had passed and we were able to land at JFK, however 3 hours later than planned. And therefore, we missed our connection to Boston. After we de-boarded the aircraft, a person from the airline came over to tell the group of 18 people heading to Boston, that we had a.) missed our flight, b.) there were no hotels in NYC for the night b/c of it being July 4th weekend, c.) there were no more flights to Boston tonight, d.) there are no open seats on any of the flights to Boston the next day, and e.) there are no rental cars available in the city, again b/c of it being July 4th weekend. But, then they said they had some "good news"...most of the crowd was already in an uproar over the matter, and then to top it off, the "good news" was that there was a shuttle bus taking us to Boston from NYC. Now, I've taken the Fung Wah bus many times from NYC to Boston, and it's not too bad of a trip, but to have to get on a bus at 2am after already having traveled for 19 hours, is not a fun idea at all to me.
At the start of the trip, the bus drive 'warned' us that he had never driven to Boston before, but he had directions. Well...his directions didn't take us the most exact route, and he did almost miss the exit and stopped in the middle of the freeway to reverse the bus so that he could still take the exit, but we made it to Boston by 7am. We got to Jana and Jill's apts at 7:30a.m., just in time to wake them up before their alarms went off...and then to go to sleep as everyone else went to work.

The main reason for planning this trip to Boston was so that Ryan and Cameron could play at David and Fen's wedding in exchange for David playing piano at our wedding last year! It was a really unique wedding to experience as Fen's family had come over for the week from Hong Kong and David's family from Korea. The rehearsal dinner was at a Chinese restaurant between Central Square and Kendall Square. It was a 9 course meal, many of which were "delicacies" followed by 2 rounds of dessert! During the wedding ceremony, David and Fen wore traditional American wedding attire, but then for the reception, they both wore what would be traditional for their own countries. Both of their families were really sweet, and it seemed as if the families were marrying into one another just as much as David and Fen were marrying into eachother's families.




Sunday morning we got to go to the Vineyard for church, which we were soooo looking forward to doing it!! In fact, we planned our trip so that we'd fly out on a Monday just so that we'd be able to go to 2 services while we were in town.
That afternoon we met up with our friends Ryan and Liz and went for a long walk along Memorial Drive/the Charles River. It was so nice to be in the company of friends who have been in similar stages of life parallel to ours (dating, getting engaged, getting married, etc.) We sat in the grass and continued to talk for a while when, who should walk by, but Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garon pushing their daughter in a stroller! I must admit that I didn't recognize either of them from anything, but it seemed to be a big deal by others in my presence....in fact, a cyclist had turned around and stopped near us and told us that they were coming and that she wanted to stand there just so she could get a second glance. :)
Liz and Ryan were getting ready to participate in a garage sale, however they didn't really have anything of their own to sell, so they (I think moreso Liz) have been going through the trash and finding all sorts of great items and furniture to make a profit on. For those of you living in Boston, you know how good the trash can be around the 1st of the month, so really this is idea is quite brilliant. :)

Monday afternoon Ryan and Cameron headed up to Vermont where they played to a full room at a cafe. I stayed behind and went to the community pool with my "little sisters" and Jana.

It's amazing how much they have grown up over the past 3 years! Instead of wanting to play charades for hours at a time at my apt, they are now a little more interested in talking about their friends and boyfriends. Tiarrah now has a baby sister, Hayden, who is 2 1/2 months old and sooo precious!

Tuesday morning (4th of July), Jana, Jill and I drove to Cape Cod to visit with some of Jill's childhood friends who were staying on a lake there for the weekend. It was a gorgeous day! I miss swimming in lakes soo much...I was even loving the smell of lake water and having my feet touch the mossy weeds!

(Cassie, Jill, Jana, Vivian (Cassie's baby) and me!
That evening we drove back to Boston so that we could see the fireworks over the Charles. Somehow, amongst the crowd of 1/2 a million people, we ran into our friend Orla and Will who are getting married in September! They joined us and we found ourselves a patch of grass to sit on and play cards (the game "spoons", although using waterbottles in place of spoons) before the fireworks began....

Ryan is probably the best person to watch fireworks with! He gets so excited, and throws out genuine "ooohs" and "ahhhs" throughout the show...and thinks that every year it just gets better and better! He's the greatest! :)

We traveled to NYC for a show on Thursday. The drive was easy going without any traffic until we were just outside of NYC, then our pace went from 75mph, down to 4mph for over 2 hours! And, we got honked at by a semi to let us know we had a very low tire that could go flat any minute! Luckily, we made it to a gas station in time to re-fill it with air and it held for the rest of our trip. The show at Rockwood went really well...it was a full house of friends and fans. Afterwards we went out for tapas with a group of Ryan's friends from high school.

That night we stayed at my friend Paul's condo in Jersey City, and had a great view of the city from his dining room...

The show on Friday night at Club Passim was really really good....one of the best in my opinion! Lots of friends from work and church came which made it kind of like a little reunion.
On Sunday after church Ryan and Cameron had a show to play for a sweet sixteen birthday/ block party. I wish our neighborhood had block parties! It was such a great day for it and everyone was super laid back and nice. Afterwards, the neighbor kids all wanted to take guitar lessons from "the Maestro"! :)

It was a great trip and we can't wait to go back in September for Orla and Will's wedding! We wish we could have seen EVERYONE we know in Boston....we look forward to seeing those we couldn't see on this trip next time!

Boston!!

Watch out Boston, we are coming to town on Thursday and staying for 10 days!! We can't wait to see so many of you and remember what humidity is all about! :)

Ryan and Cameron are playing at Passim on July 7th if anyone is interested! :)

Cathedrals, Cocinas, and Caves

Last week while my mom and dad were here, we drove to the San Xavier Indian Reservation to see the San Xavier Mission, a beautiful Catholic church...






Then, we drove to Nogales, Mexico for lunch and shopping. The restaurant we ate at was built into a cave...here's a picture from the outside.


On their last day here, we drove to Kartchner Caverns. These amazing caves which are still active were just recently opened to the public in 1999. On the outside they look like two grassy (desert grass=weeds and cacti), but on the inside, they are hollow caves filled with stalactites and staligmites over 50 feet tall!

Mom and Dad visit Tucson!

My mom and dad flew into town yesterday from Michigan! We spent the afternoon watching our wedding dvd (I can never get enough of it...thanks Rache!). Then we went to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, which is more of a zoo/botanical garden/national park than a museum. It was absolutely gorgeous scenery.


A mountain lion behind a fence...the only way I'd like to ever see one...


Today we went all the way into Sabino Canyon, hiked around, and had a picnic...


Then my mom and I went to Lori's salon and had pedicures done! :)

While we were out getting pampered my dad put a new handle on the toilet so that it no longer stays down after flushing it!! And, he hung our light abover our table!

Then this evening we went out for dinner and then came home and played some scrabble...mom won the first game and I won the second. :)

San Francisco!

On Monday morning, Natalie, Analisa, and I packed up the bug convertible and started up the Pacific Coast Highway to San Francisco! It was a BEAUTIFUL drive through national parks with the ocean right there as well. Next time through, I'd love to bring a tent and go camping!




We made a stop at the Madonna Inn to confirm that it is truly the guadiest looking place for fine dining...unfortunately I didn't get a picture of it, but as you enter the dining room area there is a large porceline doll hanging/ swinging from the ceiling...a little frightening to say the least...







We stopped in Monterey for a delicious seafood dinner!

Then, we finally arrived in San Francisco! It was so nice to be in a city again...it actually really made me miss Boston A LOT! I just miss having the cute little flower shop below our apartment and the good breakfast place down the street...everything always being within walking distance...but then again, I do love that the sun shines 350 days/ year in Tucson! :)

Analisa and I went for a run on Tuesday morning across the Golden Gate bridge...both she and Natalie are training for a half marathon right now (go ladies go!)... :)


Then we hiked around Muir Woods...a beautiful red woods forest...a definite gem for the bay area!


The bay area really has it all now that I come to think of it...they have the ocean, beautiful green rolling hills, the red woods, the city,...so glad to know we'll be back in that area again! In fact, we hope to play to a show at Cafe du Nord in October, a great acoustic venue that is just down the street from where Analisa and Natalie live! So get your ticket to San Fran and get ready for my favorite acoustic duo to enter the stage! :)

That night we headed down to the Wharf for dinner...and then over to North Beach for some gelato! We sat in a park to eat our gelato and began to reminisce about when we sang in gospel choir together in college...a guy sitting on a bench across from us heard us and came over and decided to sing with us for a while...he lead us in a bunch of "repeat after me" songs...we had soo much fun. It was one of those things that we could've never planned, yet it was just a perfect way to spend our night.





Back at their apartment, we got into some heated rounds of mario brothers on nintendo (the original nintendo that is)...Ryan would've been so proud of me... :)