Rooftop

on Friday evening, bear and i went out on a date. an actual hand holding, he pays for my dinner, fireworks at the end of the night (literally) kind of a date.... and it was terrific. 

i had been hearing so many good things about this new restaurant, cubbys. So for our dinner date we tried it, and it was amazingly delicious. i had a chicken sandwich and bear had the famous tri-trip. a highly recommended place if you are ever in the provo area. 

after dinner, we headed to the rooftop concert. it was perfect weather, we got a semi good seat, and the line up of singers for the tom petty tribute concert looked great. we (bear) are huge fans of tom petty so we were pretty excited about the concert. we rocked out under the stars, sang our heart out, and enjoyed the evening. 

plus, the night ended with a firework show and a kiss from the one i love. oh, and a refreshing ice cream shake.

how much more romantic can you get? 

in my backyard

i love relaxing in my hammock 

i check on our tomatoes everyday. i am really hoping that we get lots of yummy ones this year. 

i enjoy listening to our neighbors chickens (and being a little stalkerish and watching them through the fence)

my heart gets happy watching shento roll around in the grass 

i love the way the flowers brighten up the area

i love having the option of sitting outside

dinner time has become an outside event and i love that! 

having this little backyard space has made me quite happy. i imagine we will be spending lots of time out there. 

we went to the theater

Last weekend Bear and I went to the theater. We called it our "staycaction". You know, where you do fun things and act like you are on a vacation, in all actuality you have never left your town and will go back to your house that evening. 

We wanted to do some thing here in Provo that we had never done. So we decided the theater was a good choice. We went and saw a ballet, The Land of Oz put on by the classical ballet academy based here in Utah. The dancers were beautiful, the choreography was well done,  and it kept Bears attention. Which was the one thing I was worried about. 

Next up was a drive to the Y parking lot. It was a beautiful night, warm and the sky was so clear. Bear and I sat on a rock watching the town below us. It was romantic! We talked a lot. about life, our love for each other, and the many plans that we have. It felt like we were on our first date all over again. We even kissed, sitting on that rock over looking Provo. ahhh. 

After our special evening out, we decided to go home and sleep in our extra bedroom. Break up our routine and pretend we were on vacation, that was the thought. And it worked. It was something different, a little change in the normal sleeping arrangements and... I will let you guess what happened next.  

It was a wonderful evening. I hope that we can have many more like it. 

Sammy's

We stopped by Sammy's to try out the highly talked about and recommended hamburger and fries on Saturday afternoon. I am certain that the fries might be some of the best I have had. my month is watering just thinking of them. The hamburger was good, not my favorite but worth trying again. The place is cozy inside and the decor is great. I love the polaroids that are hung around spontaneously though out the restaurant. I hear they have the best shakes in town. we will be going back now that the weather is warming up to try them out. 

Here's to Easter

I love the pastel colors, stuffed bunnies, brightly colored eggs, and beautiful spring blossoms. It was the first Easter that we have spent with my parents, and it was wonderful. They came down to our house and spent the weekend with us.  We enjoyed Mexican food at our favorite restaurant, easter egg dying, a hike on the bonnevail ridge trail, a friendly game of baseball,  a picnic in the park,  an easter egg hunt for Shento, and lots and lots of laughs.


This was the best weekend. I wish all of them could be that good.

Hiking to the Y

                      

A couple weekends ago the weather was beautiful, we decided that a hike to the Y was on the agenda. If you are from Utah, you know what I am talking about. For everyone else, there is a humongous Y on the side of the mountain right behind our house. The Y stands for the local University, Brigham Young (BYU).

The Y seems so close, an easy hike I thought. Boy was I wrong? It was hard, uphill with switch-backs. I couldn’t wait to be done. But to be honest, once I made it to the top and saw the view, I felt so accomplished. It was perfect. And it was a lot of fun to see where we lived in comparison to all of Utah County.  

It also made me realize that I need to get my little fanny to the gym and work out.  

an adventure with a camera in hand

Last Friday we went on an adventure to the Utah lake wetlands. It really felt like an adventure, we       were tramping through long grass, listening to birds chirp, and watching the wind blow the dark clouds around in the sky.

I took my camera, and Bear took his binoculars. I tried capturing the scene the way that I was watched it play out.  The wind making the plants and trees ruffle. Bear so intensely watching something in the distance.  The dark clouds rolling in from behind the mountains. I felt like a little kid in a make believe world.  An adventure that Bear and I were on together. Trampling through the jungle of Provo Lake. 

first day of spring

spring has sprung here in utah and i love it. all of the flowers and trees are starting to bloom, and the weather warmed back up today. this time of year is the best for family walks. we took a walk this morning and found this little tree in our neighbor's yard. the flowers are just starting to bloom and they are beautiful.  it reminded us of New Jersey and all of the cherry blossoms that brought color after the long dull winter.
Spring is the best on the east coast. but we are looking forward to experiencing spring time here in Utah, and of course going on lots more family walks.

we needed some brightening up done to our living room, so i stopped by the craft store tonight and picked up that lovely fabric. i am excited to see what i come up with. i am thinking a pillow. that would look nice on our plan couch.

Happy Spring!

awful waffle + a walk

Ryan, one of our best-friends came into town this past week and we had a blast showing him around. Our first stop was Awful Waffle right here in Provo. I had heard mixed reviews about the small walk up belgium waffle house, but I am happy to report that it was delicious. The piled on bananas and homemade whip cream are a must. and I highly recommend the hot chocolate, one of the best cups I have ever had.  

It was such a sunny and warm day that we took advantage of being outside and toured around the campus of BYU. Showing Ryan all of the sites that BYU and Provo have to offer. 

over the weekend

 hope your weekend was just lovely. 

Ours was filled with lots of celebrating, enjoying each others company,

and eating lots of good food. 

Some highlights were: 

going for a walk; but it turned out to be way too cold, 

so we decided to go eat a delicious fruit tart at la jolla bakery instead.  

we bought some house plants to bring color to our home,

 we stuffed ourselves with indian food, 

and then cuddled on the couch and watched some law and order. 

yeah, it was a great weekend. 

now onto a wonderful week! 

a few awesome things from this weekend...

1. Seeing Joshua James perform... Magical! 

2. Pizza night, a couple episodes of madman, and cuddling on the couch with Bear. 

3. Spending a Saturday morning enjoying all the wonderful treasures at fleaology.  I walked away with the best find - that amazing blue bench. 

4. Taking Shento on a walk long enough to make him tired. That's hard to do. 

5. Finding a fun bakery within walking distance from our house. 

6. It snowed. 

7. Drinking lots of hot beverages to stay warm. 

8. Decorating for lover's day. 

our new home on e street

our house is coming along nicely. 

the walls have been painted, the carpet has been cleaned, and the kitchen has been scrubbed.

 we owe a HUGE thanks to both of our parents for helping/doing a lot of the work.

 we will be loading up the u-haul and moving all of our stuff tomorrow. 

let the craziness of un-packing and decorating begin! 

and lastly, no this pictures has nothing to do with moving, provo, or even bear and i. it was taken in park city of some random donkeys that i thought were cute! 

welcome home

whew, yesterday was a whirlwind. we signed the lease, got the keys, and started painting our new home.   the new coat of paint already brightens up the rooms and makes the house look a lot more charming. i have a million ideas for decorating and i am anxious to start moving our stuff/boxes in. today, we are heading back to the house to paint. the more time i spend in the empty house, the more it feels like our home.

Hello

Hello, hello, hello,

this past week was busy. so many little things in our life are happening and it started feeling overwhelming. we have been afraid of jinxing it so we have stayed quite, but we have found a cute old house (to rent) that we will call our home sometime next week. the house is everything we could ask for. two bedrooms plus an office, tons of natural light, a fenced in back yard for Shento, and the best part, they allow dogs! it feels good to have finally made a decision and to know that this is the start of our new adventures in utah.  

in other news, we still miss nj. isn't that the craziest thing? i miss our routine, all of our favorite restaurants, and our friends. i am so thankful that we took full advantage of living there. i have strange flashbacks when we visit local stores that we frequented in nj. i sometimes have to remind myself that we are no longer back east.  i think that i am ready for a trip or i am ready for our friends to come visit us (Janice). we have a nice house and i will be a great host. yes, i am bribing everyone to come visit us. 

also, i am excited about the snow. this weekend i was ready for the predicted blizzard that we were suppose to have but it didn't happen. it was just cold. but this cold is great. in nj when the temperatures dropped you seldom went outside. the humidity made everything unbearable. now we can go for winter walks without feeling like we are going to freeze to death. 

and lastly, the house gets a fresh new coat of paint and we are in the process of picking out the colors. that task is harder than it seems. we stared at all the paint color samples hoping for one to jump out at us. instead we left about a dozen different choices. 

Provo

hope that you are having a great week thus far.

I feel like ours has been productive.

we have checked things off of our never ending to-do list.

We have been moving along with the job search, house search, and grad school.

And after much debate, thought, and stress

we have officially decided to call Provo our home for the next little while.

And while I never thought that I would ever live in Provo/Utah County,

I am starting to except and like the idea.

It's beautiful here and we have potentially found an awesome Indian food restaurant

that I am super excited about (as long as I can find me some good Indian food, I will be great).

The house search is proving to be more challenging than we thought.

Especially in this area because everyone here is dog haters.

How can you not like dogs? Doesn't make any sense to me.

I couldn't even image life without my adorable Shento.

We are in Provo today. I am actually sitting in the student library typing this. Bear is teaching his class.

I am really hoping he hurries up because my stomach is starting to rumble.

Breakfast is sounding yummy right about now.

Any suggestions on awesome things to do in Provo?

We are going to go exploring today.