one time i went to the country's largest antique show in brimfield

the country's largest!!!

you guys know how much i love superlatives. 

it was seriously so so so huge. word on the street is that there are over 6,000 dealers and it spans about a half mile of land and is just a sea of tents, people, and treasures/junk. there is no way i could even do the place justice so these pictures will have to do. i was really sad that i don't have my own house because i would have bought way more stuff (old fisherprice collectables for $1 a piece? antique cedar chest for $15? what?!) but i had to refrain and keep my purchases to a minimum. 

anyway, it was awesome and i wish you had all come with me and maybe it will be back in july and september so you should all fly out and join me then.

 largest bag of kettle corn i could get = definitely jan's daughter

 the fact that we were surrounded by trees made this whole experience even BETTER

 CREEPIEST DOLL HEADS EVER

giiiiiiiiiimme

 trash heaven

all in all it was really nice, overwhelming, and fun.

also, i don't know where i'm going to put it but i bought that sweet polaroid in my hands for $15!!

but, wait! i'm not done talking.

 that night we walked to stake conference 

(this photo would be me admiring the view while simultaneously being really confused as to why people think it is fine boat on the charles river. it just seems so wrong to me!)

i realized on the subway that i never talk about my new roommates (whoops!) so we took this photo to document our roommateship. from left to right we have tiffany who is here for the summer for an internship with the arboretum, madelon who is from holland and is doing some research for harvard for a few months, myself, and then stephanie who just finished up her bachelors in neurology (or something like it) and is working. both girls on the end are randomly from florida and then i've got another roommate briana (who is tiffany's sister) and then a nice roommate named varya from russia who came into our lives via craigslist. they are all nice gals and i'm lucky to not live with the alternative. 

then for the sunday session of stake conference my little work friend alberto came! basically he doesn't know a lot of people since he is from mexico so my (mormon) boss told him to come to church with me and meet friends haha.  regardless of his reason for being there i think he liked it! and is going to come back soon. also, stake conference was nice and i really enjoyed seeing brynne's mom speak and also felt obsessed with elder packard's talk on forgiveness.

okay! now i'm done.

i thought i blogged these guys already!

..so that was disappointing when i found them in a draft, wordless.

may loves to rain. most of the time i'm thrilled it isn't freezing anymore so i'm okay with it. i was especially okay with it when i walked out of the temple and it looked like this. it was perfect.

boston got it's very own shake shack recently and people are pumped about it.  

i think it is nice and all but i don't know if i will ever understand all of the hype! or why it is fine for a small hamburger and baby shake to come to $12

chelsea introduced a few of us to an app ellen degeneres made called "heads up". you just hold it up to your  head and then guess what it says from the clues people give you. considering how much we all love headbanz it is great and everyone should probably install it on their phone asap. 

so here are some fun things that have happened at work recently:

1. i have become a hand/arm/shoulder model and feel pretty famous when i see large posters of said extremities around the office

2. after you've worked at vecna six months your security allowance goes up so you need a new badge with a green background instead of a blue one. since i'm way overdue for my new photo i tried to do it the other day but for some reason meg (my trusty co-worker who i share an office with) didn't like any of them. i can't imagine why?

3. one time my blouse matched my ninja star! like, perfectly. it was awesome.

4. a guy at work so kindly made a replica of my face out of clay. ...i thought it looked more like that monkey.

when it's not raining the weather has been the dreamiest. the other day i decided to hang out at harvard yard while waiting to go to dinner with some friends and thoroughly enjoyed it. 

(like, really. i couldn't have been happier than to just sit and watch the foreign friends in front of me video tape themselves and cry laugh tears as they watched what they had just recorded)

i finally took some time to go into the curious george store (the only one in the world mind you!) and also noticed my favorite tree is all leafy again. yay!

nice weather also means more street performers which makes me happy

and i just wish i could describe to you how perfect the weather was that day because it almost felt magical it was so good. 

and to end this random post i just have to say that boston is beautiful and i feel very blessed to live here. k that's all. 

baby kev and brooklyn

i am a blogging machine these days. 

may 10th 2012 sweet baby kevin was born.

 his life was very short but his impact on our family was not. 

we are so grateful for him and wanted to celebrate that boy on what would have been his first birthday. since all of us are so spread out we decided to have a pizza and ice cream party wherever we were in the world. mine was kind of sad - i had been on a bus for 7 hours (i thought it would only be 4) so i didn't get to brooklyn until pretty late. we found a dominos open and a random ice cream shop and decided that was as good as it was going to get. i was glad we were able to make it happen and i'm glad grace (and not pictured dave and sleeping alta) could join. happy birthday baby kev!

those friends are moving next month to california so a friendship weekend was a must. 

saturday morning we woke up and went to the brooklyn botanical gardens and it was BEAUTIFUL. it had been raining all night so everything looked and smelled so good. 

we missed the blossoms at their peak but it was still real pretty

(i guess now that my friends are all having babies we will have to 

figure out how to pose in pictures in a way that doesn't make us look like lesbians)

everything happening behind grace was UNREAL. these pictures don't do it justice.

this tree house was made entirely from trees that were felled by hurricane sandy and irene. it's nice when creative people can make something nice out of something sad. 

no one really knows why but alta was hating her life most of the weekend and looked like this more times than not haha

match teams

we went to a nice mexican place for lunch and then as soon as we got home it started to rain again (three cheers for great timing!)

the rest of saturday was spent napping, talking, youtubing, and enjoying a nice walk around their brooklyn neighborhood. 

sunday was fun because i got to see these old provo friends! they were in our ward when we lived in the yellow house back when they were just dating. weird that they are coming up on their 5 year anniversary..how was it that long ago?!?! is the question i ask myself.

sunday afternoon was full of forced self-timed pics, dave showing us the panoramic feature on our phones, me completely ignoring all of his instructions and making the most terrible ones, a gangnam style mini dance party for angry alta, a nice dinner by dave, and some park time with my gals. 

and then just like that my weekend in brooklyn was over. it was so nice to be with them and i will really miss having them as my east coast friends! grace is definitely a big reason why i even moved to boston so i will always be grateful to her for that. 

(and also - when i said my weekend in brooklyn was over i really meant to say that i then got on a bus and talked to two german guys, one guy from boston, and a 17 year old for the next five hours about being a mormon. i was ready to finally have my international mary-kate and ashley moment and have a summer fling with one of the german guys (he is here to do research for three months) because i thought he was so nice looking and kind and respectful but half way through the bus ride i realized he was married and it blew everything. but yet, explained why he was so kind and respectful haha. k bye.)