june weekday haps

thinking about blogging all that happened on the weekends in june is making me feel extremely overwhelmed so we are just going to hold off on those moments for now.

..i wrote that a week ago but hey hiiiii. 

june was so nice and went by so fast. here are weekday things that happened slash i liked. 

 i always love walking by the harvard stadium at this time of day, it always looks super delightful

so many facetime/skype times! taking screen shots makes me feel like we are more than just phone friends. also worth noting: this was my first time facetiming with my old companion sister wang, my friend david grant, and brynne's baby morris!! thank you, technology. 

lots of bike rides with myself or kristin 

my boss and his two assistants, megan and meg

the bosses are having a baby! slash they already did but it hadn't happened yet in this picture. we gave them a diaper cake, they loved it as you can see. 

best 57 year old work friend from texas, john bridwell, brought us back these macaroons from france. 

i always thought i hated macaroons but THOSE THINGS WERE SO GOOD. maybe i just hate american ones? who knows. 

left:june weather was nuts and one day it was so cold that i wore a sweater, a scarf, and boots. what?

right: also, i've been better at eating lunch at work. see? a little panara with my best mexican friend alberto. 

more biking. lots of yoga. super obsession with my new backpack. 

(it makes carrying things so easy and convenient!)

boston loves learning. welcome to fred talks: TED talks by your friends. 

still obsessed with the location of my church and how green it is

when it wasn't freezing it was raining! for days and days and days 

(which i honestly appreciated because summer without central air is THE WORST)

friday afternoons were spent with bff nat and our veteran boyfriends and were always topped off with tons of delicious ice cream from bedford farms. maybe this is a good time to tell you that nat is leaving me and is moving to texas soon. we are very sad about this. 

sadly you cant really see the rainbow in the picture above but it is there and i loved that it looked like it was coming out of the word "friendlies" on that building in the distance and there is a baby rainbow on the building across the street.  ..it's the little things.

bless asian friends who make it in the korean newspaper and eating whatever it is i got at that korean restaurant.

unedited boston beauty. this is the trail we use to get to the church, i think

it is especially beautiful after a rainstorm when the sun is setting and felt happy we were walking rather than biking so we could further enjoy it. 

amber turned 30! even though she looks 12.

my closet fell down one night - don't worry, i fixed it - and i had utah hair for a minute.

scenic storrow drive

all you can eat ice cream festival with mccall. didn't feel so hot by the time we left but it was definitely worth it (probably)

oh hey! and then the boss had her baby and i photographed the event. this picture was taken at 5 in the morning and i didn't even care because she is the cutest. if you have any "A" names that you think are the best go ahead and throw them out there - she is still nameless a week and a half later haha. 

japanese lantern festival

one time the luckiest thing happened. 

i was looking for free activities around town to tell the interns at work about and i came across some girl's blog who was talking about a japanese lantern festival. i was so nervous that it had passed but it was a week from the day i found out about it! so i put that right in my little planner so i wouldn't forget about it (i find out about cool things and then almost immediately forget about them) and made plans to attend. 

the festival was being held at forest hills cemetery which is GORGEOUS. 

These pictures don't do it justice at all!

yes, the trees have clothes on. 

now. the nicest part about this festival is that it was a festival to honor those who have passed on so everyone bought lanterns to decorate for their loved ones. 

this would be the stacks and stacks of wooden frames for the lanterns 

(that they so wisely recycle each year)

so after getting all your materials you would have one of these fine japanese ladies write on your lantern. 

i was somewhat disappointed we couldn't do the characters ourselves but i'm sure hers looked way better than if i had done it myself. 

some people like this sweet old man left theirs blank 

and others (us included) wrote notes on them

in doing this i realized quite a few people in my life have passed away in the last year and as sad as it was to write each of their names down it felt nice to think about each of them and in a small way, honor them. 

this also was a celebration of life so there was a lot of singing and dancing and music 

and then as soon as the sun started going down people were anxious to light their lanterns and let them go on the little pond in the middle of the cemetery

and as it got darker and darker it just got more and more magical.

and very tangled-esque

 (even though they weren't floating on the water rather than the sky. and maybe at one point i pulled out my phone and watched the lantern scene of that movie on my youtube app which made it even more magical)

it  was just a really beautiful thing to see all those lanterns and know what they represented. losing a loved one is something almost everyone has experienced and i think it is really nice (and therapeutic) that the community comes together once a year to celebrate/honor/remember the lives of those people.