Boston Pictures, Finally!

Here is a bunch of pictures from our amazing trip to Boston, in chronological order. Sorry there are so many, it was just too hard to try and eliminate which pictures to put in because we did so many cool things and saw so many amazing cites. The description of each picture is BELOW the picture.

This is the first stop on the Freedom Trail: Boston Commons.

Paul Revere's grave

"Stand in opposition"

Site of the Boston Massacre

This is the bench we were sitting in inside the chapel where the lamps were lit to let Paul Revere know the Red Coats were coming "by sea"

Another view of that same chapel: "One if by land, two if by sea."

Me firing a canon on the USS Constitution

Michelle going below on the USS Constitution, the oldest commisioned ship in the U.S.

Michelle after we ran up and ran down the 294 steps of the monument below...

Old Bunker Hill

The Green Monster (it's much bigger than it looks on TV and in this picture)

Me and Ken's seats at Fenway Park. I think these seats are originals.

Ground Level at Fenway Park, the Red Sox beat the Indians really bad so it was a good game

My red sox ticket

New England Aquarium, Michelle with Penguins

Me Picking up a starfish at the aquarium

Me checking out some Jelly Fish

Me having some New England Clam Chowda' at Legal Sea Foods

Some weird social experiment...i guess...at Harvard University. I went along with her little game and told her a truth in one ear and a lie in the other

Harvard's Memorial Hall

Us at Harvard

Boston Science Musuem

Boston Temple, very beautiful

Michelle, also very beautiful


A display at the JFK Presidential Museum and Library

Who would I have voted for?

Some of Jacky Kennedy's dresses.

JFK was a WWII hero. His ship got blown up, he swam and pulled several soldiers to safety on a remote island, and wrote a message on this coconut and sent it for help. We didn't beleive this story was true until we saw this display and read the actual military reports

JFK museum


I had heard this quote before, didn't know who it was from though

John Adams' presidential library. these books are really old

Plymouth Rock

The man who led the militia that stood up to the Red Coats and started the American Revolution

Cool monument in Lexington where the Revolution started

The North Bridge in Concord where the colonial Americans turned the Red Coats around and started to win us our freedom...

We hit a deer on the freeway last night

Last night, on our way home from Montreal, we hit a deer while we were driving on the freeway. It was one of the craziest and saddest things that has ever happened to me. We were about 17 mils away from home, and it was about 9:15 at night. It was totally dark and we were on a smaller highway in upstate New York so it was really dark and we were in a wooded area. The instant that I saw the deer was the same instant that it ran in front of my car and I immediately slammed on the breaks. I had maybe a half second or a third of a second to even process what I was seeing, so needless to say there was no time to avoid hitting it. It flew straight up when I hit it, and Michelle and I both saw the deer literally flying straight up, upside down. It landed in front of the car and sadly we ran over it. The whole ordeal was maybe a second. After it happened we immediately pulled over, called 911, and said a prayer of thanks that Michelle and I were both fine. Another car pulled over to make sure we were fine. When the guy in the other car found out we were fine he took off almost right away because the scene was so gross and already smelled awful. I could see the deer, it was right next to my side of the car when we were pulled over. It was one of the most disgusting things I have ever seen. I thought about taking a picture of it...but my better judgment convinced me that nobody would ever want to see it. I did take pictures of the car though. I got two estimates today, both were over $7,000. I guess that is why you have car insurance (we would be in big trouble if car insurance didn't exist). I guess this is also why you are supposed to keep an emergency fund saved in a savings account of somewhere like that. It is ironic that we had such a good time in Canada over Memorial Day weekend and finished it off with this experience. It is even more ironic that we went to such great lengths to save money while in Canada and then had this happen and will have to pay for our large deductible for our car insurance. We bought a bunch of food at Wal-Mart before we left to go to Canada and then took it all in an ice chest. I am proud to say that we did not spend a single penny on food on our entire trip in Canada. That was our goal. Little did we know this would happen. We had a great time in Canada, and I will write more about that in a later post. In the mean time, enjoy these pictures.

Thankful Thursday

Today I'm thankful for...

1. The beautiful tulips of all different colors planted all over Syracuse

2. The warm weather

3. My job so close to home with great hours so I can spend evenings with my wonderful husband

4. The prayers and support of all our family and friends

My First Plant

A few months again at a Relief Society activity I got a little tiny flower pot with a seed inside. I brought it home and set it in the kitchen window, without too much hope that it was going to grow. There wasn't much sun in Syracuse at that time. To my surprise though, it has grown so much! It finally got too big for the little pot and was starting to fall over, so Chad and I re-potted it yesterday. I've never had my own plant or re-potted one, so I didn't know if you were supposed to buy special soil or what exactly the best way to do it was. We decided to just go buy a bigger pot at the dollar store. We didn't want to buy soil, so we walked around our apartment complex for about 10 minutes looking for some "good dirt". We finally found a decent spot of dirt that some trees and flowers were growing in. We didn't have a shovel, so I dug it up with a big spoon and my hands. Then I just took the whole plant, soil and all, out of the old pot, put it in the new pot, and added more dirt to fill it up. I still don't know what this plant is, so if anyone else does, let me know. Someone else from relief society said it's some kind of flower, but I don't know what kind. I am excited that it has grown so well so far and am excited to see it bloom - hopefully soon. Here are some pictures:

This is my plant after a few weeks. It grew so much faster than I expected! It seemed like I just woke up one day and it was all of a sudden a few inches tall.
This is my plant the other day when it was WAY too big for it's pot. I had to put a pencil in there to hold it up straight.

Here is the plant in it's new pot - it looks much better!

Fire Creek

About three and a half years ago, right when I came home from my mission, some of my roommates were film students and were really into making movies and stuff. One night, when I should have been studying for a test, I let one of my roommates convince to drive up to this secluded hill up in the foresty area of Provo and help out with a movie that BYU was filming called Fire Creek. I got a very small role (but bigger than an extra, I would say). I was a boxer (in the boxing scene, obviously). For a few minutes my job was basiclly just to box this other guy. They filmed us for a while and I even did this cool scene where I fell to my knees and then fell face forward. Everyone was impressed that I would really let myself fal on my face like that, lol. Anyways, I totally forgot all about the movie until today. I read on Deseret News that the movie is finally gettign released. I did some more research and read that it is being showed at Varsity Theatre at BYU and in some Cinemark theatres throughout Utah. If anybody goes to see it, LOOK FOR ME! haha...hopefully they didn't cut me out of the movie of something. Just look for a version of me that is about 25 pounds lighter and 4 years younger or so. Apparently this is the firs movie ever shown in theatres that was produced by all undergraduate students.

Historic News: I Ate A Green Bean Last Night!

I ate a green bean last night for the first time in 22 years. To explain the significance of this event, I suppose I should start at the begining....It all starts when I was about three years old. This memory, I beleive, is the earliest one I have. I do not beleive I could have any earlier memories since the hypothalamus doesn't being to fully develop until the age of three, but I digress. I remember the color and texture of the high chair I was in. I remember where I was sitting at the table. I remember the lighting. I remember all of this and I was only three years old. My mom tried to make me eat a green bean. I also remember not liking the taste of it one bit. I still remember the flavor and not wanting to eat it. I could never eat green beans again, or so I though. For years and years and years, the smell alone of green beans was enough to make me feel sick. I am not exagerating at all. When Michelle is cooking or something I can't even stand to have green beans on the same plate as my food. I am honestly not that picky of an eater (I am kind of picky) but not as bad as some peole. I like most vegetables and I enjoy most kinds of foreign foods. At any rate, last night I wanted Michelle to eat a little bit of the fish filet that I had cooked and she wouldn't do it. I knew she doesn't like fish, but I just wanted to see if I could get her to do it. She is about as bad with fish as I am or was with green beans. She has actually tried certain types of fresh fish and tuna though so she is not as bad as me with green beans. I had a strict zero tolerance for 22 years with green beans. Anyways, last night when I tried to get Michelle to eat some fish I impulsively said I would eat a green bean if she ate some fish. I just kept telling myself, if so many peoplem love to eat green beans, they can't be as bad as my mind has made them out to be. I knew I wasn't going to like it, I just knew I could tolerate it. And I did. Michelle cooked a green bean and I ate it no problem. I don't really want to eat them or anything, but perhaps with time I will. This was a big step for me. Sorry for making you waste your time and read about something as trivial as me eating a green bean. To me this is big news though.

Mormon Movies

I read an article on Mormontimes.com - which I beleive is some type of subsidiary of Deseret News because they always have their articles linked on their website - called "Dynamite, Dutcher, Hitchcock and the failure of LDS movies." It talked mostly about the God's Army films and the creator of the two films. Michelle doesn't think too highly of God's Army 2, I however have not seen the film from beginning to end. What I have seen of it was a little hard to watch because of how inaccurately it portrayed missionary life (or at least my experience as a missionary). I did not know this until I read the article but the producer of God's Army apparantly left the Church a couple years ago so his ideologies and philosophies while creating the films may not have been completely on flattering or accurate regarding the Church. Either way I don't care about that, I am writing this blog to say that the article completely neglected what are in my opinion the best two LDS films: Saints and Soldiers and New York Doll. Saints and Soldiers is amazing, not just for an LDS film, but on standards for any movie.



This movie is about a small group of allied soldiers who are behind enemny lines in Germany during WWII. It is based on a true story and one of the actors in the movie is the grand son of the man he portrays. Saints and Soldiers is actually one of the most viewed movies on Hulu.com which I think is saying something. Ironically though, all the people who have commented about the movie on Hulu evidently have no idea what the message of the movie was and they also have no idea that the movie was produced by and all of its actors are LDS. We have the DVD and in some of the extras on the DVD it talks all about the people who produced it and there is no doubt that it is an 'LDS movie,' whatever that means. Above all else, the movie's got Kirby Heybourne in it so...yeah, it is an LDS movie. What actually kind of frustrated me to read in the comments on Hulu was that many people thought the movie was criticizing Mormons because the "Mormon is a sniper who kills people and the Atheist is a medic who saves lives." While that is true about the two people in the movie, it is in now way an attack on Mormons. The movie praises the Mormon for his morals and standards even in war times. His supervisor says how remarkable of a soldier he is and knows he can always counts on him in sticky situations. Furtermore (I will not give away too much about what happens) the atheist actually converts to beleiving in God by the example and the actions of his Mormon counterpart. It is completely beyond me how anyone could think this movie was anti-Mormon. New York Doll is a documentary about Arthur Kane, the bassist of the popular 70's punk band 'The New York Dolls." It is no action packed thriller but it is very captivating and enthralling. Arthur Kane lived a rock star lifestyle and is probably the least likely person you would expect to convert to the LDS church. He saw a TV commercial for a free bible and requeste one and it came delivery of two sister missionaries. He joins the Church and at the time of the documentary works at the LA temple. Other people who volunteer at the temple didn't even know he was a rockstar until the filmers interviewed them. It is really cool to see Arthur reunite with his band members and tell them he has found God and he is able to mend some past relationships that ended poorly. I will not give away how this film ends but it is a touching movie. These are, in my opinion, the best two Mormon movies. When you compare them to movies like Singles Ward 2, there is no comparison. I actually liked Singles Ward 1 when I first saw it before my mission but I tried to watch it again since then once and I couldn't even finish it because I thought it was so silly. A lot of people commented in Deseret News about the article on M0rmon Movies that most LDS films basically just try and exploit a niche with movies that nobody that isn't mormon would understand and provides only cheap laughs. I mostly agree with that. Nevertheless, Saints and Soldiers and New York Doll are two great movies. They are very different from each other, both are very good though.

Our Amazing Trip to Boston

Michelle and I just got home from an amazing trip to Boston. We did so many amazing things. Michelle used up some of her time off and I finished finals earlier in the week so it was a perfect time for us to take a vacation. We arrived in Boston at a friend's house on Wednesday night. We are so thankful to our friends that let us stay at their house. On Thursday we met up with Ken and Jenny Matthews who had arrived in Boston earlier in the week and we all walked the entire Freedom Trail. It is a 2.5 mile long 'outdoor museum' consisting of 16 historical sites. The Freedom Trail was fantastic! My favorite part was going on the USS Constitution and going in the chapel where the two lanterns were lit to let Paul Revere know what message he needed to deliver to the colonies in Lexington and Concord (I learned a lot on this trip). After the Freedom Trail we took a short but very much needed nap at the Matthews' hotel room. Then at night Ken and I went to Fenway Park and went to a Red Sox game. We watche them beat the Indians pretty bad. We got lucky and bought tickets last week before it sold out. It worked out well that our wives could hang out while we went to the game because only Ken and I really cared about going to a Red Sox game. Fenay Park was incredible. We got to go down to field level and check things out before the game. The green monster (the left field wall) is so much bigger than it looks like on TV by the way. The Red Sox had a 12 run inning and won the game, so we picked a good game to go to! On Friday, Michelle and I went to the New England Aquarium and the Science Musuem. We were lucky enough to get free tickets to both of these places. We saw lots of penguins and sharks and an electric eel at the impressive aquarium. I even got to eat a bowl of the famous New Enland Clam Chowder from the nearby Legal Sea Foods. The Science Museum was so huge I don't even know where to start! We also went on an official tour of Harvard University. I was very surprised by how small the univeristy and campuse are! It is tiny, there are only 6,000 undergradute students! We got to see the memorial building that looks like something out of Harry Potter (not because it is based off of something from Harry Potter, but because Harvard and Hogwarts are both based off of Oxford University in England). We also went to the Boston Temple. It is a lot bigger and more beautiful than the pictures I looked up show. At night on Friday Michelle and I followed our adventurous side and decided to drive to Rhode Island just for the sake of going to Rhode Island. We had no idea where we were going to go but we wanted to be able to say we had been there. We happened to drive to the state capitol building and walked around the state's legislative building (it looks like a smaller version of the US capitol). On Saturday we went to the JFK presidential library and museum. This was my favorite part of the trip. I am embarrased to say I knew virtually nothing about President Kennedy before this. I also didn't know how cool a presidential library and museum are. We watched some very touching movies about JFK and looked at an amazing museum full of exhibits and artificacts from his life. One of the coolest things though was talking to people who were alive during his career (remember, we are in Massachusetts where he was from) and knew so much about him and loved him so much. I didn't know he was a WWII war hero or that he was a unmarried senator at one point when entering the Senate. We both just learned so much! I can't really put in to words the respect I gained for this president whose career was sadly ended too early. After the JFK museum we went to Quincy, MA where we went on a trolley tour throughout the city which took us to John Adams and John Quincy Adams' birthplaces, houses, mansion, and presidential library. This was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. Their houses and everything are still preserved and are quite remarkable things to see. My favorite was the library of the origianl and authentic 14,000 books that John Adams owned. Keep in mind these books are over 200 years old! On Saturday we also drove to Plymouth, MA. We saw Plymouth Rock where the Pilgrims landed and saw the Mayflower II (a replica of the Mayflower). That's basically all there is to do in Plymouth. On Sunday we visited all the Revolutionary War stuff. We went to Lexington first where the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired. We went to the actual field where this took place. Later we went to Concord and the North Bridge where the local militias actually organized a strong fight against the British Red Coats and turned them around in their march to squash an uprising. I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would. The Naitonal Parks Services does a great job of teaching you all about this stuff as you go. Let me just say that I learned so much from these places about the Revolutionary War. I can barely even imagine how brave the militia members were that stood up to the British soldiers. They were committing acts of treason and would have been hanged for what they were doing but they knew that America deserved better and would become a free country. It was cool being at the actual bridge where the colonial militias made a stand and pushed the Red Coats back. I have a much deeper appreciation for these things than I did before. Unfortunately, the vacation had to eventually end and we drove home Sunday evening. We took lots of pictures though, I will try to look through them and put some up in the next couple of days.

Don't Save Prison Break

I am waiting for my Sponge Bob Square Pants shaped Macaroni and Cheese to cool down and it is taking forever so I decided to write a quick blog entry while I am waiting. Many of you may have heard of a show called 'Prison Break.' It is on Fox and is in its fourth season. Michelle and I have seen every episode and watch it still every week. However, we found out recently that this will be its last season, in fact, there only 2 more episodes left. I saw on someone's blog recently a post asking people to help them try and save the show 'Chuck,' which presumably has also been canceled. Conversely to that blog, I am writing this blog to tell people NOT to do anything to try and save Prison Break. The first two seasons were amazing. I could not stop watching (we watched both of them on DVD). The third and current season were absolute garbage though. I cannot stop watching because I have already invested so much into the show and also I know it is almost over so I just keep going. If it weren't for that though I would abandon the show. The first season was the probably the coolest season of TV I have ever seen. It is about a guy named Michael who is an architect and engineer genius that purposely gets arrested and goes into prison in order to break out of prison with his brother (Lincoln) who is on death row (but was framed by the government in a huge government conspiracy). Michael has lots of cool tricks up his sleeve for how they will get out prison, one of them is that he has tattooed the blue prints for the prison in a disguised manner all over his body. Another is that he has done massive amounts of research on everybody in the prison and will be able to manipulate everyone from the warden to the nurse to his cellmate to the gang leaders. The second season is all about them having escaped and being on the run. This season is cool because you watch some of the people in the govt. conspiracy fall and get arrested and stuff. Up until and including this season I would say it is my favorite show of all time. Unfortunately, the writer's strike took place during the third season, and that combined with the plot already running low on ideas made the third season a complete joke. The third season involves the Michael and several other characters getting arrested in Panama and going back to prison, this time in Panama. It is supposed to be this awful dangerous prison, but this season is just lame. Now, in the final and fourth season, they are back in the U.S. and the plot is this weird convoluted thing of everyone fighting against the govt. conspiracy. Everybody ends up being corrupt and now they are going to try and take down the conspiracy in one last hurrah. It would be weird if the show ended without Michael and Lincoln being exhonerated and the govt. conspiracy being taken down so I am assuming that is what is going to happen some way or another. My prediction is that Lincoln is going to end up walking a free man and Michael will have to go to jail for like a year or something for all the things he has done along the way in freeing his brother. I have no clue what is going to happen to everyone else, their stories are all so weird there is no way of predicting. Alright I'm going to eat my shapes mac and cheese now.

Swimming lessons at 22

So I've never been a great swimmer. I had swimming lessons once (or maybe a couple times - I can't remember) when I was little. I know all of the strokes (at least the basic idea), and I can swim relatively fast, but there has always just been one problem - I hate having my face under the water. I've never liked swimming underwater - even with goggles on. Water always got in my eyes and messed with my contacts and I was never very good at keeping water out of my nose. I'm one of those people who always has to plug their nose when they jump in the pool or go underwater. Also, I think having my face in the water just makes me feel claustrophobic. So as a result, whenever I swim I keep my head above the water (unless I'm jumping in with my nose plugged). I do the freestyle while holding my face out of the water the whole time. It actually takes a lot more energy and makes it a lot harder, but it has always worked fine for me. During a semester at BYU I even regularly swam a mile in the lap pool this way. The other day though, Chad and I went to swim laps at our gym. We bought goggles and I decided I was going to try to do the freestyle the right way so that I could swim further without using so much energy. I hated it as soon as I started. I didn't like my face under water and I constantly felt like I was gasping for air even if I turned my head to breathe every two strokes or so. Plus, I kept getting water in my nose and it burned. I was going to just go back to my way, but then I decided to let Chad teach me because I could tell it took a whole lot less energy to swim the freestlye the right way instead of constantly holding my head and face out of the water. So Chad started teaching me how to not get water in my nose when I went under and how to breathe the right way. I am definitely getting better and it is getting easier. There was a little girl in the lane next to us who asked if I was getting swimming lessons - kind of embarrassing - I'm 22! lol. Anyway, I'm ready to finally get over my fear of my face in the water and learn the right way, so more "lessons" from Chad to come...

I'm all Palmyra'd Out

Michelle and I went to Palmyra, NY today and ended up staying there for eight hours! Our friends here in Syracuse will probably not find this too interesting since everyone has been to Palmyra numerous times probably and visited all the sites, but hopefully our friends out West can enjoy this post. For those who are not familiar with Palmyra, it is the city where the Book of Mormon was found in a hill and then published, it is where Joseph Smith lived, and it is very close to where the Church was organized and legally established. Michelle and I went to the temple (that is also in Palmyra) and decided we would visit all of the Church's historical sites while we were there. There are about 6 places to go, and all of them are within a few miles of each other with one exception. Despite having lived here for almost a year we hadn't visited all of the historical places and we didn't want to move back West in a couple months and then realize we had missed our chance to visit the amazing places that we read about all the time (and especially while we were so close). So we started our day early and decided we would go to every place on the list. After our first stop to the Book of Mormon's publication site Michelle and I both realized we had terribly misjudged how long our day was going to be. I thought you just went to a little old printing press where they published the book and would be in and out real quick. I was wrong. We went on an hour and fifteen minute tour. It was nice, I just had no idea how long it was going to take. Then we visited Alvin Smith's grave and the Martin Harris farm. Next we went to the Sacred Grove, walked around, and also got a tour of the Smith Family farm. Next we went to Hill Cumorah and at this point we decided to run up the hill to save time. It's a deceivingly steep hill...so we only actually ran for about five seconds. After getting to the top and taking a few pictures we did run down the hill though. Finally, we went to the Church's organization site, the Whitmer farm. Somehow we spent eight hours in Palmyra, the city is tiny. We are both so tired and feel like we don't need to go do any more sight seeing in Palmyra for quite a long time.