Poconos Weekend

We were invited to a surprise birthday weekend getaway with friends to a house in the Pocono mountains in Pennsylvania. It boasted eight bedrooms, an indoor hot tub, pool table and basketball hoop. It was the perfect party house and just 2.5 hours from the city made for a perfect weekend getaway. There were 18 adults and 11 kids total - Austin and I were the only ones without kids. We were flattered to be included with the group.

We went on walks, hot tubbed, looked at the changing leaves, went to a pumpkin patch/Christmas tree farm, cooked and ate lots of good food, played Psychiatrist and had a great time. It's a treat to have so many wonderful friends in the city - all of us about the same age, about the same stage in life and fun to be with.

Highlights:

*For Austin: playing and winning 18 holes of golf with his new clubs

*For me: Navigating us to the house without getting lost

*Sonic's coconut cream pie shake

*Eating funnel cake and fried Oreos at the pumpkin patch

*No bear problems

*Playing Horse in the rain

*A few intense and hilarious rounds of Pschiatrist

Lowlight:

-Austin being told he was too big to go on the pony ride at the Christmas tree farm

-Austin puking up his chili dinner after eating too much

-Me having a few good turns during a couple-to-couple pool game and then losing the game for us

 

 

Birthday Roadtrip

In the spirit of celebrating my birthday for a whole week, we rented a car and decided to take a day trip out of the city on Saturday. We drove up Palisades parkway to New York's Bear Mountain and explored a few trails up there and then spent the rest of the day heading wherever the wind blew us.

Highlights

*Finding tacos and horchata in Newburg (a sad little town in the Hudson River valley).

*Taking my first sip of Diet Coke in 13 days.

*Realized I was craving seltzer water with lime - what??

*Driving in a car and stopping for treats at the gas station.

*Getting into a verbal altercation with la jefe at Sam's Lookout after letting ourselves into the park - and losing.

*Subsequently finding a pretty lookout and deciding we wouldn't let her ruin our trip.

*Taking lots of pictures of my #malemodel husband.

*Realizing all our photos taken with the tripod are blurry.

*Austin wearing his 10 year old Eagle High School sweatshirt that I tease him about.

*Arriving 3 minutes after Poughkeepsie's pedestrian bridge closed, then ending up at a delicious local creamery after both Dairy Queen and Rita's were closed.

*Not caring that things were closed and photos were blurry because all we wanted was a day out of the city to enjoy spending time with each other.

 Check out this dream boat:

Am I in college again?

It's 2:03 am and I'm up...working. WTF? I just had a bowl of cereal to keep me awake and if we had carpet I'd probably be walking around collecting the hair stuck in it with my feet....this is behavior reminiscent of late-night paper finalizing and studying in college.

But no, I'm just trying to get a head start on my work day tomorrow. So glamorous. I'm also getting this done in a studio apartment with Austin sleeping right next to me. No luxury of a separate room just for our bed in it in this place.

Evidence of my late-night adventure.

Thankfully my screen is plenty bright and my keyboard lights up too:

Took my cereal to the bathroom so the crinkle of the bag wouldn't wake the 8-hour-is-not-enough-sleeper.  Thank you, NYC, once again for having a bizarre life.

Easter Sunday.

Austin and I had such a sunny, lovely Easter Sunday. After church, we trained up to 5th ave around Rockefeller Center to check out the Easter Day parade/bonnet festival with our friends the Rileys.

The bonnet tradition started because church goers would leave from St. Patrick's  and Saint Thomas' on Easter Sunday wearing their Sunday best and congregate on the street. It has (d)evolved into people walking around showing off their best or, most outrageous Easter garb.

After a stroll through Central Park we came home and made a huge dinner: turkey roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, au gratin vegetables and a pear and Gorgonzola spinach salad. We finished off with some white chocolate and raspberry Haagan Dazs ice cream.

I didn't really grow up with egg hunts or Easter bunny things. My family always made a really nice Sunday dinner and enjoyed a piece of chocolate from my parents. Though I did go to Kmart on Monday and stacked up on 50% off Easter candy!

Today.

"Live mightily today, the greatest day of all time is today."

Christmas and New Years.

Austin and I spent Christmas with Austin's family this year and then Philip and Elizabeth came up to the city for New Years Eve. Some of my personal favorite moments of Christmas were: rolling in Christmas eve with a trip to Beto's at midnight, dear hunting with Zoey (the family's cockerspaniel), going to Hannah's basketball games and watching movies. I'm a fan of these funny pictures from our family portrait on Christmas day. 


I always love being with Philip and Elizabeth. We drank cokes, ate cream cheese and pepper jelly, ate falafels and shopped in Soho and then fought the crowds of Times Square where we saw some fireworks. A highlight was walking out with Philip at 3:30 am on New Years Eve for some pizza and a walk around Times Square. We saw a puddle of human blood, three near fights and a girl's completely bare butt. Drunk people, sober people, old people and kids. I love this city. And my brother that would drag me out at such an absurd hour to party.


Does my hair not look really red in this picture?

Hilary and Taylor's Wedding.

My beautiful sister, Hilary got married this past weekend. I am so proud of her and very happy for her. She was a beautiful bride. We had a great party with lots of food, lots of family, many friends and a lot of love. Most importantly of all, it was a weekend of reflecting on what it means to be a family. We are super tight-knit family. I attribute so much of our closeness to efforts that my parents made when we were young and as we grew up. They taught us to treat each other well, be selfless and generous and communicate well with each other. We did family activities and trips together to create memories and strong family bonds. My parents were married in the Latter-Day Saint temple and we believe that through faith and righteousness, these family bonds will last through eternity. Challenges arise in families. But I am grateful for so many tools that help me overcome these challenges. Over the years, my family has changed. Philip married Elizabeth on 8/8/08. Austin and I got married on 4/23/10 and with that I inherited a whole new family. And now we have Taylor as well. I am grateful for these new additions and the value and they add to my life and to the Hurst family, as it is now a combination of Hurst-Jarman-Hyde families. I felt so much hope and joy as I was in the temple with my family. I am so grateful for the promises of the temple and for the knowledge that my family and the love we share will last after this lifetime.

Beautiful Couple.

 

Me, Hilary and Philip.

So many of Hilary's Notre Dame friends came out from California and New York. It made me seriously miss ND. We even did the "tower of strength" dance in the middle of the party. From left: Arianna, Becca, Bina, Hilary, Nadia, Tiffany, Alyse and Rita.

Brother and Elizabeth. Beautiful. Beautiful.

These pictures were taken by the ever-so-talented, incredible Joshua Brown. My family swears by this miracle workers. Seriously. Go check him out here!!!!