Pre-Wedding Shenanigans in Boston

WELCOME TO BOSTON! Hahaha! Mike snapped this shot as we were walking down the street. Later, we were talking to Mum and she was going to snap a shot too, so you can think she's just as crass as we are. (Although she probably wouldn't have put it on her blog. But I figure, if no one sees it, what was the point?) Anyway, so yes, this is the opening shot of our trip to Boston.

















Mike and I carousing around Harvard. Ahem! I mean, Ha-vud, dahling! Mike is standing in one of the courtyards which was thoroughly littered with our studious colleagues.









I am standing on the steps of the Widener Library. We really wanted to go in and look around, but you need a student ID to open the door. Lame.

















Here I am, passing in front of a house covered in ivy. Mike really wanted a shot of this... can you blame him? You could count the number of ivy-covered buildings in the west without using any phalanges or limbs whatsoever.




















This is a great, big Baptist church. I have never seen a Baptist church that looks like this! They're usually a little smaller and more ... I'm not sure if it's more modest or just modern. I don't know,

but I was surprised to see this was a Baptist church. It was beautiful! (I'm sorry, I don't know why it's underlining. It just started doing it automatically, and I can't figure out how to get rid of it! There's not even an underlining option to begin with!)

The first picture here is of the monument to George Washington. It's right in the middle of the Public Gardens. This other is not of any girls we know, but it's my favorite swan one. The girls are just so cute! I love how the on in back is just hugging that teddy to beat the band, and holds her skirt so daintily! We have another one of a swan with his neck arched so classically, but I like this one just a little bit better. This is also in the Public Gardens.





Here us kids are (well, most of us, anyway) sitting on the steps of The Church of the Covenant in downtown. You've got to hand it to the east, we've got some pretty amazing churches. Dang, we've got some pretty amazing buildings! Mike has shot after shot of just different buildings in Boston on his camera, and now on my computer. But there's just something about churches. I love to go inside them. I tour them almost any chance I get. Without a doubt, there is a Spirit inside them all, that recognizes the devotion, no matter how far off the truth it may be.

I don't know what Ezra's doing in that first one. He's certainly one of the Conner brothers though, that's for sure.















These last two pictures are of us all taking a break in a deli a few blocks down from the Gardens. After walking all over town, we were all hungry, and more than a little thirsty. If you look at Eden's face in the second picture, you can see she is completely wrapped up in her drink. She was so thirsty, she didn't order anything to eat until after a completely finished drink. And it took another to convince her to let me buy her gelato! Kait and Ez didn't wait a heartbeat to take me up on the offer - despite the fact that I had only bestowed it upon Eden at that point.

A New Look

So, looking at other peoples' blogs, Mike and I noticed time and again that there were many just within the realms of our families and friends who shared the same great taste in backgrounds as we did. So, after checking out the link on Tiff's blog to thecutestblogontheblock.com we decided to try making our own background. We downloaded a photoshop-esque demo program and set to work. I like the program well enough, but it's just difficult coming up with all the right elements to create a very unique background in the amount of time I wanted it done (i.e. the slim amount of patience God granted my spirit wore unbearably thin and I opted out of continuing; maybe there'll be a next time).

So, I went back to the site and just downloaded a really cute background and adjusted my color scheme to how I wanted it. It's a really cute site, and is a whole lot easier than creating your own from scratch. But if you do want to go that route it gives instructions on how to go about it.

We've been meaning to upload pictures from Boston on here, and Utah, and Arizona while we were still here in San Diego, but the connection here at the hotel is SO SLOW! So, we're just going to have to wait until we get back up to Idaho, which, since we leave tomorrow morning for Utah, and then Friday morning for home, should be about Friday afternoon. We'll see you then! (Or, I guess more accurately, you'll see us.)

Pre-Wedding Shenanigans at Varnum's Camp

So here we are in San Diego, on our official honeymoon... even though we've been married for a little over four weeks now. We've been lucky enough to kind of honeymoon for practically free from Maine to Arizona, so we figured that in order to keep with the tradition of all newlyweds we needed some place to blow a little cash that we don't have.

It is here in California that we've decided to catch you all up on the events thus far, starting with pictures from Maine. This first one is a sweet snap shot of Varnum's Camp that Mike took.

Here are some of us gathered around the campfire eating s'mores. (And trying to stay away from the smoke.











Theoretically, this is a picture of me and Mike. But try telling two very photo-enthusiastic boys that they already had their picture with us, and now it's our turn. It doesn't really work. We finally just allowed them to jump in with us, then sent them off, and before they realized what was happening, Kait raised the camera again and snapped another shot of just us. It's a good one, but it came out a little diagonal. (We're planning on sending this one out as our "family picture" for Christmas.)



Ezra, Loren, and Eden looking at... fish? Maybe?














This one cracks me up every time! Lottie loved that s'more, but just couldn't handle the whole thing in one big bite like she thought she could.

Okay, every time we post pictures, more than one anyway, the rough draft looks fine and then the published post is pushed all over the place. Can anyone give us a hand here. I haven't had this much trouble with my old blog, so I don't know what to do here.

Photo Tag

Here's my photo tag! (Read the rules on Mum's page.)

My Age

My Favorite Color

My Favorite Vacation Spot

Where I Live

The Places I Grew Up

Where I Want to Visit

My First Name

My Middle Name

My Last Name

A Past Love

My Favorite Animal (The horse. And if you want to see a magnificent specimen, watch LadyHawk. This animal is just so impressive-looking.)

My Favorite Food

My Favorite Treat

My First Job (Ignore the name on the bottom.)

My College Degree

(I couldn't decide if this would fall under "Bad Habit" or "My College Degree" best, so I stuck it here in the middle.)

A Bad Habit

What I'm Doing Right Now... watching... wishing...

Maine Reception

Hey everyone! Here we are in Utah, updating the blog with a little taste of the reception in Maine, which is the first set of pictures we've received thus far. We truly plan on keeping a thorough update of wedding/Boston/receptions/honeymoon pictures, but we can't promise too much just 'cause we'll be traveling so much. (Tomorrow we head down to Arizona for two weeks to work, then over to San Diego for a week, then back up to Idaho to start school.) So, enough of me, let's get on with the show!

Mike pushing in my chair as we sit down to eat, and me eating a strawberry. Galen made me do it again and again 'cause he (apparently) liked the shot. So did Mike. When we saw them he said to me, "I like that. We need copies of all of those." I joked that we could blow them all up and decorate our rooms with them. (Creeeepy!)

Sam, Levi, and Todd G.

Selena and Eden

Here's a nice close up of the bouquet and my ring. My bouquet was made of large pink and ivory roses, small pink and ivory spray roses, and pink snap dragons. Everyone loved it!

Eating cake - our top was made of lemon lavender. It was sooo good! I actually had forgotten that was the flavor we chose until I took a bite, and then my mouth just started watering. The other picture (below) is of Loren Maxwell right afterward. He took one good look at that cake and then immediately reached out a frosting-swiping finger. I grabbed him just in time and told him that all he had to do was take a seat and the cake would come to him! He ran to the closest table.

Me and Mike cracking up at a part of the slide show. I assure you, it was one of my baby pictures. There was an audible difference when people saw a picture of Mike as a baby (Awwww!) and when they saw a picture of me as a baby (Ugh! What is that!).

Me dancing with Dad. Or, more accurately, me smiling sweetly while Dad looks like a hillbillie.

Mike and Karen after the mother/son dance.

(1) Above. Mike and I get some swing dancing in.(2) The party gets started! The two boys on the floor, Sean and Nathan, saw Same do some break dancing and they wouldn't stand upright form then on. (3) Below. Our first dance as a married couple. Actually, other than dancing in my livingroom in my apartment, this was our first slow dance ever! We had been to a couple of dances up at school, but they never played a slow song! Can you believe it?!

Thanks Janice and Galen for the great gift of photos! We really appreciate it, and they all came out so well!