Twenty-eight is Great!

Eben had his 28th birthday on June 7th and we did as he has done for many and most years. We went to pitch-and-putt golf in Greenfield followed by wiffleball in his parents' backyard.

The pitch-and-putt is a par 3 course which Eben takes VERY seriously. I was only allowed to observe his game from afar since Andy, Adam, and Brandi were deemed serious enough to play with him.

Candy and I opted to play with Henry and Kevin who were much more in tune with our seriousness level with Henry disrobing to distract other groups and Kevin riding the random coyote(?) in the middle of the course.

There were two other groups of golfers in our party as well consisting of Peter, Emily, Genevieve, Erik, Elisha, Eric, Heather, Adam, and Kevin (a few repeat names to make things nice and confusing!).

The wiffleball game this year was a friendly yet highly competitive one! I had two full-speed collisions, one at first base with Adam and the other at second with Henry.

With an unexpected catch from Larry (who was 'just watching' with the rest of the parents) in the outfield in the second to last inning and the just miss of a catch which Henry had hit over the garage, the other team beat Eben's (and my) team 19 to 18.

Dinner was fantastic! Lots of different contributions and lots of great company with which to enjoy it. Here's the whole gang post-dinner but pre-birthday cake and birthday pie. Yet another super fun day in western Mass!

Location Location Location!

At the end of May, Michael, Debbie, and Lindsay threw the most fantastic engagement party for Eben and me! People keep bringing it up and raving about how wonderful and fun it was. We are very lucky to have so many amazing friends who care so much to come together and celebrate with us!

It stinks we weren't able to get Eben in this shot, but here I am with three quarters of my bridal party. Since Elias was due the day before, Vanessa wasn't able to make it.

For those not in the know, Michael moved out of the basement in March and has been living it up in his gorgeous penthouse apartment in Boston's South End. Not only does he have balcony porch at this new place, but he and Aaron (his new roommate) also have access to the building's private, exclusive roof-deck. The weather was incredibly cooperative so we were able to enjoy both.

There were LOTS of very yummy foods and pretty flowers

Everyone took advantage of the pretty interior, balcony, and the roof so no matter where you went, there were lots lovely people. Sarah (in sunglasses) will be the one marry Eben and me come next September. Her sister Laura (who went to Belize with me in college) and Kim (a friend from Catherine Hinds) are with us on the balcony. Look at that view!!!

Adam, Sarah, and Emily took in the view and the sun while munching on fresh fruit from the watermelon bowl on the roof. Did I mention it was a perfect, gorgeous day?

Some people traveled quite a distance to come, like Paul who came from New York City.

Andre came all the way from London for the party!!! ok maybe he just happened to be in town that weekend, but we were still surprised and excited when he showed up!


Are they models? Might as well be! Michael, Henry, Osten, Eben, Kevin, and Erik all looking springy and fabulous!

These two lovely ladies, Kim and Fiona, will be the greeters at the wedding so you'll see their smiling faces again soon!

Mario and Chrystina came, and though she was missed, it was the first time they have both been out together without Pearl. We were so happy they made the trip from Ware and Pearl had lots of fun with that day with the neighbors. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this yet, but Mario is going to be Eben's best man!

Kevin took my ring and insisted that we do a 're-engagement.' Eben recounted the January evening for the crowd and I got my ring back once I re-agreed to marry him. This was was quite the crowd pleaser, although there were a few shouts for me to leave him hanging a bit longer than I did.

It was an amazing day! We even got some lovely gifts, which was unexpected! The re-engagement part made me really anxious though, which successfully made me even more worried about my nerves on the big day!

Woodstock in Spring

Memorial Day weekend we returned to Woodstock to check out the Farmhouse Inn, this time sans snow. Despite feeling certain that it's the spot for our wedding, we wanted to check out the scene in its full spring glory. Debbie and Lindsay joined us this time. Since they, as two of my bridesmaids, will be an integral part of the moral support, ceremony, and celebration after, we thought it best to get their opinions about our site selection and to have a nice weekend away. For those wondering, Vanessa will be my married-maid-of-honor (I can't stand the word matron, thumbs down) and Michael will be my bridesman, so I will have four attendings.

On our drive in we stopped in Queechee and hiked down into the gorge. The bridge you see behind us is the road most people will drive to get to the wedding.

I'll share a few more shots of the farm this time. This is the 'new' barn, which has never housed animals. It's a great spot to take in the scenery, watch the chickens, and chat either in the Adirondack chairs or perched in the attic doorway.

The girls stayed in the inn, but Eben and I wanted to try out our new tent that my parents got us for Christmas. The hens were very curious about this strange structure in the middle of their feeding ground.

Another look at the big barn without all the snow covering it. This barn used to function as a working dairy barn. You can see Eben and Lindsay in the shot for perspective. The four of us were on our way up the mountain behind the farm.

Once at the top, we could see the whole valley. There's also a gazebo at the top, which feels slightly out of place, but it's nice to find and confirm you made it all the way up. Can you see me walking on treetops?

We also hiked Mt. Tom which overlooks the village of Woodstock. Although the farm is not in the downtown area, it is definitely worth visiting and taking a walk around the quaint quintessentially New England village.

We even saw some critters while out in the woods! This red eft was on the trail along the Queechee Gorge. It won't be bright orange for long since it's a juvenile it will soon be brown and will blend into its surroundings.

Yet another young 'un, this garter snake was just chillin' in the sun and seemed to be just as curious about me as I was about him/her.

This damselfly landed on Debbie's back with its lunch. It just wanted to chow down on the fly it had caught, but Debbie didn't feel like posing as the picnic table. We shook them off and the damselfly flew away with its snack in hand, or rather mouth.

The farm got the seal of approval from both Debbie and Lindsay. They are very excited to see how things unfold!

A Patio for Candy

This past Mother's Day Emily, Eben, and I converged in Orange ready to do some digging. Candy requested our help in building a patio in the backyard.

The ladies measured, marked out the shape, and began digging while the gentlemen made a last minute run to the store for more supplies. Candy and Peter had purchased all the needed supplies for ten square feet of patio, not realizing until we were there and ready to dig that what we really needed was ten feet squared. Oops! All was resolved when they returned with about three times as many bags of layering stone.

We had to dig about three inches down, which is very difficult to do uniformly especially when lots of roots are involved.

The men were very helpful once they returned! Three inches of soil across 100 square feet is VERY heavy!

The first layer is plastic so that weeds can't grow up through the stones.

Next is a layer of large gravel, which is followed by a layer of finer gravel. Spreading wet rock on delicate plastic is quite a challenge. We put the roof rake to work and were successful.

The top and last layer is made up of large patio stones. This part was the most fun since it was like a giant puzzle and I love puzzles!!!

Done! Time for a rest. Simon joined us for most of the work so he made sure he was in the final group photo.

TaDa!!!

I'm an Aunt!!!!

This morning at 1:59 I became the aunt of a 'perfect, beautiful boy', and my sister is 'a lion' as Juan put it. Those are my only details. Big smiles all around!!!!

What's Shakin'

I've been busy! Too busy in fact to blog as you may have already noticed. Here's a rundown on what I've been up to:

Valentine's Day weekend our parents came to Somerville to celebrate our engagement with us. I made a breakfast feast which was both fun and yummy! We started with coffee, tea, and some really moist bran muffins.

Followed by homefries and a zucchini and cheddar frittata.
After breakfast we did some lounging and then took a nice walk to Arlington center along the bike path. Peter and Candy got lots of quality Cooper time in as well.
Candy was very pleased with Cooper's cat-like qualities of plopping into her lap the moment she sat on the floor.
After the homemade chicken chili and corn bread we dove into the four layer red velvet cake with a cream cheese based frosting that my mother made from scratch for the event. IT WAS SO YUMMY!!!

My conference for the ORS was in Las Vegas this year. I've never really cared much about seeing Vegas, but doing so on someone else's dime is definitely the way to do it if you're going to! I ate at several celebrity chef restaurants, stayed in a nice hotel, and saw two shows. I made sure to go to a Cirque du Soleil show, which was amazing!!! Mystere is the oldest Cirque show on the strip so it was the most reasonably priced. I really wanted to see O (the water based show), but I couldn't get my coworkers to commit to the cost. Mystere was amazing and everyone really enjoyed the show!

I was only in Vegas for a little over 4 days and that was enough! The place is so bizarre and yucky. Four of us had to get the heck out one day, so we rented a car and drove to see the Hoover Dam.

The dam was big and impressive, but I was more impressed by the surrounding red rock and crisp blue water (I do realize the water wouldn't be there without the dam by the way).

Just after getting back from Las Vegas, we drove out to Orange for Adam's wedding. Adam is a childhood friend of Eben and he asked Eben to be a groomsman. The wedding was a fun time. Adam and Brandi are well on their way in their lives together they've got a baby on the way and have bought a house.

To celebrate Eben's completion of his degree his family got tickets to the Phantom of the Opera in New York City. We all met before the show and enjoyed a beautiful day in the city. Rob and Becca are living on upper west side as Becca attends Columbia Nursing School. We stayed with them and their dogs Evey (in Rob's arms) and Griffin (white puff at the base of the picture). They're place is little, but really cute and they have this roof deck to escape to.

One Saturday in March, we drove to western Mass and met up with Mario, Chrystina, and Pearl to enjoy some fresh maple syrup. Here they are boiling/evaporating the sap to make the delicious sticky goodness.

Not only did we get to have a delicious pancake feast with oodles of syrup, but we got visit with some sheep
and goats.
Following our maple experience, we decided to give the new Pearl backpack a spin on a hike in the woods behind Mario and Chrystina's house.

I spent two days and a night in Halifax, Nova Scotia for work in March. It was really fun! The people were super nice and the food was amazing. My coworker Bryan and I got a bit of time outside the radiology department to explore downtown as well. I'd love to go back there when it's a tad bit warmer and not the day after a freak snowstorm though. This is a view of the Citadel from a square downtown.

This year the River Rat Race and Easter fell on the same weekend. My parents made the journey to join us in Orange for the race. Peter invited Papa to do the race with him, but he opted to be a spectator before climbing into the race. Cooper came too of course and was a very big hit with the crowd!

Eben did the race with Adam again this year and unlike last year, they stayed dry this time! Can you find them in the crowd? He's wearing a black hat, the boat is blue, has his name on it...

Candy and Peter hosted Easter this year since Ginny and Bob have moved into a smaller more manageable place. We did not forgo the egg hunt though. Emily was the winner this year with 20 eggs while I was the runner up with 17. Anders was home with his girlfriend Haley and Genevieve joined us too.

Eben and I have been playing on a dodge ball team all winter. We've played two 'seasons' actually. The first round we ended about 10th of 24 teams, so we felt that was a good showing for first timers. During our second season, we finished 6th or 36 teams! It was such a blast! It must be said that we were the most well coordinated team in the league. The shirts are issued and many of the teams never wear them. Not only did we always wear our shirts, but we also accessorize with the gold and green socks and green sweatbands. There were lots of teams that took the games VERY seriously, but as you can see, we were in it for the fun!

Most recently I participated in a made-up superhero pub crawl. There's nothing like walking around the city wearing a cape!

There's one other major thing I've been up to, but it's not yet ready to be revealed. I'll have to leave you guessing on that one.

Where and When

Eben and I decided that we're going to get married on September 5th 2010. It's the Sunday of Labor Day weekend so that no one has to take any days off (unless you work weekends). The spot we chose has never hosted a wedding, so unless there's one between now and then, we will be the first. It's a place called Robinson Farm Inn in Woodstock, Vermont. We really got our hearts set on a farm/barn wedding and had lots of trouble finding the right place for us (and in our budget). Apparently barn weddings are quite posh these days; who knew?

We had a weekend away at the end of January to do some snowshoeing and relaxing. Eben picked the location based on the proximity to the highway and trail offerings. When we drove up and my jaw dropped. There in front of us was a huge five story red barn.

We've been working out ideas and details since we talked to Tori (the owner) about having our special day at Robinson Farm, but you'll just have to wait to see what we do!