3 Years Down. Forever to Go.

Tomorrow, January 23rd, marks mine and Luke's 3rd anniversary. We will celebrate by having bacon and waffles with fruit and whipped cream for breakfast, going to see Sherlock Holmes, and enjoying dinner at Ruth's Chris Steak House. Mmmm.... beef....

It has been so fun to be married to Luke! These 3 years have just flown by and have been filled with some really fun adventures. Here are some things I just love about Luke:

- he makes me laugh everyday

- he listens to me and respects my opinions

- he lets me cry when I need to and talks me down from any moments of extreme hysteria

- he supports me in doing my art

- he helps me solve problems and helps me see things differently

- he works hard to support our family and so that we can have interesting opportunities

- he makes sure that we talk everyday, even if he's on a business trip half way around the world (we've spoken to each other everyday since we started dating - it's a streak we can't break now!)

- he is tall and handsome

- he's totally comfortable in any social situation

- he fits in great with my family

- he is a faithful Mormon man

Yep. And there are more, but I won't bore you.

Here are three pictures - one of us in each of our three fun years of marriage.

2007: happily wed

2008: in Las Vegas for the 4th of July

2009: after a trip on the overnight train from Moscow to St. Petersburg

Walking on Spy Pond

I went for a walk the other day and came upon Spy Pond - one of my favorite spots in Arlington. During the winter, it is usually frozen, even when other ponds in the area aren't frozen. I don't know what it is about the pond that helps it freeze so easily. I guess in the olden days they used to ship ice from Spy Pond out - I don't know where to.

Anyway, after seeing a few people ice fishing in the distance and looking at the very solid ice next to the little beach area, I decided I wanted to walk on it a little. My first few steps were very tentative, but then I realized that this ice was really solid, so I decided to walk to the island. I've always wanted to go to the island, but have never gone canoeing at Spy Pond. I figured this was my chance. So, I did. And I talked to some of the ice fishers and saw a woman walking her dog and saw a man skating around with a hockey stick - impressive because that ice was rough with frozen ripples. Anyway, I felt a grand sense of adventure and enjoyed walking among the really tall reeds that surround the island and enjoyed the crunch of the snow followed by the soft mush of leaves underneath that covered that island.

So, when life hands you a chance to try something new and different: think about trying it. But do it safely. Not all iced over ponds are safe enough to walk on.

Last Stop: London

The last city that we visited on our Summer Trip (wow, that was so long ago!) was London. London really got the shaft: we were already tired from so much travelling and sort of touristed-out, it was way too hot for comfort, and some of our time was eaten up by certain mistakes - mistakes that I made. Mistake #1: I left my journal on the train that we took from Paris to London - just left it in the seat pocket in front of me. I realized this, of course, after we walk from the train station a few blocks to our hotel. So, we drop off our luggage and pretty much run/speed walk as fast as we can (very grateful, mind you, that we can understand the language) through the train station to the lost and found. We get there and the man explains that they're checking the trains now - it'll be another 15 minutes or so before we'll know if any one found it. Fortunately, they found it! Mistake #2: I realized, while waiting for my journal, that we had walked to the wrong hotel. Same chain, just not the one that I had a reservation with. So, we had to make a choice: go with our original hotel that was closer to more touristy stuff but would require getting our bags and taking the tube or a taxi to the other location, or see if we could change our reservation and be able to walk to the the train station that would take us back to Paris (and that already had our bags.) We decided to do the later. After all this, I have to say that I felt like a prize idiot.

The things we did in London: went to the Churchill museum (which is awesome!), went to an organ concert at Westminster Abbey, walked to Buckingham Palace, saw the outside of the houses of parliament, went on the London Eye, went to the Tower of London, took those double decker tour buses, saw the outside of St. Paul, saw the movie "Last Chance Harvey" in a theatre (we just wanted the AC), and waited for a while with a big crowd in some square to see Johnny Depp. They were there for the premiere of some movie. Can't remmeber now. A lot of stuff for 2 days. Luke and I don't mess around when it comes to being tourists. However, our sanity, happiness, and relationship may have suffered a bit. We were a bit sick of each other by the end of the trip.

Here's Luke along the road leading to Buckingham.


In the London Eye. A man had rented out the capsule next to us for his girlfriend/wife/fiance? and some man to pour them wine and take their pictures. That was fun to see.



The houses of parliament and Big Ben from the London Eye.

St. Paul's cathedral.

Here's Luke beside one of the "Beefeaters" (aka: guides) at the Tower of London. It was a really hot day and I felt bad for those guys in their heavy outfits.

All in all, we had a wonderful trip and got to see some amazing things. I am so grateful that Luke and I enjoy travelling and discovering things together.

And then there was France!

For a bit of a shorter leg of our trip (only 3 days), we went to Paris. Our days were jam packed and, thanks to the Rick Steves Paris tour book, we were able to see everything we wanted without huge lines. For example, we learned that the trick to get to the top of the Eiffel Tower without waiting in line is to get there and be in line before it opens in the morning. It probably helped that we went up on an overcast day, too.

What we saw in Paris... the Eiffel Tower (we went to the top!), L'Arc de Triomphe, La Defense (this cool modern part of town), Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, Saint Chapelle (amazing stained glass), the Louvre (we zipped right through that thing. We were a bit museumed out and saw the main attractions and that was about it), the Musee d'Orsays, and Versailles, which isn't really in Paris. Paris is certainly a city with a lot of things to see and even though I had been there before with my Mom and my sisters, it felt like I was seeing everyhing again for the first time.

We also had some great food experiences. I think our favorite part was the patisserie around the corner of our hotel where we would get croissants every morning for breakfast. Delicious. Luke was sure to try all things Frenchy between the few restaurants that we went to: a croque monsieur, escargot, quail, foie gras, duck, etc.

Here I am at La Defense and it was really sunny and I had forgotten to put on sunscreen. I was really worried about getting a sun burn, so I used my umbrella as shade. People might have thought it a big strange, but I didn't care.

La Tour Eiffel!!! Oh la la!

At the Louvre. We saw everyone taking pictures with their hands in between the famous pyramids. Luke thought of something better.

Here we are in the palace at Versailles listening to the free Rick Steves audio tour that we got off his website. Tour guide shmour guide. We did just fine without one.

Before the water fountains turned on, Luke rated this large fountain at Versailles in second place compared to the grand fountain at Peterhoff. After the water turned on, he may have changed his mind, though he'd never admit it. Luke was really excited about all the fountains.

Still at Versailles. Per my mom's recommendation, we rented a little row boat and rowed around. Then we ate a picnic lunch that we had bought ingredients for the day before: cheese, ham, croissants, plums, and some form of chocolate. It was a perfect meal in a gorgeous spot with my favorite companion.

I really wanted to see Marie Antionette's little Domain and Luke was a very good sport. Even though we were both tired and our feet were sore, he was willing to walk the extra way (it's not a short distance) to see this cozy little haven. We took a trolley back to the main palace and, even though it was a bit hot and stuffy, it was better than walking. We were beat.

Paris was grand fun and we'll probably make it back some day, but not for a while. There are other places to travel to first.

Current goings on

I may or may not post more about our vacation. We still have pictures to share from Paris and London. It's feeling very long ago and posting the pictures is nice, but also seems very retro-active.

Here's what we've been up to recently:

-I am singing alto in a local choir called the Spectrum Singers. We had our first concert at the end of November and are having our Christmas concert tomorrow. I've really enjoyed singing with a choir again.

-Luke finished working on his last project for a math tutoring website called Guaranteach. He is currently working for a big company in Korea. He'll actually be going to Korea next week. I'm super jealous and thought about going along, but the flight out is about 20 hours. Not worth it!

-Our ward had the annual Christmas Wreathmaking party this past week. I was in charge of decorations. Thankfully, we collaborated with the other wards that meet in our building who have their party 2 days before our. We got to share a lot of the decorations and thus, the labor. The party was a big success and I must say that I think the decorations looked fabulous.

-I'm still keeping busy with collaging. I have 2 pieces that are up in a local art show, which is really exciting.

-Luke's the ward clerk and I'm in the Young Women presidency. Our callings keep us busy.

-Luke's applying to business school hoping to start next year.

-I'm reading Eclipse for the 3rd time. Just finished New Moon again.

Well, I think that's it for now.

The Rest of St. Petersburg

I was fiercely determined to have some hot chocolate in Russia so that I could compare it to the other European hot chocolates I knew. I was pretty yummy. Not as good or thick as the stuff my family got in Barcelona 10 years ago.

We climbed up to the top of St. Isaac's cathedral where we got a great view of the city. It was a bit of a hike to the top. Here's a funny picture of Luke looking with anxious hope for the end of the stair well.

We made it! And the view was an awesome 360 of the roof tops of St. Petersburg. Well worth the hike.

We got to go to the Hermitage, which was really cool and so full of art that it would take many days to see and appreciate it all. Here we are in front of a few Matisse's.

Me visiting the red room.



Luke: "What on earth is this painting supposed to be?"

While we were there, the city was having their annual festival of White Lights where all the bridges are lit with lights and all the buildings along the river. It was just beautiful, and, as you can see in the picture, still light on the horizon even thought it was 1 am. St. Petersburg is the largest most northern city in the world.

The draw bridges were lifted up one after the other. It was pretty spectacular. There were a ton of people there along the river side and in party boats on the river. One presumably drunk man jumped into the water and swam a bit. A little past us, it became obvious that he was struggling a bit and couldn't get out because of the large, steep concrete embankment. I was so fearful that he was going to drown without any help from the hundreds of people who could see him struggle. That would have been horrifying. I was trying to build up some courage in case I felt compelled to jump in after him, though I was 25 yards down the river. Fortunately, he was rescued by some authorities (and probably taken off to jail, too). I'm just glad he didn't drown. I would've puked.

Here's one of the draw bridges raised a bit (it still went up more!). We only stayed to see this one come up. It was late and we were tired, so we didn't walk to the next one.

Pens!

This is a random post, but I was tidying up our apartment today and I realized that we had a whole lot of pens lying around. Like I picked up 5 or 6 pens off the floor! And then a whole pile of them on our dresser that came from who knows where. It's like they're multiplying. I just went through our pens a few months ago to pick out the bad ones and store the excess good ones. And already I feel like we're getting back up to our original numbers. So, if you're missing some pens, I'm sorry. We may have stolen them.