Phoenix with the Fam!

Before heading home to Salt Lake I made a pit-stop in Phoenix to visit the fam. Getting to the beautiful desert posed a challenge, but after 3 terribly long and delayed flights I finally made it. My first day here was amazing! Leia, my niece, has grown up so much: she’s walking, saying some words, reading books and playing! Her hair is getting long and she loves spending time with her Auntie Elise and Aunt Stephi. We spent the weekend lounging at the pool, bbq-ing, eating the amazing Grimaldi’s, visiting the Phoenix zoo, and playing with Leia and Chewie (the dog). My mom and Stephi flew from Salt Lake to spend Memorial Day in Phoenix, so the whole family was here. It was the perfect way to start my summer vacation (just wish James had been here, too!).

Thanks Cory and Annie :)

Summer 2009

A year in pictures

We're BaAack

Hey everyone! It has definitely been a minute since James or I have posted anything on our blog. I think it's time for an update. This summer James and I will be headed back to the 8-0-1. That's right, the great Salt Lake City. James will be interning at a law firm, and I will be working part time at the YMCA. James wrapped up his 2nd year of law school and I have finished my first year of grad school. We are both really looking forward to spending less time with the books and more time with family and friends.

We have had a great year in New Jersey. We both have made wonderful, lifelong friends out here. We have spent A LOT of time in NYC. When we aren't prepping for finals we've managed to go into the city at least once a week. We've been to the museums, amazing restaurants and great bars. It is amazing to live so close to such a fun city. We have had friends and family venture to Jersey to spend time with us. Last year James' friend Collin and his wife Lecia visited during the spring. We did a lot of shopping, ate great food, and saw the art exhibits at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We loved the sculpture on the roof (see pic)! My friends Sarah, Cressida, Tara and Scott have all visited, and it has been so much fun! Sarah was here this spring. We got to see Wicked (we had incredible seats), eat amazing food, go to Hoboken, and enjoy the beautiful spring weather. Both of our mom's have visited and so did James' brother Dave and his wife Tracy. My dad and Margie came out for a weekend, too!

We have taken some amazing trips as well! Last year for our one year anniversary we spent one week in Hawaii (courtesy of the fabulous Rick Ball) and then two weeks in Utah. We have also visited Dave and Tracy in Charlottesville, Virginia and met them for a weekend in Washington D.C. Last fourth of July we also went DTS--aka "Down the Shore". Since we are officially 'college students' we will be enjoying inexpensive vacations this summer. We will be doing a lot of camping and playing in the desert (James will be riding moto, and I will be hiking with my friends).

Our 2nd Anniversary is this summer, July 25. It's amazing how fast these two years have gone. We don't have any plans yet (nothing like the Hawaiian vacay we took last year), but just getting to spend time with each other will be amazing! It's amazing how quickly the past two years have gone.

Stay tuned for more posts and pics about our adventures in SLC this summer, and as we continue our East Coast journey :)

xoxo, Flipe

More Photos!

Wedding Photos...Finally!

torts, mousse, and other just desserts

hey friends and family, james here. as you may or may not be aware, my birthday was yesterday. it was quite an exciting day, starting with a torts final exam (postponed from december 19th, due to inclement weather) and ending with possibly the worst movie elise and i have ever seen.

yes, one of my exams from december was re-scheduled for yesterday. apparently the up-and-ups at seton hall law have discretion to cancel classes or exams if they feel the roads will be unsafe for students trying to make it to school. such a decision was made in the wee small hours of the morning on december 19th. as such, the exam was pushed back to the first saturday in january after classes had resumed. this made for most of the first-year students (and a few second years as well) enjoying break with a test looming in the back of our minds for three weeks. but, now it's over, and it didn't really seem too bad. but i supose we'll see if our current complacency with the test's difficulty is misguided when grade come back.

after the test, elise and i picked her car up from the toyota dealership where it had been undergoing a 30,000 mile check-up. it seems the diagnosis was negative on all counts, and the 'yota continues to run like a champ. some lunch and a few episodes of the OC later, we met some friends celebrating the now-official end of finals for libations at mmmBello's, which has established itself as the seton hall 1L watering hole this year. john, the bartender, made me some sort of flaming shot with kahlua and bailey's, and i had to drink it with a straw. weird.

we also got to eat at oddfellow's rest in hoboken. to be brief, the chicken etouffee, shrimp po'boys, and chicken jambalaya were all delicious; no doubt we will be eating there again. we ate with a bunch of other students, and headed out for a couple of hours to the black bear, also in hoboken, where elise tried to get me to dance. my basic skills are limited to the toe-dance, and the coney b knee swirl, both of which only garnered laughter. but i suppose that's the point.

elise got me a stand mixer, which i put to use today to bake some onion rye. it's in the oven, and we are eagerly awaiting it to be done. this is the loaf that effectively brought about our entire relationship, so not only is it delicious, but it's nostaligic as well. i figure the more adjectives ascribable to anything i bake, the better. right?

the night wrapped up, after a very cold train ride home, with "cloverfield," a movie so terrible i feel bad for everyone else who has even heard its name. as elise put it this morning, there was no character development, none of the people in the movie would have gone with the guy as he tried to rescue his girlfriend, and it would have been a lot better if she was already dead. plus nothing ever got explained, the POV camera work was annoyingly uneffective, and nothing was resolved. oh well, that's why we netflix instead of purchase.

Only One WEEK!!

James is working hard in the library...12 hours or more a day. I'm going to work, and also looking into graduate school. I've been crocheting a lot to get ready for Christmas. And, in just one week, We will be in Salt Lake with our friends and our family to celebrate the holidays! James and I have almost been married for 5 months, and I finally get the saying, "the days go by slow, but the years go by fast." These past few months have been a whirl wind! Today James and I just became and Aunt and an Uncle. James' little sister Catherine just had a baby girl this morning, and we can't wait to get home to meet her! My mom has remodeled the basement, with the help of James' uncle Dave and my uncle Michael. And, James will be finished with his first semester of law school in five days. I'm watching "It's a Wonderful Life," and am grateful for everything in mine. We'll see you all in just one short week :)

Winter Time!

It wasn't the end of it

So, I thought the last time I'd see our broken TV was the day we replaced it. I was wrong. It is still sitting behind our couch. So, if anyone reading this is in Newark and sans a TV, let us know. We have a wonderful Panasonice with fabulous sound quality ;)