A weekend at the Jersey Shore....of the PA variety

Question:

Jersey Shore refers to:

A. the stretch of land from New York to Delaware that divides the Atlantic to the east and New Jersey to the west

B. a popular television show

C. a small town in central PA

D. all of the above

Answer: there are a lot of fun facts that Ben and I have learned as a result of moving to the East Coast. One of those happens to be the answer to this question. D.

Tomorrow morning I'm hopping on a plane to join Ben in Jersey Shore, PA where he is speaking at an MK retreat. Can't wait! Pictures and stories to come.

Twin Cousins in NYC

Last weekend I gave Ben some study space and time and went up to NYC to visit my cousin!! I got to see her cute neighborhood in Queens, walk through some of her favorite neighborhoods, visit her very chic hotel where she works in the Lower East Side, meet some of her friends in Brooklyn, eat AMAZING Italian food and the best bagel of my life, meet even more of her friends in her old neighborhood, and spend a lovely, warm, lazy Sunday walking around the West Side. I am not sure if you are supposed to capitalize New York neighborhoods....and I am not even sure of half the neighborhoods we visited because she took me to so many. All I know is that it was so great to see her and see her life in New York. She moved out here almost five years ago without a job or a place to live, she just wanted to give New York a try. Within a week she found an apartment and interviews that led to a job. Since then she has made amazing friends, played a lot of soccer, landed a job she loves....I am so proud of her and think she is really brave! So thankful to live a 2-hour bus ride away so I could pop up for the weekend for a visit.

The amazing fruit and vegetable market down the street from her apartment

Washington Square Park

The new freedom tower where the WTC once stood

I miss you

Reminded me of home, kind of

This is the view from the top of the hotel where she works! That is the Empire State Building in the back.

Cute cousin!

My attempt at an artistic photo. At least we got a photo of the both of us!

One of the dining rooms at her hotel. The portraits are of people from the lower East Side.

Next we went to this outdoor food place in Brooklyn.

And got some homemade raspberry basil popsicles. Here the guy is making some snow cones out of that block of ice.

A glimpse of our dinner that night. Yes, that is fresh mozzarella. My mouth still waters thinking about it.

Central Park!

FAO Schwartz

Made me think of Ben

Rockefeller Center

St. Patrick's

Time Square

Delicious Melissa minis...s'more, peanut butter cup, mint chocolate cupcakes

This market reminded me of the Ferry Building

BRUNCH!

Lavender in railroad tracks at Highline Park

Cool idea for a picnic area

So long, NYC. I'm sure we'll be back soon. Thanks to my cuz for such a fun weekend!!

And P.S. Ben passed Greek!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Walker Visit

One down, three to go. Ben took his Doctrine of God final on Thursday and he's got Greek tomorrow. This might be the last 20 hours that Ben is ever required to know Greek. Holy moly.

He got to take an amazing study break on Friday though when our friends, the Walkers, came to visit!! We were SO excited to see them and to meet their new baby girl, Juliette. She is just a dream. Luca is as funny and adorable as ever. We had a great time catching up with them, sharing some good food and beer, and holding their beautiful baby.

I love the way Juliette sleeps =)

And I love her beautiful mama.

Jammy time

Why hello, sweet girl!

We love this family.

John had just said something really funny.

Luca even fell asleep in our bed so we could hang out with his parents a little longer. He looked so cute and little in the big bed.

Just another reason we are thankful to be in Philly right now.

In order to leave Ben ample time to study without interruption, I went to New York for the weekend to visit my cousin!! More pictures to come.

Done and almost done

We are so close to the end of our semesters, we can taste it. My classes ended on Tuesday, April 23rd. I had one final on Monday, April 30th, and my last final was today, May 7th. If that is not the most stretched out way to end a semester!

Ben ended his classes this past Thursday. I was able to go up to Westminster with him on that last day. It was a real treat to sit through some of his classes with him and to meet some of his friends. At the beginning of the Fall semester, Westminster had a welcome picnic that we attended. We pretty much stood in line for food, ate the food, then left. Not much interaction with anyone. So spending the day with Ben at the end of the Spring semester and seeing him interact with some friends and professors and witnessing how he's succeeded at Westminster....well I was pretty proud of him. He gets to hang out with my friends from nursing school way more than I get to interact with his friends from seminary based on where we live (2 min. from Penn, 30 min. from Westminster), so it was a fun swap for a day. He even took me out to dinner at his favorite pizza place up there. Here are a few pictures of Ben at school. The most handsome seminarian if you ask me.

And at the end of the day, some homemade lemon ice cream. Great day.

The next day, we decided it was time for some fun.  I had heard about this "German" town out in Lancaster County and right next door is a brewery we really like so we set out for that general direction. The great thing about Lancaster County is that it's beautiful scenery and there are so many little towns about 5 min. drive from one another that although we went out to Adamstown, really, we visited many towns. 

We found this market to be neither wonderful nor good. 

Fortunately it was a stone's throw to the brewery. Apart from the home brews Ben's had out here, he would rank this the best beer he's tasted in PA. 

Full of good food and good beer. Ready to tackle finals. Thank you, Stoudt's Brewery.

And lastly, just in case you were missing this sweet guy.

29th Name Day in DC

If you don't understand the Name Day reference, it's time to pick up a copy of Game of Thrones and get started. In the meantime, the translation is that we spent my 29th birthday in DC with the Barretts! My birthday started off with my last 12-hour clinical for my pediatric rotation. I loved spending the day with some of my nursing friends in the most excellent children's hospital. Later that night, Ben drove us down to DC where Pete and Kara had chocolate martinis waiting. So amazing. I wish I had taken a picture!

The next morning we got to do what we love doing best in DC....play with Miss Annalise.

It's been almost six months since we saw her last and we couldn't believe how much she's grown! 

Ben and I took the metro down to the mall to visit some Smithsonians. We started in the Natural History Museum. 

There was this awesome exhibit about the rescue of the miners in Chile. Crazy to see how tiny the shaft was through which they were rescued.

Next we strolled on over to the National Portrait Gallery. It is attached to an art museum. We had a blast.

This is a portrait of a woman I admire, Alice Waters.

Here is a portrait of our friend, Joey.

Here is Ben in the hall where President Lincoln held his inauguration ball.

There were a few art pieces of the United States that we found really interesting.

"modern art"

Museums always tucker him out. Fortunately there was a bear rug he could rest on.

It was a beautiful day spent out on the mall. I even got to take a cheesy "Ben" photo...usually those are reserved for Philly!

Meanwhile, back at Pete and Kara's, Annalise had been hard at work...

...making chocolate frosting!!

delicious!

She even made me a card

And helped me blow out the candles. She wanted to take them out soon after though in order to eat her delicious frosting.

Yep, still want the candles out.

This girl LOVES balloons.

And, she loves to dance.

But only to the right music...

Later that night she even let us go out with her parents. It was such an awesome day.

To top the weekend off we spent Saturday strolling through Roosevelt park and they showed us around Georgetown. 

Annalise with her beautiful mama. 

All in all, amazing way to start off the last year of my twenties! Can't say enough how thankful we are to live close enough to the Barretts to drive down and hang out for the weekend. Thanks for making my birthday so special, guys!