Sweet Summer Nights

I got the best surprise this morning- pictures in my inbox! In May, we had Brynn from Sunnydays Photography take some anniversary/summer pictures for us mainly because I have always wanted beautiful summer pictures, and with a winter wedding we weren't able to have that (although I did love our wedding photographer too). And by the way it's not our anniversary.. but it actually is our two and a half year anniversary in a couple days, if that counts!

Anyway, I was so excited about our pictures that I wanted to share a few. The mood was exactly what I had in mind.. romantic and carefree in a beautiful nature setting.

Definitely check out Sunnydays Photography on facebook or on her blog. She's incredible!

Robert Moses Beach Trip

This last week I had been feeling so antsy to get out of the city, so I looked up some day trips and found a whole bunch of fantastic beaches that were within reach by train. I decided on Robert Moses State Park on Saturday morning and packed up and headed to the beach for the day... by myself. Does that make me a loser or extremely independent/adventurous?? Oh well I don't even care because it was exactly what I needed! Just being able to breath fresh air and not hear horns honking 24/7 made it completely worth it, but to throw a cherry on top, this beach was absolutely beautiful; just as good as any California beach.

The train ride out there from Manhattan was only like an hour and a half and it went by really fast! I got myself some popcorn and was as happy as a kid going to Disneyland the whole ride out there!

From the train you just have to take a short bus ride out to the beach. In this picture I had just started to see the beaches out the window :) :) :)

I was way happy with my choice of beach when I got there. Besides not having cell phone service and that it was kind of windy, it was perfectly relaxing!

Reading my book and munching on carrots. Don't be deceived, carrots were the only healthy thing I ate that day. Besides that it was all cookies, junk food, and fried food- yuck!

 This is looking back on the lighthouse when I went for a walk along the water

 Some more beautiful pictures:

 And this was for my husband who had to work and couldn't come with me...

Like I said, it was such a relaxing day and I'm pretty sure I'll be heading out there a few more times during my summer in New York. Who would have thought that such beauty lies just outside the city?? And that a newbie like me could find my way out there all on my own?! :)

Almost 3 weeks down and 8 more to go in New York! And boy has it been eventful. I thought I'd sit down to write since I'm always home alone after work and have tons of thoughts going through my head. I'm that crazy person that's always talking to myself.. in my head. But I'm pretty sure when I'm older I'm going to be that crazy person talking to myself out loud. Speaking of those types of people, they're everywhere around here. There's this one guy that's like right outside my apartment that is always yelling to himself. He's super creepy late at night.

So the internship has been going pretty well. The hours are definitely not bad and I get Fridays off so I love having my 3 day weekend. I'm really glad I have my internship to keep me busy- not to mention keep me sane. Preston's internship, on the other hand, has been very time consuming. Actually it hasn't been too bad yet, but the worst is yet to come. Recently he's been getting home around 10 or 11pm and going in at 8:30 in the morning. I just feel bad for him because he never has a day off or a weekend. I could definitely not handle that! He's a trooper though. :)

It's really great having friends here in the city with me. I can always count on them to want to go do something and to get me out of the house when I would probably just sit around and read all day. Last weekend, Camille, Jani, and I met up at Barnes and Noble to get some books to read in Central Park. On our way up there we stopped at the American Girl doll store. That place was amazing! Seriously, everything you could ever want for your doll. We couldn't believe this doll hair salon.. it was like $15 to get your doll's hair done, and there was even a spa treatment complete with cucumbers on their eyes!

After stopping at the store and a cathedral, we got to Central Park and found a place to sit just as it starting raining. We had no idea it was coming because it had been a perfect day. But to tell the truth it has been raining almost every day since we've been here. 

This last week, Camille, Liz, and I went to a movie in Bryant Park. It was actually really fun. I brought a tablecloth that we laid out to sit on and we watched Tootsie, an older movie that I had never heard of but I liked it. That park was a mad house though, every inch of grass was taken. You can kind of tell in this picture:

Here's once it got dark and the movie started:

 Liz, me, and Camille at the movie:

Also, this is way random (but so is this whole post), but I just had to take a picture of these nasty rice krispy treats in the checkout line at the grocery store. They literally just stuck all these loose marshmallows on top of the rice krispy treat. Yuck! (Sorry if you're one of those people that loves extra marshmallows on top)

 Next little bit of randomness.. we had to call 911 two nights ago. We got home late at night and we had a gas leak. The apartment reeked so bad we couldn't even go in. We didn't know a thing about how to turn off the gas and the lady we're renting from wasn't answering her phone because she had gone to sleep, so we really didn't know what to do, so our only choice was to call 911, right? We didn't think that 2 fire trucks and two backup trucks all with their sirens blaring would show up to the apartment building! So embarrassing! But luckily they were able to turn the gas off so it wasn't leaking out anymore and get the place aired out so we could go to bed. Just another day in paradise :)

*Just wanted to note that I am "documenting," not complaining. In case you were wondering.*

And then today we realized that we REALLY needed to do laundry because we are running out of clothes and Preston has no clean socks, so I came home from work and tried very hard to find a laundromat so I could do my laundry, but I guess where we're living they just really don't have any places like that. So I ended up having to drop my laundry off at a place to get it done which makes me way nervous! And I'm pretty sure we're going to go broke with the laundry bills on top of everything else being so expensive... but the good thing is that I figured out a great way to get my laundry to the cleaners- a suitcase! I had told Preston that I needed a wagon to get groceries and do laundry, but I figured out I can just roll my big suitcase around with me and it works like a charm and fits my laundry bag perfectly :)

Summer in Manhattan

I finally have some time to write. It's my day off and sitting inside while it's raining never felt so good. I debated starting a journal because I have so much that goes on that I never write about and well blogging doesn't quite cut it because you obviously can't put everything in your blog (especially when it's public). But, then I realized that whenever I start trying to keep a journal it never works out. First of all I have to do it on my computer because my hand would cramp to death if I wrote in a book, and then it just gets lost in my millions of documents saved on my computer. I actually have quite a few random little entries from the last couple years that are on there. I know I know I could just be organized and make it work, but the way life is right now- there is no organization and pretty much no extra time. So here I am- blogging.

I'm going to start about two weeks ago because that is when the madness began. Just thinking about being back in Provo with the beautiful green trees and the nice crisp summer air is making me homesick. But anyway, up until two weeks ago we were lovin life. We both worked on campus so we didn't have strict schedules. We would work a couple hours whenever we wanted during the day and then would play tennis, go to his parent's house for a fire, hang out with friends, go on hikes, etc. All the fun summer things. We started a little list of things we wanted to do before we left and we did almost all of them! Here's some items from our list:

-Hogle Zoo -probably my favorite one

-Movie Night -I don't think this really happened but I'm sure we watched some movie...

-Ice Blocking in Rock Canyon Park -nope but it sounded fun

-BBQ up the Canyon -mother's day with my family

-Roast marshmallows -twice

-Run 5k -wish I could say we did this..

-Bike ride to Utah Lake  -started out but then it poured on us. As soon as we got home it cleared up but we didn't have the heart to go out and try again

-Temple -yes, always a good thing

-Badminton at parents  -never set up the badminton but played lots of basketball and molkey

-Hike the Y  -yes, but our hike to stewart falls was way better

Ok so once all the fun was over we had a whole lot of packing and cleaning to do. Preston was really good about getting started early on packing and he kept moving out pieces of our furniture and dejunking our closet everyday when I would go to work. So it was a sad, long drawn out process. And seriously it was sad. By the end it was so busy that I didn't really have time to reminisce, but I'll really miss our apartment. It was the perfect place for us to live for the first two and a half years of our marriage. For the sake of remembering that wonderful place here's a couple pictures:

Our last two days in Provo were spent cleaning that place spotless. Preston's mom helped us and we could not have done it without her. (Thanks Linda!) From there we left on our red eye flight to New York City. 

Coming to New York was exhausting like I expected. There is just so much walking that I wasn't used to! I think I'm starting to get the hang of things now, but the first couple days we were here I wanted to fall over dead so many times. 

--Quick side story---

We have a bunch of friends that are also out here for the summer. Emily and George just got married and they flew out here the day after us. When they got here they went to their apartment that they were supposed to be staying in for the summer and the landlord of the building saw them going in and went and talked to them. So apparently it is not okay to sublease the apartment out for the summer and the girl that was letting them live there got in big trouble and Emily and George no longer had a place to stay. So they ended up coming over to stay at our  apartment with us until they found somewhere else. Not to mention on the taxi ride over Emily threw up... in her bag!! So that was quite the adventure. Luckily they found somewhere now and besides the 2 stabbings that have already happened in their apartment building, they are doing much better!

--Ok back to us--

Going to church on Sunday was like no other time. (and I'm not talking about the crazies in our ward) Walking in those doors to the church filled me with so much emotion. I was choked up throughout the entire sacrament meeting and couldn't even sing the songs. It's amazing the sanctuary that the church is in a big city like this. It's so different from anywhere else I've been. Walking and taking the subway to church on Sunday just felt like any other day. I hardly saw anyone dressed up, and it was almost just as crowded as every other day. So when I walked into our church it was just unexplainable. Everything just felt right for the first time in a while. I can't say how thankful I am to have the church in my life. Sundays like this past week really confirm everything I believe to be true.

Monday came quickly and I was off to my first day at my internship. Preston didn't start work till a week after me so he had the week to himself. He was so helpful to me, walking me to the subway, packing snacks in my purse, and waiting outside my work when I got off. Once I even got so lost running errands for work that I ended up clear up by our apartment and he came and gave me a subway card and lead me back in the right direction. That story is actually pretty embarrassing. I walked like 20 blocks and ended up being gone from work for almost 2 hours, when getting the mail should have only taken like 20 minutes. Work is good.. I guess that's probably the extent of what I want to say about that on my public blog. But really, once I get used to things I think it'll be a really good internship. This last week was crazy and it feels soooo good to have a day off and just relax and sleep in. (I have every Friday off, lucky me!)

There's a lot more I could write about I guess but I'll end here today. Basically I'm still alive and I think things are looking up. I've been pretty sick for the past while, but I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I've also made huge strides in learning how to use the subways and get around on my own which will be really important next week when Preston is working all the time. I think this summer will be an unforgettable experience that will really help me grow as a person.

I'll end with a few pictures that I've taken here. I need to be better about taking pictures lately.

Oh yeah I also forgot to say that we love our apartment! It's really nice and clean. We wish we could stay here the whole time, but we have another apartment that we're moving to in another week. The people who live here are coming back from vacation :(

Preston on our balcony with an incredible view of the empire state building

Me (awkward pose)

more apartment pics

little kitchen

Hanging out in Central Park

picking up Shake Shack for the office

Concert in Prospect Park in Brooklyn

Union Square- where I work