It's my Birthday!!!!

It's my Birthday! My dear friends from the Beatles made me this wonderful birthday video! I know,  So sweet right!?

Did I mention it sNoWed?!?!

Yes. It snowed! It was last Thursday, and it was only a little baby snow...but I thought it was pretty fantastic!!! It was the first time I have experienced snow falling where I live or what I call "real life snow" (vs. the other few times I've seen it slamming into my face while riding up a horrid ski lift).

Best of all, I have Proof!

Everyone said that it is VERY early to be snowing, but I think they just told me that when they saw the terror in my eyes. JK. It was fun to see the snow, and I look forward to it coming again. I feel like it's the only benefit of living in the cold, so I quite enjoy it. We wont have to drive in it b.c. 

1- the whole town shuts down if it snows, my work, school, banks, everything.

2- they clear up the roads quickly when it snows, so it's not really an issue. 

3- I'm scared to drive in it so I basically just refuse :) 

Has anyone else had snow already?!!

Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts...OH MY!

We have been out and about the past couple of weeks! Last weekend we went to New Hampshire and Vermont for a quick weekend get away. We stayed in a B&B in Claremont NH, and then went sightseeing in Woodstock, VT (which - by the way- has nothing to do with the Woodstock music festival held in New York).

We Learned That......

- The official phrase for going to look at fall leaves is 'leaf peeping'.  

We peeped our little hearts out!

- Vermont was unexpectedly rural and under populated. On the main highways, there are exits every 10 miles.

(um...Where did all the people go?) (and yes we missed our exit once)

- It takes 40-50 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of Maple Syrup!  

Wowza!!!

- Spring time doesn't come until MAY!

"I object!!!"

- Parades consisting of only fire trucks are NOT enjoyable in any way, shape, or form.

(Who thought of that idea!!?)

- IBEX tent sale. IBEX is a super high-class wool clothing store that people in New England go nUtZ for! They have an annual tent sale in Woodstock, so we went to check it out. It was SOOOO incredibly packed, hundreds of people there scooping up armfuls of $75 wool cycling dresses (weird?) and all sorts of things. We could only afford hats and gloves :) We were happy to have hats b/c it was quite cold there. Here we are sporting our new purchase.

- Glass Blowing Gallery - When the few people of Vermont are done spending hundreds on skimpy wool underwear (not a joke) at the IBEX sale, they go to this Glass Gallery and buy goblets, vases, ect. When poor college students go, we bypass the show room and go watch the pro's blow glass - an amazing and hypnotic activity.

- Sneaking down into a rocky riverbed. We parked near a river, and as we got out of the car I noticed a little trail heading down. We climbed down and discovered this beautiful river!

This weekend we went to Massachusetts to attend a family sealing in the Boston Temple. It was a day of firsts! We had never been to that temple before, and neither of us had seen a family sealing take place...it was very special, and we are glad we were able to attend.

Side note: It was psychotically windy and so our wonderfully cliche Temple pictures turned out horrible :( If Daniel's hair is blowing in the wind, you know there is a problem!!!

All about my Man Dan...iel :)

So. Daniel doesn't have time to blog - so I'm gonna make a tribute to him!

Did you know...
-He only spends 1.25 hours at home during week days? He goes to school in the morning, library in the afternoon, home for dinner, and then back to the library till late at night. Yale friends will not find this impressive, but everyone else is welcome to think 'Woah!'

- Daniel hearts Dough! He loves to make pizza and bread very, very much. This past month we bought a bread mixer and a new pizza stone and pizza peel....just look at that smiling face!!!

- He is very brave! Look how close he got to this BEE!!!! And he is good at taking cool pictures.

- He has a super cool new hairdo! Faux-hawks Rock! 

- He is the 'best around', the 'most beautiful boy in the room', and 'realistically but not scientifically' the most wonderful husband and best friend ever!  And he loves me just the way I am :)

 Love, Valerie

Hamburgers and Drug Dealers?!

This is the tiny little restaurant with HUGE personality - Louis Lunch. They say they invented the sandwich style hamburger! And they stand by their burgers so much, they do not allow ketchup in the restaurant!

Eating at this famous place was fun, unique, and the people where such characters! The strangest 'character' (that's a euphemism) was a guy who was probably a drug dealer. We're about 82.9% certain. The weirdest part was when a nice old grandma who was waiting to eat her burger turned to this innocent looking customer, and gave this guy $200 cash and said "Count it! It's 200!"  He kept saying that all of his clients owe him money...? Apparently the owner owed him money too, that's why the dealer was at the restaurant I guess. The place was smaller than our apartment living room, so we could hear and see EVERYTHING! Does anyone have any other ideas??? I'd love to hear 'em!

Before & After

We love weekend Date Nights :)