Some more of 2014

Well, my posting at least once a month thing didn't really work out.  Here's to trying in the future! A lot has happened since I last wrote.  That tends to happen when I only write every 4 months! So let's go back to March, shall we? First of all, Ben and I went to the Pi restaurant for Pi day (March 14).  It's also St. Louis day with it being 314 and all. :) This was my first experience with deep dish pizza, and I have to say- it was very good!

My brother, Parker, also came in town for March Madness with his lovely girlfriend, Torie. So of course we had to introduce her to Pappy's.  Best BBQ around.  At least the best ribs around, which is my personal favorite.  

The next weekend we had Ben's parents in town for the weekend. (We just MIGHT have gone to Pappy's again...) which was really great.  We kept saying that we were "eating our way through St. Louis." And we really did.  From Pappy's to Ted Drewes to Fitz's to authentic Italian on the Hill at Favazza's- we got a lot accomplished! This is us after church before saying goodbye.  

Easter this year was really fun.  Ben had to go to church early for a meeting, so while he was gone, I got up early as well and hid Easter eggs all over the house.  48 of them I believe. It took him over an hour to find them all! I was very pleased with my hiding skills :) And he was very surprised.  Each egg had a little puzzle piece inside that made up a little note that I wrote him.  

After our little egg hunt, we spent the rest of the day with family.  Here is us in my parent's back yard.  

We also had to give the new Taco Bell breakfast a try! It was actually quite good.  We've been back a few times since then.  This is Ben eating a waffle taco. 

We scored some sweet cards tickets from our lovely friends.  Brittany had a coworker that let us use his seasons tickets for the night because it was supposed to rain.  It didn't rain and we were playing the cubs.  Awesome seats and an awesome win.  

Parker and Torie then came into town again in May- this time for a longer visit.  We dined at the Block.  Which has become one of our family's favorite St. Louis restaurants.  It is soooo good! I would highly recommend it to all of you foodies out there. 

We also went to a cards game and had some more sweet seats which included food and beverages.  And Ben finally admitted that baseball games are really fun.  Perhaps we can convince him yet.  

For Memorial Day weekend, we went camping in Nauvoo with our friends Nick and Brittany.  It was really great! We saw some great shows, met some awesome people, played some pioneer games, and saw all of the sites.  The weather was great and camping was really fun.  It was a nice little weekend getaway.  

Here are Ben and Nick walking on stilts at the pioneer past times station.  

Before the "Sunset on the Mississippi" show

At Carthage jail

Nauvoo Temple

Swing Dancing with the Nauvoo Brass Band

On Memorial Day, we went over to Jefferson Barracks to pay tribute to all of the soldiers.  It is the second largest memorial grave site in the nation.  It was very impressive!

The last weekend in May was our anniversary. Can you believe that it's been a year? I definitely can't.  We found a cute little bed and breakfast in southern Indiana that was only a couple of hours away for a little weekend get away.  As much fun as we had, we didn't end up taking many pictures of our trip.  So we just have this one selfie and then a pic of our glasses from the end of the night.  My mom had those glasses made and we drank out of them at our reception.  So I guess we will pull them out for every anniversary now :) 

Driving back to Missouri- I had to catch this shot of Ben while we were filling up the car.  Isn't he handsome?

Then when we got back on Sunday, we got our wedding cake out of the freezer and ate it (after thawing of course).  And it was soooo good! I could not believe how moist and flavorful it was.  And it wasn't freezer burned at all.  I was impressed. 

We then had the Fisher Family reunion in Yosemite in June.  And that was a lot of fun. I had never been to Yosemite and it was very beautiful and majestic.  And the weather was pretty great too.  

After Yosemite Ben was in full study mode.  He took Step 1 of the boards for medical school on June 25th.  All I have to say about that is that I'm glad it's over! There was no time to rest though because the next day was youth conference.  Ben and I were asked to be the "youth conference specialists" for our stake this year.  Don't know what that means? Yeah, neither do we.  Basically we were in charge of planning youth conference.  And it turned out to be a lot of fun.  I was very happy with how everything turned out.  The youth seemed to enjoy themselves, which was the real goal.  It was also fun to reminisce about all of the youth conferences I attended as a youth.  I'm glad we had this opportunity.  This is a shot of everyone at youth conference- taken by our stake president during the middle of testimony meeting- haha! Awesome pic though :) 

We celebrated youth conference being over with a nice relaxing picnic on art hill.  It was just lovely and the perfect way to end the weekend.  It was a members-only art museum picnic with live music.  We aren't members, but my parents are, so we were able to benefit.  

The next weekend was 4th of July.  Ben wanted to get a flag to hang out on our porch.  He hung it and then it was literally stolen the next day (ah city living....). But it looked good while it was there!

We spent the 4th with friends at Fair St. Louis on art hill.  It was really fun and the weather was absolutely perfect.  The fireworks were literally the best fireworks I have ever seen. St. Louis does it right! 

So our summer thus far has been really great! Ben started his 3rd year of med school on July 7 so he has been busy with his rotations and clinicals.  It hasn't been too crazy yet.  Aside from him needing to be at the hospital at 5:30 every morning. Overall, life is good.  

"Spring" Break

Well SLU (St. Louis University) decided to give us spring break this year during winter! But we didn't let that get us down.  Ben and I headed up to NYC and Boston this past week to see some friends and visit 2 cities that we had never been to before.  It was a blast!  Traveling is so much fun when you are with the person you love the most :) Too sappy? Eh oh well.  

Well our trip ACTUALLY started in Kansas City- or at least was supposed to.  We were supposed to fly out of KC since we were visiting my aunt and uncle, but then our flights got cancelled due to a CRAZY ice storm.  So we had our flight that was originally scheduled for Sunday changed to Monday, and had it fly out of St. Louis instead of Kansas City.  But fortunately we got some Oklahoma Joe's in! 

It was very good!  We ended up deciding to drive back on Saturday to beat the storm, but instead we got caught IN the storm, making a 4 hour trip from KC to STL turn into a 7 hour trip.  I was freaking out the whole time.  It's a miracle we made it home alive! But hey, a good story to tell for later, right?

So we flew from STL to NYC on Monday morning.  After our flight being delayed and missing our layover flight, we FINALLY made it!  We stayed with my good friend Sarah and her family.  She took us to an amazing Italian pizza place Monday night.  So good! 

           

The next day we took the city by storm! We started out by getting breakfast on the go at a bakery in Brooklyn.  It was soooo good.  Then we headed over to Time Square- which was awesome! And just like I imagined it would be.  It was FREEZING cold, which was both a good and bad thing.  A bad thing because obviously it isn't fun to not be able to feel your face, but a good thing because there weren't too many tourists, so even though there were still a lot of people, apparently we came at a good time.  

We went to some cool stores- like Toys 'R' Us, with a ferris wheel INSIDE the store.  Of course we had to ride it.  And you can't tell from the picture, but we are in a pink Barbie convertible.  Awesome.  

Then we went to the M&M store.  

After grabbing lunch we headed over to the Natural History Museum, which was probably the coolest museum I have ever been to.  We could have definitely spent all day there, but since we were on a time schedule, we were there for a few hours.  We took the free tour, which I would highly recommend if you ever go.  

We then headed over to FAO Schwartz.  I honestly was a little disappointed with the Big piano, but we had a lot of fun in the lego section!

Then I had to go see Mood, being a huge Project Runway fan.  Unfortunately I didn't run into Tim Gunn.  But I did say "Thank you, mood!"

         

We then headed back to Time Square to see it at night, and it was awesome!

We ended the night by going to the top of the Empire State building, which was our little splurge.  And it was definitely worth the money! I loved it.  And I'm glad we went at night.  The view was fantastic.  

We headed to Boston the next day (Wednesday), but before we headed out, we hit up the Staten Island Ferry to get a look at Lady Liberty.  It was hard to get a good picture of her, but hey we saw her!

And then the last thing we did was go to the 9/11 memorial, which was really great.  I'll never forget that day.  And the memorial was very well done.  It is still under construction, I'm sure it will be really great once it is finished.  

We then took the train down to Boston, where we met up with some friends.  I have 2 old roommates that live in Boston and a very good friend that lives there as well- so it was fun to see all 3 of them!

Here are some pics from our trip: 

Boston commons:

The state capital: 

Mike's pastry: 

Clam Chowder: 

Paul Revere: 

USS Constitution: 

Bunker Hill: 

Dinner with the besties at an AMAZING Italian restaurant: 

 Harvard campus: 

Old Trinity Church: 

Boston Public Library: One of my favorite things!

Boston Aquarium: 

Riding the metrolink: 

Walking along the riverside: 

Overall a great trip!  So glad we got to go and enjoy Ben's spring break, even though it was cold the whole time!  It didn't snow though, so that was a blessing.  And we got flight vouchers on the way home because we volunteered to fly on a later flight.  Definitely worth it since we got into STL only 2 hours later than scheduled.  I've had flights delayed later than that! 

Now it's back to normal life.  Boo! But hey- good news! Spring is here.  Hello 60 degree weather.  Goodbye snow! (hopefully!)