"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!) 

The Holidays and 2014!

 Well the end of 2013 went extremely quick.  And by end, I mean the entire months of November and December.  It always seems to do that.  It always goes faster.  I somehow resist the year ending, and yet it still does.  2013 was a good year for me.  I got married- so this is a "we" blog.  I got promoted, we got our first apartment/home together and Ben finished his first year of medical school and started his second.  7 months of married life has been just grand.  Can't wait to see what 2014 has in store for the Fisher fam.  Here's an update on our holidays though:

For Thanksgiving, we went down to Arizona since 4 out of 5 of Ben's siblings live down there.  We spent most of our time in the Mesa area, but we also made a trip down to Tucson, where we went 4 wheeling with the Adam and Sariah fam.  We also got to see our oldest nephew get the priesthood, which was an amazing experience.  So proud of you, Luke! :)

 We also took a quick tour of the Mesa temple grounds, which was awesome.  And if you can't tell, it was much warmer down there than it was in St. Louis! So it was good to have some warmer weather.

 The boys also went on a trip to 6 flags in California to celebrate Luke's 12th birthday, so the ladies had a girls' night with dinner at Zupas and mani/pedi's.

Ben also helped with making the famous Grandma Fisher apple pie.  Grandma Fisher, meaning my mother in law.  I do have to say, it is the best apple pie I have ever had!

After Thanksgiving we went and got our first Christmas tree together! I was so excited.  We got a real tree at Ted Drewes.  A definite must.  We ended up getting a huge 9.5 ft tree.  We have really tall ceilings in our house, so I figured we HAD to get a tall one, right? 

One problem with having a big tree? It requires a lot of lights! After 3 separate trips to the store, and 2700 lights later, the tree was finally lit to my liking and we were able to decorate it.  I am fortunate enough to have a mother who has spent the last 26 years of her life collecting Christmas ornaments, so we got all of ours from her! I absolutely loved our tree.  It definitely put me in the Christmas spirit.  

 And we got our first snow! I tried to capture it with the snow in the background, but as my little brother pointed out, it just looks like we took a selfie with the snow as an excuse.  Sigh... Either way- it DID snow!

We also had fun at my family's Christmas card photo shoot, with props.  These are the props I chose for the Fisher Christmas card that I never actually made.  Maybe next year... 

We also went to the "Journey to Bethlehem."  It is this really cool thing that a church in north St. Louis puts on.  It's all outdoors and you travel in families on a journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem.  The church has hundreds of volunteers that act all of these different parts out.  So you are in a family and you are going to the census, just as Mary and Joseph did.  You run into Roman soldiers along the way as well as shepherds, angels, wise men and other characters from the Christmas story.  It is really really cool! I quite enjoyed it, even though it was very cold!

I also had my 26th birthday at the beginning of December.  It was on a Sunday, so we didn't really do much on the actual day except for eat this delicious red velvet cake that my mother made.  For my birthday weekend, however, Ben took my dancing at the Mahler ballroom, which is where we had our wedding reception.  How romantic, right? With yummy thai food for dinner as well.  

Christmas was fun just hanging at my family's house with my brothers and parents.  A friend of ours brings us candy cane cookies every year.  So snapped a shot of us devouring them.  

We also went to the garden glow at the Botanical gardens.  The lights were honestly a little underwhelming, but hey it was still fun!

This is us at Christmas Eve dinner.  Ben and the boys made chicken courd en bleu.  And it was delicious! It's a tradition in Ben's family that the men cook chicken courd en bleu for the family on Christmas eve.  A tradition I will gladly accept as our own!

This is us on Christmas day

Christmas finally ended and we had to take down the tree. :( Ben of course needed a pic of him taking it out!

The rest of the holiday "break" was spent playing games.  My family got ticket to ride, so we played that a time or two.  

And then we brought in the new year! 

And then the snowpocalypse happened.  Yeah... over a foot of snow in a city that doesn't plow their streets.  Awesome! Church was cancelled, so Ben and I took the opportunity to have a fun snow day.  The snow wasn't very good snow man snow, so we decided to make snow angels instead. :) 

And then this past weekend we went ice skating for our date night with another couple.  Very fun! The winter is good for some things after all. 

So now it is 2014 and we are busily working on our resolutions.  So far so good.  I have decided to be better at eating healthier, so I have found a bunch of good healthy recipes that I am quite enjoying.  The key is being delicious and healthy.  Not always easy to find, right? But so far I think I've done pretty well for us.  Hopefully it will be more sooner than later that I update.  Love you all!!

Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem

Not a day has gone by that I haven't reflected on the experience that I had living in Jerusalem for a semester.  I wish I could convey the depth of love and gratitude that I have for this holy land.  My time there seriously changed my life.  In a way that was totally unexpected, and yet somehow made perfect sense as I experienced the lessons I learned.  There is not a single aspect of my life that was not affected by my time in Israel.  

I intellectually learned so much about the life, culture, and history of the people that have lived in and fought for this country.  Although I only touched the surface of all of the knowledge one can learn, I for sure learned that there are always two sides to every story.  That not everything can be fixed simply.  That conviction and devotedness to a purpose is not to be taken lightly.  That really, most of us have no idea and cannot really relate, and therefore should not exercise judgement.  

This semester even impacted me physically. Although this may seem like the least important of the impacts that Israel had on me, it has truly made all of the difference.  Your physical being affects everything else.  I learned to love my body in Jerusalem.  My whole life I have struggled with being overweight, especially during my college years.  While in Jerusalem, I naturally became healthy.  We walked everywhere.  And I wasn't feeding myself fast food and junk food 24/7 (mainly because I didn't have access to it!).  But without even consciously trying, I lost 20 pounds in Jerusalem.  And that started me on an amazing journey to be a healthier, happier me.  When I returned home, I joined a gym and continued healthy eating habits.  And I lost another 30 pounds.  The freedom and joy that I have felt has been amazing.  And I once again, have Jerusalem to thank.  I had never realized the importance of treating my body like a temple until Jerusalem forced me to start.  

Going to Jerusalem had been a dream of mine for a long time, so of course when the chance arose, I jumped at the chance.  Although I was excited, going was going to be a large step out of my comfort zone.  And I haven't always been so good with that.  I would be going to a foreign country, not knowing a single person before hand, and I have always struggled with extreme shyness.  Not a good combination, right? Everything changed in Jerusalem though.  I socially became a better person.  The people I met and lived with there changed my life in a way that I can't describe.  I learned to just be myself and that people would like me for it.  And that I have something to contribute.  And that I can learn something significant from every single person I meet, even if they are different from what I would have expected.  My Jerusalem family will always have a special place in my heart.  No matter how much time passes.  

Although there are many aspects I wish to touch on, I will wrap it up to the most important one.  And it's the most important one because all of the other aspects of my life lead to my spirituality.  My relationship with God and my knowledge of the gospel.  I have never felt closer to the spirit than the moments that I spent in the holy land.  The Lord truly showed me who I am in Jerusalem.  Although it sounds cliche and cheesy, I truly found myself there.  I recognized the potential that God created in me.  And I took that confidence and spiritual knowledge home with me.  And that is what has made all of the difference.  And that is why Jerusalem changed my life.  I learned who Grace is.  And I learned that it's ok to have made mistakes.  And that when my will aligns with God's, amazing things happen.  

And so many amazing things have happened since Jerusalem.  Which is why I constantly reflect on my time there.  The confidence, knowledge, and spiritual strength that I gained there will be with me forever.  I'm so incredibly grateful that I had the opportunity to be there.  My eyes filled with tears as I watched the National Geographic movie on Jerusalem.  As I looked out on the city, that in a way, feels like my home.  And always will.  Not because it's the "holy land" or because Christ was there, or because it's just a cool thing to say, but because of the things I felt, experienced, and learned there that have forever changed me for the better.  

I will return some day.  If not multiple times.  I want to share this experience with those nearest and dearest to me.  I look forward to it.  

Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem...I will never forget thee.