Thanksgiving 2008

For Thanksgiving this year we decided to do something non-traditional, mostly because we didn't have the time needed to visit family. So instead of making turkey and mashed potatoes, we packed beef jerky and a couple apples and hit the road. We took a day trip up to Bear Mountain. As soon as we started up the trail, a red tailed hawk landed on a branch right above our heads with his thanksgiving feast clutched in his talons.


We followed a bike trail up a little way to the beginning of Fawn Trail. We followed that around the mountain a while, then switched over to a couple different trails, then finally ended up on the Appalachian trail.
Most of the trail was even and easy. But when we switched onto the Appalachian trail the path grew much steeper as we made our way up to the top of the mountain.

We finally made it, and were rewarded with a stunning view of the Hudson River!

We hiked back down on yet another trail, finishing our hike in just under four hours. It turned out to be one of the best Thanksgiving days that either of us had ever had! We even had a feast that night at one of our favorite Italian restaurants here in the Bronx. It was a very happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween '08

Our ward Halloween party was such a blast this year. We had good food, good games, and good costumes! This year Chet and I were a fiesta. As you can tell, I'm the beautiful Senorita, and Chet is my pinata.

Oh My Eyes!

I've had this speck that I see in my left eye for a few weeks. I went to an optometrist, who referred me to a retina specialist. When I went in for my appointment I had to sit through the routine eye exam, and then the doc dialated my eyes. He didn't find anything, but it was kinda cool to have huge pupils for the next few hours. Chet even pulled out his ophthalmoscope when I got home. Oh, the things one has to endure when married to a med student!

See how huge those eyes are?!

Ok, ok! These are the real ones.

I had to wear sunglasses the rest of the day!
So, I still see a spot in my eye, but at least I got to take the day off work and play some with Chet!

Labor Day

The Sandberg's invited a group of us over for a barbecue at their place on City Island for Labor Day. We decided to ride our bikes and the Hansen's went with us on their roller blades. We got to our meeting place a little early, so we messed around with the self timer on our camera. I think it worked pretty well.

It was a nice ride out to Rory and Raphelle's place. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. We each got to put together our own kabob, then Rory grilled them for us.
It was great hanging out on the lawn with everyone.

We stayed till well after dark, which made the bike ride home a little slower, but we had so much fun sharing summer stories with everyone!

Taconic State Park

The summer has come to a close, or at least the school year has started up again, so our med school friends are back in town. This means that we get to have fun get-togethers! We went camping a couple weekends ago with the Badgers and the Mangums. We stayed at Taconic state park, then hiked up to Bish Bash Falls the next morning.

The hike was nice and green. We were all on the look out for poison ivy the entire time!

Bish Bash Falls

Once we were there, the boulders in the stream presented the perfect playground.

On the hike back, Chet found this cool tarzan vine...

After we took down camp, we wrapped things up with a nice dip in the lake. It was pretty cold in that 40' deep water. We had a great time diving and cannon-balling off the dock. In honor of the 2008 Olympics, we had a relay swim with Mangums vs. Garners. Too bad we didn't have lane ropes in the lake because Spencer and Chet both took an arched course back. Fun times!

Our First Post

With family out west, family in the Midwest, and family away from family here on the east coast all working from different angles, we were finally persuaded to start our own blog. You've gotta love peer pressure! But what better way is there to modestly brag about all the awesome things we get to do?! So without further ado, let us tell you all about our rockin' cool life!

We are living here in a relatively quiet part of NYC: just down the street from the Little Italy of the Bronx. We have a plethora of restaurants that can fill our cravings for eggplant Parmesan and gnocchi pesto and, above all, New York pizza. Whenever we ride our bikes up through the heart of Little Italy it is commonplace to pass old people sitting on their lawn chairs on the sidewalk right outside their shops, and kids running around with Italian ices. We're pretty sure that we've heard the classic "eh Tony!" shouted out across the street. So contrary to our first impressions of this big city, we aren't afraid of getting mugged the moment we step out of sight of the housing security guards.


Speaking of riding our bikes: we've decided that it is the best way to get around locally. Those of you who have ever driven in the Bronx know the stress of maneuvering around the double parked cars and pedestrians. Anyone who uses the MTA knows it can sometimes be faster to walk than to wait for that darn bus. We've found biking to be, by far, the most enjoyable mode of transportation around here. Naturally, when we decided to go to the zoo to try out our new camera (thanks Thalmans!!!) we also decided we should bike it. We're glad that we did, because pedaling up there together was half the fun. (PS, anyone looking for the bike racks at the zoo, we finally found them by the ticket booth at the Southern Boulevard gate.) We had a great time seeing all the animals. Some super rad experiences were hearing the lion roar in person, watching some young snow leopards pounce on each other, and having a couple sea birds fly right over our heads.

Ah, the beautiful flamingos.

Chet's face, and a zebra.

See a resemblance?

Cool lemurs.

Some birds that flew right over our heads. We could have touched them from this nest.

It turned out to be a great day, and we got some great pics, which happened to be the straw that broke our stubborn backs from resisting to be bloggers. We hope as we continue posting that you will enjoy our lives almost as much as we do! :)