La la la la la la TONIGHT!

I was so excited when I found out that New Kids on the Block would be playing in Boston and NOT on a Sunday! I was able to talk Mollie and Tristan into going with me and we had a blast. (Except for multiple people smoking around us, including a pregnant girl, and the beer poured on my bag. Hey, it's Boston.) The opening act was Jesse McCartney, who is adorable and a very talented song writer. My favorite moment was when he commented on the women wearing "Cougars love Jesse" t-shirts. He said that he's 22, so it is legal. ;)

New Kids put on a good show. They have a lot of energy and eat up all the screaming. Their old songs don't sound the same at all, now that they are older, but it was so much fun to sing along with the entire crowd.

These are Boston boys, four growing up in Dorchester and one in JP (Jamaica Plain). I loved this display of all things Boston as the encore number. They came out decked in Red Sox gear and used common Boston symbols in their name. Their cute kids came out on stage after the show.

This is a little treat for you all. I know it's a little fuzzy at first ...and in the middle... but there are good parts and you can hear the whole time. The pianist had on a Yankee's hat, so you can see them switch it out for a Red Sox hat. Go Sox! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYKWSYVoe0U

Time and Eternity

I know that I had already been home a month before, but my good friend Kim planned her wedding for June, so I got to go back. It was good to see more friends, though, and of course spend time with my family and all my nieces and nephews.

In accordance with tradition, I took Audrey and Julian swimming. We forgot their life vests at first, so I had one child on each arm, clinging for life. Luckily, my dad was able to find the vests in the garage, so swimming was a little easier after that. Later that night, Joy and Jake came to pick me up so we could meet Amy at an outdoor showing of Mamma Mia. Alas, it was raining, so we played Rockband at Amy's condo. I loved it as I have spent many a night singing with Joy-Joy.
Saturday morning, my good friend in Boston, Denise, who just moved back to Utah, came and took me to the Beehive House, where we met Victoria. She wanted to complete the church history tour she saw on the roadtrip home.

I really think that Salt Lake City has one of the most beautiful downtowns in the country. The temple is an amazing center... and I am partial to flowers.After Denise left, Victoria and I walked around the State Capitol. I hadn't been back since moving to Boston. I went on a tour with Jacobsen when they were working on the renovations. I actually got to walk underneath the building... it was being suspended in air by some engineering genius. I tried not to think about how many pounds of stone were over my head.Victoria entertained me by running/dancing through the fountain... then, just maybe we took a ride on some lions. I always have so much fun with Victoria.That afternoon I attended the wedding in the Bountiful Temple. I don't think there could be a more beautiful place to get married than in a temple. The ceremony was exquisite. Kim actually met Dan at my favorite place... Disneyland! It was the day after the Huntington Beach Midsingles Conference 2008 and many attendees went as an unofficial follow-up activity. Kim met up with some friends who had come down from Utah. Luckily, M was there, as she had to prompt him to ask for her number. They are both so sweet and a good match. I am very happy for my dear Kim. The new Mr. and Mrs.:We hurriedly snapped a few pictures outside before the downpour started.Kim is a nurse and, naturally, has several other friends who are nurses. When I hang out with them, my business-non-medical-in-the-least background usually has a hard time following the conversations. Luckily, they are all really sweet and patient with me... and Kim knows she will get desperate phone calls from me when I have sick kids. I got to know these girls well on trips to Mexico and Brazil. Lisa, Megan and Marissa (the nurses) and I made a quick stop at Neilsens Frozen Custard before heading over for the ring ceremony. Kim's best friend from Layton married a pastor, so he conducted the ring ceremony. I loved that everything Kim chose was very her. The dinner was chicken fettucine alfredo... something Kim is sure to order at a restaurant.
My sister's kids love Kim, who has taken them on many outings with me, as well as come on family trips. They came to the reception that night and tore it up on the dance floor.

After the reception, I made Lisa, Joy and Amy go see Brothers Bloom with me. Yes, I liked it enough to go see it again so soon. I told you that you should go see it. ;)
Sunday was nice and relaxing, with a nice family dinner after church. Here is my mom's delicious Bolivian-style meal:My mom was watching these two rugrats on Monday, so we had a fun little sleepover. Aren't they so cute when they wake up?I also got to see Paco, Hilary and gorgeous blue-eyed Ganon one last time... sorry the pic is cut off... hard to get four people in a self-portrait.

I jumped back on a plane, making it a quick trip. Going home always fills up my soul. Love and miss you guys!

Let's Go to the Movies...

... or just watch them at home, snuggled under a blanket. :) This week I decided to take it easy... well for me. I managed to play just a bit and tone it down with plenty of movies.

First off, though, at fhe on Monday night we played the animal noise game. One person is blindfolded in the middle of the room and spun about. They then throw a pillow/object to someone and ask the person who is closest to it to make a certain animal noise. We enjoyed pigs, horses, dolphins, monkeys and even badgers. My poor friend Rachel somehow got the pillow time after time despite numerous attempts to change places. We got plenty of laughter out of it.

The next couple of days were RedBox nights. I am a big fan of the dollar rental. I saw New in Town (cute, but not fantastic) and He's Just Not That Into You (I think a movie single girls should see... the lessons were kind of twisted in the end, though).

Thursday night was ward temple night. I wore a dress to work so that I could make it on time... then Katie called me as I left work to come to a movie instead. She was very persuasive since that was the last night the movie was showing. I went to a farewell dinner for my friend Joseph who was moving away from Boston, then saw Brothers Bloom. Seriously, the best movie I've seen all year. Hilarious, good story, lesson learned. If you haven't seen it, go now. No, seriously.

The next night Kristie shared with us Much Ado About Nothing. Good classic movie with an interesting opening scene. I think I slept through a bit of it, but my friends all know that Charlotte + movie after 10 pm = sleeping.

On Sunday after church, we went for a walk over to the footbridge to watch the Dragon Boat races. We didn't last long because we were melting. It was actually a hot sunny day in Boston... a rarity this summer. That night we had a little farewell for dear Kristie, complete with marshmallow roasting and smores on our deck.The boys that came provided a little concert: cello, guitars, violin... when they made a drum from a washtub, and I decided to pull out a musical instrument I bought in Puerto Rico. A neighbor from across the street hopped on over to join in the jam session.

Whale of a Tale

Having been out of the country for a week and jetlag, didn't slow me down that weekend. Friday, I watched Star Wars I and II with Victoria and stopped at a friend's birthday party. I got to play Dance Dance Revolution for just a bit.
Katie's adorable family was in town for her graduation. They invited me to go whale watching with them on Saturday.

The ride out took about an hour. The water was so choppy that the boat was seriously bouncing up and down. Katie's family was so much fun! We made sure to get right up front to enjoy it all.

We saw so many whales! This is the ridge of one whale's back. After they feed they stay up at the surface like this to let the water drain out of their mouths. One feeding technique they use is to slap their tails on the surface to stun the fish. Another one they use is to swim around a school of fish in circles to get them all in the same place, then swim up through it with their mouths open wide.

That night, I went to a concert at my friend Jared's studio called Dirty Water. A few different people in the wards performed. Let me tell you there is some serious talent in Boston.

Sunday, our ward met at the First Congregational Church, who were kind enough to let us use their building after ours burned down. I enjoyed dinner that night with my dear friend Kristie, her sweet mom, and our friend Dan. Kristie left that week to go to Nashville to start medical school (MD/PhD program... the girl is a genius). She is practically the first person I met in Boston and has been one of my best friends for the last two years. I am going to miss that girl!

Stay Left

I wanted to dedicate a post to driving in Ireland. Our rental car was a Nissan Micro. We chuckled when we were shown the car, and the man told us we would be grateful it was so small soon enough. It was tiny! Only one suitcase fit in the trunk, or boot. Michelle noticed that from the front, it looks like a little Italian man with a mustache. We named him Luigi.This was my first experience driving on the wrong side of the road. As I took off every time the first couple of days, I kept repeating, "stay left, stay left, stay left." It was hard not to glance over my shoulder when turning right... when obviously no one would be coming from that direction.
Our GPS was obviously not so up to date because it didn't know the highway was there and kept taking us down tiny little roads. It was hard to believe that more than one car could fit on them. The roads had banks or walls of green on either side, or were elevated. The speed limits were insanely fast for the road conditions. Padrick joked that the government said they were limits not targets... however, they are painted to look like targets... round signs rimmed in red.
Luckily I only forgot to stay left once. It was on the second day... I'm going to claim that I still had jet lag. It was pulling out of an overlook on the side of the highway. I realized I was on the wrong side when a car suddenly appeared coming at me in my lane. Yikes!
We loved the roadsigns and stopped often to take pictures of them. The people have so much detail, especially the children crossing. Another favorite is the one where it looks like a car is about to mow down a pedestrian.Politics are a big deal in Ireland. There were pictures up everywhere for elections. The funny thing is most of them looked like mugshots or snapshots. Doesn't this guy look just like Kevin James?

Hot Day in Dublin

We woke up at the crack of dawn to catch our 7 a.m. flight to Dublin. My very last bit of driving on the left side of the road. We couldn't check in to our flight to Boston, so we had to do it in Dublin. Communication error: I was very confused when security asked if I had a flask. I decidely told her no, when she pulled out my water bottle. The flight was slow to board (we think they were cleaning?), and slow to unboard (jetway problem?) when we landed. We finally made it only to find out our Dublin flight was delayed nearly three hours. This did mean that we had plenty of time to see Dublin. We rode a double decker bus into the city center and did a little walking tour. This is the famous Ha'penny Bridge, so named for the toll paid to walk across it.We found the city to be very clean. Street-sweepers and street-vacuumers were constantly walking/driving by. Statue of Oscar Wilde in Merrion Square:We had lunch at 'The Restaurant' on the sun deck of a department store, where we could look out over the street. I loved the cute clovers in the street lamps. I loved Grafton Street with darling shops and street vendors and performers. Dublin Castle:St. Patrick's Cathedral:

There were tons of kids out... it may have been the last day of school. I loved the uniforms!

Favorite quotes of the day:

• I wondered out loud if a button said 'Kiss me, I'm Irish' in Gaelic. A kid nearby replied, "that says kiss my a$$."
• We overheard a tween walking by exclaim, "$#%^$ $#%!@, it's a hot day in Dublin." Imagine with a darling Irish accent. :)
• On a t-shirt, "I didn't forget. I just didn't care enough to remember."
• I stepped onto a bus, then realizing it wasn't express started to walk off. The driver told me to sit down and relax. "Are you in a hurry?"

Ireland was simply a magical, beautiful place. Love, love it!