Chocopologie

Chocopologie is a cute little dessert cafe located on historic Main Street of Norwalk, CT. The owner has competed on a Food Network program several times. Maybe Iron Chef? I'm not sure. What I am sure of is how delicious all of the desserts were. Ahh. We enjoyed chocolate lava cake, cookies & milk, and a frozen hot chocolate. So good!

Jamie's Summer

This is how Jamie is spending her summer. Thankfully technology is proving to be very useful while these two lovebirds are spending their summer apart. How adorable are they? They are so in love. I believe it's 45 more days until they reunite in Ghana! So exciting!

Buffalo, NY

Ethan, or E as I call him, is working in Buffalo, NY for the entire month of June so I went to spend the weekend with him in upstate NY.

Friday: I flew in around 3:30. E still had to finish some work up so I read until he finished. We picked up the rental car and drove around (it's so green it's beautiful), checked into my hotel, got pizza and called it a night!

Saturday: It was rainy all morning so we just had a lazy Saturday morning. After the storm subsided a little we went to Niagara Falls (New York side). Unfortunately we didn't have our passports so we couldn't see the Falls from the Canadian side (they are supposed to have a better view) but we still loved it. I made E pretend to be enthused (it was his 3rd time seeing them).

He's such a good sport to put up with my insanity - you can see my neck muscles. Neat.

Niagara Falls - there were boats down there giving tours. SCARY!

A cute foreigner offered to take this for us. He didn't ask but just motioned to take it for us.

I couldn't keep my eyes open for the pictures either - it was so bright!

Sunday: We went to the Buffalo family ward at 10 and it was so cute. They have so many young families with small children so it was noisy but so adorable. I loved it! After church we headed to Palmyra to see Joseph Smith's house and farm, the Sacred Grove, Alvin Smith's house, and Hill Cumorah. It was really neat to be in the heart of church history. The Sacred Grove was my favorite. Right when I walked into the grove I was overcome with peace and serenity. I know Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ in that place and because of that the world has been forever changed. I know Joseph was a prophet and I'm grateful for all of the sacrifices he and his family made to restore the true gospel in this dispensation.

E walking into the Sacred Grove

Pondering (I was trying to be a cool photographer - it never really works)

The Palmyra Temple hiding

In the Sacred Grove

Monday: E had to work so I laid by the pool all day and got my first sunburn of the year. I reapplied sunscreen frequently but the rays must have been pretty strong. It's not too bad of a burn but I can definitely feel it. Then I took the Marriott (love Mormons) airport shuttle to head back for NYC. I met up with Jamie in the city and we had BLTs from Grand Central Station and caught our train. The whole train ride was so much fun! We saw a lady eating pecans or some kind of nut out of an old orange prescription bottle with a childproof cap. That is the most creative tupperware I have ever seen! Then we just chatted about life and it took be back to the old days when we were roommates in college. It was so great and I feel so lucky to be spending time with her in Connecticut.

My weekend was lovely! Life is good!

South Norwalk, CT

Ok, how cute is the Curtis apartment (my home for June)? I feel like I stepped into a Pottery Barn show room. So adorable! The hardwood floor, cute stove, spiral staircase, and simple but classic decor make it a cute and cozy little place!

View upon entering

Dining Room to the right of the entry way

Darling stove right behind the couch - love the brick under it!

Close-up of the spiral stairs - I feel like a princess using them

Cute decorations

Pottery Barn

Upstairs bedroom

New York Air

Dr. Cole, a very brilliant BYU professor, is a little extreme in teaching style. I believe SCARING his students is his motivation for change. I took numerous classes from him during my BYU adventure, my favorite being infectious diseases. Although it was a great class, I am now paranoid about little intricate details found in everyday life that potentially pose risk.

Airplanes. Most people are afraid of airplanes because, let's be real, flying doesn't really make sense unless you are a physics master (ahem Joe Bond). So, let's take a very large cylindrical object that weighs thousands of pounds and stick some wings on it. The wings will be attached with some bolts that are durable and can withstand HOPEFULLY a lot of force. Then we will make this baby go hundreds of miles per hour to hoist it into the air magically (thousands of feet into the air actually, above pointy mountains and chilling seas). Sounds neat. And safe right? Am I afraid of airplanes?

Yes! BUT Not because I am flying in a heavy object that has the potential of crashing into land or sea - heavens no, that's nothing to be afraid of, well, most certainly less frightening than what Dr. Cole offered in lecture! Did you know that you are exposed to hundreds of infectious diseases (including TB, SARS, bird flu, swine flu, and many more) by riding on an airplane? Imagine this - sitting in a confined space with recycled air and infected strangers surrounding you. Gives you the warm fuzzies huh? Me too. Thanks Dr. Cole. I'm not really THAT afraid (at least not enough to get a Hello Kitty mask to wear on the airplane) but I think about it every time I step foot onto an aircraft. Anyway, because of my infectious disease knowledge I was really excited to exit the airplane, step onto the New York soil and fill my lungs with the "fresh" air.

Unfortunately fresh air in New York during the summer doesn't really exist. Well, I don't know that fresh air EVER exists in New York but the humidity and heat reminded me of this very quickly. My body is trained to cope with the Utah mountain air that holds close to 0% humidity. Needless to say, New York was 80 degrees with what felt like 99% humidity. Mmm. It's like a warm blanket of stickiness everywhere I go. Can I say claustrophobia?

Jonathan greeted me at JFK with his hip and trendy glasses with his matching hip and trendy Subaru. Despite all of my existing concerns about flying in the yucky air, I finally felt like I was in good hands. This is my home for the next month.