September Recap

September was a big month for all of us! I've posted the rest of this month's pictures in 2 sets: first, our California pictures, up until we left, and second, our first set of pictures in Colorado!
Also, for your entertainment, here's a funny video of Gigi in her new toy. She has joined the ranks with the others her age who love this fun bundle of "over-stimulation," as our friends the Avilas referred to it.


Part 1: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157602220816897/
Part 2: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157602214005808/

An Unlikely Role Model

I just read a Fox News article that made me happy. We need more celebrities like this model. While I still don't agree with girls like her flaunting themselves, it seems that at least deep down she has a good moral foundation. Maybe her reasons differ from mine (which come from the Bible), but hey, abstinence is abstinence. Hopefully our daughters will have more role models like Adriana in the future promoting abstinence within pop culture! Here is an excerpt from the article.

"...self-confessed virgin Adriana Lima seems to be among the celebs inspiring an emerging movement toward celibacy.

“Thanks to Adriana, all my friends and I are advocating chastity,” 20-year-old UCLA student Kate Jones told FOXNews.com. “We believe a lot of young girls have forgotten how to respect themselves, and it’s about time we went back to some old-fashioned values."

The abstaining young women spend time blogging and voicing their views on various Internet sites, using the Victoria's Secret and Maybelline model as their inspiration.

“There is definitely is an upcoming trend to wait until marriage even if it doesn’t have a religious motivation,” added a Hollywood-based psychologist. “It’s a positive way for young women to hold on to some power and independence."

Last year, Lima confessed to men’s mag GQ that she planned to stay away from bedroom buddies until her wedding night, despite the fact that millions of men have already seen her in next to nothing.

"They have to respect that this is my choice. If there's no respect, that means they don't want me,” said the 26-year-old Brazilian babe.

Lists

Now that we have been in our new home for almost 2 weeks, I decided to reflect a little on the past and the future.

Top things I will miss about California:1. My family within a short drive
2. My brother being a walk down the hall away
3. Our awesome CA friends
4. The beach
5. Our church
6. Surfing
7. Trader Joe's
8. In'n'Out
9. The weather
10. The Dodgers
11. Philly Grille
12. Golden Spoon

Top things I am excited about in Colorado:1. A new adventure!
2. Our few friends here (and David's aunt!)
3. The mountains and the sky
4. Seasons (T-storms, fall colors, and snow!)
5. Snowboarding
6. Lack of traffic
7. Our Rec Centers
8. SuperTarget!
9. The Light Rail to downtown
10. Finding a new church
11. More space for less money!
12. Having people come visit us!!! (hint, hint!)

It's been hard to leave California, but in the end, my home is wherever the Lord leads, and wherever my husband and baby are!

These lists were inspired by my friend Myste.

We love Boston!

We got home from our little trip to New England on Monday night. We really loved Boston- it is a great city- we think we even liked it better than New York City! As most of you know, the reason we went there was for a Red Sox/Yankees game that David won tickets to. We finally had our standing-room tickets emailed to us the day before we left! They turned out okay though; other than sore backs and legs, the standing room area had a great view, and we really enjoyed the game.
David was amazed at how Boston is truly a baseball town. Everyone talks about the Red Sox, from the lady we shared a taxi from the airport with, to our Duck tour guide. You see people in Sox paraphernalia everywhere, whether they are going to the game or not. We were happy to have the Red Sox win the day we went to the game even. The crowd was amazing, it was like a playoff game, totally sold out with people 4-5 deep in the standing area. Everyone cheers when they should without being prompted, there are no banner boards that tell you to "Get Loud" or "Make noise," because everyone does it at the appropriate time on their own (i.e. everytime there are 2 outs & 2 strikes, etc). We met up with our friend Jeff from HB, and ate at the Cask n' Flagon (a Red Sox fan haven) and I had the BEST fish and chips of my life!We went on a really fun tour on Saturday morning called a Duck tour (thanks, Pete Merandi for the recommendation). It is an old WWII vehicle that goes on land, and then drives right into the water to become a boat (with very entertaining tour guides)! Between that and the Freedom trail, we saw a lot of Boston, including lots of our country's heritage and history. The Freedom Trail we did on Sunday with David's high school friend Katie, who lives in Boston. It is a 2.5 mile walk through town hitting all the historical landmarks like Ben Franklin's grave, Paul Revere's house, the Old North Church, etc. The old brick buildings and uneven roads are so cool.
My favorite part of the city (besides Fenway Park) was the North End, which is where Katie lives. It is the "little Italy" of Boston, and it is so quaint and cute with cobblestone roads and an infinite amount of Italian restaurants and pastry shops. We tried cannolis for the first time- delish! We also walked around Harvard which is beautiful, and I think we feel a little smarter just for visiting. :-) We also had some authentic New England Clam Chowder at the much-recommended Legal Seafood- it was delicious.I hope you enjoy our pictures and I hope you all can visit this awesome city someday! Oh, and Gigi did a great job on the trip overall!
See photos (make sure to click the "i" if you are watching the slideshow so you can see the captions!): http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157602084527531/

We're home!

We officially live in Colorado now! We arrived to our new home on Tuesday, Sept. 11 and received all our stuff on Wednesday. We have made a lot of progress unpacking but we still have more to do. Now today (I know, we're crazy) we leave for Boston and will be back on Monday night, and then we can really settle in.I've posted the pictures from our drive out here, but here's a quick synopsis of how it went:

We left Saturday after David's last Mullets Baseball game (good news, they won and are going to the championship- David is sad to miss it).
We stopped at friends Jason & Kelly Merandi's house in Corona to say hi, see their beautiful house, and David was also able to take a shower.
We then stopped in Primm, Nevada for dinner at Buffalo Bill's Casino where our friend Blair was staying for a race.After dinner we drove through to Washington, Utah (just outside St. George) to stay with family friends Gary and Cindy Snavely. We stayed there until Monday and it was an awesome mini vacation. We visited Zion National Park (and Cindy babysat Gigi) and got to swim in their pool and ride their quad near their house. We had a really fun time, they were fabulous hosts!




On Monday we left Utah and drove all the way to Glenwood Springs, CO. It was fun to stay there because my Aunt, Uncle, and cousins lived there for about 10 years or so and I had been there a long time ago, but didn't really remember it. We stayed at a neat, old hotel - it's a beautiful town in the mountains!
Tuesday morning, we left Glenwood and the rest of the drive from there was just beautiful, going through the Rockies (and they really are rocky!). We stopped for coffee in Beaver Creek (just outside Vail) to have lunch with our friend (my former roommate) Jenny Schlenker who lives there now.Then the drive to Highlands Ranch was just a couple more hours, just enough time to finish listening to Harry Potter 1 on CD (David even liked it!). We picked up our key from our friends the Stopniks and then drove over to our new place. It was a fun few days. Gigi did pretty darn good for a 4-month old on a long, 1100 mile drive!If I missed you on the email with our new address, please email us and we will send it to you.
We look forward to having visitors here (hint, hint!), and we are very thankful that the Lord blessed us with a safe and fun trip!
Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157602013471459/

Summer's End

This summer has flown by like usual. We had a really fun first summer with Gigi. Here are the rest of our pictures from August and a cute little video of one of Gigi's new tricks (with Auntie Rena).
August photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157601887035811/