puerto rico - day 2 & 3

sunday was our driving day. we attended church just outside of san juan. i didn't understand a word, but i liked singing in spanish. then we headed to the only rainforest in the us, el yunque. there we saw some great views and did a little hike to la mina falls. 

ben decided to get wet.

then we drove to the west coast of the island to the town of rincon, which is known for its world class surfing. we stayed at a lovely resort right on the water. 

ben surfed. i watched. we snorkeled and swam with lots of fishes and a turtle. 

we left at 3am on tuesday morning to go back to work and the cold. puerto rico was good to us. sigh.

puerto rico - day 1

boston is cold. puerto rico is warm and only a short flight away. so last weekend we left the winter at 1:00am on saturday morning and flew to san juan.in the morning before the rest of the tourists we explored old san juan, including the impressive san cristobal fort.

following a nap we hit the beach and wandered into some outskirts to see some of 'real' puerto rico. 

snowboarding, sundance & the mtc

ben's brother daniel entered the mtc a few weeks ago to prepare to serve his mission in mexico. for one last forrest family hurrah before he left we all spent a few days in park city snowboarding at the canyons and to catch some of the sundance film festival. even some shafers (cory & christian) joined in for the boarding.

christmas in san francisco

i miss living in san francisco. good thing my parents live in the bay area so we get to go back frequently. we spent christmas there, were very spoiled and enjoyed all that you can when the weather isn't freezing and snowing. 

on our day in the city we hit all the tourist spots where we have memories.

happy birthday #2

ben surprised me for my birthday with a stay in a bed & breakfast in new hampshire. we got a big snow storm that weekend. it looked like this:

and we had the whole place to ourselves! thanks b for a great birthday.

happy birthday

my mom made me a quilt for my birthday! i'm quite excited about it. now how does one hang a quilt??

day after thanksgiving

turns out ben loves the christmas season. the day after thanksgiving we went to a christmas tree lighting in downtown boston. very fun. mainly because santa and the fao schwartz toy soldiers were there. then on the following day we found a christmas tree farm and searched and cut down our first christmas tree. we've named him king richard the 1st. next step - getting a few ornaments and lights. happy holidays (and it's not even december yet...). 

thanksgiving

we wanted a very traditional thanksgiving this year after being out of the country last year. so we invited the cannons and the yins over and had a wonderful feast. we made our first turkey and it was a success. we stuffed ourselves with turkey, stuffing, potatoes, corn, rolls, green beans, squash, cranberry sauce and of course pumpkin and apple pie. then we watched football, played wii and worked on a puzzle. good thing we all ran the gobble gobble gobble turkey trot in davis square that morning. i'd say the first forrest family thanksgiving was perfect.

halloween in salem

with halloween on a friday night and us being only a short train ride away from the historic salem, ma ben thought it would be fun to join in the thousands of others descending upon the city. we arrived early and left early - both smart moves and still saw lots of sights and some amazing costumes. we of course did not dress up and simply people watched.

 

hartford run

after many many miles logged on the charles river over the summer i finally ran my 5th half marathon - this one in hartford, ct. we made a little weekend of it and stayed in town on friday evening followed by a beautiful saturday and 13.1 mile run. ben popped up a few times along the route and was a great motivator to get my personal best of 1 hour 55 minutes. 

acadia

the family came to visit boston for the fall on the one weekend when a hurricane decided to hit the northeast. we headed up to acadia, maine for a few days, never had any sunshine, but luckily didn't have too much rain either on the days we were out and about. here's just a few photos.

apple pie

when the family was in town we went apple picking (my first time). and suddenly i had more apples than i knew what to do with. one adventure in the kitchen with my new load of apples was this beauty. it did indeed taste as good as it looks.

moosilauke

this past weekend we had the truly remarkable experience of learning to square dance with the incoming class of freshman at dartmouth. ben's classmate from the gsb and dartmouth alum, bruce kennedy, was in town to call the square dancing during the freshman trips. rotating groups of freshman go on various outdoor 'trips' before school begins for some bonding and one night is spent at the moosilauke lodge in the white mountains of new hampshire and it is pretty much indescribable. tired freshman, crazy color haired and dressed lodge leaders, 1920's movies and square dancing! ben and i were along for the ride to observe and then go hiking with bruce the next day, but the freshman were a couple short so we got to join in the dancing and explain that no we were not members of the class of 2012. sure glad i don't look my age.

following the night of dancing we got to stay in this sweet dartmouth cabin. no running water or electricity - loved the wood burning stove.

saturday was perfect weather to hike to the top of mt. moosilauke, but first watch where you park your teeny tiny car.

bruce = simply amazing.

wedding photos

this past week we got all 600+ of our wedding photos. we still have to go through them closely to decide which ones to print, frame, etc. but overall i love love love them. if you live in the chicago area or anywhere hire kelli to take your picture. she's a delight and a dang good photographer. below are my favorites from the big day 4 months ago.

nyc

ben had to work a day in new york so we decided to go spend the weekend in the city. the lovely petersons hosted us in their fantastically located apartment right in the heart of downtown.

i was really excited to take the train down instead of the chinatown bus. that quickly changed after listening to the old asian man behind us sing 'fools rush in' by elvis for 3 hours straight. 'i can't help falling in love with you' over and over and over...

saturday was humid and then rainy so that allowed us to get together with nyc friends and eat lots of tasty food. brunch in the village, pinkberry in soho and dinner in columbus circle. sunday was gorgeous so after church we walked through central park and visited the met to see the jeff koons exhibit on the roof - very interesting.i heart nyc.