Boston Trip!

We decided to go to Boston for the end of our spring break this last week. We needed to get out of Ithaca and have some new scenery, plus it was our one year anniversary! Our good friends Ben and Lexie came too. We had a great time and I must say it was a trip to remember. We started off in Salem, Massachusetts and went to the Salem witch museum and learned about how witches were prosecuted for the Salem witch trials. That was interesting because there were a bunch of girls who had nothing better to do than to go around pretending to be possessed and accusing people of practicing witchcraft and then the accused ended up getting hanged. Pretty sick huh?
We had lunch at "Cilantro", the best Mexican Resturant we've had in a while. You can't find authetic mexican food in Ithaca. We went to "The Tomb", which was an interactive Egyptian adventure where you have to figure out with your group how to decode riddles and challenges presented by the Pharaoh by using all your wits. That was really fun, I enjoyed it, and I recommend it if you ever go to Boston. We walked on the Freedom Trail, had lunch at Cheers, where everyone knows your name, but that was a lie cause no one knew our names; what a joke...... We went through Paul Revere's house, went to the U.S.S. Constitution museum, and saw the naval ships in the Harbor. We then had dinner in Little Italy where everyone looked like they were related in the restaurant, toured Harvard, and went to the Boston Temple for pictures. We walked around Fenway Park where Babe Ruth and Ted Williams played. It was cool because everything was still authentic looking, and we wish we could have gone to a game. That would have been awesome. Well, I could safely say by the end of the trip that both Lexie and I were set on moving to Boston. It's a beautiful city with so much to do, and eat, and there is great shopping as well. Unfortunately, we weren't able to do much shopping considering the fact that we are still poor college students. Here are some pictures of our trip. Hope you enjoy them.

Be careful what you say. Someone may be listening. Only slightly creepy.

One Year Anniversary

Wow, today is March 17th, St. Patrick's Day, which iss our one year anniversary. I can't believe how fast the time flies. It has been one crazy and great year here in New York. I remember this time last year I was freaking out to move across the country to a place I had never heard of before and for what? Only the best guy ever! I am so grateful for Gerret and the man that he is and for allowing me to grow while having the patience that he has with me. I can be a really pessimistic person and a pain in the butt and he completely balances me out. I have truly been blessed to have him in my life and nothing has been the same since we starting dating pretty much at my brother Danny and Veronica's wedding. Life has only gotten better from that day on and continues to do so. I know this is kind of a corny tribute to my Husband but I really am just the happiest girl in the world to have him by my side. He makes every day full of laughs and great times and for those of you who know me well, that is one of my favorite things to do, just being able to laugh. He is so smart and such a hard worker. I have honestly never seen someone pull so many all-nighters. Between working technically two jobs (the sorority and the library) and taking 17 units at Cornell... you must be out of your mind or an incredible worker. I know that all his hard and diligent work and efforts will pay off in the long run.
Here is a little history about Gerret and me. We have known each other since we were in seventh grade and we were in the same family ward back in Carlsbad. In high school I had the biggest crush on him. He was a football player, really smart and really, really good looking and he of course was Mr. Popular. Everyone loved him. I was non-existent at this time of his life and I never would have thought at that point that I would end up marrying him. Heavenly Father really does have a plan for everyone. It has been amazing with him by side so far. Yeah, so we aren't the perfect couple but I feel I have the perfect guy for me and am so grateful for him every day. Happy Anniversary Gerret! Thank you for everything that you are and do!
Here are some pictures of our wedding!

Palymyra Temple

So Carlyn, a good friend of ours, came to visit for her spring break and she had never been to the Palmyra Temple or the scared grove, so we decided to take a trip up there, plus it had been a while since we had gone. It was cold and there was snow on the ground, so everything looked dead, but the grove that you can walk through still has an amazing spirit about it. Everything feels so still and peaceful, and it is just so awesome to think that that is where everything started with Joseph Smith and restoring the church. To think how far it has come and how much has been accomplished by prophets thereafter is pretty dang amazing to me. I am so grateful for the opportunity to live so close to Palmyra. There is so much church history here. We also got to go to Palmyra's Hill Cumorah visitors center where they had an exhibit on the Dead Sea Scrolls. We didn't get to take pictures, but it was still pretty cool to hear the history of the scrolls and all the translation that they are working on. They have also allowed LDS scholars to do research on the scrolls as well. It is so fascinating to me that we can come across something so ancient and historical in our time that has such an incredible amount of meaning for our future. Here are some pictures of the Palmyra Temple, the Joseph Smith farm, and the Sacred Grove.

Winter Festivities!

So there was a really bad snow storm all today and going on tomorrow. We officially had a snow warning here in Ithaca, and i will have to admit for the first time i really liked this storm. I didn't enjoy driving in it of course, but the fact that the snow was soft and fluffy (the good kind of snow). So what did we do? We made a snow man, the first snow man we have ever made. Living in Southern California your whole life you really don't get that opportunity too many times. It was great! I loved it, but it's harder than you would think. Maybe it's just me, I am no snow man expert, but it took us a little over an hour to do that. Maybe I shouldn't admit that, but oh well, we had a good time.
Last weekend we went Ice Skating with our friends Ben and Lexie, also known as "Bexie". I haven't been in like three years, so it was time I tried, and that didn't really work in my favor. I have to remember to not walk on the ice but more like glide on the ice. Gerret is a really good ice skater i would have never thought that, he had some good moves! well to all who live in warmer climates don't take it for granted, cause you can just think about how Gerret and i are freezing out butts of in Ithaca right now.

Birthday Dinner!!!

So my Birthday was this last Tuesday February 12 And when i woke up it was about negative 17 with wind chill and there was a really bad snow storm the kind with freezing rain while mixing with snow so your car has the potential to just slid right off the road yeah lots of fun... so it was not the sunniest birthday i have had, Plus i had to work at the Hospital and the Sorority so it was an uneventful day for me but this weekend we celebrated we went to Outback Steak house with some friends of ours Todd and Abby, it was Abby's birthday on the 13 so we figured we should celebrate together we had a good time! I had never been to Outback i know its kinda sad cause its a good resturant so we will be going again some time, thanks for a great birthday dinner Gerret!

Okay so i have been really bad about writing in our blog probably because gerret is always the one to do it so i am gonna try to be better about updating. So this is the latests about whats going on in Ithaca New York we have about 14 weeks till graduation but who counting... we still have no idea what we are gonna do when that time comes we want to move back to california but we dont know we could literally end up anywhere. we are narrowing it down to either California, Arizonia or Texas we figure that is so much warmer then what we have expeienced here in New York the thresh hold of hell and excuse me when i say that but i have never in my life felt cold weather or how brutally painful the wind can be when its -8 degrees outside and your whole body just hurts and feels like a ice cube.

Work for me is going well but iam looking forward to not having to work there any more and get back to doing what i enjoy Masage therapy Its what i know best. Well we are definatly excited to finally be at the point to get to figure out where we are going and what we are doing we have worked so hard to get to this point and its nice to see the light at the end of the tunnel. we will keep you posted on where we are going and whats next.

Merry Cripas & Happy New You

In case you're wondering about the title, I got a text message from my older sister Marcie Shuman saying that I used to say Merry Cripas and a Happy New You when I was just a little guy.

Fall semester is over and Sarah and I took some time off and drove, yes drove to Texas for Christmas and New Years. We were there almost two weeks and had a great time visiting with family. Sarah's parents and sister Mary moved from their house in Carlsbad, CA to Mckinney, TX. They like their new ward and enjoy the opportunity to see their son Eric, his wife Amy, and 2 kids Hannah(4) and Austin(18 months) more often. We also visited Eric's family a few times and hung out with my brother Kurt, his wife Natalie, and 3 girls Lauren(8), Kaitlyn(6), and Caroline(4). They were tons of fun to hang out with. Its always great to be around family for the holidays, especially since we are pretty much in the middle of nowhere here in New York.

While there we looked at homes that Sarah's parents are looking to buy and looked at apartments in case we move to Texas after I graduate. We also went to the Gaylord Resort and checked out all the Christmas decorations and it was awesome. They went all out and spared no expense on decorations and everything. There were a lot of lights in other places as well and it was a lot of fun. We hope everybody had a Merry Christmas and we wish you a Happy New Year. Enjoy the pictures.

Flag Football Champions!!!

During this semester I have been a part of the greatest flag football team ever known to mankind. With a flawless record this season, scoring 263 points in 8 games and only allowing 18, we reign as champions of the Cornell flag football league.

It was a very fun season and we were also a part of the National Intramural Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA) Regional Flag Football Tournament hosted by Cornell University. Our team played in 4 games last Saturday and won all of them except for the first. The quarterfinals, semifinals, and championship games were all played on Sunday, so we forfeited our chances of winning it all. We can only speculate on how well we would have done had the rest of the tournament not been on Sunday, but our team is very confident that we could have won it all. This is a year we will never forget!



Top: Todd Runyan, Nate Fredricks, Josh Price, Scott Johnson, Gerret Montgomery, Jeremy McCarver
Bottom: Adam Treadwell, Ryan Miller, Gary Adamson, Chad Carlos