Jenny's Birthday and Finals

Chase is in the midst of final exams and papers. Soon he will be a lowly 1L no more, rather he will be a "rising" 2L. Hooray! It has been a wild, and mostly enjoyable, ride. See the picture below for the chaos that was Chase's desk as he wrote the final paper for his class on negotiation about Moses, yes the Old Testament Moses, as a negotiator with both God and Pharaoh.

We took a break this last week to celebrate Jenny's 25th birthday by hitting a local restaurant for an order of the famous "big dig" fries (see pic below).

Due to a busy summer, we will be shutting down the blog for the next few months. We want to wish everyone a happy summer and will be blogging again in August!

Spring Break x 2

We loved spending Chase's Spring Break in SLC skiing and seeing our friends and family. And, bonus!, we had Mad come out to Cambridge for her Spring Break the week after. We will let the pictures below tell the story of outdoor adventures, city exploring, and some exceptionally delicious food!

The Lion King Broadway Production

For our Valentine's/Birthday presents to each other, we went out to a lovely restaurant and to the Broadway production of The Lion King at the Boston Opera House. We went to Ivy for dinner (the Ivy League student is standing there under the sign). The dishes at Ivy are purposely small to allow patrons to get 2-3 different entrees each. We were really delighted with the 4 dishes that we ordered: gourmet lobster mac & cheese (had to try it-worth it), fantastic steak frites, the most amazing sea scallops, and an Italian dish of yumminess for which we can't remember the name. It is worth living in Boston just to know that there will be at least one fresh lobster dish at every restaurant, often with a unique method of preparation, e.g., tempura, mac & cheese, salads, sandwiches, soups, or even stuffed. After the excellent meal, we walked around the corner to watch the play. It was incredible. The costumes alone were worth the price of admission. The only thing to dampen our spirits, literally, was the lingering nor'easter. It has been raining for three days straight.

Happy Birthday Chase!

This week Chase turned 25! Wahoo! A quarter of a century landmark which we celebrated with an ice cream cake made for a five year old. Actually, we had a different cake specially ordered but due to an unhappy mistake we ended up with the beauty you see below. A little yellow frosting and some rainbow sprinkles never hurt anyone, right? Thanks to everyone for their well wishes and love.

Rainy but Inspiring Weekend

It has been a rainy, windy week. Chase's umbrella was no match for the nor'easter winds (see picture below). Chase had a special opportunity to listen to Elder Oaks speak at the law school on Friday. He had been invited by the Harvard Law Latter-Day Saints Society to talk about the tenants of Mormonism to the student body. He spoke in the Ames Moot Courtroom to an audience of around 300 people. After the event, Chase and Jenny got to go to the Harvard Faculty Club to have an intimate dinner with Elder Oaks and his wife, several other law students, and a couple of professors. We enjoyed the message they shared, Elder Oaks' sense of humor, and his wife's sweetness. Where's Chase?

We Love Veggie Planet!

We cannot think of anything to write this week, so we have decided to describe our favorite meals from our favorite eatery on Harvard Square. It is called Veggie Planet, and it is an incredible local, organic smorgasbord of deliciousness! About once a month, when we are feeling particularly rich in time and money (20 minute walk and $15), we treat ourselves to dinner at Veggie Planet. Usually, Chase gets their macarroni and cheese. We know what you are thinking: Chase is a health conscious dude, what would posses him to eat such a classic butter-based comfort food. The answer would be that it is disguised with whole wheat pasta, asiago and cheddar cheeses, and covered in baked broccoli, tomatoes, and scallions. Jenny traditionally gets the Henry’s Dinner flat bread pizza with roasted butternut squash, caramelized onions, rosemary & sage, goat cheese and asiago cheese. This week we branched out, well Chase did, and got the Portobello Redhead pizza with roasted portobello mushrooms, caramelized onions, rosemary & sage smothered in romesco (roasted red pepper & almond) sauce and topped with feta cheese. We got take out yesterday to give Chase a small break from a 14 hour day of brief writing. One day we will ambitiously try to create these meals on our own, probably when we move and go through withdrawal from not having Veggie Planet readily available.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We send our love today to our wonderful friends and family. Thanks for all of your support this year!

Love,
Jenny and Chase

Snow Day?

Today, Boston schools canceled classes due to the "inclement" weather forecast. We find this a little odd as there is no snow on the ground as of our noon walk (please see the pictures below). The forecasters have issued a severe weather warning for 5 pm, so naturally it is necessary to cancel school? Jenny is a little frustrated because she has double preps on Weds, so she will be doing her work/planning from home today without the materials that she needs because they are at school, because the snow day was supposed to be Thursday, because the principal said so the day before... Complaints aside, these things are a minor inconvenience because we have gotten to spend the morning and a good part of the day together. Chase took a break from studying so we could go for a walk in the delightfully snow free afternoon, and he spotted a gigantic hawk cruising around the heart of Cambridge! We watched it for at least 10 minutes and followed it from tree to tree around the neighborhood. We think it is the largest wild bird, aside from the bald eagle Jenny spotted in Vermont this fall, that we have ever seen. Peter, maybe you can help us identify what type of predatory bird it is. Anyway, the pictures are below along with pictures of the produce we started recieving today from Boston Organics. We signed up to get in-season fresh fruits and veggies delivered to our apartment every other week. It is a little bit like Christmas :) and it should help us to eat a healthier variety of foods.

"Baby, it's cold outside"

Brrrrrrrrr. And repeat, brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. With wind chill, temperatures in Boston have been in the negative numbers. One morning was even -11. Hot cocoa, sweats, and double wrapped blankets (at all times) have helped up survive to this point, but so far the meteorologists say that end of the cold snap is nowhere in sight. It gradually warms up to the high twenties this week, but that is without wind chill which we have learned is a very significant variable in local temperature calculations. Please send warm thoughts in the direction of the East!

Back to Back Dates

Before Chase starts his 18 credit hour spring semester on Monday (winter semester ended on Thursday), we decided to enjoy the weekend. On Friday night we went to a session at the Boston Temple, and on Saturday night we went waffle iron shopping and sea food eating. We are grateful to the gift certificate from our credit card points which made both evenings virtually free. This is also because our waffle iron search was a complete failure- whose idea was it to stock only $200 waffle irons? We will be sticking to BBB from now on.

Back in the Routine

We have been getting back in the routine: law school classes, parent teacher conferences, etc. However, we did make time over this long weekend to have some fun. Last night we went out for Thai food and to see Avatar with Kristen and Bryson. It was a great to get out and go into Boston. We really love living here, and Avatar was even better the second time. Check out our sweet 3D glasses below!

Weekend at Hogwarts

This Saturday, Jenny took the day off, and we went to the special Harry Potter exhibit at the Science Museum in Boston. The exhibit had a large display of props, sets, costumes, and its own Diagon Alley. Tragically, we were not allowed to take pictures except in the Diagon Alley store at the end. The pictures below are from that area, but they are not nearly as cool as the actual artifacts. Our favorite things were throwing a quaffle through a quidditch hoop; Hagrid's hut and the actual Monster Book of Monsters; life size and detailed models of Dobby, Kreacher, Buckbeak the hipogriff, Fawks the phoenix, and the Hungarian horntail dragon; the costumes (especially from the Yule Ball); and the actual wands from each wizard. Despite the evidence below to the contrary, both Jenny and Chase realized that they probably would be sorted into either the Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff houses. This realization came at an actual ceremony with the sorting hat at the beginning of the Hogwarts tour. We are still geeking out!

Chase standing in front of the actual knight chess piece that Ron rode in The Sorcerer's Stone!

Jenny rooting for Gryffindor!

Chase reviling in his evil Slytherin ways!

Picking up some school supplies at Flourish and Blotts.

Remember, the wand chooses the wizard!

This t-shirt in the museum store reminded Jenny of a shirt with the same cartoon that Peter wore years ago. Math geeks are almost as cool as Harry potter geeks :)

Christmas Break in Salt Lake

We had a lovely Christmas vacation in Salt Lake full of friends, family, and lots of movies! It was great to see our friends at Brent's wedding, get yogurt with Paige, Matt, and Ryan, and to visit with the Lords and Okazakis. Family time was spent either over delicious food or at the movie theater. We would rank the movies we saw in the following order:
1. Avatar
2. The Blindside
3. Sherlock Holmes
4. Invictus
Needless to say, we saw more movies in these last two weeks than in the fifty prior weeks of 2009!
Thanks to everyone for making this an incredible holiday vacation. We both had a great time and loved seeing those we care about the most!