Acquisition of Seasonal Homes?

Ashton and I have just returned home from yet another trip--this time, the east coast. It was a spectacular time to go and see all the colors of fall in full force. I don't think we could have picked a better time to go to the mid-atlantic and then up to New England.

We of course, had to play croquet on as many capitols as we possibly could. We hit up the nations capitol, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and New Hampshire. It was so much fun. We got kicked off a few, but other than that it was great.

We met up with our friend Carrie. Her mom was out visiting so we got to see her as well...and get some free food! It was good to catch up. It's too bad Thanksgiving doesn't work out. Chinatown DC is looking pretty good these days. So Carrie, we told you we would put you up on the blog---so here you are---Gosh you look good!

So day one we spent in DC. We went to the temple and then played some croquet and walked around and met up with Carrie. It was a great day!

My uncle Phil's friend owns a home on the Chesapeake and every year they go crabbing and spend some time down there. We planned the perfect weekend to come and invade the expedition. It was great to hang out with Phil and Lori. Ribs were good, crabs were delicious, knobby apple cake put us right over the top! We went out in the water and I swear the boat was going to fall apart, but we survived Ira's ride of death.

We spent Sunday with Gram and Pop-pop going to church and eating yummy food. Eating--we did a lot of that on this trip. Abby came to play some croquet with us and Phil and Lori came later and ate. It was so good to talk and laugh. Phil is so funny. Sometimes I'm not sure why, but he just makes me bust a gut.

Monday was at Annapolis. The security on that Capitol lawn was tight. I swear at one point we had 5 security people staring us down. I don't know if it's because it was by the naval academy, or because our croquet set looks like a gun case. Who knows?

That night we hung out with the Sam Polakoff family. "It was mad nice sick wit it" as our cousin Ryan would say. And we "copped some serious eats." I'm not sure what dialect of English that is--maybe a mix between eubonics and cracker.

Our plans to go to NYC changed to going on a mini civil war tour. We first stopped to see the house where I grew up in. It sure looks a lot smaller than when I was six! We went to Harpers Ferry and did one of my favorite hikes on the east coast. Then to Antietam battlefield-the bloodiest single day in the civil war and then up to Gettysburg-the major turning point of the war. It was a good reminder of men who have died for freedom of oppressed.

We rode the train to New Haven, CT to meet up with our dear friend Becky who is attending Yale right now. When we first got there she had a class so we ventured up to play some croquet and then we have some connections to get a private tour of ESPN located in Bristol, but everyone was in a meeting. After waiting restlessly for over an hour, we decided to head back down to spend time with the Beckster and show New Haven some Buswell wrestling moves.

What is Buswell wrestling? It all stems from when Ashton's dad was a not-so-good wrestler and was always getting pinned. He decided that instead of pinning your opponent, there should be a game where you pin yourself while attempting to keep your opponent from pinning him/herself. It is quite challenging and very fun. So New Haven, we welcome you to the world of Buswell wrestling!

We made the venture through Rhode Island, and Boston, up to New Hampshire. IT WAS SO GORGEOUS! The fall colors were absolutely spectacular! Being from AZ, I thought that Utah was pretty. Nothing compares to the New England fall. I told Ashton that someday, if we ever become millionaires, we just might have to have a seasonal home up in NH of ME.

We stayed with my Uncle Wade. He let us borrow his gigantic truck which we took to Maine our first day there. It was so spectacular. We ate at a small town cafe--our favorites! Everyone knew everyone in there. They were all giving tips on the hot places to see. We took their advice and drove out to a beautiful lighthouse. We weren't able to spend a lot of time there because we had to get back in order to make it down to Boston in time to see Wicked. Which was awesome. It was so fun to hang out with my family and go out to dinner and watch that amazing play!

The next day we spent down in Boston. It was a little rainy at first, but at least it wasn't cold. We walked the freedom trail. Our favorite part of town was little italy. We loved the old buildings and flowes hanging from above and courtyards. We got to see a lot of historical places. We even saw the tombs of Sam Adams, John Hancock, Paul Revere and other famous people. There are lots of old churches in Boston and Ashton seems to be investigating them all. One of them is in the movie National Treasure. I haven't seen this movie, but Ashton has and so everytime we saw a church he thought that was the one in the movie, so we would take a picture of him with the church. But the correct one was the last church we ran into. So now we have Ashton with all these churches. Kinda funny.

We also stopped at the place of inpiration for Cheers--where everybody knows your name.

While we were there, we also went to Harvard to see a friends of Ashton's who is on the wrestling team. Maybe someday we can go there for ourselves. I don't know if that will ever happen--I might need more brains, but one can always hope of the opportunity. So, while we were at Harvard, we took a picture with a statue of John Harvard who apparently wasn't really the co-founder of Harvard, and there are no pictures of what he really looked like so the statue isn't really a replica of him, but everyone takes pictures by this statue, so we decided to jump on the bandwagon.

Our last day we just hung out with family. Ashton's cousin and her family came up and it was fun to see them and the rest of the time we spent with my family. It was a great trip overall. We loved being with family and friends in this beautiful time of year.

I don't think a seasonal home is in the near future. But one can always dream!