4th of july: new england style

i wanted a new england summer when i decided to stay out in massachusetts after graduation. and so far, summer has proven to be just that -- filled with new england sunshine, thunderstorms, lots and lots of green, and a very patriotic 4th of july celebration.

the day began at my friend bekah's house where we (per pintrest inspiration) decorated pretzels and strawberries

we brought them to her family's house for their annual 4th of july BBQ. it was held outside in their backyard and it was filled with red, white, and blue decorations, hamburgers and salads, patriotic T-shirts and plenty of festive spirit. and there was even a brief thunderstorm in the middle too!

after a delicious lunch we headed to the wakefield town parade

it was the perfect town parade -- lots of music, cars and bands, colonial attire, and politicians shaking hands along their walk. i loved it.

new england houses are decked out for the fourth with decorations and it was so fun to be a part of the celebration this year. nature also contributed to the fireworks show with crazy lightning that was fun to watch in the evening. 

all in all, it was a very happy 4th of july. hope yours was great too!

happy valentime's day!!

yes, that was an intended spelling mishap! when i think of valentine's day (that's the correct spelling in case you forgot), i think of the way my sister libby always used to say it: valentime's day. don't ask us why, but that's how she said it - and i kind of love it.

i love valentine's day. no matter how single i am, i love it. to me valentine's day is waking up to see's chocolate on the kitchen table and pink milk (food coloring o' course!), heart shaped peanut-butter & jelly sandwiches and maybe heart biscuits for dinner. it's lots of chocolate and those cute valentine's you get from your entire class in elementary school. i am blessed to consider valentine's day as a day where people tell  that i am loved. i know that's a gift.

my mom celebrates valentine's day the best. she decorates our house with all kinds of fun things and has M&M's and kisses everywhere. she makes valentine's day crafty and fun and all about love for friends and family which is the best way to celebrate it. i'm so thankful for the way she taught me to show love through the little things like crafts and chocolates and creative fun.

so this year i decided to have some fun with valentine's day and made some valentine's for my apartmentmates and friends! last week i had a little evening to myself which included the following:

1) chocolate

2) paper, glue, scissors

3) paint & sponges

3) friends episodes & nicholas sparks movies

i sat happily on the floor and cut out hearts and watched noah and allie and landon and jamie fall in love and enjoyed that while eating my nestle milk chocolate chips. laugh all you want but it was delightful.

these are what some of the valentine's look like...

and these are the little boxes i got at the craft store and had fun sponge painting them. i was trying to make the initials look pretty using limited resources (aka q-tips) and they didn't turn out so great...but oh well. there's always next time.

i then filled them with some delicious M&M's which i hope they'll enjoy

my next adventure will be in the kitchen attempting this recipe that i found on pintrest: 

i don't have exciting plans for valentine's day but i plan to wear something pink-ish and will consume as much chocolate as i can :)

so happy valentine's day! i hope you feel loved and get to love on special people today!

july: here and then gone

i have kept pretty busy this summer with work which has been good (and certainly helpful in financial terms as well :)) but this past month, i got to take a little time off for some fun adventures.

{Birthdays!}

we went down south a couple times during the month to celebrate my grandparents' birthdays (actually, my grandpa's bday is in august, but i'm adding him to this july post :)) i made a delicious key lime pie for my grandma's birthday dessert if i do say so myself, and libby made a lovely apple torte for grandpa's. it has been really fun seeing my extended family throughout the summer (hopefully we'll see my north-west extended family soon too!!)

{Mammoth!!}

my family and i have been so blessed with getting to travel to lots of places together. each of those trips has been filled with so much laughter and memories that we still talk about years later. mammoth was no exception: we had a wonderful time hiking, jacuzzing, resting, reading, walking, and laughing (lots & lots of it). the trip started off a little sadly since we watched the US lose to japan in the world cup final :( kelsey has been VERY into the world cup both last summer and this summer and has gotten our whole family really into it.

and although my soccer skills are terrible, i really enjoyed watching it last summer and this summer...particularly abby wambach. even if you are not a soccer fan you need to watch some of her goals - they were incredible. but after recovering from the loss, we enjoyed the rest of our vacation :) mammoth was absolutely GORGEOUS. no exaggeration there.

[hiking through the snow...libs and i spent some time on our bums during this part of the hike :)]

the mountains were still covered in snow which made some of our hikes a bit tricker as well as more adventurous :) i had fun leading the way through some of the trails which were hard to track since they were covered by a lot of snow. besides hiking, we took a ride up to the top of the mountain using a ski lift, enjoyed baked goods at the famous shatt's bakery, and enjoyed watching movies and playing card games.

[at the top of the mountain - SUPER windy!!]

on our way home from mammoth we visited the location of a japanese internment camp called manzanar. i wasn't super excited to get out of the car and walk through a museum, but this stop was definitely worth it. it is sad to me how these internment camps are not as widely discussed as other human rights violations that occurred during the war. while this internment camp certainly did not treat its occupants like the concentration camps in europe, the many hardships physically, emotionally, and spiritually, that these japanese American citizens experienced is truly heartbreaking and saddening. if you are ever in that area, definitely stop by the museum - it will challenge the way you think about how governments treats minority citizens and how easy it is to resort to rascist policies when there is panic from violence and war.

{Katie visits!}

after we got back from mammoth, my friend katie visited from arkansas! i met katie the summer before our freshman year of high school and we became friends quickly (how could we not with two sisters the same ages?) she moved to arkansas with her family after we graduated high school so unfortunately we haven't been able to see each other too often, but it was very fun to have her out west :)

we took advantage of my grandparents' pool, visited balboa island, shopped & ate out in santa barbara, saw a play in solvang one evening, and went to LA as well!

tribute to the tanz

[beach beaut]

i'm not much of a cat person - partly because of allergies, but they're also not particularly nice to me (if you would like to hear a funny story about me cat-sitting, you should ask...this might explain my problems with cats). anyways, enough about cats: i love dogs -- the ones that are sweet and fun and sort of dumb, but they're so cute they make up for it. that description describes our dog tanya pretty darn well and i know she was the perfect addition to our family 11 years ago. so to pay tribute to my dearest tanya vanbaker, here are 10 things that you may or may not know about her:

1. tanya's original name was taffy. i think we called her taffy for about a week before we decided we didn't like it and decided to re-name her. thankfully this time her name stuck

2. tanya is an expert gopher hunter. currently, the gopher count in our yard is at 9 gophers. my mom takes tanya outside to wherever the gopher hole is and tanya sniffs out where to set the trap and...9 counts later, we have a successful gopher hunter team! she also loves gardening and gets this cute smile on her face with perked ears and dirt on her nose & paws.

3. tanya loves chasing birds - and this has been a problem. one afternoon i decided to go rollerblading with her and we went by a neighbor's house who had a pet chicken-like bird in their front yard. since i was on wheels (never doing that again!) i couldn't hold on to the leash and tanya took off and got the bird literally in her mouth. somehow i got the bird OUT of her mouth and it ran off. it was a very embarrassing conversation to have with the neighbor later that afternoon

"Hi, my name's Alyssa and I was rollerblading down the street and my dog got your bird in her mouth...I'mreallyreallyreallyreallysorryisthereanythingicando??!"

Thankfully the neighbor happened to be a bird doctor and was able to help the bird recover

5. she likes apple cores and orange slices and sniffs them out from wherever she is in the couch to find you in the kitchen eating your afternoon snack

4. tanya LOVES the beach. maybe going along with the bird theme, she loves chasing the birds along the sea shore (yep, got one of those in her mouth too which was taken to animal rescue!). she loves the waves, and the sand, and then laying in the sun

[annual christmas present]

6. puppy training was a complete disaster: we spent the majority of the time trying to find her mingling with the other puppies and she didn't listen to any of our commands (rather embarrassing when you are the only family whose dog doesn't "come" when called but is instead sniffing the trash cans). somehow she "passed" the class...

7. we have never had a successful tomato crop because she always finds some creative way of attacking the garden (believe me, my mom has tried every trick possible to keep her out, but to no avail)

8. she once ate a plate full of brownies and had to get her stomach pumped and they found all kinds of weird things in their like a bouncy ball and a peach pit

9. she is quite sneaky and seems very well-behaved outside without her leash and then BOOM, she is off, running down the street. one time we had her leash tied to a big bounce ball which we thought would keep her in, but instead she took off with it trailing behind her and ran into the neighbor's house and the ball knocked down their new lamp.

10. she sleeps about 22 hours of the day

love ya tanz!

no place like home...especially for the holiday

home has been LOVELY so far:

slept for 12 hours on friday and stayed in the house almost the whole day (!!), cozied up on the couch with kels (later joined by mom & libs) to watch the holiday (see previous post about how much i love that movie) with hot chocolate (that's a given for me these days -- i think i've had it every day for the past week and a half)

..and today: hung out with precious sydney for the afternoon: we had a lot of fun :)

is she not the cutest thing you've ever seen???

fun things

i'm excited for this when i get home:

eloise at christmas is one of my favorites: i can't imagine how much fun it would be to live at a hotel (especially the plaza!) it's simply a delightful film always on during ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas Movie Marathon. watch it.

peppermint hot chocolate: i'll take any kind but nothing beats williams-sonoma hot chocolate and marshmallows. yes, it is ridiculously expensive, but it is also ridiculously delicious (i am REALLY hoping that we get this as a gift from someone this year - it will make me SO. HAPPY.)

side note: no, i am not ready to go home yet - there's too many exciting things happening! (winter ball, pancake breakfast, hanging with the APT, making gingerbread scones for class, finish the course delicious snacks...and finals maybe? not so excited about those)