Mischief Managed: A Night of Potter

Okay, so I'm a HUGE dork. I love anything Harry Potter and have been reading the Harry Potter books since I was 12, so OF COURSE I had to go to the very first showing of the 6th Harry Potter movie!

Unfortunately, Drew had to work until midnight that night, so I was by myself until the movie started at 12:01 am. I was able to sit in an empty theater for about 45 mins before anyone else came in. It was just one of the NINE theaters they sold out that night! Once people started to file into the theater, some annoying kids sat RIGHT in front of me and some Harry Potter dressed people sat next to me.

Sitting alone in the theater... just a little bored

The Harry Potters sitting next to me

He was supposed to be Dumbledore, but he looked more like Gandalf

After 3 long hours of texting my co-workers in other theaters, reading, and eating my "poor man's Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans" (also known as Jelly Bellies), the movie started and Drew joined me in the theater! Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was a good movie, but I preferred the book instead (like always). I have heard a lot of people say they didn't like how much of the movie was just dialog; not a whole lot of action in this one. They also added scenes that didn't happen in any of the books and destroyed a building that takes an important role in the 7th Harry Potter! We'll see how they fix that in the 7th book movies. That's right, I said movieS, not movie. Did you know that they're making the 7th book into 2 movies that will be released 6 months apart??? They're brilliant! It's a LOT of information in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and they don't want to water it down... PLUS, they'll make a ton of money from them. Eight movies for seven books- weird.

All-in-all, we enjoyed the movie (even if it was so late) and we had a great experience with all of those other Harry Potter fans packed in that theater!

We'll definitely be doing it again for the 7th book movies. : )

We'll Be Travel Experts When We're Through!

I never thought I'd be the one to say that we're travelers, but this summer offers some new and exciting activities!

I have never met the Barron family in Florida. Since Drew and I are moving out west, I probably wouldn't have had the chance to meet them for a LONG time (and Drew hasn't seen them for 5 or 6 years), but we've planned a Barron family trip to Florida at the end of the month! I am so excited! We will be leaving for our drive to the Orlando area on July 29th, and will be returning to New York on August 6th. I'm not sure what we have planned for our vacation, but I know that we'll be soaking up lots of sun while we're there!

Another fun trip Drew and I will be taking is our road trip across the country to get to Idaho! We can't very well fly for a few reasons: we need to get our car out there, we have too much stuff to take with us and it would be really expensive to ship out, and I thought it'd be fun for Drew to meet my family throughout the country! We have planned out our exact route for our drive out west, with family stops all along the way.

Here is our proposed schedule:

August 10th- leave NY for Youngstown, OH, to spend some time with my grandparents, the Dumases, and hopefully my Aunt Linda and her kids (possibly spend an hour or two with my Aunt Dawn and her family)

August 11th- leave Youngstown to go to Zanesville, OH, to have lunch with my other grandparents, the Stimpsons and then continue on to Cincinnati to spend a few nights with the Ackleys

August 12th- spend the day and night with the Ackleys

August 13th- head off to Kansas City to spend a little time with my mom, Dave, and some of the Case family

August 14th- spend the day and night with the Cases

August 15th- drive for awhile to Cheyenne, WY, and stay in a hotel for the night

August 16th- drive to Saratoga Springs, UT, to spend some time with my sister, Kalin, and her family

August 17th- stay with Kalin

August 18th- drive the 4 1/2 hours up to Rexburg, Idaho, and move into our new place!

Can you believe all of the stops we'll be taking?! I am very excited to see my family and very excited for Drew to meet Aunt Linda, Grandma and Grandpa Stimpson, Aunt Jan (she'll be there with the Stimpsons), the Ackleys, and the Cases!

So there it is, our 2009 summer. : ) We know it will be fun, and we will definitely be taking lots of pictures to post!

Homeless? Us? Not Anymore!

Okay, so we aren't technically homeless because we're living in a beautiful home right now. BUT we have finally closed on a lease for an apartment in Rexburg, Idaho! YES!!!

Our new address as of August 10th will be:

600 Pioneer Road Apartment 102

Rexburg, Idaho 83440

Our Stone Brook Apartment includes:

• 1 bedroom
• cable
• internet
• full sized washer and dryer
• over the stove microwave
• covered parking (for those crazy winters in Rexburg!)
• great neighbors
• Complex Clubhouse including lounge with fireplace, hot tub, work out room, ping pong table, pool table, and movie room with projector and big screen

You can click on THIS LINK to see the layout of our new place! It's not exactly close to campus, but we have a car and Rexburg is a very very small town. We'll make due with what we're given! (By the way, the price is right, too!)

We are so excited! Okay, so it's mostly me, but Drew is really happy to be getting our own space. We'll finally feel like a real married couple! This may sound funny to you, but it's a complicated feeling living with your parents once you're married. I mean, I went from being single while living with my parents to being married while living with my parents... no transition... I didn't even get to switch to a new bedroom from the one I was staying in since I was 18. Weird!

So here's to new havens, being married, and feeling like a grown-up!

A Day in Niagara Falls

June 27, 2009:

Drew's 23rd Birthday!

Our 6 Month Wedding Anniversary!

We decided it was about time we went to Niagara Falls! Neither of us had been there to see the sites, so we thought it would be the perfect way to celebrate our special day! Since it's only 3 hours away from home, we made a day trip to the Falls.

Unfortunately, we were unable to go to the Canada side because my passport was expired, but we found some things online that we could have fun with on the U.S. side! We bought Discovery Passes; a package of tickets to 6 activities in the National Park: Maid of the Mist, Cave of the Winds, Niagara Adventure Theater, the Niagara Gorge Discovery Center, Aquarium of Niagara, and the Niagara Scenic Trolley.

We hit up 5 of these things according to their closing times. BAD MOVE. The Niagara Adventure Theater is a boring 40-minute movie about the history about the Falls. They could definitely put a little money into making a new one.

We rode the Trolley to all of our other destinations. It was cute and old-fashioned.

Being silly on the Trolley

The view from the Trolley: rapids leading to the Falls

Next was lunch. We wanted to go somewhere popular there, so we went to the Top of the Falls Restaurant. The view was amazing, as all of the tables were turned toward the wall of windows overlooking the Horseshoe Falls. The food was very good. Drew had the Fish 'n Chips; I had a delicious Portobello Burger with a garlic and herb goat cheese spread. SO YUMMY! The service, however, was awful. Everything went very slowly, and our server was rude and impatient. Because it took so long for our food to get to us, and then for our check to get to us, then again, for our change to get back to us, we were set off schedule and were unable to experience everything we wanted later on. So when it comes to the Top of the Falls Restaurant, we do NOT recommend going there.

Lunch at the Top of the Falls Restaurant

The view from our table at the restaurant

The Horseshoe Falls

Next! Cave of the Winds! Set back from the delay at the restaurant, we were torn between Cave of the Winds and Maid of the Mist. They were both closing soon, so we resorted to the closest location: hence, Cave of the Winds. It was actually really fun; it took forever, but it was SO worth it! We had a great time laughing at how we looked in our ponchos and getting wet next to the Falls!

The goofy complimentary sandals given at Cave of the Winds

We look dorky! : )

Carissa next to the Falls!

Drew at the Falls

Cave of the Winds! (I'm still not sure why it's called a cave, because you walk right next to the falls, not in a cave...)

Some nice Indian people took our picture

We walked around for awhile to dry ourselves off, and walked into some gift shops. We are such goofs- we wanted to find something memorable to take home with us, but failed miserably.

Having fun in the gift shop!

HARD ROCK CAFE, here we come!!! This was a must-do thing on our list. It was a little late for dinner, but we didn't care. We had a great time sitting next to Bono's glasses and drinking delicious "Alternative Rocker" drinks. The food was AMAZING and the ambiance was even better. This was definitely the best part of the night!

Our table view at Hard Rock Cafe: Bono and his famous sun glasses

Drew really WAS having a good time

Those drinks were so yummy, and we kept the Hurricane glasses!

As our night was ending, we went back into the National Park for a few minutes to take a few pictures of the Illumination on the Falls. It was beautiful and pretty cool.

Illumination on the Falls at night. So pretty!

We were very ready to go home, and even though it was 10:45 pm, we didn't get home until after 3 am. Drew and I were smart enough to realize that we needed to pull over to nap before driving the rest of the way home. We got home safely, tired from a wonderful day together!