Day Trip to Rhode Island

We had a great road trip to Rhode Island this past Saturday. We headed with the Hadleys, Seawrights, and Gorbutts to Providence for an absolutely fabulous brunch at a place called Julian's. They had a ton of vegan options, so the Seawrights were particularly stoked. We got there before the crowd and the food was delicious!

After brunch we headed over to Newport where we drove along the beautiful coast, stopped for a few pictures, and even did a bit of walking along the cliff walk behind the massive mansions. It was fun but absolutely freezing so we didn't last long. So after a drive back to Providence we checked out a few shops and grabbed a slice of pizza from the Seawright's favorite pizza joint- Nice Slice.

Despite the horrific cold, the weekend was a ton of fun. We can't wait to go back this summer when its warm enough to enjoy the beach!

It was a clear and sunny day, which made the beach look deceptively warm...but beautiful.

I took a picture of the gang...

But really wanted to be in the picture too. Ha!

Walking along the famed cliff walk behind the Breakers mansion

The Breaker's Mansion

The boys pushing Elizabeth on some random piece of equipment used for football

The Seawrights, waiting for their pizza at Nice Slice

Dan and Lisa, chowing down

Christmas 2009

We had a great time during our Christmas break this year. We happily left 10 degree weather behind in Boston and spent a week in Mesa, Az. We stayed at my parents house and Adam's parents joined. It was a lot of fun spending Christmas together with both of our families at once. We feel really fortunate that our families get along so well.

I ended up taking 107 pictures while I was home but managed to post a few of my favorites. You'll see that I am pretty obsessed with my nephews Carson (4) and Blake (1). Neither of them really wanted to have their picture taken but they put up with me pretty well. :)

Lisa, Me, Tiff, Alyssa at Lisa's parent's house

We went out to lunch with Whit, Krista, and Jacque but my picture from lunch didn't turn out. :(
Adam & Carson = Best Buds
I arrived to Az a few days before Adam, which was great bonding time for Carson and I. But when Adam arrived all he cared about was wrestling with his Uncle Adam. The day after Adam got in, Carson walked in the house and the first thing he said was 'Where's Uncle Adam?'


At the Mesa Temple checking out the Christmas lights

Mom, Natalie, Lyns, Me, and sweet Baby Blake

Adam & I with his parents Vicki & Joseph

The whole fam!

Matt & Carson on Christmas Eve

Carson is wearing his new Christmas jammies

Christmas morning

Carson is holding one of his favorite Christmas presents: A Reindeer that poops Sugar Babies

Carson with another favorite gift: a Glowstation

Carson at our White Elephant gift exchange. His Mom won that awesome Jamaican hat but we all thought it looked better on Carson

Yet another picture of Carson, this time riding my Mom's little wooden reindeer (which dates back to when I was about Carson's age)

Blake in his new Christmas jammies. Blake loves to explore and is happiest when climbing Grandma & Papa's stairs or eating. I think he's a lot like his Aunt Marci. :)

Sorry these pictures are crazy, I have no idea why the alignment changed and I don't know how to fix it. But this picture is of Natalie and Blake when we were out to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant Tia Rosa's. Blake was not interested in sittig in his high chair.

Us and the Andersons at Tia Rosa's.

The whole group outside the restaurant...too bad Mom's head is blocking Natalie. Sorry Natalie!

Another family shot, although the glare is pretty bad.

Again, these pictures are out of order but whatever. This was taken Christmas morning. Carson is playing with his new table and Moon Sand. He absolutely loved playing with his Moon Sand and did so by himself for like 2 hours on Christmas Day!

We had such a great time spending time with our families! Thanks Mom & Dad for making it such a great trip. If only it didn't go by so fast....

The Power of Blogging- Shameless Solicitation

Hey Everyone,

I sent out an email containing a lot of the same info I'm going to post below. But I don't have everyone's current email address and figure I'd ask for your help on my blog as well.

I have a small yet budding business (Marci Anderson RD Nutrition Consulting) in Cambridge, MA. And in an attempt to draw more traffic to my nutrition website, I'm asking you to consider doing any or all of the following (see below) for me. It will improve my rankings on internet searches and save me $$$ on marketing/advertising. Thanks for considering!!!

1.) Add my website blog to your own blog list. It would be helpful if you could name the link to include the words "nutrition" and "cambridge" (i.e. Marci's Nutrition Blog in Cambridge). The blog URL is http://www.marcird.com/_blog/blog

2.) Write about me and my blog in a blog posting of your own. It would be most helpful if you could include the following words in your text: Nutritionist, Dietitian, Cambridge, and my website http://www.marcird.com/. But feel free to be creative and write whatever you want (as long as it's nice!).

3.) Write comments on my blog posts and visit my blog often.

4.) Send this email and invite other family members or friends that know me (or don't!) to do the same. I totally appreciate you spreading the word.

Thank you for entertaining my plea for help and I appreciate your support!

Thanksgiving 2009

Even though we are far from family we were fortunate to have a wonderful Thanksgiving with great friends. I hosted my first Thanksgiving meal and our good friends Lisa & Dan Hadley and Amelia & Barry Sorenson came over.

It was a lot of fun making a beautiful Thanksgiving table. We used our china and crystal for the first time (since we got it for our wedding 4 1/2 years ago) along with our table cloth from Damascus that we bought this summer and some really pretty chargers that my sister-in-law bought me for my birthday.

Adam & I also stayed up late Wednesday night figuring out how to brine our first turkey. It was well worth the effort. It was perhaps the best tasting turkey I've ever had. Amelia also brought the most scrumptious sweet potatoes (absolutely to die for, the secret trick- coconut milk) and Lisa brought her mouth-watering rolls and pies. It was all truly amazing. I think we really out-did ourselves this year.

Later in the evening more friends came over for dessert and games. It was a ton of fun until I kicked everyone out around 10:00. I had to get up early the next morning to teach a cycling class at 6:30 and need my beauty sleep.

But the party continued on Saturday, as our friends Bonnie & Patrick hosted a big group of us for brunch- complete with Patrick's "puffy pancakes", cinnamon rolls, orange rolls, hash browns, and eggs benedict. Wow. Then the ladies headed off to the mall for shopping, pedicures, and dinner that night. What a fantastic weekend. Two things I'm grateful for: good friends and good food!

Amelia enjoying her dark meat.
Adam: master turkey carver

Sorensons and the Hadleys before chow-time

My beautiful Thanksgiving table

Fun Weekend

I had such a great weekend! I Friday night with some of my Cambridge girlfriends for dinner and a movie. We battled out the crowds at the Boston Loew's movie theater to see New Moon. And despite the TERRIBLE acting, we had a total blast.

Back Row: Me, Bonnie Donigan, Amberli McCoy

Front Row: Aubrey Layton, Jhordan Cox

And one of my best friends (since 2nd grade) was in town. Whit was here for a conference and we managed to spend a couple evenings together. It was so great having her here, I wish she didn't live in Arizona. Adam and I are trying to convince her to apply for jobs/post-docs in Boston. Thanks for a fun weekend, we love you Whit!

And if you didn't notice, we are every bit as ridiculous as we used to be when it comes to posing for pictures. :)

A Link In Time

Just wanted to promot my Mom's new website and business A Link in Time. If you are interested in giving yourself, a friend, or a family member the gift of family history, consider hiring my Mom to do it for you!

2nd Annual Donigard Halloween Party

We hope you all had as much fun on Halloween as we did this year. Last year we missed the 1st Annual Donigard (Donnigan & Wangsgard) Halloween Party, but fortunately we didn't miss out this year. The Donigards went all out with food and decorations and the rest of contributed with some pretty awesome costumes.

Here's a shot of Adam and I. I wore my Abbayah that I got in Saudi Arabia and Adam got dressed up as a terrorist. Hopefully we didn't offend anyone on the bus ride over. Adam did win the award for scariest costume- rigthfully so. Doesn't he look frightening?

Food table

Awards and trophy for various costumes- unfortunately I came home empty-handed. Maybe next year...

Fun little game: had to reach your hand in and guess what you are touching (zombie eyes, blood sucking leaches, etc.)

Drink table: can't see the frozen hand ice cube which was awesome

Picture wall: elaborately crafted by Kate & Bonnie

Rich, Leslie, & Jonas: Live Poultry, Fresh Killed- a landmark here in Cambridge

Courtney and Quinn as a Marathon Runner and a Hardcore Singer

Peter and Eunice as Margot and Richie Tenenbaum

Bonnie and Patrick as Juno and Paulie Bleeker

Dan and Lisa as Sister Wives

Logan, Soren, & Kate as Egon Spengler, Slimer and Janine from Ghostbusters
Kate actually crafted his Proton Pack.

Laci as The Octomom and Christian and Berkeley as Curious George and The Man in The Yellow Hat

The Forrests as The Forrests (get it?)

Stuart and Aubrey as Captain Hammer and Dr. Horrible

Krystal and Richard as Madonna and Prince

Gwen and Andrew as an Avenging Angel and a Fallen Angel

Amelia and Barry as Temperance Brennan and Seeley Booth from Bones

Shawn and Jhordan as Elliot and E.T. (complete with Reece's Pieces)

Donut eating contest

Thanks for an amazing party Donigans and Wangsgards! Now I'm busy plotting for next year...