3 Years, Some Tears, & the Poconos

 

Hard to believe it’s been three years since Jaden and I got married. It feels like it flew but also feels like we’ve been married way longer than just three years. As I was signing on and getting started at work I heard a knock at the window and opened the curtain to find Jaden had climbed up the fire escape with a bouquet of flowers. Cutest flower delivery and deliverer ever! 

Our anniversary fell on my first day back to class but I decided to set aside some time so we could have dinner and watch a movie together after I was done with work. Jaden requested his favorite chicken salad sandwiches for dinner when I had asked him what he wanted me to make. Since we were headed out of town with our friends end of the week and planned to eat out a lot then we opted to make food and hang out at home. That’s kind of a pattern in our marriage sometimes we go out to date night and dinner but we since we were dating we have always enjoyed making and enjoying food together. I think we have some of our best chats as we make food and clean up the kitchen together so I was more than content to have a night in.

 

 

Plus when we were dating I asked Amy to send me her famous chicken salad sandwich recipe because I knew Jaden loved it and I made it and surprised him with it after work one day. It was when I was living in Salt Lake and he worked in SLC a couple of days a week so he’d drive up after and we’d make dinner and then do homework and hang out together. This day we had planned to go on a hike and have a picnic and I remember him calling me so worried about what we were going to eat and asking if he should just pick something up and I was like “Just get here I’ve got it covered!” The guy is near to impossible to surprise! But I remember he was so excited when he saw I made one of his favorite meals. I also remember the hike was so beautiful and surrounded by my all time favorite quaking aspen tries. I sure miss my quakies Pennsylvania has them just not as many as Utah has. Good good memories though and they just keep on coming!

 

 

 The next few days were a lot of me juggling how to do work and school with two new classes and preparing for our trip to the Poconos. When Friday rolled around Zach and Jenna drove over to our house, parked in our driveway and we embarked on the 4 hour drive to the Poconos. None of us were really sure what the Poconos were but when you would tell people you were going to the Poconos they would be like “Ohhh yeah I’ve heard of that, that’s so awesome have fun.” Similar to Niagara I’m not sure if we hit the Poconos at the right time of year. I think it is a popular “skiing” location but for all of us ski snobs who grew up skiing out west that wasn’t the most tempting idea. We mainly just wanted to get out of the city and into the woods in a cozy cabin Airbnb and hang out for a few days. Which is totally what we did! The cabin was kind of in a neighborhood setting but it was surrounded by trees and it snowed most of the time we were there so it ended up being cozy and relaxing like we had wanted.

Well for most of us. I spent a lot of the time locked up in our room doing homework. One of the days I was seriously in the room for 12 hours only emerging for food. This finance class I’m in is no joke. It is such unfamiliar material and honestly felt like I was learning a new language as I listened to the initial lectures. To make matters worse we had a group project due the end of the first week so I had to hop on zoom calls with group members in three different time zones trying to figure out a project that was clear as mud to me. Needless to say some tears were shed but I completed my assignments and survived and was able to have some fun with our friends as well. Just not as much as I could have if our spring breaks aligned and I didn’t have class.

 

 

 

 

We hung out played games, ate out, made dinners, bought lots of firewoood, watched lots of movies (and a full season of barbecue competition show on Netflix) and took advantage of the hot tub in the back. Taylor and Keile joked that the Poconos trip was their “babymoon trip”before their baby gets here beginning of May. Hard to believe the crew is expanding and we’re getting a new member in just a couple of months!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All and all it was a fun trip made even better by the fact that we’ve got such a great support network out here. I say it all the time but truly don’t know what we would do without our CMU crew!

Peaches

• Celebrating being married three years and reflecting on all the changes and adventures we’ve experienced 
• Cutest flower delivery 
• Watching our wedding video and listening to the speeches given by friends and family on our wedding day 
• Going to the Poconos
• Playing games and laughing with friends
• Watching Jaden be so mesmerized by stoking and keeping up the fire in the fireplace
• Amanda realizing that the Poconos is featured on an episode of Friends where they try to go away together on a ski trip in Phoebe’s cab and get stranded and Ross has to come find them
• Airbnb had these cool art pieces that appeared to be pheasant feathers arranged in rings. Figure with my hunting family I will for sure be able to create some of these one day, told my dad to start saving feathers
  
• Surviving my first week back to school
• Having a job where I was able to work on the car ride and part of the time there
• Coming home and getting a package with some valentines from our nephews 

 

 

Pits

• Feeling so overwhelmed by homework
• Ordered a super gross Parmesan chicken dinner at one of the restaurants we tried
• Forgetting to get the beef broth at the store when we were in charge of making French dips, kind of important ingredient so we had to go out in a blizzard and get it and more firewood which made it a little more worth it and a little less frustrating for Jaden
• Having to be a party pooper and miss out on a lot of the fun
• Started a puzzle I bought for the trip but wasn’t able to finish it because we started it so late since I was so busy