rhode island anniversary.

      Well, we’ve already started to take advantage of our new location on the East Coast. We made a 3 hour drive to Newport, Rhode Island to celebrate our 1 year anniversary! We stayed at Rhea’s Inn & Restaurant: a bed & breakfast type place that had a great balance of affordability and king sized bed and gigantic hot tub comfort. Since I had never stayed at a B&B I was nervous of what to expect, but it ended up being a great experience. 
       We changed into our bathing suits and headed to Easton’s Beach. This was Jason’s first time going to the Atlantic Ocean. I’ve told him several times that the Atlantic Ocean is warmer than the Pacific, but of course he didn’t believe me until he felt it for himself. We found out later that the water was 73 degrees that day. I loved this beach. As you should know by now, I am not a fan of the water, especially water that can tackle me or has creatures that are bigger than me. Nevertheless, I was so excited to be at the beach that I jumped right in and swam further out than I ever have before. The only bad thing about the water was there was a bunch of red seaweed floating around, but the further you went out into the ocean, the less seaweed there was in the water. After swimming, we walked the length of the beach and had our pick of seashells. Jason pointed out the crab shells that had once been sideways walking crabs whose insides were eaten by seagulls.

       After showering off back at our place and getting a little dressed up, Jason and I headed to downtown Newport to have a fancy dinner at The Mooring: Seafood & Bar. I’m not usually a seafood kind of person, but apparently I was ready for anything that day. While we waited for our table, we walked around Newport and I quickly fell in love with the city. I loved all the cute shops, nautical things, and walking along the boat docks. 

      Back at The Mooring, Jason ordered a lobster for his first time, and I went with something I knew I’d like: salmon. We enjoyed the ambiance of the candlelit restaurant and watched the sun set behind the boats and into the water. Jason wasn’t exactly sure how to crack or eat his lobster. We were both laughing hard when he got advice from our lovely waitress on how to get the stupid lobster open. I was not laughing when I tried a piece of it. Jason warned me about the rubbery texture, after I had started chewing. All that mattered was that Jason liked it and that my salmon was awesome. 

       For dessert we walked to Kilwins: a chocolate and ice cream store that I literally smelled a couple of streets away (something I inherited from my mom) from our restaurant. There were so many choices, but I could not resist the way that caramel apple with nuts was staring at me. Jason went with chocolate covered marshmallows. 

       The next day, after we were sure it was done raining, Jason and I took the 3.5 mile cliff walk from Easton Beach to Bailey Beach. Had I known it was going to be such a long walk, I probably would have started complaining before we got there, but not knowing only made me complain during the walk. Luckily the breeze from the ocean made the heat bearable; however, we still managed to sweat a lot. Along the walk, we obviously had a fabulous view of the ocean and we also had incredible views of gigantic mansions from their couple acre backyards that I envied a bit. 

      A little ways into our walk, we came to a spot where you could walk down some stairs and get closer to the ocean. Jason, being the little kid that he is, decided to walk down the stairs onto the rocks and get a closer look at the tide pools. He made a small leap from one rock to another, but slipped on some algae and came oh-so-close to falling into the water. As Jason explained to me later: “One foot slipped, then the other foot slipped, then my butt started to slip and I put my hands out to catch something, but they slipped. I thought I was going into the water. It was the longest slip of my life.” That’s what this smarty-pants gets for wearing flip-flops. He also got to wear algae on his shirt and shorts for the rest of the day.

Just before the leap. . .

Bummer

      When we finally made it to the end of the walk (about 2 hours later), we realized we hadn’t figured out how we were going to get back to our car. We certainly were not about to go back the way we came, especially since the last part of the walk was mostly climbing rocks. After walking on the other side of the mansions, a pedi-cab wheeled by (essentially a cab pulled by a bicycle) and asked if we needed a lift. We hopped on and relaxed our feet while feeling extremely heavy while this skinny guy with dreadlocks pulled us up the steep hills and back to our car. Don’t worry, we tipped him well. By the time we got back to our car, we were extremely tired and decided to make the drive home. We both had so much fun and we really look forward to returning to Rhode Island some day in the future.

cowles family road trip.

      This is a video Jason made of our road trip from Idaho to New York. Jason wanted to be able to document everything that we experienced, so we took turns filming various scenes across the United States. I admit that we would have drove to our new home in Tuckahoe, NY more quickly if it wasn't for all the impulsive stops and pictures, but it wouldn't have been as much fun either. I hope you enjoy!

greetings from michigan.

On our way to New York, Jason and I had a fun road trip through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. It took us only 2 days and nearly 2,000 miles to reach White, Lake Michigan to visit my friends and family and pack up the rest of our belongings in a moving truck and head out for New York. We stayed in Michigan for a total of nine days, but each day Jason and I kept busy by exploring Michigan or clearing out my room.

Our first activity in Michigan involved leaving it. We drove with Mom and Dad to Marine City, Michigan and took a short ferry ride to Sombra, Ontario. It was a perfect way to spend a beautiful, sunny day crossing over the St. Claire River to Canada. I admit there wasn’t a lot to do in such a small city except browse in the small stores for postcards and watch several fishermen by the pier pull out gigantic fish. To finish our short trip, we ate lunch at The Aft Cabin and hopped back on the ferry and headed home. Even though we didn’t do a lot, it was fun to use our passports and spend time with my family.

I also had such a great time in Michigan catching up with friends. We went to Fenton Lake where Jamie’s boyfriend has a lake house. Jason and Buddy rode around the lake on a Jet Ski, while Jamie and I chatted on the pontoon. Later we anchored the boat and swam around in the lake and I was made fun of because I floated around in my life jacket. Before going back to the shore, Jason went knee boarding. The four of us then went to Uncle Ray’s Dairyland for ice cream and played Euchre.

Tuesday night, I went to dinner with Jamie and Nicole at Bravo! It was so fun to be together again. After dinner, and yes, more ice cream, the three of us watched women’s gymnastics at the Olympics – you have to expect that from three former cheerleaders! I absolutely loved seeing my besties again.

Our last event was driving to Holland, Michigan. Jason and I wanted to go somewhere new and close to White Lake, but we ended up driving two and a half hour drive, which is considered close for us. We went to Windmill Island where we went inside a 6-story windmill that was originally from the Netherlands. I’m not going to lie, but I don’t think I ever realized that windmills had a purpose other than for decoration. This one in particular was (and still is) for grinding grain into flour. We received a very informative tour of the windmill and the deck had a gorgeous view of the Macatawa River. There weren’t any tulips like I expected because apparently they bloomed and died early this year.

We then drove to Holland State Park where we walked on the beach of Lake Michigan. Jason was surprised at how much it looked like a beach in California except that there were no waves – or sharks for that matter. We walked up the jetty and marveled at a big red light house and the sailboats coming and going. It was a really beautiful moment to share with Jason.

A couple days later on the 3^rd of August, we packed up our furniture and belongings in a moving truck and said goodbye to my mother and caravanned to Tuckahoe, New York. My dad came with us to drive the moving truck and help us move into our new home. (There will be a post later about our road trip)

graduation day.

Well, I did it folks; I graduated from Brigham Young University-Idaho. Now all that’s left is student teaching. It’s a little difficult to set something up like that long distance, so I hope to work on that as soon as possible in New York. 

It was really great that my parents were able to come all the way to Idaho from Michigan for the weekend. Not only were they able to attend my graduation, but they were a tremendous help with packing the car and cleaning the apartment. It was nice to see and spend time with them after a very long year.

I was happy to graduate with my friends that I have met in my classes over these past three years. I’m not going to lie, the best friends were definitely made my last two semesters, which makes it harder to say goodbye. 

It’s quite a relief to be finished with college. When Jason and I first started talking about getting married, we realized there was a slight issue with him graduating in the Spring of 2011 because if I kept attending school two semesters a year, I’d be done two years after him. This meant I had to start going year-round. It was kind of stressful to attend college six straight semesters with only a seven-week break in the summer to get married, but by doing this, Jason only had to wait a year in Rexburg. Luckily, he had an awesome job to keep him occupied, as well as keeping busy with finalizing plans for Graduate School at NYU and figuring out the logistics of relocating to New York.

It’s weird to think that the next time I am in a classroom it will be to teach. I really learned a lot from my courses and I feel like they have adequately prepared me for the actually task of teaching. The thought of having my own classroom with my own students just makes me more excited and I can’t wait for what’s next. We left Rexburg on the 22nd of July and started our road trip to Michigan (where we'll be staying for about a week) and then move into our apartment in Westchester, New York.

a day for hemmingway.

     A few weekends ago, Jason told me he really wanted to visit the grave of one of his favorite authors: Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway’s grave just happens to be in the town of Ketchum, Idaho. I think Jason would have been really disappointed if we had left Idaho without visiting, so we hopped in the car and made the 3-hour drive. 
     When we were in the actual cemetery, we had fun looking for Hemingway’s headstone. We read on a website that it was between two trees, but that’s all we really knew. Luckily, the cemetery wasn’t very big and there weren’t too many trees. Although we were the only people visiting the site that day, you could tell by the amount of pennies placed on the gravestone that many people visit. We wondered what the pennies represented, so I looked it up. It can mean many different things; the most common traditions or superstitions are for good luck or to show that someone had visited. It is also an old tradition that people would be buried with coins to pay the toll in the underworld to cross the River Styx. I’m not sure what exactly the coins represented, but from their appearance you can tell that Hemingway is still sought out and loved.

Ernest Hemingway's grave

     After listening to Jason tell me a little bit about Hemingway’s life, he sat by one of the trees and began to read a short story written by Hemingway: A Clean and Well-Lighted Place. When he was finished, we took one last look at the place that marked the life of Ernest Hemingway and said our goodbyes. 
     Ketchum is a beautiful ski town that sits beneath Bald Mountain and many of the people that visit aren’t from Idaho or even the United States. It was enjoyable to sit down on the patio of an Italian restaurant, Rico’s, we had never heard of and listen to the conversations of those around us. Before leaving Ketchum, we stopped at the Cold Springs Bridge because Jason, of course, had to take a closer look. This type of bridge is called a Pegram bridge. They were used for the rail system and there are only seven Pegram bridges left in the United States, six of which are in Idaho. We enjoyed the peacefulness of the river flowing under us, the butterflies all around us, and the bikers passing by.

Rico's

Cold Springs Bridge

     About an hour into our drive home, we stopped by Craters of the Moon. This is a well-known place in Idaho and is the largest mostly Holocene-aged basaltic lava field in the lower United States. We didn’t stay long, but we did look across the fields of rocks and dust. Jason said he felt like we were in some sort of post-apocalyptic movie.

Craters of the Moon

our final adventure to yellowstone.

Since we are leaving Idaho at the end of July, we are trying to get in our last bit of adventures in the Wild West. A few weekends ago, we took our final trip to Yellowstone. It’s easy to complain about Rexburg’s weather and how cold it can get come winter, but when summer rolls around, I can’t help but feel spoiled from being so close to Jackson Hole, Mesa Falls, Grand Teton, and Yellowstone. Speaking of that awesome summer weather, it was suppose to rain in Yellowstone late afternoon, but Jason was intent on going because he knew how few Saturday’s we have left.


When we arrived at Yellowstone, we were greeted by the bison grazing near the meadows and streams. It never gets old to pull your car over to the side of the road and take pictures with childish excitement. I’m actually okay with seeing bison because, unless you get too close, you’re completely safe around them and they hardly notice you anyway.I feel like every time you go to Yellowstone, you’re almost guaranteed to see wildlife. Jason is still waiting to see a Grizzly Bear fishing in the streams for trout. I can definitely tell you that I won’t be getting out of the car for that one. 

This little guy was just crossing the street - no big deal.

We did our usual tour of Old Faithful, and like clockwork we arrived exactly after the last eruption. I swear every time we visit the geyser we have to wait an hour and a half from the Ranger’s prediction, but we took advantage of it and ate some hot dogs for lunch. Of course, in a place like Yellowstone, one hotdog is going to cost 6 bucks. After we ate, we headed back toward Old Faithful where we still had a little time left. The last time Jason and I watched the geyser erupt, it didn’t go very high and we were a little disappointed. Luckily, this time it redeemed itself and shot up really high! 

Hot Dog!

Old Faithful

Next we headed to Yellowstone’s Lower Falls. It took us a while to drive there so Jason and I started playing the license plate game from the cars that would pass us. We seriously got to 34 plates before arriving at the Lower Falls viewpoint. This waterfall is almost twice as high as Niagara Falls and is the largest volume waterfall in the Rocky Mountains. Lower Falls was absolutely amazing and now THE best waterfall we’ve seen together. It started to get chilly as the wind picked up, but we stood there admiring anyway. The sun even came out briefly so we could take some perfect pictures.

Finally we drove to Artist Paint Pots which wasn’t as majestic as the hot springs or pools, but it was bizarre to see the muddy water come gurgling up to the surface. We took a tour around the boardwalk and made sure to stop and take in the sun setting over the beautiful mountains, valleys, and rivers of Yellowstone one last time.

Hot spots

A Quick Trip to California

   Over Memorial Day weekend, things fell into place to allow us to have a reason to take a quick trip to California. Now, when I say “quick trip”, I most certainly do not mean it was quick to get there; I mean that we spent two days traveling and only two full days in California. The tipping point of convincing ourselves to go was being able to see Jason’s sister, Jessica perform the lead role of Cinderella in her high school musical that same weekend. It was perfect. We decided to make it a surprise that we were coming. 
    Unfortunately, by the time we arrived to California, Jessica was already fast asleep. When we woke her up in the morning, she exclaimed in a groggy, confused tone, “What are you doing here!?” I couldn’t help but laugh and think to myself “success.” 

"What are you doing here?"

Yay Family!

    For lunch, the five of us (mom, dad, Jess, Jason, and I) all met up at BJ’s in Laguna Beach. I was so happy to be able to spend some time and catch up with the family. The restaurant was right across the street from the ocean. Even though I’m not the biggest fan of being in the ocean, I sure got all giddy when I saw the big blue. I guess to me, it let me know that this was my time to relax and not stress over school.

Jessica's Birthday Pazooki 

Stuffed after a delicious meal at BJ's

Like a kid in a candy store

    After lunch, Jason and I walked along the beach and got our feet wet. Jason taught me how to catch sand crabs. He caught a full-grown one (the size of a quarter) his first try. I was a little squeamish and freaked out so when I finally stuck my hands deep into the sand, all I got were baby ones. It took me a while to finally hold on to one long enough for Jason to take a picture. The little guy kept trying to dig where ever he could in my hand to hide. It was really a lot of fun.

Digging for sand crabs

Eek!

Just hangin out

"I see him!"

My turn

Yep, that's mine.

    Next, we moved to the tide pools in the rocks. I had been to these tide pools before, but never saw anything, so I didn’t expect to see anything this time. I’m glad I was mistaken because we saw tons of crabs, shells, sea anemones, hermit crabs, and even pelicans. I absolutely loved watching the crabs walk sideways! It was so cool!

Crab! We saw a ton of these.

Pelicans

Laguna Beach

Got myself a chocolate covered banana

    That night, we went to Jessica’s high school to watch her perform as Cinderella. I was so excited to watch her because I’ve never been able to see her “in her element.” This is what she loves to do, and she is darn good at it. It was hard not to sing along with her during all of the songs. Our whole family was sitting in the second row where she pretty much sang directly to us. It was awesome. After the show, we all gave her giant hugs and told her she did a fabulous job. 

Going to the ball

Oh yes, I got it ;)

And they lived happily ever after.

We were so proud

    On Sunday, we drove to Grandpa’s to spend time with more family. It was really nice to catch up with everyone and share our plans for our big move to New Jersey. We also celebrated Jessica’s 18th birthday in which she opened the gift I had sent her literally a day before we officially decided to go to California. 

Relaxing by the pool

Happy 18th!

Well, what did you expect?

    On our way back to Idaho, Jason and I stopped in Las Vegas. I had driven past Vegas a few times with Jason, but I had never actually been there so Jason thought it would be fun to take me. Neither of the casinos we were in even carded me! After all of this time waiting to turn the big 2-1 and they didn’t even card me. I guess it should make me feel good knowing that I didn’t look like a teenager. 

Inside between two Italian casinos, were gondolas floating in the "river" while a man was singing.

    Anyway, we took forever looking for a not-too-expensive restaurant and finally settled for Otto Pizzeria. I ordered the ravioli because other than the pizza Jason ordered, it sounded like the most normal thing on the menu. Well, to my surprise, when it said it came with greens it did not mean on the side, it meant in the ravioli. Jason felt bad so for dessert we ordered a gelato sundae with three flavors: dark chocolate, vanilla, and pistachio – we fought over the pistachio. 

Before our meal, we ordered cheese and it came with all this stuff I didn't know what to do with.

I know, he's adorable :)

I won't be ordering this again.

Yum!

     After dinner, we headed back to the casino where I pulled the lever for the first time and probably the last. I don’t really understand the fun in losing all of your money. Jason told me there’s better luck with the card games, but considering I can never remember the rules to any card game, I’m a sure loser. After my new experience, we finished the dreadful drive back to Idaho where we will stay until we finally move in July!