Three-month Catchup

Well, I've outdone myself this time with my blog procrastination skills!  Sooo I'm going to attempt to summarize the past three months in just one blog post.  Here we go.

Montana

My last post left off right before our Montana trip in March, which was just marvelous!  It was so good to see Munga and Pagene, and Uncle Mike and Aunt Anne, and I had a fun time showing Brad all the beauty Whitefish has to offer.  We went up into Glacier National Park and took in the scenery (couldn't go too far in as most of the roads were not cleared of snow yet), and on one of the days we went up to the ranch house and went snow-shoeing!  Whee!  Now, some gorgeous pictures.

Just on a walk around the neighborhood and WHOA so picturesque.

Maggie!

Attack of the Westies

 Sled dogs out on the town

 One the way out to Glacier we stopped for huckleberry milkshakes, yummmm

 Brad's first huckleberry shake.  I documented it extensively.  

 Approval!

 Making good use of the panorama setting on my iPhone.  I spy Pagene in the corner!

 Sister love

 On the back porch

 Whitefish Lake

 Snapped by Pagene

 Snowshoeing at the ranch!

 We tried to make a heart...

Talented husband!

Brad had a great time in Montana, just as I knew he would :)  It's a magical place.

Easter

Easter Sunday was the weekend after we got home...we put on our Easter best and went to church in the morning, then I made traditional Easter feast...plus tacos (Brad's request).

Ham, asparagus, scalloped potatoes...and oven-baked tacos for the husband.

I was feeling a little blue being far away from family on Easter Sunday, but Brad cheered me up by setting up an egg hunt just for me around the apartment!  (Yes I still get excited for egg hunts and yes I am 26.)  I took a nap while he hid the eggs...I didn't know he was also writing cute little notes to put in each egg, which was a nice surprise.  Then the big "Easter basket" was the leftover Easter candy placed in his cowboy hat.  Apparently it's a Doherty family tradition :)

The bottom right egg just has a piece of trash in it, and the note says "Happy April Fool's Eve".

Sweet guy :)  All in all a lovely Easter day.

Baptism

The next Sunday (or two after that?  I dunno, we're going pretty far back in time here) we got baptized!  We had gone to a new membership class at Trinity and our pastor told us we could get baptized during a service and have the church vote on our membership right after that.  Brad had never been baptized, and I had been baptized as a baby - in this church, baptism by immersion is a "symbol of obedience", not to "negate" my earlier baptism or anything like that!

It was a wonderful experience (and cold!) and we were officially voted in to membership right after!

I tried to upload the video (Pastor Shep was really funny about the water being cold - someone didn't turn the heater on) but there was an error, so here's a picture!  Very blessed day.

Friends

We've been spending a lot of time this spring hanging out with the new friends we've made in New York.  Always miss our Texas peeps, but it's really nice to feel connected and have "our people" up here :)  We're very blessed to have met some great people.  Brad even found a fishing buddy!  (now if only they can find a weekend to actually go do it!)

Cheering on our friend Julie in the Albany All Stars roller derby!  Nuclear engineer by day, roller derby girl on the weekends :)

My first time doing a shrimp boil!  (Memorial Day weekend)

 Dumped out on the table, as it should be.

Jenna, Sean, and Anna

 Bubble time!

 Side note: Brad found a local beer (Saratoga Lager) that reminds him of Shiner!  Woohoo!

 Jenna has gotten me hooked on the Troy Farmers Market

 Gettin fancy at the Schenectady Strawberry Festival

 Picking our own strawberries!

 I'm probably missing some other important happenings in my three-month recap, but it's 11:00 and I gotta go to work tomorrow and VACATION is in two days so I'm giving up :)  We're going to Cozumel with Teri and Jared for Jared's 21st birthday!  Work has been a bit ridiculous lately (I had a 12 hour workday and those are not fun) so this trip is very well timed.  Speaking of work, July 2 (the day we fly back from Mexico) is my one-year work anniversary!  Where did this year go?  The job has been great (despite a few long days), I love seeing new and interesting projects all the time and learning about engineering work from all around the lab.  It's always bringing new challenges, and that's a good thing.  On that note...peace out, work, I'mma head to the beach.

Bunny

Yup.

Valentines and NOLA

Well, today I said to myself "I should probably blog about our Valentine's Day before St. Patty's Day rolls around...so here I am!  But first, something I forgot to mention in my last post...I had my first humiliating slip on the ice.

 

The scene of the terrible slip.

The night before, the weatherman had warned of possible "snow squalls" (had to look that up...why does something like that exist and why do I live somewhere where that's a thing?) as well as black ice that may be covered by thin snow.  Well, I guess I didn't listen too well because in the morning, I set out to go to the eye dr. appointment wearing Sperrys on my feet (not the most rugged winter wear...)  The treacherous ice river you see above was covered in a thin layer of snow, so I had no idea it was there until I was on and then...I was on my butt.  I made a terrible groaning noise as I slid my way to a nice thud.  None of the neighbors were around to see (although they may have been laughing from their windows), but still...it was pretty rough.

On to Valentine's Day!  (yeah, over a month ago today...at least I'm here now?)  Brad has been going through his cases of Shiner that we bought on our way out of Texas.  Somehow, he still has about four left...but they'll be gone soon I suppose, so I got him a 6-pack from the local grocery store of 6 different "local" beers to try, so maybe he can find a new favorite?  Or at least an acceptable substitute?  He got me some beautiful tulips and some lotion/body spray of my favorite Victoria's Secret scent!  (I had only just "hinted" that I was running out...)

We didn't want to cook, but we also didn't want to do anything to fancy, so we ended up getting Chinese take-out and watching Taken 2 (also broke out the champagne from a brunch I recently went to where we didn't quite use it all for mimosas!)  It was a really great, low-key night.  And the next day was my 9/80 Friday, bonus!

 

 After the tulips opened up!

Also, check out this very funny (accurate) chocolate bar from Dad and Lucy...the "marital bliss bar"  :)  They sent several treats including chocolates from a classic Austin candy shop, loved having those reminders of home!

Next blog-worth topic...I went to New Orleans at the end of February!  It was for the Conference on Statistical Practice -- exciting, I know.  It was actually a great conference, much smaller scale than the JSM and they had some good topics.  But probably the best part is that Mom flew in to visit!  We got to hang out in NOLA outside of conference time and do all the traditional touristy New Orleans stuff :)  The food...was awesome.  Here are some pics from Red Fish Grill - fried oysters in a buffalo-like sauce, shrimp po' boy, and seafood + gator gumbo!  Yum yum!

A band playing in the street, like ya do.  We got their CDs!

Of course...gotta get the beignets.

This was at the Palace...it was an appetizer!  Crab cheesecake...kind of surprising at first since you expect it to be dessert-ish, but it was AWESOME.

We also got bananas foster...the waiter put on quite a show!  Another amazing dish.

Of course, we had to go to Pat O'Briens and get hurricanes!

All in all a fun girls' weekend (oh yeah, and the conference too...)  I brought back hurricane mix (complete with the authentic Pat O'Briens glasses!), seafood boil mix, and beignet mix...so one of these days I'll put on a little "NOLA in New York" for me and Brad :)  Also brought back boxes full of Aunt Sally's pralines, but...those are all gone already ;)

Outside of those adventures, things have been pretty good around the Doherty household!  (apartment-hold?)  Brad is about to finish another trimester of grad school and he thinks he'll do pretty well again with his grades.  Then it will be his SPRING BREAK and we're flying out to Montana for a few days to visit with my grandparents!  I've been wanting to get him out there since we started dating...such a beautiful place.  (and now made more popular by The Bachelor, haha.)

We're still getting snow sometimes...

...but I've pretty much gotten used to it, and can't believe we're about to have made it through our first New York winter.  Yes, it was pretty mild, but no complaining from this Texan!  There were even some snow flurries today, and Brad reminded me that the "first day of Spring" is five days away.  Five days!  C'mon, springtime!  Let's stop it with all this snow business.

Tomorrow we're going to see Demetri Martin with our friends Eric and Kate!  Eric and I started at the company on the same day (can't believe it's been over 8 months!)  He and Kate had us over recently to make homemade ice cream -- not the kind where you press a button and it's magically done 20 minutes later, but the kind where it's in a barrel and everyone takes a turn cranking it by hand.  Much more rewarding that way!  Anyway, they're cool people and they share our love for Demetri Martin, so it should be a fun night!

Whew, nothing like an impending holiday to make me feel like I'm behind on my blog.  So let's do this again, say, Easter time?