Friday, August 17, 2012

Is This Thing Still On?

The first half of 2012 has been kind to the Rileys.

January
I accepted a position with a new firm. Well, new to me. The firm itself is quite established and well-respected in the industry. I feel blessed to do what I do and sit where I sit for 9-13 hours a day. Perhaps less blessed on the 13 hour days. But I'm learning so much and stretching in news ways and what originally felt like drinking from a firehose has slowed to a really strong garden hose on full bore. So that's something.

We took advantage of the respite between jobs to take a winter getaway. To the north. We went NORTH in January! We panicked before we left and spent the day shopping for wool hats and long underwear. It was not in vain, for the week proved to be the coldest of my life (not hyperbole), the second coldest of Noah's - if you count the weeks he was getting the cold shoulder from me in college (hyperbole). But we enjoyed the warm hospitality of the Allreds in Vermont, the slopes of Stratton Mountain Resort, many lovely winter drives together and the European charm of Montreal and Quebec City. Sigh.



March
Travel tends to be featured heavily on this blog, but oh, how we love to travel. And especially when it's with delightful company. We got both in March when the Merkleys graciously hosted us at Joseph's parents' home in Virginia. We stayed fairly close to home in order to enjoy General Conference that weekend, but that doesn't mean we didn't make time to eat some delicious BBQ or find a giant bird head in an antique store. Because we did. Oh, we did.

 

April
April was like winning the lottery, as family visits go. We made a trip to Indiana and finally got to meet the newest addition to the Riley family. Baby M is so mellow. As one of four sisters with one baby brother, to a baby brother with four older sisters, I can attest to the fact this will serve him well.

The next week, we made our way to Boston for a weekend with Chris and Alan. We had a great weekend of long brunches, the Adams estate (second year in a row we've unintentionally gone for free during National Parks Week - holla! It takes a pretty secure nerd to "holla!" National Parks Week.), Boston Common, MIT, Fenway and walks at Walden Pond.











May
In May, the Riley family party continued with a visit from Christopher and Krystal, who shall from this point forward be known as Krystalpher. We packed the weekend with some of NYC's finest - War Horse at Lincoln Center, Newsies on Broadway, Central Park, Brooklyn Bridge - and also the Mets.



Stay tuned for the summer updates...