The Johnstons

We had so much fun this weekend with Eddie and Amber at the Real Salt Lake vs. New England Revolution game. We first ate dinner at The Pie Pizzeria and then headed over to the stadium early. To our pleasant surprise our seats were on the first row! It was so much fun to watch the game and hang with the Barfields. Thanks guys for a great night!

For my Grandma and Grandpa's 60th Wedding Anniversary we had a family reunion in Boise. Katie and Ben, you sure missed out! It was so much fun to see everyone and to spend the day hanging out with the fam and having a blast at the many different activities my Aunt prepared. Check it out:

First we had family pictures. We had the smallest family representation there by at least 10.

After a delicious lunch, everyone jumped into the pool to cool off. The men had a cannonball competition and then enjoyed seeing if they could dive through small intertubes. (PS, Katie, Dad totally had the biggest cannonball. And this picture is of our father.....don't worry he made it through. He was so proud of himself too. I think we were all secretly hoping he would get stuck.)

There were "blow up" activities such as this one below. I'm not sure what you would call it. Maybe "See how far and fast you can run while being attached to a giant bungee cord"..... The whole idea is too see who can place the velcro wand farther. "Yipee , I'm beating Piper!"Grandpa climbed the Rock wall.
Piper and Ryan played in the bounce house.
Grandma practiced her paintball target shooting.
Piper climbed the Rock Wall. (So did Ryan, but when no one was looking)
Ryan also practiced his target shooting.
We even had a little program where the male cousins sang a song while my grandparents danced, and then the girl cousins sang a song.
After the program we had a delicious catered prime rib dinner. This was the best family reunion I have ever been to and it is all thanks to my Aunt Karen. She had so many things for us to do and the food was amazing! We love you Grandma and Grandpa!

This past weekend, Ryan and I flew out to Boston to look for an apartment for Sept. We had a few appointments set up for Thursday with brokers to show us available apartments around the city. We arrived early Thursday morning, after taking the red eye flight, and had a few hours to kill before our first appointment. We walked around and saw some of the "gems" of Boston.

First, with out realizing it, we saw the biggest Apple store in existence. Once we realized it we went back to snap a picture for Andrew.
Second we took a walk around Fenway, probably the most treasured gem in Boston. And as McCain once said to Ryan, one of the best experiences of life is to watch a game at Fenway.Next, we went to the State House because ever since last summer, my mom keeps reminding me that we have to go to the top of the state house and see inside the Gold Dome. Although the dome was cool (no picture provided) Ryan and I much preferred the chambers for the State Senate and House of Reps. Both of these rooms were beautiful!
After our sight seeing, it was off to the hotel and apartment hunting. Thanks to Priceline, a tip from Beth, we scored a sweet hotel room at The Colonnade in Boston's beautiful Back Bay neighborhood.
Thursday we spent ALL day walking around the city of Boston looking at apartment after apartment. The first apartment we saw was our favorite and was far better than all the rest; however, by Thursday night we were so tired and sore we didn't think we would end up with anything. Late Friday afternoon we decided to check out the first apt again and as soon as we walked in the door we knew we had to live there. We put in an offer and filled out an application, and then left for New York. Saturday morning we found out we were accepted and that we would be living in the South End neighborhood of the city of Boston starting Sept 1. We are so excited and LOVE our new place!!! It's a two bedroom, so if anyone wants to visit the beautiful city of Boston (which I highly recommend) we will have a place for you to stay! Here is a picture (off of googlemaps) of the outside of our place. The windows behind the tree are our front bay windows!I will post pictures of the inside as soon as we move in. In the mean time, here is a view of the city from the roof deck of our building.
Probably the worst apartment we looked at was in Beacon Hill. It was a tiny 2 bedroom with a closet for a front room and nothing for a kitchen, but the view from the roof deck was AMAZING. Check it out!!!
The view of the Charles River....and Cambridge.
Well, off to NYC. We had a blast visiting with Kyle and Shadolyn. Thanks again for putting us up. And it was also great to reunite with Mark and Jaelynne. I just now realized we didn't take any pictures together. So sad.

Times Square

Washington SquareDylan's Candy Bar had "on loan" the Hershey's designs from Project Runway. It was really cool to see them in person!
Thank you Larks for a great lunch date! It was so fun to see your place and catch up! We definitely need to figure something out for this Fall because a trip up to Vermont would be amazing!Sunday we went to a Yankees game with Kyle, Shadolyn, and the Palmers. It was about 95 degrees out so with the humidity on top of that we only made it 5 innings. We had a blast though, and it was so cool to be able to go to Yankee's Stadium it's last year.


We had such a great weekend and it was such a successful trip! Now I can have a fairly stress free summer now that I don't have to worry about where we are going to live!

We went camping this weekend! Our ward had a "Camp Out" Activity up American Fork Canyon. Because we have never been camping before, and had no proper equipment, we loaded up the truck with all the blankets we own and borrowed some sleeping bags. I have actually never been camping so this was my first experience roughing it in the mountains under the stars. We had such a great time with the ward, and survived sleeping outside without getting eaten by bears!
Ryan was the designated "cheese" man.
And the designated "bed set up" man.
Most of the night we were bundled up around the campfire eating and chatting with the ward members.
Yay, we survived! Both Ryan and I are petrified of Bears so this was a little scary just sleeping in the bed of the truck. We also were afraid of freezing to death, but thanks to Eddie and Amber and their sleeping bags, and the fact that we didn't sweat (because sweating is a death sentence according to Les Stroud aka Suvivorman) we made it through the night and would even consider doing it again.
Check out this view. As we were driving up the canyon we felt like we weren't in Utah anymore. I think that's a sign that we need to get out more. It's gorgeous up there!