Random Recap

Okay since I am pretty much a terrible blogger now I will quickly recap June and some of July for you.

This is a sweet licsense plate in the Boston Temple parking lot. I love the chain link frame.
For my birthday I got tickets for the Eagles/Dixie Chicks concert at Gillette Stadium where the Patriots play. If there's one thing Mike and I learned about New England its NEVER buy outdoor concert tickets...even if its summer (more like especially if its summer) it will without a doubt rain. This is me before the concert thinking "This won't be too bad, I can handle it."

This is me maybe two hours in thinking "Its not the most fun thing ever but I can handle it."
Needless to say there are no pictures of me 7 hours later...freezing cold.

Here are some videos for your viewing pleasure.

Drunk lady.

Classic.

This is for my mom since she bought the tickets. Sorry we didn't stay for "Love Will Keep Us Alive."

This is my favorite Eagles song...maybe its just a Joe Walsh single but anyways...its the best.

In the end of June our friend Lia from WSU came to visit a friend who lived in New Britain so we had lunch with her and Josh (another WSU friend) who teaches at UCONN. I believe the proper term for them is "colleague." You know, to make it sound more sophisticated.

On the 2nd of July we went with the Shamos and Jones to the Simsbury fireworks. We sat on the outskirts of the park and got to hear the concert and see the fireworks for free. Go us!
On the 3rd of July we had some friends over for pancakes. This is our friend Jason Soto who got baptized in our ward about 2 years ago. We LOVE him and have loved getting to know him in our time in CT.
The girls.
The men watching the World Cup.
4th of July after church. Didn't we tell you? Mike's running for office.
Mike got up early to prepare our filet mignon for the evening. He did a great job!
It was wrapped in bacon....so delicious.
At night we did fireworks in the Shamos street. This is Mike with my favorite firework, the Phantom Dragon Slayer.
The audience.
Woo hoo 4th of July!

This was my last day at WNPR! I made some great friends while working there and had lots of opportunities to do things I couldn't ever imagine I would do! Ever wonder what the people behind the voices look like?

Me and Lucy Nalpathanchil.

Patrick Skahill and Tucker Ives.
Chion Wolf.
And last but not least Catie Talarski and John Dankosky!

A couple of weeks ago WNPR launched a new site incase you want to check it out.

Hello Seattle.

Yesterday on our 4 year anniversary, la familia Barnes picked up and moved to Seattle. That's right. 5.5 weeks before Miss Rose makes her debut, we moved across the country to start a new adventure. Towards the end of May, Mike got an email from a Microsoft recruiter saying that she had found his profile on Linkedin and was interested in talking with him about a job. Mike hadn't updated his profile in two years so he was a bit surprised but figured it wouldn't hurt to talk to her. He had his first phone interview in the beginning of June, and two more phone interviews followed quickly. We took a trip out here on June 19 for another interview and had a job offer a few days later! We really can't believe that this all happened and soooo fast.

We had a lot of fun hanging out with friends the past few weeks. It was so hard to say goodbye and I don't think it has really hit me yet. They have all been there for me during my pregnancy and I just up and leave them before she even comes! Sorry guys, I love you!

We are currently living in Redmond in temporary housing and will be going apartment hunting over the next couple of days in order to get settled for Rosey. We hope to buy a house in a few months. We are happy to be back in the West and I still have not gotten over all of the Coug memorabilia.

This was last night when we got to the airport. On a side note- yes we are a committed Apple family. After seeing our two computers, our mover let us in on a secret that most Microsoft people he moves have Macs.

Happy Anniversary to us! We had a lovely anniversary lunch with Janae, Wyatt, and Owen at Cheesecake Factory. Janae had us tell the story of our wedding day and it was fun to think back. We think its pretty funny that our last anniversary without kids was spent on an airplane.

A Visit from the Christensens!

At the end of May, we had a visit from our great friends, the Christensens! Chad just finished vet school at WSU and they recently moved Chubbuck (not Chuckbuck like I originally thought), ID. We went on some great adventure's with them.

One night we went to the Guatemalan restaurant on Park St. We have been wanting to go for a while but it was perfect to go while they were here because Chad served his mission in Guatemala too.

Mike being reunited with tamales.


I had pupusas! Probably one of my favorite food ever, although it is from El Salvador, not Guatemala.
Mike and Chad with the Guate flag...and a little Guatemalan girl.
The guys with the owner, I don't remember his name though.
After dinner we saw this crazy moon!
We took a trip up to the Joseph Smith birthplace in Vermont. This was the second time for Mike and I and each time it was so quiet! It really is a neat place to visit.
The foundation for the Solomon Mack home.


After Vermont, we headed to Boston.
And ate at this fancy restaurant.

We headed down to the Garden to be outside when the Celtics eliminated the Magic. Mike was hoping that it would change my mind about liking the Celtics (and the Lakers at the same time).
I have now learned that you CANNOT like both.
The next day we took our first trip to the Boston Gardens. They were so awesome.


Mike got some awesome pics of this field of flags.

Monday was Memorial Day so we made some cinnamon rolls, went to a parade and hung out with some friends. It was so great to hang out with Chad and Jess again! AND eat Jess's cooking :) We love you guys! Thanks for coming out!

NYC with the Schelin's

At the end of May, we went to New York to meet up with one of Mike's best friends Dustin and his wife Janelle. They were out vacationing from Las Vegas. I hadn't seen them since our wedding so it was great to hang out with them again!

The first night we went to Shake Shack (of course) and Mike and Dusty stood in the line for about 2 hours while Janelle and I sat on a bench and talked.

In the morning I woke up to Mike and Dusty cooking us breakfast. They set off the fire alarm twice but no worries, Dustin is a fireman and made it a point to show where the stairs were on our floor right when we got to the hotel.
We wanted to be able to do something that we hadn't done in New York before so we decided to go to Ellis Island. We had to wait in line for a while and we saw some interesting entertainers.
This guy wrote cool songs about different states and countries.

The view of the city from the boat.
Lady Liberty.
We didn't have tickets to walk around the Statue of Liberty park so we just stayed on the boat and waited for Ellis Island.
Right before we took this picture, there was a family with four little girls taking a picture and we both looked at each other and said that we knew our family was going to be like that...four little girls. Haha maybe its just funny to us but we really feel like that's what's going to happen to us.
Listening to the audio tour.
The button hook that the inspectors used to check for Trachoma.
I think it looks so awful!

And for the best part...me taking a picture with my Great Grandpa's name! I had been waiting to see this for so long! It was so amazing to see this and be on Ellis Island thinking about him. The whole experience walks you through what it would really feel like being one of the immigrants. While there weren't too many people that got turned away, there were a percentage of people who were sick and had to be kept on the island, or sent home. My Great Grandpa had pink eye so there was a little bit of a scare that he wouldn't make it through. I am very glad he did :)
Antonio Catanese, my maternal grandma's dad from Italy. We don't really have records of my Great Grandma coming through but we assume that she passed through the island as well.
Even though I was pretty spent from all of the walking we had such a great time!