I promise I'm not becoming one of those people who never writes on her blog.

Love Day

I know some people hate Valentine's Day. It's too commercial. Why do we need a day set aside as an excuse to show our love? Yadda yadda yadda. But I love it. I kinda always have, even when I didn't have a Valentine. But now I'm married and I have someone special to share it with every year. And I don't need a special day or excuse to show him that I love him, but I think it's great that there's a holiday to celebrate love.

I was lucky enough to get Tuesday (the 15th) off work, so we decided on a romantic overnight getaway to celebrate the holiday. Z picked me up after work and we drove to Atlantic City, only about an hour away. We made it just in time for our dinner reservation. So just in time that I had to change out of my work clothes in the car. So I probably wasn't the hottest date around. My clothes were wrinkly and my hair and makeup were work-ified, but it was still fun. We ate at PF Changs. I think we pretty much always eat there when we go to AC. It's really yummy. Of course we finished it all off with The Great Wall of Chocolate, which I think is my favorite dessert of all time. Mmmm. We stayed in the Harrah's Resort, which was very nice. The room was pretty. Everything looked new. It was nice. Tuesday, we got up and shopped for a while at the outlets and then came home. It was a perfect, relaxing getaway with my man.

Oh, and did I mention that he got me a box of chocolates. And another box of chocolates later. And roses. Spoiled little me. Love you babe.

A quick update

Hi guys. Sorry about the long absence.

I have been transferred back to a skilled unit at work, which I am thrilled about. I was getting a little bored on the intermediate unit. I moved from skilled to intermediate because that's what I needed to do to get a slot on the day shift, and it was totally worth it, but now I can have the best of both worlds-- day shift and skilled unit. It has been a lot of work and I definitely stay busy, but that makes the work day fly by.

Zack has started school up again. He is taking all his classes online this term. Between that a work, he is one busy guy.

We are looking forward to some exciting things in March-- a trip to Florida and a trip to Utah. Surprisingly, we were able to find very affordable plane tickets for both trips. I am personally looking forward to getting away from this cold, wet, snowy, icy winter. I HATE winter and I am so sick of it all. A week in sunny Florida can't come soon enough.

I promise a more exciting blog post is coming soon.

My future lawyer

Saw this ad on a bus the other day. Look at the name. Hee hee.

Christmas in pictures

We spent most of the break having fun and not thinking about our camera but we did get a few shots of some of the stuff we did. Check it out.

Talking to Sam in France

City Hall Tour

Waiting for the light show at Macy's

Dicken's Village. Marley

Ghost of Christmas Future

Ghost of Christmas present

There is love in the air

The picture of everyone

Feelin' the love

The White House

Supreme Court

Cute mom picture

The word "Death" on the wall at the Poe house... found while renovating the house to make it a museum. Pretty creepy

Turtle at the aquarium

Seal at the aquarium

In the Africa exhibit at the aquarium

Skyline view from Camden

Now us

A cold day at the beach

There's snow on the boardwalk

This one is for Megan. Megan's restaurant. And also a sign that says "cute, bright, and available". Totally describes Megan.

The parents with the steel pier in the background

Even Ceasar gets into the spirit of the holidays.

See, doesn't it look like we had a blast? Because we did. Yay Christmas!

Holiday rundown

Wow. We are already 10 days into January. Not really sure how that happened.

We really enjoyed the holidays. Zack's family came to stay with us and we did a ton of fun stuff. I won't give you a detailed play by play, but here is a brief rundown.

-Dec. 24th-- I was off work so we worked all day at home to prepare for the arrival of Zack's parents and sisters. They arrived in the evening.

-Dec. 25th-- We slept in and then opened presents. Sam (Zack's brother) called from France. We had a quiet, warm, relaxing day.

-Dec. 26th-- We went to church. It started to snow right around when church was ending. We stayed in the rest of the day and watched the snow storm from the comfort of our warm apartment.

-Dec. 27th-- We finally decided to brave the weather. It had stopped snowing but it was cold and there was plenty of snow. We went to lunch at Reading Terminal Market, took a tour of City Hall (cool!), saw the light show and Dickens Village at Macy's, saw the light show at the Comcast Center, ate some dinner at Maggiano's, and polished off the evening with Blue Man Group (um... so, so fun). Phew!

-Dec. 28th-- We checked out the President's House, a new display outside the Liberty Bell pavilion about the house where George Washington and John Adams lived during their presidencies. We also saw the new Museum of American Jewish History, which was very well done.

-Dec. 29th-- I worked and then put away all the Christmas decorations while Zack and his fam went to Washington DC.

-Dec. 30th-- Zack's sisters flew home. I worked. Zack and his parents went to see Edgar Allen Poe's house.

-Dec. 31st-- We went to the Camden aquarium, then went and ate fish at Red Lobster. Yum! I went to bed early (had to get up at 5:45 the next day). Z came and woke me up at midnight. I listened to fireworks from my bed then drifted back to sleep.

-Jan. 1st-- I worked. Z and parents went shopping and relaxed.

-Jan. 2nd-- I worked while Z and his parents went to church.

-Jan. 3rd-- We all went to Atlantic City. It was cold and very strange to see snow on the beach. We did some shopping, walked on the boardwalk, checked out the insides of some of the hotel/casinos.

-Jan. 4th-- I worked. Z's parents went home.

So you can see why Z's family had to come to us. I guess that's one of the downsides of being a nurse is that someone has to be there during the holidays, nights, and weekends. So I worked a lot. But we also had a lot of fun and very much enjoyed having them to visit. I'm sad the holidays are over because now we enter the long and dreary stretch of winter that I just hate. But there's always stuff to look forward to-- Valentine's Day, Florida in March, going to Utah for my brother's pre-mission talk in church. I think 2011 is going to be a great year for us.

A Christmas outing

We so enjoy Philadelphia at Christmas. A few weeks ago, we went out with the Becks to check out some of the holiday sights. We walked around the Christmas village near City Hall.

We watched the light show at Macy's. It was crowded, but I think it was the funnest time I have ever had seeing it because we got to see it with a little kid. Oliver was just darling. He kept saying "stars" any time he saw snowflakes, he said "bugs" when the sugar plum fairy lights came on, and he waved at the santa lights. Too cute. We also walked through the Dicken's Village. Oliver got a little nervous at the Ghost of Christmas Past part. And we saw the show at the Comcast center. All in all, a fun night out on the town. Then we came home and Oliver got to open his Christmas present from us.

Isn't he just adorable? And he LOVES cars.

We're so happy to have the Becks as friends.