2012: The Best Year Ever

2012 was a huge year. My life in 2011 and my life in 2012? Completely different. In a good way. But seriously. Things could not be more different now than they were just a year ago.

January
- We got engaged. (Not technically January, but December 28, 2011 is pretty close.... So I'm going to count it.)
- We started planning our wedding and picked a date, location and I found a wedding dress.

February
- Chuck flew to Boston to interview for LGO.

Interview Day!

March
- We found out Chuck got into MIT which meant we found out we'd be moving in a matter of a few months.

Out celebrating LGO, two days after we found out.

April
- I went to LA with my best friend to visit our other best friend and we went SKYDIVING. The decision to do this went something like this (via texting):
Liz: "Hey we should go skydiving in LA!"
Me: "Ok!"
Liz: "Seriously?!!?!?!?"
Me: "YES!"
Group text:
Liz: "Hey Emily, we think we should go skydiving when we're in LA in a few weeks."
Emily: "HELL YES."

And so it was decided.

Right before we got on the plane to jump out. So jealous of Liz's purple suit.

I promise you, riding in that rickety old plane was way scarier than jumping out of it.

May
- Chuck left his job at GE and I left my job at the Kentucky Center.

The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts.

 - We packed up our entire lives, said goodbye to our family and friends, and moved to Boston.

We look thrilled. This is what 16 hours in a car will do to you.

 June
- Chuck started school at MIT.

- I started a new job at MIT.

July
- We spent the 4th of July in the birthplace of America! Probably my favorite thing we did all summer.

August
- Chuck finished his first semester of grad school.
- We moved into a new apartment in Cambridge.
- We got married and I became Rachel Cummings!

Gettin married.

Thank you to the cranky desk clerk who took this picture for us at almost 3 am when we arrived at the Seelbach.

 September
- We went to Maine! A state I was pretty sure I would never visit.

- Emily visited us in Boston.

October
- We camped in New Hampshire.

- Hurricane Sandy happened.

November
- My sisters visited us in Boston!

Sami, you're supposed to lay ON the air mattress, not UNDER it.

Laura, enjoying a tasty beverage at an Italian restaurant in the North End.

- My childhood best friend Lauren visited us in Boston!

- We found out Chuckie got an off-cycle internship with Amazon and started planning to move to Seattle.

December
- End of Chuck's 2nd semester of MIT.
- Traveled to Louisville to spend 2.5 weeks with friends and family for Christmas!

2013 is going to have a hard time living up to 2012.

Happy New Year, everyone! Here's to new beginnings, new friendships, new challenges and everything else new that comes with a new year!

Maine

Labor Day weekend we took our mini-honeymoon to Maine. I call it mini because it was only for 3-4ish days and 3 nights and because we plan to take a bigger honeymoon somewhere more tropical and honeymoon-like in the future whenever we have time.  We had so much fun on this trip I would be fine with calling this our actual honeymoon, but if Chuck wants to take me somewhere tropical for at least a week later down the road, I'm not going to argue!

We stayed at the Maine Stay Inn & Cottages in Kennebunkport, Maine. Getting there on Friday proved to be pretty difficult, as it seems everyone else in Boston headed North for the long weekend as well. But we had snacks and the radio and a weekend of relaxation ahead of us so we were just fine with the 3+ hours it took us to get to what should have only taken an hour and 45 minutes. Instead of boring you with tons of details I'll just let our pictures do most the talking. I'm only uploading my favorites here and will load all of the pictures to a Facebook album if you want to see more.

 

Our cottage! And our rental car- Louisville Cardinal Red. :)

Portland Head Light on Cape Elizabeth near Portland, Maine.

Gorgeous coast

 

Not just any pedestrians, but elderly ones.

While trying to find a Target, the directions took us down "Cummings Rd." So obviously we drove up and down it until we could get a good shot of the street sign. We were actually semi-stopped at a green light to get this shot... Worth it.

Delicious dinner, drinks and dessert at Tia's Topside in Kennebunkport.

The Bush Family compound in Kennebunkport. Hey, George!

Waited in a long line at the Clam Shack to try their award winning lobster roll. It was... lobstery.

The B&B. Loved it.

About to head back to Boston.

We love Maine!

Here are my observations of Maine.
- The people are very nice.
- The beaches are very different from most beaches. The biggest difference? No palm trees. I liked it.
- You can get lobster at pretty much any restaurant you go to.
- The state is probably so gorgeous in the Fall with all of the colorful leaves and also gorgeous in the winter with snow.
- They do not see a lot of Kentuckians.
- They have moose crossing signs like Kentucky has deer crossing signs. We really wanted to see a moose. Instead all we saw was a wild turkey. Lame. 

Wedding Diaries: Honeymoon

So when we planned our wedding date, we thought we were planning it right in the middle of a two week break from school for Chuck. Unfortunately once we got the school schedule, we found out there's actually only a ONE week break- luckily for us it's the week leading up to our wedding. But, we were kind of bummed when we figured out that we will be getting married on Friday and back to school and work on Monday. And bummed that we would not have any time for a honeymoon, at least not immediately anyway.

Well, a few weeks ago we realized that Labor Day weekend is the weekend following our wedding, so I asked Chuck if we could just do a short getaway that weekend and then do a bigger delayed honeymoon later on in the next year or two. He liked the idea, so we started looking at Bed & Breakfasts in New England, within a couple hours driving distance from Boston and close to the beach. After we looked at pictures and read reviews, we decided on one that's located on the south coast of Maine.

Maine!!!

We'll be staying all of Labor Day weekend at the Maine Stay Inn & Cottages in Kennebunkport, Maine. The Inn is located right on a river and a little less than 2 miles from the ocean.

Here is the Inn.

We are staying in one of the "Contemporary" Cottages because we like the idea of a B&B but we don't like Victorian era furniture or crazy, floral wallpaper.

We've never stayed at a Bed & Breakfast before and we've also never been to Maine. So I am extremely excited about this mini, slightly delayed honeymoon. Lobster, lighthouses and stalking the Bush family summer home. It's going to be great.