Plus 1 to the Finn Family

     Well, we have gone and done it!  Ryan and I are adding a little Finn Girl to our family, and we are more than nervous and excited at the same time.

     We found out that we were expecting around mid-October.  It came a little quicker then we were expecting, but we're very thankful and overwhelmed nonetheless.  Thanks to 3 tests that kept coming in positive, very quickly, we were finally convinced.  Before Thanksgiving time we had our 8 week appointment. Ryan was very lucky to have a nice Attending who allowed him to come to the appointment in the morning.

     I told my mom pretty early, because I needed someone to talk me through about what we did haha.  I was still in big denial and just needed someone to chat with, because well Ryan was in pretty big shock as well too.  We weren't going to tell anyone for quite a while, it's easy to keep a secret when your family lives 2500 miles away, but we decided to tell our family on Christmas since they were all together.  Everyone was surprised, to say the least, but excited for us as well.

     I have been very lucky, blessed, and grateful that I have only felt fatigued but nothing else.  I have been able to stay very active in the gym still and been working a ton as well.  I had been convinced that the little peanut was a boy.  But on February 18th, my birthday, we got see find out what the lil peanut was.....a GIRL.  Shocked again, but once we had a few hour to let it sink, the excitement has been overpowering.

Abbi is pretty excited, can't ya tell?

As far as I'm concerned, we will have a little ball player on our hands

Can't wait to meet you lil' one!!!

Storm Juno, Blizzard of 2015

     Welp, New England has gone and done it!  After last year's polar vortex and receiving over 110 inches of snow, Worcester being the most snow received last year in the nation, we were not sure how this years winter would be, but New England did not fail us.

     The week before the big storm was about to hit, we got a little storm that laid down a few inches of snow, and then the Saturday Storm Juno was suppose to hit, the big storm warning started.  It was another big Nor'easter coming through and it was getting the name Storm Juno, Blizzard of 2015, and of course #icezilla.

Thanks for the warning Boston

It started to snow Saturday late afternoon and just never stopped.  Before we went to bed there were maybe a couple of inches on the ground, but when Sunday morning came we had a big surprise waiting for us to go and shovel.

What our front door looked like

The Boston Mayor put a ban/restriction on road travel Saturday night starting at 11 pm through Monday night at 8 pm, except for of course "Essential Healthcare Workers" which includes Ryan and I.  Luckily, Ryan was on an elective cardio rotation so his attending didn't require him to be at the hospital.  UMASS hospital kept all the essential workers at the hospital who were working the weekend for over 48-72 hours and just kept them on a rotation, but no one could leave.  I on the other hand had to be in at the pharmacy so I had to brave the storm.  Not the funnest time of my life, but since we service homes who require us to get them their meds, it had to be done.

Anyone who was out on the roads and wasn't an essential healthcare worker received a $500 ticket.  I got pulled over once, no ticket, just the cop and I agreeing that it was retarded I had to be to work.

So due to me having to brave the storm and try to make it in to the pharmacy we had to do some shoveling and playing of course.  These pictures are of the first round of snow, we had received over 18" in less then 24 hours and the snow was still coming.  In total we received about 34" in 48 hours.

Someone just loves to play out in the snow anytime she can.  This is her letting us know it's time to go outside.

What a crazy winter we have had so far.  This was the big snowstorm that started winter off.  We have since received three more big storms which has put down over 103" so far for the winter of 2015 and it isn't over yet.

Holiday Time 2014

     This year was our first Holiday season in New England area.  Unfortunately Ryan had a pretty crazy schedule for the holidays, but we were excited for the cold weather and experiencing holidays with new friends.  We started out celebrating the holidays with Tania coming in for Thanksgiving and seeing Elf the Musical, it some how ended up showing on a day Ryan got off.

Ryan had to work Thanksgiving day, but luckily we have amazing friends who have become our family out here and Tania and I hit the road to have an amazing Thanksgiving feast with over 30 people from the ward.

These ladies have become some of my greatest friends and are more like family to me! 

This was my date to dinner since Ryan couldn't make it. 

Planning for some Black Friday Shopping.  In Massachusetts they have a law called the "Blue Law" where every store has to be closed on Thanksgiving!  Only one convenient store, gas station, and grocery store can be opened in a town for emergencies.

I cooked two Chocolate Creme Pies for Ryan to take to the hospital so they could enjoy some holiday celebrating.  Finally reunited at last, Happy Thanksgiving!

On Black Friday, Tania and I went to the Boston Temple and did some exploring downtown Boston.

Had to stop at the famous Mike's Pastry....delicious!

We then visited Paul Revere's home and did a quick little tour

On Ryan's next day off we went to Newport Mansions in Rhode Island.  Here is where all the old European multi-millionaire mansions are.  For the Holiday season they will decorate a few of the mansions and you can go and tour them.  I absolutely loved the mansions!  

The Breakers Mansion, owned by the Vanderbilt family

The Marble House, owned by the Vanderbilt Family 

(Mrs Vanderbilt designed as her own summer home)

It was a great Thanksgiving season and fun to do some New England exploring!

After Tania left for Utah, Ryan and I went and picked up our first real Christmas tree.  We were both really busy through the whole holiday season, that we just did some minimal decoration but we sure loved having a tree in the house.

Happy Holidays from the Finn's in New England!

Mount Monadknock

     Before the Fall foliage was completely gone we took a drive up to Jeffrey, New Hampshire to climb the 3rd most climbed mountain in the world, Mount Monadknock.  It was an early, and chilly wake up call at 4:30 am to meet the crew.

     We started just in time to watch the sunrise.

It was a good hike up to the top and worth the view.  It was very cold at the top with 40-50 mph winds, haven't experienced that in a while.

We are loving exploring New England on our free time.

36 Hours of Fun

     Sometimes in this crazy time we are in right now, when Ryan is switching from a day to night shift for a few days or week we can accumulate a little bit of extra play time.  This time we decided to hit up a close beach in Gloucester, MA and since it was past October 1, we could bring Abbi.  We got lucky and enjoyed the last 70 degree Fall day.

Good Harbor Beach

First time in the ocean

Lots of digging and rolling in the sand

After a fun day of playing in the ocean, catching crabs, digging for oysters we headed home for some relaxation.

The next day we headed up to hike Mt. Wachusett to see more of the amazing fall foliage before Ryan started the night shift.

Sometimes we get lucky with Ryan's schedule and can enjoy an extra 12 hours of fun before he has to work the night shift.  Here's to more adventures to come!