Love, The Durrants: 2014

Monday, January 6, 2014

Christmas 2013

We were pretty excited for Christmas this year because we were able to put up our very first tree in our home! Ever since my parents have been married, my mom has made it a tradition to get a new Hallmark ornament to put on the tree each Christmas for each member of the family. Last Christmas, she was pretty sad at the fact that it was time for me to collect mine and take them back to Utah with me. So this year, it was exciting to put all the ornaments I have collected since I was a baby on the Christmas tree.

On December 15, Nick's parents took us to the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Concert with special guests: Deborah Voight and John Rhys-Davies. It was their last performance for the week.

The week before Christmas, my parents came down from Idaho and stayed with Nick and me. They stayed about a week with us in Provo but spent Christmas Eve dinner and most of Christmas day with my brother Craig, my brother Mark, and their families in Salt Lake City while Nick and I spent Christmas with the Durrant side of the family.

The Sunday before Christmas, my parents, Nick and I hosted a family dinner at our home in Provo for the Leavitt family, where we also did our annual Christmas present exchange.

Christmas Morning

Santa got husband a new, heavy duty car jack (really was what he wanted) and me.....a kitchen aid! Woo-hoo! We were so excited! It was a wonderful Christmas at the Durrant home!

Love,

the Durrants

Friday, January 3, 2014

The Fall Holidays from 2013

Yes, I know this is also from back in October/November, but it had to be documented. I think my new year resolution is to catch up on blog posts.So, in that case, here are some photos from Halloween and Thanksgiving!

For Halloween, Nick and I really wanted to dress up as someone or something not thought of by anyone else at our Ward Halloween party.......we were aiming for originality, which eventually led us to our Halloween 2013 costume.....Costco Sample Workers with candy samples. The funny thing about our costumes, everyone thought we actually worked at Costco (not sure why anyone would dress up as their day job) but we liked to think they thought so because our costumes were that awesome! I taped a Costco logo, printed on computer paper, to a baseball cap. We taped our Costco cards to magnetic name tags we already had, and with the red aprons, first aid gloves, white polo shirts, and shoe boxes wrapped up in plaid vinyl.....wah-lah..... Costco sample worker! We loved it!

At our ward trunk or treat!

For Thanksgiving, it was my family's turn to spend the holiday with them! So once Nick was done with classes for the week, we drove up to Twin Falls, Idaho, the Tuesday night before Thanksgiving! My brother Shawn and his family were already up there to spend Thanksgiving with Nick, me, and my parents.

The 2013 Leavitt Family Thanksgiving Menu (and everything from scratch, I must add....we're pretty awesome):
-Shrimp cocktail for appetizer (Nick had jello)
-Homemade rolls
-Green beans
-Dixie Fruit Salad
-Yams
-Cornbread stuffing made from my mom's homemade cornbread
-Turkey
-Mashed potatoes with gravy
-Cranberry relish
-Candy carrots
-Lemon meringue Pie
-Pumpkin Pie
-Chocolate Cream Pie (family favorite)

It was wonderful!!!!

My mom gets the girls new aprons every year!

Love,
the Durrants

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

NYC Part 3

Day 4 (Oct 20): After all we had done the past several days, we were wiped out, exhausted, had aching feet, and so we decided to have a much more calm and less ambitious day. Day 4 in Manhattan was Sunday, so we had the privilege to attend church inside the Manhattan Temple building, across the street from Caitlin's apartment. It's pretty interesting how it's designed with there being a church building in the lower level and the temple being in the upper portion.

After church, we collected items for lunch and went to Central Park for a Sunday afternoon picnic. Caitlin took us on a Central Park tour, which we only saw the southern portion, and I couldn't believe how large it is. You could spend ALL day in Central Park and still not seeing everything. I had no idea! We then made our way to the Plaza Hotel, just to say we saw it, played around in the famous FAO Shwarz toy store. We headed back to Caitlin's apartment for dinner and lounged around for the remainder of the night.....just what we needed.

The Boat House!!!!

Remember this buidling???.....from GHOSTBUSTERS!!

Sadly, the Plaza was under exterior renovation

We peeked inside!

Day 5 (Oct 21): For our last day in New York, we tried to see the last few things on our list that we had time for (wish we were there longer). Since Nicholas loves philly cheese steak sandwiches, we went for lunch at a restaurant he researched to have some of the best in NYC. It was called Shorty's and was completely out of the way from our other sites, but anything for a good philly.... Nick insisted! After lunch, we returned back to Rockefeller, went Christmas shopping at the Macy's store on 34th Steet, visited Canal Street (it's the black market street with knock offs from Louis Vuitton, Rolex, etc...but don't worry, we didn't give in, we just wanted to see), visited Grand Central Terminal (I learned only tourists call it Grand Central Station), and met up with Caitlin for dinner at an amazing Italian restaurant called Becco's and dessert at a famous bakery called Magnolia Bakery. I think the first thing I miss from New York, is the amazing food and eating out at fun, fancy restaurants!

Nick and his philly cheese steak!

Had to walk in and check where their fries were from!

Macy's on 34th Street!

Canal Street

Grand Central Terminal

Again, thank you Caitlin for letting us stay with you and giving us our own personal tour of New York City, especially for taking us to eat at your favorite restaurants! You are amazing and we loved every minute we were there! Caitlin and New York City, we hope to return soon! You will be missed tremendously!

Love,

the Durrants

NYC Part 2

Day 3 (Oct. 19): To start off our third day in NYC, we went for a city bus tour. It lasted about 3 hours, hopping on and off different bus tours for the different areas of Manhattan and we enjoyed it! After the bus tours, we met Caitlin for lunch at the Shack Shake. When ever I mentioned that we were going to NYC prior, friends would always say to me, "Make sure you eat at Shake Shack!" Well, we are proud to say we did! Honestly, I thought it was equivalent to In N'Out but I still thought it was delicious and would recommend it! After lunch we made sure to culture-ize Nicholas by going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim Museum. Nicholas loved the MET (and even wanted to go back!) but not so much the Guggenheim, which was anticipated. We were just grateful we visited the Guggenheim on a night that accepted any amount of donation and not a full adult admission price. If you've been there or will be going, you will understand.

Later that day was my favorite part of NYC, seeing Wicked on Broadway and it was AMAZING!!!! The music, the acting, the singing.....it was all so fabulous! To top it off, we went for some famous New York cheesecake at a restaurant named Juniors! They had the largest slices of cheesecake I have ever seen! We purchased two slices, along with the most expensive grilled cheese sandwich I have ever payed for, and both slices lasted us for 2 nights worth of dessert. It was sooooooo good!