"this shall keep me safe from the hot mexican sun"

-me, referring to my SPF 50 sunscreen that I applied religiously

and also -Buster Bluth

A few weeks ago, Aaron and I took a graduation celebration vacation to Playa del Carmen in Mexico. It was the perfect opportunity to relax and do something fun before the monster that is residency began. 

Let's start with cenotes. Cenotes are giant sinkholes found throughout the Yucatan Peninsula caused by limestone dissolving in the earth. They make for awesome places to do my new favorite activity: SNORKEL. We swam in three different cenotes, two of which were underground, full of bats, and super cool (literally and figuratively). The other one was above ground and had the clearest water I have ever seen.

Underground cenote + Aaron's arm I'm too lazy to crop out. This was connected to several other cenote chambers that we snorkeled through. Not pictured, but also cool: there were a lot of long tree roots hanging in the middle of the cavern, growing toward the water from above the ground. 

Ultra clear water cenote + my blindingly white skin

So, let's talk about snorkeling. When I was younger, I was terrified of swimming in any natural body of water. I think it was mostly because I couldn't see what was under there and having some random plant or heaven-forbid fish brush up against me was horrifying. Guess what fixes that! Swimming in clear water with a snorkel mask! Having eliminated fear of the unknown, snorkeling was so much fun. We got to swim with turtles in the ocean twice. We also saw a couple of stingrays, a lion fish (!!!), lots of tropical fish whose names I no longer remember, and coral reefs. 

You know what is really hard? Taking pictures of fish. National Geographic photographers, I salute you. 

We went to two different Mayan sites, Tulum and Chichen (UGH I keep typing Chicken) Itza. Tulum is right on the ocean, and if I were a Maya, that is definitely where I'd want to have lived because it is gorgeous. 

Wouldn't you want to live in that stone hut? Iguanas could be your best friends! We saw a million of them here. 

Chichen Itza is further inland and is more restored than Tulum. It's actually a pretty big site.  I was expecting just to see the one iconic Wonder of the World pyramid, but there are a lot of other stone buildings and a huge ball court. Fun fact: the Mayans never used a keystone arch, so they had to use a ton of pillars in any large building to hold up the ceiling. 

skullz

While in Chichen Itza we overheard a tour guide throwing around the names "Nephi" "Lehi" "Lamanites" and we were like....MORMONS?! We had found the Book of Mormon Mexico tour group! Whenever I run into Mormons outside of church, it takes a lot of self-control for me to not be like "I'M A MORMON TOO! ISN'T IT CRAZY WE RAN INTO EACH OTHER IN THE WILD?!" I held back the urge this time though, and we continued on our heathen tour, learning about virgin sacrifices. 

I also wanted to record for posterity that we ate a lot of tacos and guacamole all over the place, and it was so good. Also, there was a little Venezuelan restaurant next door to our hotel, and that was also so delicious we went twice. Couldn't get enough of the kaxapas and arepas! 

Huge thank you to Wendy for loaning us the underwater camera so we could actually take pictures! If it weren't for that, all we'd have to document this trip would be a single photo of a taco on my phone (though maybe you'd prefer that after scrolling through this post). Yay vacation! Yay snorkeling! Yay tacos! 

so this is christmas

Aaron and I get a long Christmas break this year, and we took full advantage of that. My sister got home from her mission, so we got to Utah early enough to be there when she got to the airport.

Some of us were more excited than others that she's home.

 We ice skated.

 I cut off a lot of hair.

 We lasertagged. (I got 2nd place both games. YEAH.)

We took a snowy family photo and printed it out with the Andrus family motto and gave it to my dad for Christmas. Want to know the irreverent family motto?

"The Andrus Family: None better, damn few equal." 

Merry Christmas!

i am now wondering what laser tag in philly would be like

This year, we spent Christmas with my family, and then headed down to visit Aaron's family until New Year's Eve. As always, it was so wonderful to be home!

Here's a rundown of all the excitement: We saw two movies, "The Hobbit", as blogged about previously, and "Les Mis" (which I liked, but I also fell asleep during it). We shopped, ate too much chocolate, went bowling, made lasagna almost completely from scratch twice (no sheep slaughtering to make sausage), chased Brook around the house much to her delight, watched "Pitch Perfect" which was hilarious, and went to the temple for Zach. That was really neat. Aaron's sisters and I also went to the temple the day before to do some initiatory family names while my mother-in-law was working in the initiatory, and that was also really lovely. We probably don't try hard enough to find the time to go to the temple while we're on the East Coast (though with Aaron working nearly 70 hours a week in the hospital now there's not really time to be found), so it was great to go twice while in Utah. I love the peaceful feeling there. On a less serious and significant note, we played laser tag, and I won. I'm very proud of this because there were at least 6 teenage boys playing + Aaron, so you know. I am pretty hard core right now.

Some photo proof of our adventures:

Merry Christmas! Love, the Pulsiphers in 10 years

 Miracle Bowl- It's a miracle anyone bowls here.

(just kidding, we like Miracle Bowl)

Gingerbread houses and Abby's "museum of things covered in fondant"

See's = Christmas

Aaron's family is severely addicted to Diet Coke. Even Brielle loved playing with the bottle and kept getting mad at Aaron for taking it away.

The baby whisperer

Too cute. Can't say anything else. I'm out.

i've never had more non-perishable food in my possession.

After last year's Hurricane Irene ended up being not much more than a missed day of church and a walk to see the swollen Schuylkill River for us, we weren't too worried about Frankenstorm Sandy. Until for no apparent reason I did get worried and two trips to grocery stores later we had a new propane tank, five cases of bottled water, flashlights, a full tank of gas, and so much canned food and boxes of cereal. (and candy corn!) I even got interviewed by a news guy at Lowe's about my hurricane preparations. It was really awkward, and now I know I have no career in television. Thank you Sandy!

On today's preparedness agenda: buy flashlights + batteries (check), bake pumpkin bread (same idea as candy corn: if we must suffer through no electricity, we might as well eat something delicious), clean the bathtub.

Tomorrow's agenda: turn the temperature down on the fridge and freezer to their lowest settings, fill up water bottles and tupperware with water and put in freezer, fill bathtub with water.

Monday's agenda: SURVIVE. 

Any awesome monster storm survival tips you have that you want to share with the Utah girl who can only deal with snow? 

insta-glam!

is what I call Instagram in my head. Here are a few glamorous shots of our vacation: 

 Beach house had a pool! We would progress from coldest body of water to warmest by swimming in the ocean, then pool, then hottub.

I painted my four-year-old niece's nails. 

Then she painted mine. 

(Also, I got a massive sunburn on my feet. How does that even happen? Who puts sunscreen on their feet?! I do now.)

husband + baby (other niece) = I'm dying of cuteness.

 I'll understand if you're not.

yet another picasa collage!

A couple weekends ago, I went up to New York to visit my friend Laura who's living in the city for the summer (and maybe longer?!), doing an internship. It was so much fun! We had many adventures, from getting semi-lost in a sketchy part of Williamsburg to wandering into a Jewish neighborhood to feasting upon delicious banana pudding (>> cupcakes) from Magnolia Bakery to a lightning fast visit to the Met. 

Basically, it was exactly the Saturday in New York I was looking for. 

Thanks for playing with me, Laura! :)

we love visitors, yes we do!

This past weekend my cousin Sasha came and visited us from Massachusetts! And then, the day before she left, my sister Becky flew in to visit too! I can't even tell you all how nice it was to have them here. Like having friends again!

Cue photo evidence:

(i made this collage using powerpoint. how ghetto is that? any suggestions for better software to use for this sort of thing?)

We did all the required Philly things: Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, cheesesteak at Jim's. And then we did all sorts of other great things like getting caught in a rainstorm after eating crepes in University City, walking through an earthquake on our way to Betsy Ross's house and Elfreth's Alley, buying a Donna Summer record and a record hot pad at the Italian Market, throwing pennies on Ben Franklin's grave, lots of shopping (thank you thank you thank you Mom for the back to school shopping money!), taking touristy photos with the historically dressed people at Independence Hall, playing plenty of Dance Central on the Kinect, making coca cola cake, and watching "Raising Hope".

A perfect way to end the summer, really.

(Orientation starts on Monday!)

How was your last week of freedom?

[insert witty title here]

Today was full of more adventures. Drove Aaron to school without a hitch (early! he had to be there at 7 this morning for a day full of team building exercises). Walked all the way to Reading Terminal Market, and stopped along the way at H&M, Urban Outfitters, Gap (their body clearance is not nearly as good as Provo's!), and the Paper Source. It was lovely! I didn't even buy anything except $6 worth of fruits and vegetables at the market. Sometimes I have really awesome self-control.

(or maybe I felt guilty that I spent $10 on rainy cupcakes yesterday.)

Road the bus home, which is always an adventure. I would've rather walked, but I was carrying too much stuff, and it was too hot outside. Played Dance Central on the Kinect. Did laundry. Read The Emperor of All Maladies. Glued a puzzle. Got a package from my mom!

Probably this was the best part of my day. I opened it up and there were two books on the New Testament, a note from my mom, a note from my sister Jenny, and some candy! I read Jenny's note and started to cry. (surprise, surprise) It was nice to feel remembered and have a little piece of home in my hands.

coconut frosting, all over the box

I think you're going to see an increase in blogging from me in the next couple weeks, since Aaron is at orientation/class all day, and I am being really productive watching Masterchef on Hulu! Also, I am practicing baking. (see last cookie post, and soon to come garlic knot roll post.)

So far, today has been fairly exciting. This morning I dropped Aaron off at school by way of a different bridge than yesterday. Then, I drove over to Target to buy some much needed hangers (we broke some in the move/never had enough?) and an alarm clock. I then went to ShopRite for groceries and found ground turkey for $2.65 for 1.25 lbs!!!! Wow!!! Excitement!!! We keep finding it for no cheaper than $3.50, so this was a big deal. Next up, laying in bed trying to fall back asleep (it was only 10:00 AM, and I had nothing else to do). When that didn't pan out (too excited over ground turkey!!!), I watched last night's episode of Masterchef, which was more like an episode of Hell's Kitchen.

But wait, this day gets even better! Aaron and I had seen a little dry cleaner place and a cupcake place not too far from where we live, and I thought to myself, I have owned that Express cheetah-lined pencil skirt for two years now and have never cleaned it. This is maybe gross. So what did I do? Grabbed my skirt and went to the dry cleaners! It was raining a little bit, but it was a good thing because it meant it wasn't 90 degrees outside. After the cleaners I went to the cupcake place which had a $10 minimum credit card purchase, and all I had was a dollar cash, so 4 cupcakes it was! I was really excited about these cupcakes because I hadn't bought a cupcake since I dragged Aaron to the Sweet Tooth Fairy back in Provo months ago. But right as I walked out of the store, it started pouring. I started running. But I was too slow, and my house was too far, and my cupcake box got all rainy, and my cupcakes got all smooshed.

really attractive me and a smashed carrot cake cupcake (carrot cupcake?)

It was okay though, because I felt like I really live here (if dry cleaning doesn't say permanence, I don't know what does). It was also nice to get out of the house again, and it was actually sort of pleasant being rained on.

Aaron won't get home until around 7:00 tonight, so who knows what other adventures I'll have!
Have you had any adventures lately?

i love my rand mcnally atlas. thank you grandpa!

We are nearly done with our East Coast exodus, our never ending tour of I-80. Here's a brief recap of the trip so far:

 

Day 1: Utah-Wyoming-Nebraska

I have almost nothing to say about this day, except, why would anyone hold a basketball camp in Kearney, NE and take up all the hotel rooms in the middle of nowhere city?

Day 2: Nebraska-Iowa-Illinois-Indiana

We ate pizza at Giordano's, a little south of Chicago in Orland Park. Delish. That thing is filled with cheese! Probably about 2,000 calories a slice, but so worth it. Also, I saw lightning bugs for the first time in 14 years (since we moved from Indiana), and they are just as cool as I remember them as an 8 year old.

Day 3: Indiana-Ohio-PENNSYLVANIA!!!

Being only around 11 hours from our final destination, we decided to do some sightseeing. We stopped in Kirtland, OH and visited church history sites. We toured the Kirtland Temple and the Newel K. Whitney store. We would've seen a few more buildings (sawmill, ashery, historic houses, etc.) but our tour ran a little long, and we were getting starving, not having eaten since pizza the night before. So we drove onward to PA! Our GPS took us in sort of a roundabout, through residential areas way to get back to I-80 so we got to see some Amish country! Horses and buggies! Little kids in bonnets! It was awesome, and well worth the detour.

And we are currently in western Pennsylvania, having eaten at a terrible Applebee's down the street from our hotel. (ever since we started watching Masterchef-does anyone else love that show? because I watched every episode on hulu last week-I sort of feel a need to critique meals as if I were Gordon Ramsey.)

We look forward to a 4 hour drive to Philly tomorrow morning, and reuniting with Aaron's mom who's flying in! Woo!!

Tik Tok

So I am in San Francisco with seven of my chem/biochem major friends at the national meeting for the American Chemical Society. You can read what I wrote about some of our adventures here, on our chem blog.

Unfortunately, we still have homework. It is becoming increasingly difficult to motivate myself to do anything, such as the French take-home test due Thursday, the 15-20 page first draft of my review paper due Monday, p chem homework due Friday, two post lab quizzes due Monday, and a lab presentation due Friday.

Ugh, ugh, ugh.

All I want to do is attend lectures, tour Berkeley, see "Wicked", and get free ice cream at Ben and Jerry's.

anything can happen before sunrise

It's official.
New York City has secured its spot as my second favorite city in the US. We'll find out in about four days if DC will return to claim its place as number one. Woot!

Yesterday was our free day in the city. I spent it seeing "In the Heights" (beyond fabulous hiphop, latin, rap, salsa broadway musical), randomly popping into Tony Meredith and Melanie Lepatin's dance studio, eating Mexican and Thai food, perusing the Met for three hours (favorite piece: a real shark in a blue tank of formaldehyde entitled, "The physical impossibility of death in the mind of someone living" hahahahaha), showing up at Times Square repeatedly, watching two people in our group dance their way out of a $100 fine in the subway, getting another $8 worth of stamps (ridiculous, I know, but I bought a postcard and was out of stamps...), and missing the train and wandering around East Orange, New Jersey at 1:00 AM...

Notice the complete lack of shopping. I was so proud of myself, I went shopping on Friday for a few hours and managed to get my cheap purse, new shirt, and some H&M jewelry so Saturday was completely open for adventures not in retail.

It was ridiculously awesome. I love cities. I was meant to live in a $1500/month apartment in Manhattan, I swear.

Last stops: Philadelphia and DC :)
Only 5 days left until I'm back home!

I found it!

my camera cord, that is, so here's the camping post! :)

We set out on Friday, got to our camp site, set up, had delish tin foil dinners, chatted around the campfire, went to bed (froze while sleeping, unless you were a guy and then you slept outside and were fine...). The next morning we got up, had amazing hearty mountain man breakfasts, and drove up to the trailhead...or so we thought....

Packed in the car (how many of us were there? 11?) on the way to the trailhead...we had no idea what adventures would await us...dun dun dun...

We drive up to the trailhead only to find out that the road's impassable due to snow. Thinking we're only a mile or so away (and going directly against what an Asian guy in a car told us), we hop out to walk the rest of the away. Nearly four and a half miles later we get to the trail head. There is still tons of snow on the ground. A bad sign? Maybe...but we keep going anyway.


We should've listened to the sign!!!
We keep going, only to totally lose the trail due to the fact that it's still covered in snow. We start following some random footprints (that probably led to some guy dead in the wilderness, because they sure weren't going anywhere, haha). At three we break for lunch while a few of the guys go exploring to see if we can't find the right trail and manage to get back to our camp site. No luck, we're hiking toward a cliff. At that point we decide the smartest thing to do would be to turn around and go back. Eight hours, sixteen miles, and a whole lot of sunburns later we get back.
It was awesome. :)


The next day after going to church in jeans (haha, so awkward!) we went and climbed on boulders. It was way fun!


Making our way through the teeny crack in the rocks

This pretty much sums it up:

If you couldn't catch that, we were trying to open pudding snackpacks and couldn't because our hands were so frozen and swollen and unusable. Hahaha, it seriously took us forever to finally eat that delicious chocolate goodness.

I heart camping! Yay for good friends and gorgeous nature! :)