The Perfect Trip

I just got back from spending 6 days in Phoenix and I'm pretty sure it was a perfect trip (minus the fact that Ben wasn't there). In my mind, the components of a perfect trip are as follows:

1) Good Food
2) Good Company
3) Great Shopping
4) Warm weather

We had all of the above....and more!
The reason for my trip was to attend my sisters graduation....though I shouldn't need a reason to go visit. The last time I had been to visit her was when Ben and I got engaged, so I was past due for a visit.
Attending Alie's graduation was awesome. I felt like a proud mom, all teary eyed, snapping all kinds of embarrassing photos wherever possible. She graduated from Thunderbird's International MBA program...and did I mention she was FIRST in her class. She's annoyingly modest, and didn't plan on bragging to anyone, so I've made it my personal business to make sure people know!
We had a great time together. It was fun to see my parents and my little brother as well....who were fresh off the plane from Hawaii.
We basically shopped the weekend away in Scottsdale, ate at some awesome restaurants, and relaxed by the pool in 107 degree weather.
I decided after this weekend that I NEED to live in Arizona. It's perfect for someone like me with with the cold disease! I finally felt warm for the first time in a while!

At our favorite gelato place the night I arrived

My little brother during the graduation ceremony....it really wasn't THAT boring!

Alie got to represent Canada in the Flag Ceremony....her speech rocked!






We were a little tired after graduation and a busy afternoon of shopping!

Relaxing after a long day!

Weekend Away

I just realized that I never got a chance to post about our Anniversary weekend!
Since Ben's work and call schedule is pretty demanding these days, and I am fairly occupied with work and Young Womens, I didn't really expect we would do much for our anniversary. But, I should have known better. Ben is the best "surpriser" ever! (is that even a word). He's always planning and scheming cute things without me knowing. I love it! Right before Ben left for school on Friday morning, he told me to go buy a new dress and be packed and ready to go to Montreal for the weekend by the time he got home that day! It was really so cute the way he said it.
Needless to say, I was excited! I spent the day pampering myself, getting my nails done, shopping and getting ready for the weekend.
For those of you who haven't spent much time in Montreal, you're seriously missing out. It is such a neat city, with a great downtown area, and lots to do.

We ended up staying at a beautiful hotel, the Inter-Continental, and we had this gorgeous corner room that overlooked the city. We got dressed up and went to dinner on Friday night at the incredible french restaurant called Europea. It was unbelievable. I have never had a meal like this. First of all, it was three and a half hours long....seriously! I had the 5 course meal, Ben had the 9. It was such a neat experience. The highlights included a CO2 Caesar Salad, Lobster Cappuccino, and never ending dessert courses! Talk about chi-chi! Our waiter was pretty snobby...I think he thought we were in high school or something. Oh...and they wouldn't let it drop the fact we didn't order alcohol. They asked us several times what kind of wine we wanted with our meal, and finally when they brought out our special "anniversary" dessert, they also brought us champagne, compliments of the chef! It was pretty funny.



Saturday we got up and met our ward at the temple. I was able to help supervise the YW and YM who did baptisms. It's always a great experience to attend the temple with the youth. Several of our girls were there for the first time, so that was particularly special.

After the temple, and our stop at Tim Hortons, we headed to La Ronde, Montreal's rockin Amusement Park. As it turns out, it is actually one dang good amusement park. Ben and I both love roller coasters, and we were pleasantly surprised to find LOTS of great roller coasters there.
We spent the day in the rain riding the roller coasters, the log ride (always a hit with me!), made a few stop offs at the bumper cars (these were seriously the best bumper cars I have ever been on), and finished off the day with some spectacular fireworks. We then drove back to Vermont at about midnight Saturday night.





Ben and I were both pretty sleepy at Ward Council the next morning at 8:00!
What I loved about our weekend was the wide variety of activities! A chi-chi meal one night, and an amusement park the next. Ben did a great job of planning a really fun and special weekend away, especially taking into consideration our limiting schedules! I guess it's probably my turn to plan something fun next year!

Two Years

Time flies when you're having fun!
I remember so distinctly what it was like moving to Burlington and having people ask how long we'd been married...and telling them a week. That response was always good for a laugh, and a "Oh, you're still in the honeymoon phase. Don't worry, that won't last!"
As it turns out, we still get the same response when we tell people how long we've been married.
Maybe after three years they'll stop saying it!

Ben and I have had such a great time being married the last two years, and plan on keeping it that way well into the future. Long live the honeymoon right!

What's crazy for me to think about is the fact that it was well over four years ago that we said goodbye to each other at the MTC before I left for my mission. Can I just say I am so glad that's over!


We've had so many fun and exciting things happen in the last few years....I really just feel so fortunate for the way things have played out in my life to this point. I never really imagined myself being this happy!

Happy 2 years to us!

Cape Cod and Youth Conference

Ben and I thoroughly enjoyed our second week of vacation. We spent a couple of days visiting with my parents in Stowe at the resort where they were staying. We played a lot of games, and ate some of the best pizza in the world. Next time you're in Stowe, be sure to stop at "Pie in the Sky." It's awesome!




After Stowe and a full day of teaching for me, we headed to Cape Cod, with bikes, golf clubs and bathing suits in tow. Cape Cod really is a fun, family centered vacation spot. I was amazed by how many mini putt places and ice cream parlors there were. Honestly, they were on every block of main street!

Over the coarse of the week we enjoyed lots of golf (three days in a row to be precise), beach time every day, swimming, leasure bike rides, way too much ice cream, great food and scenic drives.

Golfing....probably the best part of the vaca

The best ice cream on Cape Cod

Cute boy on the beach!

More golf!

Trolley ride in Province Town

Weirdos in Province Town

Beautiful Sunset in Province Town

For the fourth of July we headed back to Boston to spend the holiday with my brother and sister and their families. It was fun to all be together on the Fourth. We headed down to the Charles River on the Subway to watch the fireworks show. It ended up being a great show and a fun way to end our vacation.

In the Subway Station...

On the Subway...

After the Show!

Last Update...

This past weekend I went to New Hampshire with our cute Young Women to chaperone their Youth Conference. The girls had such a fun weekend, and I ended up really enjoying the time away from a messy house, and Girls Camp preparations.

Myself and the two other chaperones from our ward

Kickin' it at the dance

One of our cute Young Women!

Late night gossip fest

(In case you're wondering....it was the one on the right!)

I accomplished several great things over the weekend....some of which include consuming more junk food in one weekend than I thought humanly possible, staying up way too late gossiping with my girls about their boy obsessions, not being allowed to leave the dance to use the restroom because the old men monitoring the doors were convinced I was a youth....and finally, getting asked to dance by a 14 year old boy. How can you beat that kind of a weekend!

Mission Accomplished

Can I just say this pictures captures perfectly how I felt the morning of our triathlon.
I definitely didn't sleep much the night before, and that didn't exactly calm my nerves.
There is something about participating in an event like a triathlon for the first time that is so unnerving. I felt like I didn't really know what was going on, and like everyone was staring at me the whole time! The triathlon we participated in was really pretty small, and low key, but I still felt totally uptight and nervous. It was really fun to have my parents in town, and to have them there to support us...but at the same time I felt really uncomfortable and self conscious that they were there snapping all kinds of pictures as we were getting ready to begin!

Do I look nervous or what!

Gotta love the matching "Team Kunz" red shorts!

I went in to the race feeling really confident about my swimming. We only had to swim half a mile, and in my training I had gotten comfortable swimming a mile, so I thought it was going to be a piece of cake. Word of warning....Swimming in an open body of water like Lake Champlain is NOTHING like swimming in a pool. I won't go in to all the details....but the swimming killed me. It wasn't that it was super hard or anything, I just couldn't get into any sort of a rhythm cause the waves kept crashing over my head. I was convinced the rescue boat was going to come ask me if I needed to be rescued!


Unfortunately the swimming kind of shook me up, and I basically psyched myself out from that point on.

I felt as bad as I looked!

I finished the race, and I guess that was my only goal. I'm not sure I'll ever do another triathlon. I'm pretty good about working out on my own, without having a race to be training for. I found that I just felt a constant pressure to be training, and if I missed days, I just felt really guilty.

Surprisingly, I didn't feel that bad when it was all done. I just wanted to drink A LOT of water!

I do have to note...Ben was so supportive and sweet. He stuck by my side the entire time....even when most everyone passed me! I'm sure he could have done awesome, and completed the race with a great time, but he just stuck with me, and helped me fight through it! It really meant so much to me. I probably would have just thrown in the towel after the swim if he hadn't been there waiting by my bike cheering me on. So basically....he rocks!

(Note the difference in facial expressions between Ben and I!)

Here is Ben with his Doctor from his Family Med rotation. Dr. Hobbs is actually the organizer of the South Hero TRY-athlon!

I'm happy to say that when all was said and done, we had smiles on our faces, and two VERY BIG free t-shirts to take home!