Birthday Parties and Yale

It's the summit of summertime, and my need-to-be-blogged pics are piling up. Thank goodness I'm not a scrapbooker, I'd be in way over my head. Anyways, I know it was forever ago, but I just have to share our pictures of Yale.

A couple Sundays ago, probably a month ago by now, our friends Jeff and Nicole invited us to their little boys' one year birthday party. Brayden and I are best buddies now so of course I couldn't say no. They were having the party at Nicole's parents' house in Connecticut, and on the drive there I fell in love with the green countryside. If I had to I could totally live in CT. It's got that small-town feel and fresh country air that's so hard to come by in Jersey.

Brayden's party was a blast. Nicole got wraps catered for lunch and we found a bunch of Mickey Mouse supplies from the party store to decorate the deck with. They rented a bounce house, although Brayden wouldn't go near it with a 10 foot pole. However, he was so content watching everyone else jump in it that even the opening of his own presents couldn't sway his attention from the bounce house. If he was watching though, I'm convinced his favorite present would be the Yankees hoodie one of his aunt's got him. *Nicole and I have this joke that we have to go to a Yankees game just because our husband's hate the team so much. So when she opened up the hoodie I couldn't help but giggle at Jeff's reaction. ;)

*So I took tons of pics and I know I uploaded them on my comupter, but I can't find them anywhere! :(

Since we were so far from home it was great to spend our Sunday at a family party. Although it was the first time we'd met Nicole's family they opened us with open arms. Her aunts bombarded me with questions, Jace and I talked cruises with her grandparents and her mom sent me home with so much food! They were such sweethearts, and when it was time to leave they welcomed us back to swim in the pool and barbecue it up on the 4th of July.

When it was time to leave Jeff suggested we check out the Yale campus since we were only 45 minutes or so away. Jason loves that kind of thing. Two summers ago we had to stop at the University of Florida on our drive back to Utah because we had to see the Heisman in person duh! Or at least that's what Jace seems to think. ;)

I was so glad we stopped at Yale though. It's in a cute little part of town with plenty of little shops and cafes around the campus and such incredible detail on every last building.

It was awesome to spend our Sunday at one of the oldest private schools in the country. In fact Yale is considered one of the most prestigious and selective universities in the world. Lucky people like Eli Whitney, Doug Wright, David McCullough (I've met him!), the Clintons, Gerald Ford, Jennifer Connelly, Jodie Foster and thousands of other famous people gained their education on this campus.

The tribute on this memorial was so eloquent.

"In memory of the men of Yale

who true to Her traditions gave their lives

 that freedom might not perish from the Earth."

Is there anything more incredible than the gothic style of these buildings?

Dixie State sure ain't got doors like that!

The entrance to the library was so cool! See the seven shields at the top of my pic? Each carving had a year beneath it depicting just how Yale looked each decade. Amazing right??

Can you see the hand holding the lantern? I wonder who the overacheiving architect was who said, "Yeah let's have hands holding each lantern. They can't just stand alone you know."

I felt like I was wandering through Hogwarts.

This was my favorite- the Law building. They had sculptures of what law represents, like the cop above. They also had criminals complete with striped inmate outfits and masks over their eyes. Fun huh??

They must have been doing freshman orientation or summer camp or something because we stumbled into this busy courtyard bustling with high school kids. There was a corner for luggage, a table to pick up dorm keys, and grills cooking up hot dogs. I was dying to sneak into one of the tour groups. I peeked into one of the dorm windows and I couldn't believe how suave they were. Oh what I would give to go Ivy League.

Harkness Tower

Especially if my campus were as amazing as this! It was a good day.

:)