Greetings from Maine!

While sometimes having a husband in the Marines can be grueling, every now and then you get to attend some pretty cool events. This weekend we are up in Bath, Maine attending the christening of the DDG-109 USS Jason Dunham. This christening was near and dear to the Marines as it is named after a fallen Marine and Medal of Honor recipient, Corporal Jason Dunham. Todd was incredibly honored to be invited to support a fallen Marine and I was incredibly excited to be his plus one. This was definitely not something you see everyday.

The ceremony was beautiful with speeches from several Congressmen, the Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus, and the former Commandant, Michael Hagee. It was a very emotional day and ended with Corporal Dunham's mother dedicating the ship to her son and hitting it with a bottle of champagne. I can only imagine what an honor it is for his family.

All dressed up.

Ok seriously, Marine dress blues have to be to best looking uniform, hands down. How can you not swoon looking at these guys?

Walking up to the ship

Waiting for the ceremony to start

View from our seats

Listening to the Secretary of the Navy's speech

General Hagee

Corporal Dunham's mom and sister

The boys with some kids in the NJROTC. These kids were in complete awe of these guys.

Gunny and Mrs.

I learned today that when these boys are in uniform people will bend over backward for them. If I lifted my camera, 5 people would hurry over and offer to take the picture. People were constantly coming over to talk to them, offer them drinks, food...anything. It was very neat to see how appreciated they are.

The Coyers and the City...the adventures continue...

Greetings from New York City!!! As part of the Coyer's whirlwind tour of the Northeast we are happily in New York. Having only been here once when I was 10, I was so excited to experience this city as an adult. After just a short 4 hour drive we found ourselves smack dab in the midst of this amazing city and immediately started walking around. We stayed in a beautiful hotel in the financial district and for the next 2 days proceeded to walk our little feet tired in an attempt to see everything we could. We can definitely see why this is such a beloved city. Todd and I spent most of the trip daydreaming about how fabulous our lives would be if we lived here. Of course we would have to figure out how to grow a money tree but hey a couple can dream right?

Our view from our hotel window. Gorgeous.

Ground Zero. This picture was taken from our room on the 37th floor as our hotel was literally across the street. This was a very surreal experience. So many thoughts, emotions, memories and feelings come to mind when looking at this.

We stumbled across a cute bar called Mudville9 on our quest for dinner. They sold these towers of beer. We stopped.

Umm, honey the camera is that way.

Time to start sightseeing! On the ferry to the Statue of Liberty.

Listening to my audio tour at the Statue of Liberty

Us with Lady Liberty

Brian and Sandra with the New York skyline in the background

Off to Ellis Island

Todd in the Great Hall

Empire State Building

Central Park

Hanging on a rock in Central Park

After walking 6 miles to get to Central Park we decided to lay down on our little rock. We were pretty comfy. The sun was out, you could see the skyscrapers through the trees, this was a little slice of heaven.

After Brian and Sandra peeled us off our rock we went on a carriage ride around the park. This was really cool.

Riding around.
Good horse.

Me and Sandra in Times Square.

Todd and I are planning a trip back asap. We are definitely in love New York. ::scampers off to plant her money tree::

The adventures of Sandra, Brian, Shannon and Todd...

This week we are so fortunate to have Todd's brother, Brian and our sis-n-law, Sandra, visiting us. Yay! When we get together it is just non-stop laughs, we have the best time. Since its summer and there is so much to do in Newport during the summer we thought it was time to do some seriously touristy New England things. We ate many things from the sea prepared in a breaded and deep fried way, drank the local brew, toured mansions, lighthouses and even did a lobster boil and sailing trip. Why is it that you seem to only discover your home when you have visitors?

Todd and Brian walking around the rocks off the Ocean Road

The fabulous Sandra in front of the Castle Hill Lighthouse

Time for lobster! I needed a few lessons on how to crack into these little buggers.

Brian and Sandra were pros


Time to sail around the harbor

Very stuffed with lobster


We are on a boat!

Hello!

cute family

watching the sunset, we always seem to make time to take pictures of ourselves though. :)

We were so lucky, we had rain the day before and the day after, this day though was perfect

The fabulous Coyers

The other fabulous Coyers

You really can't go wrong with lobsters, wine and sailing can you?

Mom's Homemade Chicken and Dumplins'

Todd's favorite meal, hands down, is chicken and dumplings. Not just any chicken and dumplings, his mom's chicken and dumplings. Every Christmas, birthday, random Tuesday, you ask Todd what he wants for dinner and this is the answer every.single.time. Growing up this was a specialty in the Coyer house and Barb would spend hours making this for her family. The kicker is Barb didn't just make her chicken and dumplings from scratch, she actually made her own homemade noodles to go with it. Yes, homemade noodles, it bears repeating. Somewhere between 3 kids, a husband, a nursing career, endless boy scout/soccer/wrestling/football/baseball events, she found time to make homemade noodles, the woman is a saint.

Since my last attempt at making chicken and dumplings ended with a perplexed Todd asking where the noodles went ::remembers his sad, confused face:: , I decided to humbly ask Barb is she wouldn't mind sharing her recipe with me and to my delight, she was happy to. :) You know a recipe is good when it is just explained to you without anything written down. Though I know that even following this recipe to a T it could never be exactly like Barb's (moms always add a little something) but by golly I'm going to try to come close.

The Cooking Components

The ingredients

The excited yet nervous cook :)


The tester and his loyal sidekick, Thunder Cat

The Experiment


Boiling the chicken, onions and carrots. I have never boiled a whole chicken before, I was shocked how easy it was.


Chicken done and shredded


My homemade noodles. I'm pretty darn proud of myself. Next time, I'm making them thinner and shorter.

Noodles in!

Chicken and Dumplings in!

Finito!

Time to eat!

The Reviews

Shan: This recipe was awesome. I think this will just get easier and better each time I make this. My noodles were a little thick and a bit too long but I can fix that next time. Thank you so much Barb, we will be making this over and over and over again and passing this along.

Todd: He was very happy. He gave me some tips between mouth fulls for next time to make it a bit more like mom's but he loved this. He ate his whole bowl, half of mine and was last seen hovering over the stove shoveling in the leftovers. I would say he liked it. :)

Thunder Cat: She prefers food of the canned variety and chose not to sample. Her loss. :)