Honeymoon :)

Eric spent a lot of time planning a perfect honeymoon. I love the outdoors, I love New England and I love the fall and I got a combination of all three. He planned a sightseeing trip to see New England's beautiful fall color. The day after our wedding we took an early morning flight to Boston. When we got there we headed to Vermont. That night we stayed in Quechee. I had been there once with my family years ago so it was fun to go back. The next day we had a great breakfast at a very cozy restaurant and then went to a Christmas store which always makes me happy. We then went to see Quechee Gorge. Somehow my family missed this when we were there but it was breathtaking. Sorry none of these pictures do justice to what we saw.

There was a short hike along the gorge where we saw a nice lake and a great view of the bridge.

We then went to visit a maple sugar farm and visited some waterfalls along the way. Eric had located quite a few possible hikes and the two that we picked were no more than 100 feet. One was actally closed which was a little dissapointing, but still it was a beautiful drive and we had a lot of fun.

That night we drove north to Burlington, VT. It was a beautiful drive through the Green Mountains. The next day we drove south along Lake Champlaign and took a ferry accross to New York where we visited Fort Tichonderoga. That has to be one of the most amazing reconstructions of a historic site that I have ever seen. It was awesome, it was freezing too so we didn't stay outside for too long.

We then drove up the New York side of Lake Champlaign and decided to cross into Canada just for fun. That turned into quite an adventure. The US Customs officer was not friendly when we tried to cross back into the US. Long story that I don't feel like sharing at the moment. But we did get back onto American soil and drove back to Burlington on the highway that took us along all the islands of Lake Champlaign. It was a beautiful drive especially at sunset.

The next day we headed east to Woodbury and Stowe. The scenic drive that we had planned had a road closure so the drive took about 3 hours longer than we planned. Beautiful though, it had snowed in the mountains the night before. When we arrived back in Woodbury we visited the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Plant. Eric and I love ice cream so it was something that we couldn't miss.

That night we headed to New Hampshire where we stayed in a small resort town in the middle of the White Mountains. The next day we went to the Flume in Franconian Notch. It was spectacular. Once again a freezing day, but once we got hiking it wasn't too bad.

We then took a tram up a mountain where we could get an awesome view of all the surrounding area. You could see Maine, Vermont, New York, and Canada. The only catch was that it turned into winter when we got to the top.

That night we drove to Bangor, Maine. The next morning we went to visit Acadia National Park. Acadia would be an awesome vacation all on it's own. The only change I would make is to visit in the summer as opposed to the fall. We drove the road through the park and to the top of the bald mountains where the wind was NUTS!! I thought that I was going to blow away.

We had lunch in Bar Harbor and then drove to Portland where we had dinner and then to Boston where we spent the night. It was a lot of driving that day. The next day was our last. We had both been to Boston before so we decided to walk the Freedom Trail. I had not gotten to do that before so it was a lot of fun. Once again a cold day and I was tired, but we had fun.

That afternoon we flew home to Chicago and the trip was over and it was time to get back to real life. Have to admit that real life now is better than real life before. I am loving being married :)

On the road again . . . please no!!

So I realize that it has been just about forever since I have updated this and I have done a lot of things and been a lot of places so I will try to give you a quick run down of what I have been up to.

First, had a crazy Spring season with work . . . this year seemed much harder than pervious years and I was all over traveling and not sleeping and just working way too much! But all seems to have turned out well and time for me to start getting ready for the fall and winter seasons.

I went on an AWESOME road trip with my girls Molly and Tia to Gulf Shores, Alamaba. We had a condo accross the street from the beach and spent a week in the sun relaxing, not thinking about work, catching up on sleep, and just enjoying hanging out as friends cause we don't seem to get a lot of time for that anymore. We made a stop by Graceland on the way home so I can officially cross that one off my bucket list! It was fun!

Got home from Alabama just in time to head to Idaho the next weekend. Eric came with me, he was brave to agree to this trip. It was quite the trip. I went to the temple for myself and it was wonderful to have my parents, and four of my siblings, three brothers in law and Eric there with me. An hour later my six little brothers and sisters were sealed to my parents which was a very special experience for our family to all be in the temple together. We then packed up and headed up to Donnelly where we had a cabin on the lake for the long weekend. The weather didn't cooperate but I think we all still enjoyed just hanging out together for a few day. I miss my family so it is always fun to go see them. And it was really special to bring Eric with me and have him be a part of all that.

This past weekend we headed out to Nebraska to visit Eric's parent for the 4th of July. They live in Nebraska's official "4th of July City" so it just seemed appropriate for us to visit :) We had a good time and got home late last night.

Now I am back to work for my first full work week in almost a month and just looking forward to staying home this weekend and enjoying time with Cletus and Eric.

Random Weekend

It's Labor Day weekend. My real last weekend to relax before my fall season kicks in and my life gets busy again. But, my girls and I didn't make any plans ahead of time of what we should do this weekend. About mid week I started looking around and thought that it would be fun to go to Mammoth Caves in Kentucky . . . last minute that just didn't work out. So it got to be Friday and still no plans. So the girls got together and called me on Friday afternoon with our plans.

We were going to camp out in my backyard on Friday. And by camp, I mean fire, tent, the works . . . it just happened to include a tv in the tent to watch movies and air mattresses. And when we got up in the morning there was the shower complete with a hot breakfast . . . tons of fun. Saturday afternoon was completed with haircuts all around and swimming at the pool. Went to a community play in the evening and out to dinner after. Not a bad day for having no plans.

The weekend was completed today with a hike at Starved Rock State Park. I was talking with Molly last night and we needed something to do today. Starved Rock is only an hour away and I have never bothered going. So we went. Hiked pretty much the whole length of the trails and wore ourselves out pretty good.

For not having been hiking in quite a while . . . it was a little rough, but we did manage to have a good time. The weather was beautiful, hot and humid, and the trail was good. Sad that there wasn't much water and the waterfalls were less than exciting . . . we will just have to go again in the Spring.

Anybody want a Frickle?

No, not that is not a typo. I spent the last two days in Minneapolis for work. I drove up there with one of my co-workers, Michelle. Before we left she decided to look up a fun place to eat. She and I are both bigs fans of the food network so she looked up Minneapolis on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. She found a place called the Talk Town Diner that sounded fun so we decided to try it. We had looked at the menu ahead of time so we kind of knew what we wanted.

They had some interesting combinations that I would never have thought of, but the place smelled wonderful. The one thing that Michelle had seen on the menu that she was dying to try was Frickles. They are deep fried pickle chips that you eat like a french fry. I have to admit that I was a little less anxious to try them, but still curious so I didn't complain when she ordered them.

They came out and we both kind of had to laugh . . . and then gave them a try. They were actually pretty good. Totally not a flavor that I have ever had before, but not a bad one. I liked them, but had to quit afte a while cause I had the most amazing grilled cheese sandwich on the way that I needed to leave room for. It was great with chedder and gruyre cheese, tomato and bacon. It was fabulous and I made it though a little more than half of it before I was on overload. Besides that they really had great garlicy french fries too.

This inspired me, next time I travel (even if it is just for work) I am going to try to find fun new places and food to try.