Maine Adventures

Tristan and Emily came to visit this week in Maine! One day we went to Frenchmen's Hole, a sweet little spot we know about where you can slide down a waterfall and go cliff jumping. The water is always freezing, but it's worth it. We explored down the river a little bit, and had to climb over rocks, swim, and hike along the river at times. I love going on adventures like that. You never know what you'll find. We found some pretty nice little swimming holes, but eventually the water got really shallow, so we turned back.

 After spending so long in the cold water, we returned to Frenchmen's Hole and ate a picnic lunch on the rocks. Then we took some planking pictures. Planking is really hard to do on sharp, uneven rocks!

Fun times with friends make for the best memories!

Maine Blueberries

We went blueberry picking last week and got lots of big, juicy blueberries! We made a delicious no-bake blueberry pie. We also ate blueberries for breakfast and as a snack all week long. Fresh-picked fruit is so delicious! We're going back to pick more berries next week.

Life on the Lake

The view from our lake house

I love being at the lake house. I spend part of every day sitting down by the dock, enjoying the sunshine and the nice breeze that blows off the water. I’ve gone for a dip in the lake almost every day. In fact, each morning when I wake up, I put on my bathing suit straight away because I know that we’ll be swimming before long. I like to take my book and read down on the little strip of beach in front of our dock. It’s so peaceful down there. You can hear the water lapping against the rocks and the occasional sounds of boats or jet-skis going by.

At night, you can hear the loons. They make a loud wailing sound that’s known as the cry of the loon. This year we’ve seen three or four loons swim right up close to our dock. They are such beautiful, majestic birds. Ducks are the kind of annoying creature we try to chase away from our dock, but we like to have loons around. Their cries at night are kind of frightening and haunting, but that’s part of the magic of the lake.

My mom got a new sailboat this year, a Hunter 15. Rigging the thing was a nightmare. My dad and I were utterly confused by the instruction booklet and we got frustrated at each other trying to figure out how everything went together. We called Rob, the president of the sailing club, and he came over to help us. When we finally got it rigged and started to sail off, we had a little mishap where we almost crashed into some rocks. We had to bring it back to the dock and start off again.

We’ve had a couple of windy days recently, and the Hunter is a beautiful sailboat- really fast and such an exciting ride! It’s a little scary too, because it’s bigger than our Sunfish. I’m afraid that if we make a mistake while sailing, there could be disastrous consequences. We’re still figuring out all the ins and outs of sailing this kind of boat. The hardest part is coming back into the dock. You have to steer it just right to bring the boat alongside the dock and it’s especially hard if the wind’s strong and the water’s rough. Hopefully we’ll get the hang of it soon, but in the meantime there have been some pretty funny (albeit scary) moments!

Love it & Hate it Part 1: Technology

I’ve been in Maine for a few days now on summer vacation. My family comes up here to our lake house for three weeks every summer. It’s peaceful and relaxing here- we have no internet access and only one channel on the TV. While I’ve always loved the change of pace in Maine, this year I realized how totally dependent I’ve become on technology. Even in the past few days, there have been things I wanted to look up online and I miss (a little bit) being able to check Facebook and blogs.

Technology is one of those things I both love and hate at the same time. I love it because I can get information so quickly and easily. I hate it because I can waste so much time on the internet. TV is not as addicting for me. I watch a couple shows a week, but when I’m bored I turn on my computer, not the TV. There’s just so many things I can look up online. I read articles on interesting subjects. I check the weather. I read movie reviews and restaurant reviews. I play online games like “Who wants to be a millionaire”. I chat with friends and send e-mails to people. And I enjoy all this stuff. I like having so much information at my fingertips. I like being able to send my friends a quick message.

But all of this comes at a price. When I waste too much time online, I feel like I’m missing out on life. My real life, the one where I’m actually doing something instead of sitting at a computer. I know that sometimes my time could be better spent. I could read a book, go workout, or do my devotional. I could spend more time with the people in my life at the moment. I don’t want to ignore the world around me because I’d rather spend time in a virtual world. I guess I’ve always been a little wary of technology because I know how addicting it can be for me. I want to learn to limit my time online and find a balance for technology in my life. I want to find more time for other things that I enjoy. I want to live my life to the fullest, and that means not wasting time on trivial things.

I like this quote by Jim Eliot: “Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.”

Mount Monadnock

A couple of days ago, Bud and I climbed Mt. Monadnock. My mom and sister were supposed to hike too, but from the very beginning our plans went awry. We left that morning all gung-ho to go for a hike. When we got to the base of the mountain (which is also a national park) we realized it would cost $4 each for us to get in... and we had no cash. We also noticed signs that prohibited dogs on the trails, and we'd brought Emma and Zoe with us. So we drove to a bank to get some cash, then my mom dropped us off while she went to walk the dogs somewhere else.

As we started up the trail, a park ranger stopped us. He was alarmed that we weren't going to bring any water with us on the hike. He informed us that it would take four hours round trip to go up to the summit and back. We assured him that we'd had some water to drink earlier and that we'd be fine. He proceeded to tell us that people had died from heatstroke climbing this mountain, and that if we had to call down the mountain for help, we'd have to pay our own medical expenses.

Well, that made it a challenge to Bud. We were already going to hike the most difficult trail instead of the more direct route that everyone else takes. But now our goal was to hike it in under four hours, without water. Leslie got tired early on and couldn't keep up with our pace, so she decided to turn around and wait for us at the base. Bud and I continued on. The first two trails we took weren't hard. There were some rocks to climb over, and it was uphill, but it wasn't too steep. Then we got to the difficult trail. By this point we were way off the beaten path. Once we turned off the direct route, we didn't see a single soul for the remainder of the hike. I was a little nervous being all alone on this huge mountain, but it was also an incredible feeling. We felt like explorers in the wilderness scaling this mountain for the first time. When we got to Spellman trail, we really were scaling rocks. In certain places, it was more like rock climbing than hiking. I remembered the park ranger's words about possibly needing medical help, but I wasn't worried about dehydration. I was scared that if one of us slipped and broke an ankle, it would be a hell of a time getting back down since there wasn't anyone around for miles.

When we got to the top of that trail, we came across a rocky plateau to the right of the summit, and the view was absolutely incredible! We were basically at the peak now and we had a 360 degree view. There was still no one in sight since we'd taken a different trail to the top. We had to hike an additional mile to the left across the rocky ridge to get to the official summit. As we hiked, the wind whipped our faces and cooled us down- we had worked up a sweat climbing up all the rocks on the previous trail! The wind and the view gave us a glorious feeling, like we were on top of the world. We finally made it over to the summit and finally saw some people again. We took a much-needed rest break at this point, and I checked my watch. We had made the climb in one and a half hours!

We made the return trip down the direct route. It was obviously much easier than Spellman, but there were still a lot of rocks to climb over. The scary part about climbing down rocks is that all your momentum is forward and it's much easier to fall. The going was slow at first because the first half mile was very rocky and very steep, but as we descended the trail got easier. As we got closer to the base, we were getting tired, and I was getting extremely thirsty (but damned if I would admit that to the park ranger!) We were anxious to get back, so we jogged the last bit of trail. We made the downhill trek in just under an hour, which made our total time 2.5 hours. Expectations exceeded, pride restored. What an adventure! (But next time, I think I'll bring a water bottle).

Take me out to the ballgame

Yesterday, I went to Boston with my family to see a Red Sox game at Fenway. Before the game, we stopped at Toscanini's, an ice cream shop that supposedly has "the best ice cream in the world," according to the New York Times. It was Bud's idea to stop there, of course. He is the food connoisseur of the family. He always finds the best restaurants for us to try, and he makes the best meals of anyone in the family. At Toscanini's, we tried six flavors: Salty caramel, Butter almond, Hydrox cookie, Cookie dough, Blackberry, and Peach. I liked salty caramel the best- it was delicious!

The game at Fenway was pretty awesome. We got to see a lot of home runs, including three back-to-back-to-back home runs by the Red Sox! The Red Sox won, by the way. :) Nothing like a good old-fashioned baseball game and a fun day with the fam. It's so good to be home!

Fun at Fenway

De and Doug's Wedding

Saturday, July 2, 2011 was the long awaited wedding of Deanne and Doug Townshend, two of my long-time friends from Liberty. Their outdoor wedding was short and sweet, and the reception was a ton of fun! Many of my close friends were there, so I went from one table to another chatting with everyone, and occasionally running off to fulfill one of my many maid of honor responsibilities. I hardly had a chance to sit down and eat, there were so many people to say hi to, and so much to do! The wedding really went off without a hitch. It was kind of hot during the ceremony, but cooled down as the night progressed. The lights around the tent were so pretty, and the talking, laughter, and dancing made it an enchanting evening.

There are a lot of photos from the wedding, but here are a few of my favorites.

The girls

The guys

All of us- jumping picture

I think it's hilarious that every single girl is in the air- including Skylar, the bridesmaid who was pregnant. And none of the guys are, except for Dorin. It's as if Styer (red shirt) is holding them back, like "wait, what are we supposed to do?"

De and Doug- just married!

Bridesmaids
Niki, Meridith, Skylar, Sarah, Krista, Me

Groomsmen
Styer, Kevin, Justin, Haas, Issac, Dorin

De and Doug cutting the cake.

The reception seemed like it was over in a blur. De and Doug cut the cake, hugged everyone, and left in Doug's red camero amidst a cloud of smoke and fire from all the sparklers. After the wedding, we were all too wound up to just go home and sleep, so a bunch of us bridesmaids and groomsmen got together, played games, and watched videos on youtube until 3am. Leslie and I had to wake up the next day and drive 12 hours to Massachusetts. Needless to say, we were exhausted, but it was so worth it! I love the camaraderie of my LU friends and it was nice to see them all again. I just can't believe De and Doug are finally married!