Vermont and Boston

We had such a great time in St. Louis, and I was really happy and sad to come home.  I was glad to sleep in my own bed, but less than a week after coming home, I was off to a work conference in Vermont.

Unfortunately Dan didn't have the vacation days to come out with me, and this was one of my first trips traveling alone since meeting Dan.  I wasn't very excited at all.  A 6 day work conference with 8 hours of speakers, a dorm room with no A/C and cafeteria food.  To say I was hesitant to go would be a HUGE understatement.

Vermont Academy Campus

Plus a whole week without Dan, the pups, and Buggs!

But, I packed up my bag with extra cute clothes, shoes, and as many luxuries (soft towels, ipod, kindle, ect) as I could think of, and headed out to fly to DC and onto Boston.

I was excited to see Boston.  As a sports fan, beach girl, and lover of architecture, I was pumped to visit. 

Administrators Office - AKA the Gingerbread House

After meeting up with my traveling companion, P, we headed out on the 2 1/2 hr car ride from Boston into Vermont.  It was a very pretty drive and P got to tell me about life living in Finland, Boston, and Cali.

My tiny dorm room

The dorm was a little better than I expected.  I didn't have a roommate.  The bathroom was horrible and the shower was just big enough for me to fit into.  At least there was warm water.  Unfortunately, there was very little cell phone coverage.  It did bring back memories from college, which was fun.

Good ol' college days pre-responsibilities

The conference it self was great.  It reminded me of what academia life is like.  I had been toying with the idea of getting my P.h.D. and I remembered why I didn't want to.  I met a lot of interesting people all the way from Greece, Germany, England, and from all over the US.

My dorm building

So, besides my boredom, it was a good time.

The Garden where my Celtics play!

We left early on Friday so we could spend a couple of hours in Boston before flying home.  I was in heaven!  I had the best hot lobster roll, got to see the Garden, and even walked through a Farmers Market.  I even found a small bakery and had a fantastic cupcake while waiting for my plane.

Drool...

We will definitely be vising Boston again and I have put it on my list of places I'd like to live.

DT Boston

Month 2

Now that you are all caught up on June...

• Summer Time Fun
• Bonnaroo 2011
• Bandaids and Birthdays
• 1 Year Cancerservary

Let's start on July!  And I can think of no better way to start than by celebrating our 2nd Anniversary.

I can't believe it's been 2 years.  It truly went by fast.  We've been through a lot in 2 years, and I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat.

I love this man

We decided to go on our trip to Saint Louis over the long 4th of July weekend.  We had a lot of fun.  St. Louis has a 3 day festival under the arch with airshows, concerts, and fireworks.  All free.  The first day we checked in, which took way too long.  The hotel was horrible.  I won't go into it, but I highly recommend NOT staying at the Millennium Hotel.  We then wondered down to the festival and checked out the Steve Miller Band concert.  I must say, there are highly underrated.

We missed out on fireworks because Dan was only 2 weeks out of knee surgery.  So, we ended up spending a lot of time in the hotel room resting Dan's knee.  I could think of worse ways to spend our anniversary though. :)

Sunday we headed out on St. Louis's wonderful public transportation and headed to the zoo.  We had so much fun.  We walked around for hours.  Then we headed to the Science Center and Planetarium.  Nothing like a couple of science geeks playing with all the kids toys.  The best part, it was all free (besides that bus/train rides).  Yup.  We will be going back.

Monday we checked out, but then headed down to the Budweiser Brewery for a free tour.  Again, we had a great time.  We got to see the Clydesdales, and everything from the brewery to the packaging plant.  At the end, they have a taste bar.

Tour Bus

Beautiful!  The horses and pup.

We wanted to stay for the beer school, but we needed to head home to get the dogs and so Dan could meet his new nephew.

You don't think I'd forget about our new family member do you?!?  Meet baby H!  He looks just like my brother and is just as sweet as can be.  I forget how small newborns are.

1 Year Cancerversary!

I wish I could explain how excited I was to celebrate Dan's 1st Cancerversary.  

We had so many people come to help us celebrate.

I think Dan and I were both touched by how many people came over to spend their Saturday with us. 

 We had sooo much food, family and friends. 

Plus it was the first real use of our half grass backyard. 

I can't wait for next year. 

Bandaids and Birthdays

We didn't have long after returning home from Bonnaroo to adjust to life with responsibilites before we were onto our next adventure.

Dan tore his medial meniscus (the Parrot's Beak pictured above) and we quickly scheduled his surgery for June 17th, so he would have time to recover before the Warrior Dash.  Unfortunately that was Father's Day weekend and we had planned on Dan's 1 Year Cancerversary, so we had to shuffle some things around.  Next years goal is no surgeries.

Who says men with shaved legs aren't sexy?

The surgery didn't take too long at all.  I was impressed.  Dan was in recovery and ready to head home in just under an hour.  The bad news was he was on bedrest for 3 days and could only get up to use the bathroom.  I moved our mattress downstairs and the dogs thought we were having a party.  But, by Monday Dan was at PT and was up walking and very slowly doing the stairs.  I don't know who was happier that he could shower, me or him.

Fortunately, Dan recovered just in time to help celebrate Penny's 1st birthday!  I made her a beef flavored cake and she and Daisy both got left over Texas Roadhouse to celebrate.  Daisy even sang to Penny.  Her favorite song is "Happy Birthday" because that means she's getting some good food to eat.

Penny wants to know if it can be her day every day

My helpers taste testing the PB frosting

So I may have been more excited about it than Penny was, but Daisy sure knew what was going on.

 

I did learn that it's much harder to take a mattress up the stairs than it is to guide it on a gentle fall down the stairs.  We got some funny looks from the pizza guy when Dan was sitting on a bed in the living room half dressed.  We might not have thought that through.

Bonnaroo 2011

After returning home from Cali, we had less than 2 weeks to prepare for our return to Bonnaroo in Manchester, TN.

What Stage

We were able to quickly pull together borrowed camping gear, car, canapy, and dog sitters before we headed out.

Fellow Roo'er Ride

We survived better this year and were able to enjoy the bands a little more.  Amazingly, we ran into our old Bonnaroo friends the first night among the 100,000 other people there.  It was great to hang out, catch up, make new friends, and of course, play many games of beer pong and flippy cup.

Sucessful Trip into Centerroo as a group thanks to this flag which was later stolen

We were happy to head back home, exhausted, and ready for a shower and a comfy bed.  Our favorite shows this year were The Black Keys, The Black Angels, The Decemberists, My Morning Jacket, and Warren Hanes.  We were disappointed in Lil' Wayne and Eminem's show, Buffalo Springfield (due to sound issues) and Arcade Fire really just sucked.

Our camp site including our new tapestries

We are looking forward to next year's and hopefully the line up is a little better.

This year's eye candy :)

Summer Time Fun

Since I've been MIA all summer, I thought I'd do a coupe recap posts of our summer.  We have been extremely busy.

Our summer began with some sad news.  My grandpa passed away after struggling with many health problems following his surviving mouth and throat cancer.  We were planning on heading down to St. Louis, and quickly cancelled and scheduled a quick trip to California.  In true Grandpa fashion, we spent most of our time out vising with family and friends.  He would hate it if we traveled all the way out there and didn't have some fun.

With a very inexpensive upgrade, we were able to rent a Mustang.  Dan was really excited, especially since we flew into San Diego, and had a 2 1/2 hour drive into Victorville.  After a minor set back of delayed luggage, we were all checked in and settled into the hotel.  Unfortunately, we missed the services, but were able to make the BBQ Celebration of Life afterwards.

The next day, Dan found an good hiking trail into a 6000+ year old crater, Amboy Crater, that happened to be right off route 66.  It was a really great hike and we were able to make our mark in the volcanic rock.  It was also really interesting to see the old Route 66 towns, or what's left of them I should say.

 We were also able to meet up with some of Dan's family close to San Diego.  It was great to meet even more of Dan's family and nice to know we both have so many ties to Cali.  After lunch, we headed up the Pacific Coast highway into LA to meet with with Dan's college roommate.  We headed to Santa Monica Pier, ate wonderful sushi, and got a little more than our feet wet. 

 Even though the trip was short, we really squeezed a lot in and left itching to plan our next trip back.  Now we have a lot of family to visit and many many more sites to see.

Have we met?

I’m sorry, you may not know me, but I’m not the same person you knew before.  You remember.  That girl who was frustrated because only running 2 times a week wasn’t giving her results fast enough.  That girl who barely could run 2 miles, but had dreams of running a 5k with obstacles in 45 minutes.

Well, that girl has gone into hiding.  Hello.  My name is Nicole and I’m a runner.  Sometime in the past month I came out of hiding.  Here was my last week:

Monday – Ran 1.5 miles and cooled down with some yoga.

Tuesday – Ran 2 miles at a 9.57” min pace (Personal Best) and cooled down with some yoga.

Wednesday – Ran 3 miles in 31 minutes (Personal Best).

Thursday – Rest

Friday – Rest.  Stupid thunderstorm.

Saturday – Almost died running a 5k track at 4pm in the hot sun

Sunday  - Sprinted hills with the dogs for 20 minutes followed by this workout once.

Blame it on the upcoming Warrior Dash, or that Dan is officially gone for over 12 hrs Monday thru Friday, or on reading these blogs:

• Faith, Fitness, Fun - Because Life is More than Diets and Workouts 
• Clean Eatting Chelsey - Where Clean Eatting is Anything but Common Place
• This Runners Trials - Putting One Foot In Front of the Other isn't Always Easy
• The Leonards Family - A WAHM's notes on her growing family, leading a healthy lifestyle, a love for photography, and self discovery

Or my OB/GYN telling me I need to watch my weight (I'm not joking). Or it could be that I finally asked myself, Which have you had regrets about: working out or not working out? 

Well, whatever it is, I’m just glad it got me out of hiding and back into the gym.  Speaking of which, I have a row machine and treadmill calling my name…