Friggen awesome!

This weekend rocked. :)

Friday: NO classes!!!!! wooot! Mike and I got up and decided to head out to find a state park and take lots of pretty pictures. Lots of dirt roads later, we came to a trail head. It was the trail head to the summit of Camel's Hump (see pic)

The hike was about 6 miles round trip and we did 2300 feet of elevation gain! We thought it was the highest peak in VT, but were bummed when we found out that Mt. Mansfield is the tallest at a towering 4,393 ft. Camel's Hump is the 4th tallest (4,083 ft) but is the most climbed and the the highest undeveloped peak in VT (which means it has no structures at all on the summit). It was an awesome hike despite the ridiculous winds at the top. :P After getting back to the car and finally sitting (!) we headed off in search of food. (We did the whole hike on a cinnamon roll and juice from a gas station) We found a quiznos and oh man was it delicious. mmmm, yum. To finish off the day perfectly, we watched Mission to Mars all shnuggled up. teehee.

Saturday (3 days weekends are great!) we got up and decided to go exploring again. The town was having a scheduled power outage, so we didn't have a lot of time to surf the net to find places to go. We found a few places that looked neat and headed out. We tried to find Ainsworth State Park a few times, but finally accepted that fact that I think we just drove past it and there wasn't much to do there, if you could even get into it. So we drove on and found "Texas Falls" and part of the Green Mountain National Forest. It was beautiful. Took a bunch of pictures and continued on. We were going to find Middlebury Gap....we never did, but we found some awesome Nat'l Forest roads and drove down them towards a different town, which I think was so small we drove through it without knowing it, and eventually did one huge loop back to where we had been Friday. Strange. we drove home after stopping at good 'ol McDonald's (mmm) and watched a movie called First Knight with a young Richard Gere as Lancelot and Sean Connery as King Arthur. It was quite good.

Sunday I woke up, looked out the window and what was on the ground?! Snow! That's right. Really wet, heavy snow. Even took down some good sized tree branches. It looks like winter is coming a bit earlier this year. But this weekend was awesome. woot and a half. :)

woo! free stuff!

We (the EDU crew) went up to B-town this evening to the NEA Expo. There were a ton of booths there and they had lots of books and materials that they were selling. We got catalogues with materials in them to order and some free books and things, very cool. :) Free stuff is awesome!

Marguaritas are yummy.....

Well, I feel popular. I went out to two 21 birthdays in a span of 2 days! Saturday I went out with the engineers for Steph's bday. We went to a bar in Barre called Mulligan's. It was a really nice little bar, definitely would recommend it. Obviously I didn't drink since I am only 20 and was carded after being in the bar about 30 seconds. lol. I had a great time though. Nobody got really drunk while we were there so it was fun to sit around and just hang out. :)

Then on Monday, Sam turned 21. Erika made a FABULOUS dinner and some of the edu gals went to her house and ate and drank and were quite merry. I had some marguaritas and let me tell you...yummy. I think they got stronger everyone I had. I wasn't drunk, that was a definite, but I think by the time I left I was feeling happier than when I arrived. :P I hadn't really ever hung out with any of my edu gals and I had an awesome time! We def have to do it again! Unfortunately, after a wild and crazy night, poor Sam is not feeling well. The reading class was all very impressed with her attendance in class at 915 this morning though. Even if she did leave a few times...she was looking a little pale. :( Lots of sleep needed.

I really can't think of anything else to write about.....I am knitting a scarf! I just passed the "potholder size" stage, so I am well on my way! haha.

Yea...3 day weekend this week! woot!

Picture Two (the road into Gilford) 

Picture One (the road going to the General Store in Stoddard) 

Noah and the Flood?

Well.....this weekend was quite the experience. From the top:

Mike and I left Friday around 1230/1245 and drove to Manchester, NH to pick up mom at the airport. The airport is tiny (you can walk from one end to the other in about 2 minutes). We walked around, but couldn't find mom. I finally asked about the flight and found out that it was late and has just arrived. So we found mom and drove to Mike's house. We got there and hung around, relaxed, read, it was good. I did laundry. :) Mike started dinner and his mom came home from work. We were going to go to the Sandwich Fair in Sandwich, NH on Saturday, but because it was forcasted to rain, we decided to wait and go on Sunday when the weather was supposed to be better. We got up Saturday and ate and hung around the house for a while trying to decide what there was to do in NH when it was rainy out. We finally decided to go to Concord to go to a thrift store for part of my Halloween costume and to buy Mike some shoes. Then it started to rain. And it rained. And rained. And guess what? It rained. We found everything for my costume and went to the mall for shoes. Not only did Mike find his shoes, but Mom and Mike's mom and I all found Columbia winter coats for $40! From $200! woah! So we all have matching coats now, haha. We drove back to Mike's house in Stoddard and ate a delicious dinner and fresh pound cake and maple syrup for dessert. mmmmm.......pound cake......Oh yea, it was still raining. A lot. In less than 24 hours we got 11-13 inches of rain. Yea, I know. It's a lot. Dood.

So the next morning we were going to be going to the Fair right? ha. We got up and got ready and (by then it was o longer raining) and started on our way. We took two cars because Mike and I were going to leave right from the fair to come back to school. We left the house and started to drive. And before we could leave the town we got to Picture One. This was the road out of town. And that was the lake he lived by. On the road. hmmm. So we got out and talked to some people and eventually decided to cross. It wasn't really deep and we got through fine. Until we got to the General Store, where the fire department was blocking the road because up ahead it was worse and they weren't letting people through. So we bought a NH map at the General Store and tried to find a way out. It turns out that every way out was either already flooded over and closed or lead right to the next road we needed which was flooded and closed, or in some cases the road was washed away and didn't even exist any more. We drove around some more and found Picture Two. This was the road into Gilford, NH. A huge truck(F-350 with a duptruck-looking bed) drove into the water to get across. At the deepest, it came up to the bottom of his windows, close to 5' of water! I was amazed that he didn't stall!

We climbed to the top of Pitcher Mtn. where a fire tower is for something to do. There was not a lot to chose from not being able to leave and having no TV, or computer. It was kinda nice though just to sit and read and talk and relax and not have contact. Except it was hard to keep updated on what roads were open and closed for info on getting out. We couldn't leave for the rest of Sunday and had to borrow a cell phone from Mike's aunt in order to make phone calls becuase long distance was out.

Monday morning Mike's aunt called and said that one road was opened and it was a road that let us get onto I-89 which leads us to Norwich. We were up off the couch, packed out the door and in the car within 5 minutes. No exagerration. It was crazy. Mike and I flew out of there because we were told that the road was only going to be opened for a little while. There is a dam that makes Highland lake and if it broke, the whole villiage of Stoddard would be flooded and probably destroyed. The dam was already breeched and had been since the night before, and it was still on red alert for fully breaking. We got through though and had no other problems getting to school. We got up here around 1230-1 maybe. I had missed 2 of my classes and a practicum at Williamstown Elementary, but I had called in and let them know that I couldn't make it in. I talked to one of my professors today and I have to say it is a great excuse for not being in class. heh.

It was, to be honest, a great weekend. The weather didn't exactly coroperate with us, but Mike's mom and my mom get along really well and we got to hang around a talk a lot. I definitely won't be forgetting ever.

Dancing is amazing.

So I did indeed go dancing on last Wednesday and it was amazing. The lessons are in the basement of a church and are led by a woman named Amy Beth. (Good name, eh?) It turns out she used to live in CO (after moving from Albany at 5 years old) and she knows EJ and her mom, who also does some teaching, helped to run Estes Park! How wierd is that?! :) Anyway, the class consists of me and three beginners under the age of 12. And I love it. Amy Beth loves having a premier in the class because I know what I am doing, lol, and if she needs any help, I can pitch in. It is also nice because it is not really hard-core and after a year with out any lessons, I don't think I could handle hard core classes, like EJ's. I do miss EJ and her kids dearly though. I don't have my shoes, of course the one year I don't bring them to school, but mommy is coming out on Friday and she is bringing them for me. :) Not great dancing in socks or bare feet. After last weeks dancing though, my calves and right knee were NOT happy with me. Today is really the first day that my calves don't hurt and my knee still bothers me on stairs. But I am going back tonight and I may just take it a little easier than last week. But I have to say it is a great feeling to be able to dance again. I really missed it alot.

As mentioned before, my mommy is coming out on Friday! Yay! :D I am really excited. She is coming out for the weekend and we are going to the Sandwich Fair in NH. (Sandwich is the name of the town, it is not a fair with a lot of sandwiches). :P Mike's mom and my mom have never met, so this is the chance that they have to finally meet eachother! I hope it goes well! :)