Changing Colors

Mollie and I enjoyed the beautiful Sunday afternoon weather with a little stroll through Mt. Auburn Cemetery, always a great spot to enjoy the fall colors.
I love climbing the tower and looking out over the whole city. You can see the temple on the hill in the distance.

Playing Dress-Up

Next weekend an Education Conference is being held, so the traditional Halloween parties were held a little early. I chose to be Princess Leia. She has been one of my favorites since I was a little girl.
My roommates were Peter Pan and a cute cowgirl.

Some of my favorite costumes included a shark and victim...

...Dr. Horrible...

...and a bank zombie (keeps coming back to life).

Fall Festivus

This week I was lucky enough to have two friends, who moved away this year, come back for a visit. Denise and Kristie! :) We decided to have a Saturday filled with Fall fun and declared it Fall Festivus. We started off with apple picking in the morning.

Kristie, Rachel, Mollie, Amanda, Denise

Funny story about this next picture. Kristie walked up to the board first. When I followed, I hit my head on a board I didn't notice that she hadn't needed to duck under. Ouch! It's a pain being tall sometimes.

I love road signs! This one, on a muddy, dim, tree-lined street, rivaled the gems we saw in Ireland.

I decided to share this with Michelle, whom I went to Ireland with. :) Her comments:

Where exactly did you go apple picking? Is it a warning that the children have balance issues and put their hands up in the air saying ‘Oh, no! Please catch me!’ as they trip and fall? Or are they gifted with super-human flying skills and you need to watch for them on take-off?

Because it was later in the season, most of the low apples were gone. They gave us this nifty little apple picker on a stick. You needed to get this plastic toothed crown around the apple and twist (the proper way to pick and apple) until it fell into the little sack.

Here is Mollie reaching in to pull out the apple.

Our bags of loot. We raked them in!

After filling our bags with apples, we took a little tractor-pulled wagon hayride.
We played a little hot potato (pumpkin) game. Denise ended up with it and got to take it home.

Next our Fall Festivus of All Things Fall took us to a cranberry bog. This isn't the one we toured, but this bog was gathering the berries that day.

We toured Flax Pond Farms. They don't gather their berries by flooding, but flood it later in the year to protect the cranberries from freezing during the winter. A machine rakes through the vines, gathering the berries. A helicopter actually comes to carry the cranberries away.

This is the tool that was used before machines. Can you imagine covering that huge field with one of these? Hard, hard work.

Our group met up with Trina and Jeffra. It was just a little cold and windy outside, so we quickly moved the tour inside.

They demonstrated how they used to sort the cranberries. First, you dump the crate of berries into a sort of strainer, which will blow out the debris of leaves and twigs. The berries are then carried up to the top of the sorter.

I learned that... good cranberries bounce! This machine has panels that you can set at certain heights, so if the berries are good enough, they'll bounce over and pass through to the next stage. They can sort out different grades of cranberries this way, depending on which panel they make it past.

The cranberries come out of the machine where someone will sit and feel them. They pull out the soft ones, and set aside the white berries for white cranberry juice.

Next, after a little hot chocolate to warm us up, we headed to a Finnish sauna. It was a little crowded, but the hot steam felt so good. There is also a lake outside to jump in when it got too hot. Nice to go back and forth between the two. We ended the night with some yummy Italian food. It was a great Fall Festivus day!

Acadia Camping

I love camping, but don't necessarily have all the gear, but I jumped on the chance to go when my friend Emily invited me to join them in Acadia. She and I drove up Friday afternoon, getting there around 9:30 pm. It was pouring rain for the entire drive and didn't let up. We agreed to set the tents up since the others wouldn't get there until late. I was so grateful that I had stopped at Wally World to get a $4 poncho. One of the tents we used (not Emily's) was the oddest shape and took us over two hours to set up. The other we got up in 15 minutes. The tent did keep us nice and toasty warm that night, though, even if it was a little damp inside. Everyone made it safely, although we didn't find out one car did until the next morning. They got there so late they just slept in the car.

Saturday was a fun-filled day. We started off with a little kayaking around an island. It was still windy, so the water was pretty choppy. The water splashed over the edge of the kayaks a few times and we came away a little wet. We didn't get to go out as far as they normally do, but it was still gorgeous.

Eric, Emily, C, Julie, Sean, Christina

Next we headed out for a little drive around the park, stopping at Sand Beach. It was a very peaceful place to sit and watch the powerful waves rolling in.

Raphael, Emily, Michelle, C, Christina, Sean

The sand dunes here were gorgeous, reminding me of Anne of Green Gables, with the swaying grass (which actually was poky and hurt!). Michelle and I got into a little fight with the cattails. I came away looking the worst, though, since I was wearing black fleece.We raced up to the top of Cadillac Mountain to be able to see the sunset. The leaves were at their peak for Autumn colors and the sight was glorious.

We had dinner at a fun diner in Bar Harbor called Route 66. The deco was awesome, including a pink cadillac, roadsigns, and funny license plates.

Unfortunately we didn't get any smores that night as the firewood we had was wet. We tried diligently to get a fire going, but in the end it didn't last long.
Emily and I took the scenic route home. I loved this display in one of the small towns we passed through.

Acadia was amazing. I can't wait to go again!

Trains and Museums

As a charter Disney Visa holder, I was notified about their A Christmas Carol Train Tour. I wasn't that excited about another remake of A Christmas Carol, but getting to go on a train and for free? Count me in. I dragged Mollie, Sue and Rhonda along, and it was actually really interesting. A model of Big Ben under construction.

Isn't Marley scary?

The actors actually acted out the scenes before they were animated. They wore these suits and had black dots allover their faces with sensors for the computers to be able to animate every little expression.

This is the animated version of the bodies before they put clothes on them.

After the train tour, we got to watch a special 3-D preview with clips from the movie. It actually looks like an awesome movie. I can't wait to see it now.

That day was also Free Museum Day, sponsored by the Smithsonian, with museums allover the country participating. After a quick lunch at Wagamama (my first time there, unique food but really good) in Harvard Square, we headed over to the Harvard Natural History Museum. We started out with their famous display of glass flowers.

I couldn't believe how realistic and detailed the flowers are. They didn't look like glass at all, but as if they were soft and would bend if you touched them.We also enjoyed all the animals from allover the world...

...dinosaur fossils......an awesome color display showing how animals use color...

...and rocks and minerals.That night I watched the Relief Society Broadcast on my laptop at home. I may or may not have fallen asleep during the last talk. Good thing I could watch the rest later. Thank you internet.

360 Degrees Tour

One of my favorite all-time bands is U2. I heard that they are great in concert and have always wanted to go. I unsuccessfully tried to get tickets whenever they came to Salt Lake, but luckily they did two shows in Boston this tour, so I was able to get tickets. The stage was amazing, built to look like a spaceship.

They played all my favorite songs, but... the sound system was AWFUL! Take it from me, do not ever go to a concert in a football stadium. You could hear the echo from across the stadium, so the music was just jumbled. Maybe if you're on the ground you can't hear it, but it was pretty much a bust where we were sitting.Bethany and I still had fun and sang along as best we could. We brought our work prize blankets to keep us warm. The nights have definitely gotten chilly. We did enjoy yummy Five Guys Burgers and Fries, which is similar to In-N-Out.

Don't worry that it took us an hour to get out of the parking lot (which we had to pay $40 to park in) and another two hours to get to the freeway. This was after I'd spent three hours sitting in traffic that morning because I realized I left my computer at home when I was halfway to work. Gotta love Boston traffic! I still love you U2!

Ward Campout

The ward campout this year was held in New Hampshire once again. I was hoping it would be held in Vermont, like the first year I was here, but I guess I'm going to have to plan my own trip back there. My car full of Me, Mollie, Pat, Sue and Amy Beth arrived Friday night just in time to enjoy a dance around the campfire. They actually played some fun old school goodies like Jump by Kris Kross ('cause I'm the miggidy miggidy miggidy mac daddy).

Saturday we enjoyed a little ride to a nearby town for some reinforcements, then some good kayak time on the lake, and basking in the sun. My friend Sue convinced us to take a little dip in the lake even though we didn't bring our suits. That evening we enjoyed a Broadway Cabaret talent show and smores around the campfire. I also got to play (and win!) a round of Ticket to Ride, always a fun game.

Testimony meeting around the lake on Sunday was beautiful as usual. Luckily, we made it through the weekend without any rain. There seem to be a ton of new people that just moved to Boston, many coming straight from Provo/BYU. I have to admit that I feel a little bit disconnected from all of that now that I'm in a different ward. That's probably a good thing. ;)

Hallelujah!

My fortune cookie today read: Followed by my view on the drive to my new Bishop's house for dinner:

Rather appropriate, don't you think?

Teasing

My new roommate Mollie actually went to beauty school and has this awesome tool for backcombing. Do you like my new do?

Labor Day Weekend

I would not call myself a big sports fan. I don't know when the teams are playing, who they're playing, or feel a constant need to know what the score is. I do, however, love attending sports events. I think I got my first taste of this in college at the U of U football games where there was often standing room only. There is just an electricity in the air when that many people are all in one place, rooting together with anticipation that their team will be victorious. Fast forward me to Boston... seriously a great place to be a sport's fan. Everyone here loves their teams and there are plenty of them. I have been to see the Red Sox and Celtics, and on Thursday I finally saw my first Patriots game.It was a preseason game, so the stands weren't quite full. I couldn't believe the amount of people there anyway, though... incredible. I couldn't imagine when the stands are full. We were near the top and had to go about a mile up this giant switchback ramp.
The three of us rode the special commuter train to the stadium, so we had to hold out until the end of the game. Fun times. Football means that fall has officially arrived!


On Friday night, Mollie and I went to the Killers concert. We had a blast singing/yelling along with all the songs.They had some awesome stage effects... and Brandon Flowers wasn't bad to look at either. ;) There was a ton of energy. Great concert!

I started moving last Monday and am still in the process. I moved all the way... next door. It's funny, though, it still takes as much work to box everything up even though I didn't move far. I did hire the Russians again and one of them was the same as last year and he remembered me. It's probably not too often that he gets Russian speakers not from Russia.

I spent my day off this Monday cleaning out the attic so I have a little storage space. (My new apartment doesn't have as many closets as my last apartment.) Doesn't that sound fun?