Visitors

Joy and Jake came to visit!! Joy and Jake came to visit!! :) I had a sign waiting for me at the airport when I picked them up on Wednesday. We immediately went to the Barking Crab for dinner...

...where we devoured a huge platter of crab legs. I always forget how much fun I have with these guys. I think I had a sideache from laughing so much. I unfortunately still had to work during the day, but Joy and Jake went to Salem on Thursday and had quite the adventure. We had fun making dinner that night though.

Friday night, I dragged them to the adult session of Stake Conference because... a) Elder Ballard came to speak to us and b) it was being held in the Trinity Episcopal Church at Copley Square. It was a beautiful building in which to hear an apostle of the Lord. Elder Ballard spoke about developing the ability to live close to the Lord so that you can be spiritually sensitive and in tune with the Spirit. Take the time to talk to the Lord and listen. Learn to hear and respond to promptings. Don't let opportunities pass you by. That is definitely something I needed to hear and remember.

We enjoyed a crowded train ride home that night. Being with good friends can even make being jostled about on a train fun. It was also some good people-watching with a group singing along to a ukelele on the train, and plenty of Halloween costumes.

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!

Fun at Work

Since I spend most of my time at work, I thought it would be fitting to share a little bit of the fun that we have. Because we spend all day sitting at computers, sometimes we have to get a little creative.

First, this little goodie comes courtesy of Mike, who often keeps us laughing. Bethany is an avid Kansas University Jayhawk fan and proudly displays the Baby Jay and Big Jay mascots on her desk. After some teasing the day before, Bethany arrived to find this:

"WE WILL NOT CALL MIKE A LITTLE SISSY BOY AGAIN" signed Jayhawk and Lil' Jay

Bethany and I like to do simple art projects. This one was inspired by someone we encounter at work who gets some crazy schemes in his head. We have dubbed him Wiley and Bethany occasionally lets out a howl in honor.
Sharing an office with someone five days a week, you get to see all their different moods. In Mike's case, he had so many that we named them: Misha, Mikey, Mickey, Michael, Miguel and Mikalek. We created this chart, with adjustable arrow, so that everyone knows which personality is present on any given day.

We have treats out in the hallway and Peanut M&Ms is one of our favorites. Somebody left the bag on the table with ONE m&m left inside. We thought it was Mike, though he never confessed, so Michelle left this note on the bag on his desk:"We saved the last one just for you!" We have since had several discussions about the proper number of items to leave in a bag without taking all of them. ;)

Writing this reminds me of the fun things we did at IHC. Lara and I would take turns writing stories on post-its passed back and forth over the cubie wall. I would throw the stress ball around with Jeremy and Ryan. The best was when we tried to scare Jeremy with a spider on a fishline strung over the lights. Our execution was a little off, but it took quite some planning.

You need to have a little fun at work, right?