Hiking, Biking and Picking

About a year ago, some good friends got married in Kent, CT-- a beautiful place-- but I was feeling so sick still that we were unable to attend.  Making good on a promise to take me back to Kent, we seized a free Friday afternoon last week and had a little day trip.


The best part about Kent (for me) is that it is where the Appalachian Trail cuts into Connecticut for a small stretch.  So I got to get my Appalachian on (always grand!) and I got one state closer to my goal of hiking at least a portion of the AT in every state it touches.

The leaves certainly enhanced the experience!

After our short stint on the AT, we stopped into town for soup, herbal tea, and chocolate (lunch of legit chilly weather hikers, of course) and we continued our trekking at Kent Falls State Park.  We will definitely come here again!

Last week we also went to our hot spot, Lyman Orchards, and picked apples and pears.  The pears were extra fun because only the tippy-top ones were left, which meant a little tree climbing!

And we also won't forget this fun event we attended on the new section of the Q Bridge in New Haven about a month ago.  The city had a party on the bridge as a celebration before it opened to traffic.  We had a great morning, taking our bikes onto the train with us to New Haven and then biking to the bridge and to the New Haven farmer's market for lunch.  Unique day!  We drove over this section of the bridge in our car just the other day and I had to give a little cheer and a boast that I had biked there :)

P.S.

We had a great afternoon with the YSA Branchies this weekend at the corn maze and picking some more apples!

Photos by our very own Matthew Marshall.

Utah Trip

We flew out to Utah for a few days in October to see General Conference, to see some of the family, to see close family-friends, and to see UConn football play their furthest away game ever at BYU.  The stars seem to be aligning, inviting us to make the trip, so we decided to say yes!

At one session of conference, we sat with the younger kids of our great friends the Durrants.  This is a blackmail photo to show their parents how diligent Lil' Gracie was at staying awake, while the boys, well... see for yourself... :) hehe

Never one to pass up a museum-like opportunity, I got a nice chance to look at the many works of art on display in the Conference Center.  One that really caught my eye was the one below called She Shall Find What Is Lost, by Brian Kershisnik.  It was particularly poignant to view this and think about some recent events in my family, xoxo:

Also, I immediately recognized the painting as being by the same person who painted this unique Nativity, one of my favorites:

Both of these are GIANT paintings.  Nativity was on display in the BYU Museum of Art while I attended, and I loved going to look at it in person.


At some point on our trip, I contracted what we can only describe as food poisoning, so I spent much of the second half of our stay in bed.  If you hear your friends at church complaining about some gross lady barfing her guts out in the garbage can right in front of the Conference Center (that would be me...) tell them to be nice and that at least it was IN the garbage can!  That was definitely the low point for me.


The highlight, on the other hand, came right at the beginning of our stay when I convinced Jack to hike to the Timpanogos Caves with me!  It was an astoundingly beautiful day and the caves were so cool inside.

Jack wasn't too sure about the hiking part (to be fair, it is very steep, with the trail often next to sheer cliff walls-- rather a scary sight at some spots).  But he did admit, once we got to the bottom again, that he "might do that again" in several years.  I'll take it!

Martha's Vineyard, Re-do

Our first time to Martha's Vineyard was exactly a year before our second time, because both were in celebration of our marriage-- first our honeymoon, and now our very first anniversary trip!  We had a great time and the weather was gorgeous.  We could not have asked for a better week to enjoy the island.

We spent the first day or so in Cape Cod and took a bike ride around Hyannis to see where all those Kennedys live and ended up crashing a beach wedding (Note to future brides: wind problems, shoe problems, sand problems-- having seen a few beach weddings, I do not recommend them).  We sat around like creepers and watched the entire thing.  Their preacher really earned his dollars- he was into it!

 

  

This time we brought our own bikes along so we enjoyed a lot of cycling around the island and some other fun activities like a joint paddleboard/kayak trip, a beach bonfire with our cool MV crew, and a sunset cruise on an old sailing ship. 

Best of all was the fact that when we went home, we got to go to the same home, in the same state (!) -- unlike last year when I had to return to Philly after our honeymoon for 2 months of daily radiation.  We are so grateful for the progress we both have made in our lives over the past year-- health, professional, living situation, and otherwise.  It has been a big year of recovery, change, and growth for us and we are so happy to be just where we are right now.  Thanks for ALL of the tremendous love and support along the way!