4th of July in Boston

Scott and I were both blessed with having a long weekend for the 4th of July, so we chose to drive down to Boston to experience their fireworks show and also do the tourist thing and walk around. The drive down took us about 3 hours, we got there late afternoon on Saturday, checked in to our hotel and immediately took the train to downtown. We had no agenda, no itinerary, we just started walking. Most of our time was spent walking the Freedom Trail which takes you around the city of Boston to key places during the Revolutionary War. A couple of the notable sites were the Paul Revere house and Bunker Hill Monument. It was amazing for both of us to see signs dating buildings all the way back to the early 1700's. One popular spot with some TV history was the outside of the "Cheers" bar; we didn't go inside of it, it was definitely PACKED.





The fireworks show didn't start until 10:30p, but when it did, it was AMAZING. It was by far the best show either Scott or I had ever seen. They set them off from a barge in the middle of the river, we watched from a bridge that had too many people to count. The walk to the train after the show also had too many people to count, it was literally a sea of people leaving, almost all the streets were clogged with people.

Sunday we set out early for Fenway Park to buy some tickets to the game that afternoon, Red Sox vs. Seattle!! The tickets we bought were for standing room only, so we spent most of the game walking around the park, watching from different vantage points and taking a lot of pictures. Fenway is a pretty impressive stadium.





All in all, the weekend was great, just the type of getaway we both needed. It was just nice to not have any expectations, no list of places that we HAD to go to. Boston is a great city, lots of history, lots to do. We may even try to go back down there for 4th of July next year, who knows. :)

Random thought...

While sitting at a stop light, waiting an excruciatingly long time, I noticed a late 70's corvette stingray for sale. nice ride. it was definitely one of my favorite cars growing up. the lines and style were nearly untouchable. then i got to thinking why i liked it so much. what the underlying reason was.

sometimes i like something because of past experience/ownership. doesn't apply here.
sometimes, because it's rare. somewhat applies.
sometimes, because of the quirks. applies.
so what's the quirk, you ask? well, something kinda silly.

i've realized our family, wherever we were along the way, almost always owned at least one older car. don't get me wrong, it's not that we never wanted a new car, it's because we couldn't "get" one... perhaps it was the threat of young children that kept my parents away from the dealership. perhaps it was the dog that was always being toted that threatened the interior. or perhaps my parents just didn't want debt... (good reason, by the way).... whatever the reason, i appreciate older cars that much more. (by the way, since scott moved out, there have been 2 new vehicle purchases, so #1 is looking like the culprit)

i digress.

well, with older cars comes older technology. remember, back in the day, when one of life's lessons (which doesn't have to be emphasized as much, anymore) was to keep the little fingers clear of the door being shut?
that lesson was one i learned to fear and respect at a YOUNG age. those doors were HEAVY, and could take off a child's fingers relatively quickly. i can count the number of times my fingers have been caught someplace they shouldn't have been, on... well, one hand :)

having been part of my parents' ownership of various pickup trucks, a monte carlo, an old stationwagon (wasn't it an LTD, dad?), a 70's blazer, and 2 late 70's mercedes diesels, i have been exposed to and learned to LOVE a loud, solid click of a door being slammed shut.

you see, back in those days, the technology afforded heavy duty latches for well-made vehicles. with heavy duty latches, slamming a door shut sometimes was the only way to completely close a door...... i appreciate a good "click" in a heavy door. i think Abbie does, too... she likes to slam our 4runner's doors... (I keep trying to tell her it's a Japanese vehicle, with light doors).
:)

so...
i saw that stingray and knew it had those heavy doors... i thought about running over to it to slam the doors, but the light turned green.



while we're reminiscing, i'll leave you with a common phrase that was part of my childhood...
"money doesn't grow on trees"... boy, that phrase makes MUCH more sense now that i've got to do the "growing". :)

THANK YOU MOM AND DAD! us kids never realized what we had! (p.s. can we come over for dinner? laundry? do you still have cable?, etc...)

NHL Playoffs and epiphanies

The Flames are out. Again. Scott's weeping. Again. Will they EVER get past the 1st round???
I've been thinking for some time now that Evgeni Malkin (superstar on the Penguins) looks like someone... finally came to me tonight. I mocked up a quick side-by-side for ya:

Close, no?

Abbie and I are recovering from our first year with the XA student ministry. The students leave Burlington this coming Friday (after they're all done with finals) to go off to their summer commitments. AND, finally, the weather has turned for the better! We were out until 8pm throwing the frisbee, until we couldn't see it coming at our faces anymore. Maybe we'll get out and do some more geocaching in the near future. One treasure has eluded us so far.

Spring is here! (kind of)

For the most part the snow has finally disappeared around here and the sun is making almost daily appearances. Cabin fever has slowly been setting in for me making me desperate to go outside! Scott and I ventured out yesterday to a place called Red Rocks Park to do a little geocaching (aka treasure hunting with a GPS). This park borders parts of Lake Champlain, making for some awesome views, and gets its name from red colored rocks that are all over. Our treasure hunting took us over a good portion of the park, on the trails and off :). We knew there were three caches' around the park, it took us a good 3 or so hours to find two of them. We searched and searched for the third but eventually suspended the search due to fading daylight and rapidly lowering temperatures. We know the general area of that last one, though, and we will return there again! Here are some good pics of the lake frozen over(one of them with me standing on the ice!) and other random pics (one with Scott standing next to a wall of ice right at the edge of the lake)

:

Mardi Gras...Burlington style

Today is the big parade put on by the local brewery throughout downtown. Driving a bus in the middle of that parade doesn't sound like too much fun... hopefully the riders will realize why I'm late when that inevitably happens...

Abbie and I are doing well- We've been experiencing some very fluctuating weather lately. All the snow is gone :( and the forecast is sunny in the 20s. This week is the last Monday night meeting we'll have before the students go on spring break. Our trip to New Hampshire was a nice weekend getaway in the wilderness! Nice to see some other familiar faces in the NE Chi Alpha region, and good to meet new folks around the area.

My work schedule has changed again (until June) and it really flopped the times Abbie and I have off together- polar opposites, really. So, it should be interesting to get used to it. Definitely not used to the schedule after 2 weeks. speaking of....gotta go! I start work in 25 minutes, takes 10 (conservative) to get there. See ya!
-s

sad news and happy news

Today I received news that gave me a mix of emotions. My high school guidance counselor, MaryAnn Gambill, passed away this morning after a long battle with Hepatitis C and it's complications. Of course my first emotion was sadness at losing an amazing friend and mentor. To even try to describe how she impacted innumerable lives would be absolutely impossible. But that sad news is also happy news because I know she is now in Heaven, no longer in pain, spending time with her Father. Mrs. Gambill was one of the first people I met when I started at Kent View Christian High School my sophomore year, mainly because she was the guidance counselor :). During my first couple months there, I noticed that a good majority of the students would go spend their free time in the school office, which I found kind of ridiculous. I mean, who would want to hang out in the school office of all places during break times, right?! Well, I soon found out that everyone was going to hang out in Mrs. Gambill's office. She always had a smile, a hug, and her candy jar (in that order) available the minute you walked through her door. I never thought she noticed me, mainly because I would always try to blend in with the other students, being too shy to want to be noticed. But, one day she caught me, gave me a hug, sat me down in a chair and had me talking within minutes. After a year I had made a close group of 4 friends and we would always hang out at her house. That's what was so great about her, she was there for us outside of school as well. She called all of her students "her kids"; it was awesome, we were all like adopted kids to her. And to every student who walked through her door she showed unconditional love, the type of love that Jesus constantly taught. Whether you were the school goof-off or the valedictorian, she loved you equally. One of my regrets is that after graduating and starting at Western I didn't go see her as much as I would have liked to. I lost touch with her for a while, except through the occasional email. She joined Facebook just so she could reconnect with all of her kids, and now her wall is becoming a memorial page, filling up with people sharing memories and leaving messages. I am sad that she is gone and that I don't get to hear her call me her kid again, but I am now looking forward to seeing her again in Heaven and receiving one of her hugs. She was an amazing woman of God, and because of that she is now with God livin' it up :).

a

Welcome Baby Gavin! Welcome 2009!

It's been awhile since we've updated this here blog, but rest assured, we're alive and well. Over the course of the last couple weeks, things have been fairly quiet. Scott enjoyed having some paid days off- it's been a long time since I've indulged in such pleasantries. We thought of attending the New Year's festivities in downtown Burlington, but opted for the MUCH warmer viewing of the falling ball in New York. I was set to work Friday morning, so off to bed 'relatively' early. Since then, we've been waiting for the news of the new Gavin baby, who decided to make her appearance at 1am, Jan. 7th. only 10 days late...but welcomed nonetheless.

We reconvened at our weekly meeting this past Monday and had a good time catching up with the students that were gone for winter break. We have high hopes for further solidifying the foundation of Chi Alpha at UVM this year, by becoming an officially recognized campus group, casting the vision of what college ministry is truly about, and training & mentoring the leaders of Chi Alpha in the years to come!

In other news, Scott has found a lack of enthusiasm among the workers about the union we are represented by, yet most everyone has complaints that they want addressed. I think this struck a nerve with me-maybe it runs in the family... All I want to be sure of, is that my $50/month is going toward something I can be proud of, even if the shop needs a new mindset.