One more state visited...

...which leaves me 22 or 23 more to visit...I forget, we counted a few weeks ago. Anyway, I made a weekend trip to Maine with my friends, Alison and Rachel, this past weekend. We left Saturday morning and came back Sunday evening, just in time for the CES Fireside. Rachel is from Maine, and has a best friend, also from Maine, who is living in Salt Lake City and who just got married. We went to Maine so that Rachel could go to the wedding reception on Saturday night. It was a beautiful drive, there are still pretty autumn leaves left, sooner than later though they will be gone, and we will be left with bare, wintery trees. We saw the world's largest globe, we went to the only actual L.L.Bean store (most of you just get catalogs) where I took my picture with the giant boot, only to find out right after that I wasn't supposed to be on it, oops! We did shopping in a cute area called Freeport, I only got winter gloves, but Alison got some great deals (plus she has money from her real job). We shared a whoopie pie, and headed back to Rachel's house. At the wedding reception, Alison and I planned our upcoming weekend trip to NYC! We are so excited for that! We are going for my belated birthday celebration with some other friends. Anyway, Sunday we went to church in Rachel's old family ward, had lunch with her parents, and had a great chat with her mom and dad about dating/boys/marriage-the usual talk of LDS single girls! We saw an awesome lighthouse on our way home, (I have always put Maine and lighthouses together) but sadly my camera battery died before that, so I will have to get some lighthouse pics from Alison to put up later. It was a great weekend in Maine! It has also meant that I have had an insanely busy week getting all my studying and work done for my classes this week....I work hard and play hard! It's a great life motto! Happy November! Time is flying!

Happy Belated Halloween!

I know this is a bit overdue, but I have a good excuse-I am so darn busy! My life never slows down, and at this point it will not until I am done with the semester...I do love school though, and I like all the anxiety and business of semesters. I chose this, right?! Well, after a long week, and a class cancelled on Thursday night...I got to start my Halloween festivities early. Some friends were hosting a Halloween party at their house on Thursday night, and I had made costume plans with my friends, Alison, Rachel, and Amanda. They are all roommates...I was friends first with Alison, then she moved houses, then she got a new roommate named Rachel, who quickly became a good friend, and then 2 weeks ago, another roommate named Amanda moved in...I am the token roommate...Anyway, we did a plan of salvation spin on things...Amanda was the sun (celestial kingdom), Alison was the moon (terrestrial kingdom), and Rachel was the stars (telestial kingdom)...which leaves me to be...OUTER DARKNESS! That's right! And for those of you that know me well...you know that I like any excuse to be scary or goth-like on Halloween, it all started back my senior year in high school...anyway, I was scary. We had fun at the party, and here are some of the pictures...enjoy, don't scream or be too scared, eh?! Hopefully, it is enough to want to keep you out of outer darkness for real. Hope you had happy halloweens, too!

PS-the first one is at the end of the night, I was done with my scary, teased hair...the second one is me and my friend, Shelby, who I knew in Salt Lake, she was in town visiting a friend for the weekend-that was a fun, random surprise!

I missed out...

...So as many of you know, High School Musical 3 came out a couple of weekends ago. I heard how wonderful it was from my sister and sister-in-law and all of my nieces, but unfortunately since I don't live in Texas or in London, I didn't have someone to take with me as an excuse. Yes, I will be honest, I like the movies...maybe it's cause Troy is oh, so darling, or maybe it is because I have loved the name Gabriella since I was 11 or 12 years old, and want to name my daughter that...or maybe it is because I do like all things Disney and cheesy. Anyway, maybe I will get to see it over the holidays or something, by then, all my nieces will have all the songs from the soundtrack memorized! Anyway, the night it came out I was out and about Boston with some friends, we had a fun get to gether at this guy's family-owned restaturant, and while we were out I saw a billboard advertising it. I just wanted you all to know how sad I was that I couldn't see it. To all my nieces: I am looking forward to High School Musical sing-a-longs and dance-a-longs over the holidays! I love you girls: Caitlyn, Aimee, Lainey, Havana, and Maddie (I love David and Izzie, too, but they aren't quite at the age to be HSM fanatics yet)!

Friday PM: New Hampshire

Who would have ever thought how easy it could be to visit 3 states in one weekend?! Well, on the east coast, it is really, really easy. In fact, we were going to add Maine in there for Sunday, but we have decided to make Maine it's own weekend trip. My good friend, Rachel, is from Maine and so we will take advantage of staying with her parents when we go. I had a great Friday, doing lots of errands, cleaning my house, going to the temple (I can never fully express just how much I love going to the temple, both driving there and being in there...and the Boston Temple, I just love it, everyone is so welcoming and friendly!), etc. Then I picked up Alison and Rachel, and we met up with some more friends. We all carpooled up to New Hampshire, to Canobie Lake Park. It is an older amusement park, nestled in the woods, and it was all decked out for Halloween, with 3 different haunted events-a haunted mansion, a crypt, and a 3-D haunted lab (where we got to wear supercool 3-D glasses that wouldn't stay up on my nose, hence the librarian look). Mark and Ryan were our fearless leaders, and our photographers now that I look...they aren't in any of the pictures...hmm. We rode a few rides, and the teenage girl let us do the bumper cars 2 times in a row, even though she was supposed to close them down for the night. It was a fun adventure...but just the beginning of a very busy weekend full of adventures for me...(Am I playing too much?! Probably...oh well...I am thoroughly enjoying myself!)

Saturday AM: Massachusetts

Saturday morning I picked up my friends, Andrew and Rachel, and we headed west to a town called Harvard, MA for apple picking at a local apple orchard called Phil's apples. It is still owned and operated by Phil, an old man who enjoyed giving me a hard time. The apple cider was free and oh so yummy! We had some other friends there, too...but Rachel and I kept busy filling our huge bag, the biggest size you could get, with a great selection of apples...we were racing around to get the best ones. I eat an apple a day, so I am definitely well-stocked! There were lots of awesome autumn leaves to be seen all along the drive to and from, there were fields that were bright orange and filled with pumpkin patches, and the weather was beautiful! We drove the whole way with my car windows down! I found gas for really cheap, too...that makes me happy since it really adds up driving a lot. Then as we headed back to Boston, Andrew suggested that we go out for lunch, aaaaahh...I hate being poor. I agreed though. He took us to one of his favorite Thai restaurants, and my yellow curry was fantastic! In the end, Andrew ended up taking the bill, he said that it was the least he could do in return for all my chauffeuring...I like having good friends...and I can never say no to free meals! After lunch, Rachel and I came back to my place to bake my favorite apple caramel pie (it's my Aunt Susan's recipe-a Thanksgiving favorite...Rachel doesn't like nuts, so we made the topping without it...and just so all of you that make it know...it still turned out really yummy). We hung out until Alison came over and then we were ready for our next adventure...

Saturday PM: Providence, RI

So after a busy day, Rachel, Alison and I headed down for the evening to Providence, Rhode Island. They do an event called Waterfire. There are bonfires lit all along the riverway in the heart of the city, and there is music, entertainers, and some live bands. It is right next to a really big, amazing mall. We enjoyed the sites and sounds for sure. We ran into some friends, Cassie, Adam, Cassie's friend Ammon visiting from AZ, and David (the violin maker, I think I have mentioned him before...people here are so amazing, unique, intelligent, and talented...to say the least). Then later we met up with some of Alison's friends from southern Massachusetts that were also in Providence. I love playing in New England, and I have decided that although I am here for a Master's (and don't get me wrong, I love school and I love my program), I am really here for an excuse to explore, meet lots of new people and have lots of fun. Those of you that have known me during my stressful semesters at BYU wouldn't believe it is the same me. I always say, "Well, I really should study"...but I play, and always make time for studying when I absolutely have to...and school is going fine so far. I am enjoying being social and meeting people, it makes me happy. I love Boston and all of New England, really. Oh, so Rhode Island puts me at 26 states that I have visited...24 to go...and being on the East coast will get me another 10 or so visited, no problem.

Sunday: Massachusetts

Today was a fantastic day, and a good end to the busy, but super fun weekend. After great meetings at Church (I absolutely love my ward), I went with my good friends, Rachel and Alison, for a scenic drive. Most people just think that we are all roommates, but we are not...I am just super cool and the wannabe roommate; they are lots of fun. We took some snacks and drove up around the northern part of Massachusetts to see the leaves changing. I love it, they change to all shades of orange, yellow and red...there are so many trees! We stopped and took some pictures. Then we also stopped in Salem, MA for a couple of minutes, and to take a couple of pictures. No worries, we didn't do anything evil or witchy... then we drove back to Boston, went to some friends' house for apple pie (we all have an abundance of apples from apple picking), and now I am at home, relaxing for the remainder of my Sabbath.