The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Now that I no longer live with my parents, the holidays took on a whole new meaning for me this year since I was actually coming home for Christmas instead of just walking downstairs. As homesick as I was when I first moved to Colorado, I've totally fallen in love...but it's still hard being a plane ride away from my parents! Skype makes a big difference but it's not the same as seeing them in person and I was really excited to go home for Christmas.

Billy and I had found a cheap flight home, but unsurprisingly that meant it had a less than ideal arrival time...in Baltimore. We were originally slated to arrive at 1 am, which meant we still had time to book a SuperShuttle back to Bethesda and let my parents have a full night of sleep. That plan was completely derailed when our flight was delayed two hours and after arriving in Baltimore at 3 am, we were informed that the wait for a SuperShuttle would be "at least two hours." 

My dad has always insisted that I have a lifelong pass for calling him at all hours of the night for a ride (insert Daddy's Girl and only child comments here), so I reluctantly called the house to see if they could come rescue us from spending a night in the BWI terminal. After assuring my mom that I wasn't calling because of a medical crisis or other life threatening situation (remember, I'm an only child), my dad zipped up to the airport and saved us from being stranded by the baggage claim with the rest of the unfortunate souls who had been counting on SuperShuttle or similar transportation.

After spending the first day at home predominately catching up on sleep, we had an awesome time celebrating my birthday and Christmas. We broke tradition of going to Melting Pot to go downtown to see the Ellipse and eat at Old Ebbitt Grill in DC. I used to go to the Ellipse every year with my granddad when I was little, but I'd never seen it lit up at night and my mom and Billy had never gone at all. We caught a lucky break with the weather and smushed our way through the masses to take in the tree in all it's Christmas-ey glory.

Since Billy obviously spent Christmas with my family instead of his own, I decided to include some of his Christmas traditions with ours. Billy always went to church on Christmas Eve, so we headed to St. Dunsten's on Tuesday night for my first Christmas Eve service. Fortunately, St. Dunsten's caters to those of us who do not regularly attend church by providing everyone with essentially an idiot's guide to church that outlines all the song verses and even tells you when to stand/sit/kneel. 

The special part about going to St. Dunsten's is that my parents got married there (as did two of my aunts) and my granddad was a founding member of the church. Unfortunately, I'd only ever been to St. Dunsten's for his funeral service as well as for my grandmother's, so I was eager to form some happy memories at the church and feel close to some Cardon family history.

Once we got home, each of us opened a gift (another great tradition started thanks to Billy!) which of course helped ease the anticipation for Christmas morning. It was really fun incorporating both of our families' Christmas routines into the holiday and hopefully helped Billy feel like a little piece of home was with him.

Now that I'm (sort of) an adult, the most exciting part about Christmas for me is watching other people open the gifts I've gotten them. Billy's gift arrived at the last minute (8 pm Christmas Eve), and after coming very close to having a panic attack that he would have nothing to open, I was super excited to see his gift finally arrive. Shutterfly sure knows how to make you sweat! Last year, I got made him a photo album of all the fun things we did in 2012 and after spending 4 weeks making it, I opted to go high-tech this and get one made through Shutterfly. I also waited until December 17 to start planning, so that may have had something to do with choosing Shutterfly over my own crafting skills...

After the Christmas festivities were over, the three of us headed out to the C&O Canal, which runs along the Potomac River, to another special Cardon spot. I also went there all the time with my granddad (as did my dad with his entire family when he was a kid), so we like to go to the canal whenever I"m home to say "hi" to my Granddad and take in the Maryland scenery. As much as I go on about Colorado, Maryland is also incredibly beautiful in its own East Coast way (even if it makes me sneeze a lot).

I spent the rest of the week fitting in as much time as I could with friends and family, the dogs, Lizzie, and of course Billy. I'm headed south for the winter again to Florida, so I had to say goodbye to Billy when he flew back to Denver on Saturday. I found it very hard to tear myself away from Colorado when we left last week, and while I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity that Florida brings, I'll be counting down the days until I get to see Billy and Denver in April!

Thanksgiving in Paradise

Just when you thought Thanksgiving recaps were over...here's ours! Fashionably late. 

Billy and I had originally planned on spending Thanksgiving in Denver since flights back East do not come cheap and we already went back for the Naval Academy Reunion and are going to Maryland for Christmas. Billy's mom VERY generously offered us plane tickets to Florida to spend it with her, Billy's stepdad, and his sister's family. We jumped at the chance to spend the holiday with family instead of attempting to figure out something in Denver...plus who turns down a vacay to Florida?! We flew out late on Tuesday night and prepared ourselves for sun and serious relaxation.

For those of you spending the holiday in colder weather, it will probably make you feel better to know that it wasn't sunny and warm the entire time. Our first day was windy and cloudy, so since it's not exactly pool weather, we loaded up into the car and drove out to Sanibel and Captiva Islands for a day of exploring. Billy's favorite restaurant on Captiva is the Mucky Duck, so we headed out for lunch before stopping at the beach and a wildlife preserve (although we didn't see any wildlife...just trees. But very cool looking Floridian trees).

On the beach at Sanibel

 I've only ever seen Wellington and the Everglades, which are obviously wildly different from eachother. Wellington is highly manicured and tries really hard to look like the most perfect version of Florida. There's palm trees perfectly lined up along every street and all the buildings are stucco with that Spanish tile roofing. On Sanibel, it was nice to see a more natural version of Florida with "normal" vegetation and houses. Although there was at least one hot pink house, which is still probably fairly normal for Florida.

Billy's sister Aly and her family were due to arrive that night, so we enjoyed few hours of silence in the house once we got back from the beach. Spending the long weekend with them was a blast, and further reinforced that parenting is more work than you could ever imagine or put into words. 


Since the kids only see Billy (and now me) once a year, they are still at the age where they don't always remember us and are very wary of the new strangers sharing a house with them. Chase (the baby) mistook me for Aly their first night here and was horrified to discover he had walked over to the WRONG lady with brown hair.

Chase looking unsure of the large human holding him captive

Uncle Billy won over Rowan (who's three) with a round of soccer, but I was initially told (in no uncertain terms) that I was NOT invited. Fortunately by the end of the weekend we had successfully convinced both of them that we were actually pretty fun. 

It may have helped our case that we directly facilitate making Rowan taller and able to see things

We were also celebrating Chase's first birthday in addition to Thanksgiving. I'll let the pictures do the talking. We did a lot of binge eating, family bonding (which may or may not have included beer/wine), and Monopoly Deal games (Google it. It's awesome.).

Chase figuring out the intricacies of unwrapping gifts

Aly modeling Chase's new pirate towel. I realize it looks like Rowan's about to hit her, but I'm fairly certain he was just flailing his arms around in excitement over his fire chief towel.

Aly and Dan on Thanksgiving! Aly is digging into the infamous "Green Junk" which is some sort of Jello concoction Billy's family is obsessed with. I'm still working up the nerve to try it.

Me and Billy in front of the Thanksgiving spread (Turkey not pictured)

I almost forgot to add that I saw several manatees, including a baby one. So my life is pretty much complete.

To DC and Back: Washington International Horse Show

I finally did something interesting enough to blog about! I flew home to DC for a week to work at the Washington International Horse Show, which was a whirlwind of sleep deprivation and fun and excitement.

WIHS is held every year in the middle of DC (literally...the stalls are on the streets) and I went a bunch as a kid, so getting to work at this show was especially exciting for me. Despite being only a few miles from my parents, I only saw them for about 8 hours total. The show has a day and evening schedule, and with only one ring to run everything in, it goes pretty late! 

As tiring as it was, I can't complain too much because I did have a lot of fun. I haven't seen Jen (my boss) or Lauren (my co-worker) since Florida, so it was fun to get to spend some time with them. I also finally met all the people I'd been emailing back and forth with since the spring that work in the WIHS office. Everyone was really nice and welcoming, which was a huge relief.

While I haven't seen Jen and Lauren since April, it's been even longer since I've seen some of my fellow Maryland horse people! I ran into almost everyone I hadn't seen since leaving for Florida, including my old boss and a few people that used to ride or train at PHC with me. Even though I never made it out to the barn, it was almost just as good to see some familiar faces.

I was happy to realize that I'm starting to see familiar horse show faces too! There were a few people from WEF and Vermont at the show and it was so fun to get to work with them again.

When I was in Vermont, all I did was write, but at WIHS, my main responsibilities revolved around managing the press room. I also have been handling all the contracts the show has with media partners, which involves a lot of keeping track of what each side has done to fulfill the agreement. It sounds kind of boring, but I have a (not-so-secret) OCD streak, so I really enjoyed it. The best part was managing the Instagram and other social media accounts for the show. It was really fun getting to show the behind-the-scenes perspective of the horse show and interact with all the WIHS fans! Being a local (and harboring a childhood obsession with the show) made it easy to pick out what to capture.

I also got to escort a lot of media people around the show. There was a ton of TV crews and reporters that wanted to get footage of the show and interview riders. Saturday it was a non-stop stream of people!

One of the things about this job I'm most thankful for is that it has made me REALLY good at talking to strangers. Anyone who knew me as a kid (or teenager, honestly) reading that probably just fell out of their chair, because I was painfully shy as a kid. This job has forced me into approaching people I don't know and being able to effectively communicate with them. I definitely wouldn't have ever made all this progress on my own! 

The TV crews would want footage of ANY interaction people had with horses, so I was asking grooms, riders, parents, braiders, the shippers, stable managers, EVERYONE if it was okay if we could film them doing "x" with the horse. The most intimidating moment for me was when I had to go find Olympian and all around equestrian legend Margie Engle. For my boss and pretty much everyone I work with, walking up to people like her is no big deal anymore, so when my boss casually told me I had to go ask Margie for an interview, I tried to act like I was totally cool with that. I ultimately found her sitting with Todd Minikus (another equestrian legend) and managed to not make a fool of myself. Faking confidence gave me enough confidence to make it through (a lesson I learned when I took a job at a foxhunting barn after riding outside of the ring maybe twice in my life).

My mom had time to come out to the show during the week, which was a welcome relief during the day! I had a few hours off in the late afternoon, so I got to show her all around. She is responsible for my horse obsession, so being able to share the show with her was really special, plus I like getting to show her what I do when I'm at work! She came to visit in Florida too, and I love watching how excited she is to just take in everything the horse show has going on. We even got to just relax and watch a few rounds of hunters (boring to any non-horse people) and catch up.

I went back to my parents' house late on Sunday night after the show ended. I enjoyed some snuggles with the dogs before passing out and boarding my plane back to Denver the next day!

 

The show was another awesome learning experience and I was happy to catch a little bit of time with my parents, but I was equally excited to get back to Denver to see Billy! We're really starting to settle in and are still loving Denver....even as it starts getting cold!!

Naval Academy Reunion Weekend in Annapolis

It's already been five years since Billy graduated from the Naval Academy, so we were headed to Annapolis this past weekend for his reunion!

I also had the bonus of being able to spend some time with my parents since we flew into BWI and they were nice enough to pick us up from the airport. I am really close to my parents, so it was great to be able to see them and have a few hours to hang out on each end of our trip.

We flew in late on Thursday night before heading out to Annapolis on Friday morning. It was freakishly hot this weekend, so we enjoyed walking around in the sun while I asked Billy a million questions about his time at school. I got to see the giant dining hall where the entire brigade eats at once right as they were setting up for lunch. It's pretty incredible to see the logistics that go into something that sounds as simple as getting sandwiches, chips, and Gatorade for everyone.

Next, we watched Noon Meal Formation (along with a TON of other people...there were a bunch of reunions in town!) before heading out to lunch with Billy's roommate from school and his wife. They are both Marines and are both getting out at the beginning of the year, so they are really excited to start a "normal" life together! They've been through deployments and being on opposite sides of the world from each other, so they're looking forward to settling down.

I complain about not feeling settled and moving around and being apart from Billy, but talking to them really put it in perspective that we are really lucky to never have to worry about being continents apart from each other or that someone awful could happen to the other while they're just doing their job.

We got to hang out with them a lot this weekend, which was especially great for Billy since he hasn't seen most of his classmates for years. Friday night was the reception, where I got to connect more faces with stories I'd heard! 

Saturday was the Air Force game, which nearly got canceled because of the government shutdown, despite the fact that it doesn't even require any government funding. The only bummer was that Air Force couldn't fly any of the cadets out to spectate, which was too bad since it's a huge tradition and gives everyone something to look forward to.

Fantastic football advice from a former Navy coach...

March on before the game. All the Midshipmen!

All smiles after a Navy win!

Like I mentioned before it was CRAZY hot this weekend, so we were happy Navy won after cooking in the sun for several hours. Was definitely not expecting to be that sweaty in October!

After the game, we got take out and headed over to one of Billy's teammates house, where I had fun talking to the fellow girlfriends in town for the reunion while Billy and his friends could talk about Navy things. It was fun to get some girl time in so Billy could enjoy catching up with all the guys.

It was an awesome weekend all in all. The only way to make it better was if I'd had time to go to the barn of course haha! Annapolis is beautiful and there is never a dull moment on the campus:

Oh, just where we parked our car.

Billy drove these at school!

Yep, just a casual helicopter landing and then taking off from the intramural field. All in a normal day at USNA!

Beginning to Settle In

The most exciting news of the week (besides the fact that my Chronicle of the Horse subscription has finally switched over to Denver) is that Billy's furniture is here!! This is big news for obvious reasons, but especially because it means we are no longer sleeping on an aero bed. THANK.GOD. This was the third week we'd spent on the aerobed, which I think is about two weeks and 6 days longer than you should ever sleep on one. My physical (and mental) health have been steadily deteriorating thanks to several sleepless nights this week.

A real bed!! Ignore the moving box.

Not only do we have a real bed, we have a dresser (no more clothes in piles on the floor!) a couch, and dishes (we have been working with two plates and two bowls for the last two weeks)! Our apartment is now somewhere between being homey and having moving boxes EVERYWHERE. Most of the boxes are at least empty now!

Yes, that is a bean-bag chair. With a footstool.

No shortage of boxes in the kitchen!

It's a huge relief to finally have almost everything...although we still need to find a kitchen table. We went on the hunt at IKEA last weekend (the great test of every relationship) and instead came home with a lamp. But the important part is that we didn't want to murder each other by the end of our trip. If you ever want to see an enormous amount of white people looking either hopelessly lost or furious with one another, go to an IKEA on a Saturday. We managed to go the wrong way and ended up missing the entire furniture portion of IKEA, so we actually made two laps around the entire store. Fantastic!

Anyways, Billy is in his second week of school now. He's found it to be a very intense program, but also highly valuable. I've met most of his classmates now and they're all super nice and much less nerdy than you would expect from a computer programming class.

Speaking of his great classmates, Billy and one of his classmates found a stray dog while on a coffee break this week (I heard Billy was quite heroic, tackling the dog before she could run into traffic!). Naturally, I was pulled in once they had to figure out what to do with the dog they found. 

Zoe! She is happily back with her owner now.

 
I hung out with her until Animal Control picked her up and then threw myself into putting her all over the Internet since she clearly belonged to someone. I ended up finding her owner on Craig's List and he picked her up the next morning! A happy ending that inspired me to apply to volunteer with the Denver Animal Shelter because their Animal Control Officers are AMAZING. The officer that picked the dog up from me actually called me to tell me the dog went home with its owner. How awesome is that?! 

In addition to trying to find some volunteer opportunities, I've been looking for a barn so I can get back in the saddle. Working at home means I have to work a little harder to start building a community here (and to remember to change out of my pajamas at some point during the day).

We've been busy (as always!) since we've gotten here, but we're loving Denver so far. There's always something to do here and now that it's stopped raining (which reminds me, I forgot to mention that we were very fortunate to not have ANY flooding in Denver!) we're enjoying the fall weather and happy to be feeling more moved in.
 


 

We are officially Denver residents!

Byron and Hansel and the Kansas sunset

We're in Denver! We have an apartment! We love it! Wait, there's so much to catch up on.

We got almost all the way through Kansas before calling it quits on day one of driving. Everyone talked a lot of crap about driving through Kansas, but I actually loved it! The first part is through big rolling hills and there's horses and farms everywhere (I now realize that "horses and farms" aren't nearly as big of a selling point to other people). It also helped that the sun was setting, which made everything look even more beautiful. I loved Kansas! Don't judge me.

We stopped for the night in Wakeeney and set out early the next morning to get through the last four hours of driving.

It is VERY windy in Kansas.

 We didn't see much of Wakeeney besides this sign since we stayed approximately 20 yards from the interstate. Billy dutifully drove the last part of Kansas, which is where it actually does get horrifically boring and flat. I was pretty surprised that after crossing into Colorado, this didn't change. We didn't even see mountains until we were driving into downtown Denver!

I was envisioning more mountains, less dead grass.

 It was also really cloudy, as you can see, so unfortunately I couldn't get any cool pictures of the Rockies as we drove in. Honestly, we could only see their outline it was so hazy outside. We didn't even see them until a few days later, when I screeched "OH MY GOD MOUNTAINS!!" while driving around looking at apartments. Confession: I definitely envisioned them still being snow-capped. In August.

Despite not being picturesquely covered in snow (there will be plenty of that to come, I'm sure), the Rockies did not disappoint, and neither did Denver.

We were staying with (read: sleeping on an aerobed in the living room) of one of Billy's future classmates, Simon. We didn't know anything about him besides that he was probably not a serial killer since he'd gotten into gSchool, but we were thrilled to find out that Simon is awesome! He and his roommate, Michael, were amazing hosts and we were SO lucky to get to stay with them. Without even knowing us, they welcomed us into their house, introduced us to their friends, and told us to stay as long as we needed and eat whatever we want! We could not have asked for a better introduction to Denver.

Simon and Michael's awesome house!

 As you can see, Simon and Michael live in a really cool, big old house. There are a lot of them in the neighborhood we were looking in, but we ultimately settled on a more up-to-date apartment (we really wanted A/C and a dishwasher). The week of apartment searching was exhausting emotionally and physically, but after four days of blood, sweat, and tears (predominately the last two-Denver's having a heat wave and the rental market is BRUTAL) we found the perfect place!

We loved staying with Simon and Michael, but we are even more in love with our new apartment! The furniture may actually be here soon, but even with just what we had in the car, it feels a lot like home already! 

 We toasted our first night with the wine we got in Indianapolis and settled into our aerobed, now in a different living room. But at least the living room is ours!

Having Furniture is Overrated

With ten days to go before Billy starts school, we are finally getting back on the road tomorrow. Let me clarify that this is not because our furniture arrived. Because it hasn't. The moving company has informed us that they "have no idea" when our furniture will be here. Fantastic!

Coordinating with the second moving company to get the furniture from Indianapolis to Denver has now become even more of a nightmare. We've got to find a place to live, so we're leaving the furniture in Billy's dad's capable hands. Hopefully it won't be too much of a hassle for him. Moving is an adventure! At least everything fit in the car!

Regardless of the hot mess that is our moving experience, we've had a lot of fun enjoying Indy. Billy had some time to play tennis with Mia during the weekend (we got here last Thursday). After Mia wore Billy out, they picked me up so we could go downtown. Mia came up with the idea to climb to the top of the Soldiers & Sailors memorial, which is approximately 300 stairs.

 

View of Memorial Circle from the top!

Afterwards, we stumbled upon the most excellent FroYo place on the planet, Pearings. It was so amazing I may never be satisfied by another FroYo experience ever. We continued on to the Arts Garden, which is a big glass overpass (not really the right word, it's very pretty!) over Washington Street that's inside the Circle Center mall. It doesn't have a ton of arts or garden, but it was still really pretty! It obviously hosts some sort of live music, since there was a stage and tons of lights.

We walked around the mall for a while, stopping into the toy store to goof off for a while. Mia and I found these awesome mustaches:

Sunday night we went out for dinner and drinks with Chris and Emily (we missed you, Atman!) which was a blast. We always have a good time with them. They're looking for a house and talking about school districts for future kids, which was so exciting!

End of the night selfie

By the end of this week, we were starting to freak out a little bit about the furniture. Fortunately, we could push back the pick-up date with the second set of movers, and eventually we had stressed ourselves out enough that we gave up and went wine tasting. Billy planned an awesome date night for us at the Easley Winery, followed by dinner downtown and catching the Indians minor league baseball game! We met up with Billy's dad at the game and we all had a great time!

Billy diligently rated all of our wines

We decided to go with a bottle of the state grape of Indiana-the Tramainette!

 

We also got to watch Mia's tennis match yesterday, which I'm so glad we were here for! It's been so much fun getting to know her better and spend more time with her. I wanted our furniture to get here already, but I was more happy that we got to spend extra time with Mia and also got to see her play! Unfortunately I'm an idiot and didn't take any pictures. FAIL.

Now, it's time to pack up again and hit the road to Denver! Don't worry, we have an aero-bed!

On the road again...

After a brief 14 hour day of driving, we have arrived in Indianapolis-our first stop on our route west.

We spent the morning jamming everything we own into Billy's car (and by that I mean I brought everything to the car and watched Billy strategically pack). After sneaking in a few more pairs of shoes (ok that was just me) and giving my parents and the dogs LOTS of hugs, we were off to Indy.

We stopped at my favorite Sheetz in Morgantown for gas on our way up, and lo and behold, we saw the Google Streeview car! Unfortunately, we won't be appearing on Google Streetview in Morgantown anytime soon since it was just stopped to get gas. There's always something interesting in Morgantown!

We stopped for dinner in Columbus at my cousin Karen and her boyfriend Jason's house, which was a welcome break after driving all day and suffering through lunch at McDonald's. We have officially visited the entire Lewis family (Karen is Sarah's sister/Aunt Sue and Uncle Randy's daughter), which has been really fun! 

Karen and Jason have a great apartment and we had a blast swapping funny stories and catching up. I almost snorted ice cream out of my nose at one point we were laughing so hard. They are both architects, so their apartment was expertly put together and we also really enjoyed getting to see their new office project that Jason has been working diligently on! He had a photo montage of what the building looked like originally, all the improvement they've been doing on it, as well as drawings for what they plan to do. They're both really talented, so it's cool to get to see what their next project is!

Jamie gets a cameo. Gus the cat not pictured.

 After dinner, we pressed onward to Indianapolis, finally pulling in at around midnight. Billy drove the entire way (he's super-human when it comes to driving) and was exhausted by the time we got in. Since it was so late, we'd have to wait until the morning to see his dad and step-mom (and until the afternoon to see Mia), so we quietly dragged our stuff upstairs and went straight to bed.

Now, we're waiting in Indy for Billy's furniture to (hopefully) arrive! The last time we talked to the moving company, they informed us "there's no guarantees in moving." Wee!

Until then, we started off our time here with a rousing slam dunk contest. Videos for your entertainment:

The Big Move West...finally revealed! We're going to Denver!!

That's right, we're headed to Denver next! Not on vacation, not for a horse show, but to actually settle in one spot for a while! 

Remember when Billy went to that Tech Stars conference? He met the co-founder of Galvanize, a company that serves as an umbrella organization for a bunch of start-up companies in Denver. One of these start-ups is called gSchool. gSchool is a coding (as in computer programming, website building) school that was created to provide students with a high-caliber, immersive education in coding that spans 6 months.

If you're wondering, "Why coding school?", the answer is simple. The number one frustration Billy and Tony have had while working on Military Traveler, especially with the recent website launch, is knowing nothing about coding. Having not only a basic knowledge, but an in-depth knowledge with great training, will make their daily lives MUCH easier. I'm really excited for Billy and he is too. It's an amazing opportunity, plus it's in a really cool city!

We're really looking forward to getting to Denver...emphasis on being excited to actually be there. Right now, we're attempting to coordinate our cross-country move, but all of Billy's furniture from his apartment in DC is tied up in military storage. I'd always heard horror stories involving depending on the goverment to move you, but now I'm living it. It's really not that bad, but it is a logistical nightmare since the stuff is en route to Indianapolis and can't be changed. So, we have to wait in Indy to see when it arrives (sometime between now and the 28th of August) and gSchool starts September 9th! Yikes. Not very much time, but we'll figure it out...we always do :)

Plus, if we can live in a hotel room together for five weeks without killing each other, I think we can get through anything!

"Horses Haunt My Life" ...and other signs that Billy is getting sick of being at the horse show

Billy has dutifully followed me to Vermont and we had a great time, but I could tell that being completely immersed in horse show life was beginning to wear on him when he uttered the phrase that spawned the title of this blog. It was towards the end of our time in Vermont, and as we pulled into the hotel parking lot after a long day at the show (Billy came to work with me sometimes to get out of the hotel room), we were greeted by a massive horse trailer.

"Horses haunt my life," Billy groaned. At this point, I understood. As much as I love have an unhealthy obsession with horses, I know he can only handle so much horse stuff. The hotel room was littered with horse magazines I'd brought back from work. A dry erase board full of horse show "to do" lists for work was in front of our (only) window. He went to the show with me to get out of the hotel room, but was then completely immersed in the horse show for the entire day, only to return to a hotel full of more horse people! Oh, and then there's me blabbering on about horse things all day to top it off. It's enough to make anyone crazy!

Needless to say, it was exciting to get rolling on our trip home. I have family in New England, so we decided to take a few side trips to get in some family time (especially before our Big Move...more details on that next blog!). Our first stop was Boston. My cousin and her family live south of the city in Norwood and our friends Pat and Katie from DC also conveniently just moved to Cambridge!

We left Vermont Monday morning and set out for Massachusetts. The drive was remote, but beautiful, and we were excited to see Pat and Katie. Pat and Billy worked at the Pentagon together and he and Katie had just gotten back from a month long trip to Europe to celebrate Pat getting out of the Navy, so it was perfect timing to visit them and see their new place in Boston. 

They have a GORGEOUS house in Cambridge and gave us a great walking tour of Boston. We walked around the Public Garden, Beacon Hill, Newbury Street (where all the shopping is), and the Commons. We also saw plenty of the city as we drove around, including Harvard and Harvard Square (very cool neighborhood!). It was great to catch up with them and hear about their European adventures, plus Billy and I totally fell in love with Boston.

All four of us at the Garden (Pat is growing a "I just got out of the Navy beard')

 We said goodbye to Pat and Katie and set out for Norwood around dinner time. The rush hour traffic was not as bad as I feared, but we did have a slow drive around the city! My cousin, Sarah, and her husband, Bob, met and got married in Boston and now have an adorable 4 year old, Jack! We saw them last year on our family vacation, but it had been a long time and I was thrilled to get to see them again!

Billy and I were really looking forward to not being in a hotel room and having a normal meal at home, and of course Bob and Sarah did not disappoint. They are the best hosts!! Dinner was awesome and Sarah made a bunch of yummy desserts that we stuffed ourselves with! Jack also gave us a fantastic rendition of "If You're Happy and You Know It." He is a riot and it was so much fun playing with him and getting to spend time with everyone.

Unfortunately, Bob had to go to work Tuesday but Sarah had the day off. Billy actually accompanied Sarah to 5:45 am spin class, which I will forever be impressed by! Sarah and Bob both get to the gym about 5 times a week, even with a toddler! They have quite a system worked out and I definitely admire their commitment (to being good parents too, not just working out haha!). 

Sarah, Billy, Jack, and I all piled in the car to go to Gillette Stadium for lunch, where there is also a huge shopping center called Patriot Place. It was very cool to see the stadium, plus I've never seen one with so much development around it! There's a ton of shopping and restaurants in this huge complex next to the stadium, including Toby Keith's restaurant where we went to lunch-I highly recommend it! Especially their kid's meal corn dogs, I may have stolen some of Jack's...

When we got back, Billy was wiped out from spinning, so he took a nap while I played Play-Doh with Jack. The smell of Play-Doh is intoxicating and brought back lots of childhood memories, although as Sarah pointed out, I realize now why our parents never wanted to bring it out--it gets EVERYWHERE.

Jack was extremely camera shy, but I did manage to sneak this one of him sucking down some applesauce in the car on the way to lunch. He's getting so big!! 

 
We tore ourselves away from Boston later that afternoon to get on the way to Newtown, Connecticut, where my Aunt Sue and Uncle Randy live. Since we had just seen them in Manchester a few weeks ago, it was fun to be able to have another visit! There wasn't too much catching up to do so it was nice to just enjoy hanging out with family. We had a blast, especially the next morning when they took us out on their usual morning walk around one of the parks nearby. It was perfect weather and great to get out, but I was especially happy to see my Uncle Randy power walking along! He recently got his second knee replacement, and has been in so much pain for so many years that it was great to finally see him completely comfortable and out and about!

We got back from our walk Wednesday morning to finish the last leg of our trip home. Since we were out of fun places to stop, we powered through the Jersey turnpike, 95, and DC traffic to finally get back to Ogden Road! 

Now we're busy getting ready for our next adventure....out west! I've gone on long enough so I'll save the details for tomorrow :)
 

Tubing, the Vermont Country Store, and to the Top of Mt. Equinox

Fridays are usually a short day for me, which makes up for the fact that the rest of the world is gearing up for the weekend and I've got two more long days ahead of me. Last Friday, I finished up at work earlier than usual and the weather was perfect, so we decided to make the most of the afternoon and go tubing on the Battenkill River.

From anyone reading this from home, the Battenkill is MUCH more low-key than the Potomac River, so don't worry haha! I got a "buy one get one free
coupon" (turns out you can get something good from Citi Easy Deals!) so for $22 we were off on our afternoon of lazy river tubing.

Besides being a nice day to get outdoors, Billy and I had both been working a ton and were getting a little tightly wound (Can you blame us? We've been living out of a hotel room for five weeks!). We both got hit with a bunch of work when we came back from Burlington, so we were both in dire need of an afternoon to "unplug." 

I only brought my phone along as a camera (you don't get cell service out there!), so it was nice to have a whole afternoon enjoying the sunshine and not worrying about what was in our email inbox.

 It turned out to be especially good that we took an afternoon off, because we both ended up working through our "days off". We did take a break to go to the Vermont Country Store, which has every old-school game/toy you could think of (seriously...you can buy an Etch-a-Sketch there!!).  We were told we couldn't leave Vermont without going there by some friends of mine that used to ride at the Horse Center-The Liebermans.

Which reminds me, I can't believe I skimmed over our dinner with Ali and Melissa! Melissa (mama Lieberman) and Ali (one of her three daughters) were in town for the horse show. I ran into them in Florida too and it's been so great to see them whenever I'm in an unfamiliar place. I love seeing friendly faces from home, even though they moved to Chicago several years ago, and the Liebermans are some of the most genuinely nice people in the world. We had a great dinner with them and I was really glad they got to meet Billy. Since they've been coming to Vermont for a while now, they gave us lots of good tips on where to go, including the Vermont Country Store!

It's hard to capture the Vermont Country Store in pictures, but one of the highlights was this sweatshirt:

At this point in our trip, we were starting to sympathize with this shirt. We have loved the vacationing aspect of Vermont, but being in such a rural (although beautiful) area was starting to wear on us. Being more than 20 minutes away from a Target is just not something I can deal with long-term.

We also snuck away for a few hours on Tuesday to go up to the top of Mt. Equinox, which has an elevation of nearly 4,000 feet! We drove up to the top and then hiked around for about an hour. The trees were mostly evergreens, so the entire forest smelled like Christmas trees. The most remarkable thing, though, was how QUIET it was. I have never been somewhere that is so tranquil.

We also got an awesome view of the entire town of Manchester:

Getting out in the fresh air was good for us. It's nice to get out of our box (the hotel room) when we can! We both had a lot going on, so it was another chance to recharge and take a break from being slaves to our laptops.

We're on our last weekend here, now. The end of every horse show is always bittersweet for me. The shows are really hard work, so I'm happy I'll be getting a break, but they're also so much fun! If I'm not at a show, I'm just working from home, so it's nice to be surrounded by so many interesting people (good and bad haha). Vermont has been a great opportunity for me and I've had a blast...but I sure am excited to be going back to civilization!

Tour de Burlington: Our Biking Odyssey to the end of the Lake Champlain Causeway

Inspired by an article in the Washington Post, Billy and I decided to go for a scenic bike tour of Burlington/Lake Champlain. There's a great bike path that starts down town at Local Motion, a bike rental place, that continues all the way out to the end of the causeway across Lake Champlain.

Despite my bike riding experience being limited to riding around the neighborhood as a child, I was 100% certain this would be a fabulous idea. And it was. Until we hit the end of the causeway and I realized I had to bike ten miles back. Yes, that's correct, I elected to go on a 20 mile bike ride. Keep in mind I haven't been riding and have barely been running while in Vermont, so it's safe to say I'm not at my peak performance level.

I was riding high the entire way out, thinking to myself I was in such great shape and mentally patting myself on the back for being such a pro biker. This all changed once we hit the causeway. After getting all the way out there, I wasn't about to turn around before actually reaching the designated end point, so I churned my way out to the end. What I hadn't thought about was the fact that I had to immediately do that all over again plus the rest of the bike home. 

As we turned around, naturally the wind kicked up. At this point, my quads were on fire and my rear end was begging for mercy from my not-so-padded seat. Not surprisingly, Billy was fairing much better than I was. I'm not sure how he manages to constantly stay in such fantastic shape, but I am very envious.

The trip back

 We then began the trek back to Local Motion but my body was not cooperating. Billy, the saint that he is, stopped with me a least five times before we even got off the causeway. This turtle pace continued with Billy shouting encouragement from behind me while I silently cursed myself for ever going on this bike ride.

As anyone who has ever spent any time with me can tell you, sometimes I can be a little bit stubborn. At one point, Billy started suggesting that we call it a day, he would keep going and get the car and then come and pick me up. I was having none of it, especially because I didn't want to have to blog about the time I went on a bike ride and quit 3/4 through. If I had suffered this much, I wanted to say I at least did the whole ride!

Many hours later, we finally made it back to Local Motion. I have never been happier to see a local bike store in my life. While I definitely suffered through the second half of the bike ride, I felt a huge sense of accomplishment when we got back that I had pushed through and done it! 

My butt was hurting and my legs were shot, but I staggered after Billy to the nearest ice cream stand for a famous Vermont maple creamee. This may sound disgusting, but it is actually the tastiest thing you may ever experience (if you're lucky enough to do so!). It's vanilla soft serve flavored (subtly!) with Vermont maple syrup. It's AMAZING.

Thank god we're back!!

We'd taken so long to get back thanks to my struggle that we were now running late for our dinner date with my aunt and uncle, who were vacationing in Manchester for the weekend. We quickly grabbed a bite to eat in Burlington and headed back south to meet up with them for dinner.

After showering, downing ibuprofen, and rubbing arthritis cream on my knees, we met my aunt and uncle at their gorgeous room at the Palmer House. I hadn't seen my Aunt Sue and Uncle Randy for almost a year, since our family vacation last August in Cape Cod. I try to catch up with them via email and Facebook, but it's so much better to be able to see them in person! They have been coming to Manchester for a long time and my uncle is a big history buff, so they had lots of cool stories to share with us and good advice on where else to go before we left.

We had a delicious dinner at the Barrows House in Dorset before heading up to the Equinox Resort for a nightcap. The Equinox has a fire pit/bar that you can sit around on a huge deck. It was a beautiful night and we really enjoyed getting some extra time with my aunt and uncle and enjoying the ambiance of the fire pit (and pretending we were guests of the Equinox!).

It was a great visit that ended too soon, but we'll be stopping by Connecticut on our way home from Vermont to see them again. We can't wait!

Birthday in Burlington

Thanks to the wacky schedule of working at a horse show, Billy's birthday fell on a weekend for us! The 29th of July (yes, for everyone who is friends with Billy on Facebook...his REAL birthday is NOT April Fool's Day!) fell on a Monday, which in horse show world is my Saturday, so we decided to take the "weekend" and spend it in Burlington, which is about two hours north of Manchester.

Our first stop was the Ben & Jerry's factory in Waterbury, about 20 minutes outside of Burlington. We were actually surprised that there is more to Waterbury than Ben & Jerry's. This was discovered after I realized that I was starving to death immediately upon arriving at the Ben & Jerry's factory. How unlike me!

Anyways, Billy worked his Yelp magic and found us a great sandwich place to go to, where I indulged on a bacon cheeseburger with fries. I was actually excited that my system was put into shock by this assault on my arteries because I've been trying really hard to eat less junk food. Obviously, it's working!

Now that we were properly satiated, we drove back to Ben & Jerry's to buy our tour tickets. We had already scoped out the novelty t-shirt situation online the night before and had settled on buying possibly the greatest shirts on earth. Without further ado, I give you the Moo Shirts:

If you're wondering what we're standing in front of, that would be a replica of the Moo Bus that matches our t-shirts. Ben & Jerry set out in the original Moo Bus across the country on a grassroots PR campaign for Ben & Jerry's. The biggest news of their trip was when the Moo Bus caught on fire in Cleveland and burned to the ground.

If you're also wondering whether Billy and I wore our matching Moo Shirts throughout the tour and our time at the Ben & Jerry's factory, the answer is yes. And yes, we did get a high five from our tour guide. And someone that passed by us exclaimed "What the hell?!"

We had some time to kill before our tour, so naturally the next stop was the free spin art station. Tragically, Billy had never made spin art as a child, so I was thrilled to be able to expose him to the fantastic arts and crafts experience that is spin art.

After completing our spin masterpieces, we strolled through the Flavor Graveyard, which is exactly what it sounds like. Not every flavor Ben & Jerry's comes up with is a success, so the Flavor Graveyard is a collection of flavors that were a bust. I was heartbroken that I missed the Creme Brulee flavor by only a year and Billy was also bereft over never experiencing Chocolate Cookie Dough Peanut Butter. It was mind boggling that neither of these flavors were universally popular.

We did actually go on the tour, where we got a peek at the factory floor and also a free sample of Triple Caramel Chunk. After further spiking our blood sugar by splitting some Phish Food post-tour, we set out for Burlington to continue the birthday celebrations!

Our first stop in Burlington was Lake Champlain. Actually, our first stop was the (very questionable looking) Burlington K-Mart when we realized we had stupidly forgotten our swimsuits. $30 later, Billy had two new swim trunks (it was buy one get one free!) and after another stop at TJ Maxx for me (everything left at K-Mart was size XL..shocker!), we were newly outfitted and ready for the lake!

Lake Champlain was stunning (see the new header photo of the blog, above). The lake was HUGE and completely surrounded by mountains. There were lots of sailboats anchored out on the lake and a great public beach to lay out on. We decided to check out the kayak rental place to attempt to burn off the Ben & Jerry's (and my cheeseburger...). The guy working there informed us they also rented paddle boards, which Billy and I have always wanted to try out. Since it was getting late in the day, we got a great deal on them and had a blast stand-up paddle boarding around the lake.

We followed our trusty kayak rental man's advice to stay close to the shoreline to see some great cliffs...I wish we could have taken our phones with us to take pictures! The trip back got a little bit tricky when we tried to cut across the inlet we were in because the wind really kicked up. I got semi-blown out to sea (well, the middle of the lake) but made it back thanks to Billy's guidance and a tremendous paddling effort. I now fully understand how Jennifer Aniston gets her rockin' beach bod from paddle boarding all the time.

Once we were back on dry land, the sun came out so we decided to lay out on the beach for a while and soak up the sun. I am forever attempting to even out my "rider's tan," which is going strong even though I haven't ridden since leaving for Vermont. My arms are very tan and my legs are very pale. Sigh.

Our final stop of the night was for Billy's birthday dinner at American Flatbread, which is basically fancy pizza. Since pizza is Billy's (okay and mine) favorite food group, it was perfect! 

The birthday boy and our pizza!

Great food, great drinks, and a great birthday with Billy! The next day was our bike odyssey out to the end of the bike causeway on Lake Champlain...that's a story in and of itself that I'll have to save for tomorrow! Spoiler alert: I bike more in four hours than I have in my entire life. Also, the most fantastic froyo experience in the world, aka the maple creamee.