Back to Reality

After being away for 10 days I find myself back in Vermont....counting the days till summer vacation. What is that all about? I love my job, my students are awesome, and Vermont is great, but being on vacation is so much better! The month of April flew by. I'll spare you all the details...basically I was fortunate enough to see almost all of my family members and a lot of great friends from my mission and college, which is rare being that we live in such a rural place.

Conference weekend was great. I flew to Toronto and spent the weekend hanging out with my parents and my little brother. I love going home. There is something so comfortable about being there....even after not living there for years, it still feels like home.

The next weekend I spent Easter with my sister and her husband in Boston. We had all sorts of fun shopping for baby cuteness for her little girl. It was the first time I had seen her in person pregnant...and she is such a cute pregnant person!! She's so tiny! I can wait for both of the new babies to arrive in our family. Two little girls...we're so spoiled!

The following Friday, I canceled lessons again, and flew to Salt Lake to participate in the SLC marathon with my family. That whole weekend deserves a post of its own. The short of it is that it was an incredibly memorable weekend where as family and friends we were able to celebrate the life of my cousin. It was so neat to run with so many family members. And I even felt great after running the half marathon! I say bring on the full next year.

My brother Warren and I at the start of the race

I stayed in Utah for almost a week and was able to visit with mission friends, college friends and Ben's family. It was so fun to get caught up with friends I haven't seen in years. It made me realize what great friends I do have...and the fact that there are no excuses for being lousy at keeping in touch with people. Maybe that can be a new goal.

Friends from back in the day at Liberty Square, Jenny and Angell.

Burk, one of the sisters I trained on the mish.

My BF/roommate all through college Mary

(She bought these chairs at a garage sale for $5 and is going to use them in her studio. They were hilarious! Check out her work at www.photographybydmc.blogspot.com, she's incredible!)

After I left SLC I flew to Kansas to see Ben! It was so great to see him after being apart for the entire month of April. I got a great feel for Kansas City and had a ton of fun seeing where Ben grew up. We ate at some of his favorite spots, got to see the Royals kill the Tigers, and visited Liberty Jail. I fell in love with Kansas City immediately. It's the best of both worlds; a big enough city to have great culture, great food and great shopping, but a small enough city to not have massive amounts of traffic and congestion. And it was warm!
Ben loved his rotation and made some great contacts at KU. He loved being back home, and had a great time spending the month with the Beattys. We are so grateful to them for their hospitality and friendship. I loved getting to know them better and spending some time together!

Gates, the best BBQ around

Liberty Jail

May should be a little less hectic. Ben is back in Philadelphia and will make the drive home two of the four weekends. I only have 6 1/2 weeks left of teaching, and then we're off to Tucson for the month of June. I can't wait....bring on the heat!