Day 242

Well today was a big and exciting day.

I've been scheming with Chelsea and Justin (her hubby), as well as a dear family friend, Donna, for a little over a month now.  What have we been scheming about?  Well let me tell you.

I've been living in CO since the end of December and haven't gone home since.  I don't love being so far away from family and friends and have been wanting to go home for quite some time now.  So that's what I did.  I went home.

This plan started when John looked at me one day after I had really been missing home and said, "You should go home for Easter.  And your mom's birthday is the next day.  Look up flights."  Oh I love him.

So I did and I booked a flight that night.

I flew into Greensboro and Donna picked me up around 2PM.  We ran around a few places and I even talked to my mom on the phone while at Coldwater Creek.  I even told her she should come by, knowing she would think I was talking about one in CO.  Little did she know I was about 20 minutes away from her.

Chelsea and Justin took off from work early and met up with Donna and I and took me home.  My dad was supposed to be home when we got there, but things had happened and he wasn't.  So we figured we'd just get 'em twice and get double the pleasure out of two surprises.  Chels and Justin brought their two dogs, Dallas and Sawyer, from Raleigh and, when we arrived home, let them out to play in the front yard with Maddie and Buddy, our family dogs.  Justin walked inside and asked my mom if she'd help him get something out of the car.  When she walked outside, I stood up from where I was hiding and said "Happy birthday!!"  Oh it was so wonderful.  She was so excited that she made me think of a cartoon character who's running so fast but there aren't moving.  We hugged and cried and then went inside and did what we always do: stand in the kitchen and talk.

We were so caught up that we forgot to close the garage doors.  Not a big deal except for the fact that this is how we were going to know when my dad got home.  Whoops.

Around 6PM Chelsea loudly inhaled all of the air in the room and said, "Huuuuh (inhale) DAD!!!"  I looked up and froze, like I had been caught red handed doing something I wasn't supposed to.  Dad and I locked eyes and he seemed like something just wasn't fitting together.  Later, he said that he looked at me and thought, "Well that's not Chelsea.  Who is tha.....Kimberly!"  He quickly put down his things and gave me one of those wonderful, can-only-get-'em-from-Dad hugs.  One of the best weekends of my life had begun.

We went to church, came home, and celebrated by opening some German champagne, or I guess it would be sparkling wine.

This is my Dad/Pops/Daddy/Poppaloo.  My mom was standing in the corner when he pointed the bottle at her.  He wasn't opening it but it was really funny.

"Bob!  Don't point that at me!"

We drank some of this and some of some other stuff Mom and Dad had in the fridge.  Chelsea and Justin didn't like either of them.  It was champagne afterall.  Hell, they don't like champagne so much that they toasted with Coors Light at their wedding....in Waterford Crystal flutes!!

In their defense, it was supposed to be sparkling cider but we left it at home.

Day 228

With the weather being absolutely gorgeous today and John actually not playing golf, we were headed into the mountains to go for a hike.  I had looked up different Colorado State Parks and knew exactly where we were going.  Now I'm not going to really get into it because everything turned out alright, but let's just say that John didn't really pay attention to the directions and we were in the middle of no cell phone reception with no idea where to go.  Marvelous.

Anyways...

Men and directions, right?

John rectified the situation and found Mt. Falcon State Park.  Granted we had to drive through this creepy looking village that I was convinced the guy from Texas Chainsaw Massacre was living in now (it really wasn't that bad...I just wasn't happy that J hadn't written down the directions.....we've had a few run-ins with a lack of directions...)

So here's some pictures from our adventure.

We're looking forward to the warmer weather so we can really get into some hard core hiking.

Day 214

Today was absolutely gorgeous outside.  John went golfing with some guys from work and I called in my personal crazy adventurous person, Madi, to go on a hike with Mandy and I.

We drove a little outside of the city and we got a little lost, but we found the place we were looking for.

This is the first time the weather's been cooperative enough to let us go into the mountains and enjoy nature.

Day 163

I cannot believe that it's the end of January and it's supposed to get up to 67 degrees today!  There's bright blue skies and very few clouds.  I could get used to this weather.  I put on my tennis shoes, some yoga pants, and walked out the door, not stopping for about 2.5 hours!  There's a nice biking/walking trail right by the apartment, so I took advantage of it and the beautiful spring-like, almost summer-like, weather.

The birds in the trees were so talkative!

This is my favorite.

I hope this weather lasts!

Day 48

After being in the amazingly gorgeous Boston Public Library for a few hours, I met up with Olivia to go to the Museum of Fine Art (MFA is what all the cool kids call it.)  The weather today was, well, a typical New England Fall day.  I know many of you have never been up to New England in the fall, so let's just take a second.  You know how in movies (let's say The Others with Nicole Kidman) they take a day that's really overcast and windy and it just looks cold.  Well, that's what it is here.  For the next two days.  Fortunately the wind isn't bad yet and the sun peeked through a few times making it borderline hot.  Anyways.  I met up with Olivia and we began our 1 plus mile walk down Huntington Ave. from the BPL to the MFA.  We came upon this gorgeous building that Olivia just knew was the MFA.

Well, that is not the MFA.  This is actually the back side of the First Church of Christ Science.  AKA Scientology.  Surprisingly there was no Tom Cruise anywhere to be found.  So we kept walking a good half a mile and we eventually found our way into the MFA.

Day 47

Today was full of autumnal beauty...if that is such a thing.  The weather was cool and crisp, however there was a wind that was a bit nippy.  The sun was out and it was a good day to go exploring downtown.  So I hopped on the T, got off at Hynes Convention Center, and walked.  And walked.  And walked.

I was in search of a new place to get some good clam "chowdah."  The first place I found, much after my stomach started to hurt because it was 3 o'clock and I still hadn't eaten, did not have any soup, nor did they have anything else that I was remotely interesting in eating.  Plus the lady that sat me was rude and no one really even knew I was there.  So I left.  And I kept walking.  A solid 25 minutes later, I found a nice microbrewery and had some of the best fish-n-chips of my life.  Continuing my afternoon and quiet meandering, I venturing to Anthropologie to try on clothes that are way overpriced for the fun of it then to a 3-floor Crate&Barrel to torture myself with all of their beautiful things.  C&B is most definitely one of my favorite stores in the entire world.  True love.

Day 30

Today in my "marine" science class we ventured down to the mud flats by the harbor.  They were muddy!  But it wasn't just normal mud, not like that which I'm used to back home in NC.  This was stinky, gross, thick, and deep.  The kind of mud that you have to walk in a certain way or face the consequence of sinking 4 inches down and possibly face-planting. 
I really don't like mud.  Not in my shoes.  Or between my toes, unless I don't have shoes on and it isn't dirty, smelly mud.  Therefore, I stood on a piece of shale and was the scribe for my group, thus avoiding the uncomfortable situation that would follow if I stepped foot in the mud. 

In situations like this I always think of one of our family's very dear friends, Becky.  When my sister and I were growing up we would show horses (she still does).  One fateful July (I think), Becky and her parents came to see us at a horse show in Raleigh.  Becky always was, for lack of a better way to describe this and I mean nothing bad by it because I am so much the same, Miss Priss.  She didn't do dirt.  She showed up to a horse stable in sandals.  And of course there was horse manure everywhere.  So whenever I feel like a duck out of water, I think of Becky, and I always grin and laugh a little.

Day 25

First of all, today was the 9 year anniversary of the largest terrorist attack on our beautiful country.  Many people lost their lives today because of some extremists. 

I'm going to go out on a branch right here and make a little bit of a political statement: I wish that people would love each other and respect everyone.  If people would accept others' differences, thousands of people would not have lost their lives on that day and many of our brave service men and women would be able to be home.  God bless America and all of our world.

Back to what this blog is really about.

Today was a great day.  I woke up and went venturing into the city.  What a great day I had!  Today's post calls for more than just one picture and a few videos.  So enjoy.

First I went to Macy's.  No pictures.  But it was a mad house.  Everyone had $10 off coupons that ended at 1:00 and of course I got there right before noon.  Insane.  But I got a really nice Columbia down and water-resistant coat for only $87.  As my mom and her best friend always say, "there are 11 commandments, with the 11th being 'Thall shall not pay retail price.'"  Amen to that.

After Macy's I just went walking.  Downtown was buzzing with people enjoying the crisp fall day.  There were few clouds in the sky and oh how wonderful the weather was!

Look at that sky.  It was perfect football weather.  Too bad I had no football game to attend. 

In an attempt to find a Wells Fargo ATM, I heard faint music.  I followed it and ended up at City Hall in Government Center. 

Playing was a band from Honduras.  They were great!  People were congregating from all over to hear and watch.  There was also awesome and sometimes comical dancing.

I then continued to search for this darn ATM.  While searching, I stumbled upon a huge outdoor market near the North End.

I bought 2 Fuji apples for $1 and 2 containers of strawberries for $1.50!  Unheard of.  This market was at least 2 blocks long.

I kept going and came upon Fanueil Hall.  People were once again congregated, but this time is was around 4 guys putting on a show.  Here's a video of some of it plus the cutest little kid that is going to be the next best break dancer:

At the very end of the performance, the ring-leader jumped flipped over people from the audience.

I finally made it back to the house and completed my wonderful day by cheering my Wolfpack on to a 28-21 win over UCF!  GO WOLFPACK!