Hiking (and bears!) and we throw the best parties

Last weekend, Marek and I spent most of it up in New Hampshire. We drove up Friday night (and stopped at Chick-Fil-A, yessss!) and spent the night with my our friend Chris, who I've known since our college days. We've fallen in and out of touch a couple times, but he's a really great guy. I'm always in awe of all the different life experiences he's had...we always say he belongs in that Dos Equis commercial about the most interesting person in the world.

Anyway, Saturday morning we headed up to Cannon mountain to do some hiking. Now, I've hiked all of two times before...both times was on Mt. Washington (the highest mountain in the Northeast). One time I hiked up AND down (and so according to Sir Edmund Hillary, this is the only time I've actually hiked Mt. Washington), and the second time I only hiked up, and took the shuttle down. Cannon mountain is used for skiing in the winter, and they have a tram that goes down, but it didn't open until Memorial Day weekend, so we were a little early. I decided to give hiking down mountains another chance, and so we were off.

So before we got started, Chris showed me some of the warm-up exercises you do in the army. Here we are doing some hip circles or whatever they're called.

Next up were knees and ankles (I think). I love these pictures and think they're just so funny, especially if you're viewing them out of context, and not knowing what's actually going on.

After our exercises we were on to the mountain. I'm always slow-going at first, and I was getting pretty worried about the trip down, but we made it to this lookout, which is pretty close to the top. (I suppose that's another strike against me from Sir Hillary.) I'm a huge Lord of the Rings fan, and driving up, I kept telling Marek and Chris how much the lookout reminded me of Weathertop. Here is Marek (Chris in the background) hanging out at the lookout.

There were some amazing views from the top. Really breathtaking. We were lucky that it was a nice, clear day. It was actually kind of chilly at the top, too, which was nice, because we had worked hard to get up there.

Here's another view on our way down. That's Echo Lake (and me!).

When we got back down to the bottom, we saw some bears up on the part of the mountain that's used for skiing. We had seen them when we first got to the base, but didn't have time to get out my camera. Luckily they stuck around for awhile and I was able to get a few far away pictures. There were three bears - the three black blobs in the picture below.

After our hike, we had a potluck party at Chris's apartment. This is a new tradition of our group of friends, where we try to get together about once a month. We all make food (hence potluck), and just hang out and play games. Our friends are spread out between Eastern and Western Massachusetts (for the most part), so it's a nice way to get everyone together.

Here's Pawi (on the left), Marek's brother. Everyone says they look a lot alike, but I just don't really see it.

Chris had this awesome hurricane tracking map, so I drew him a hurricane and named it after him. Then the blue marker left a little bit of a stain, so it was off to Stop & Shop for some sponges and cleaner!

This is one of my oldest (known longest) friends, Jeremy. We were taking a picture together, and he decided we should do it like in old photographs, where everyone is all serious and not smiling. The look on my face is me trying to keep it together, but I just kept laughing.

Here we are, just smiling!

The party was a lot of fun. The theme was Mexican Spring Break, so we all brought some type of Mexican food, and wore (or were supposed to wear) Mexican or spring break clothing (that part didn't turn out too well).

This weekend's Memorial Day, and Marek is actually going away hiking with our friend Nigel and some other guys, which means Claudius and I are hanging out by ourselves this weekend. I'm planning on taking Claudius on a playdate with Sean's dog, Bella, and doing a lot of cleaning! Hope you enjoy your weekend!

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Many updates

Wow, so it's been quite awhile since I've last updated! This post will be a whole bunch of updates then - it's been quite a busy time for us lately!

A couple weeks ago, Marek and I went to Indianapolis to run a half marathon. It is the One America 500 Festival Mini Marathon, and it's a lot of fun. We went last year, but didn't do too well (mainly because we didn't bother training), but this year I trained faithfully from January until we left for the race. Here we are laying over at the Cleveland airport, playing around with the self-timer feature on my camera.

The race is on Saturday morning, and we fly in on Friday morning and basically fly out right after the race is over on Saturday. We get late check-out so we can take a shower, then kill a couple hours in Indy (this year we went and saw Iron Man 2!), and then fly home. It's a tiring trip, but is so much fun and definitely worth it! We already signed up again for next year's race.

While in Indy, I also got to see my friend Erin. She and I went to college together, and it's so nice to be able to see her and catch up whenever I am in Indy. I felt bad for Marek though, as she and I were chatting for almost 3 hours, and he didn't have much to do. :(

This year we did a lot better in the race than last year. Last year, we just wanted to finish, haha! This year I was aiming for a 2:30 time, which was aggressive for me based on all my practice runs. I ended up finishing at 2:29:07 (Marek finished at 2:29:08), which was fast enough to get a preferred seeding start for next year. I'm so excited! Here is our picture from the finish line from this year.

The next weekend, I graduated from graduate school! I have been going to business school for the past two and a half years, and finished this past spring! I am very excited to have graduated again - it's nice to have some free time and be able to do whatever I want (including nothing!) during the week.

Here is a picture of me walking into the Commencement tent.

The Commencement ceremony was okay - it was long, as expected, but there were some good speeches I thought. They had to read almost 400 names, so for that many people, I didn't think it was too long. Here I am walking across the stage after having my name called. On the left is the President of the college, and on the right, I am shaking hands with the Dean of the college.

Here we are walking out of the tent. Marek did a good job getting a whole bunch of seats together and I was able to see my family while we were walking in and out.

After we walked out, I met my family and a couple friends and we took a bunch of pictures together. My professor from my undergraduate studies actually made the drive out, so I was very excited to see him. Below is a picture of me with my "little" brother. He is graduating next year, so I can't wait to go to his graduation and cheer him on!

Then on Sunday I drove to New Jersey to attend a wedding with my friend Kevin. I've known Kevin since college, but hadn't seen him in about 4.5 years, so it was nice to get to hang out with him. The only bad part is that the trip was pretty short - I got there a couple of hours before the wedding started, and left right after. I got home at 5 AM, so it was a very long day, but it was worth it to sleep in my own bed and be able to get up Monday morning and start my day, instead of then having to drive home.

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