Halloween and Christmas All in One Post!

Not surprisingly, I have been extremely busy during this holiday season and have neglected the blog. Apologies all around. I know you have all missed this (by you all, I'm of course referring to a total of about 5 people). 

First things first. I promised Halloween pictures! In my opinion, Halloween costumes are always more fun when coordinated with a group. Now before I get into too much detail, proper credit must be given to all others involved in this group. I had almost nothing to do with the creative aspect of this costume. I'm actually not sure whose idea it was first, but I'm going to say it was Jesse because that was the first time I heard it. He thought it'd be funny if we were the "Fierce Five" from the Olympics. I think there's an extra level of humor added to this costume from Alex and I, who are both about 6' tall, pretending to be gymnasts from the Olympics whose average height is probably about 4'11". So the Fierce Five was born and consisted of me, Alex, Liz, Brynn, and Bethany (our new intern friend). Once the ball got rolling, we thought it'd be funny to have a complete Olympic Squad and convinced a few guyfriends to come as swimmers - specifically Lochte, Phelps, and Adrian. So we all bought matching black sweatpants and ironed on USA and our last name onto the sweats. Then we ordered red leotards and painted glittery stuff on them to match the Olympians. It was quite the production, but the efforts were worth it! We entered our YSA Halloween party as a squad and did a lap around the gym, inspiring dozens of people to chant "USA! USA! USA!" We also won the costume contest. Not a bad night. 

Prep Night. Lot of ironing going on that night.

Who's Who:

Me - Aly Raisman            

Alex - McKayla Maroney     

Liz - Gabby Douglas           

Brynn - Jordan Wieber

Bethany - Kyla Ross

Joseph - Nathan Adrian

 Jesse - Ryan Lochte

Sam - Michael Phelps

The team that stretches together, stays together.

It should also be noted that no one was committed to their character more than Alex. She did the "not impressed" Maroney face in EVERY SINGLE PICTURE. That is dedication, people. If you are not familiar with this "not impressed" look, shame on you, Google it. 

Also, please note our friend, James, the elf in this picture. He'll come into play in the Christmas pics.

The Olympic Squad 2012

Oh yeah, those are medals. Accurately counted for
each athlete, I might add. Good work, Alex!

SweatCinema club - Sam missed the sweats memo. Come
on Phelps - get it together!

On to Christmas!! Once we saw the AMAZING costume that James pulled off for Halloween, we immediately decided that a party  needed to happen. So we gathered at Alex's apartment to have an "Elf Party" with the real "Elf." James came in costume and character. He can quote that movie about as well as anyone I've ever met. This is also the beginning of our "SweatCinema" club. We have decided that due to cold weather, most of our activities will probably consist of movie watching, so in order for us to make use of our USA sweats, it is required to wear them at each movie viewing. James is also allowed to come as long as he always wears the Elf costume. JK, James (like you even read this).

"Someone needs a hug."

We also had our Ward Christmas party a couple weekends ago and unfortunately I did not think to take pictures of the event. We used the theme "It's a Wonderful Life" and tried to incorporate aspects of the movie into all our decorations. I helped out with it because I'm on the committee that was in charge. A lot of people worked hard on it and I thought it turned out great! One of the best Christmas parties I've ever been to. 

Brynn, Me, Liz, and Alex

Yesterday Brynn, Liz, Alex, and I undertook a Christmas delivery mission unlike any I have been on before. We each made a Christmas treat of our choosing and gathered at Alex's apt Saturday morning at 10 to begin assembling plates of goodies for our neighbors and friends in the ward. 

I kinda just wanted all these plates for myself....Liz said no.

These treat plates came complete with caramel-chocolate dipped pretzel rods (Alex), chocolate chip cookies (Brynn), Jingle Bell Balls (Liz), and peppermint bark (me). Plus some classic Reese's, Hershey Kisses, etc. We mapped out a route and went on our way. We had set aside the whole day for this activity, but I don't think any of us anticipated the actual amount of time this would take to drive around Maryland and the District. As Alex put it, "we could have driven to Canada in the time we spent doing this today." We made a couple Christmas Mix CDs, which cycled through a couple times before we got sick of them...a couple hours into the trip...

It was totally worth it though! I always feel such joy out of brightening someone's day with something as simple as a Christmas treat. A lot of our friends were studying for finals, so this was a welcome distraction (at least we think it was) and for others it was just a pleasant surprise. We loved it. Reminded me of the old ring and run days of my childhood in AZ. 

Ready to get on the road! 

Merry Christmas everyone! I'll be flying out to Utah Thursday night and I AM SO EXCITED!!! 

My First Trip to Beantown

It's time to give up hope that I will ever have time to catch up on all my blog posts...oi! So I've decided to post about my Boston trip and then when I have time I'll go back and post about things that happened in October (the Halloween pics alone will make it worth it...stay tuned!).

Good ol' Beantown! What a great weekend that was. This trip consisted of Alex, Liz and yours truly. We took a couple days off of our normal lives and spent a weekend experiencing the sights and sounds of magical Boston. It's about an 8 hour drive from Bethesda so we got on the road bright and early Friday morning armed with M&Ms and an unbeatable CD mix Alex created for the road trip. Kesha anyone? The great thing about this trip was the flexibility of our schedule. While driving through Connecticut we saw signs for Yale and decided to make a pit stop to see the campus. We didn't get out, just drove around it, but I'm so glad we did! I loved the feel of that town...if Yale would accept me, I'd go there.

As we pulled into Boston, the first thing I recognized was, of course, Fenway Park. It's actually quite a small stadium, not that impressive as far as size. But I guess it's more a symbol than a remarkable structure. We arrived right around rush hour time, so we definitely had time to do sight-seeing from the car as we made our way to our first destination - North End where Mike's Pastry sits in "Little Italy" - a "must see" for all visiting the city.

1st Stop! We have our priorities straight. 

Surprisingly, I discovered that I don't really like cannolis. I never thought I'd be picky in a pastry shop, but I only liked the cannoli that had chocolate mousse as the filling (which Alex so graciously decided to trade with me). Most of them have a cheese filling that I didn't love. Mike's cupcakes did not disappoint, however, and I had no trouble finishing off the carrot cake cupcake with cream cheese frosting I purchased.

Lest you be deceived, we bought these "to go" and took them home with us. Dinner should come first after all. So after we left Mike's, we walked down the street to a place called Giacomo's Ristorante, or as we lovingly dubbed it - Giac's. We had our fill of some lovely pasta dishes and then squeezed our way out of the restaurant...probably knocking more than one person right as they were about to take a bite. Here's the thing about Boston: CROWDED. There was NOWHERE to park (we ended up having to pay $35 to park in a parking garage because all street parking is for residents only. Then once you're finally parked and outside, it's still crowded! These restaurants and shops are all crammed into these tiny spaces, so they shove as many tables into a small space as humanly possible, which requires crawling over and around other customers to get to your own table. I thought I was going to be thrown out of the restaurant for wanting to go to the bathroom after finally being seated. O.k. that might be an exaggeration, but you get my point.

We made our way back to the parking garage and finally left after having our first encounter with one of the many foreign gentlemen who love Alex. Tall, blonde hair, blue eyes...they can't resist her! I thought the parking attendant wasn't going to raise the gate and give us our change until she agreed to marry him or something. Then we drove to Watertown, just outside of Boston, where Liz has a friend that allowed us to stay with her.

What a perfect engagement photo! I just need
Liz to be replaced with a man...

Saturday morning began with a trip to the Boston Temple. As always, I love seeing a new temple and noticing how the temple always seems to just fit with its location - not sure if that really makes sense or not. Anyhow, it was beautiful and highly visible from the freeway, which I thought was cool.
The temple was followed by breakfast at The Neighborhood Market. Just the side dishes that come with the meal ordered could be an entire meal by themselves. Plus they serve free hot chocolate with every meal! I LOVE hot chocolate! Let's just say Boston knows how to do food.

Next stop: Mt. Auburn Cemetery. On a hill in the cemetery sits a tower with a spiral staircase that leads to the BEST view of Boston. 

Yeah, Romney's nephew was definitely holding the camera at this moment. 

When we drove up to this tower, there was one other car parked as well. It had Utah license plates so naturally when we got the top of the tower I started talking to the owner of the car. It was a man and his two sons, who were probably about our age. They were from Park City, so I said I was from Draper and we were chatting about Utah and then bam! - "we're here for the election party...it's kind of a family reunion. Mitt's my uncle." No big deal. Wait, what?! We then got a behind the scenes tour of Boston from Mr. Romney. He pointed out Harvard Business school in the Boston skyline, where he attended college, and then directed us to Bain Capital, where he got his start in business. Then he gave us a family history of the Romneys and where they all come from. He is the son of Romney's older sister. Then we told him we were visiting from Bethesda and that's where his wife is from! So many little connections everywhere. Kind of an awesome and unexpected experience in that cemetery.

I could have stayed up there all day.

The Boston skyline.

Cemetery where Paul Revere, Samuel Adams
and John Hancock are buried

From there it was on to the Freedom Trail! A red (sometimes brick, sometimes painted) line runs through the city of Boston, leading you on a tour of famous Revolutionary War sites such as:

Paul Revere statue just outside of
the Old North Church

Below deck on the USS Constitution...
slightly cramped quarters, eh?

Paul Revere's House

Terrible photographer, right Mom?
All feet! *Eye roll*

This is how it's done - look at that
huge ship!

Faneuil Hall

Among the interesting things I learned at all these places are these:

• Sailors aboard the USS Constitution used to be served a piece of "bread" with their daily meals, a.k.a. hardtack, that could last up to 5 YEARS before it went bad. Wouldn't something like that just destroy your digestive system?
• The USS Constitution is the oldest ship that is still commissioned.
• Sailors only got about 4 hours of sleep a day.
• The average sailor was 5'6". 
• Let's be honest, the whole time I was on that ship I was thinking of Horatio Hornblower.
• The poem that we all learned as children about Paul Revere's ride is basically historically false. Don't get me wrong, it's a great piece of literature, but I'm not sure I can get past the inaccuracy now. 
• According to his statue, Samuel Adams was incorruptible and fearless. 
• The Old North Church is still in use today. You used to have to buy your seat in the chapel in order to worship there and then each family would bring their own fabric and furniture to decorate their little box seats. They also brought their own foot heaters during the winter. 

We ended our day at Quincy Market where we got some classic Boston chowda' in a bread bowl. Delish! First, we made a pit stop in a Christmas store at the market where we found these little gems:

Can you say creepy?

Now, granted, this store sold every and I mean EVERY type of ornament a person could ever dream of owning, but come on. Who hangs a stripper/merman ornament on their tree? And that wasn't even the creepiest thing we saw. I wish we'd taken a pic, but there was a treetop decoration that was a woman mannequin and then about halfway down her body, where the rest of her dress would be, was the tree. I asked an employee nearby if they'd ever sold one of those and he said, "No. And rightfully so." Ha ha! 

On Sunday we went to the Boston singles ward and had a lovely time. Then we drove out to Minuteman National Park and walked through their visitor's center and drove around the grounds a bit. It's mostly just a lot of land that is known to be the place where the first battle of the Revolutionary War began. After that we went to Walden Pond where Henry David Thoreau lived and wrote and pondered things (I guess). 

The beginning of our walk around the pond.

I can see why he picked this spot.

Our next activity was to visit Louisa May Alcott's house. This was possibly my favorite part of the trip. First let's establish that I just re-read Little Women this year and was reminded how much I love it by visiting this house. She took so much of her real life and put it into the story of Little Women that you kind of get mixed up in this real world fantasy while walking through her house. I also didn't know that her father was an intellectual man and that they were neighbors with the likes of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. They would stop by the Alcott's house for a chat every now and then, no big deal. 

In front of the Alcott House.

Her life didn't actually turn out the way it did in the book though (she's Jo; and she never married). She only had Jo get married in the book because she had such a huge response from fans of Part I of her book that she felt she had to do something to please her readers. But she refused to have her marry Laurie, even though that's what all the fans begged her to do. Interesting huh? I wonder what it would be like to have that kind of fame come basically out of nowhere. This book was her first real success, which is why she even wrote a Part II (both parts are combined into one book today). 

One of the stories they told on the tour was about her father who used to sit on a bench outside the house waiting for people to walk by and talk to them. Since they had an apple orchard, he'd always have apples ready and say, "Care to share an apple and a conversation?" He definitely had some interesting ideas. He tried to start a Utopian society with his family, but it failed. Mostly because the principles he tried to build the society on were, in my opinion, crazy. Fruitlands Utopian society in Harvard, MA. Look it up. But, then he also thought that women should be educated and encouraged Louisa in her writing. So, I don't agree with everything he thought, but at least he was supportive of his daughter's dreams. 

Share an apple and a conversation? I mostly need the apple.

On the way home we drove around Harvard cause we wanted to see it. We never did see it in the daylight, but we sure got a good look of the outside as we circled the campus about 5 times looking for a place to park. Seriously Boston, you need to get on that parking problem. Lots of people in Boston are not residents...you're kind of a big tourist site. Just sayin.

Monday we drove home. We took the scenic route through Rhode Island so we could see the mansions along the beach in Newport, RI. The word mansion does not even begin to do these homes justice. They are castles. And most of them are just summer homes for these people! Some of them are open for people to tour. Makes me think of Pemberley in Pride and Prejudice. I'm sorry I don't have pictures - I was too distracted by the size of the homes and trying to focus on keeping my jaw from dropping too much. 

It was windy. And we'd been driving all day. Don't judge.

And that about sums up the Boston trip. We got back to DC in time to go to the speed-dating activity at FHE (at least I did...ahem). 

Hope to see you again soon Boston! 

Keepin' the 80's Alive!

We're finally to the end of September!

Monday, the 24th, was Alex's birthday which was celebrated in style at Baja Fresh complete with good company and cake.

Happy Birthday Alex!

Then, on Friday I participated in one of my favorite things I have experienced since moving out here. I'm not a big concert-goer. I've only been to a handful in my life, but back in April I was introduced to this local 80's cover band called "The Legwarmers."

Me, Karin, and Alex strikin' a pose.

A bunch of friends from the ward went in April and I had a blast, so naturally when I heard they were doing another concert in September I immediately purchased a ticket. They put on such a great show! As long as you can put up with the VERY crowded pit in front of the stage and the people around you getting progressively more drunk as the night goes on. Overall it's just a great time because most people come dressed in 80's garb and ready to dance to the 80's classics that everyone knows. Journey, Madonna, Wham, Michael Jackson, The Cure, the list goes on and on. Classic.
Best song: "Take on Me" by a-ha (possibly because it's my favorite dance to perform while playing Just Dance 3). Worst song: "Like a Virgin" by Madonna.

This is the face I make when "Like a Virgin" begins. I despise that song. 

Hours of continuous 80's music. Ears ringing for days afterwards. Feet sore from dancing. Doesn't get much better.

Kelli, Alex, me, Taylor, Stacie, and Brad.
Brad is their #1 fan, seriously, they dedicated a song to him.

One Packed Saturday!

This post will cover a few different activities, as I don't deem any of them worthy of an entire post...so here we go!

The week after Amish country I had a packed Saturday! The day began with Alex and I supporting our alma mater as the BYU women's volleyball team played in a tournament at George Washington University. They played Princeton and I'm using the term "played" loosely...they dominated Princeton. Don't believe me? 

We had 2nd stringers in during the third game...just sayin. 

Next up was a bus ride across town to the H Street Festival, an annual festival where they have tons of food, clothing, random fun things, etc. all set up along H Street in DC. We met up with Liz there and had ourselves some grilled cheese sandwiches from a food truck called "Big Cheese." 

I like to use my height to provide others with shade. You're welcome Liz!

We also ran into our friend, Kati, who was working one of the booths for her job. She works at Gallaudet University, which as I understand it, is a university for the deaf. She is excellent at sign language and I love it when she sits up front and translates Sunday meetings into sign language. 

Look how diverse we are! Blonde, Redhead, Brunette.
My roomie referred to us as "Neapolitan friends."

We headed home after the H Street Festival so we could get ready for the evening's entertainment, which was...get ready for it...a Relief Society Appreciation Dinner put on by the Elders Quorum in our ward! Apparently this is going to be an annual thing, this was the second one, but I was not in the ward last year for the first one. We were served salads, followed by a potato bar, and a delicious dessert of cake and ice cream. They had also prepared some speakers to talk about how great we are because we are women. No argument from me. I felt very appreciated. 

The most efficient potato bar line you will ever see! Ever.

What service!

Many of us from the dinner, went to a party to watch the BYU vs Utah football game, which didn't start until 10 p.m. here on the east coast! Talk about a late game. The party was fun, I would have enjoyed it more if  BYU had won, but those last few minutes when they had to keep kicking the fans off the field were pretty entertaining. Not sure it was worth me staying up til 2 a.m. That's all I have to say about that. 

That about covers that weekend. Phew! Busy day! 

Resting From My Labors of Unemployment

Serves me right for not keeping my blog up to date, but I made a mistake and posted about Amish country first, completely forgetting the post about my fabulous "stay-cation" over Labor Day weekend! It's possible that I mentally blocked out this weekend, even though I look on it fondly now, because of the unreal humidity that plagued the fields of the Scottish Festival that day. Finding myself completely drenched in sweat was a common, almost daily, occurrence this summer (my first on the east coast), and yet this day stands out as one in which I felt that I might literally die from the heat. Alas, my body temperature is not what this blog is about...

So, to begin the weekend, on Saturday I attended the Scottish Festival in The Plains, Virginia with my friends Brynn and Liz. Brynn has actual Scottish heritage so this festival actually meant something to her; and Liz and I just thought it sounded like fun to see some large men try to throw logs across a field.

After walking past dozens of tents set up bearing the names of different clans, we came upon the spacious fields where the sporting events and the marching bagpipe band performances were to take place. The sporting events did not disappoint. It astounds me that it is so entertaining to watch someone strain every muscle in their body in order to fling a heavy object as far as they can, and yet, it is. They threw hammers and large rocks. Then they tossed heavy weights straight up into the air to see who could throw it the highest. Then came the main event - the log toss (these probably all have proper names that I just don't know, apologies to any indignant Scottish readers). They balance this 50 foot log straight up in the air, then run forward with it and as it starts to tip forward they fling the bottom to see if they can get it to go end over end. Only one guy was able to do that. The rest are ranked based on how far up their end got measured in degrees. Like straight up would be a 90 degree angle, right? So if they got it almost straight up, but then it fell back down the way it came instead of going end over end, they'd score about an 80. Hopefully that kind of makes sense, I honestly didn't really understand most of what was going on.

Please notice the caution tape. I'm sure that will help if he
accidentally lets go of his million pound hammer and it heads right for me.
They'll say, "Hey, we warned you." 

And of course it wouldn't be a Scottish festival without bagpipes! The bagpipes were mostly just a constant background noise to the entire event. I never really sat and watched the marching bands, but I'm a fan of the bagpipes so it was not an unwelcome background noise.

Who doesn't love a man in a kilt?

There was also some sheep-herding, which just made me think of the movie, "Babe." I actually would have liked to see more of that, but they were taking so long to get it going and, as previously mentioned, I was about to die from heat stroke. So we did not stick around to watch that. We did see some Scottish dancers and folk song groups as well. Definitely worth the trip.

On Monday we decided to drive down to Charlottesville, VA to see the home of Thomas Jefferson, a.k.a. Monticello. First I should mention that we had planned to visit Montpelier (James Madison's home) that morning before heading to Monticello, but had failed to adequately research our directions and were taken to the city of Montpelier, VA, which is nowhere near the home of James Madison. At least it was a beautiful, scenic drive. After that little detour, we decided to skip it so we would have enough time at Monticello.
Now pay attention all you Utah readers. I have gotten into serious trouble for calling it Monticello with a soft "c," as in the city in southern Utah. Please pronounce it correctly when speaking of Jefferson's home - it is Monticello with a "ch" noise, as in the musical instrument. I'm just warning you in case you ever visit it.

Just stopping to smell the roses. 

Now that we've established that, I can say that this is by far my favorite place I have visited so far during my time out here. It is a bit of a drive to get there so I don't think it is as common of a tourist attraction, however it is absolutely worth the drive and I imagine I'll be returning so that I can see it once in every season of the year. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. Somehow it has managed to remain removed from modern society, which adds to its historical feel that is difficult to describe. Another reason it is so beautiful is that it's situated at the top of a "mountain," the highest point in the area, so it has the most incredible view of the surrounding hills and valleys. He owned 5,000 acres, if I remember correctly, so his land stretches as far as you can see. Words cannot describe its beauty. We took a garden tour after the house tour where we had one of the most fantastic guides I've ever known. His name was Gerard and he knew more about vegetation than I ever thought was humanly possible. We'd be walking and he'd say, "Now this is a blue pine - as opposed to a white or green pine which of course has softer pine needles, etc. etc." I totally just made that sentence up, but you get the idea. I didn't know there was more than just one kind of pine tree. We loved Gerard.

We totally would have been friends.

I think one of the reasons I loved this house so much is that Jefferson designed it himself and really put his inventive spirit into the home. Some rooms are octagonal in shape and have floor to ceiling windows (unheard of for the time). He also designed a lower level to the house where everything besides the main rooms are, such as the kitchen, the stables, and wine cellar, which is a genius design because he built it so these parts of the house are unseen unless you go down the hill to the back. We also took the "Slavery at Monticello" tour. I never realized how much manpower it took to run a home as large as his. He  invented a lot of other things like this device that I relate to a "lazy susan" that he could set multiple books on at once and spin them around next to his study chair so he could have all these reference books available while he was studying. He kept his own records of the weather and was very involved in every aspect of how his household was run.

I just really loved this place. I approve, Mr. Jefferson, I approve.

This picture was taken by an elderly woman...hence the odd angle. 

Maybe I'll make a trip this winter...I bet it's beautiful in the snow!

What Do They Put in That Bread? Seriously.

Apologies for my absence the last few weeks. I have been getting settled into a new job and time has gotten away from me. Well I'm sure you've all been dying to know what I've been up to so let me put your minds at rest and fill you in!

The first weekend in September I drove up with my friends Liz and Alex to Lancaster, PA - a.k.a. Amish Country. I had previously visited a predominantly Amish city while on my Nauvoo Study Abroad back in 2006 when we went to Shipshewana, IN (I might have only mentioned that simply because I love saying the name Shipshewana). I remember really enjoying that little town, but mostly I remembered that the Amish make incredible food. If you are EVER near an Amish marketplace that sells fresh soft pretzels, you absolutely must get one. I don't know what they put in their bread dough, but they are the most fantastic things I've ever eaten. There is an Amish marketplace in Germantown, MD (fairly close to where I live now) that I have been to a couple times since living out here. It was in Germantown that I was introduced to the hot dog wrapped in a pretzel with melted cheese inside. A hot dog never tasted so good. The cinnamon sugar ones also get honorable mention.

Immergut (Always Good). The Amish don't lie. 

Now that I've given that lovely introduction and all of your mouths are salivating, we'll start from the beginning. We arrived on a Friday night and took up lodging at a lovely Ramada Inn in Lancaster, PA, where there was a country dance club on the lower level called "Low Places" and hallways that smelled of moldy rags. Luckily our room turned out to be quite nice and the repugnant smell disappeared once the door was shut. We settled in to waste some time watching TV before going to bed for the night and quickly discovered that their "cable" included approximately 10 real channels and about 50 channels of blue screens. No matter - we found a lovely documentary about how the "Beatles Rocked the Kremlin." This show immediately caught our attention as the narrator began the show with an introduction discussing how Beatles music basically brought down Communism in Russia, while the screen displayed black and white footage of a bleak looking post WWII Russia. We all burst out laughing and decided this show must be watched. Turns out, they actually weren't making this up. I ended up watching the entire thing and it was actually a pretty great documentary about how much affect the Beatles music had on these young kids in Russia. The government absolutely forbid them from listening, so naturally everyone wanted to. They started passing albums around through and underground system. If you were caught, you went to jail! Jail! For having the Beatles! Of course there were some crazies on the show, like the old man being interviewed who showed the camera crew his "shrine" to the Beatles containing paraphernalia that he had been collecting since he was a teenager. I guess the point is, you never know what kind of hidden jewel you'll find when channel surfing in a hotel.  

The next morning Alex and Liz were supposed to go in a hot air balloon (this had been the original purpose of the trip), but it was canceled due to inclement weather, so we ended up spending the whole day in Amish country. First we went to The Amish Village - a real Amish home and farm that has been converted into a touring site. I've always been interested in the Amish way of life and I quite enjoyed our tour of their home and land. Memorable things I learned:

Liz and I in an Amish buggy - um, where am
I supposed to put my 8 children? 

• The women pin their dresses on. Every day. With sewing pins.
• The women always part their hair down the middle and pull it into a tight bun. They usually end up going bald on their part because they pull it so tight every day. 
• All of the children go to school until 8th grade (their own school with an Amish teacher) and then stop. No one goes past 8th grade. 
• Teenagers are allowed to take a year of their lives to try life outside the Amish belief system, in the "real world" and then decide whether or not to stick with the Amish way for life. This is called "rumspringa." I always thought this was a year of basically doing anything and everything you wanted. But you actually still adhere to your parents rules and complete your daily chores and live in the home. They are just more relaxed about letting you go out at night and wearing typical teenage clothing and talking on cell phones, etc. About 90% decide to be baptized and stay with it.
• If they decide to not come back, they are still accepted by their families and friends. However, if you are baptized and then depart from it later - you will be shunned from Amish society. 
• They speak German in their households. They are taught English in school, but they speak German in their church services and read from German Bibles. Also, their church services are 3 or 4 hours of sitting in one room reading from a German Bible. I think I am beginning to see where the Amish patience comes from...
• They have small and simple celebrations for weddings, but the bride and groom stick around because they are expected to HELP CLEAN UP the next morning! What?! 

There's definitely more to them than just these notes, but these are some of the facts that I found interesting while we were touring. When we walked through the bedrooms there were Amish quilts on the beds and I wanted one so bad. Until I saw the price tag. Whoo! Now I know they are hand-stitched and they definitely deserve to be monetarily rewarded for their labor, but it will be a long while before I can afford an Amish quilt. They are beautiful though. 

Alex in Amish farmland. It suits her, no? 

After Amish Village, we drove through Bird-In-Hand (which takes about 5 minutes) and on towards Intercourse, PA. Am I immature for giggling at that city name? Probably. But at least I didn't buy the playing cards that said I *heart* Intercourse on the back of them. Things I did buy: a wonderful smelling candle  - Iced Oatmeal Cookie - which actually smells like Pumpkin spice to me and makes me think of Christmas time at home. I light it in my room all the time because the smell just makes me happy. A jam sampler of 6 different types of jams, ranging from Peach/Pineapple to Apple Cinnamon Jelly. There was this store called "Kitchen Kettle Village" that was a smaller version of Costco, complete with tasting stations throughout the store where you could try all the different flavors of jam, salsa, peanut butter, honey, etc. They had these fantastic jars of peanut butter that were flavored. One was peanut butter banana and another was peanut butter chocolate. Brilliant! I believe I tried every single flavor in that store...lunch was no longer necessary. But of course, one does not walk past Immergut and not get a pretzel. That would just be absurd. Suffice it to say, I did not come away from this trip hungry. 

No, I am not overly excited because that guy
next to me has an iPhone. 

We also took a tour of a pretzel factory. They took us in the back and demonstrated their process of making hundreds of pretzels every day (the hard ones that are packaged, not to be confused with Immergut). Then each person was given some dough to try to make their own pretzel. I think I missed my calling in life - I was totally a natural, as evidenced by this picture. If you need more evidence, I still have the sticker presented to those of us who mastered the pretzel-making technique (o.k. maybe everyone got a sticker). 

The calm before the storm.

After some more wandering through shops - one of which was a fudge factory where we observed a girl shape this slab of probably 50 lbs of hot fudge while it hardened - we headed back to the car. Just in time! Out of nowhere appeared masses of dark clouds. The heavens opened and flooded the streets of Intercourse. We drove to an indoor marketplace and wandered around there for a while, waiting for the storm to blow over. It was quite the torrential downpour. 

We finished off the trip with dinner at a local Country Store that gave us some good old-fashioned meat and mashed potatoes smothered in gravy. Delightful. Except for Liz who ordered a baked potato that ended up coming out smothered in "radioactive" nacho cheese. Somehow this radioactive cheese seems to pop up somewhere in her food every time we eat out. Just one of those mysteries of life I guess. 

Liz and Alex are heading back to magical Lancaster, PA tomorrow to hopefully actually get in the air for their hot air balloon ride. I'm crossing my fingers that an Immergut cinnamon sugar pretzel magically appears on my doorstep tomorrow night...

Again, sorry for the delay in updating the blog - more posts coming this week! 

This Is The Place!

One of the perks of unemployment is having an abundance of free time! After being absent for 7 months, I returned to the homeland and got to visit for TWO full weeks. It was fantastic and much needed for my sanity. The trip involved A LOT of volleyball (my body has not been that sore in a long time), catching up with friends, and of course spending time with my favorite people - the fam!

Things started off with a bang when I reunited with the old volleyball gang to play outdoor for a few hours. Let me tell you something - it may just be a mental block - but I believe that I perform better in the dry air of the west. Something about humidity just sucks the life out of me and it was quite enjoyable to being playing again without the oppressive heat of the east coast. Nevertheless, good times are had by all when volleyball is involved. 

Grandma's Birthday

I was so happy to be home for Grandma's birthday dinner - which was of course followed by dessert and Mormon Bridge (Metcalf tradition). 

Lame, but oh so exciting!

I'm well aware that I should not be bragging about this, but I'm going to anyway. One of my favorite games is Pick. It's a fast version of Scrabble where you create your own Scrabble board, drawing tiles and trying to complete yours before the other players. One night, while playing this game with Mom and Dad, I achieved the greatest score known to the Metcalf family - 81 POINTS! Be impressed people. That's a dang good score. I usually feel good if I get a score in the 50s. Clearly Mom was impressed enough to take a picture of the moment so obviously it needed to be in the blog. Makes sense. I'd like to also take this moment to say that I have the coolest parents in the world and had a blast hanging out with them whenever I wasn't out with friends. Possibly the hardest I laughed the whole trip was watching Cory and Dad "wrestle." I'm laughing now just thinking about it.

I mentioned volleyball earlier, however I failed to discuss the Dusk 'til Dawn tournament that I played in with my friend Connor. It is exactly what it sounds like. The tournament starts around 7pm and you play til you're eliminated. I heard the winners were there until about 3:45am. Unfortunately, Connor and I did not make it that far, although we did improve by the end of the night. What was our inspiration for improvement, you ask? Repeatedly listening to "You're the Voice" by John Farnham (watch Hot Rod). It doesn't get much more inspirational than that. We stuck around to watch Cory and his partner, who made it much further than us. I think they ended up taking 4th in their division.  Then, naturally, we went to Denny's because nothing tastes better at 3am than french toast and chocolate milk!

"We're not gonna sit in silence!"

Another favorite activity from my trip was my first experience on the Flowrider at the Provo Beach Resort. If you are unfamiliar with it, basically it's an indoor surf wave. It doesn't actually look that hard, but don't be deceived! Let's just say I'll probably stick with boogie boarding in the future.

Provo Beach Resort (This was the only good photo of about 100 takes, much to Mom's frustration) 

 They have a lifeguard on duty that helps you if you're new to the sport. She holds a rope and slowly releases it, pushing you further into the wave. Jake and Cory (who were also participating, but not as first timers) decided I should go first of the three of us and that I should have to try it without the rope. I think I stayed up for about oh... .2 seconds before finding myself swiftly blown to the top of the wave where they've provided a platform for you to semi-recover yourself before descending the ramp to attempt the wave again. I tried once more on my own before acknowledging my need for the rope. Interestingly, the rope is supposed to be stabilizing, but it had the opposite effect on me. Don't believe me? Please enjoy this video:

This was a trip of "firsts" for me. Next on the list was PAINTBALLING! I've always wanted to try it, but just never have. No better time than the present. I went with a group of friends from Provo - Jess, Dave, Pete, and Andrew. Pete was the lone expert in our group, the rest of us were rookies. We walk in and the guy behind the desk gets us all set with our gear and such, but in the process explains how to use the gun so rapidly that I was still on how to take the safety off when he was herding us into the arena. Uh oh.

The girls! We totally owned that arena. 

So we split into two teams and the referee puts us on opposite sides, says "Go!", and suddenly little pellets are flying at me from across the room. I dive down, trying to figure out why my gun isn't firing, only to see that the safety is on (great, the one thing I thought I understood from the guy's instructions). Once I figured the gun out, the game became much more exciting, although being defenseless in a paintball arena isn't exactly boring.
The first time I got hit ended up being the most painful. I got a paintball right on my bicep from about 2 feet away. I had been prepared and knew that I would get some welts and bruises, but it was still quite shocking to get hit and, as Kramer would say, "it's no picnic!" After that round I reluctantly went back to my side to start a new game, the whole time thinking, "Why did I want to do this again?" Luckily, that first one was the most painful and after that I began to enjoy the game. There's something about sliding around on a paint covered floor, weaving in and out of blow up obstacles, that is just ridiculously fun. I guess it kind of takes you back to childhood (or at least my childhood with three brothers). Anyways, it was great and I definitely had plenty of bruises the next day.

Yes, I'm still smiling even though you can't see my face. 

Last, but not least, I have to mention the wonderful afternoon spent with the old roomies. I made Brazilian lemonade, proving that I'm not a total screw-up in all areas of domesticity (earlier in the trip I completely ruined and had to start over a baby blanket I was making AND tried to replicate some delicious cookies we'd been given, but totally botched). We had a great time sitting outside and catching up. Sure miss those girls!

Aren't we cute?! 

Well, that about sums up my trip. Thanks for being a great host, Utah. I knew you wouldn't disappoint!

I'm off to Amish country in Pennsylvania this weekend - stories and pictures to come!