Maine, Lawrence, and Salem

Our trip through Plymouth was the first stop on our trip of many trips. We got to visit Tim's old Mission stomping grounds (Manchester, NH mission), and stayed with the Williams', a couple who really helped him in Northern Massachusetts. The Saturday we were there it rained the entire day (thanks to Hurricane Ida) so we put off our Boston trip and drove up the coast to Maine where we saw this pretty lighthouse and the crashing waves. It was sooooo windy and cold!

We got Lobster Rolls at the (apparently famous) Maine Diner.

We visited the Boston Temple Sunday night. It was still very pretty!

Monday afternoon the skies cleared and we visited Salem, MA! It was a lot different than I expected (busier and more modern) but there were still a lot of old buildings. One picture below is me trying to enter "The Witch House" where the Salem witch trials were initiated.

Before the trip, Tim had done some family history and found some Ashby relatives who lived in Salem for almost two hundred years. They were first fishermen and then shoemakers. We went to the national parks visitor center for the county and watched a video about the settlers of the area and his ancestors fit right into the history! Below are some pictures of their houses today, but you'll have to ask him to explain them in more detail.

I do know that the pictures above and below are of Nathaniel Ashby's Shoe Shop. It's now a YMCA daycare, but still a cool building.
Most of Sunday was spent in Lawrence, MA with Tim driving around and showing me places (sometimes less-safe places) from his Mission.


Lawrence, MA used to be a big factory town where many imigrants could find work. Below-this is "Jackie Chan's Garden" (Tim lived in the white building owned by someone they called Jackie Chan)

The Blue House they also lived in in Lawrence. (Safer than Jackie Chan's)
And lastly, we got to visit people from the Lawrence Ward. This is Tina and Santiago's family. We visited them Sunday night and ate dinner at their Bodega (store) on Monday night. Next Stop...Boston!

Plymouth

Day one of our trip up the east coast: Plymouth. It was really not that exciting. We found out that Plymouth Rock was actually found by the son of someone on the Mayflower who pointed it out when he was in his 90's. They originally took the rock on tours and eventually broke it in half to have it in two places at once then basically glued it back together to place it in its home on the waterfront. The Mayflower was pretty though.
We also celebrated the Pilgrims and Indians and saw some (actually a lot) of old cool graveyards. More pictures of our trip coming soon...

Fall Festivities!

Happy Halloween!

My co-worker Lauren and I dressed up for Halloween. So did some of our members!On Halloween day, Tim and I went to the Diabetes walk then carved pumpkins with Lauren and Andrew. For some reason, my pictures aren't showing up on the computer (-just the collages), so I don't have any pictures yet, but to finish the evening up, Tim and I went to a carved pumpkin display. There were over 200 pumpkins that were so cool! Of all the pictures, guess which is our own...
Answer: Bottom Left. The bat carrying the jack-o-lantern.

Last week, we went to see the pretty leaves and ended up on Roosevelt Island...

Football Weekend 2009

For Tim's birthday, he asked his parents for tickets to the Georgia Tech vs. UVA Football Game. I'm not sure why, but he wanted me to go with him, so I drove to Charlottesville with the Larsen men and cheered the yellow jackets on (notice my color appropriate attire). We had second row seats! Notice the pretty leaves...

I am no longer a fair weather fan! Notice the little girl in the top left picture. She is standing in about 3" of water and completely soaked.
Don't worry, Scott's alma mater won and the rain let up just as the game ended.
We also got to visit Tim's old roommate Tyler and his new wife, Amy who are both in school at UVA. We had a good time with them but didn't get any pictures :( Tim says it's okay because Tyler was wearing a sweater, so you already know what he looked like.

Apples and Apples

It's time again for our annual apple picking extravaganza! With rain and near freezing temperatures, we drove up to Hartland Orchards to "pick" apples with our friends Megan and Philip. The apples on the trees were getting pretty sparse, so we just picked them out of the bins again. (It's especially fun for Tim because he gets to sample all the different kinds!) We also got the best caramel apple I've ever had; it was Delicious!

Hands on House and Bird in Hand

After our short trip to Hershey, we drove about 30 minutes east to Lancaster County, PA for our 1/2 marathon on Saturday. It was called the Hands on House 1/2 marathon to benefit the children's museum. Our course was really beautiful, but also full of hills. We ran through cornfields, hay fields, and farmhouses. We both started out too fast and got pretty tired the second half, but we both finished. I even got 4th in my age group! Some of Tim's work friends even came up to cheer us on and shop with us afterward. We can thank them for most of their pictures.
I'm not sure why the finish line picture is so small, but we made it anyway! Below, we're taking advantage of the after race snacks...the best part!

This is basically what we ran past most of the time. There were even Amish kids cheering us on! After the race we ran to our motel to clean up (although the front desk people weren't exactly happy that we were so late) and did a little sight seeing and shopping!



Amish people are so nice. I asked Tim if I could still me Mormon and Amish. He said some Mormons should.
There were a LOT of petting zoos! Check out the bottom middle picture in the collage-we're horses of a buggy!


This is Carla, Noelle, and Heather from Tim's work who came to cheer us on.

The Sweetest Place on Earth

You guessed it! We took a quick trip up to Hershey, PA last Friday. We ran a half marathon on Saturday in Lancaster, so we decided to make a trip of it.
Look closely at the street lamps...they're chocolate kiss shaped! Note the brown background to the picture in celebration of chocolate. Just like my shirt!
We started out at a new museum called the Hershey Story where we attended the "Chocolate Lab." In the lab we made mini candy bars and learned about chocolate origins and how the Mayans made warm drinks with the cacao. The ancient hot chocolate was a popular drink and before weddings, the women would try to create a lot of froth. They said the better the froth a woman could make, the better a wife she would be. The bottom middle picture was of me making froth to be a good wife.

We headed to Hershey's Chocolate World next for a factory tour (which we did twice) where the cows taught us it is "all about the milk" We finished with some yummy shopping!


Next stop...Amish Country!