Boston

Boston.

The ferry we took to see the USS Constitution. (part of the freedom trail, basically a history line that takes you through to city ending at Boston Harbor)

MIT, the reason we went to Boston. We took a tour of MIT to give Clint an idea of as far as grad. school goes. Super cool, campus runs right along the Charles River.

Stata building on MIT campus. They call this the Dr. Seuss building, it's huge.

The dome building on MIT campus. This is where most of the 'hacks' are done. (hacking=pranks, MIT started 'hacking' before it ever became a computer term) One of the best hacks was a group of MIT students took an MIT police car apart, somehow got it on top of this dome and then rebuilt it...all in one night. If you watch any news, the Hubble telescope has been a big deal lately with it's last launch and everything. A week and a half ago students built a replica of the Hubble and put it on top of the dome. Other years it has been covered in black with cut outs of eyes and a mouth. Kinda cool, even cooler that the school encourages students to do hacks. ( as long as it doesn't hurt property or people)

Mt. Aubourn Cemetery-Cambridge

Mt. Aubourn Cemetery, a.k.a the most beautiful place I have ever been. This place was so gorgeous! I could have walked through here and taken pictures all day long. The pictures don't quite do it justice, but you get the idea. It was incredibly green and there were so many different trees, flowers, bushes, grasses etc. The first pic. is of us in front of a really old church really close to the cemetery entrance.

Sailing the Charles River

Sailing the Charles. We stayed with our good friends Christopher and Megan while we were in Boston. Christopher is going to MIT and majoring in economics. MIT has their own sailing pavilion and it's all covered by student fees...awesome!?! I had never been sailing before and I would love to do more of it in the future. Clint and I are big water skiers, so in the past we have been all about the glassy, windless water. Now, I'm totally ok with wind or no wind...both are equally amazing. Recommendation: don't sail in a skirt.

Red Sox

First major league game and we can't wait to go back. Neither Clint nor I have ever been big baseball fans but I think this one game has changed us. The energy, people, the field and players made the atmosphere so fun. Another bonus...my fenway frank was free. We were sitting in the middle of a row, boys are walking up and down the stadium isles the whole game selling franks, popcorn, drinks, anything you could want at a baseball game. I stopped a kid and wanted a hot dog, they were like 4 bucks each. So I passed him a 5 dollar bill and he passed me my dog. My change wasn't coming back and I really didn't care, it was only a dollar. Then randomly I get handed 5 gold coins...my five dollars came back in a new form. Everyone just looked at me and said...we have no idea what happened, but he said that this was your change. By the time I got the change he was long gone and I was chowing down...holla! So I bought myself a lemondade slush...delish. So, GO Red Sox!!! I will be cheering you on from here on out.

Cape Cod & the Lobster Pot

We took a day trip to the Cape, it wasn't the warmest day but it was gorgeous and still so fun. There is just something about being on the beach and hearing the waves crash into the sand.... That night we ate dinner in Province Town (Ptown...craziest town I have ever been to, but that is a story for another time) at the Lobster Pot. We ate on the second floor right by windows that over looked that harbor, loved it! I had crab legs and Clint got Lobster and both were killer.

Boston-whale watching

We went whale watching while in Boston. Wasn't sure if we would really get a good show...lucky for us, it rocked! We saw at least 20 different whales. They migrate to this area from Bermuda during April and stay until October. 26 miles off the coast there is a plateau 600 ft. under water. It is just shallow enough that lots of plants can grow there attracting fish. The plateau is 26 miles long and 2 miles wide. Over 11,000 thousand whales migrate here for summer feeding and during this time they will gain between 10,000 and 12,000 pounds...that is an insane amount of weight!! I was totally stoked about this, I have always been fascinated with whales and seeing them in the wild was amazing.

Bike Trail

This was one of Clints' Saturday projects, the teeter totter. He has decided to build a mt. bike trail behind his parents house, with jumps, banks, wood trails, bridges etc. This was one of the first creations. Those of you that are into mt. biking will appreciate how cool this really is. Him and his bro's had a ton of fun building and experimenting with this. Can't wait to see how the final trail turns out.

Wicked

my parents bought us tickets to Wicked....it rocked, i would totally see it again. the music was great, i wish i could sing like that, costumes were amazing and i loved the story. go if you can, you won't regret it.

clint and i

my parents, and my sister abby jane.

the project

for the past 2 semesters clint has been working on his 3rd year mechanical engineering project...this the the famous robot. it has spent more time with clint than i have by a long shot. i can't even remember how many late...really late...nights he has had with the robot and homework. he is a genius and even though this blue box with wires might not look like much, let me tell you it really is amazing!

the team. jeff, jeremy, dan and clint. this isn't a very good pic of them, but these guys are awesome. there were many nights that i would take them up pizza for dinner and they are hilarious!

the proud mother. she knew he would do something like this from the time he was four.

the competition. there were 36 teams that made robots. two robots would compete against each other, one on each side of the grid. the robot had to be programed to follow the black lines, turn corners to go in between the isles and then had to pick up one of three crates. the robot had to be able to sense what was in the crates in order to pick them up. one had a magnet, and the other two had other electrical things. this is so much harder to explain than i thought...the comp. was super cool to watch. clints robot was in the top seven, he did awesome and i'm so proud of all his hard work.

the presentation board and robot.

my first triathlon

i did the 4th street tri a couple of weeks ago. it was awesome...for the most part...and i will definitely being doing more tri's. i have been taking a triathlon class at the u of u for the past 8 months. my trainers were awesome! summer and lane, they rock. they are crazy hard core and both do iron man's...not sure i will ever do an iron man tri, but they are my inspiration. if you get the chance and have the drive to do a tri, do it you will have no regrets!
fyi: i should have started this post with the swim and ended with the run...but i was to lazy to switch it.

finishing the run...just about to cross the finish line. that was a great feeling.

that's my new bike...it's my most favorite thing ever. not so much on this ride though...
i got a hole in my tire, not just once, but twice...never happens, but it did today because i wanted to be fast and do good. hilarious really, still can't believe it happened. one guy that passed me while i was checking out my tire was so nice, offered to stop and help multiple times, i told him to keep going. only one of us needs to end up with a slow time on the bike...i'm totally cool with taking it!

in between the bike and the swim. putting clothes on when you are dripping wet is harder than i thought it would be.

the one in the orange is me. at this point in the swim i felt like i had swallowed half of the pool! i have no idea what happened but i went to take in a breath and got a mouth full of water. you know when you swallow and it goes down the wrong tube...that was me, coughing and everything. it went like this...take a breath in, cough my guts out while my head was in the water, take a breath in, cough my guts out while my head was face first in the water....repeated 100 time...at least that's what it felt like. haha, it was awesome!

starting the swim. i'm about to jump in in this pic. orange tank, white cap...i look like a q-tip. my goggles filled with water right when i hit the water, so frustrating, but i think i swam faster because i couldn't wait to rip them off my face. the swim was my favorite part.

easter eggs

my favorite egg...

the lace egg, all the boys thought it was ugly. i love it. it's pretty sweet, eh?

kelli's orange flower egg, it looked better in person.

kelli (clint's sister) and i painted easter eggs the night before easter. i'm not sure why but i only got pictures of the eggs. but hey, it was fun. i haven't dyed or painted eggs for a couple years.

kelli just left for Guatemala until august. love that girl, we will miss her this summer!!

they come and they go

i totally look like the hunch back of notre dame...but we are goofy like that.

me and the sibblings. aaron, dan and abby.

aaron...he just left for brazil. i miss him. he is our families comedian.

dan just off the plane.

dan and clint, i love this pic.

dan home from bogata columbia in october. so proud of this boy, we are best buds. he is in washington right now doing summer sales. aaron just left from curitiba brazil in march, i miss him. but i'm glad he made such a great decision to go the serve the Lord. love my brothers, they are awesome.