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Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Nothing's sweeter than summertime...

Obviously I'm getting a little case of "almost-done-with-the-semester-itis"...as I've been daydreaming & plotting how I'm going to spend my whole summer. I've decided so that I make sure to do ALL the things I want this summer I should make a list (below) & chronicle my summer adventures. I can HARDLY wait...If I work SUPER hard this weekend I could be done with this semester by MONDAY! Here's what's on the list so far...I'm sure there's more to come!

Things to do this summer:
- Plant a Garden
- Take a sewing class
- Read for fun (BOOK LIST coming soon!)
- Learn to read crochet patterns
- Buy a wedding dress
- Go to a block party (Maybe even host one?) -- Ok...so I didn't host one, But I went! & there's ONE MORE left to attend this summer! MAIN STREET BLOCK PARTY!!
- Go to the 4th of July Grant Park Orchestra Performance
- Get ORGANIZED!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Happy-ish Trails


Greg recently treated me to a Ski trip to the Snowbird Resort in Salt Lake City, Utah. The leadership programs that he puts on in the summer are also held at Snowbird, and he's often said he wished that I could see it...and last weekend I got to! The mountains were breathtaking & covered in more snow than you can even imagine. The resort was also amazing, especially our room with it's nearly panoramic view of the ski slopes.

The first day we spent in Downtown Salt Lake City where we toured Temple Square, the Headquarters for the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints which was simply enormous. The buildings, many of which were built in the mid 1800s were huge and nothing short of ornate. I'll post photos later...in the meantime you can visit the website.

The next day we got up "early" (it was vacation. let's be serious.) and set out to go skiing. We were all gussied up in our ski clothes & ready to hit the slopes. I rented skis and Greg rented a snow board. The combination of faulty suspenders & poor quality ski pants resulted in Greg trading the snowboard in for skis too. For the record I was very impressed with his snowboarding skills. Early that day Greg & I discussed whether or not I should take ski lessons and we decided against it since I'd skiid before (10 years ago). Although I remembered the basics, what I couldn't have predicted was that in the last decade I would have become such a major fraidy cat...and I am. As soon as I got my skis on and Greg let go I cried. Right inside my goggles. Embarrassing. I didn't give though! We skied a family slope for a while & I managed to get comfortable again. We decided it was time to move on to another family (easy) slope. Big mistake.

That slope wasn't QUIIIIIIIITE as easy as I'd hoped and the long & short of it is that after skiing what I considered to be too fast on too steep of a slope for WAY too long & falling down 1 too many times, I wanted to stop. And I cried again. Poor Greg. I was sitting on the side of a mountain telling him I wasn't having fun anymore & I wanted off this mountain NOW! What was he going to do? He gave me 3 options...either ski down (my least favorite), walk down (this also seemed dangerous) or scoot down the mountain on my bum. The OBVIOUS choice was to take off my skis, put them in my lap & scoot down the side of the mountain while poor, well meaning Greg stood watch to make sure I wasn't run over by ACTUAL skiers. When we reached a more level point a less than amused snowboard instructor pointed us in the direction of a foot path where we could walk back to the lodge where I promptly returned my skis, boots & poles, & went back about some more authentic Megan activities - drinking a bud light & listening to the live band.
Despite the fact that I freaked out & pitched a total fit we had a GREAT time! Later that same day we got in the hot tub and watched some other people ski. That's more my speed - although I promised to go skiing again next year. Greg has always done a good job making me feel special on my birthday (& most days actually), but this was the birthday trip of a lifetime! I know I brag on him a lot but that Mister of mine is GOOD!

Thursday, April 7, 2011

The Latest & Greatest

Obviously it's been a while since I posted (St. Patty's was almost a month ago!) & I don't want to get too far behind, so here's the latest...

Zeta Tau Alpha International Office
We've been traveling a ton! We spent a super fun weekend in Indy with some of our favorite Sigma Chis & their partners a couple of weeks ago. One of the leadership program boards that Greg is on was meeting that weekend and we were invited by the Pendry & Hester families to make a weekend of it. Even Lilah got to go! Our hosts were fantastic - The Pendrys set me up with a tour of Zeta Tau Alpha International Office while the boys were meeting, which was a thrill & we dined at a great local Italian restaurant & had a great time together. I've always said that if I hadn't fallen in love with a Sigma Chi I would be jealous of the girls who had & weekends like that one make me feel so lucky to be part of the Sigma Chi family.

Looking through the WWII Monument
Last weekend we traveled to Washington, D.C. where Greg participated in the DC Fire Department's Burn Foundation Charity Hockey Tournament. Greg's participated for the last 3 years & I had never been able to attend before. This was the year! Greg played on the Hyattsville Volunteer Fire Department team with his child hood friend Jimmy Butler and some other great friends from back home.  Greg's Mom came down from Pennsylvania with the Butlers and all together we had a blast. Happily,  one of my best friends Allie also lives in "The District" with her boyfriend, Mik (whom I'd never met before) so we got to spend some time with them visiting the monuments & taking in the sights of DC. It happened to be the Cherry Blossom Festival that weekend which was a beautiful bonus.
DC Cherry Blossoms

I'm nearing the end of my 1st year of Graduate school - phew! I'm exhausted but energized by the approach of Summer break. I've got all kinds of wedding planning/shopping, sight seeing, block partying and festival going to do this summer. I'm even thinking of starting a little vegetable garden in the back yard - what Chicagoland vegetarian/Veganista doesn't want a self-made salad bar in her back yard?
Hyattsville FD 

The next few weeks are for surely going to be full of excitement with a trip to Salt Lake City Utah for my birthday trip, my 26th (gulp) birthday & the start of "visit Megan & Greg in Chicago" season! It all kicks off with the arrival of our second puppy girl, Sadie who joins our family this upcoming Monday. Obviously an embarrassing number of photos will be posted in the coming weeks. Don't worry.

Ok - enough of the gushy summary. The next post will be more current & less informational . As always, it feels good to feel lucky - Meggo


PS - Mik passed with flying colors. We just love him.