Wedding Palooza in New England

I hung up my tomboy outdoorsy pants for a bit to road trip up to Maine for my gorgeous cousin's wedding. It all starts with a relaxing, site seeing, wine tasting drive up the coast...and excellent way to reward myself after a summer of working and not showering.

Mystic Connecticut 

John Edwards Winery

Once up in Maine, vacation was on pause for me. I spent my time supporting my cousin, helping her, and being blessed to be included in her big day. Dinners, hair appointments, and wedding set up was the name of the game, and I enjoyed every second of it...especially when I saw her grin as she came up to the ceremony on Saturday. Marilyn looked absolutely stunning and I want to humbly say she had a very beautiful set of bridesmaids that rocked our royal purple dresses. Our work of a year came to a wrap on Sunday morning and Marilyn has remained as unbridezilla as a girl can be through the whole thing...signs of a true down to earth girl. And now, being the dork I am, I LOVE being able to text her messages that include sentences with "your husband" in them.  It still makes me so excited

Rehearsal supper with the beautiful girl

Our dresses 

All of Marilyn's female cousins

Their first dance :)

The wonderful bridal party! 

Life of a Desert Rat

Sorry for the delay folks, life has been quite a whirlwind since leaving Alaska.

I will go back to the beginning of my California adventure that started promptly after leaving Anchorage.

My second group of kids was a whole new adventure. The whole thing started with a few crazy coincidences: for starters, my coleader graduated from Montgomery Blair High School in 2006, we then continued onto Reno where I camped with someone who graduated from Blair in 2006 as well, and halfway through the summer, I was in a coffee shop planning our rec trip and we ran into one of my coleader's friends from Blair (class of '06 as well). Never before have I met so many Blair grads in one location so far away from home. That story aside...

I was actually working somewhere close to where I had been in my childhood, which was a new experience for me. I certainly enjoyed returning to an old stomping ground as an adult and share the beautiful area with a new group of students. Our work was disorganized to a point where I worried a little about their interest in continuing with trail work, but at the end of the summer, each one said to me that they couldn't wait to do more with SCA, so I suppose my mission was accomplished! With temperatures between 100 and 115 and mundane work, crew morale was a little bit difficult to keep up. But somehow we managed as a crew to truly enjoy our time together in this space. 

Some of our work involved a lot of fence repair

We spent one off day in Bodie Ghost Town, which was a whole new experience for a group of east coasters, and the next off day recovering from some dehydration and heat stroke issues. I would say my second crew more challenged my patience, risk management/response, and leadership abilities (and I say that with gratefulness, not bitterness), I was truly pushed by my California crew, but all in the ways to allow me to grow as a leader and an educator. 

I am officially hanging up my white hat (for now at least) and writing this from Maine...which I will save for a later post.

Hiking during our recreation trip in Yosemite

Conditions made having a fire hard, but we did give them one night of "camping"

Last night supper with their 2 "moms"

Their smiles are contagious, and both crews have me seriously considering teaching

Another chapter closed

My very first crew is done, all my ducklings are on their planes heading home.

What an amazing experience!! I had a fantastic coleader, Tony, who was just so inspirational and encouraging and supportive. My kids...oh boy! I miss them already!! They all worked so hard and we laughed so much. We played trail games like Go Fish with no cards, Monopoly with no board, and Jeopardy. I loved their imagination and joy and smiles.

It is always cool to reflect on the internal changes that occur on trail crews. I spent time reflecting on my future and how much I enjoyed teaching these kids and watching them grow and bond and I'm curious to see what that will mean to my life later.

Until then, I will enjoy a cold beer and head to a second crew.

And so it begins...

Today, we finished up our chore chart, lesson plans, emergency response plans, meal plans, rec trip, and gear check. 

Tomorrow, we head out to the site for the first time. A nice 4 hour drive... But then we'll finally get an idea of what we are supposed to be doing and how we will be camping before picking up kids on Monday.

As a treat for myself...one more night if rest and alone time.

Salmon, Pick Ax Porter, and my new devotional journal to focus on something besides crew logistics. I may even shower and wash my clothes!

The New 9 PM

I arrived in Alaska last night, very sick with a head cold, very exhausted, and very late. But yet the sun was still out! I guess that's my night time for the summer, nice and sunny all night. The photo attached was taken at 9 pm! Crazy! This week I'm just hanging out until Friday when we go to our site to get ready for the kids. Tonight, I didn't explore far. I'm at The Bear's Tooth, part of the Broken Tooth Brewing franchise. It's pretty cool-local beer, local food, AND A MOVIE THEATER INSIDE. Just got my ticket for the 5:30 "Croods 3-D" while sipping the Pipeline Stout-malty and rich.

Heading out!

Today, I'm officially heading out into the field. First stop: Alaska, kids arrive next Monday!

Then off to California on July 3! Stay tuned for updates from the field.

Happy National Trail Day

Work skills has come to an end on National Trail Day, which seems symbolic as we are all now deemed proficient in all of the tools-physical, interpersonal and interpersonal alike-to lead our crews effectively, safely, and fun. 6 years ago I joined the trail world as a high school member and I am absolutely blessed and excited to be heading back into it one last summer before leaving for 2 years. It's going to be a great summer of leading, learning, and living--just like Salisbury University's motto!