2014 in Review

2014 was an amazing and insane year! 

First of all, I finally got into and started graduate school. After a couple of years of taking classes part time, not working towards a degree on the chance that I could get into med school, then PT school, and actually not getting anywhere at all, I finally started finding direction in my life.

Not only did I start graduate school, but I successfully finished my first semester, only missing straight A's by one B+.

I got married, beginning my life with my true love. I know, saying it that way is cheesy. But it's true!

 

I finished the American Triple-T (that insane weekend long triathlon event, ending with a half iron) again, an awesome alien themed marathon in Michigan (giving me the ability to check another state of-yeah), and several other races: the Flying Pig relay, an 8 mile trail race, and the Heart Half Marathon. My time for the Triple-T this year was better than my 2012 time. :-)

I put in another awesome summer at Camp Otterbein!

Farewell 2014! Here's to hoping that 2015 brings wonderful things too!  :-)

Some of our official wedding photos! :-D

Here are some of our favorite wedding photos. They were done by Robert Gary Mihalko in Medina, OH: he did a great job! :-)  He happens to be one of Ray's former scout leaders too!



We were laughing because I have no clue how to do makeup. Hahaha!

 

the guys "getting ready"  ;-)



First look :-)

 

the wedding party, just missing the ring bearer

my favorite! :-D Haha!

 

:-)

 

first kiss as a married couple :-)

 

officially husband and wife :-)

with my big brother (on my father's side). I hadn't seen him in nearly 10 years, so before this pic was taken, we were both bawling our eyes out! Haha! I want a copy of that picture, from whoever may have snapped one!

favorite pic with Mom ever!

mother son dance

with Ray's family

 

with the Kelly clan (plus Darren); would've done one of these with all of Ray's family too, but there are just too many of them. Haha!

 

first dance

 

uncle niece dance

 

awesome close-up of our rings and the flowers, made by Ray's aunt Linda

 

Amazing cupcakes! Also made by Aunt Linda :-)  And Ray's mom put together the stand and topper :-)
 

And this is how the dance floor looked most of the night. Our DJ, Mindy, was the BEST! :-)

the ring bearer, Ray's cousin Levi. I love how excited he looks! Almost forgot to post this one!

 

Competitive ladies! Hahaha!

Ray ROCKED the garter toss!



 

There are so many awesome pictures, and this is only a few of them! Our wedding was amazing: everything we dreamed of and then some!  :-)

FREEDOM!

My first semester of graduate school was insane (but awesome)! In case you couldn't tell by my absence. Haha!

I turned in my last assignment for finals week at 2:30am last night/this morning. What a satisfying feeling!

I'll be posting a LOT of updates over winter break, so be on the lookout! :-)

Meanwhile, enjoy some pictures!  :-)

From my favorite place to run :-)

Pumpkin picking with my husband :-)

Old Man's Cave hike with a retreat group at camp



 

The Best Day Ever: Our Wedding

 We don't have our official/professional pictures yet, but I figured I'd go ahead and say at least something about this magical day. And we have some great unofficial pictures. It's already been a month and a half-ish. Crazy!

  The day, and the whole weekend, went great! The lodge was gorgeous, our DJ was the best, and everyone had a fabulous time! And (besides when we were all stuffing our faces with the delicious dinner) the dance floor was not empty for a single moment. That's the true sign of a great party! :-)






  

    We did almost all of our pictures before the ceremony, so the reception could get started right away after the ceremony (both were at the same place, in the same room). When I've been to weddings, the one thing I've always disliked has been waiting for hours after the ceremony for the fun and the food to begin. Being hungry especially is no fun. We didn't want to do that to our guests, and they seemed to really appreciate it. Yes, this involved breaking the groom and bride can't see eachother before the wedding, but it was totally worth it. Rules schmules. And the look on his face when he turned around was absolutely priceless!  I've never seen such a huge smile in my life! And he looked so amazing!

   The decorations looked awesome! Aunt Linda did an absolutely amazing job with the flowers and cupcakes! Our colors were blue, yellow, and silver and we had a sci-fi theme going.

  Overall, the day could not have gone better! I am incredibly grateful for everyone who helped make our awesome day possible and for everyone who came to celebrate with us!

   And hopefully, we'll have our official pictures soon! :-)

Fall Adventure #1: My Craziest Lifeguarding Experience Ever!

  Meant to post this awhile ago. Oops!

    The first weekend of September, I lifeguarded and volunteered for the Rev3 triathlon at Cedar Point. This race was a full Ironman (athletes also had the option to do the half iron), with the swim portion in Lake Erie. I lifeguarded for the practice swim on Saturday and the race itself on Sunday. My friend Hannah (who I met at the Triple-T) happened to be one of the other lifeguards! Small world! It was great to see her again!

  Sunday morning, I arrived and made my way to the beach before the sun even rose. We got our assigned areas, the sun started to come up, and before I knew it I was headed out by paddleboard-without a paddle. There weren't enough. That alone was an interesting experience!

   The waves were absolutely brutal. We had to remove a huge number of people from the water, and even more took breathers on our boards.

   One woman in particular stuck out in my mind. She got smacked by a huge wave and started to panic. I rushed over and assisted her. We talked for a little bit as she regained her breath. After calming down she was off again and I watched her very closely until she approached the next guard.

   Later, during my volunteer shift in transition as I was talking to another volunteer, she stopped and said "Wait, I recognize you! You saved me in the water this morning!" I looked closer, and sure enough, it was the woman who stood out in my mind from earlier! It turns out that she was doing the swim portion of the relay. She said she was able to finish. She was so grateful that she actually teared up a bit as we hugged. What an awesome feeling!

   Afterwards, they paid us on the spot, in cash. I highly recommend guarding for Rev3! Plus you get a generous discount on future race registration with them for guarding or volunteering. And they fed us really well.  :-)

  I'm planning on doing my first Ironman next year. I have been going back and forth between Ironman Louisville and Rev3 Cedar Point. After dealing with Lake Erie, I'm starting to lean towards Ironman Louisville. We shall see, though. In spite of Lake Erie's fury, the race organizers and other volunteers were awesome!

UPDATES GALORE! 'cause I've been slacking!

   I have not written in what seems like forever! Sorry about that. Life has been crazy! In a good way :-)

   First of all, I've been a married woman for 2 weeks now. Our wedding was amazing! I'll post about it in more detail when we have more pictures.  :-)  Married life is great! 

First Dance    <3  9-20-14  <3

   Grad school is hectic, but going great so far. It's great going to class and actually caring about everything we're learning about! I'm working towards a Master of Science in Recreation Studies (Outdoor Recreation & Education) and an Environmental Sustainability Certificate. For my first major project, I've chosen to investigate how to make endurance races more environmentally sustainable.

First day of grad school pic

   I'm currently training for a marathon and ultra. The marathon is an awesome trail marathon that I have also done in 2010 (called the Bobcat Trail Marathon). All of the proceeds for the ultra will be going towards funding for a camp in the Mohican State Park area. I have a friend who works there and told me about the race (called The Fuzzy Fandango).

   I finally bought a kayak! Actually bought it off of one of my professors. Isn't it beautiful?  :-)  I'm open to suggestions on what to name it. Yes, I'm one of those people who has to name my possessions.  :-p Gives them more personality.  :-)

My awesome new kayak! :-D

   I finally upgraded to a smartphone in August and am still very much enthralled by it. I named it Bubbles because of the sound it makes when I click on things. Hehe!  :-)

   That's all for now. I'll write more detailed posts over the next couple of days about fun things I need to catch up on.

The Last Days of Summer 2014 at Camp Otterbein

It's hard to believe that my fifth summer at Camp Otterbein has come to an end!

Last week was our final week with campers. In Wilderness Adventures, we had 5 guys. I called the group "Burgers and Fries". We had a great time! What an awesome way to end the summer!
We went on awesome adventures and had some great discussions throughout the week. I haven't seen a group of campers open up this year as much as these guys did.

The first day, we did our river kayaking trip. We changed up the route a bit, starting instead of ending at the whitewater kayaking site. As usual, we had a wonderful time paddling down the river. I led and Andrew, the counselor, stayed in the back lifeguarding. I know too many Andrews by the way, in case you didn't notice. Haha!

That night, we hiked into an area called The North Woods. Andrew made up a story about how we got lost in the woods and set up a great survival scenario. We then set up camp and slept out in the middle of the woods. It was a chilly night, but we had a fabulous fire going and plenty of layers. And the serenity of the forest at night is a wonderful way to fall asleep.

The next morning, we found our way back (very quickly thanks to the amazing navigational skills of the oldest camper) and had some delicious s'mores pancakes. A little later that day, we did the high course. I saw some amazing things happen up there: the boys worked together so well!

On Wednesday, we went on our rock climbing, rappelling trip. Unfortunately, a huge storm hit right when we were about to set up for the repel so we had to hike down and leave. Scott (our camp director) took us to a local place called Grandma Fay's for some delicious ice cream. That night was the last worship service and the camp tradition of Capture the Flag with all of camp. As usual, we had a blast chasing eachother around beneath the stars.

The last day came way too soon. We had a delicious double Dutch oven breakfast: Mountain Man breakfast (a casserole with eggs, meat, hashbrowns, and cheese) in one oven and fruit pizza in the other. Yum! The rest of the day we packed up, had some final discussions, and even got to swim. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, we sent the campers home.

 

Monday and Tuesday of this week was staff closing, in which we worked and cleaned up by day and did fun surprise activities by night. The first night, we did a fun scavenger hunt set up by Scott's parents and ended up at a local movie theater to see Guardians of the Galaxy in 3D: great movie!  The second night we had our last dinner together, went down the zipline, and then had our closing ceremony and final communion and worship for the summer. It was so hard to say goodbye to everyone: some that night and some the next morning before I left.

Readjusting to life after camp, as usual, is pretty difficult at times. I already miss my friends, the ability to change so many lives in such an amazing way, the beautiful places and adventures. Fortunately, there are plenty of amazing things coming up to look forward to: pre-wedding festivities, the wedding, and starting graduate school. My amazing summer job may be over, but big things are happening and I have so much to be grateful for!