Mom in the Mtns

Remember when you came back to school and had to write a little story about everything you did over the summer?  I always thought it was so much fun to share all my success stories with my friends, and hear everything that they got to do.  Usually all I did was go camping, but it was still fun to write about!  Even though I had to work all summer, I thought it would be cool to take a look at the fun stuff I did this summer since it’s coming to an end this weekend!

This summer started out totally crazy for me, mostly because I got MARRIED!  I’m still over the moon about how awesomely amazing that day was.  6/1/13  ❤

This was right after Andrew stepped on the glass and I simultaneously realized that we were officially MARRIED!  Best day ever!

The wedding was the big kick-off to my summer.  Literally right after saying “I do”, we rushed off to Alaska for a 2 week honeymoon!  We went to Anchorage, Seward, Glacier View (not really a town, more like 3 buildings within a 5 mile radius that decided to create a name for themselves – it was in the middle of nowhere!) and of course Denali National Park.

This was taken at the end of the BEST HIKE EVER!  We were one of 30% of park visitors that were able to see Mt. Mckinley/Denali (in the top left) because it’s so big that it makes its own weather patterns and is usually covered in clouds.

After coming back from Alaska, I kind of sank into a post-wedding/honeymoon depression.  Honestly, how do you recover from throwing the most epic party of your life, becoming a wife to the most amazing guy on earth, and doing badass things for 2 weeks straight in the last frontier?  Running definitely helped a little, but as you can tell from my last post, I kind of was terrible at running for most of the summer.  I only ran 2 races, and they didn’t really end in me feeling like a champion.  I’m not a fan of heat, so I skipped my workouts whenever it got too hot (which it always was).  So I basically spent the last 2 months of my life hiding from the heat.  I’m lame.  We also tried to go camping in July, but anyone who lives in Philly can tell you that July was one long, hot, rainy, humid month.  We were scared to make camping reservations in advance because of all the rain, but we eventually found one relatively dry weekend to go up to World’s End State Park.  It rained one night for about an hour, but the rest of the weekend was beautiful and it was just the break we needed from city life!

The view from Canyon Vista

And anyone who read my earlier posts knows that I went on a midwest road trip to help move my sister out to Milwaukee for college.  I got a chance to run in Chicago and Milwaukee and had a blast exploring new cities!

My sister and I at the bean in Chicago (I’m in black, she’s in pink)

The rest of this summer was mostly spent recovering from the wedding and getting our lives back together.  Yes, that included 3 hour visits to the DMV to get my name changed.  After the honeymoon, we didn’t have any really epic adventures together.  Andrew and I decided that we are going to change that this weekend by having the best Labor Day weekend ever!  We have plans to go kayaking, hiking, deep sea fishing, donut eating, running, and grilling/drinking with some friends.  Yes we have 3 days to do it all, but we can definitely handle it (especially the donut eating).

What are your Labor Day plans?  How did you spend your summer vacation?