bye may! hi june.

herrroooo!

let's first discuss how much boston loves memorial day. 

they had 33,000 flags placed in the commons all weekend to represent every fallen service member from the civil war to the present. 

is this blowing your mind? this isn't even all of them. it's crazy to think how many people gave their life so that we can be free. 

i need you to know two things. 

1. i LOVE that little white house with that huge tree and pink flowers and i feel happy i get to walk past it everyday. 

2. i ate swordfish for the first time in my life and didn't hate it! not even a little bit. 

swordfish w/ banana rum chutney, avocado and tomato salad, and mashed sweet potatoes = a meal i still think about and it was like three weeks ago. 

okay i guess three things. 

3. natalie and i finally (after probably three months of trying) got our volunteer badges for the VA. 

we not only get to hang out with elderly vets but also get to feel like we are on alias. 

the last week of may consisted of lots of outside friend time, toscanini's ice cream, and this gal below:

but my face is sad because she moved back home to arizona which makes me SO sad. 

mel, come back!

can we talk about this guy for a second? 

i was cutting through harvard business school to go home around 10pm one night when the man above came up to me asking about where something was. he then somehow started talking about some app which then brought up something else which then brought up the fact that i am mormon which then led to us sitting at some outdoor table discussing it for over an hour.  he was kind of crazy and somewhat inappropriate in the types of questions he was asking but it felt nice to defend my faith and hopefully he listened to at least some of what i said. 

anyway.
the last week of may was graduation fest 2013 and there were SO many moms and dads and chairs everywhere. 

here is a story. 

so maybe one time i was trying on my one-piece swimsuit (trying to debate if it would make it's debute this year or not) when it started rain storming outside. i was so thrilled with this that i forgot i was in my swimsuit, immediately turned off my lights, turned on bon iver, laid on my bed, and just listened while i watched the lightening and pouring rain out my window. a few minutes later i looked down and thought it was the funniest that i was still in my swimsuit so i took these photos and awkwardly sent them to friend christine and am now posting them on this blog. the end. 

the temple is the greenest right now and it is the best. 

these houses are also the best. 

i was walking to my friend carly's catholic school kids pop recital and accidentally turned down the wrong street. i was way happy this happened because it was the most beautiful and lovely detour (and the best time of day i might add!). it was nice to discover somewhere new, it is one of my favorite things to do. 

one night i came home to find this. maybe i'm not good at those little sticky hangy things because they hate holding up this strand of lights. 

i walked into my boss' office to find three of our executives being match teams. so cute.  

one of my more favorite parts of spring = our parkway boyfriend is back! i need to not be in a car when i pass him one time so i can actually sit and talk with him. i just love him. 

can you spot the random spanish man asleep on our lawn? re-roofing our house is tiring i guess. 

the last night of may was spent with kristin, boston, and our bikes. 

if that is what my nights are like for the rest of the summer i definitely won't be mad about it. 

(and i don't know how many more times i can say it without sounding trite, I LIVE IN A DREAMLAND)

the next morning a few of us drove up to portsmouth new hampshire for lunch on harbor

then we drove a few more miles and BLAM! we were in kittery, maine. 

i think maine was born to be foggy and rainy, it was perfect. 

(if you look closely you can see a very iconic lighthouse on the tip of that land - there was another one too but i wasn't very good at taking pictures of them)

 

we only explored for a few hours but it was delightful. 

there is just so much to experience and see on the east coast! i'm glad i have friends who love to go and see new places just as much as i do because let's be honest, i've become an adventure addict. 

maine : acadiaaaaa

remember the woman who told me i had to go to martha's vineyard?

 well that same woman said if i went anywhere outside of massachusetts

 i needed to go to acadia, maine. 

(which is that island where the little blue dot is)

this woman's thoughts on the vineyard were spot on so i decided i definitely needed to heed her advice and make my way to maine! or as you might notice below, "vacationland".

but before that i tried to pull together every warm thing i had and started panicking because maaaaybe i sent all of my warm clothing home in august forgetting that fall was only a month away. whoops!

when we arrived in acadia it was already really dark so all we did was pitch our tent, sit by the fire for a little bit, and then go to bed. the next morning we met up with everyone else and got our hike on.

 when people said that the views were breathtaking they were NOT lying. holy cow i was dying. i was also obsessed with that baby lake in the picture above. it had this great grass stuff in it that made it look like it was from the lorax. 

parts of the hike had iron rods attached to the rock since it was so narrow- we are grateful to whomever made that happen. it made certain parts significantly less stressful slash dangerous.

none of these pictures really do this place justice, it was SO pretty

i really enjoyed this part of the hike with the little wooden trail and best skinny trees. later we found out we took a wrong turn and so all the pictures from here on out are of scenes we weren't actually supposed to see. yay for getting lost! 

john decided to look for mushrooms the whole time since he is now obsessed with them 

(i mentioned how this happened a few posts back)

 ..and then anne marie and i would take pictures of them. who knew mushrooms would make john stop hating my camera? for this moment in time

rather than bore you with a million mushroom photos, i will just bore you with my little fave!

after our hike we headed down to the beach. every hike should have this option. 

and then we began climbing again to get to the rest of the group

 turns out they decided to do some cliff jumping haha

and i got sick of waiting for people to actually jump so i went exploring and found so many treasures!

and then rain started pouring out of the sky and none of us were really prepared for that to happen so we headed back to our cars (but not before snapping a photo of this beautiful view! neature and beach together = a perfect combination)

we had heard about thunder hole and decided to check it out. apparently on days when the waves are a bit bigger the water spouts out of this little area up to 40 feet! yes, i just learned that on the website i linked. 

we loved thunder hole.

 we decided to make a loop around the island and stop anywhere that looked like it might be nice

so we found this little lake with pretend mountains! (we will take what we can get)

 after our neature drive the weather cleared up enough to head into the cute little town of bar harbor

(which i loved)

(alot)

we didn't stay long since we would be going there later that night but i was happy to see it in the day. these little towns along the east coast are my favorite!

everyone felt tired so we went back to our campground. some people slept, some played games, and i (unsurprisingly) took pictures. look at that great moss!

 john could tell i was going a little crazy just sitting at our campsite while there was so much beauty to see so he offered to take me up to see a lighthouse nearby

sadly it was closed to maintenance but happily the drive was great and the time of day was perfect so i wasn't even mad!

aaaaand then eventually we went back to bar harbor and i decided it was time to get lobster 

(small but important detail might be that i don't even really like fish)

they always seemed fine looking when i would watch other people break them apart but it turns out i had never seen one turned around and all those legs just made me want to diiiie - as captured in the completely candid before and after photos (john's most happy and content face!) above.

it was rather traumatic and after about two minutes i let john go at it because i just couldn't. good news though - i didn't hate eating it as much as usual so maybe this whole east coast thing will break me down and i'll become a fish lover?

the picture above would be the genuine sadness i felt when everyone was lame and wanted to watch the BYU/U game that was going on that night rather than go to THE MOST MAGICAL STAR GAZING FESTIVAL ON CADILLAC MOUNTAIN. I'm still working through this, obvi. 

luckily some people decided to just go back to the camp and agreed to stop right before getting into the campground so i could enjoy these stars i had heard so much about. this picture above is my attempt at capturing the moment (complete fail) so just imagine the ocean to your right, a lake to your left, and stars not only in the sky but all around you. and by some miracle there are no trees in this little part of the island so there is nothing obstructing your view. i felt like i was in some sort of star globe and didn't understand how i was eye level with the big dipper. the fact that it was a new moon that night made it even more magical! those people that live there are the luckiest. 

the next morning we drove up to cadillac mountain to watch the sunrise.

 it was freezing but oh so worth it! 

(imagine the next few pictures happening at night with stars! ah it would have been the best) 

it is kind of neat to be able to say we were some of the first people to see the sun rise on the east coast that day. and the fact that it was in such a beautiful place made it even better!

and then the last few moments of our trip were spent with my head out of the little doggy door of our tent so i could soak up the sun and trees and camp smells. i wish i could have stayed there all day slash realized it was a door sooner haha. 

and then our quick as a flash trip to acadia was over and i'm just so happy it happened!

 even if college football tried to ruin it