Happy Anniversary to Us!

Kellen and I made it to the first big anniversary last week.  It has been five years since we covenanted to love each other and sacrifice and put each other's needs before our own and it has been wonderful...well most of the time.    As I reflected on the past five years I decided to make a little inventory of our time together.  So here goes:

• 5 years of marriage
• 8 apartments
• 2 states
• 8 vacations
• 2 LOTOJA’s
• 5 century bike rides
• 2 bachelors degrees
• 1 masters degree
• 4 different colleges/universities
• 4 field seasons
• 10 different places of employment
• 3,950 I love you’s
• 1,675 kisses goodnight

This is not an all inclusive list but is a hint to the adventure Kellen and I have had so far.  I look forward to this list growing and including new fun things as we continue to spend our lives together.

The Beard

Ever wondered what your husband would look like if he didn't have to follow normal grooming standards for five weeks.  This summer I found out.  Some of you may not have heard but Kellen spent the entire month of June as a teaching assistant for the Lehigh University Geology Field Camp.  He camped out every night, hiked, cooked over an open flame, and bathed in streams; essentially becoming a true mountain man.  I usually ask Kellen to grow out his beard while he is away as I love seeing him with a nice full beard when he gets back.  This time was a little different.  What made the difference you ask?  The fact that Kellen already had a nice full beard that he had been grooming and maintaining for the previous two months before he had even left for mountain man life.  Here is a picture of the beard a few short weeks before he left.

As you can see, the beard looked great!  He wore it the style and class only a true beard pro can.  Now, here is a picture of the beard when after five weeks without any trimming or grooming.  Kellen had warned me for how long it had gotten but I wasn't prepared for what I saw.  I am sure my reaction wasn't the welcome home Kellen was expecting.

The first picture is of Kellen sporting the beard in true mountain man fashion.  While the latter is the beard after a good proper shower.  Until that shower, I wasn't able to look at Kellen without breaking into hysterical laughter.  Matted shaggy hat hair, long grisly beard; he really did look like a homeless man or dirty trucker, and after all the unloading he had to do that day he smelled like one too unfortunately.  The beard had gotten so long it could be fluffed out and combs got stuck in it when you tried to comb it down.  Kellen said there were certain foods he avoided at the end because of the difficulty the beard imposed on enjoying them.  The beard didn't even last a day away from field camp.  In order to shave the beard Kellen had to use his hair clippers with a guard on to first trim the beard to a more normal length.  Then he was able to trim it with just the clippers.  Next he moved onto to his regular shaver.  It was quite the process.  When he finally emerged from the bathroom I was greeted by the man I married.  I don't know if we will ever see the mountain man beard again.  But for those of us who did have the opportunity to experience it will always reflect on it with kind thoughts and uncontrollable laughter.

Becoming a legitimate cyclist

This summer marks the five year anniversary of Kellen and I getting married and the start of my journey to establish myself as a legitimate cyclist.  This journey has had it's ups and downs but I can confidently say that I am much better today than I was five years ago.  Today's ride was a monumental one in this journey.  Until this point if I wanted to go for a ride I would choose a route that I had previously ridden or Kellen had ridden and told me that I would be able to complete.  Also, if I was planning on doing a new route I would have Kellen come along to give me moral support should I need it.  Well today's ride was a route I had never done before and I did it solo.  I knew I wanted to ride about 30 miles so I went on MapMyRide.com and mapped out a route that went to an area I was somewhat familiar with.  With Kellen gone for the summer I knew it had to be a solo ride.  I set out this morning with my cue card in hand and the determination to finish this route and thus progress toward becoming a more legitimate cyclist.  Thirty miles later I rolled back into my apartment complex tired, dehydrated, and completely thrilled with myself.  It was a challenging ride with lots of hills and only one water stop (thank heavens for the Lower Milford municipal building!!)  Now, this may not seem like a great accomplishment to some of you but to me this signifies an important step in becoming the cyclist I want to become; the cyclist who can ride any route.  Hopefully, I get there before my 10th anniversary.

Iceland Photos

A Geologist's Disneyland

This spring Kellen and I had the amazing opportunity of visiting Iceland for a week.  It was so much fun.  For those who don’t know, Iceland is like Disneyland for geologists.  We spent everyday hiking and exploring a truly beautiful place.  This post will have some highlights from our trip and the next will be a slideshow of some the pictures we took.  

We took an overnight flight out of JFK which got us to Iceland at 6:00 am.  After gathering our bags and renting the car, we drove into Reykjavik.  We went on a whale watching trip first thing.  We saw harbor porpoises and minkie whales.  When we were finally able to check into the apartment we rented, I crashed for a couples hours.   When I was eventually able to get myself out of bed we spent the rest of the day exploring Reykjavik.  Reykjavik has approximately 200,000 people which makes it a very fun city to explore.

The next day we set out to visit what is advertised as the Golden Circle.  It starts in Thingvellir, which is the home of the world’s first parliament, Althing.  Thingvellir also contains the plate boundary between the North American and Eurasia Plate.  From there we drove to Geysir.  Geysir is the original geyser from which all other geysers get there name.  There were about 5 different hot pots with one that shot water into the air.  It was like a mini Yellowstone.  Next we went to Gulfoss, which translates to Golden Falls.  It is beautiful double waterfall.  Our next stop was not an official part of the Golden Circle but we added it on.  We visited the Viking longhouse of Stong.  It is Iceland’s best example of a medieval home.  It was built in the Sage Age by Gaukur Trandilsson.  

Day three of our Iceland adventure found us driving and then taking a ferry to the Vestmannaeyjar, a small group of islands off the southern coast of Iceland.  They have rugged cliffs and volcanoes.  We stayed on Heimaey, the only island with a permanent settlement.  In 1973 a mile-long fissure cracked open and lava started to spill out.  Over five months 33 million tons of lava spewed from the fissure, and threatened the island.  A battle was waged to save the invaluable harbor.  The resulting lava field increased the area of the island by approximately 16%.  We spent our time there hiking the volcano, checking out the ash covered houses, and climbing the rugged cliffs in search in puffins.  We never found the puffins.  

After just one night in Heimaey, we headed back to the mainland and Skaftafell National Park, stopping to check out the sights along the way.  Skaftafell sits at the base of the vast Vatnajokull icecap, the largest icecap in Europe.  We spent our time hiking around the national park checking out glaciers, waterfalls, and the out wash plain.  One day we took a guided trek onto a glacier and then visited an iceberg lake.  It was surreal to climb on the glacier.  I kept having to tell myself, this is a real glacier like on the Plant Earth DVDs.  It was awesome.  

We spent the morning before we left at the Blue Lagoon, a geothermal spa.  There were  these beautiful hot pools and waterfalls to relax in.  The water was naturally very salty which made it easier to float but reeked havoc on my hair.  They also provided volcanic mud, with supposed healing properties, to apply to your skin.  I put it on my face but couldn’t get Kellen to try it.  It was a great way to end our trip.