Brood II! Cicada-Geddon 2013

You may have heard, New Jersey (and much of the Northeast) has a real treat this summer with the emergence of the 17-year cicada. If you take a little gander at the map linked above, and zoom in real nice on New Jersey, you'll see it's actually pretty spotty where these cicadas have been popping up. We were hoping they'd be everywhere - but we actually had to go seek them out.

Last Tuesday, I hurried home from work so we could enjoy these musical guys before the sun went down. Too bad you can't hear them, it's the best part! And now, some pictures that will either make you happy or gross you out.

A trip to Stokes

Friday night after work we decided to head up to Stokes State Forest to ring in the summer with some camping.

The two hour drive was nice, to just talk and review our weeks and all the things that are going on. When we got to our campsite, the sun had just set and it was the perfect time of day. The bullfrogs and birds were singing, welcoming us to our little camping spot. After setting up, we gathered up some wood and had a nice little fire. When we were watching the fire we noticed some fireflys up at the top of the pines, they were dancing up there like little stars. We read in the tent for a while, then star gazed and fell asleep (but only after having a few tick freak out moments - they were so sick and loved eating us).

(I promise we are real happy, just bad closed mouth smilers!)

fire in his eyesssss.

I was really terrified we would be attacked by a black bear (last time Paul was in Stokes Forest he saw one!). So I came prepared with pepper spray, a hatchet, and a large knife, which I might have slept next to. Paul caught me reading the Pepper Spray instructions by flashlight. I don't even know if it would've worked on a bear (it's self defense spray - not bear spray), and I had nightmares remembering the bear expert biology professor I TA'd for at BYU talking about how bears loved pepper spray and would roll around in it, but maybe I imagined all that because I just read the paper he wrote about it and bears really do hate pepper spray. Luckily, no bears, phew! But, I probably got about 3 hours of sleep total due to my restless mind.

I love waking up inside a tent to see the blue sky and green trees all around and hear the sounds of nature.

(Not a selfie - Paul was using my phone as a mirror and turned it on me).

I do not love waking up to find a tick stuck in my foot.

After our 50th check for ticks on our bodies (ow! ow!), we headed out for a bike ride and I enjoyed the beautiful place we were. I always loving riding next to Paul. It's fun to see how strong he is on a bike, and yet how patient he is when I am not. We had a few adventures, trying to go on a road that Google Maps showed us but that was actually gone. Fording a river (with our bikes), and trespassing on Private Property (sorry old man we scared so bad) so I didn't have to do a 20 mile steep uphill detour (there was no way my body could handle that with the mucus I was coughing up by then - stupid cold!).
Luckily we survived and got back to our campsite eventually.

Paul took an over-the-shoulder picture while riding, and I could see him aim was a little low so I helped him out. :)

After crossing the river (deeper than it looks!) and the nice fisherman that saved us by letting us cross into the property.

We then packed up our best little camp and checked out. 

We stopped at Jumboland Diner on our way home. Don't worry, my stack of pancakes and hashbrowns fed me that morning and fed both of us for dinner Sunday night. SO much food.

I think that having Paul as a best friend and co-adventurer is one of the best things in the world. The ability to say, "Hey! We should go camping this weekend."and be in the forest less than 24 hours later is really a great part of our lives right now and I love that Paul and I enjoy being outside together.

Goodbye Paul's Hair

The last year and a half of hair-growing effort came to an end last night.

Paul was ready for his luscious locks to be gone (the 90-degrees-plus-humidity day did him in). 

I was sad to see the hair go, Paul was ready.

                   

 

Please bless our future children with those blonde highlights and curls.

The result of cutting off the pony? A cute little a-line bob. We got rid of that pretty darn quick.

A few episodes of Arrested Development later, a trip to the store for some hair product (haven't needed to use THAT for a while...) and, voila!

He's still the most handsome man I know.

A nice long weekend

On Friday/Saturday of Memorial Day we had planned to go to Cape May to see the horseshoe crabs spawn, but the weather ruined our plans, so we stayed home and watched The Office finale instead. On Saturday I went to Short Hills Mall while Paul was working and was overwhelmed with the whole place. The drive there was a mess, parking was insane, and once I walked in the place there were so many crazy expensive stores, and so many people who thought they were the greatest thing to walk the planet. I had a gift card from my lacrosse team and knew I better spend it since there was no way I was coming back to that place. It was a successful trip after I called Paul and he stopped me from having an anxiety attack about the whole thing. I have no pictures from the dilemma so just imagine chaos and you'll have it right.

Saturday night we picked up Paul's friend Rick. He is staying with us for a week. They met at Cambridge (where Rick is studying) two year ago. He's here for a few weeks doing some research at the American Museum of Natural History in NY and the Smithsonian in DC. It's been fun to have him around and realize how self absorbed Americans are.

Sunday was a nice day (we gave Kate and Kerri a ride to church, since Drew had early meetings). Rick thought Kate was "a cheeky litttle girl" with her cute pony. After church we had a nice picnic at Rutgers Gardens and it was perfect weather and a great way to be outside with friends. I want it to happen every week.

Monday morning I watch the National Championship Women's Road Race and was so so proud to see my Murray girl, Tayler Wiles, working her tail off for her team and doing a great job. It really was inspiring and I hope more people can know about how well she is doing and support her in it.

While watching the race, I finally made some progress on the little animal mobile I'm making for baby Ezra.

Then we headed to Somerville to watch the one longest standing pro bike race in the U.S. It was a good time and once again, dreamy weather.

Then we met up with Harts for hamburgers (to give Rick a proper American hamburger experience). I accidently didn't tell the Harts where we were going and they accidentally assumed they knew, but once we sorted it out we had a nice lunch together (I got Panda Express, but none-the-less).

Baby Kate was loving those big windows.

Then, that evening we went to Karl and Sherri's for some nice firepit time to end the weekend.

We made Rick try his first ever S'more and I think it went over pretty well.

Yesterday was the rainest, foggy day, but was still so beautiful. Paul and I had a nice walk around Old Queens Campus (some of the original Rutgers buildings). Green was the theme of the day.

My phone just can't handle all the green, the same neon/washed out effect happened in Central Park.

Rutgers old mixed with Rutgers new.

Paul and his ice cream bar which he found a safe way to share with me even though I have a sore throat. Now that takes talent!

We like this place we live.