Dan's Wedding/Hanging out with Friends

Congratulations Dan and Jamie! May the Lord pour out many blessings on your marriage.

The wedding ceremony and reception was held on the Gehring property of 20 beautiful acres in Wilmington, VT.

Byron and I cut our hike a day shorter than planned to be a part of the pre-wedding festivities. Many friends came early to participate and lend a helping hand. The boys spent much time preparing LOTS of ribs for the wedding meal. I mostly helped with the decorations. It was fun to be a part of the wedding in more than just attending the ceremony and reception. Byron mentioned that he has always been a fan of the week-long wedding celebrations they had in Biblical times and this felt close to what he imagined it would be like.



Byron's friends/past classmates all rented a house about a mile from the Gehring property. We stayed with them for the weekend of the wedding as well. It was right on the lake and had a beautiful view from the back porch.

Most nights were spent around the fire on the beach.

Hiking the Appalachian Trail/Long Trail

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Byron and I left Saturday, September 26th for our first vacation as a married couple. We are not really the resort/go to the beach/stay at a B&B kind of people. We decided to go on a week long hike on the Appalachian Trail in Vermont (or Long Trail as they like to call that particular section in VT).

We hiked 5 days and 4 nights. It was a little rainy and cold, but we stayed cozy and warm in our hammock at night.



It was a beautiful time of year. Actually, we were told by all the locals that is was the perfect week to be there because of all the beautiful colors of the trees. Next week most of the leaves should be gone....it's hard to believe....

A lot of my family and friends were very concerned for me to go on this hike in light of my pregnancy. I did have a really hard time in the car on our way out there and was only able to drive a total of 3 hours. However, for some reason, when we got out to Vermont I felt great! I only had one bad day on the trail and we took it really easy. So, I'd like to think that the Vermont wilderness cured my "all day" sickness (maybe we need to go back there for our next pregnancy). Either way, I'm feeling great still and we had a great time on our hike!

One of the shelters we stayed around. About every 5-8 miles there is a shelter along the trail with bunks in them. There is usually a picnic table and camp fire ring. There is also a Pivy (outhouse) close by as well. One night we hung our hammock in a shelter to shelter from the wind.

This is our stove that Byron made out of a Fosters' beer can. It worked great and is really light-weight. The picture to the right is us cooking a dehydrated meal.

At eat shelter there was trail registry for people to write in. We actually met the hiker who wrote in this this log before us. Here is what we wrote:
"We took an afternoon nap in our Hennesy Hammock and enjoyed the view~the sun finally decided to come out."

Byron filtering water into his pack from the stream. The was was so cold and fresh tasting.

People asked if we got sick of each other being in the wilderness all alone together....not for a second! We really enjoyed our time together and had a great experience that we will never forget!