SNOW DAY!

Yesterday, because there was so much snow and ice, Miami cancelled all classes after 4pm. That didn't affect me at all because we don't have Tues/Thurs classes but Aaron got out of a lab, so that made him excited. Then we found out last night that Miami cancelled all classes starting before 10:00 today, so again, affected Aaron but not me. We woke up this morning to messages saying all campuses were closed all day! Yaaay! I am going a little insane though with nothing to do. Some friends are coming over soon and we're going to start watching Dexter season 1 and then later on a bunch of people are meeting up town for food, so that should be nice to get out of the apartment. Here's some pictures I took of all the excitement...

Aaron watching our parking lot get plowed. He was also screaming "KEEP SNOWING! KEEP SNOWING!" haha

I wanted to go tanning so Aaron offered to drive me. This was his car 1/2way through the cleaning process. Look how much snow is on top!!

Still cleaning...

hahahahaha looks like Aaron sat in something wet

The parking spot we pulled out of.

Soooo much snow!

There was ice over the locks and handles of the car.

awww, the plastic window cleaner was no match for the thick sheets of ice covering all surfaces of the car

Tennessee

With today being MLK Jr. day Aaron and I didn't have classes so we thought it'd be fun to drive down to Greeneville in East Tennessee to visit Aaron's grandma, Barbara. Since we'd be passing through Lexington on our way down we called Noah and Mel to see if they wanted to go down with us and they said yes! Friday after classes were over Aaron and I headed down pick up Noah, Mel, baby Eden and puppy Saul. We got down to Tennessee at about 10p.
Saturday morning we went out for an awesome breakfast at this little local place. When we were getting back to the house Aaron's Uncle Tim and his girlfriend Michelle showed up. We hung out with them for the afternoon and they took us to this "world famous" BBQ place called Ridgewood Barbeque. It was pretty delicious! Saturday night when we got home Mel and I went to bed early and Noah and Aaron decided to stay up have the night finishing a puzzle Barbara was working on and starting a new one.
Sunday morning Barbara made us a wonderful breakfast. We went outside to clean up Barbara's yard a bit, just picking up sticks and such. Then Aaron's Uncle Tim came back over along Mary Frank who is Janice (Aaron's mom) and Tim's aunt. We visited with them the rest of the day and headed back for Kentucky that evening. Aaron and I stayed the night at Mel and Noah's last night to help break up the drive and came back to Oxford tonight.
All in all the trip was wonderful. We all slept way to much (especially Noah) and ate some amazing food. Saul looooved being on a farm and smelling all the smells that come with being in the country. It was nice to get to know Aaron's grandma some more. Hopefully we'll make it back again soon!
This was my second time visiting the farm and it is one of the most beautiful places. Here are some pictures to prove my point:-)

Some of the fields and the pond.

The barn

Cows

You can see the mountains in the distance

Aaron picking up sticks

Aaron and I

Super cute (and hilarious) baby Eden.

Back in the Buckeye State

Well, our ski trip ended successfully and now we're safely back in Oxford with no broken bones, or major injuries. The trip was fun, but I'm definitely glad to be back and I'm ready to start semester #2! (not really.. but there's nothing wrong with a little positive thinking!) Aaron did a great job skiing and only fell a few times once he got the hang of it. I didn't fall at all, something I'm proud of since everyone else in the family fell at least once:-) lol which is pretty amazing considering my lack of gracefulness. As promised... here are a few pictures Aaron took.

These first three are from the top of the mountain. It was snowing this day (as it did most days) so it's not as good as it could be, but still awesome!

This was taken on our last night. We were night skiing and it was snowing really hard with these SUPER big snowflakes. Please note how awesome Aaron looks in his facemask plus mad bomber hat and goggles. Yeah, that's what he wore everyday....

Skiing

Just a little update about our ski trip so far...
Friday afternoon my parents, Aaron and I packed up the van and headed up to Bowling Green where my sister goes to school. We stayed at her apartment for the night and then got up early Saturday morning and drove 2 hours north to my aunt's house. We thought this would be nice so we could take my two cousin's skiing and we could also teach Aaron on the smaller, easier slopes that we knew at Mount Holly because we'd been there before. Aaron did awesome! He picked it up so quickly (like we all figured he would) and was on the normal slopes in no time. It would have been sooner if it wasn't for a little mishap we had when I was teaching him. (I'm sure he'll tell everyone the story to show that I still don't know my left from right) Anyways.... We got up early Sunday morning and drove the few hours (in the freezing rain) to Boyne Mountain where we have a condo for the week. That night we just kind of walked around, checked everything out and got our lift tickets. Monday morning we woke up bright at early to start skiing. These slopes are so different than at Mount Holly. For starters there are waaaay less people (due in part to it being a weekday) and they are bigger with less ice and more powder. It was also much colder (-4 with windchill when we woke up). Aaron was slightly intimidated by the bigger hills, but jumped right in and is doing excellent. He's even gone down a couple black diamonds (the 2nd hardest slope) although it was pretty slow. Today there's even more improvement. We went down some steeper hills today and he is really starting to enjoy them and pick up speed! My dad's convinced that by Thursday no one will be able to tell that he's only been skiing since Saturday! I'll try to remember to take a few pictures when we're out tomorrow. The view from the top of the mountain is beautiful. Plus, Aaron in his snowplow with his all brown carharts is pretty dang cute!:-)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas. Aaron and I went to his parents Christmas Eve day. Aaron's brother Joe had his family were the only people in town for Christmas this year, so it was a quiet Christmas. We definitely missed the rest of the family who had other plans (like Hawaii... lucky ducks!). Christmas Eve we went over to my aunt and uncle's house for a little bit.
We woke up Christmas morning and opened presents. We then headed over to my Grandma's house where we visited with family and ate. Next we went to Aaron's so we could visit a little bit and Aaron could get Grayson's new Xbox set up. We finished off the day with dinner at my Dad's parent's house. Our last Christmas as unmarried people was wonderful! :-)
Last night, for New Year's Eve we hung out with one of my classmates, Brian, and his girlfriend, Kelsey. We stayed in and ate lots of food and played board games and Wii all night and almost missed the ball dropping because of a VERY intense game of "Loaded Questions." I hope everyone has a safe and happy 2009. I'm so excited for this year since Aaron and I will be getting married in about 4 months (it's creeping up fast!) and we'll get to celebrate all types of 'firsts' together.
For the last week of our Christmas break, we are going skiing in Michigan! We are leaving tomorrow night and we're stopping off at my aunt's house Saturday to take my cousins skiing and to teach Aaron on the smaller slopes that we know. Then on Sunday we're heading up to Boyne Mountain to ski for a week and we'll get home some time next Friday. It'll be Aaron's first time skiing so I'm interested to see how quickly (or slowly) he picks it up.