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September 27, 2006

Welcome Back Party

Trinity College has its annual Welcome Back Party in early September and, of course, we all attended. The Welcome Back Party is pretty self-explanatory... we're all getting back to school where we do a lot of "learning" and have to celebrate. Anyway, here are the pictures!

Brent and Me:

Brent, Julie, and Kara in my room:

Julie, Kara, and Me:

Brent on his way to Tom's room:

Chris, Garner, and Tania:

I don't think anyone knew I was taking this picture...

Chris and Tom:

Blurry picture of Tom:

Tom and Tania:

Brent:

The party itself was fun, but no pictures... sorry. Anyway, I'm getting closer to being caught up, so check back for some more recent stuff soon!

Posted by lauren at 01:15 PM | Comments (1)

September 25, 2006

Happy Birthday Grandma and Poppy

For Grandma and Poppy's birthdays (late August and early September) we all went out to lunch at Mackenzie's, a restaurant in Old Greenwich. The food was great and it's always fun to get the family together.

Poppy:

Grandma and Jessica:

Happy Birthday!

Posted by lauren at 01:41 PM | Comments (2)

Ernesto

I'm way too far behind on blog entries to say much, but here are pictures of when Ernesto hit Greenwich, CT.

A tree that fell on a house:

Binney Park:

Old Greenwich:

Before the willow tree fell:

Splitting trunk:

Around town:

Binney Park flooded:

The power wento ut, so my parents and I played a bunch of games of backgammon by candlelight:

One of my favorite willow trees fell =(

Finally the power trucks showed up to give us light again:

That's all for now, more interesting stuff coming up soon!

Posted by lauren at 12:54 PM | Comments (0)

September 17, 2006

Cathy's Apartment

So, at the end of my Summer and the beginning of Cathy's school year, Mike (Cathy's younger brother), Katie (Mike's friend), and I went up to Mitchell College in New London, CT to visit Cathy at her new apartment. I had seen it once already earlier in the Summer, but Cathy invited me up again so of course I went. I think what we all remember best about the night is Katie getting really drunk... but it's ok, she had to get it over with before she started college with Mike this Fall.

Cathy, Pat, Mike, and Katie:

Everyone who plays at Cathy's beirut table has to sign it:

Mike, Me, and Katie:

Pat playing "Moose:"

Katie and Mike:

Cathy and Me:

Pat and Cathy:

Oh Mike...

I don't know why I'm poking Cathy in the boob...

Pat and Cathy:

Mike and Cathy:

Cathy and Me:

Mike and Me Take 1:

Take 2:

Mike:

And then Katie was drunk...

"Look guys, I'm driving!!"

Oh no:

I couldn't resist:

I have a video and numerous pictures of Katie face-planting in the grass outside, but I'll be nice... this time.

Mike, Me, and Cathy:

Back inside we hung out with Cathy's friends/roommates.

Me, Jamie, Cathy, Aliza, and Megan (Aliza and Megan are Cathy's 2 roommates, Jamie is a friend of theirs):

Watch Mike in these next few pictures as he slowly realizes what these pictures are all about:

Cathy, Pat, and Aliza:

Well that's all for now, hopefully Cathy will come visit me soon!

Posted by lauren at 04:37 AM | Comments (2)

Driving Home

Pictures from the drive home from Florida:

The last palm tree:

Fruit stand in Georgia:

Me driving in the torrential rain... as usual:

South of the Border:

On the road:

Praying Mantis:

Davey won the peg game that night at dinner and made this terrifying face:

Hotel for the night:

We hate you too:

Driving through Washington DC:

Getting lost in DC...

Bridge:

Ok, I realize my blog has gotten pretty lame lately, but I've been trying to get a lot of old pictures up so that I can start blogging the new stuff (college stuff) so please don't give up on The Blonde Excuse! It will be back to its old self soon.

Posted by lauren at 02:02 AM | Comments (0)

September 14, 2006

Goodbye Summer

I figured that a gross day like today would be perfectly appropriate for an "end of summer" entry, so here are the last of my Florida pictures from the end of August.

Dolphins in the ocean:

Fishing boat:

The sky is always so gorgeous in Daytona:

At the Animal Kingdom, Brent bought my parents and my grandparents beautiful hand-carved giraffes from a tribe in Kenya:

My parents and I went mini-golfing at Congo River Golf, our favorite mini-golf course. They have live baby gators that you can feed!

Goldfish:

The theme of Congo River Golf is that you're an explorer in the congo and have to find all the items on your scavenger hunt list. If you get them all and write down the hole number where they can be found, then you get a scratch off ticket to get a discount or free mini-golf the next time you come.

Congo River Golf:

A cute little hop toad we found:

Putting my golf lessons to good use:

Weird tree trunk:

Dad and Me:

Behind the waterfall:

Another pretty sky:

Poppy, Mom, and Me:

Poppy's new blanket:

Rock Star:

Holla:

That night, there was a huge thunderstorm. I especially like this picture because you can see the sheets of rain falling:

Look how heavily the rain started falling (same view as the previous picture, just a few minutes later):

Storm Videos:

Debris left around the drain by the door:

As the storm started letting up, we all got ready to go out to dinner at a new restaurant called The North Turn. The exterior was kinda cute, but overall... it was a pretty crappy restaurant. Not much better than a standard diner... maybe worse. Don't go. I didn't think it was possible for a direct waterfront restaurant with some of the most beautiful views around to be that bad. Oh well, we had no idea so we had to give it a try.

At least we got to drive past one of my favorite beach houses:

That night, as the storm was clearing out, the sky turned the most beautiful shade of pink and we saw both ends of a giant rainbow!

The next morning we all got up early to drive back home to Connecticut. It was sad to leave Daytona, but we'll be back again next year. I took this picture on a 15 second exposure early that morning and I think it came out pretty well. I like the star in the sky and its reflection in the water:

Posted by lauren at 04:04 PM | Comments (1)

September 13, 2006

2 Years

Happy 2 year anniversary to Brent and me!!!

I've been super busy with college stuff, but I'll be back with more pictures soon.

I love you Brent!

Have a great night everyone!

Posted by lauren at 11:52 PM | Comments (0)

September 11, 2006

Dear Tall Person Whose Head Comes Well Above the Shower Stall Wall:

You were one shower stall over from me today and I smelled you pee in the shower. It was especially disgusting because my shower stall has the shared drain. Don't ever pee on my feet again!!!

Lauren

PS- You are now on my X list along with green gum and the town of Osweegatche, CT for lying to me about having a Starbucks "right off I-95."

Posted by lauren at 08:42 AM | Comments (1)

September 08, 2006

Animal Kingdom

First of all, I'm finally back at college! Hopefully that explains why it's been so long... I think I actually tend to blog more at college than at home because I go out more and take a lot of party pictures, but I hadn't cleared a path through my room until now meaning I couldn't easily reach my computer. Anyway, Back in August, my family and I went to the Animal
Kingdom Lodge in Disney World. There were six of us (my parents, my grandparents, Brent, and me) so we decided to get a suite so that we could all stay together. The room was amazing and had a bedroom, a living room with a pull out couch, two bathrooms, a kitchen, and a balcony overlooking one of the savannas where the animals live.

The kitchen area:

Living room:

Bedroom:

Poppy in the mirror:

Brent in the mirror:

Animals outside the balcony:

Family of wart hogs:

The lodge:

We were on the concierge level, so we got to go to a special floor that had food and refreshments all day long and a little lounge area:

He's so cute:

Grandma and Poppy:

Brent and Me:

After having some snacks and watching Disney cartoons, Brent and I headed over to the Animal Kingdom for the first stop on our "park hopper" passes which allowed us to go to any of the Disney theme parks. Brent and I shared my camera while we were at the parks, so some of these pictures are taken by Brent.

Tree of Life:

Black swan:

Brent and I tried on pirate hats:

Everest-- a new roller coaster ride:

In line for Everest we saw a lot of interesting Asian statues and artifacts:

The idea of the Everest ride is that you're on a train ride that goes through Mt. Everest and you have to escape the Yeti. Before the ride, we got to walk through the Yeti Museum (part of the long long line we were on) and saw a lot of cool Yeti stuff.

Brent with the Yeti:

Brent took these really cool pictures of statues outside the line area at Everest:

Brent and Me:

The ride was a lot of fun so if you're in the Asia section of the Animal Kingdom, definitely check it out. Also in the Asia section is a white water rafting ride that was a lot of fun. The ride drags you up pretty high and then you go racing through the rapids on a big raft:

This is where the Asian monkeys live:

Brent in a silly hat:

We went to the Dinosaur World after Asia where Brent and I went on an absolutely terrifying dinosaur ride. In line for the dino ride:

The dinosaur world had an entire section that was set up as a dino themed carnival:

Brent and I went on this spinning roller coaster a couple times:

In the Africa section:

Parade in Africa (Brent lifted me up so that I could get some good pictures above the crowd):

Animals around Africa:

Meerkats!

Mom and Dad- I want a Meerkat for Christmas.

Here's where they live:

Gorillas:

This unfriendly gorilla was looking right at me and when he saw me take my camera out, he stuck his big butt in the air. Just for that, I'm posting his naked butt on the internet:

Where the gorillas live:

Brent on the drums:

Komodo Dragon:

Taiper:

Bats:

I think it's a boy!

Bats fighting:

Back in Asia, we saw tigers:

Brent:

Bird:

After a day at the Animal Kingdom, Brent and I went back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge where we met my family at Boma, an African themed restaurant. We ate a quick dinner and then headed out to MGM Studios to go on some of the rides there.

Tower of Terror:

Rock n Roller Coaster:

We actually went on the Rock n Roller Coaster three times because by the end of the night there was no line at all. As the park was closing, we got to walk outside a little bit and took a couple pictures:

Brent in front of the Casablanca poster:

Brent and Me:

Brent:

The night that we were in Disney, Epcot was open late for "Extra Magic Hours" so we headed over to Epcot until midnight:

Brent and I went on the Test Track ride which was a lot of fun and then we walked around the different countries.

Japan:

We went to France to see the Eiffel Tower but apparently you can't actually get to it, you can just look at it. Brent bought me my own miniature Eiffel Tower, though, which I have sitting on my desk right now!

It was a long day but a lot of fun. After Epcot, Brent and I went back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge where we both fell asleep watching TV on the pull out couch. The next morning Brent had to catch a really early plane, but after he left I took a few more pictures around the Animal Kingdom Lodge:

Eww!

On the big savanna outside the main part of the lodge:

I have no idea what this is, but it was really gross looking:

The Animal Kingdom Lodge... and my dad's head:

The roof:

Fire pit:

Ceiling by the elevators:

Pool:

The Mara, where we ate breakfast:

Baby giraffe:

Bird:

Flamingos:

Outside the balcony again:

That's all for Disney and the Animal Kingdom Lodge! If you've never been, you should definitely plan a trip to get there ASAP. I hope everyone is having a great end of summer!

Posted by lauren at 11:06 AM | Comments (5)