Ice, Ice, Baby

Saturday I headed out at 6am with 4 guys and one goal: To not get cold. Where were we headed?

We attended what I think was called "Ice Fest" it was held at the ICE PIT. Okay, so i am bad at details, but I have some pictures!

This is the ice pit, its a quarry that the 'ice climbing people' have turned into an ice climbing gym:

Apparently its not normally this packed, but everyone was out that day for to try out thier ice climbing skills at ice fest!

This is Dan (in orange) ice climbing what may be a 100 foot quarry wall.........

This is me trying to ice climb......There are two main pieces of gear involved in ice climbing....... AXES and Crampons

The boys, who prefer to be called men, but are still really boys, LOVED the axes and breaking ice. Personally I was afraid of the axes, and the crampons (crampons = pointy spikes on boots pictured below). I was afraid of poking my eye out or accidentally kicking someone or something and breaking it. That is a foreshadowing to my initial opinion of ice climbing.So we tried climbing what was said to be an easier climb in the corner of the quarry..... After climbing and climbing and hacking at the ice for what felt like a good long while I was pretty tired and felt like I should be nearing the top....I looked up -DEAR GOD the top is freaking FAR!- I realized that it was gonna be a while till this was OVER. I looked down.....I was about ten feet off the ground. From below they shouted "How's it going, Katie? Do you like ice climbing?" My only response was.... "Ummm Scary"

I stubbornly trudged on towards the top of the wall, still not exactly sure what i was supposed to be doing- or the 'rules of the sport'-hacking at the ice and poking things with my crampons. When I FINALLY got to the top my fingers were frozen and i was more than ready to get back to the ground. i felt good and accomplished.I only climbed two climbs that day, the second one was much shorter, more comfortable and I liked it. Ice climbing was.... Ice climbing. If that makes sense? Just hacking some axes into the ice and climbing. I'm glad I tried it, but can't yet say that I am in LOVE with the sport. Would I try it again, definitively yes. It felt great to do something fun and different and new with a lot of friends.

Greg climbing....Melissa and Kim, also trying to keep warm :)

It was a struggle, but here I am.

Hello 2011!!!!!!!!!!(Anyone know what I am doing in the above picture??? Popping the bubbles....... hehehe)

My holidays were great. I'd been away for the past few Christmases and was very happy to be AT HOME. :) I could say that it was bit anti-climatic, BUT i was completely happy with the nothing special holiday. It really meant a lot to me to be able to go to Teddy's wedding and see all my best friends in the world and to be at home with my family on Christmas.
Adam was really excited to get Weebles for Christmas. Henry (in background) was not really into the whole presents thing, Luckily Adam is still into infant toys.

I enjoyed all 2 months of Christmas music on the radio, loved all the christmas lights, eggnog, hot chocolate and warm fires. Mary bought Christmas cookies into work............ No one would even eat the snowman because it was too cute and pretty. I went out with Greg, his roommate Don and his fiance Liz for New Years. We celebrated appropriately......



The next morning Greg and I started the year off with the polar bear plunge down at the Lakefront! My thoughts about the polar plunge..... I dont understand people that do it annually, it was absolutely painful, BUT i am glad i did it so i can check it off my bucketlist and NEVER do it again.... FREEZING!

The Wedding

Backtracking. Still not caught up, but of course I will have a New Year's Resolution to be a better

blogger or something like that so that I will get caught up soon.....

Anyways I never got to mention how great the wedding was. (Part 3 of my 3 part journey to Boston, AND the actual reason for my journey to Boston)

I met up with the ol' college friends on Friday Night and we were all together until our departures to various cities on Sunday afternoon :(

It was so great to see all my bestest friends in the world. We caught up and had a blast at the hotel and the wedding/reception.

Below.... (Katie Pryor and Kate) Kate and I were paired as roommates our freshman year in College. It was possibly the most perfect fit EVER. She now lives in Baltimoreish area and is a nurse.

The best perk of arriving late to a wedding is that you get to see the bride before everyone else..... Caitlyn :)
The ceremony was absolutely beautiful. I wish Teddy and Caitlyn a blessed and happy marriage.

I FINALLY met Becca's daughter Leah. She is a blast. (Becca is another UDer originally from Wisconsin. She just moved to Texas!)

AND it was the second time I have gotten to see the Reedys this year. Last time I saw them was when I visited them at their current place of residence on the UD campus in Rome, Italy.

Our table... At the very end you can see the Lively family and part of Kathleen's family. Which I really dont know if i remember her new last name...... opps.Katie Pryor with Alissa's eldest two. Hehe sooo cute. This little lady ruled the dance floor.

Boston

Last weekend my dear college friend Nathaniel Smith II aka Teddy celebrated his wedding out in Boston. I took advantage of the trip out there and planned a three part journey.

PART 1: Aunt Maggie's retreat house.......

I stopped in Canton for a few days to see the Rubenackers and my Grammy. It had been over a year since I had seen them and everyone is doing just as well. I slept probably 12 hours each night and spent about 12 hours in front of a toasty fireplace each day (this is why I refer to it as the retreat house). Anyone who sleeps in Aunt Maggie's guest room literally melts into the bed. Anyways I had a blast with Joey and Anna. Joey beat me aproximately 11 times in Uno and taught me how to make paper ninja stars. He also provided dinner entertainment with his holiday dance show. Her's a pretty funny guy.

I got to celebrate Anna's 14th Birthday with them and went to her basketball game. They got a little bit outscored, BUT I am proud to say that MY cousin is the best one on her team. (AND Thats not at all biased ;)) She also beat me at UNO.

Part 2: Ed Hardy's Climbing Gym...

This was the shortest part of the trip. I went to see Ed Hardy's Gym in Worcester MASS. Ed and I both went to UD and unlike me, he is actually putting his business degree to use. He built an awesome climbing gym, which (to me) is famous because it was the site of a very popular gym climbing video. It's very impressive. AND Golly Ed and his brother are really smart. :)

OH and he's in the process of building a second gym.

The Romanator

Last weekend. I was blessed with a short notice visit from Anne, Anthony and ROMAN.

I can't say enough about little Roman. He's a bucket of sunshine with too much personality for his own good. I love watching the little ones grow into their personalities. All three are so different and last weekend was the weekend of the ROMANATOR.

He is such a BOY. He shouts, throws things, marches around and loves his trucks. He's very social and loves to laugh with the grown-ups. When he gets really excited he gets happy happy happy feet.... to the point that i saw him fall over. :)

On the other hand he randomly busts out his sweet side. He gives hugs, bends down and talks to you in a gentle little jibberish voice, and walks around on his tippy-toes.

Anyways, the reason for the trip was that my rockstar brother-in-law (who lives in Philly) is somehow playing for the Chicago Riot and, being the great negotiator he is, cut a deal to have Anne and Roman fly in with him for his game in Milwaukee.

I can't really think of anything special that we did during the weekend besides watch Roman and hang around. We went to the game. (Anthony scored 2 goals!!!!! at least according to my blog) Other than that it was coziness, eating, and fires in the fireplace.

I love my sister and all of them, it was great to see them and I am crossing my fingers that Ant can work out another deal like that soon!Roman and Amaya can finally share and play together. It was so adorable they were running and giggling and chasing eachother! :) And below is my only picture with my sister........

Gobble Gobble

This year was a small Thanksgiving, which means more for everyone. We had the turkey, mashed potatoes, veggies and"butt buns" as Mark calls them. We had a great stuffing this year, bought to us by Sara. I love Thanksgiving food.

In accordance with the Collins sweet tooth the pies took precedence over everything... we had 7 different pies: Pumpkin, pecan, apple, sugar-free apple, cherry, french silk and Lemon Meringue. (this amounted to .78 pies/person)

I made my first ever pecan pie, and a lemon meringue pie. I know the lemon meringue is not exactly in season but i reallly wanted to try to make one. It turned out great and was super fun and easy.

Amaya and Sara.......My brother Jim in his essence:

(He eventually put on some jeans and joined everyone at the table......)

Adam and Maria had thier own thanksgiving, but eventually came by with Henry. I wasnt home, but I still wanna give a shout-out to him.......

cute cute cute

Since I've been back

One thing is clearly evident: I've been doing a pretty bad job of keeping up/continuing my blog. I have to fit it into my new routine here I guess, which is something that is also forming.

Okay so a quick update to catch you up before I delve into my next adventures....

I got a car, not just any car, a car that is probably too good for me. A 2011 Ford Focus.....However, using my wit, I have managed to justify every package and upgrade that I added to it, including my moonroof, light up cup holders, and heated seats. Obviously the heated seats were easiest to justify as Wisconsin is quickly living up to its fame for being cold (of course we all remember Jack Dawson's reference to the cold Wisconsin winters in the movie Titanic).

That was step 1 to my transition back home. I am also working for my mom at her stores, working a games kiosk (board games) at the mall during the holidays and exploring Milwaukee. For kicks, I'll also add the eating too much factoid. Trading the Mediterranean diet and public transportation for Burgers and a sporty little coup is taking its toll on me.

My thoughts on being home? It's been a weird quick transition. Things are still settling in and especially with the onset of dark cold winter, I miss Spain quite a bit. However, the perks of being here are my friends and family and I would not trade that for anything. Besides, I have heated seats now. Come February I plan to get my resume together and am toying with the idea of searching for a 'real job', but anyone who knows me, knows that anything can happen in the next few months....... or days.