The Bears and I

I know we just posted recently, but something totally awesome happened today. We had bear visitors! A momma and her two cubs were up a tree in our next-door neighbor's yard! It was so cool!

Canoe Trip

I'm not going to try to catch any one up on our life since the last post. Suffice it to say, life is good. Instead, please enjoy the following pictures:

 We spent the night at the Ackers' home. They live in our branch (1hr and 20min away!). The next morning we went canoeing on Long Pond, where Brother Acker said we were sure to see beavers.

 And we saw four! That speck between the islands is a beaver.

 It was an incredibly hazy and wet morning, but it was so beautiful. For whatever reason there is this really odd cairn thing on the water. We don't know why... or how??

 No matter how hard we tried to point them out to Mona, she insisted on looking the opposite direction any time there were beavers to be seen. The next two pictures are from previous excursions.

 These are mushrooms, not flowers.

View of Squam Lake. Nevermind the girls in the center frame, they were laying there the whole time talking on their cell phones. I had to just take the picture with them in it.

Fore-Father's Day

I thought Father's Day would be an appropriate time to honor my Father as well as his (and my) fore-fathers. I had recently learned about my New Hampshire heritage. Here's how it goes:

My dad is Von Callister (b.1947 - Delta, UT)
his dad is Joseph Lathel Callister (b.1909 - Oak City, UT)
his dad is Joseph Platte Callister (b.1879 - Oak City, UT)
his mom is Caroline Eliza Lyman (b.1851 - Salt Lake City, UT)
her dad was Amasa Mason Lyman (b.1813 - Lyman, NH)

Amasa was an early convert to the church and actually an apostle while Joseph Smith was alive. He was born in the tiny northern New Hampshire town of Lyman, named so for the Lyman settlers of the town some 30 years earlier. Amasa's father (Roswell Lyman) died when Amasa was only 5 and Amasa's grandpa on his mother's side (Perez Mason b.1747) played a big role in raising him until he too passed away when Amasa was 11 or 12. At the age of 17 Amasa heard the missionaries that were passing through Lyman and was baptized and moved to upstate New York to join the saints.

I was anxious to research and try to locate some graves of these people. I discovered that Perez Mason was actually very easy to find since he had been a veteran of the Revolutionary War and most war veteran's graves are kept on record. So we knew the cemetery he was buried in and thought we might get lucky and find that Roswell and Perez's wife are also buried there. Well, we took the drive (I think it was about 1hr 15min) to the North Monroe cemetery right on the NH/VT border where we quickly found Perez's headstone and his wife's right alongside. It was pretty cool!! Unfortunately we didn't find Roswell there, nor at the two other cemeteries we searched in the area. It's entirely possible that he is buried in Lebanon, NH where his parents and at least some of his siblings are buried. Lebanon is only about an hour away from us, and might be a fun trip some other time.

It was pretty thrilling to be standing next to my Great, Great, Great, Great, Great Grandfather's grave!
Happy Father's Day Dad, and happy Father's Day Perez :)

Our Home... and a Canoe!!

Come one, come all and take the tour of our home. This post is in response to popular demand. Enjoy the video tour. 

Another great reason for posting is to tell you all about my birthday present to myself. I have been keeping an eye on Craigslist and every yard sale I've passed since we got here, looking for a boat. You practically cannot live here and not have some sort of watercraft. I found a canoe that was nearby, in great shape, and best of all: super cheap. I picked it up yesterday and just took it out today for the first time. It was awesome :)

To the Coast!

Saturday Angie and I spent the day in Portsmouth, NH. Portsmouth is a really cool town. It was settled in 1620 and has lots of cool historic sites and stuff (which I appreciate). It's only about 60 miles from where we live, so we had to go check it out. By pure serendipitous chance, we happened to be there for their annual Market Street Day. It was crazy, they had blocked off almost all of downtown and there were hundreds of booths, good smells, live music and thousands of people. We toured the home of William Whipple (signer of the Declaration of Independence), and I had myself a good ol' New England lobster, which was spectacular, by the way. We walked all over town (which is actually pretty small) and drove to  Odiorne State Park, which is just a nice park along the sea shore. This is the coastline that the vikings saw 700 years ago and named Vinland (if you buy into that kind of stuff (...and I do)). Enjoy the pictures

First week fun

Angie and I built a box fort with all our empty boxes (we had tons). We had fun collapsing it too.

This weekend was also the international classic arcade tournament at the "world famous" Fun Spot classic arcade museum about 3 miles down the road from Meredith in Weirs Beach. They have so many arcade machines, it's really something else. Angie and I bought $5 worth of tokens and played a bunch of games. It was pretty fun. Most of those machines hold the current world record scores. The picture is of me playing on the first and only Pac-man machine that has ever been beaten (notice the plaque on top).

It was beaten by this guy:

Quick Update

Well, we're here! We just love our new home in Meredith. It's huge (by our standards) and in a great location. I just finished my first day working as a professional planner and am writing this from my office before I head home for the day. Thanks for all the calls and emails, etc. We will have internet at home by Friday!

Travel Log: Day 4

Nearly there!! Yesterday was a long day. New York is beautiful, but the roads were exceptionally poor which made it difficult for me to enjoy the scenery. After Albany we were on a very twisty mountain road through Vermont. The sun had gone down but you could tell it must have been really pretty. We were passing ski lodges left and right. We finally settled right on the VT/NH border in a little drink of water called Rockingham, just a couple hours from home! We won't have internet at our place for a little bit, so this will probably be the last post of our travel log, thanks for sharing the journey with us, feel free to call tomorrow night, we'll let you know how the unpacking is going :)


Day 4 (Toledo, OH - Rockingham, VT)
total trip miles = 2,796
total trip driving time = 54.5 hrs
total trip fuel cost = $1,137.63

Travel Log: Day 3

Not a bad day. We travelled through Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and are spending the night in Toledo, Ohio. We've made good time and are planning to arrive in Meredith around lunch time on Saturday which will make moving in much easier than the original plan. Yes Josh, Wisconsin's roads continue to be monumentally poor (or maybe it's just that I've only ever driven on them while towing something very awkward and likely to come off and kill people with every slight bump). We were nervous about Chicago, bit it ended up being a breeze (quite literally - the wind was insane!). We've now entered the Eastern Time Zone and tomorrow's post will likely come from somewhere near Albany, see you all then!

Day 3 (Menomonie, WI - Toledo, OH)
total trip miles = 2,089
total trip driving time = 39.5 hrs
total trip fuel cost = $867.23
(today's toll expenses = $54.45!!!)

Travel Log: Days 1 & 2

Well, we're off! We had lots of help packing things up in Moscow monday night and early tuesday morning we left Moscow not knowing if we would ever see it again. We've decided to post to this blog as we travel to update loved ones on our progress. Day 1 we made great time and made it clear past Billings, MT. We were shocked to find no vacancies anywhere and had to spend the night at a rest stop, which worked okay. Day 2 we got a great early start and drove through the prairies of North Dakota and into Minnesota. The rain in MN was awful, I've never seen it rain so hard and I've never seen raindrops so big! FYI, the roads around the Twin Cities are awful, it was so bumpy and the wind was making things miserable. I'm writing this from our hotel room in Menomonie, Wisconsin. We're about halfway there!

Day 1 (Moscow, ID - Miles City, MT)
total trip miles = 793
total trip driving time = 14.5 hrs
total trip fuel cost = $281.88

Day 2 (Miles City, MT - Menomonie, WI)
total trip miles = 1,503
total trip driving time = 27 hrs
total trip fuel cost = $549.44

Life and Times of Dangie - Chapter 3: New Hampshire

This is Meredith, NH. By Memorial Day it will be our new home. Thus begins a new chapter in the Life and Times of Dangie. I have accepted a position with the regional planning commission. We're excited for the big move, but a little stressed, naturally. It seems like there are so many things happening in the next few weeks, it's daunting to imagine having enough time for all of them. Here's an incomplete list: finals, graduation, teaching an entire GIS course, Callisters visiting, Olsens visiting, finding a place to live, and of course, packing and moving 2,890 miles across the country... oh, and walking the dog :)

We hope you're all planning to visit us!

My girls

It's been a very long time since we last checked in, and that's mostly because life has been super crazy and busy for us. Angie works like a dog (and rarely post on the blog anyways) and I've been preparing my thesis and getting ready to defend (tomorrow!!!). We've been applying for jobs all over the country and have almost no idea where we'll end up in the next couple of months. It's exciting and stressful at the same time. I recently interviewed for a great transportation planning job in New Hampshire and we're anxious to hear back from them. We'll be sure to update everyone as we start working out our future plans. In the mean time, enjoy this picture :)

Happy Day of Love!

(staring into the Italian sun on the Spanish Steps in Rome)

I don't post on here too often...that should change. But I wanted to declare to all the world (or at least the 12 or so people who may read this blog) how much I love and appreciate my husband. Dan, I do love you with all my heart. You amaze me. You are so talented and gentle and funny and kind and smart and handsome and...well, lots of other things. I think it's a good sign that even through all the challenges we've faced our relationship has only gotten stronger. I love you.

~Angie

Long Strange Trip Blog

I've created a blog for my radio show (the Long Strange Trip). Anyone should feel free to check it out! http://lstrip.blogspot.com/ I've been doing this show now for 13 months with and without Mike (my co-host). The show is on every Monday morning from 10 - 12 (Pacific), the blog has a link to stream the radio station live and also to listen to past Long Strange Trip shows!

Moscow panorama

Angie and I have discovered that while some seasons on the palouse are prettier than others, there really isn't an ugly time of year here. The poorly stitched-together panorama above was taken just this afternoon on a Sunday hike that Mona and I took at Idler's Rest on Moscow Mountain. Moscow can be seen in the distance about 3 quarters from the left.