A Year of Pictures Vol. III
It's that time of year again folks! Time for a super long montage of the years best pictures. There are many "best" pictures out there, so this might be a long entry. 56k beware, as always.
2007 Ladies and Gentlemen:
January:
I think January of 2007 was one of the most exciting months of our college career. It seems like we were always up to something back in those days. New Years at Seven Springs, Liz's 21st birthday, camping at a Linn Run cabin, lots of hiking, some biking, and most importantly, some crazy snowboarding. Yep, January was a good month.
Ah, the fun we have on snow.
Liz's 21st at Rick's. Pens kicked ass that night! Woot!
Stuck together in a cabin for five days out in the woods would drive anyone mad.
This is pretty standard for Mike.
I'd be hard pressed to come up with an evening better than this one.
I totally got new wheels, tires and a crankset for your mom!
What to do when it's snowing and you have an excess of beer in your fridge? Why, strap on some goggles, grab some beers and take a walk around the field!
February:
If any month could compete with January for crazy adventures, February 2007 would be a pretty good contender. This month was pure winter fun. Lots of snowboarding, as always, but with a couple of crazy four-wheeling, tree jumping and lake skatin' adventures thrown in for good measure. And there's always the good weekend drinkathons, but those are standard.
Oh, if Timken could see him now.
Not enough words to describe how great this night was.
Nor enough words to describe how crazy this night was.
If SVC Lake was skateable, you know it's cold.
Every once in awhile, it'd get warm enough to go throw your mom around in the mud.
We shut them out that day, 2-0.
Give this kid some 151 and he'll walk across campus in naught but his skin.
Mmmmm.
March:
March is that weird turning point where you're gettin' tired of winter but you're not quite yet ready to give up it's simple snow-filled pleasures. To remedy this, you can often do both winter and summer activities in the same week or even the same day. For example, last March we spent a chilly afternoon snowboarding on the last of the winter snow, but when we got bored with that, we went to the blue hole for some frigid winter meltoff swimming and cliff diving. And if that strategy doesn't work, you always have St. Patties Day to help you just plain forget about all of your troubles.
I skipped three classes (including a quiz) to go snowboarding. It was one of the better decisions of my life.
The snow melt was rippin' over the falls, but Josh and I decided to jump anyways.
It was in the high 30's that day and the water was just above freezing, but it was still worth it.
It takes more than snow (more like a couple bulldozers) to stop us from playing the Gentlemen's Sport.
Car bombs for everyone! St. Pattie's Day 2007!
This Pattie's Day saw lots of new Taser Club inductees.
April:
Since this was our Senior year, April was kind of a hectic month, but make no mistake, it wasn't because we were finishing papers, theses, and generally finishing up our college education. No, it was because we saw the end in sight and thus tried to cram in as many fun trips as we could. Airsoft in the gorge, beer-saturated parties, trips to the Beam Rocks and my visit to San Francisco for the NCUR (read: grant-funded vacation), April was a good month (but then again, with friends like I've got, I've yet to experience a bad month).
Airsoft battles in the gorge!
Ah, beer fest.
Ah, meat fest.
Beautiful San Francisco!
Ah, the Pacific Ocean!
On the balcony of Rooney about to scare the daylights of some unsuspecting freshmen a few hundred yards away.
May:
The last chapter in our college education at St. Vincent. Graduation, with George Bush as our commencement speaker, was a sobering affair. Now it's time to grow up and enter the real world, not as students, but as young men and women... who like to launch water balloons from a couple hundred yards away at unsuspecting freshmen, drink outside in front of the dorms, fish for squirrels and take road trips to South Dakota. Seems like a good start to our adult life.
The prey.
That was a great night.
George Dubya.
Some of the Good ole Boys.
My bike got a new Fox TALAS fork!
Railin' some turns in Jeanette with Mikey.
The Badlands.
I'm pretty sure this was Nick's first time hiking.
June:
Ok, right about now I'd be boasting about how fun this "summer of fun" was, but I didn't stay on campus this year due to that problem called graduating. It wasn't a bad summer, by any means, but it wasn't quite the same. In June I went to Cedar Point, which was great, Mike and I drove out to Erie to visit a bar that sold $1 imports on Thursday nights, and we got a bunch of people to jump off a cliff at the blue hole. Still a successful June by any means.
Top Thrill Dragsta!
We went out to a block party in Erie, spotted the Mayor and took a picture with him.
This trip saw a lot of converts to the church of the seven day recreationalist.
I dunno who was more stoked about this ratty tennis ball; Adam or the dog.
July:
I was a total loser and didn't take any pictures throughout the entire month of July.
Yea, I can't believe it either.
August:
August was rather slow. My parents went to Disney World and I stayed home alone for two weeks, which was awesome, but I didn't take many pictures. I went camping with Josh and some others, which was great, I went to Ft. Myers, FL with my buddy Matt Finley, and I went drag racing with Andy McAnderson and his beautiful car Shaylee. Slow, but a good time nonetheless.
When you have a buncha steaks but no grill, what do you do? Why, you find a hot rock, slap this steaks down and grab the Montreal Steak and a fork.
In the passenger seat, waiting to video Andy as he loses the race.
Ft. Myers, FL.
Ft. Myers again.
September:
Ok, by this point I pretty much realized I had to do something with my life. I had been sort've (not really at all) job searching and I found a few internships with the SCA (Student Conservation Association) that I applied for. I ended up getting two: one in Florida working on a trail and one in Las Vegas working with tortoises. I took the Las Vegas one, but it didn't start till October. Therefore, September was a month of visiting SVC every weekend (literally) to hang out with my friends (whom I missed dearly). I also went mountain biking a few times at Boyce Park, which was sweet!
Nick doing his best kermit impression.
I went camping on labor day up on Laurel Mountain. It was a great trip full of biking, fishing and... well... camping!
Gotta love this place.
Boyce Park has some crazy biking trails.
I got some new people to check out the tunnels.
And then I moved to Maleena Mesa St.
First trip to the strip.
October:
The official start of my internship in Las Vegas; my first day of work was the first of the month. This month was pretty good simply because I had so much exploring to do. Showing Ryan around Las Vegas, climbing Mt. Charleston, mountain biking Bootleg Canyon and learning the ins and outs of In n' Out and the other delicious fast food joints. Oh, and gambling. Fun times in the desert (but I missed all of my friends).
Work in October was often pretty hot.
He was makin' a break for it.
This guy came down to see me, what a good friend.
We tried to climb a mountain, but he got sick.
I eventually did climb the mountain and saw this view from the top.
The trail to the summit of Charleston Peak.
The most boring damn dam I've ever seen.
Climbin' and workin' near the red rocks.
November:
Didn't feel much different than October, but we did some pretty cool stuff. More mountain biking in Bootleg, climbed Griffith with Jym, Steve and Josh and, of course, visited Yosemite National Park (which was the coolest place I've ever seen). I also ate a Big n' Tasty at McDonalds for Thanksgiving. First (and hopefully the last) time that happens. Oh, and I almost cut my thumb off.
Bootleg Canyon is awesome.
The lake bed.
Workin' with the Nevada Conservation Corps... a bunch of tools. Who needs a hard hat to plant a little plant?
Yosemite National Park!
The beautiful Sierra Nevadas.
California has some big trees.
There's Steveo playin Hold'em.
Jym and Old Granddad at the summit of Griffith Peak.
Fishin' in Lake Mead! Only thing I caught was a nice $80 multitool that I found on the beach.
Which I subsequently sliced my thumb open with.
December:
And finally we come to December. Didn't really take too many pictures this month simply because I was too burned out from work to have many crazy adventures. I got to come home for Christmas for a week though, and that was a welcome reprieve from the desert. You gotta love the good ole boys.
Stitches for my thumb.
Charleston Peak in winter.
Found this at a bar and then paid $10 for it.
Oh, I missed that face.
And this face!
But I'm not gonna lie, I missed that face the most. Best pic of 2007!
So I guess that wraps it up! Another great year in the bag. This entry took me like... 8 hours to make, but it's worth it.
Anyways, for now I am home until the 27th, at which point I fly back to Las Vegas. I'll work 3 more weeks there and then it's back home for good on Jan 19th. Woot.
Happy 2007 everyone!