Visitors on the way!

It's been a while since I've had time to sit down and make a post, but I finally found a little bit of time to let you all know how things are going down here in NC. 

It's a beautiful fall day in Chapel Hill today; the weather has cooled off a bit this week and I've enjoyed a break from the humidity. I've been busy with classes and school screenings and Evan with work, but we've found some time to have fun these last few weeks as well. 

A couple weekends ago we attended the Tyler's Blue Ribbon, Bluegrass, & BBQ Festival in downtown Carrboro, which was very fun with brews, BBQs, and live bluegrass music at a local venue. There is a Carrboro Music Festival next weekend that I'm hoping we'll get to enjoy as well!

Enjoying the music at the bluegrass festival!

Quick shot of part of the bar - Look at all that Gold & Blue!

Last weekend, Evan's good friends Erik & Mike came to visit and it was fun to show them around the town. We all headed to Sammy's Sports Bar in Raleigh (about 30 minutes away), which is notorious for loving Mountaineer Football to watch the WVU vs. JMU game. This place is incredible!!! Having no idea what to expect, we pulled into the packed parking lot and saw that practically every car had some sort of a flying WV on it. Inside, there was a huge room dedicated to the WVU game with tons of fans. Seeing all the Mountaineer fans in NC was so great! We definitely plan on heading back to this bar for future games.

As I blog, my mom & pops are heading to NC for their annual autumn beach trip with friends. Lucky for me, Emerald Isle, NC is only about a 3-hour drive from Carrboro! They are coming to stay the night with us tonight and head the rest of the way tomorrow. They were nice enough to let me claim the couch at the beach house for a few nights as well, so I'll be heading to Emerald Isle for the weekend to relax and spend some time with them. Unfortunately, Evan has to work on Sunday (yuck!) and can't make the trip. They'll be stopping through next weekend to hang out for a day, so at least Evan will get to spend a little bit of time with them even though he can't go to Emerald Isle.  It's been almost 2 months since I've seen my parents, and I'm really looking forward to catching up with them! I'm sure the next post will contain lots of fun pictures from their visit!

Until next time...


Molly 

Hikes, Ears, and Labor Day Weekend

The view from our lunch spot! Sycamore Creek

Now that I can officially say that I've made it through my Au.D. orientation and a week of classes, I figured it was time for another post. Evan and I are still having fun finding new places to explore in NC. We are hoping to find a time to go backpacking in the western part of the state this month, but last weekend we decided to hop in the car and head to Umstead State Park in Raleigh for a day hike. We ended up going on a 7.5-mile looped trail called Sycamore Trail. It was a great afternoon! 

About half way through the hike we decided to pose for a picture!

Tons of fungi provided splashes of color on our hike; this was one of my favorites.

As I said, last week was my first full week of classes. On Friday, I also had my first day of clinical rotation. This semester, the majority of my clinical hours are coming from elementary school hearing screenings. I spent Friday working with some pretty adorable 1st graders at a local elementary school. The screenings were my first experience actually doing all the things I have been reading about for 4 years outside of a class lab. It was great, and I'm heading back to the same school tomorrow to screen the kindergarteners! 

Tailgating with classmates who have all headed in different directions this year!

This Labor Day Weekend was a blast. Evan and I headed to West Virginia on Friday evening to see the WVU vs. Marshall season football opener. We had a great time watching WVU whoop Marshall with Evan's parents at the game, and it was wonderful getting to catch up with friends before and after the game as part of the football festivities. 

It was strange not sitting in the student section, but we enjoyed sitting with Evan's parents, Kaye and Doug, and watching the game!

Mountaineer field...there's nothing better!

The only missing puzzle piece was that my parents were in Mississippi visiting Chris and Abby this weekend and we didn't get to drive to Charleston to see them. It sounds like they had a great time in Oxford, though, and we'll get to see them in a few weeks when they head this way for a little beach vacation. Today Evan and I are back in Carrboro and spending the day taking it easy and getting things ready for the rest of the week. It looks like we'll have our first visitor this upcoming weekend; Erik, one of Evan's best friends, is making the drive down to come see us and all our new town has to offer! 

Until next time...love ya, miss ya, come visit!


-Molly