The Catch Up, Part II

Okay, so. (Who remembers that video?)
Let's continue with the Catch Up, Part II.

We spent a long weekend on a lake with the Nothwehr clan in Wisconsin. We decided to go a day early and spend time with Nate and Morgan in Chicago before driving up to the lake.

We went to a delicious restaurant. They had a Rocky poster. We felt right at home.


Another thing that made us feel right at home? That's right, more New Belgium beer!!



The sky looked so cool in the morning - this is the view from Nate and Morgan's window!



Another view from their house, looking toward the lake. Chicago! Such a fun city.



We wandered down to the lake and found a cute little family on their morning commute:



We went to the bean. Couldn't resist. (Andy Beall, that's your shirt!)



Then, we headed up to the lake in Wisconsin! A nice little drive. The sunsets over the lake were a gift - you don't really get to see stuff like this in the city (duh).




This is the only photo I took of people while we were there. Caleb and Mary playing at the dinner table:



On the drive back to Chicago, Caleb was determined to stop at a Casey's. When we actually found one, he was so excited!! If you don't know Casey's (I didn't before going to Iowa for the first time) - they have delicious donuts and pizza! We bought both on this little stop:




Back in Philly, late summer was producing lots of delicious food!!




We moved into a new house in August, with four of our friends. You can find a semi-tour of our house here, on Raven's blog.
We've since spent many nights cooking delicious meals together! Sometimes I am so excited about the food, I have to take a photo. Caleb makes fun of me, but how good does this look?? Fried okra and onions? Yes please!



Also, Peter (one of the roomies) bought a unicycle. It's purple.

Raven and I tag-teamed to make some cake toppers for my friend and co-worker's wedding:

Aren't they cute??

We lived through an earthquake and a hurricane, too. The hurricane's bite was way less than its bark for us, so we had time to just hang out together. Some of the roomies were very productive, and you can read about it (again!) on Raven's blog.
You can also read about our girls' weekend in NYC!

Let's see - what else has happened? Kate came to visit, Scott LoMurray made an appearance and our friend Matt Dooley did too. Caleb went to Cali for Buck's wedding and I took a trip to Denver for Thomas' wedding - so fun!! We are both very thankful we were able to make those trips. We hosted a Thanksgiving meal (twice), and have just finished up our last bits of school work. Whew! It's been BUSY. We'll try to get a more reflective post up soon. (Caleb is much better at those.)

Until then...love to all!!

The Catch Up, Part I

Wow, it has been too long! Way too long! We are not very good at this blog thing, I guess.

Now that we are about to finish the Fall semester of school, we are finally taking a breath. (Not quite, I guess. I have one paper left and Caleb has a few assignments before he's done...but we can feel Christmas Break in our bones!) After a morning of listening to Christmas music and decorating cookies, I was looking through our iphoto and noticed that there are photos in there that I've wanted to share since July! Sheesh! It's been a busy semester to say the least (more on that later...you know, if we get around to writing about it).

So - without further ado, I give you, The Catch Up, Part I:

July was a busy month! I finished up a summer class, and we headed to Denver for a long 4th of July weekend. The sun and the blue sky were, of course, there to greet us magnificently.

So was a fully stocked fridge (Neil + Joaner really know how to stock a fridge):

I just love the New Belgium style! I thought this Folly Pack was pretty enough for a photo. Plus - you can't get New Belgium products in PA, so it felt like a treasure. :)

We took a trip to Lucile's. Duh.

We hit up the Piney Creek Pool and all tried to remember the last time we had been there. (Except Justin. He pretty much owns that place in the summer.)

This is maybe my favorite photo of Caleb ever:

My whole family took a walk to through the neighborhood to the park:

I clearly could work on my frisbee skills:

We took a Sunday afternoon drive/picnic up into the mountains. Just had to make it up there, even if only for an hour or so!

Probably my favorite part of the trip was spending hours looking through and listening to my parents' extensive record collection. It brought back so many memories of listening to them as kids! The Dinosaurs record ("Tyrannasaurus Rex was a very mean king...if it wasn't for him, we'd have a happy ending!"), The Music Machine, Kids Praise - so awesome! It also was fun to hear my parents reminisce about their records and imagine them in those stories.

A couple weeks later, we went on a weekend camping trip with some friends to celebrate Caleb's birthday! We made it to the Center Point Knob, which used to be considered the midway point of the Appalachian Trail. (Now, with GPS technology, the actual midpoint is some miles south.)

We had a great time with our friends! You can read about all the details on Raven's blog - here.

We also celebrated Caleb's birthday with our Philly Fam, who made him a DELICIOUS chocolate/banana cake.

Whew! That doesn't even really scratch the surface, but it's enough for now! In a nutshell, we went to Colorado, went camping in PA, Caleb turned 30, and we ate cake. Stay tuned for Part II...

Rock, Paper, Scissors

This one's for you, Erin Miller:

Guess you're not the only one who has strong feelings towards paper.

(vee eye eh Design For Mankind)

Happy Birthday to ME!

So, I turned 28 a few days ago. I never know what to expect on my birthday, as I've never really had any set tradition or expectation. Moving across the country where you don't know anyone definitely does not aid in the whole knowing-how-to-celebrate-your-birthday thing. Lucky for me, I've got a fantastic husband (aka The Human Mixer) and we've been gifted some pretty stellar friends here in Philly. Turns out one of our friends, Andy, was born the day after me (and a couple years later), so we decided to have a joint birthday beach extravaganza.

The day started off well - I woke up to a delicious breakfast and a three-part scavenger hunt involving gifts. I love gifts. I'll admit it. Especially this one:

A new backpack to explore the rugged terrain of the East Coast!! Can't wait to use it.

I left for work and picked up a free Venti iced chai on the way. Even Starbucks celebrates my birthday!

My co-workers threw me a "surprise" ice cream cake party, complete with balloons and unintentionally hilarious conversation, as always.

I came straight home from work where our friends were waiting to pick us up, threw some bags in the car and took off for Cape May, NJ. It was such a beautiful drive, especially once we were done inching our way across Philly.

We had a great dinner and more ice cream cake! This was Dairy Queen ice cream cake - the one and only. YAY.

The next morning, we woke up and just relaxed. Some people drank coffee, some people read, some people went for a walk or run, and some people (ahem, Raven) organized the kitchen:

Love it. We started Andy's birthday celebration by adorning her with an assortment of homemade balloon animals, mostly thanks to Jared:

It was such a great weekend. We had so much fun relaxing and being together.

You just do not see this kind of architecture and detail in Colorado:

The view from our balcony:

Clearly, we were pretty stressed out:

Intense Bocce Ball:

Lots of music. There's always music. I love it:

Sunburn = no beach during the day. Sunburn + the beach + the evening time = BLISS:

We capped the weekend off by all talking about what we were thankful for, and what we want to remember from the past year. Such sweet time and conversation. I love that this group of friends never fails to "go there". It is unique, and such a gift! All in all, it was a GREAT birthday. Happy Birthday to me (and Andy).

This makes me laugh.

This has made me laugh over and over and over.
I thought I'd share it with you.
All three of you that read this blog.
Jenny. Kim. Julie.
This is for you.
(Even though I stole this from Jenny and Dann's blog.)
((And Kim and Julie probably already saw it on Jenny's blog.))
(((Either way, it's hilarious.)))



Seen in a newspaper in California. Photo taken by the iphone.