happy 13

So Daulton is now a teenager. He was with Michelle all day, so we just did presents and cake and then headed to our friends Mike and Jessi's place to watch fireworks. They live on the bay and have a great view. Daulton spent much of his time playing the video game Rock Band, but I think he saw some of the fireworks from the living room.

Saturday we spent the day at my parents' house. My sister Nicole and her boyfriend were in town, and some of her friends came by, along with a few neighbors, too. Daulton was, of course, one of the first and definitely the last in the pool. We finally made him put on a shirt because he had gotten so much sun. His freckles are out in full force.

relay on...

I participated in the Relay for Life again this year at my high school. The event, held all over the country every year, benefits the American Cancer Society and their fight to find a cure for cancer.

My best friend and I organized the entertainment as part of this year's committee. We had a great band, Mambo Jazz Band, singer Sean Benjamin, inflatable toys, crafts, temporary tattoos, track bingo, local team mascots, banner competitions, and more.

My stepmom made our team banner this year, it was wonderful! Daulton came with me for most of the Friday portion. He was a huge help with temporary tattoos, making signs, and more. He got six or seven temporary tattoos himself, and Chris got his own when he came after work that evening. They went home that night and my friend and I stuck out the night through the next morning.

Our team raised about $600 this year, and the nighttime luminary was beautiful. They line the track with white paper bags and light candles inside. Each bag has the name of a person either in honor of their survival or in memory of the fight they lost to cancer. The names are read at dark in a beautiful, reflective ceremony.

life on a beach

Well it's been WAY too long since my last post! I'm happy to say that Chris and I went on our honeymoon last month. I got an amazing massage just before we left, which I think was the perfect start to a vacation! We had no computers and no cell phones. Lots of time outside, LOTS of sunscreen! My photo captions would suggest that we also had a lots to drink, but it wasn't as bad as it seems. But hey, who can resist a rum punch while lazily browsing stores on the streets of a Caribbean island?

Here's a link to my photo album:

St Thomas

florida or bust 2008

Our annual trip to Florida was delayed last year, so we headed down in March this Spring. The weather, to say the least, was much more favorable in March than it has been in August past years. The photos are samplings of all we did there this year.

One photo is of the Alfred B. Maclay Gardens State Park, right in Tallahassee. It was a beautiful place we hadn't visited on previous trips. Seems like a hidden treasure of Tallahassee.

Chris and I also saw the Art & Science Center for the first time this year. Definitely a Daulton event, but we didn't realize until after we arrived.

A wonderful trip!

it snowed a LOT today

the snowball fight of 2008

Daulton has been grounded from video games for a while, so he's also been coming up with some great activity ideas. We finally had the time and snow to head outside and pummel each other with the cold white stuff. These photos are of the boys, but I will proudly say I took a lot of snow shoved in my face, thanks to Daulton, and I lived to tell about it.

don't fall in

we headed downtown to the art museum last Sunday. because we were so close we drove to the dock to see the frozen bay and ice fishermen. Daulton asked if we could drive to the opposite side on the peninsula, so we headed west. there is a new roller coaster going in down by the peninsula opening, and it actually crosses a bridge over the road, so it was neat to see the progress they had made. we got so far on the peninsula and I remembered how I had always wanted to walk on the bay, so we parked and followed some other non-icefishing people out onto the ice. Daulton and I walked out pretty far, Chris stayed back and took these photos.

After the bay we drove a little further and got out on the beach/lake side of the peninsula. We climbed on the ice dunes and Chris walked out pretty far into where the water would normally be. It looked like a whole different world! I couldn't believe the ice dunes, I've never seen them after all the years I've lived here. (We also realized after five or ten minutes that it probably wasn't the safest thing to do, but I managed to get some good photos while we were there.)

music in the evening

Chris's Christmas present this year was a keyboard, per his request. He and Daulton finally got it out the other night. We had talked about taking the apartment-size piano from my parents, but it has been sitting idle for a long time and no doubt needs a lot of tuning and attention. The keyboard also has an added bonus of working with headphones, so someone could play his/her heart out at 2 am if necessary.

Daulton has been increasingly disinterested in Tae Kwon Do, something that might be due to the fact that he's been doing it for many years and that it seems to be taking more of a 'serious' tone. Not being so competitive, he probably would be more into something that he didn't have to take so seriously.

He does have an A in Music right now, which I think says something considering his grade in Art is not the same. I've asked him before what instrument he would like to play if given the opportunity. He has said drums in the past but seems to be considering keyboard now that Chris has one. Michelle's roommate, Koreen, also got a keyboard not too long ago I think. But drums still seems to be the answer. Unfortunately, I'm not sure those can come with headphones!

that's one big kitty

Michelle took this photo of Daulton with her mancoon cat, Bailey. As you can tell, the cat is huge. I think it's funny because her other cat, Lacey, is so tiny she still looks like a kitten. I refer to them as 'extra-large' and 'extra-small'. Not really clever, but very fitting.

early morning commute

My drive to work is about 50 minutes door to door, but it's almost all highway driving, so I really don't mind it much at all. I get to listen to music or talk radio and just kind of relax.

One of the things I really love about my commute are the sunrises and sunsets I frequently get to see. The colors are often just beautiful, and sometimes even the cloud formations are pretty spectacular.

This is just one example, wanted to share. :)

over 450 pieces

So Daulton got a Spiderman puzzle for his birthday last year. After much prompting from me to get him to start it, I finally started it myself sometime in November. The three of us finished it rather quickly, and Daulton actually seemed to get some enjoyment out of it, much to his surprise I'm sure.

Chris found our next puzzle on eBay, and it arrived in December. We finally got it out this month. Since it was a used puzzle, I decided to take it upon myself to count the pieces to be sure they were all there. I counted 468, but when I looked at the box I realized it says "over 450 pieces."

So, fingers crossed, we started on the outside edge. We got that done in just one or two days. This photo is of that feat. Oh, and there was one edge piece missing!

It took me a week or so to get going on the inside, which started to seem considerably harder than the outside. I went several days just finding one piece a day. Just recently I finally sat down and got into it. I don't think the boys have touched it at all, but I seem to be on a roll (5 or 6 pieces a sitting?)

I'll have to send puzzle photo updates as progress is made. Maybe we need to bring a new puzzle on each yearly excursion to your place?

christmas day 2007

Happy 2008!

Chris and I planned a 'German night' for New Year's eve this year. Daulton was NOT happy about the prospect of saurkraut, so he didn't eat too much of the kielbasa we cooked, but Chris and I enjoyed it with potato latkes and applesauce—and plenty of wine! We all enjoyed a German chocolate dessert bar sometime later (compliments of the grocery store).

We played cards and watched the celebrations on tv. Chris and I are big fans of Alicia Keys, and she performed on MTV in New York. It was so fun to see her in Rockefeller Center and be able to say, 'Hey, we were just there!'

Christmas 2007

Well, it's long overdue, but here is a bit about how our 2007 wrapped up. Daulton spent Christmas Eve with Michelle, so Chris and I spent it at my parents' house. My brother and his fiance and my sister and her boyfriend were all in town, so we played board games and had visits from friends, too.

Chris and I were at my parents' for the morning, we had dinner around 1, then we opened presents with Daulton at home that evening. The photos here are the gifts from you, he loves them all, of course! He got through everything pretty quickly, but then got right into them, too! I think he got the helicopter put together first.

deck the halls

tonight we put up the christmas tree. it didn't take nearly as long as I expected it to, it would seem we have it down to a science by now. we put in a movie and finished the second half while eating yummy pizza.

chris and i agreed to get a new tree topper this year, so you'll see that the top is bare. we've been using a santa hat in the past, something chris had started years ago, but it will be nice to buy a new one together.

the big city

After Doylestown, Chris, me, my parents, Nicole and her boyfriend all drove to New York City, where Chris and I stayed at Nicole's apartment and the rest of them stayed at her boyfriend's apartment in Jersey.

On Sunday we walked around the city, saw 'Mamma Mia!' on Broadway (my first broadway show!), ate dinner at ESPN Zone, saw the giant tree at Rockefeller Center, and went to a Knicks game. It was a long day but so much fun! I can't believe we did so much in just so many hours.

On Monday we did more sight-seeing and ended up at Macy's (10 floors!), Tiffany's (no purchases), and the NBA store.

Chris and I boarded an Amtrak train around 4 p.m. to head back to Erie. (My parents went on to visit more relatives in D.C.) The photo of Chris sitting at a table is from the train. We slept, ate dinner, and hung out in the lounge car for a while. We got into Erie a few hours late due to some unexpected stops, so we got home around 4 a.m. We've always talked about taking a train to the city, so it is nice to have had the experience.

It was quite a weekend!

Siblings

Chris and I tagged along with my parents to Doylestown, PA, to hear my brother sing in a barbershop quartet this past Saturday. We met up with my sister and her boyfriend and my brother and his fiance for dinner before the show. This is my younger sister, Nicole, and my older brother, Peter. She lives in New York City and he lives in Virginia.

Thanksgiving

This is just a pic of Chris and I out over Thanksgiving weekend. One of my best friends who lives in Erie and another who was visiting from out of town with her husband all came out for drinks and good times.

'Emu Dreaming'

We recently visited the Erie Art Museum, and their current exhibition is "Earth & Spirit: Contemporary Indigenous Art from Australia and New Zealand". Dot painting is the traditional visual art form of the Aborigines in Western Australia Central Desert. The canvas is covered in small dots of paint which create patterns and symbols.

The "Dreamtime" for Aboriginal people is the time which the earth received its present form and in which the patterns and cycles of life begun. The emu is the law keeper and protector of the law. This law if from the Dreamtime and cannot be changed unless the ancestors intervene.

There are gold emu tracks running from the bottom to the top of the painting. This was Chris's favorite.

Rocket Thomas

In this picture it would seem that Rocket was standing still like a good model birdy, but I was really shuffling back and forth with him as he wandered along the back of the couch. The chair in the background is a combination of an old chair they were getting rid of at work, a new chair cushion, and some brightly striped material I bought at a garage sale for $3. I love having the color in the room.

Trick or Treat

Trick or treating was actually on Halloween this year, but because they moved Daylight Savings it was still light out for the first hour. It seemed odd at first, but it was dark by 7 and it was nice walking around at dusk.

Daulton was an 'army guy' and Chris dressed the same. I opted not to dress up this year, but it was still as fun to see all the kids running around. Each year we meet at Michelle's house and trick-or-treat around her neighborhood while she passes out candy.

Daulton was on a mission this year, with hardly any complaining and a good deal of candy collected. There was a very little ninja we kept passing who said, "hi, soldier" each time he saw Daulton. It was so sweet.

He usually stays with us on Halloween, but this year Michelle kept him and Chris and I got to have a night out on the town. We stopped at an Irish bar where they have leather couches and a fireplace. They also have the best quesadillas I've ever tasted! Then we met friends who were out to see one of their favorite bands at the bar next door. Good times ensued!