Back to Beantown, but just for the weekend

On Friday, September 10th, I headed up to Boston for a girls' weekend with good friend, Tiffany. She lives in Connecticut and had never been to Boston, and since its still feeling like over 100 in the South, Boston was the obvious winner of our weekend destination. We went just for fun and it worked out that it ended up being likely my last girls' weekend away before our little one joins us.

We didn't do much of the touristy stuff, mostly just walked around the city enjoying some good food, sites, and beautiful weather. We caught a great little stand up comedy show and stopped by my favorite Marshalls to try on some ridiculous dresses. Before heading home on Sunday we had some yummy Chinese food in Harvard Square. Overall a super fun weekend away.

The big news...which is not so new now.

As most of you already know, I am pregnant! Safely well into my 13th week now and starting to get my energy back. So now that its really public I can share my progress with all you friends and family here. A lofty idea since I already have two pregnancy journals that are barely written in. I'm not planning on posting too much pregnancy related stuff on Facebook, so this will be the place for all info about Baby Behan. I'll try to figure out how to scan my the sonogram photos onto here although I'm not quite sure you'll be able to see much of our little peanut. Looking forward to sharing all the progression of our little one!

Sophie's 2nd Birthday

On Saturday, August 14th, I went down to Ormond for a visit to mom and dad, and was able to make it to Sophie Fox's second birthday party. Michele and Dave Fox, Sophie's parents, are good friends of the family who live in Daytona Beach. It was my first time seeing the awesome pool addition Michele and Dave did last year, and got some good nursery tips from Michele.

A clean pond, deviled eggs, and a lot of laundry

This week we've been playing catch up from vacation. The junk e-mails have been deleted and the piles of laundry are slowly dwindling. When we tell people that we have a koy pond they always say "oh how cool", but they don't realize that its really a money/time pit, not a pond. Before we left on our trip the main filter and pump stopped working so we had to just leave two bubblers in for the fish. When we got home the pond was more algae than water. Paul spent an afternoon inside the pond cleaning it out, during which he killed about 500 tadpoles (don't worry at least 1,000 still survived), and one of the koy jumped out of its holding bin and into our pool. Thanks to Stella for barking at the fish and letting Paul know it had jumped into the pool!

My office has started doing a monthly themed pot luck lunch, and June's theme was Southern. I made deviled eggs for the first time, and have decided I must have them every week now because they really are just that delicious. This week has really not been all that exciting....but I had to write something for the week...so stay tuned for next week.

What happens in Vermont stays in Vermont, althought nothing ever happens

This past week was our annual trip to Lake George, NY with Paul's family. This year we added a few days in Vermont before heading down to the Lake. We had an early morning flight to Albany and drove to Rutland, VT for our first night. Rutland was probably the most commercialized town we were in our entire trip, although it was still pretty small and picturesque. I think the GPS we borrowed was set on secondary roads only b/c we never got near a highway. It was amazing how cute the little towns were, each with a historic general store and huge colonial houses and farms. Our next stop was Quechee for a hot air balloon festival where we met up with my parents (who happened to be taking a very similar vacation a the same time). We did some hiking, ate some local farm-fresh food, and had a very relaxing time wandering through Vermont with no schedule. Our last stop was Stowe/Waterbury where we hit up the Ben & Jerry's factory and the Von Trapp family lodge. We ended the trip with lunch with one of Paul's fraternity brothers in Burlington and then took the ferry across Lake Champlain into New York.

Lake George was warmer than its ever been so we spent a lot more time in the water. I learned to drive the new jet ski and Paul and I got the crap beat out of us on the new two person tube. We did some golfing and had a great breakfast at the Sagamore. After some arguments with the cranky guests upstairs and a visit from the Lake George fire department (for a carbon monoxide alarm with a bad battery), Noel was the winner of the annual Sponge Bob Square Pants Putting Invitational.

Overall the weather was great, and it was a fun an relaxing week. Now we just need to buy a vacation place in Vermont!

Engagement Party

Last night I had the pleasure of co-hosting an engagement party for my sorority big sister, Jenn, and her girlfriend, Austin. The party was at a coffeehouse/winebar in downtown Jacksonville. We had lots of yummy cakes (with lots of leftovers) and champagne. I think Jenn & Austin had a good time and it was nice to see some old friends too. Here's just a few photos.

Baby It's Hot Outside!

After two weeks of temps in the 90's the heat is here to stay...at least until November that is. Paul has adjusted to it much better than me since he has been spending nearly all of his free time working on the yard, the pool, or the pond. The backyard has been sodded, the pool has been cleaned, and our garden is growing nicely. Unfortunately it is so dang hot outside now that we mostly enjoy it from the view from the living room. Paul is going to start freezing bottles of water to put in the pool to cool it down.
Since we watched the documentary, Food Inc., we've been focused on eating organic dairy, wild seafood, and grass fed meat, so we've been hitting up the Fernandina Farmer's Market for the past two weeks. So far we've had all natural grass fed beef and pork and it was delicious! We've been bringing Mr. Tups with us to the market to try to get him socialized and I think he really enjoys his Saturday morning outing.
My parents came up for a quick visit last weekend to bring their new doggie, a rat terrier-chihuahua mix, to meet Stelly & Tups. As of now the dog's name is Sushi, but changes pretty frequently. Stella largely ignored Sushi but Tups was not so welcoming. They'll get to like her soon enough when she and Dixie (my parents' springer spaniel) come to visit in a few weeks.
This weekend I'll be co-hosting an engagement party in Jacksonville and we'll be getting ready for our trip to Vermont and Lake George. We're looking forward to the low humidity and chilly lake!