Laundry

Jack and Milo make folding laundry more interesting. They love to lay on clean clothes. Why??? Who knows! :)

Boating

Last summer, right before our wedding, Ev suggested we rent a boat and go skiing and tubing. He and I had talked about it once or twice but we never followed through and planned anything. When he suggested it before the wedding, we were able to make it happen. All of the guys from the wedding party (minus one who couldn't make it) went out together and had a blast.



While on our honeymoon, we rented a boat for a day in Virginia (I am pretty sure we had planned this prior to the pre-wedding excursion, though maybe not...). We got up insanely early (as I remember it, it was like 4am - reading back in the blog would reveal the truth, but let's assume it was 4am) and drove 3 hours down the interstate. The whole day out on the water was awesome and so relaxing - just out to do our own thing.



Lastly - sometime in September, we went back to the lake in PA (Wallenpaupack) with some friends. We got a much more powerful boat than the first time (and half the people were ladies this time, which significantly reduces the total weight...) and had a blast again. Getting up at 4 to leave by 5 to be at the boat place by 8am was torture. Then when you are all worn out from being out on the water all day, you get to sit in the car and drive 3 hours home (in the dark).



We had tossed around the idea of getting a boat but never did any real research into the costs to find out what all was involved. The first weekend in February, we went to the Atlantic City Boat Show (ask Beth about dropping the anchor from the yacht!). It was funny to watch Bethany visualize having all her friends together out on the water as she checked out different boats. We looked around and paid close attention to details so we could figure out what we liked and what we didn't.



After the boat show, to capitalize on Bethany's receptiveness, I checked around the used boat market online (eBay, Craigs List, local marina websites, and other used boat places) and read up on stuff. A few weeks later, we found a listing for a boat that met all of our criteria and was priced right. It looked to be in great condition and so we talked it over (and over, and over!) and finally got in touch with the guy to get more details.



It was a long process, but we finally arranged to meet him at the place where the boat was stored and check it out. That was crazy - it was weird thinking that we were seriously persuing it. After our trip down there, we made arrangements with a "marine surveyor" to come down and inspect it so he could tell us what condition it was in (mechanically, etc) - since we would have no idea what to look out for.



On Wednesday, we made an offer (conditional on the surveyor not finding any problems) and the seller accepted it. Crazy! The surveyor was supposed to meet us and the seller at the boat today but something happened and he never showed! Yes - EXTREMELY disappointing. We are waiting to hear what happened and to set something else up.

I was excited to leave this morning... We were waiting downstairs for my dad to get here before we left.

Here's a picture of the boat:

Bethany trying to turn on the radio (and pretending to drive the boat through the field):

I was pretty annoyed when the surveyor never showed up. We stood around for 2 hours waiting... impatiently!

Our Family

The cats love the stick end of their feather toy...we don't know why... :) This is the feather end. Milo has the "crazy-eye" look.
Milo
It started like this. Milo sat in Jack's favorite spot.
Then they fought over it,
and Jack became plate king again.
Milo

The love of my life.
Milo and I trying to take a picture.


Which toy do I want....box handle or dental toy from mom and dad?

Second batch of Florida Pictures

These are some of the pictures from our camera before it died.

Palm tree!

Pelican airing out his armpits and a seagull that let me get close to him.
St. Petersburg Marina
Jonathan chasing a giant bird.
More palm trees! I loved them!
St. Petersburg from the lookout at the Pier.
Steve and I
Oranges on the tree by the house we were staying in.
One of the beaches we visited.
Another one of the beaches.

Chili

Had to share...
I put in the effort and made homemade chili tonight. It smells fantastic and has about 15 more minutes to simmer and then it's done.

The recipe is simple enough. Brown meat, add this and that. Little tiring, though, since there are quite a few ingredients. I will post the recipe if it turns out as good as it smells. It will also need to get a thumbs up from the hubby.

Update:
Yup, definitely a keeper!

This is from the allrecipes.com website. This chili was rated by 669 people and got all 5 stars. You can read the reviews.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Boilermaker-Tailgate-Chili/Detail.aspx

Florida Pictures

Here are just a few Florida pictures from Molly's camera!

PELICANS!
Awesome tree near the Art Museum in Tampa.
Me and my best buddy
Molly and I


Chillin'
Attacked by seagulls. They wanted my pb&j sandwich.
At Bonefish Grill for Molly's birthday. Great food!

Good and Bad

During vacation in Florida, our camera died. The day that it was incredibly windy on the beach, I had taken it out for a few seconds to take some pictures (wasn't the smartest idea). I accidentally turned in to the wind, which launched a ton of sand into the lens. After a few tries, we got it to turn on again, but it stopped focusing and eventually stopped working all together.

Well, TODAY our new camera came in the mail. It's a much nicer one than we had before, but not quite as nice as the kind we considered getting with wedding money during our honeymoon. My first (not so willing) subjects were Jack and Milo (who by the way are doing very well and fill our days with so many hilarious moments).

They hate being kept outside our bedroom at night and in the morning. We've tried to leave our door open so they can stay with us, but they jump on our legs and eat our toes under the covers. Way before our alarm even goes off, they scratch and meow at our door until we get up. Jack has started jumping for the door handle which makes a terribly loud noise. It's cute to see that he wants to be near us, but it's so annoying! We're not quite sure what to do...

Well anyway, here are two pictures of the rascals. I was trying to test the zoom and macro features on the new camera.

Milo-

Jack-