Anniversary

I have a little catching up to do.

For our anniversary, we decided to get away to Cape May, a darling little shore town on the southern tip of New Jersey. On our first evening there, we got to check out the fireworks in Wildwood while enjoying some funnel cake (yum).

We also rode the ferris wheel,

and Zack whomped me at a game of medieval themed glow in the dark mini golf. Good times.

The next day, we started our day with some shopping and a yummy lunch at a Cape May fish place.

After that, we went on a whale watching tour.

It was 3 hours. Unfortunately, all the action was basically packed into the first 45 minutes. We saw lots of dolphins,

but then we headed out into the ocean for a long way, and saw absolutely no whales. Boooo. Stupid whales. After that, we headed back to Wildwood to ride some more rides (3 roller coasters and a sky ride), and I beat Zack in glow in the dark 3D pirate themed mini golf.

Okay, so he actually did better than me, but I nailed the last hole and won a free game and the guy standing there also said that it took a certain number of strokes off my score. It turned out to be just enough to win! By that time, the day was winding down, so we headed back to the hotel. I had gotten so sunburned despite my ridiculous huge pink hat and sunblock applications. I looked ridiculous because I had the sunglasses marks around my eyes, where it didn't get burned. Thankfully, it faded quite fast and I didn't look so dumb even as early as the next morning.

The next day was our actual anniversary. We had been planning to sit on the beach that day, but it was a little overcast, and we weren't sure the weather would hold, so we decided to hit up a small zoo nearby instead. We had a great time.

Lion (we heard this guy growling like crazy for a little bit, which was pretty great)

Zebras (see 'em clear back there?)

Bear

Turtles

Cheetahs

After the zoo, we stopped at one of those Texas themed chain restaurants and we ate delicious fattening foods and watched a show about people doing way stupid things on motorcycles, bikes, skateboards, etc. Hee hee. At home, we swapped anniversary gifts. I got Zack a video game and he got me some new cases for my cell phone. All in all, a nice celebration of our 4 wonderful years together.

A random post

We are thrilled to be enjoying the fun time of year when lots of new people move into the ward. This year, we are lucky enough to get several couples who are in about the same stage of life as we are. We are really enjoying making some new friends. Last weekend, we got 4 couples together and headed down to the beach for a day of fun. And fun it was. We are also pleased that another couple that will be in our ward has moved into our building. Woo hoo!

I cannot believe August is almost over. Where did the summer go?

I am absolutely not wishing summer away, but I am excited for some upcoming events, including my birthday, our trip to Utah for Megan's wedding, and, of course, Halloween.

Speaking of Halloween, lots of stores are already selling stuff for the holiday, which means it's that time of year when I need to stay home, lock my doors, hide my credit card.

It's interesting how life can be so good and so difficult all at the same time. Have you ever felt like that? Sometimes I just feel so overwhelmed by the number of things that are uncertain, imperfect, or seem to be just not working out. But all the while, I know I am blessed with an awesome husband, a great home, fabulous friends, a job and steady income when so many are struggling. It makes me feel guilty for ever feeling bad about the way things go in life.

Fruit snacks will always hold a special place in my heart, but I think they are on the way out of my diet. I think they are at least 20% responsible for the spare tire around my waist.

Anyone tried out the crackle nail polish that seems to be popping up everywhere nowadays? I'm intrigued... but not convinced that it actually works.

I just finished reading The Help. Now I can go see the movie with my man and see what I think. Date night this week? Check. I highly recommend the book, if you haven't read it. And if you live nearby, you can borrow my copy if you want.

Can you tell I'm home alone while my hubs enjoys a man's night out with one of his buddies?

This one also came off my cell phone but I thought it deserved its own post because I think it's my favorite Oliver picture of all time. It was pouring rain and pretty cold but it was free cone day at Ben and Jerry's so we went with the Becks for some free ice cream. This is Oliver's "I'm cold" face. Everything about it is just so great... the face, the hat, the ice cream all over, the napkins tucked into his jacket.... Love it!

From my cell phone

I just uploaded the pictures from my phone onto my computer. Here is a random sampling of some of the photos that were on there. They were taken over the past several months.

Here's me taking a picture of Oliver pretending to take a picture of me.

Not really current events, but I got a kick out of it anyway.

The Haunted Mansion at Disneyworld in Florida.

A game of bowling on our most recent trip to Utah. Wow, we suck. And Zack whomped us.

A book I want to read.

Fountain show in Atlantic City

The Toms that I want

The mayor at the park during our ward party.

Isn't he the cutest little kid you've ever seen?

This is Oliver on the morning that his little sister Madeline was born. He stayed the night at our house while mom and dad were at the hospital. He just looked so cute.

A sign that a family member put on a hamper at work. I took a picture of it for Zack so that we could complain about all the grammatical and punctuation errors together. The name of the family has been covered for privacy reasons.

Chow time!

An awesome hat. I need one.

Zack holding baby Madeline.

I got into this itty bitty little space by parallel parking. Zack didn't even have to do it for me!

What you'll find in my pockets (or around my neck) during a day at work.

Hard to believe it's been 4 whole years. Happy anniversary to my fabulous husband.

Pittsburgh (A long post)

Since I worked the 4th of July, my job owed me a paid holiday, and that happened to fall on this weekend. Since I had a 3 day weekend, we decided to head out to Pittsburgh. We were planning on going later this fall with Zack's parents, but Zack's sister got engaged so we will be in Utah at that time instead (so exciting! Congrats to Megan and Jeff). Since we don't get to go then, we thought we'd check it out now.

The way out was a little rough. We left around traffic time anyway, and there were a couple of accidents on the freeway. That led to the worst traffic we have ever experienced. We were basically just stopped on the freeway for a long time. It took us over 2 hours to go the first 14 miles of our 300 mile trip. Yuck! We finally made it there several hours later than planned, but safe.

On Friday, it was hot hot hot and very humid, but we braved the weather anyway. We started the day with a walking tour that we downloaded onto our ipods. That was a good way to do it because we could go at our own (slow) pace and stop frequently to walk around an air conditioned store or to get a slurpee. We did see some cool and fun stuff.

This is the courthouse. It used to be a jail.

I just thought this building looked cool.

Zack with a triceratops ketchup bottle. Random? I think so.

This was me in the plaza near the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company building. In front of me was a big ol' skyscraper that looked very similar to the glass building behind me in the picture. I think it was my favorite Pittsburgh skyscraper-- not really very cute, but unique, and interesting as basically a giant advertisement. A glass company should have a giant glass skyscraper as a headquarters.

Zack in the eyeball park.

On our tour, we stopped at 2 side by side churches. Both had lovely stained glass windows. Here's one from the first church we went in.

Here's the tower to that church.

And a view of the outside.

Church #2's interior.

Cool stained glass.

There is a small cemetery between the churches, and there is a Native American chief who died in the 1700s buried there. Pretty cool.

Although the walking tour ended up taking longer than we planned because of the heat and our pace, we really enjoyed it.

Next we decided to go on a boat tour. Pittsburgh is where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet to make the Ohio river, which made for a great little boat tour. We went on one of these (except ours was the Duchess).

Here's Zack with PNC Park, home of the Pirates.

This is a memorial to Mr. Rogers. Someone figured out how to put a red sweater on the statue, which depicts Mr. Rogers changing his shoes.

A skyline view from the boat

The Duquesne incline, which takes you up Mt. Washington.

After we got off the boat, we decided to go up the Monongahela Incline. We picked that one because it was right near where we caught the boat. Unfortunately it was not working. Here I am right by it. I was exhausted at that point.

So we decided to take a much needed break for some food.

After we ate, we thought we'd be all refreshed and ready for more, but heat like that sure takes a lot out of you, and I realized that I was going to need to rest for a while, so we headed back to the hotel and got there just in time to miss a pouring rainstorm. Here's a view from our hotel window. It's kind of hard to capture rain in a picture.

After a little r&r, we headed off to PNC Park for a Pirates game.

It's a cool park, right on the water, with a cool view of the skyline.

The game was perfect. A storm moved in and delayed it for about a half hour, but it also cooled it down to about 74 degrees. Still muggy, but much more bearable than before. The Pirates lost to the Cardinals, but it was a good game and we really had a great time.

The next day, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed, and since it was a long drive home, we didn't do a whole ton. But we were able to go up the Duquesne Incline.

In the car on the way up the incline. Pretty much sums up my mood.

After that, we hit up a shopping district known as The Strip. And finally, we got a famous Primanti Brothers sandwich. Your meat of choice on Italian bread with tomatoes, coleslaw, and french fries (all on the sandwich). I skipped the coleslaw since I hate it, but the sandwich was very good. We wish we could've stayed longer and seen more. Maybe next time.