Guys and their Games

Kimberly and Haley are both busy this weekend so I'm here with Matt and Brian. They are busy shooting things up with their loud game. And I'm trying to stay busy on the computer, but you can only check your emails and blogs so many times before you start getting bored. I really wish some girls were here to talk to :)

On a side note: My teaching job is going really well. I like my co-teacher and we have met almost all of our students we'll have. It's been a busy week trying to learn the curriculum and get our room ready for the new year. The kids didn't come today so we could clean the classroom and put up our bulletin boards. Hopefully this is the start of a GREAT year!!

Dental School BBQ

We went to the annual Dental School Kick-Off BBQ about a week ago. This is the second year we have gone and it's a lot of fun every time. They have pulled pork and chicken sandwiches, baked beans, coleslaw, potato salad, and yummy desserts. Since there are so many students that have kids, they also had a moon bounce and an inflatable basketball game. It was fun to see a lot of Matt's classmates and all the new little ones that have been added since last year.

The guys also enjoyed playing with a life-size operation game.

Afterwards we went to Brian and Kimberly's for some games.

Two New Babies

There have been two new babies added to our family in the month of August. My brother, Curt, welcomed Alexia on the 9th. She shares a birthday with Justin. In my family we now have 6 people that share their birthday with someone else. kind of crazy! And Matt's sister, Ann welcomed Melody on the 15th. Congrats you guys! We love you and wish we could be there to hold them (if only it didn't cost so much to fly). This is when 2100 miles seems REALLY far away. Give them lots of hugs and kisses for us :)

Also, if anyone has pictures and would like to send them, we would love it so much!

{a new chapter}

Tommorow I will start a new chapter in my teaching career. I accepted a preschool position at a private preschool. This job comes with a pay cut, but hopefully it will come with benefits that my last job didn't have. I'm excited to work with new children and have new experiences.

Our Anniversary in DC

Thank you to all those who wished us a happy anniversary! Yes, it has been 5 years since we got married and we're still loving it. We celebrated this year in DC, one of our favorite places. The Saturday before our anniversary we drove up to DC to check out some exhibits that we hadn't before. Our first stop was the travelling exhibit on Jim Henson. It was really cool - we saw Bert and Ernie and others from Sesame Street, Kermit the Frog, props and costumes from The Dark Crystal, and stuff from some films we'd never heard of before. He was such a great guy. It's sad he died so early in his life. We had fun reminiscing our childhood and watching all these great shows and characters. (they didn't allow any photography so that's why I don't have any pictures)

We then wandered around to a few different art museums to find some interesting art Matt had read about in the Weird Virginia book. One of these weird things was a collections of sculptures made entirely of scraps of paper, wood, aluminum foil, and other materials. It's called "The Throne of the Thir Heaven" built by James Hampton. The picture really doesn't do it justice. That thing was HUGE.

Another thing we read about was a statue that was named "Black Aggie." It was originally placed over a gravesite but apparently there were all sorts of creepy things that happened whenever people went to see it. So it was later moved to the museum.

There was one more thing that we tried to find - a miniature replica of a navy fleet- but we think they must have moved it somewhere.

It was fun to see some parts of DC that we haven't been to before. The art museum was not in the Smithsonian Mall so it took us a while to find it.

After we saw all the art we wanted to we went to IKEA for dinner. We just can't get enough of their meatballs.

On our actual anniversary we went to my favorite sandwich place - Quizno's. Then we just relaxed at home and watched "Now I Pronounce You Chuck and Larry." Let me just tell you...not worth the time. We both agreed that we could do away with ever watching it again. It was funny at times, but only because I like the two main actors.

Happy Birthday Kimberly

Kimberly's birthday was quite a while ago but I still wanted to post these pictures that I took. We celebrated by going out to eat at Panera Bread. This Panera is really cool because it has a pond next to it with lots of fish, geese and ducks, and a beaver. We were lucky enough to see the beaver this time.

Then we went back to their house for some ice cream cake. Mmmm.

NOTE: Matt's smile is a little

different because of the skin graft he recently had on his front bottom teeth.

The surgery went really well and all his stitches have come out.

Road Trip - Last Days in Richmond

We got back to Richmond the night {or morning, really (2am)} of the 22nd. The next day we made the traditional stop at Mike's for lunch. We checked out the American Civil War Center where we learned about the battles and weaponry of that time. Then we went down to the James River. It was cloudy and sprinkling while we were driving so we figured that would be the forecast for the rest of the day. Without packing swim gear in the car, we headed to the river. Only to find out that the clouds went away and the sun was teasing us as we dipped just our hands and feet in the water. And Candice only cooled off one foot because she stubbed a toe on the other one pretty bad. But we had fun watching other people swim and a group of river rafters get stuck on the rocks. We were laughing pretty hard when they almost fell out of their raft.

Whew....and that's the end of our AWESOME road trip. We had so much fun and so glad that Jason and Candice could spend it with us! Where are we going next?!?

Happy Birthday Bud!!

We don't know if you read our blog or not but we wanted to tell you Happy Birthday. We saw this car this morning and thought of you. We love you. Happy 20th!!

Camping in the living room

For the past few days we have both been getting itchy bumps on our feet and ankles. We thought it might be bug bites so we didn't think much of it. Then Matt's bumps got more and more numerous so we knew it was something else. Fleas! We have been vacuuming and spraying flea killing spray all night in hopes of killing them off. The weird thing is we haven't really seen any actual fleas, just the irritating red bites they leave behind. Then Brian and Kimberly came over and they helped us spot three fleas in our bedroom. So that is why we are camping out in the living room tonight. This is so frustrating ---we don't even have an animal to explain the fleas! Management will be getting a call from us in the morning.

Road Trip - Boston

Goodness, it's about time I finish up all these road trip posts...After our awesome whale watching trip, we drove down to Boston. When we got to Boston we noticed something a little strange. Look at the picture and see if you notice it.

There were people driving, at freeway speeds, down the emergency lane! I've never seen this before. I wonder if Boston is the only city that does this.

We got to Boston around dinner time so we got to our hotel (which was only $60 on Priceline-love that!) and then found the nearest Panera Bread to look up some good sights to see, and to find directions to a camera store I was hoping to go to :)The next morning Jason discovered that our room had a ledge by the window, so he had his breakfast drink up there. We drove down to the docks and some warehouses where the camera store was supposed to be. And we splurged and bought my camera bag! I'm still have a little buyer's remorse for getting it, but I'm really glad I did. I love it!

We decided that Boston was the city with the most interesting, and modern architecture. We were amazed by the shapes of some of these buildings. There were also lots of cool buildings that you know have been around for a LONG time.

We went to Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market for some snacks and souvenier shopping, of course.

We also did the Freedom Trail which included Faneuil Hall, Old State House, Boston Massacre site, King's Chapel and Burying Ground, State House, and the Boston Common (along with some other sites that we didn't see).

Candice and I dipped our toes in the frog pond while the guys (with their shoes and socks) sat on the grass and watched.

We took a ride on a Swan Boat ran by a paddler. It was a short ride in the canal and well worth the price tag of $2.75.

We had lunch at the original Cheers. And, yes they knew our names! OK not really, but that would have been cool.

After lunch, we got in the car and drove about 10 hours through Connecticut, New York (at rush hour-that was fun), New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and finally back to Richmond.