Love it!

Lots of Love in Pittsburgh, PA

Eric and I got to see one of my BFFs from college, Allison! She and Justin have three kids now, one of which was the flower girl in our wedding. Allie is super-mom. I just don't know how she does it. All she has to say to her 3 and 6-year-old is "Go wash up and go to bed." ...and they do it! No fussing or complaining. Amazing. They live in Pittsburgh while Justin finishes his residency. Here's a slice of her life and a picture-story of our time with her.

Here's C digging. He does this all. the. time.
We took the kids to Allie's friend's house and hung out with the slip-n-slide.
Here's E, the newest member of the family. Precious!
Here's the other E (our flower girl).
C got mad. Isn't his mad face just the cutest thing you've ever seen?
Eric and I babysat the second night. Some of Eric's friends from Harding got to come over (and help change a really poopy diaper), and we got to play "Settlers of Catan" after the kids went to bed. I love this game. If anyone wants to purchase it for me, go ahead. :)

Here's E's school. It is a magnet school for the arts. She earned the Principal's Award for the year! What a smartie!

A normal lunch for us before rest time...
After rest time, we all painted shirts. I brought out my paints and some boards, and we had so much fun. C got a bit frustrated because his picture didn't look like a shark...so I added one, and the shirt turned out pretty cool! Allie wants to title it, "Mommy's little chaos." Pretty appropriate...
Since the paints were out, we decided to do a bit of face-painting.
Here's C and E with their finished products. E is quite the upcoming artist!
Here we all are! Allie even did a shirt. She has three butterflies on her shirt, each representing her kids and what they like to do. E's had a ballet slipper and an art palette. C's had an airplane and a shark tooth. Little E's had a peace sign and a heart because he's a really easy-going baby. My t-shirt may have to be donated... It has a huge flower on it with a leaf, but I really don't like how it turned out...
After our dinner that night, we took Justin his dinner at the hospital. The kids LOVE going up to the hospital to see their daddy. He was on call that night, so that's the last Eric and I got to see him. But we did get to spend quite a bit more time with him than we thought (even though the pics don't show it).
Matt and Adam, Justin really does exist!
Afterwards, we played in their backyard awhile, dancing to Top 40 songs. Here's Eric flying the kids around like airplanes. He had so much fun with them.
I love this girl!
The morning we left, we got to spend more time with Eric's friends, John and Amber. They met us for breakfast at 6am! What great people. :)
Next stop: Chicago!

Happy Second Year!

Eric and my second anniversary is today (Tuesday, June 22). So, yesterday, we decided to celebrate by driving to Hershey, PA. Here we are going through Connecticut again...Then through a beautiful stretch of New York, including crossing the Hudson River.
Then on to Pennsylvania. What beautiful country up here! There are so many mountains and trees. It's gorgeous.
We stopped by in Scranton...ha!
Doo dooooooo na na na na naaaaaa bum bum dodee dodee dooo dooooooooo na na na na naaaaaa.....
We had "the good kind of pizza" at Alfredo's Pizza Cafe...although it really was pretty disgusting. The cheese they used was white, but it tasted like they opened up some sandwich singles and placed them over the spaghetti sauce, topped it with a few pepperonies, and baked it. Blechk.
We finally made it to Hershey, Pennsylvania. What better way to spend our anniversary than eating way more chocolate than we should! We began this part of our trip with a visit to the new Hershey Story Museum.
Eric is learning at the feet of Milton Hershey. Thanks, Milt!
We decided to taste chocolates from around the world and compare their flavors. I'm really glad we split this, but it was fun to have dessert before dinner.
We both really liked the Java caramel-like one on the far right. The others were really yummy, too, and reminded me of the hot cocoa Jenny and I ordered in France one winter. Remember, Jen?Here's my creation. I added krispies to the bottom of it and sprinkles around the front edge. Mmmm!
Eric is hard at work. He added krispies, marshmallows, and white chocolate pieces.
Here we are with our finished creations. This was really fun. :)
Haha, the lightposts are kisses!
Mmmmmm....
After our chocolate-bar-making, we met up with my college friend, Jennifer, and her awesome family, Chad and Hudson.
Hudson was my little buddy. Man, that kid is cute!
We really enjoyed catching up with them, and we're so excited that they're moving to the Dallas area in two weeks (about the same time we get home).

After dinner, we went to Chocolate World...

This one's for Mom -- I'm sitting on Twizzlers! :)
We ended our evening of chocolate with the free tour at Chocolate World. It was really cute with singing cows and everything. But it was definitely a tourist trap. Once you leave, you get thrown in to this HUGE store with all of the combinations of Hershey's chocolate, t-shirts, pillows, home decorating ideas...you name it. Luckily, we got our goodies at the museum (a magnet and some goodies for Allie's kids).
Happy anniversary, SWEETIE! :)

Guitar Don

I forgot to include one of our FAVORITE memories here in Newburyport. Uncle Don got out his guitar yesterday afternoon and we all had a fun singalong. I think Eric felt truly comfortable as he was singing along rock-band-style most of the time. I was resting my eyes on the couch, half-way conscious, but when a song would come up that I actually knew, I'd harmonize my little heart out. It was so fun. Uncle Don needs to bring his guitar to Christmas...hint hint...

Newburyport, Part 2!

I think most of our time in Newburyport has been spent eating! ...and then walking...

Here's our view from a table for lunch on Saturday. It was great because we could leash Max up to the fence and still watch him. MANY people came by to meet him and say hi.
After every good meal (in which we over-eat), we have to take a walk. So, we tried out the Rail Trail. It was an old railroad for the town that has been paved over and made into a walking trail. Unfortunately, it was REALLY hot outside. Max got a bit overheated and we had to head back. Poor boy! Plus, Aunt Christy and I got a bit dehydrated and weren't feeling very well...
So, we napped all afternoon and enjoyed some relaxation time. It is vacation, after all!

For dinner, we went to Plum Island. Here's Eric with his Lobster Bisque (ha! -- it was actually Lobster and Corn Chowder, but my TND friends will get the joke).
We all walked on the beach afterwards. Aunt Christy and I felt a lot better after drinking 3 or 4 glasses of water at dinner.
When we drove back, we had to wait for a sailboat to pass and the bridge to go back down.
Here's our view as we wait on the bridge:
Saturday night, we had (more) ice cream and watched "Book of Eli." I HIGHLY recommend that movie. It's one where you have to practically re-watch the entire thing again -- definitely kept us thinking.

Sunday, Eric and I decided to meet up with some of my college friends Houston and Kelly Shearon. It was so good to catch up with them and meet little Emerson. He's a cutie with his matching hat. It was also Houston's first Father's Day. Yay!
Here's what I ordered. YUM-MY!
When we got back to Christy & Don's, we picked some fresh raspberries in their garden and Max got to take a little swim. :)
THEN, we went to see a Vintage Baseball Game! It was so cool! The teams wore vintage baseball outfits, had NO gloves, and played by the 1860 rules. It started raining, so we all rushed into the tents, umpire and all. When we went back out, we noticed that the teams were still playing (without the ump! ha!).
I love this pic of the game. We bought a vintage baseball to commemorate the experience. Field of Dreams, anyone?
Since it started raining, we cut our time there short and Uncle Don drove us back to Plum Island. We saw this awesome lighthouse...
...and hiked a cool trail to see the salt marshes and estuaries. Almost the entire island is a native bird sanctuary. Of course, as soon as we left the baseball game, the rain stopped, but we enjoyed our hike.
The whole hike was on this neat boardwalk. I don't think we would have enjoyed a hike IN the marshes...
We came home, and I had to get a picture with my new-to-me dress on Aunt Christy's super-cute cruiser bike. :) (This pic is for Grandma Jo.)
We went to dinner at a yummy Texas BBQ place (I know, I know...), and had to go on another LONG walk afterwards.

Eric and I had so much fun here in Newburyport, and we can't wait to come back sometime.

Thanks, Aunt Christy, Uncle Don, and Cousin Max!
Now we're off to the land of chocolate, Hershey, PA! :) Chocolate World, here we come!