Summer lovin'

This weekend seemed to be the perfect summer weekend. We had so much fun...and it's hard to believe it's time to go back to work already! But before we get to the weekend, here's what the rest of our week looked like:

Tuesday: Kim organized a puppy play date for all the office dogs (and their owners) at one of the local dog parks. Of course, it was 87 degrees on Tuesday, but there was a decent breeze, there was shade at the park, and they finally installed a doggie water fountain. Peanut had a good time playing with Doc, Duke, Ninja and Bailey. At one point, he "disappeared", and when Kim went to find him, he was taking a cat (dog?) nap. As soon as he realized Kim was standing there, though, he bolted across the park - as if to say "Mom, I'm not ready to go yet!"

On the home front, Eric was working with our favorite HVAC guys on the a/c. Yup, it still wasn't working correctly. It's a long, boring story, but the short of it is that after spending an hour in our sweltering attic they identified and solved the problem, and it's working like a charm now. The problem was apparently original to the house; it just never got caught until now.

Wedesday: After work we had our friends Mike and Katie over to grill out and play cornhole. Unfortunately, we lost. Guess we'll need to have more BBQs so we can practice!

Thursday: We met our friend Danielle for dinner. Since she's been busying studying to take a bar exam for a neighboring state, and we haven't gotten to see much of her lately.

Saturday: Ran errands in the morning, and did exciting home projects like cleaning out our dryer vent (you know you're jealous). Then we headed to Mike and Erin's to hang out, eat delicious pizza from a local pizza place and play Wii.

Sunday: Eric headed to his first soccer game (they lost) while Kim went to her parents' new house to help her dad unload some boxes. Afterwards, we jumped in the car and headed to the river to meet up with some friends for a 3 mile canoe trip. We had a blast! I definitely think that's an excursion we'll plan with friends again. Then Julia and Tony invited us to their place to grill out and go swimming. Needless to say, we're a bit tired tonight!



Current gas price: $2.43/gallon

Happy Father's Day!

Wow, here we are nearing the end of June already. Not sure how that happened so quickly!

Kim's parents were in town on a house-hunting mission last week. As it turns out, their search was successful, and it's likely they'll be our neighbors next month. Well, not technically our neighbor (or even in our neighborhood), but that's a minor detail. We enjoyed spending some time with them last week, and are looking forward to seeing them more often when they get settled. (We'll also get to see plenty of them next month as we've already been recruited to do some painting and tiling!)

This week, the weather finally decided it wanted to feel like summer. So on Thursday night, we decided to suck it up and finally turn on the a/c. It kicked on, we went to bed, and thought nothing else of it. Until we got home from work on Friday and it was hot in the house. And we mean HOT. Air was coming out of the vents, but it was lukewarm at best. Not a good sign. We called the guy who installed the new unit for us in the fall (a friend of a friend), and he suggested replacing the fuses in the a/c. So we ran to the hardware store, found the right fuses, came home, installed them, and waited. No dice. Fortunately, between the fans going full blast and the "cooler" night time air, we were able to fall asleep.

Saturday morning, we call the a/c guy back, but the earliest he can come over is after dinner. No problem. Kim worked in the flower bed and yard while Eric worked on some projects inside. Then we went to see The Hangover at the movie theatre. The movie started off on the wrong foot as all of the previews were for freakishly scary horror movies (No really, even Eric thought they were bad.). Who goes to see a comedy and wants to see trailers for scary movies? Shortly after we got home, the a/c guy came by. Unfortunately, he had an idea of what the problem was but wasn't equipped to fix it. He promised to send a co-worker over in the morning.

Bright and early this morning, two more a/c guys showed up. And an hour later, our a/c is working. Hooray! The problem had to do with the fact that it was a new a/c and sometimes too much pressure (?) gets in the line the first time it gets used, causing something inside the unit to trip. At least, I think that's what they said. But no matter...it's working now, and that's what counts.

We spent the rest of the day doing odd jobs around the house (recaulking around the sinks and bathtubs, cleaning the baseboards and other random things). Eric's at his first soccer game right now, but when he gets home, we'll be grilling steaks and enjoying the last few hours of the weekend. Happy Father's Day to all the dads, grandpas, and uncles out there.

Current gas price: $2.59/gallon

Whirlwind Weekend

The highlight of last week was our weekend - and our visits with family. Rather than use up a lot of words for this blog, we'll just share our weekend in pictures.

We left our house early Saturday morning and met Matt and Morgan for brunch at a quaint little cafe. Both the food and the company were excellent (Mmmm, berry crepes with chocolate).

Then we drove to see Eric's family, and got to spend a lot of time with our adorable little niece. Kim got to have a photo shoot with little Addison and ended up taking a LOT of pics. (With such a cute subject to work with, can you blame her?!).









On Sunday, we went to church and grilled out with family for lunch. Then all the girls attended Julie's baby shower while the boys...well, we're not quite sure what they did.









Current gas price: $2.65/gallon

Take us out to the ball game

The weather here was gorgeous this weekend; we hope you enjoyed the same thing! On Friday night, we met our friends Mike and Erin (and of course, little Leah) for dinner. Unfortunately, it was close to Leah's bedtime so we didn't get to hang out for long, but it was nice to catch up!

Saturday morning, Eric and Peanut headed to the vet while Kim headed to run errands. Peanut got a clean bill of health and four booster shots. He also has a shiny blue rabies vaccination tag for his collar. You can tell he thinks he's hot stuff ;)

After we both got home, we decided to go to The Greene for lunch. We sat outside to eat, and then headed over to the fountain in the square. We had a great time watching all the little kids run in and out of the fountain - and were amused to see some kids came prepared to play in the water (complete with swimsuits and goggles) while others obviously had not (in their frilly sundresses).

Not too much later, Kim's dad came by to pick us up, and we headed to the Reds/Cubs game. Kim's dad got tickets through his office and nicely invited us to join him. And boy are we glad we did! We didn't realize it until we got there, but the tickets were in the clubhouse, and it was a-ma-zing. There was a huge lobby area with free food (burgers, hot dogs, pizza, nachos, shrimp, pasta, pulled pork...you get the idea), so we sampled a little bit of everything.


Then we headed to our seats to watch the game. The starting pitcher was playing his first game in the major leagues, and he did a really good job.



And even better, he got a hit on his first at-bat, so his batting average was 1.000 (at least for two innings).


Today, we made our way to the Strawberry Festival - one of the biggest and tastiest of the season. Of course it was packed, but we managed to enjoy a wide variety of strawberry items (shortcake, ice cream, donuts, salsa, popcorn and lemonade are just a few of the many options).

[Editor's Update: Continuing with our baseball theme, Kim also got to have lunch with our friend Owen this week, who was in town for work. It was nice to catch up with him, and we're looking forward to seeing him again in October!]

Current gas price: $2.85/gallon.

Short week...short update

Well, if you survived reading about our vacation, we don't want to overwhelm you today! After getting back from our trip, it was a pretty low key week. We suffered insomnia as we readjusted to EDT (Eric worse than Kim), and muddled our way through a week of work. Oof!

Yesterday we worked in the yard, getting rid of all the weeds that had taken residence in our yard and mowing the lawn. It's pretty obvious we haven't gotten a lot of rain the past month - the lawn was much shorter in the past week than it has been in the past two months! We also took Peanut to the dog park, where he so badly wanted to play with two boxer "pups" (still double his size). The two boxers were play-fighting, and Peanut kept jumping in the middle of him...until finally they pounced on him. He was less than amused. Last night we also went to see Angels and Demons at the movie theatre. The movie was pretty good...though parts were gorier than they probably needed to be.

We spent most of today at a cookout with friends. It started at noon, and the party continued until 8. We enjoyed hanging out at the pool, grilling and spending time with friends. It's nice that it finally feels like summer now so we have plenty of opportunities to do this! That's about it from here. (See, told you it was short.)

Current gas price: $2.63/gallon.

Day 9 - Oahu redux

Saturday
Kim says: We knew this was going to be a long day. The ship docked back in Oahu at 7 a.m., but our flight home wasn't until 9:30 p.m. So rather than spend all day (literally!) in the airport, we rented a car for the day. Surprisingly enough, we ended up with a silver Dodge Avenger this time. Must have been out of red PT Cruisers.

We left our luggage in storage at the pier so we didn't have to worry about it all day and headed east to the Byodo-In Temple. The temple is an exact replica of a 950+ year old temple in Japan, and it's amazing. The whole place was very beautiful, and it felt very serene.



Next we headed up the coast, and followed that all the way around to the North Shore. It was fun to literally drive along the coast and watch the waves roll in as we drove past. There weren't many surfers out, but we enjoyed watching the water all the same!

On our way back towards Honolulu, we stopped at the Dole Plantation. We took the train ride around the plantation and then enjoyed some delicious pineapple ice cream. Seriously, they need to import that stuff!



After picking up our bags and dropping off the rental, it was time to head to the airport. Our flight was on time, which was good...but the screaming baby seated across the aisle from us was not so good. So much for sleeping on the overnight flight! The rest of the trip was uneventful, and Kim's dad picked us up at the airport.

All in all, it was a great trip - and we have 800 photos to prove it :) Don't worry...we probably won't make you look at all of them next time we see you!



Eric says: New car! Nice digs. Big Buddha. Surfs up. Mmmm pineapple ice cream. Want more. So tired. Quiet, baby! More tired. Finally home. Goodnight.

Day 7 and 8 - Kauai

Thursday
Kim says: This was one of our busiest days. We were off the ship as soon as it docked, and we picked up our rental car - a blue PT Cruiser. (See, told you there was a theme.) We then headed to Waimea Canyon, which is located on the west side of the island. Waimea Canyon is known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, and it was neat to see. You could make out waterfalls tucked away throughout the canyon, and you could even see goats making their way across the peaks and valleys.



Next, we headed to Spouting Horn and Poipu Beach on the southeast corner of the island. Spouting Horn is kind of like Old Faithful...waves from the ocean push water under a rockbed, and water spurts up out of a hole in the rock. The bigger the wave...the bigger the geyser. Poipu Beach was absolutely gorgeous, and it's also home to sea turtles and monk seals. Of course we didn't get to see any seals (bummer!), but we did see several turtles playing in the water.




Then we headed up the coast to Kiluea Lighthouse (northeast corner of the island). The lighthouse is one of the famous photos from Hawaii, and with good reason - that area is beautiful! We took lots of pictures and even saw a baby monk seal sunbathing on the rocks below the lighthouse.



We continued along the northern shore and stopped at the town of Hanalei, of Puff the Magic Dragon fame. (You know..."Puff the Magic Dragon lived by the sea, and frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Hanalei"). Then we searched for Queen's Bath, a very hidden spot in the middle of a residential area. We had to hike along a trail (and pass a waterfall!) to find it, but we made it. Queen's Bath is a really big tide pool located in between big rocks. When tide is out and waves are low, many people go swimming in it...but it can be really dangerous at high tide, when there are big waves, etc. But don't worry parents - we didn't actually get in the pool. We just photographed it from up high.



On the way back to the ship, we stopped at two huge and goregous waterfalls - Wailua Falls and Opeakaa Falls. These are definitely what you think of when you think "Hawaii waterfall."

Eric says: Ugly blue PT. Yodelayheehoo! *Sploosh* Turtles riding waves - cowabunga! Puff Draggy. I want to swim at the bath! Best. waterfalls. yet.

Friday
Kim says: Though we only had a half day on Kauai before the ship sailed, we decided to make the most of it. We took a kayak trip down the Wailua River to Jungle Falls. The trip was a lot of fun - even though our arms are still a little sore! We saw several locations used in movies (Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park, among others). Once we reached Jungle Falls, we were able to swim in the pool and even swim up to the falls...but the water was really cold!




Once we got back to the ship, we had the longest lull of the cruise (5 hours before anything interesting happened). But at 5 p.m., we began our "sail by" of the Na Pali Coast. The Na Pali Coast is along Kauai's northwest shore, and it's only accessible by air or by sea. The mountains are amazingly large and jagged, and they extend all the way to the coast. Portions of the Na Pali Coast were filmed in Fantasy Island, King Kong and 6 Days, 7 Nights.



Eric says: Paddle, paddle, paddle, splash, paddle, Raiders!, paddle, paddle, hike, JP waterfalls! Brrr it's cold! Swimming under the falls anyways! Excellent views, mediocre movies.