Sweet Escape

Upon seeing this, I immediate thought of this. Anybody else feeling it? Just checking.

Family Vacations Rule

These are my favorites out of my pictures from a 4-day family trip at the Oregon Coast last week. The weather was warm and the company was great. I'll write more about the trip when I get Cindy's pics up, because she got some good ones. In the meantime, I need to go to bed.

Summertime Home Improvement

Inside and out we are making changes! Back when we remodeled the kitchen, we had our designer imagine some updates to our living and dining room. Mostly that was paint color recommendations and moving some stuff around. These colors, the adobe red called "Carrot Cake" and muted yellow called "Coin Purse" (who names these things?), are in the palettes of what she suggested but not the exact colors. The original "red" was a bit too orangy and since our bedroom is already orange, we wanted to get a bit farther away from it. But back in early April we were thoroughly spent by the kitchen activities so we waited a few months to take up the project again. Invigorated by use of a much more efficient kitchen and missing chaotic piles o' sh*t stacked in the living room, we decided to delve back in. Prior to leaving for the East Coast we called our favorite painters C&C Painting Company and scheduled them to come over when we returned. What a wonderful job they did! I think we'll be spend our 4th of July moving things around and figuring out the new arrangement. Which is totally fine with me because it's supposed to rain. And because we like to "multi-task" so much, on the outside we are finishing what we started. Two years ago we had two sides of our house and our chimney tuckpointed. It was a dirty endeavor but very important. All I have to say is that this needs to be finished in time for our BBQ at the end of the month.

Week in the East

Lest we forget that prior to the weddings, Ken and I were on the East Coast seeing family and friends. Ken was over initally for a conference in Baltimore, MD then I joined him at the end of the week. Below you will see parts of our whirlwind visit. Ken's young nephews, Sam & Ryan were staying with Ken's folks since their parents were on a cruise. We had a great time with them and were delighted at how smart and good natured they were. We played board games, went tubing out on the boat, played video games, watched Sponge Bob Square Pants, caught fireflies and ate things we shouldn't have. Dave came and visited us in Onancock too. The morning we left to go back to Baltimore, Ken created a game for the boys that involved written clues and hidden "treasure." It was very much like what my parents used to do for us on Easter. They would create a series of clues that lead to one another, with the ultimate clue leading to a basket of goodies. In this case, the boys went from clue to clue solving word or visual puzzles that Ken had made and the ultimate prize was something any kid can use: $4 each. But they seemed to really get into it and the clues were designed so that the brothers ages 8 & 10 had to work together to solve the problems. It was fun watching them figuring things out. We were told by Ken's mom that the morning after, the boys woke up and asked her if she had another treasure hunt for them planned. Sorry guys. Dan-o and Baby Hannah Also during our visit we saw our good friends the Vaslows, who recently moved from here to Maryland to be closer to their families now that they have Hannah. It was great to see them since the last time was in April. We also had lunch and hung out in Baltimore's Fells Point with Krim, Ken's artist friend. Krim is such a character as you can probably tell from the photos. He had great stories and a unique perspective that is honest and refreshing. As blogged earlier, we celebrated our 3rd anniversary over there. Ken picked out this very picturesque B&B for us to stay at in the Greenspring Valley of Maryland, near Baltimore. This house has a great deal of history in terms of the various owners and refurbishments that have been done to it. It was a lovely overnight and the swing was so picture perfect. Our 3rd Anniversary @ Gramercy Mansion Ken rocks the swing @ Gramercy Mansion In addition to all this, we saw Ken's Uncle Jack & Aunt Chris, spent quality time with Ken's Mom & Step-dad, had lunch with Aunt Mary in Washington DC, saw his brother's new house and most importantly Ken managed to keep up on his running schedule despite the constant temptation of ice cream and dounuts. I am always delighted to see the people, eat pulled pork BBQ and marvel at fireflies. Despite the fact, I lament about the mosquitos & humidity. Ah, summer on the East Coast.