Everything, but homework time

I'm not much of a procrastinator. I'm really not, yet every spring I find myself loosing all of my motivation to finish my homework. It's really only the homework though. I get this running list of other things that I could/should be doing, like spring cleaning stuff, getting my bike back out, potting some plants, opening the windows, finishing that book series I started during Christmas break. The point is, every spring I'm done with school (!!!!) and I envy Tony who has no homework. (Maybe a bad example due to his recent deadlines spilling into home territory, but still. It's the idea.)

Well its spring again and here I am. Stuck between needing to finish my homework and wanting to do other things. (Only 4 more weeks!!! So long! Ok. I'll stop being dramatic.)

Did I mention that it's Spring! We finally made it out of the cold and into the time period of ups and downs in the weather, but at least its all above freezing. This means I can ride my bike and stop depending on the bus schedule. Of course this was not as simple as just taking it down the stairs, but rather I needed new tires from the old one being squished on the floor for so long. But, Tony did it and it is wonderful. We also got a free-standing bike rack for storing them in the apartment. This would have probably been a good idea at the beginning on winter, but better late than never I guess.

It looks a bit unstable, but its working. And now the bikes are more efficiently stored and it surprisingly saves a decent amount of space. Not that they weren't efficiently stored previously, but I've got some redecorating ideas up my sleeve and wanted them to find a new resting place.

Speaking of more things to do. Decorating/continually furnishing. That was actually a legitimate transition involving "Speaking of which", a phrase I use all the time, but rarely fits. Anyway, Tony and I have been living in this apartment for ~2 years and just signed on for another year. In general, it's a nice apartment, but there are some shortcomings, as there are going to be with every apartment. But that's not my point. My point is that I am terrible at decorating. I see everyone else posting cute little decor on Facebook or walk into someone else's apartment and think they managed to make their living quarters cute, but I just cannot figure it out.

One problem is that it costs money as everything does. Another problem is that it requires going shopping and finding deals. Also, it requires time and creativity. I've got some creativity stored away, but the time is smaller and its hard to do some bigger projects without the space required to do them. So one of these days I will go out and spend the time and the money to start (and finish) those projects that I've been sitting on and make something cute. Maybe it will work and maybe it won't. I guess we'll see. Unless someone else wants to come and do all this for me :)

Gaming

I lost the camera. I cannot remember what I did with it and it is killing me. Beyond that...

Recently, Tony and I have been playing a lot of games. He has always loved games, board games that is. At work, he has found some friends that also like playing games. This has led to both him and I spending a few Saturday afternoons playing some nerdy games with Tony's coworkers. Even though they take all afternoon, these games haven't been too bad.

1. Battlestar Galactica. Yes. There is a game based on the TV show. We've actually started watching the TV show too. (It makes the game more enjoyable to know the characters.) In the game everyone plays on the same team, but half of the players are secretly on the other team. At least until they decide to reveal themselves. The goal is to survive while the game attempts to win by revealing cards that place various situations that must be overcome.

2. Quest for Middle Earth. It's what is sounds like. A game based on Lord of the Rings. It takes place between the time of Bilbo's birthday party and when Gandolf returns to take Frodo from the Shire. Apparently, there were approximately 17 years in this time where Gandolf was doing research and Sauron's influence was widening. One person plays as Sauron and the other players are trying to defeat him and remove his influence from Middle Earth.

It has been quite an experience playing these games. I've never been one for long games, I've never wanted to touch Risk and Monopoly is evil, but these were different. Another game that Tony has found is Pandemic, much closer to my desired length. He was introduced to the game by some friends in WI, but has been borrowing the game from a coworker the past few weeks. This game is also played with everyone on the same team fighting to eradicate and cure disease throughout the world. It's pretty fun. You should check it out!

Valentine's Day

This last Friday was a holiday known as Valentine's Day (aka: Single Awareness Day). I don't really care much for this holiday. I'm not really the sappy type and I think of it more as a Hallmark Holiday, which it is. However, sometimes it is nice to have a designated holiday for receiving chocolate, as it is one of my favorite things.

Well this year, I was planning on making Tony dinner on Friday night and we were going to hunker down and watch a movie. We had gone out to eat on a date previously this month and restaurants on Valentine's Day are bound to be crowded, so nothing big was planned, but something was planned. Little did I know that Rockwell had other plans.

Date night!! First one in a long time.

This last week has been quite a struggle for Tony at work. Recently, he was put on a project with two other individuals to begin rewriting some of the code. This is very exciting since he has finally begun writing code, however, he doesn't really know the code and the specifications that go with it. On top of that, he was given something that needs to be done yesterday. Well, come Friday and that something is not done, so bye, bye my Valentine's Day dinner.

Good thing Saturday follows Friday. He still worked most of Saturday, but took the night off to make dinner with me and watch The Amazing Spiderman. We had a delicious meal of chicken parmigiana and asparagus. To follow it up, we had a wonderful chocolate cheesecake that I made earlier in the day. And the best part is, there is plenty of leftovers on that dessert! So it may not have been my Valentine's Day as planned, but I know that he still loves me. He doesn't really need a holiday to let me know that and I still got some flowers and chocolate out of the day.

A random slew of events

Well this is now the third time I've started this blog post and still can't think of anything to say. (Hence the reason why I haven't posted anything in a whole month) This may be due to the fact that reflecting on life is not a strong suit of mine. I try, but I just can't seem to make it work. Don't get me wrong. There are some times where I surprise myself and have a whole slew of reflecting going on, but this is the exception not the rule. So, here I am, stuck without the ability to reflect on life on a whim, trying to think of what to say. Stick with me, this might be a random string of things that have been going down.

In general, the start to 2014 has been a good one. It's hard to believe that it's already the middle of February, and yet the end of the semester seems to be so far away. (16 weeks is far too long in my mind.)

Well, we've finally been stationary for over a month now and it has been wonderful. Not that we don't like visiting everyone, but it is very nice to figure out what it looks like to stay home. So what have we been filling out weekends with? Good question.

Taking weird photos like this

Brother and Dad came to visit one weekend in January to watch my cousin wrestle. (He wrestles for OSU and they had a dual meet here against Iowa.) It was nice to visit with them and see family down again even if it was only for a short time.

Tony's coworker invited us over to play very long, nerdy board games for two of those weekends. They were mostly fun games and its been interesting tapping into my more nerdy side.

A friend from college visited for Burr Fest (a beer tasting festival that occurs in Coralville every winter.) Tony always loves a chance to taste some of the greats from the area and surrounding states. I got to stay home this year and watch Tangled with a friend. Such a good movie. (I've been on a recent Disney princess kick with Frozen, and Tangled is always a good one!)

We have been enjoying the cold and the snow (more the snow than the cold) and got to go sledding!! I am looking forward to Spring though to open the windows and not pay so much in utilities.

Tony has been enjoying his ground school for his pilot's license. His one complaint is that it is so much information to learn. Here is his comparison:
Kindergarten = Driver's license
Bachelors degree = Pilot's license
I'm very glad he is getting the chance to have one of his childhood dreams, but I am so also so ready to have my husband back on Tuesday nights.

For myself, school has been going well. Two classes is amazing so far. However, it is only the beginning of the semester so we shall see how it progresses. Either way, one final projects will always be better than three.

Lastly, we had to say goodbye to some friends of ours this last month. They were the first people we really met here and they left us to go on to do bigger and better things in the mission field. Sad to see them go, but behind them all the way! God bless!

And one last thing for this post. I wish I took more pictures of things. In this generation I feel like everything is documented via photo, however, I still manage to find my self a month down the road with no pictures of what has happened. O well.

Play by Play

12/24 - dinner, games and conversation with some friends in Cedar Rapids. Good times!

12/25 - sleeping in, reading the Christmas story, opening presents, watching Netflix, reading books, and jello with whipped cream. That last one definitely becoming a tradition.

Tony: Eragon book series, a book about the history behind significant math discoveries, and a Rasberry Pi (a complex, yet more simple piece of electronics to do simple or complex projects with)

Emily: a weight set for working out at home, mittens, the Divergent book series and a book called the Devil in the White City

12/26 - traveled to Wisconsin for a few days, spent the night hanging out and catching up with my friend, Percy.

12/27 - went out to lunch with friends, went back to Mom and Dad's to play some games and hung out with those who arrived that night.

12/28 - had Christmas with the family before heading out to the Feyereisen Christmas, had a good time catching up with everyone in the F. family, finished with watching Monsters University

12/29 - brunch with the family before heading out to Michigan, attempted to listen to the Packers/Bears game, finished watching it at Michigan

12/30 - read some of my book, spent time with Tony's family, got to see his sister, her husband and son

12/31 - had Christmas with the family, watched White Christmas, played Dixit and watched the ball drop on tv

1/1 - left for home in the bad weather

1/2 - I went back to work while Tony took the day off

1/3 - applied for our passports!!, I went to work again and Tony had the day off again to complete his two weeks of vacation

That's a summary of our Christmas vacation. I'd post some pictures, but I have seemed to misplace the camera.

Since then we've both been back to work and are starting to get into the hang of how this upcoming semester is going to go. Granted classes have not started yet, and I'm only taking two (awesome!!!), but we still manage to make ourselves busy as we continue to lead a small group through church, taking a year long leadership class through our church as well, nad Tony has started ground school as the first step towards his pilots license. Here's to the start of 2014!

Christmas preparations

One more post and I am all caught up. Finals being the week before Christmas has really hindered my ability to prepare for everything. However, in procrastinating studying, Tony and I took a trip over to Lowe's to pick out a tree. I really would have preferred to cut one done ourselves, but drastic times call for drastic measures. Just kidding. Maybe next year we'll find a tree farm near by. I like the tree, but Tony has some structural integrity issues with it. I love having Christmas lights! Here is the final product.

And we got a new coffee table!

The next step in Christmas preparation is making Christmas cookies. All I wanted to do during finals studying was bake some cookies, so now that they are over Tony and I attacked the kitchen. We made four different things. My favorite peanut butter cookies with a chocolate kiss, some famous family gingersnaps, 150 year old molasses cookies and some chocolate covered peanuts.

All ready!

Rolling out the molasses cookies

I has also been making some quilted stockings for the two of us, but my sewing machine does not like me at the moment and I am ill supplied in the way of needles for it so those pictures will have to wait. So today is Christmas Eve, the tree is up, the cookies are made (and are delicious), other decorations are up, the presents are already under the tree and we are late to hang out with some friends. So I bid you adieu and enjoy catching up on our lives.

All done!!

It is no surprise that graduate school was going to be difficult at times, however, this last semester has been particularly trying. I took four classes, which in undergrad, would have been very little. But life is different. I don't want to spend all my time doing schoolwork. I want to come home and spend time with my husband. I want to partake in leading our small group. I want to be able to have time to think about making dinner and cleaning the apartment. Maybe not so much the last one, but I want to have time to think about things beyond my current project and it is hard to do that when there is so much homework. What I really want is to be able to leave most of what I have to do at work to come home and be with Tony and partake in the social events that we are a part of. Don't get me wrong, I love what I have been working on. In fact, this was probably the semester where I have enjoyed the material the most. However, I am so glad that it is over. I finished all my final projects, I studied for all my exams and finished them, I am done! And I will never take four classes again. I only have four required courses left, but I am not taking them all at once. And now I can more seriously focus on my research and a timeline for graduation. Don't worry, it'll still be a few years.

November

Weekend # 1:

November was a month of weddings beginning with the first weekend. We traveled up to Wisconsin to for some time with friends. It was great catching up with the Harris's and everyone over the weekend. Here are some photos of the wedding. The reception was a dinner reception only so a group of us went to a pub downtown Port Washington to hang out, play darts and taste fine alcohols. It was a beautiful wedding, great weekend seeing friends and, as usual, way too short.

The wonderful couple

Centerpiece with Tony's fine artistic ability

Me and the bride!!

Friends!

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Weekend # 2:

Once upon a time, back in like 2010?, Tony took me to Wicked in Milwaukee for my birthday. For years, I has been singing the songs and it was a wonderful present. Well this last November, Wicked was in Des Moines. Naturally, we bought tickets and went with two of Tony's coworkers. This was the first time we went to the capitol and ended up having a wonderful time. We went to a matinee showing, absolutely spectacular again!!, and ate at this wonderful little pub afterwards. It was a great time. The following Sunday, our church had a Thank You dinner for all of their volunteers. With Tony on the sound team and myself in Nursery we were invited. The invitation said a black tie affair and I wanted to wear my prom dress, but Tony said that was a little too much so I settled with something less formal. Sad day. Regardless of outfit, it was a wonderful dinner and we had the chance to spend some time with more friends.

The girls :)

The guys

Back from Wicked

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Weekend #3:

The third weekend in November was a long one. We headed off to Wisconsin on Thursday afternoon. I dropped Tony off at work and hung around Cedar Rapids doing some schoolwork and some much needed shopping for the weekend of wedding festivities and baby showers. This weekend was going to be packed. (For everyone who doesn't know, all names mentioned in this section are my sisters/brothers, unless specified)

Thursday night: Naomi's bachelorette party

We picked up Laura on our way home and made it back in time to run off to Beth's house for Naomi's bachelorette party. Much to our surprise, Sara had come up for the weekend from Costa Rica, sans family. It was a very pleasant surprise to see her since we were under the assumption that she was not going to be able to make it. The night was full of food, slightly embarrassing Naomi at Kohls and ending with wonderful conversation. The maid of honor did a wonderful job!

One of the beautiful outfits Naomi had to wear

Friday: Nails and rehearsal

This was a very busy day. We had the chance to spend some time with Sara and family before I headed down to visit with my friend Percy. She was graduating from college the following weekend and I wanted to congratulate her and give her a nice present. We met up for some breakfast and it was wonderful to catch up, talk about life and how scary it is, and see the look on her face when she got her very own stethoscope!

I then met up with Naomi, Zach, the Harris's and Tony at Noodle for some lunch. We really are an odd crew, but a good one. The girls then went to get our nails done before the rehearsal while the guys went and played some games.

The rehearsal went well with some hilarious moments from Zach's groomsmen. They were a very comical bunch. Somehow I ended up being the tallest girl stuck with the shortest man. O well. The night ended at a nice restaurant, as rehearsals usually do, and everyone went to bed ready for the big day.

Saturday: The wedding

Us girls got up early to get to church to line up to get our hair and makeup done to be ready by noon. Normal wedding things commenced, pictures, ceremony stuff, more pictures (it was raining so picture locations were revamped, but it all worked out well) and onto the reception. Great reception! Best part: dancing. Hands down. Once again, we had the chance to catch up with friends and it was a blast. Tony was sore for the next four days from dancing so much. Great celebration!

I just had to show off my hair. I loved it!! Thanks Krystin for the suggestion

And their off!

Sunday: Baby shower

The weekend ended with a baby shower for my soon to be sister-in-law. The weather was a bit shotty so it took a while to get there, but we arrived in time to celebrate the eventual birth of their little baby boy. It was great to see some of her family and bless both her and Nathan. Can't wait to meet the little guy!

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Weekend #4:

By this time, school had finally come to a halt and Thanksgiving break was upon me. We began the week with our first college football game. Being from Michigan, Tony is a Wolverine fan. It just so happened that Michigan was playing Iowa at Iowa this year and we couldn't miss it. It also happened that it was going to be approximately zero degrees outside for the game as well. Bad weekend to become a college football fan. Since we live about 2 miles from the stadium we took a nice stroll up to Kinnick right before the game started to get to our seats (I could've swore I bought them closer than we were, but o well). Other than the fact that it was absolutely freezing and that Michigan played poorly (Iowa did well), it was a great experience that I would probably do again, with more layers on of course. Also, why does everyone have to stand for everything? They have seats for a reason.

Freezing!

The field is much smaller in real life

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Weekend #5: Thanksgiving

Tony had the opportunity to go hunting with his Dad and uncles in Michigan so, come Tuesday, he left me home alone for the week. I may sound like I'm complaining, but it was great. I had a million and a half final projects to finish/start (mostly start) for school and I probably didn't need the distraction. My week was spent sitting on the couch with Netflix and my computer. A friend from small group came over for Thanksgiving afternoon and we had a great chat, but other than that, most of the week was spent alone. I accomplished leaps and bounds. I scrubbed the apartment and got some cleaning done that I had been meaning to do, I made great progress on my projects and watched way too much on Netflix. However, I was very ready for Tony to come home on Sunday afternoon.

As for Tony, he had a great time hunting and catching up with family. He even got to go to our friends wedding that took place near the family cabin. (I told you this was a month of weddings.)

This ended the very busy month of November.

October

Quite a bit happened contrary to the picture documentation that occurred. This was a month of visits from other people. First, some friends visited from Milwaukee. The guys went mini golfing while the girls went shopping. We watched lots of movies and had delicious food. Second, Tony's parents visited from Michigan. They came during the week, so while Tony and I were working, they took a trip to the Amana Colonies, traditional German style towns with little shops, and went to the Hoover Museum near here. After work we spent time catching up and watched Lincoln. Beyond this, school really began picking up due to midterms and my social life slowly disappeared. Hence, the reason why this is the first blog post since early October. So here is to catching up!

Baking galore

The month of October is upon us and Tony and I decided that we were going to keep all of our four feet in the state of Iowa for the entire month. We have decided that traveling should not be the rule for us anymore, but rather the exception. In fact, our wonderful car has officially over 100,000 miles, which was bound to happen eventually, but we have only had it for a year and we bought it with 65,000 miles on it.

Anyway, this plan was bound to fail and within the first week Tony was invited to Milwaukee to see our friend speak at the large group meeting for Intervarsity (the campus ministry we were a part of at MSOE). This meeting was on Thursday so I didn't get to go, but Tony had an amazing time catching up with friends and seeing so many people. 

While he was gone, I had the chance to finally put together some care packages for some people that I've been meaning to get out for the last two months. I ended up baking two pans of brownies, making a full box of puppy chow, a large batch of monster cookies and two batches of chocolate chip cookies. Thankfully, one of my friends came over on Friday to help me with this. In the end, my kitchen table was covered in cookies and the counter was covered in dishes. All in all, I think I'm a pretty neat baker so clean up wasn't too bad. I hope everyone enjoys their (hopefully) tasty treats!

Bagged up and ready to be packaged

Color all around

I'm not much of a long distance runner. Never have been. In fact I still don't really run long distance, even though it is growing on me. (I find its a lot easier to tolerate when listening to a podcast rather than music.) For this reason I never really run street races or have really had the ambition to run a half marathon; however, about two months ago my friend asked me if I would run in a color run with her in Cedar Rapids the last weekend of September. It was only a 5k and you get covered in lots of color. Why not do it?

September 28th came upon us and I woke up early to make it up there by 7:30am excited to soon be covered in color. There were four of us total, me, Abby, Kimberly and Kimberly's dad. The (very informal) race went off at about 8:30 and Kimberly and I made very good time since we ran the whole way. There was no official timing mechanism, but based off the camera (Tony was our official photographer) time, it took us about 26 to 27 minutes. Either way, it was for sure sub 9 minute mile pace. Unfortunately, the color was only colored corn starch so it was permanent. Regardless, it was a fun time with some great friends!

All ready to begin!

Finished and covered in color

Rounding the final corner with Abby

All four of us at the end of the race

Home Sweet Home

The third weekend in September was the wedding shower for Naomi, this meant traveling to the good old land of Wisconsin for some quality time with the family.

We left Friday afternoon to take Tony to my brother's house in Chicagoland. Every year the guys in my family get together for a man's weekend and this year they planned it for the weekend of the shower (since all the women would be gone) and it was in Chicagoland. Normally, this should not be a problem, but we own one car and needed to be in two different places at the same time. Tony arrived in Chicagoland around 7:45 so I stuck around to hang out with the guys for a while. I must say. I truly enjoy some quality time with those guys. This little detour meant I arrived in good old Saukville around 11 pm. Just in time to wake up Naomi, Laura and Mom to have a nice late night chat.

Saturday morning was spent preparing for the shower. We managed to shove almost 30 ladies in the basement of Mom and Dad's house. That took some skill. It managed to go great. The remainder of the day was spending some quality time with Payton and the wonderful women in my family. Of course this required a fire in the backyard to facilitate lots of talking.

Payton!

Some quality chatting around the campfire

Apple pie!!

From the weekend of apple picking, we had soooo many apples!! Well not really, but it was more than I really wanted to eat in a reasonable amount of time. So what better to do than make apple pie!!! I have never made apple pie so I started with the basics, use a store bought crust and mix the middle. It turned out delicious! Maybe next time I'll make the crust too (when I have more time).

recent TIMES

August 26th marked the start of a new semester for me. My second year as a graduate student. These last three weeks have, as always in a new semester, been an adjustment to the new schedule and to new professors. I am taking 12 credits (9 is full time for a graduate student) so it should be a busy one. Number one goal: re-finding my time management skills and avoid wasting time.

We have also officially transitioned to become the leaders for the 20-somethings ministry at our church. It really means that we are in charge of facilitating the small group specifically for our age group. It seems strange considering we are the youngest members. This will be a great opportunity for us to grow in our relationship with Christ and with those around us. It also makes me feel more obligated to be social. We'll see how this goes.

Beyond school and church, here are a couple other things that we have been up to.

Labor Day weekend we had the opportunity to spend time camping with our friends Ben and Sami. Our plans were to take our bikes up to southern Minnesota to ride one of the state trails. This meant we were traveling with bikes and camping gear for four people, and we fit everything into their Honda Fit. It was quite a feat. The weekend was filled with sitting around the fire, taking slow-exposure photos, biking, ice cream, four square, and relaxing. We also traveled to Mystery Cave nearby and took a tour.

We're ready!!

We fit!

Saturday night dinner

Speaking of biking. Tony has found a love for his bike. We bought one for him before we took our trip out to Oregon, however, it had the worst brakes known to mankind. We got them replaced the other day and he loves it. Unfortunately, the recent rain has put a damper on two of our recent planned trips. I have also been biking to and from campus/work for the entire summer. One problem that comes with biking is known as sweaty back. I had been wanting panniers (bags that hang over the back tire) for my bike and Tony surprised me one night by buying some. I was very excited!!

The weekend following Labor Day we had the chance to go apple picking at Wilson's Orchard. It was extremely hot outside, but that didn't stop us from walking all over the orchard to grab some of our favorite apples. The adventure ended with some fresh apple cider and nice warm turnovers. Next step, making some delicious apple pie.

Ready to pick those apples

Tony went a little crazy

Honeycrisps!!!

We're all done

Lastly, this last Saturday we traveled up to Dodgeville, WI to meet up with our friends the Harris's. They live in Oshkosh, WI so we decided to meet up halfway. We were supposed to camp for the night, but the Sunday morning rain cut our trip short. The trip was not ruined, rather we spent the day hiking, playing bocce ball, playing Settlers of Catan and some fine dining at a local barbecue. Days like that make us wish we lived a little close to our friends and family in Wisconsin.

Typical Tash and Pat

Hiking on a random trail

Bocce ball

Settlers

Margin

I'm not going to lie, this last week has been difficult for me. On top of our typical Monday and Thursday night small groups, we spent Tuesday and Wednesday with friends. This was not a bad thing, but Tony was leaving Friday morning and I wanted a night with just him, especially after leaving him the weekend before. On top of this, I had to work some late hours which meant most days I came home from work in time to change and then immediately turn around to partake in the nights events. Once again, not a bad thing (I know I say this a lot), however, if there is one thing I learned about myself this week is that I like my downtime, or at least my alone time filled with cleaning, homework or other activity of my choice. All this nonstop activity left me pretty crabby, or at least terribly sarcastic.

Tony left on Friday morning to get to Michigan by 4 pm at the latest. He was attending a Promise Keepers conference with his dad and some of the men from the church he grew up in. (He had a great time and really appreciated being able to go to the conference and spend time with his family.) With him gone, I was left with some good quality time to myself.

Friday night I ran some errands (on my bike since Tony had the car) before I arrived back home after work. The dishes were done, a couple loads of laundry complete, and popcorn was made to settle in and watch some Netflix. Saturday was also spent doing laundry (after biking to the bank to get some more quarters), watching more Netflix, some other odd projects, playing portable ping pong with some friends, watching How to Train Your Dragon, and a skype date with a friend I haven't talked to in over a year. Overall, it was a great weekend for me to relax and collect myself before school began.

Beyond my self-realization, one thing Tony and I learned this last week in regards to our marriage is our need for margin. This upcoming semester I have a night class that requires my Tuesday and Thursday nights, Monday nights are spent with friends and small group (that we are now leading) has been moved to Wednesday nights. This completes our weeknights. It will be a very busy semester for me and Tony, but hopefully this realization will make a significant impact on how we manage our time.

Reconnecting

One of the side effects of getting older and growing up is that we tend to move apart from our childhood friends. The question is: how do you stay in touch with each other? We decided that the third weekend in August was going to be spent camping together. Only four of us showed up, but we met Friday night at Governor Dodge State Park for a weekend of camping, hiking, swimming, frisbee throwing and lots and lots of talking. It appeared there were only two rules: no make-up and interesting conversation topics were a must. It was a great time to catch up with one another.

Four beautiful ladies

Trying to find the trail head that was not where it appeared to be

Stopping by the falls

Our attempt at an awkward family photo

Taking a break in one of the small caves

An afternoon at the beach

Porkchops, sweet potatoes and fruit salad for dinner. We eat good!

Just your typical game of Quelf