Rock Lobster!

Last Thursday we headed down to Phoenix (in 115 degree weather) to stay over night, and catch a flight early Friday morning to Providence, RI to visit family & friends in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. We arrived at SkyHarbor Airport Friday morning all packed, ready to go, with smiles on our faces, until that is we go to check-in and realized we were the last people to check in, and had been booted from our flight! We have never flown Southwest before, an airline who apparently overbook every flight, and you must check-in the night before to guarantee #1. a seat and #2. a seat with your party. Silver lining was we were re-routed through Philadelphia, comped for all of our tickets, and in the air within minutes. The drama was over (or so we thought!). Storms in Phili kept us in a holding pattern for and hour and a half, and on the ground in Philidelphia until 10:40 pm. We finally landed in Providence around 11:45 pm, about 6 hours after we were supposed to arrive. Here is a picture Jason took of me in the Philadelphia airport after waiting for a few hours, wrapped in my pashmeena to keep warm; you can see how thrilled I was to be there!


When we got up Saturday it was a beautiful sunny day in Massachusetts. After a quick lunch of greek pizza and salad (and of course a cannoli!) with Jason's parents, we headed to North Deerfield, Massachusetts for Matt Daelhousen's and Meredith Mascia's wedding. Matt is a friend of Jason's from college, and we usually see Matt and Meredith on our trips to Boston. They also came to our wedding last year. The wedding was beautiful, and we had a great time chatting with friends we do not typically get to see. Below is a picture of Jason and his college buddies with the groom.


Sunday was a good family day; we went to lunch at the Mon Kou, one of our favorite Chinese restaurants. Here we got to meet up with Emelie, our almost 14 month old neice, Jason's brother Erik, and sister-in-law Cindy. Emelie seemed a little overwhelmed at first by the new people she hadn't seen in awhile, but soon started running wild in the restaurant. We found out later that she had a temperature of about 102 degrees, so Jason and I are hopeful it was the virus and not scary Auntie Helen and Uncle Jason! Sunday night we ate at Friendly's; for anyone not from the Northeast, Friendly's is a regional chain that serves diner food and great ice cream. It was a favorite eatery of mine and Jason's during our high school years.

Monday we ate at the Grist Mill, an old mill built in 1745, converted into a restaurant that serves traditional New England fare. Jason and I got our lobsters; Jason even had two as you can see in the photo at the top of the blog. Afterwards we drove to Bristol, RI, one of the most quintesentially American towns in the whole country. It is right on the ocean, with a lot of original and preserved architecture, more American flags than I have ever seen, flowerboxes everywhere, and even street lines painted red, white, and blue. If you are ever in Rhode Island, I highly recommend it. Jason and I have been probably 3 or 4 times now. We took a walk along the beach and through downtown, and had a couple of drinks with Jason's folks at our favorite spot right on the water. I made a slideshow of this part of the trip below so you can see how amazing the views are.


That night we spent some more time with Emelie, this time at her house, where she ran around, danced, did some tricks for us, and threw toys...it was a blast! She is growing so fast, and she is a very confident and outgoing baby. I tell Jason she'll be strong willed just like her Auntie Helen:) Here is a great picture of her toothy grin.


Monday we arrived back in Phoenix without a hitch, and made it back home to Madeline by 7:30pm. Thankfully, my friend Heather and her 3 yr. old son Max took great care of Maddie while we were away. She was happy for us to be home, but no accidents or mess! For the next couple of weeks, I think we will be laying low; I fly back east again in two weeks for a friend's wedding in S.C., and Jason is going to be traveling again soon for work.

Thanks to a few storms, our vegetables have grown even more in our absence. There are 14 tomatoes growing on one plant, and 18 on another, and it looks like we'll have tons of veggies soon. We actually pulled and ate our first tomatoe before we left; it was fantastic! We took this picture of it below:


There will probably be more of those pictures to come soon. Enjoy (what is left of) your week.

XOXO H, J, & M

Summer is Here!

It was SO nice and warm in Flagstaff this week; it finally feels like summer around here! I put some pictures up of the front of the house I took this weekend. Here is one of some flowers I potted a couple weeks ago -- pretty proud of it!

This past week, besides doing the work thing, we went out on Thursday with our friends Heather and Greg to watch Bruno. Although the consensus is that Borat is a better movie, it was fun and we laughed A LOT. If you have a craving for crude humor, it is your movie. Earlier in the evening, I also went out with some people after work for a glass of wine at the Wine Loft to celebrate a co-worker's birthday. Things are picking up at work, and I am beginning to feel more a part of the office. There are some very fun people at Gateway, and I'm looking forward to working with them more this year.

Also, I found out this week which "team" I am going to be working on; the Student Success team, which facilitates probation & suspension, and a grade progress tracking system; basically any program that works with at-risk students on campus. It seems like it is going to be a good match for me. On Tuesday, Jason attended the quarterly meeting for his business unit, and gave a brief presentation on his product; he is getting a lot of positive feedback from co-workers, and is getting more involved with different projects.

Our vegetable garden is exploding! I put some pictures below for you to see what a difference a couple months makes. We have one tomato that is almost ready to be picked, and 5-10 others growing. Our zucchini plant is HUGE, and has tons of veggies growing, and we have one jalapeno that is going to be ready soon. We'll have a tomato, zucchini, jalapeno salad! Here are some pictures...

A good shot of the HUGE zucchini plant and eggplant

Can you see the jalapeno hiding behind the leaves?

Lots of baby tomatoes!

Our first tomato is almost ready to be picked.

We've been relaxing a lot this weekend; Jason took a long bike ride on Saturday with a friend from work -- they were gone for 2.5 hours. Overall, it was uneventful, but apparently they took a wrong turn on the trails and ended up in the middle of an equestrian event. They didn't realize this bad move until they rode up on a group of on-lookers who (not so kindly) informed them to get off the trail--at this point Jason looked back and saw a teenager quickly approaching them on a horse...quite an adventure! I ran errands on Saturday, and then went to a Mary Kay party at a friend's house. Saturday night we went to a downtown restaurant called Diablo Burger; Jason had a burger with green chilies and cream cheese, and I had a salad and frites. Everything is local, fresh, and delicious -- a really good, casual meal.

It is Sunday today; we've just been bumming around, and after lunch we're going to take a walk and do a little shopping. This morning we had home-made scones with raspberry jam and fresh cream. It was my first attempt at home-made scones, and they came out really well. Here is a picture... of course, we had them with tea!

On Thursday, Jason and I are heading to Phoenix, and flying to Massachusetts on Friday. We're staying with Jason's parents on Friday, and Saturday driving to our friend's wedding in Western Massachusetts. Sunday - Tuesday we'll be back with Jason's parents, and are looking forward to spending time the family. We are also hoping to do some serious seafood binging. As you may imagine, we don't get too much fresh seafood on top of a mountain in the middle of a desert. We'll post some pictures and give an update when we get back -- have a great week!

XOXO
Helen & Jason

Relaxing Weekend in Flagstaff

It is finally starting to feel like summer in Flagstaff! This week it was consistently in the 80's during the day and sunny, and we experienced our first "monsoon" rainfall. In July and August in Flagstaff it is typically dry and sunny, but most days around 5 or 6 o'clock the sky drops HUGE raindrops (and sometimes hail) for about 15 minutes, and then the sky is clear again. It took us by surprise this Saturday, but was pretty cool to watch.

Our week was pretty routine, and Friday we took Madeline to her new vet (who was wonderful!) for her annual exam, and to run a few tests. Maddie is getting older, and has demonstrated a few weird behaviors lately, but the vet thinks she is doing ok -- we'll know for sure early next week. After that we just hung out around the house and cooked a delicious dinner - it was a new recipe for fettucini with pancetta -- delicious!

On Saturday I took a walk through Thorpe Park with my friends Heather, Amy, Heather's son Max, and Amy's dog Luna. It was a beautiful day! We also walked through downtown to check out the traveling Vietnam wall that was in Wheeler Park, and got Max some ice cream. Jason took a long bike ride through some trails by our house. He says "It was Awesome" and he "Put his new mountain bike through the paces" -- those are in fact direct quotes. Afterward, our friends Heather and Greg came over to have a few beers and do some people watching on our front walk, and then Jason, Greg, and I went to a restaurant to watch UFC with our friends Josh and Mary Hampton and a few other Flagstaff folks. If you aren't a UFC fan, it was UFC 100, which is a big milestone. I started watching somewhere around UFC 50, and Jason remembers watching the 1st UFC with his dad when he was younger. The restaurant, Jackson's Grill, was a good place to watch the fight, and the food was "ok"...it does have a great outdoor patio though, which would be great for happy hour sometime this summer.

Today we cleaned the house, ran errands, and drove out to Lake Mary to take a walk. Living in the desert has its advantages, but a disadvantage is that we don't have close access to many bodies of water. Jason and I increasingly miss the water:( So, we got our fix today walking around Lake Mary. It is a bit crowded with boats because it is the only lake within an hour, but it was pretty and an easy walk. Above is a picture of the lake that I found online. Unfortunately, our camera broke a couple weeks ago, so as you can see, we don't have any personal pictures of our fun weekend. But, we bought a new camera online, and it should arrive sometime this week, so hopefully we'll have pictures soon!
Here is a great picture we got this week though from our sister-in-law Cindy of our niece Emelie. It was finally warm enough in Massachusetts for Emelie to wear the dress Jason and I sent her for her 1st birthday -- isn't it too cute!

We are heading to Massachusetts in July for a short trip, and can not wait to spend time with her (and the rest of the family!)
Not much going on this week, but looking forward to next weekend when we can hang around town more and enjoy the great weather!

CONGRATULATIONS!

To Richard, who was offered and accepted his first "real" job today at Enterprise Rent-A-Car! Welcome to grown up world; now you'll be overworked, underpaid, and miserable like the rest of us;) Congrats!

Happy Fourth of July!!

To celebrate the 4th we grilled some brats, and here you can see my homemade English trifle (iiiiirony), complete with authentic Bird's custard...yummy. Richard is still in town until tomorrow; this morning we got breakfast at one of our favorite breakfast places in town, LaBellevia, walked around downtown, and visited the Flagstaff Arboretum. There we walked through the desert gardens, and saw a "raptor" show. The hawks and falcons were flying over our heads across the audience, from post to post, and came within about one inch of Richard's head -- he was not impressed. One of the birds was an Eurasian Eagle Owl that looked about 3 times the size of Madeline -- frighteningly huge.

We had off of work on Friday, so Thursday we went out in downtown Flagstaff with Richard and some friends. I don't think Jason and I have ever had that much fun downtown before Richard visited! A lot of Friday we spend hanging around the house, shopped for July 4th, and went for pizza at our favorite pizza shop, New Jersey Pizza, who make their dough, sauce, and mozzarella cheese with fresh, local, organic ingredients. Richard agreed that it brings pizza to a whole new level.

Earlier in the week, we took Richard out to lunch at our favorite taco place, Tacos Los Altos, and went to dinner for sushi at the best sushi place in town, that serves HUGE rolls of sushi. We couldn't nearly finish everything we ordered, but went to see the Hangover afterwords (HILARIOUS!!) and stuffed ourselves with Red Vines and popcorn. If you haven't had Red Vines before, they are the West coast version of Twizzlers, but better...definitely try them if you have the chance. We have done tons of fun things while Richard has been here, but mostly, just hanging out like we used to in Clemson.

Unfortunately, Richard goes home tomorrow. Jason and I have loved having him around, and we will really miss him when he leaves. Luckily, I get to see he and my parents again in August for Angileigh's wedding.
We hope everyone had a nice 4th of July...all I have to say is...
USA!USA!USA! ;)
XOXO
Helen, Jason, Richard, and Maddie

Richard is in the 928

Richard got in to Flagstaff late Friday night, and exhausted from a long work week / long day of flying, we didn't do anything but head straight to bed. Saturday morning we were up early, and headed to the Grand Canyon. Last trip we just walked around the outside Rim, but on this trip, we also hiked down Bright Angel Trail into the Canyon. The whole trail is about 6 miles down, and NOT recommended for a one day trip. It is typically 20 degrees warmer down in the Canyon than at the rim, and every year thousands of people underestimate the rigor of the trail and end up in the hospital. Determined to NOT be those people, I made the boys turn back after about a mile down. Amazingly, I found it was an easier hike back up than I'm used to in Flagstaff because we were about 3,000 ft. lower than our house. I would recommend the hike down if you don't mind a bit of a work out, and can hop over lots of mule poop, but the views from the rim are still the most breathtaking...pictures do not do the Grand Canyon justice. Here is a picture of us at the end of our hike.


Saturday night we grilled pork tenderloin for dinner, and just sat around talking like old times.

On Sunday we took a drive to Sedona, AZ to let Richard see the Red Rocks. The drive down Hwy. 89 from Flagstaff to Sedona drops about 2,000 ft. in 5 miles, and has the most amazing views. Unfortunately, each foot we dropped, the temperature raised a degree until when we reached Sedona the temperature was 100 degrees. We scratched the hike, took a small walk up a Red Rock to visit the Chapel of the Holy Cross, a church built into the side of a mountain, designed by Franklin Lloyd Wright's protege. It is pretty interesting architecture, and you don't have to work too hard to get some great views. After a trip to the Sedona UFO store (hilarious) we sat on the back deck of restaurant taking in the views. Here is a shot of me and Jason outside the UFO store by a crashed UFO -- alien and all!


That night we went to a cookout at a neighbor's house, and Richard got to meet some of our friends here in Flagstaff. Here is a picture of Richard and Jason hovering around the food table. They were asked if they were brothers about 10 times -- kinda scary, huh?


Jason and I are both working this week, but have off Friday for the 4th, and plan on meeting Richard for lunch and going to some dinners this week. He has been using Jason's bike to roam around town, and plans on renting a road bike from a store in town, and joining a local ride later in the week. Have a great week:)

Facelift

For the blog, not me! While Jason has been in L.A. I have been busy at work on the blog. Anyone who has seen me struggle with an Excel spreadsheet for hours should be impressed with the design, and, oh yes, and the music. With Jon & Kate + 8 drama to keep me company (so sad!), I am beginning to realize how much information and how many add-ons there are out there, and how someone can quickly become addicted. Some of my favorite websites were www.cuteblogblock.com, and www.playlist.com. You can make FREE playlists on the latter -- yes, FREE. I am still trying to find the catch, but have yet to. I also added some blogs and websites that Jason and I visit frequently, and I'll probably add to it as we find new ones; check them out. In honor of our new design, I put together a slideshow of some trees, cactus, and flowers I've shot while in Arizona and California, mostly on different hikes and walks.


Lastly, for a good laugh...
Make sure you pause the playlist on the left to hear the video -- it is so worth it

US To Trade Gold Reserves For Cash Through Cash4Gold.com

XOXO Helen