Mount Desert Island, Maine

This sunset was so beautiful. I'm not very good at capturing the beauty of it though!

We attempted Sailing with Dave's Uncle. haha, it was quite the adventure!

These are Dave's Grandparents. I just loving chatting with his Grandpa, especially.

This is called Thunder Hole. When the waves (seen here) crash into the rocks, it honestly sounds just like thunder. It was pretty amazing!

This picture is particularly bad of me but we were visiting one of the light houses, which I was really excited about! lol

One of the foggy/rainy days during Hurricane Irene.

Hiking was so much fun, but I could do without the humidity. My hair never did what I wanted! lol

Dave's Aunt, Uncle, and Grandparents all live in a charming cabin on Mount Desert Island in the beautiful state of Maine. We have been pushing to go out there for quite some time and it finally happened. We had so much fun and I really enjoyed getting to meet his family. We happened to be there during a particularly devastating hurricane named Irene. Lucky for us, though, we only received some rain and small wind gusts. Nothing was really damaged where we were. Unfortunately, the hurricane did destroy many party of Vermont. It was sad to watch all the devastation that wasn't all the far away.

While we were there, we got lots of visit time. We also ventured out most days to sight see. We hiked a few trails. One in particular was really a joy. We actually had to use bars like a ladder to climb the sides of huge rock's. We were quite high up. The climb was well worth the view though. It was such a beautiful place. We had over 300 pictures by the time we left. I won't make you endure that many though. These are a few of my favorites.

Racing

Dave has gotten into running this summer. He has completed a 5 mile race, a 10 mile race, a marathon (which was 26.3 miles) and the tough mudder. He has done many practice runs around our area which usually consist of many hours of running, until he drags himself into the house to crash! He really enjoys running and he even manages to get me out sometimes. I however, do not enjoy running but it's good exercise so I do it when I can. Here are some pictures from his races!

FHE is no longer on Mondays

Growing up, FHE (Family Home Evening) was always on Monday nights. This usually included a small lesson, some snacking (of course) and a family activity. Maybe bowling (which Becky used to hate) or watching a movie together. As we got older, FHE became scarce and we soon were too busy for it. Everyone grew up and moved away from home and started their own families. When Josh graduated from UNC, and I lived a mile away (now I live a whole 2 miles away lol), we decided to start hanging out on Tuesday nights. This night worked mostly because Josh didn't work or have class (I later found out he did this on purpose so that we could hang out, what an awesome bro I have) and my husband, Dave, volunteered at the fire department. Tuesdays soon became a night to look forward too. This formed our FHE night. We lack in a lesson but food (popcorn) and fun are always included! :) Mom soon decided that she was going to take advantage of the night too. Becky got involved some too, when she was still living in Colorado. We are going on 4 years now and I look forward to Tuesday nights. It's just a known fact that Tuesdays are off limits to my friends. Even coworkers know that I always do something with my family on Tuesday nights. I've including some pictures of a particularly fun (and goofy) Tuesday.

Spilling My Guts

Seven weeks ago I was blessed with the opportunity to have Lasik surgery and I no longer need glasses. I will need them after age 45 or so, for reading but until then, I'm 20/20! YAY! lol Most surgeries have post op appointments and I've tried hard to make sure I'm at every one. This past Tuesday I had my six week post op appointment. I was hanging out in their awesome waiting room (it's a huge room with cozy couches), when all of a sudden I started to feel nauseous. I panicked and frantically looked around for a bathroom or trash. There were none to be found! The next thing I know, I was leaning over a 5 foot fake plant/bush thing spilling my guts out. There were at least five people in the waiting room who I know had to have seen/heard me gagging and throwing up. Then I had to take the walk of shame up to the counter to tell a nurse that I had just puked in their plant. She repeatedly asked me what I was talking about. Again I told her that I had just puked in her fake plant "over there" (point my puke covered blazer in that direction). Then I proceeded to ask if I could reschedule my appointment. There was nothing open for almost a month so I had to endure the appointment, knowing that the nurse was spreading the word that this crazy lady had just puked in a fake plant. When the appointment was FINALLY over, I booked it out of there as fast as I could. I didn't even look to see what they had done with the plant! I was mortified! I've decided that I will skip my three month appointment, seeing as that is only five weeks away and just go to my six month appointment instead! lol My eyes are doing great so I think I can survive. I bit too embarrassed to go back in five weeks though. Someone might remember! lol Anyway, Tuesday turned into a awful night of sickness and I was finally feeling good enough to go to work on Thursday!

Running Around...

This summer has been a crazy one. We have had lots of things to do, seeing as my husband no longer has his crazy job where he worked every stinking hour I was off. We now have the same 8 to 5, Monday thru Friday schedule that allows us to do so many fun things. We went to Moab (which I previously blogged about), we went to Pagosa Springs with his brother Dewey and wife Christine to run Dave's first marathon. For those of you who don't know, that is 26 miles of pure adrenaline (and exhaustion) running. Crazy if you ask me but amazing all the same! We also went to Bear Creek, which is a 2 hour drive northwest of Colorado Springs. We were there for something called the tough mudder. It was a 10 mile race with 24 obstacles which include A LOT of mud! lol Dave did that with our gym and I watched with great enjoyment that I was not the one in the race. He came home with several nasty scrapes and bruises! My friend Jordan wants to do the one that is in Arizona in January and I am thinking about it. If it were for the money to get out there and pay for the race, Dave and I would jump on the opportunity, but I don't know that we can justify paying for two plane tickets for the race. I guess we will see what happens. We also managed a short trip to Canon City to do some white water rafting on REAL RAPIDS (thats for you Jordan). We were on class 5, 4 and 3 rapids and it was truly an amazing experience! We talked about if quite a while after! All in all this summer has been amazing but we are ready for some downtime at home. In a month we are headed to Maine to visit Dave's grandparents and I am so excited seeing as I've never been to that part of the country. Until then, though, we are going to stay close to home and get some of those summer projects done!

Chelsea's Wedding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of my dearest friends, Chelsea, got married a few months ago and I had the pleasure of being her matron of honor! It was truly a blessing to be there for her big day!

Mr. and Mrs. Guse! Yay, they are married! We all knew this was coming and it finally happened! Congrats you two!

Look how wonderful they look!

I think the Chelsea and Kelly look just alike! You can definitely tell they are Daughter and Mother!

The Bridal Party

More of the Bridal Party!

Dave and I hanging out, right before my speech that I was SUPER nervous for!

Chelsea and us girls, Double Oh Seven style!

Albert, you are such a goofy guy!

We danced the night away!

And decorated the car! I think we did a great job! EVERYONE knew they had just gotten married!

Dave got to give a knee for the bride so that Albert could do the guarder toss!

lol... nice face Sarah!

My brother, Josh, dipping me!

Chelsea was so beautiful that day! And I know that she is happier than she has ever been! Albert is perfect for her and I'm so excited for them!