weekend festivities...

This morning me, Maia and Meagan went to Oletta River State Park in North Miami to enjoy the beautiful day. The weather was perfect.

Oletta is known for its bike trails, but also has some walking areas, a nice beach, and is a nice place to kayak. Speaking of kayaking, (1) I went with Adam Meg and Maia yesterday for the first time ever. And I wish I had done it years and years ago. Sadly, I don't have pics as cameras and water don't mix, but it was a great time.. especially getting stuck in the rapids with Meagan because we couldn't paddle because we were laughing so hard that we were stuck in the rapids which led to more laughter and lack of paddling, and the cycle continued. Obviously we made it but my abs hurt (from the laughter) more than my arms today. (2) I saw this as we pulled into Oletta this morning:

I am sure this lady meant well but note the heels and bag on her left arm as they walk to the kayak ramp. I shouldn't judge. But my guess would be that poor kid did the bulk of the paddling.

So we did some walking there and spent some time at the beach, then headed back to drop Adam at the airport as he is in Denver for a few days for work. :(

After the aeropuerto, we had ice cream at Jaxson's. Maia ate this entire cup of ice cream by herself.


Then we took a bike ride over to our old house. The only thing I miss about that dump are my neighbors. They have all lived there for years and are really like family, and watch out and take care of each other. Everyone was sitting outside and we just rode up on the bike so we totally surprised them.. It was really fun! Sadly, Jerry was the only one not there.. but we will catch him next time.











The bike ride home at sunset was so nice I had to stop and take some more pics.. especially so everyone can see how cute Maia is on the back. :)

Our third roommate...

Tuesday night Meagan arrived to the house to surprise Adam who thought she was coming on Friday!! It was awesome because we were all really excited to see each other and he had no idea she was coming out 3 days early. (I love surprises). We made some fresh pesto from the garden (which deserves an entire post all by itself) and grilled up some yummy chicken. And of course there was our standard of snacking on bread and cheese, listening to good music, and lots of laughter. Meagan is here for 2.5 weeks so there will be many more posts as we go on a couple of road trips and do some exploring! We missed you Meg!

Not only was her triumphant return a high point of the night but we also got news from Adam and Meagan's best friend Christian that he popped the question in Big Bend and Ali said yes! So it was pretty special that Adam and Meagan got to spend it together. We have so many things going on this year it is going to fly by. Congrats to Christian and Allison!




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Happy St. Patty's day!!

Did you wear your green? This little one did!

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Puerto Rico part duex

Our second day on the lovely island of Puerto Rico we escaped to my first ever rain forest. El Yunque National Forest to be exact. And yes it did actually rain while we were there.

The road to the park was winding, cutting through steep embankments of lush plant life and beautiful flowers with random scenic spots along the way. We hiked down to a waterfall which wasn't so bad on the way down, but a little more arduous on the way up because (note to self...) toddlers don't like steps. It is completely worth the trip down (and up) though. Thank you to Cari who took so many great pics while we were there.. unfortunately I tragically deleted mine while trying to sync my iPod. So, every picture in this post, Cari captured with her camera.

After El Yunque, we went for a little drive to a beach near Loiza where we almost got washed away into the ocean by a wave we all underestimated while we were standing with our toes in the water. We drove back to Cari's parent's house along the beach-front road and the best part was driving slow through the little ocean-side community, taking in the sounds of people on the street, and the smells of the road-side food stands.

GPN!!

Last night for Adam's birthday we went to see Grace Potter & the Nocturnals at the Culture Room and it was an awesome show. If you don't know Grace, you should check her out as she has a set of pipes on her, her stage performance is incredible, and she is pretty hot.

We saw her open for the Avett Brothers on Halloween at the Ryman in Nashvegas. I think we got there about half-way into her set and were a little bummed we missed the whole thing. She was wearing this short mini-dress covered in silver sequins and she rocked it. We were impressed, so when we found out she was coming to Laudy (and especially on Adam's bday) we jumped on getting tickets, and good thing cause the show was sold out... for good reason.

Here is a link to one of her ballads, but so far I think all of her songs are pretty awesome...

older the berry ..

Happy Birthday Adam! Today we are celebrating the beginning of the last year of Adam's glorious 20s!

My birthday present surprise for him was devastatingly ruined when it showed up at work not in a generic brown box as I had imagined but the factory box.. boo! So he found out a few days early but that's ok because we have been enjoying it!

The newest addition to our casa:

We are trying to not go crazy purchasing vinyl right now, but I am officially in love with listening to music this way. The best part is this turntable has a USB port so you can record music from vinyl to your ipod.

Lots of artists now-a-days are putting vinyl out.. our first purchases were Mumford & Sons, Avett Brothers, and John Prine.

El Radar!!

One use for this blog is to keep a journal of our trips since we take so many.. So I will be playing catch up a bit.. posting some past trips as I post current ones.

In November of last year we made our first big trip with Maia to Puerto Rico. Tickets were dirt cheap back in July and we couldn't pass it up. So we headed to San Juan for Veteran's Day weekend to see Cari, my old roommate from my MS at Auburn. She had moved back home and was diligently searching for a job (which has found now as she recently started working for the Department of Energy in Oak Ridge -- another trip in the making?). Since she was not yet working, she was our fabulous knowledgeable and free tour guide for our visit to the island, which was awesome except we of course could not fit in everything she recommended. Cari, if you were still living in San Juan, I would be trying to pimp you out right now as a tour-guide... for cash.

Our first full day we spent driving over to Arecibo National Observatory to see El Radar. If you haven't seen contact, then you won't understand that reference... The most entertaining part (as looking at a radar, although they are very cool and awe-inspiring, is not the most exciting thing) was listening to the very comical questions asked by our fellow gringo tourists to the poor college-student-part-time-volunteer answering questions before the informational video. "Is Puerto Rico a state?" "Do you guys get Medicare and Social Security?" Note to self, do a little research before visiting a new place.

Contact is one of my (and Adam's) absolute favorite movies so this was a must-see for our trip.I think Maia's favorite part was riding in a van from the bottom of the hill to the top without having to sit in a car seat and the space goo she got in the gift shop. But hey at least that space goo is from El Radar. :)

Manana: Day 2