When the Cat's Away...

Derek and Kirk left for North Dakota on Thursday, so it was just Reggie and me hanging out this weekend. I had great plans of relaxing by the pool, watching movies, etc., but instead, my weekend filled up quickly with house-related stuff.

I finally found a comforter and pillows for our day bed in the office (thanks to Target). I also hung a lot of pictures, painted our half bath, and got our guest room ready for my parents' visit next weekend.

In other very exciting news - I finally got a CAR!!!!!!!!!! It has been two years since I sold Gretta (the Jetta), and in these two years, I have taken just about every form of public transportation you can imagine. Since we moved to our new house, Kirk and Derek have been giving me a ride to the metro, which has worked out fine, but I think we were all ready for me to get a car. I feel like I just turned 16 again!!! I forgot how nice it is to be able to have control and leave for work whenever you want. I also forgot what it was like to listen to the radio and my iPod. So in short, I am very excited about my new wheels.

Here are some pics from the weekend:

The day bed in our office.

Our guest bedroom.

Our master bedroom.

The newly painted half bath.

And finally...my new (to me) ride!

I'm Moving to the Beach

Here are more pics from our vacation...

Robert's boat.

Grandma, Kate, and Preston hanging out in the water.

Kate and Preston covered in pillows.

Preston building one of his many sandcastles.

Derek and I at Traders. A guy that went to high school with my mom and dad (Danny Morgan) is a musician and plays regularly in Sanibel and Capitva. We drove down to see him play -- very good Jimmy Buffett covers as well as his own stuff.

Mom and Dad listening to the music.

Mom and Dad tearing up the dance floor.

Uncle Derek and Preston.

Uncle Derek and Kate before he had to fly back to D.C.

The pool, where we ended each day.

Grandpa and Preston trying to fly a broken kite.

Robert and Kate flying the kite just seconds before it nose-dived onto the beach.

Preston and me.

The Parasail boat that took Aidai and me up -- very fun. We think we saw two sharks!

Spiderman.

Preston fell asleep after a long day at the beach -- even Spiderman gets tired.

Kate on the beach.

Our last sunset on the beach.

Here's hoping that we'll be back to Captiva one day. Thanks Robert and Stacey for putting this all together -- it was an awesome trip!

In One Word....AWESOME

I just returned from our family vacation to Capitva, FL. Seriously, this place was amazing. I miss it already. To demonstrate the awesome-ness that was this vacation, I have decided to post multiple blog entries to try to do it justice.

Derek and I flew in on Saturday, and after my parents picked us up from the airport, we met up with Robert, Stacey, Kate, and Preston for some lunch and grocery shopping. 7 grocery carts later (I'm still amazed we were able to fit it all in the cars...I was sure we were going to have to strap someone to the roof National Lampoon's Vacation-style to get it all in), we were off to the island. Captiva was even better than I expected. The house was beautiful, the beaches were even better, and the company was outstanding.

Our week was full of fishing, laying on the beach, building sandcastles, (attempting) to fly a kite, drinking beer and beach drinks, playing ping pong, swimming in the pool, playing gin rummy, eating good food, and hanging out with quite possibly the coolest niece and nephew in the world!

In lieu of typing everything down, I figured I would just use the next few posts to show pictures of what we did and where we were. Since, I tend to slack a bit on the whole picture taking thing, you can also check out Robert's blog here for more pics.

Grandpa and Preston sporting their shades (Preston's are (of course) Spiderman glasses)

The whole reason we went to Captiva - Happy 60th Mom and Dad.

The fam hanging out on the beach the first night.

Preston on the beach (pre clothes getting wet).

Aidai and Kate on the beach.

It's Been Too Long

I admit I have been slacking a bit lately with the blog entries, so I've decided to do a few back to back blogs of things we have been up to over the past few weeks. Here it goes...

Over the 4th of July weekend, we also celebrated Derek's birthday. I made my first attempt at making his favorite cake recipe that his Grandmother made him every year. I actually made homemade frosting, and it turned out pretty well.

Derek and Kirk played in a scramble tournament in the morning (they won second place and a beautiful blue and turquoise plastic trophy that will find a place downstairs in our rec room, as opposed to the middle of the fireplace where Derek would like it displayed).

Derek made some amazing grilled hamburgers that were stuffed with blue cheese, and we topped them with some Chipotle-caramelized onions with grilled corn on the cob. Very tasty!

Derek with his Birthday cake.

A delicious 4th of July meal.

Me and the Reg-meister hanging on the deck.

Watching the D.C. fireworks (from the luxury of our own couch...thanks to PBS).