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).

Rocky Mountain High

Growing up, my family was fortunate enough to go on a summer vacation. The vacations started out in Holden Beach at the beloved Lone Star (thanks Robert for finding this -- looks like the place could use some updating). While I don't necessarily remember all of the details of these vacations (other than Tom pretending to be a shark in the water and grabbing at my legs until I screamed for help). But I do remember that it was a lot of fun hanging out on the beach with my entire family.

As the Blackford clan continued to move south and west, we found a new spot for our yearly vacation -- Estes Park, CO, home to Rocky Mountain National Park. For those of you who haven't been, it is absolutely gorgeous. We were lucky enough (thanks again to Robert) for finding a pretty awesome cabin that looks right out on the Front Range of the Rockies. There are too many good memories to recount here (including Tom pretending to be a mountain lion and scratch at my window in the middle of the night...are you seeing a pattern here?).

Well, I haven't been back to Estes in almost 9 years. My parents, however, have kept up the tradition. This year Tom and Stacey went with them, and my Dad ran in the Estes Park Half Marathon, placing third in his age group. I'm hoping that I can get away next summer and bring Derek with me.

This year, we are headed to Captiva, FL and it can't come soon enough. Only 4 weeks and counting until I get to see my whole family -- it's been too long!

Here are some pics from previous vacations:

One of my favorite pictures at the beach

Our first trip to Estes (check out Robert's shades and Tom's fanny pack)

In other news, the home improvement streak continued this weekend -- we finally painted the kitchen and actually made a small step in actual renovation-type stuff...we replaced a baseboard and a light fixture (and by "we," I of course mean Derek -- my job was to watch him and freak out about him electrocuting himself). We've only got two more rooms to go on the painting front, and the novelty has really worn off, so we may have to take a little break these next few weeks. The weekend also involved some frisbee time with Reg and a trip to my second favorite ice-cream restaurant, Dairy Queen, for a Reese's Blizzard...yum.

Here Comes the Sun

It finally stopped raining this weekend! We have had a record amount of rain over the last month, and we've all had a little bit of cabin fever. Well, after a pretty gross day on Friday, the sun came out on Saturday morning. It worked out perfectly because my firm had a hike planned for the summer associates. So, I woke up early, picked up some co-workers, and we drove about 60 miles west of D.C. to Sky Meadows State Park. We did about a 3.5-mile hike, and there were a couple of scenic overlooks. It's no Rocky Mountain, but it was really pretty!

After the hike, I drove back into town and headed to my second home, otherwise known as Home Depot to pick up some more paint. The next room on the list is the master bathroom. We definitely underestimated the amount of tape that was required, but after that was done, it went by pretty quickly.

We also got Reggie out of the house for some much-needed frisbee time. His paws have recovered and we finally found a good field for some long frisbee-throws. I also had the joy of giving him a bath on Sunday. While I hate doing this (and Reggie isn't exactly thrilled about it either), it was so much easier now that we actually have a hose and I can wash him outside, which is MUCH easier than doing it in the bathtub!

Pic from the Hike

Bathroom Before

Bathroom After (painting the mirror took twice as long as the bathroom itself!)

I hemmed up our new curtains this weekend -- mom would be very proud

Here is a pic of part of our dinner on Saturday -- grilled artichokes (with brats) -- de-lish.

3 Day Weekend

This weekend was quite a surprise for us -- neither one of us remembered that it was Memorial Day, so we were quite happy for the extra day off. The weekend only included three trips to Home Depot (you are probably beginning to see a pattern here). We bought some more paint samples and other fun things, including outlet plate covers and door knobs. We successfully sanded, primed, and painted the oak crown molding a white color. We recycled some of the curtain rods that the owners left by painting them black (great money saver), and then we painted the bathroom. And all of that was just Saturday.

On Sunday, Derek decided to make some of his famous guacamole but ran into a problem: we couldn't find the stupid potato masher thing that he uses to smash the avocados. We soon realized (after searching the entire house and every unpacked box) that we were missing some of our kitchen things. We called UHaul to see if we left a box on the truck but no such luck. It was driving us crazy. Well, on Monday, we had to go back to the old place to finish cleaning, and while we were there, we decided to take one last look through the kitchen cabinets and guess what we found? An entire cabinet that we forgot to pack -- oops. So now all is well -- we have our potato masher, our steamer, and all of our mixing bowls!

Rec Room Before -- oak-colored crown molding

Rec Room After

Newly Painted Bathroom


Derek made an awesome dinner on Sunday - Grilled Tilapia & Shrimp topped with cooked spinach and roasted cherry tomatoes and surrounded with grilled zucchini and summer squash (I contributed by making the strawberry margarita)

Random picture of Reggie*

*Reggie went a little crazy with the frisbee this weekend. He was going non-stop for about half an hour and after we got home, we saw that he was limping a little bit. Turns out he cut his pads and now they are really sensitive. After freaking out and checking on him every couple of hours last night, it looks like he is doing better -- guess we will have to put his frisbee time on hold for the next few weeks.