This Month

A Florida-kind-of Thanksgiving!

Ben & I decided to drive over to Florida for Thanksgiving this year!

It was a short fun trip! But well worth it!

Can't say I had gone to the beach on black Friday before,

but it was far better sitting on the beach with 80 degree weather

than trying to shop at 4 am!!

Clearwater Beach Sunset!

Now, it's hard for me to get in the Christmas spirit with this

weather! But it sure was nice!!

Last Month

Last month my whole family was able to make it down to Texas

for a special 1 year-old little girl's birthday party!

This is the first time since Christmas of 2008 that my family had

all been together!

We all had a great time!

Such a great time, I forgot to take enough pictures, but this is what I got!

Elaina the birthday girl! Turns 1!!

Laney and Aunt Jenni

Me and my brothers!

Me and my sister-in-laws!

Uncle Nick can always make Hudson laugh!!

Astros vs. Cubs

Last weekend we were able to go to one of the last Astros games!

We went with another couple we met down here, Kim and Chris!

Through Chris's work, we sat in the second row along the 3rd baseline! You

could see into the dugout of the Cubs! It was pretty cool!

Kim, Chris, Ben, and I

Just to show how close we were! It felt like we were on the field!

Apparently this guy is a big deal on the Cubs team, I tried to

get his autograph, but no luck!

Not sure what to say about this one!

Chilling at the end of the game, waiting for the fireworks to start!

Home project!!

When we moved into our house 2 1/2 years ago, there were these

fabulous built-ins in the study.

We said, someday we would paint it or stain it; but

put it off because we knew it would be a job!

Well, it was a lot of work.... but I think that it has paid off!

Ben prepping the study for priming/painting

Before

Painted the walls an olive green color/ this is looking at our front entry

way into the "dining room" (opposite the built-ins)

Finished! Yeah!

A lot of work, but well worth the finished product!

Next stop.... the bathroom!

Jack Johnson!

Last night we went to go see Jack Johnson!

Yes, it was a school night, but he was in town so we

had to take advantage!

It was a great show!

Killing time before Jack came on the stage

There was everything there from electric, acoustic guitars, ukuleles, accordion, piano, organs,

and drums!

It was great!

Jack!

Normal smiling pic!

Visitors from Michigan!

Ben's brother Josh and his wife Tamara braved the August

heat of Texas and came down for a visit!

It was so wonderful to have them here!

We took them to a lot of great places to eat, had some downtime watching

multiple episodes of The Office, and hung out in Galveston for a day!

We took them to see where we both worked.

This building is a parking garage in the medical center that

has a waterfall coming off of the sides, I think that it is

a pretty cool building!

Thank you guys so much for coming down!

Of course these are the only two pictures that I took!

I need to get better at that!

Loved having you down here!

Michigan kind of Summer

We had a fabulous time in Michigan and Ohio this summer!

So much fun in fact that I didn't take a single picture!

We were able to spend some much needed time catching

up with friends and family!

We drove this summer and our dog Chai was such a good traveler!

I guess there was nothing else to do in the car but take pictures

so we took some of our pup!

Snuggled into the suitcase in the back seat!

She has her "Really?" face on here

At one point during the trip I tried to fill her water dish so she could drink,

well, I spilled a little water on her blanket and the next

time I turned around she had her butt sitting up on the suitcase

so to not get wet! What a weird dog!

It was all in all a safe and wonderful trip!

We are both looking forward to Christmas already!

More Biking!!

Last weekend we drove out to Warda, TX (about 1 hour east of Austin) to do

some more mountain biking! We left early in the morning and arrived there at 9:30am.

We biked 6.5 miles and took a rest and rehydrated ate some snacks

then went out for another 6.5 miles.

The second time around was so hot...I think like a gazillion degrees or so!

Getting ready to ride!

Our friends, Ric and Melissa

The girls! Melissa, Cheryl, and me

The boys, Ben, Booker, and Ric

Mel and I

It was a great time and we went out for some good pizza and Dairy Queen afterwards!

Hey! We deserved it!!

Back on the Bike!

So last year everyone (or 2 people) seemed to be flipping over their

mountain bike and cracking or dislocating their shoulder, and this made Emily

a little more fearful of getting back on the bike!

Well, it was time to "get back on the horse"!

The past two weekends we have gone biking... and it's been more fun

than I remember!

This past Sunday we packed up a picnic and after our 8 mile ride, we

had a great picnic lunch! Despite it being 96 degrees, we had a

"coolish" breeze which made it tolerable to be outside!

After our picnic... feeling good!

We found some showers at the campground and posed for a

picture in front of our 4Runner with his/her bikes on top!

It was a great day!

Babysitting!

Last week I babysat my niece and nephew!

Lots of playtime and reading books!

They are getting so big!

Elaina

Hudson being a cheeser!

To blog or not to blog?

Is facebook enough? Or should this blog becontinued?

A lot to catch up on if it is to be continued!

But for now, I will leave you with a great view from our trip to

Sedona, AZ and the Grand Canyon!

So beautiful! God's creation is amazing!