Bang! Bang!

While Caite and Brian were here, we decided to go to a shooting range. Nick was the only one with experience so he gave us all one on one instructions.

Here's Cait with our ear and eye protection. It was all indoors, so it was still really loud, even with the hearing protection on. I think Cait and I jumped at every shot!
Brian was loving it! We tried two guns, a 9mm Glock (like the cops use) and an M4 semi-automatic. I was really surprised at how heavy the guns were, how much they kicked and how loud they were.

We shot for about a half hour, it was freezing cold and our ears were ringing by the time we called it a day. But it was pretty cool to try for the first time!

We were surprisingly good aims, considering this was our first time!

New York City

Just after Thanksgiving, Caite and Brian came down to visit and we were able to spend a day in New York City. We got up super early on Thursday morning and took the Megabus 3 hours into the city. And we didn't even have to worry about parking :)We knew we had a lot to pack into a day, so we prioritized everthing we wanted to do....Ellis Island was our first stop for the day. We took the ferry past the Statue of Liberty (or Li-buuuuuddy, if you ask Brian) and had an amazing view of the city.

Then we had tickets for a 'hop on- hop off' tour that took us around the city with a guide and we could get off at any stop. We decided to check out Rockefeller Center with the Christmas tree and the ice skating rink.

We really had to move, as there are so few hours of day light during the winter, so by the time we made it to Central Park it was getting dusky. We came upon another skating rink with the city as an awesome back drop.

We had dinner reservations at Gordon Ramsey's restaurant Maze. It was an amazing dinner, and between the four of us, we tried nearly everything on the menu!

After an amazing dinner, we headed back out in the cold and made our way to our final destination....

We passed some landmarks along the way. It was amazing how the entire city was decorated for Christmas! It really got us in the mood for the holidays!

Our last stop was the Empire State Building. We were cutting it kinda close timewise to getting back to the bus stop for our ride home, so we really lucked out that there were no lines and we were able to walk right up to the elevators. By this time, the temperature had really dropped so we didn't really want to stay out long anyway.

The view was just amazing! You could see for miles in every directions, it was such a clear night.

Our only group shot just before we left the Empire State Building and walked back to the bus stop to take the Megabus back home. We got to see a LOT during our day in NYC :)

2010 Holidays

This year we had a cozy Thanksgiving at home with our great friend, Ed. We started cooking mid morning and Ed arrived with the beer just after noon.

We decided to make all the fixings, even if it was only the three of us. Ed brought the ham, mac & cheese, home made dressing from his families recipe, biscuts and green bean cassarole. We had a nice turkey, corn, mashed potatoes (Cait's secret recipe)I was soooo excited to use my new placemats, napkins, napkin rings and table cloth .... it made a great table setting :) I can't wait to someday have my china to use. Everything I picked out was with the China in mind!

The day after Thanksgiving, we put our tree up and got all the decorations up. This was a picture of our tree with all the gifts we had to bring up to Michigan. Our tree is so little, it makes the pile of presents look HUGE!!

Family wedding

On May 22, my cousin Kent got married in Defiance, Ohio. Both he and his wife, Abby are really into horses and incorporated that into the ceremony. They got married at the spot where they had their first date and luckily the weather was perfect for it.

There were four little boys in the wedding, all Abby's nephews...they were so cute, all dressed in dark jeans and white shirts.....except for all the mud where one had fallen earlier in the day
The flower girls are all Kent's nieces and they looked so cute in their matching dresses their grandma made.

Kent and Abby really made their wedding their own. Abby rode up to the aisle on her horse, Patches and Kent's horse Thunder was in the background waiting. Instead of a unity candle, they branded two horse shoes into a wooden plank with their names and wedding date burned into it.

After the recieving line, they both got on their horses and rode around the property for some gorgeous pictures.

Here is their cake with the couple on the horses for the topper.

And their first dance as husband and wife...I love going to weddings and seeing how each one is different. We all had a great time seeing family and enjoying eachother's company. It was a super fast trip, we were only there for one full day but it was worth the drive!

Getting our Preak on...

On May 15th, we went to the the middle race in the triple crown....the Preakness! It was Nick's first time at a horse race (only my second) and we had a great time. The weather was perfect, the horses were beautiful and the beer was cold.

The view from our seats was great...just at the top of the stretch. Here the horses were heading towards the starting gate.

Here we are, enjoying our mug club beer in front of the starting gate.

And they're off.....We bet on a few races, won even less. Defiantely did not come out on top but had a lot of fun trying.

Baby Shower

On May 11, I threw a surprise baby shower for a friend from work. It was a total success.... Maria was shocked. I got her to my apartment with the idea that we'd go out to lunch, but she'd need to meet me here because of my 'broken ankle' hehe. The look of surprise when she walked in the door and realized what was happening was priceless.

Here's a picture of all the party attendees....


Here is the food table with a diaper cake as the center piece.

And this was the view when Maria walked in!!! It was so much fun!!

New Car

So, after months of searching for a new car, we finally decided on the Chrysler 300. It was not the car we were even talking about, but Nick talked me into a test drive. Next thing you know, we were talking numbers. After a long week of getting the trade-in fixed and working we finally bought the beast.

I thought it looked like a man's car from the outside, but once I got inside and drove it, I was convinced that I could drive this day to day. It's got black leather interior, navigation, sunroof, heated seats, sensors to let you know when to stop backing up, and lots of room. Plus a Hemi V8! Luckily it drops down to a 4 cylinder when you're driving slow or once you are over 60 mph. We'll see what that does to the gas mileage. Anyway, it should be a fun car to last us a few years. We're excited to drive it up to Michigan and show it off to our friends and families :)