A Trip to the Sunshine State!

Whew!!! Brandon and I need vacation after all our vacations!!! After returning from Hawaii, we immediately left for a trip to Florida with Brandon's family. We had such a great time!!!

Our first family picture was taken from the porch of our condo. 14th floor - directly over the ocean. It was BEAUTIFUL!


My eyes are always scanning the horizon for fins, whether they be sharks, dolphins, or whales. And guess what??? On the very first day of the trip, my eyes spotted this pod of dolphins! (I'm pretty sure this was 2 adults and 1 baby - as I later found out that this is mating season and lots of baby dolphins are being spotted!)


My sweet, sweet baby nephew, Elliott, liked taking naps at the beach. The waves lulled him to sleep!


And, to my delight, he LOVED the water!!! The little guy even took a few lessons from Aunt Brooke and learned to go underwater, lay on his back, and reach up for the side. He was so comfortable with the water and will be a great swimmer soon!


LOVE HIM!!! How can this picture not make you smile???


We tanned at the beach, relaxed at the pool, and enjoyed an afternoon on wave-runners.

One evening we went to eat at a restaurant called Hammerheads. Not only was the name awesome, but the views were awesome too! What a great sunset!



On the last evening, we took some family photos. And, for a camera stuck on a tripod, I think these turned out awesome!!!


I LOVE my hubby and his family!


We had such a great time on vacation!!! Thanks Doug, Sue, Tony, Shane, Michelle, and Elliott for making such sweet memories with us!

***Once we got home, it was so nice to see this sweet face too! We love our dog, Wrigley!***

Hawaii Sept 2011

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Aloha from Hawai'i!!!

Brandon and I have been having the most wonderful time in Hawaii! We were so lucky that Brandon was asked to go on a job in North Shore, Hawaii - and it just so happened to coincide with my vacation time!

We are very fortunate to be staying at Turtle Bay Resort ... the same resort where the movie "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" was filmed!


The day we arrived to Oahu was also Brandon's 30th Birthday!!! So, the car rental place upgraded us to a Jeep Wrangler! What a great way to tour the island! (It even convinced Brandon that this should be the next car we own! My FAVORITE!)


We were lucky enough to be here on Sunday, September 11, 2011 - which happened to be the 10 year anniversary of 9/11/01. What better way to spend the morning than visit the historic Pearl Harbor site? It was such a special day there. Many uniformed service men and women were present - and there was a memorial run going on nearby. We could see a group of marines carrying the American Flag across a bridge. It was a sight that brought tears to my eyes. Brandon has long wanted to go to Pearl Harbor - and he says this was the highlight of his entire trip!




My favorite part of Pearl Harbor was visiting the USS Arizona Memorial. This special memorial was built directly on top of the USS Arizona, just one of the ships that was sunk during the attack on Pearl Harbor. From inside the memorial, you can look into the water and see the ship below. It was built to honor the lives lost that day - as many as 2,400 people lost their lives during that attack. (Notice the American Flag flying at half mass that day...)



After visiting Pearl Harbor and a quick stop by the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet, we met up with good friends of mine, the Irvine's. They live in the beautiful town of Kailua and made the perfect tour guides for the day! I have known the Irvine's since my college days and they have always been so kind! They drove us all around Kailua to show Brandon both Kailua Beach and Lanikai Beach, then took us out to a great lunch.


The great thing about hanging out in Hawaii with "locals" is that they take you beyond the "no trespassing" signs to places that only they know about.


Places where wild ginger grows...... Our hotel room never smelled so good!!!


Thank you SO MUCH Aunty Nona and Uncle Bo for showing us around and also for the beautiful fresh leis!

Since we were on the North Shore, we had to take a special trip to historic Haleiwa town. We had a great time seeing all the surf shops and stores.



And I had to take Brandon to the famous Matsumoto's Hawaiian shave ice store! For a guy that can eat Fla-Vor-Ice pops with the best of them, Brandon was in shave ice heaven!



On the way home from Haleiwa, we stopped at this picturesque spot. If I wasn't there for myself, I wouldn't have believed a place like this existed!


On the last day of our trip, we stopped at La'ie Point - and WOW is all that can be said!


In the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall, there is a scene where they jump off the cliffs. This is that location. I felt famous. (Hard to tell from the picture, but that cliff is probably a 25-35 ft jump. I'm kicking myself for not taking cliff jumping clothes! Guess we'll have to come back here again!)



We have had such a GREAT TIME in Hawaii! We are already counting down until the next time we visit - hopefully for a longer trip!


We leave tomorrow afternoon - and in 2 more days, head down to Florida for a week with Brandon's family! Can't wait for another relaxing week on the beach!

ALOHA!!!

Our New Honeymoon Album - A Bit Late!

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Congratulations are in order...

Brandon's men's team FINALLY won a softball game!!! Actually, TWO games!

In an amazing come-back effort, from 2 straight seasons with no wins at all (other than one forfeit), the team finally pulled one out of the hat and won. Brandon assures me that he has taken the reigns of this team and plans on winning games in the future too, but that remains to be seen. (The other team must have been suffering from the plague last night...)

Brandon tells me that I have doubted his coaching abilities in the past and that I owe it to him to write a blog praising him.

"Oh, Brandon...I'm not worthy!!! I'm not worthy!!!"
(There you go....Happy, honey?)

It's not that I doubted Brandon - I just doubted some of the idiots he has on the team. However, he has FIRED (that's right, FIRED) those idiots and has picked up some pretty good players. *He is transforming the team to be like his team back in Chattanooga. They even won with 9 players on the field last night rather than 10. Also, one guy even tried to carry Brandon off the field - a "VICTORY" carry.*
*Brandon made me write that part....direct quote

Tonight is another double header - this time with the Co-Ed team which is pretty good.

Below is the email sent last week from the Co-Ed "Coaches" (if that's what you'd call them). Again, I can't make this up!!!

Hello everyone,

Next game is 6:20 PM against ____ at Field 15. They are in 5th place but don't let that lull you into a false sense of security, this is a very good team and I want us to destroy them.

Our scouts submitted this report:

Deep lineup

All girls are base hitters and fast on the base paths

Two guys have home-run power

Same defensive lineup as us - male left infield, female right infield, split outfield

They forfeited to the church team the first week of the season, so not sure how that impacted their stats but we both are averaging almost 12 runs scored per game, and our defense is better, so should be a great couple of games.

Also don't forget that Jimmy Johns is throwing a picnic party for us afterwards so plan to hang out for a little bit if you can. Again we are hoping they will sponsor us next year so try to work them over :)

Weather tentatively looks good, and I'll be out at fields early if anyone wants to get in a little extra BP since we haven't played for 2 weeks. Everyone should be at the game, if that's not the case let us know ASAP.

Goooooo Hellfish!

Seriously, I hope they DESTROY the team tonight!!!

Until next time...

Homemade Applesauce

I sure hope my Grandma is seeing this blog, because she would be SO PROUD of me!!! Today, with the apple loot we picked yesterday, I made HOMEMADE APPLESAUCE....just like my Grandma's!

It's in the freezer right now, because that's just how I like it....with ice crystals! MMMmmm... Reminds me of visiting my family in Ottumwa, Iowa!

A Day at the Apple Orchard

Brandon and I had the most wonderful afternoon!!! Not only did I get off work at 3:15pm today, we also went to an apple orchard outside of Columbus! The weather was beautiful and the apples were awesome!

Growing up, my family always went to the pumpkin patch in the fall where we would pick pumpkins and apples. Lately, Brandon and I have really gotten into watching the show "Little People, Big World" on TV which chronicles the life of a family who own a pumpkin patch/farm and are a family with dwarfs. Each time they show the pumpkin patch, I think back to my own childhood and smile.

That's why, when I got off early from work, I called Brandon and said, "Let's Go!!!" And being the wonderful husband he is, he said "No problem......but YOU have to drive!"







The apple orchard also sold home-grown veggies, which I couldn't pass up! Total haul:

10 lbs Jonathan apples
4 Honeycrisp apples
10 lbs Red Potatoes
1 lb Fresh green beans
1 pt Fresh okra
2 Zucchini
3 Cucumber

(Okra is one of B's favorite veggies...and we haven't been able to find this in Ohio until NOW!)

It was such a fun time that we will definitely be going there again this fall!

Still in the SWING of Things

Brandon's fall softball season started last week. He's playing on a men's team (the same team he played with this summer) as well as a co-ed team. I'll start with the men's team, as there isn't much to say about them. They are HORRIBLE. They lost every single game of the summer and are headed that way for this fall. I take that back - they did win their last game of the summer - because the other team had to forfeit. But, assuming no teams forfeit this fall, they will probably finish dead last. Below is a picture of Brandon's reaction when a ball was hit to left field. He looks totally into his team, don't you agree?
Wrigley, on the other hand, is still a huge fan of softball. She barks every time Brandon gets up to bat. It's pretty cute!Now, the co-ed team is a different story.

They are actually pretty good. They run-ruled the team this past week!

The only problem with this team is the slightly, nope - intensely, crazy people that are "coaching" this team. Somewhere along the line, they were not informed that this is a coed slow-pitched softball team and NOT the USA Olympic team. While I appreciate their enthusiasm for coaching coed slow-pitch softball, the 5 pre-season practices they held were a little insane. Don't get me wrong - practicing relay plays to the plate is an important part of softball (but NORMAL softball...NOT coed slow pitch softball). I was surprised they didn't go over bunt coverage....

I've included an excerpt from the last email Brandon received from the "coaches". I don't think I could come up with material this good....

Hey Everyone,

What a way to start the season by beating last year's league champs! Even though we had a slow start in both games it was encouraging to see the team come together and fight back for the win.

Defensively, we had a great first week. I noticed a couple of areas that could be improved upon such as communication in the outfield, hitting the cut-off, and making throws to first (hint hint shortstop). Offensively, we had some clutch hits that allowed us to win both games but overall we need to improve our hitting as a team. We need to make sure we swing at good pitches and just relax at the plate.

I mean, COME ON!!!!! They're crazy! Gives me a good laugh each week though.... And FYI, they even have a computer program for each player's batting stats....and they use it. I would have added a picture of the stats on here, but B is off on a business trip and I don't know how to screen shot. I will say that Brandon is leading the team in batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, and RBI's. He's leading in doubles and triples....and even hit an in-the-park legit home run this past game. Oooohhhhh yeaaahhhhhh.....atta babe! (He's come a long way from sitting the bench last summer!)

Funsie Onesie Presents "Buckeye Baby"!!!

I am totally excited to announce the newest of the Funsie Onesie empire!

"BUCKEYE BABY"

Onesies are in the works for "Hawkeye Baby", "Cyclone Baby", "Packer Baby", Steeler Baby"....whatever your heart desires!!!

And I would especially like to thank my new model, Max, for his beautiful eyes and wonderful smile!!!

Scrubs 2DYE4

Made a GREAT pair of scrubs tonight for my mother-in-law Sue.

Aren't they 2DYE4???