October, August, and FEBRUARY: July 2008

Busy July III - My Birthday in Boothbay Harbor, Maine

Bill threw me a perfect birthday weekend - dinner at our place with friends on Friday night and then a weekend getaway in Boothbay Harbor, Maine on Saturday and Sunday. Makes me wish I turned 30 more often!

We went to a great lobster restaurant on Saturday night in Maine. We at outside on picnic tables where the chef put our lobsters, corn, mussels, etc. all into a bag marked "Bill" and tossed it into the giant steamer. It was fantastic! Here I am with my "catch" - poor guy, he was all eaten by the time we took this picture!

We went for a nice hike on Sunday. This chair up on a rock overlooking the water must be one of the most relaxing places in the world to sit.

Self-photos - never the most attractive, but the only one I have of the two of us together on our hike!

Busy July II - New York City with Carrie & Courtney!

The next weekend, I went to New York City with my two very best friends from high school - Carrie and Courtney. We had a great time, seeing the Sex & the City movie, walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, visiting Little Italy, going to see "Hairspray" on Broadway, eating frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity, and exploring Central Park. It was a perfect weekend away!

Carrie & Courtney in Little Italy

The three of us in Central Park on Sunday.

One of the best things about the weekend away was that while I was gone, Bill and his brothers cleaned out the baby's room! I was very thankful. Now we have a lot of bookshelves in our living room and are desk-less while we wait for delivery of a smaller desk for our kitchen (yep, you read that right, our desk is going in the corner of the kitchen). The construction in our apartment is almost done (see pictures below), so we're getting closer to getting ready for the baby! Hopefully this weekend we can put the crib together - I'll be sure to post pictures.

The built-ins have been painted since this photo, but you can get the idea. Here's the china cabinet portion -we're still waiting on doors and a countertop. But it's mostly done! The panels you see on the rest of the photo hide lots of storage (see second picture - now filled with our stuff, not tools), which we love!

Busy July I - July 4th Weekend

We've had a busy few weeks this month!

Over July 4th, we went to Indiana for my cousin Ashley's wedding. She was a beautiful bride and the wedding was wonderful!

It was great to be in Indiana with the whole family, especially to spend time with my nieces and nephew. I was also lucky enough to have a baby shower thrown for me over the weekend - a fantastic weekend all around!

Here are a few pictures from the festivities...

Me, Erin, and Maddie at Ashley's reception

The baby shower sign outside of my granddad's house.

Bill getting attacked by Jake (my nephew) and Tyler (my cousin's son) - they were almost able to drag him into the sprinkler at the splash pad!

Me after the baby shower, tying knots on my baby's "Texas Blanket." Kate and I each had ones of these blankets made for us when we moved to Texas, and my mom made one for our baby! Everyone at the shower helped tie knots so that the blanket could really be from my whole family. I love it!