This Weekend

Matt and I were in St. Louis this weekend so that I could run a 1/2 Marathon with my friend Katy! We had a GREAT race, both of us did well, we stayed consistant with our planned splits until mile 4. Then somehow we were able to get faster and faster for each mile after that. The race absolutely flew by! I'm a little sore, and think I may have bruised the ball of my foot (ouch!), but nothing a few days rest can't handle, though I have to teach step class tomorrow. I think I'll be taking it easy on them for once!

At the start of the race!



Still smiling at the finish!

Our Anniversary

Matt and I had a great evening celebrating our 2nd anniversary, the actual day was last Monday, but we waited and celebrated it on Friday. We were going to be in St. Louis for the weekend so we decided to wait and have a fun dinner at Morton's Steakhouse. It was so yummy, and a fun night together!

Last Weekend

We had a great day celebrating my birthday last weekend. It was exactly what I hoped for, a totally relaxing day and going out for lunch/dinner. Matt also made some yummy waffles for me for breakfast. It was so nice to wake up to the smell of waffles cooking away!


Breakfast!



Reading the new Kindle that my parents got me, I pretty much spent the entire day reading!

Matt made me cupcakes, he brought one down to me while I was talking on the phone to his parents!

It was a great birthday!

Our new office

I know it would be nice to give you some before and after shots of our office, but I was so embarassed about the state of our previous office that I didn't want to document it!

On our way home from vacation, Matt and I had planned on stopping at an Ikea, and picking up some bookcases. We were definitely in need of them since we still had about 20 boxes of books in our storage room. Plus since Ikea has some resonable prices on their bookcases, and we didn't need anything too fancy...they were the way to go!

We planned out the trip pretty well, when we mapped out our route and compared it to Ikea store locations, we were able to find one that was right on the way! When we left the Cape our car was already pretty full. We had picked up a beautiful hope chest that my nana had been wanting to give me for years now, I just never had the space in a vehicle to move it! Anyways we decided we would need to rent a Uhaul trailer if we were picking up these bookcases, since there was no way they were going to fit!

We thought we knew exactly what we were planning on buying as far as color, style, and number of bookcases. We even spent some time walking through an Ikea when we were in Canada to solidify our decison! Of course when we got there (with our Uhaul in tow!) we were overwhelmed with many more options than we had seen at any other Ikea or online, so our planning began again from phase one! We found ourselves sitting in the Home Office section of the store at one of the desk and chair set ups and replanned everything! It was a good thing we brought all the measurements for the office! Also instead of just getting bookcases, we decided to get desks and tables too, basically, an entirely new office! Good thing we had the Uhaul. Our trip to Ikea took every bit of 5 hours, but we were happy with the results!

We were also excited that we can fit another few bookcases into the room, believe it or not, we still need more! So, one day we will make another trip!

Hummingbirds

These hummingbirds have been our morning entertainment each day! I like to sit on the front porch with my cup of tea in the morning before school and watch these guys go crazy over the bird feeder!

They are actually pretty much constant entertainment all day, the only time we have to sit and watch them though is early morning and evening. At one point we counted about 10 hummingbirds, fighting for their chance at the sugar water! Very fun!

I hope the video came out ok! If not you can link to it on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ow0eNEjQ2I

I know it's not a very long version but I hope you get the idea!

Our Vacation

Matt and I were incredibly lucky to be able to take 2 and 1/2 weeks of vacation this summer. We spent 1 week in Canada, and 1 week on Cape Cod (the rest of the days were driving days!) we had a completely relaxing and fun time with our family.

We started our trip with a drive up to Canada, we took it slow and spent about 2 1/2 days on the road. We spent a great day (Matt's Birthday) in Niagara Falls along our way. It was fun to be about to stop and break up some drive time!

Our time in Canada was pure relaxation. It was Matt's first time in Canada and I was so excited to introduce him to it! We spent our days lounging by the river, then lounging up at the cottage, then... lounging by the river again! We did make a couple little excursions. One day we drove into Ottawa and visited the market and Parliment buildings. Another day we spent some time driving around a nearby national park.

The next half of the trip was with Matt's family on Cape Cod, we got some quality time with my family too which was good! On the Cape we mostly enjoyed spending time at the beach, on the lake, or on the boat. Those days along with some fabulous meals and quality time with family made for a trip that couldn't have been better!

We came home so relaxed, it was great to get away! Our trip home deserves it's own post, so be looking for that over the next couple of days!

Canada Pics