Nashville Wedding!

I just noticed that the photos from Kelly's wedding have been posted online... here's a couple of us. :)

Kate.

Mammoth Caves & Nashville

We don't really have many photos from Nashville - though Nashville was the purpose of our mini-vacation this weekend. BJ's college friend Kelly was getting married there... and along the way we stopped by Mammoth Caves for a little caving & hiking. Most of the cave tours were booked up by the time we got there so we ended up on the LAMEST tour on earth. BJ and I have both been able to explore / crawl through caves in the past so walking .5 miles round trip on a completely flat surface was not the experience we were looking for.

Here's BJ (looking cool as ever) waiting for the tour cave tour & inside the cave.

This is what happens when we have a hiking trail totally to ourselves... we spent the day before landscaping (surprise surprise) so this KILLED my hands!

So pretty...

Apple Orchard Apples

...and now I need to bake a PIE!

Apple Orchard

Here are some of the picts from the apple orchard (during our NonCamping Camping Weekend)! My favorite are the pumpkin pictures! :)

From the Miller's Garden...

...and now on our
window sill. :)

3rd Annual NonCamping Camping Weekend

Every year we have a mini Purdue reunion... it all began as a camping weekend but very quickly became a non-camping camping weekend (ie we don't camp at all). :) This weekend BJ and I headed up to Indy to visit with Kristi, Cary, Chrissy, Chris, Mike, Megan and LUKE! :) We visited an apple orchard which was AMAZING. More on that later.

We also got to meet Chris and Chrissy's bengal kitten (a Asian Leopard Cat decendant). If we didn't already have FIVE pets... :)

Reverse Mohawk

Annie was growing some serious dreads so I had to have a little beauty session with her... She's taking it surprisingly well. :)

Morning Fog

When I saw the massive amounts of fog outside this morning I made sure to grab my camera on the way out the door. You can see in them this AMAZING tree with bright red leaves... we noticed it last night while walking Miss Layla.

I think I'm going to put these photos in my car for those times I wonder why my commute is so long.

Apple Color

We have these fake apples that are remarkably realistic... hence the BITE MARKS in some of them. :) Right now they're serving as wall color inspiration.

New Trees and Such

Here is a sampling of our nursery auction finds... including our scarlet maples (2 of them), lilac tree, and crabapple that I LOVE but BJ thinks will attract birds + their poop.

Indoor / Outdoor Tree

We picked up this tropical tree at our second nursery stop. It's already getting too cold outside for her so I just brought her in straight away. Her blooms close every night and open back up every day. She's a little out of place in our family room but makes up for it with extra pizazz.

My Favorite Jade

My newest indoor plant is this Jade. I love it so much I think I might have to name it.

Some of the leaves didn't make the ride home... so I've got them stuck in dirt with hopes they might grow new Jades. BJ says I have a colony of them. :) I think they look like Kermet the Frog tounges.

Hallway Photos

I just finished this little project with a couple photos from Alaska (plus one of BJ snowboarding in our front yard) and IKEA frames. :)

2001 Chevy Prism for Sale...

Only slight deer damage. :)

BJ had a little run-in yesterday morning. This would be our car with only liability on it. But... it still runs so we're actually going to keep it around, dents and all. :)

Trees and more trees

We had quite the weekend! On Saturday morning we headed to Dawson's nursery - where they were having a going-out-of-business auction. They were selling all of their stock and equipment leaving (of course) the best for last. In the end (after about 7 hours there) we left with 12 shrubs and 6 trees including two scarlet maples (for either side of our house) and a lilac tree.

On our way to pick up soil and other planting necessities after church yesterday, BJ happened to notice a going-out-of-business sign on ANOTHER nursery (I guess it's a sign of the times). We swung in and left with five MORE trees and a just plain awesome jade plant.

So now we have 10 trees and 12 shrubs to plant! BJ managed to get the largest one in the ground yesterday (we needed the mower to pull it into place it was so heavy) while I pruned the crap out of our knock-out roses.

Aldin Photoshoot :)

Jess and Ryan came to visit this weekend and it was soooo nice to see them! :) Sadie is getting more mobile and is so much fun! Yesterday we visited the park for a mini photoshoot. Here's some of them (including a couple of Sadie around our house)...


I love the one of her licking the diaper! [View More]

The 'MySpace Face'

This is me about 30 seconds ago... in my effort to demonstrate what BJ and I call 'the MySpace Face'... all the cool kids have it. Your eyes go one way and your mouth goes another and you make it your profile pic. There's a little education for ya. This is what we learn from our kids. :)

This is going to sound odd...

...considering my last post... but I must confess, there are very few bands I truely enjoy. That's why when I discovered Seabird... I talked about them a lot. My pickiness comes from, in large part, my love of the band Waterdeep. They've ruined me for other music because they are eclectic / folky / quirky enough to keep my interest. It's hard for me to find bands that I really feel are unique. For me... Waterdeep's it. I heart Waterdeep. There. I said it.

Thank goodness they've made a bazillion cds. Yes, a bazillion.

Carrie Underwood!

The concert last night was so great. Yes, I like country music. BJ... not so much... so I went to see this one with BJ's mom and Carl.

We had great seats plus I knew EVERY song... which is rare for me. :)

Guam?

Through Google Analytics I can, purely for kicks, see who's checking out our blog... Many people find us randomly, thus... Guam.

Reds Game

Thankfully the Red's won it - we're just spoiling things for everyone. :) BJ and I met up with Eric and his girlfriend Erin for the game and had a lot of fun. Afterwards we crashed in on Andrea and Andy as they were hanging out with each other and working on wedding stuff. :)

Last Thursday's Glacier Cruise

So I'm just going to have to slideshow this one because we took so many photos. For those of you who have interest... there you go!

So we took off for Seward Thursday morning for the glacier day cruise. We were warned about choppy weather when we got there, and at times the waves were 5' - thank goodness for Dramamine!

The main attraction of the cruise was, of course, the glacier. It was amazing! We were there about 20 minutes and we were able to see it 'cap' several times. Once a piece broke off that was the size of our boat (that held 100 people). Here's someone else's video of this same glacier - this is very similar to what we saw. Keep in mind that the boat is a quarter mile away from the glacier. It's a lot larger than it looks!

As far as sealife, we spotted eagles, puffuns (our favorite!), a humpback whale and a humpback whale baby, sea lions, sea otters!

Our Homecoming...

This is what awated us after a sleepless night and 13 hours of traveling... Our neighbors were nice and came over to help us clear off the road so we could reach our house.
Our white pines took a bit hit - we lost three of them. The 50-foot tall trees were snapped in half.
Any ideas of what we could carve these into?

Making our way back home...

As I write this BJ and I are in the Denver airport waiting to board our next flight to Indy. We left Anchorage at 11pm Alaska time (3am our time). Hopefully we'll be home by dinner time. We haven't slept since Friday night. We. are. tired. And tomorrow we head back to work. :(

We had an amazing time in Alaska and I we are so incredibly thankful for Adam and Karlene for opening their home to us and showing us Alaska!

A Little Too Tired...

...to post about Thursday because there is too much to say. We went on an amazing glacier cruise out of Seward... more on that later! :)

Alaska (Wednesday)

On Wednesday we spent time in Kenai! :) The highlight of the day was riding four wheelers on the beach. :)
As we rode we were able to see the homes that have fallen off the bluff due to erosion. We also saw a bald eagle and some seals! :)

Alaska (Tuesday)

Yesterday we took a trip to Homer - which was amazing with mountains, glaciers and volcanos all around us.


BJ spotted a sea otter who kept summersaulting around in the water.

We also got to see one of the boats from 'The Deadliest Catch' and talk to some of the guys from the ship/show.

On the way back we saw our first moose and moose baby!

Alaska (Monday)

Today we headed down to Seward where we went to the Sealife Center, shopped, and hiked up to Exit Glacier. Along the way we stopped at a pull-off to snap a few photos and geocache.

At the end we got an up close view of the glacier - which was so amazing.

On our way back down the trail we went to the foot of the glacier and the guys found some glacier ice! Here are the two of them trying to catch the ice floating by....


Before the hike there was a sign with general information including this helpful bit about bear attacks...