Happy Labor Day!

We decided it was time to post something on our blog before everyone started thinking we had given up on it. These are a couple pictures from yesterday of us on our bikes on the Montour Trail near our house. This was only the second time this year we have had our bikes out. Oh well! Maybe we can keep riding in to the fall.

Summer has flown by with lots of work and family events, including Seth's 30th birthday party (sorry, no exciting vacation stories to share with anyone).... We do have some great news to share - Kristen finished her administrative certification through Gannon University a couple weeks ago so she is officially qualified to be an administrator in a school district (scary!). It was a long process, with lots of classes and internship time, but was worth the effort.

We haven't done any major home remodeling projects lately. Our last project was painting our dining room (twice actually, the original color just didn't work). That room is 90% done, we hope. The next big project will be a bathroom remodel, but that will have to wait until next spring.

We hope you had a nice Labor Day weekend and that you are easing into fall. For all those out of town friends and family, we would love to see you in Pittsburgh - we love visitors.

More Pictures...

Green Frosting!

So, I think that Seth captured everything pretty well, but he did forget the best part....GREEN FROSTING! Sorry if I'm embarrassing our friends and family, but the green teeth and lips were just too good to pass up. Mental note, avoid green frosting on future cakes. :)

It's been too long!

We just realized that we haven't posted to our blog in a very long time! Oops. We have been so busy lately that we haven't had a spare moment to update the blog. Such is life. So, we're posting several photos from events over the last several weeks. In no particular order, the pics are from our niece, Sydney's, baptism, a quick (and rainy) trip to Hilton Head Island, SC for Seth's work conference, some major yard work at our house (good bye bushes), and most recently, Seth's 30th birthday party (awesome weather, good food, and great company). We hope to be a bit more timely with our updates in the future, but no guarantees. Thanks for being patient and most of all, come visit, give us a call, or drop us an email. We love to keep in touch with family and friends. Cheers! -Seth & Kristen

New Orleans (or N'awlins, as the southerners say)!

Well, we just returned from a short trip to New Orleans and we had a great time (although a bit exhausted). Despite a rocky start with airline delays (ugh), thanks to a conference Kristen was attending for work, we decided to take in the views, sounds, and smells of the Big Easy. The first half of our trip was a little rainy, but that didn't deter our sightseeing - the sun did eventually return. We toured the French Quarter, Garden District (beautiful historic homes), toured one of the famous New Orleans cemeteries (we know, a bit creepy, but the history is very interesting), rode the historic street cars, and ate our way around the City. One thing New Orleans doesn't lack are places to eat and drink (particularly drink, when talking about Bourbon Street). Our culinary tour included a beignet at famous Cafe du Monde (open since the early 1860's) and bananas foster for dessert one evening at Brennan's, the restaurant that invented it! We also had a drink at the oldest bar in America (opened 1772), Jean Lafittes Blacksmith Shop - interestingly, although they have electricity, they only have candles for lighting and the bar was supposedly a former pirate (ahhr) hangout back in the day. If that weren't enough, we were in New Orleans for St. Patrick's Day, which was fun, but a bit crazy at times - we can only imagine what Fat Tuesday would be like! Most of all, we just enjoyed walking around the various areas of the City. There are plenty of interesting people, musicians, artists, and shops to check out. And, in case you're wondering, no we didn't see any Hurricane Katrina damage, but then again, we didn't go looking for it either. All in all, we had a great time and enjoyed the cultural experience that is New Orleans. Above are some pictures from our trip. If you haven't been to New Orleans before, we would suggest adding it to your list for a short trip - its definitely not your typical American city!

And then there was tile.....

After much (and I mean much) debate, we FINALLY selected tile for the backsplash in our kitchen. I think we went through every sliver of tile in the tile store. This was one of those projects that we had talked about since moving into our new house (almost 1 year ago now...time flies when you're having fun). There was no backsplash when we moved in. It turned out that Kristen was great at smoothing on the mastic to stick the tiles on and I was delegated the cutting duties, which was fine with me, because I got to use a power tool (wet saw, yah baby). Step one of tiling was laying out our random, not so random design. Then we started putting up tiles. Several hours later and a sore back or two, we were done. The grout went on a couple of days later. The only step left is to seal the grout. We couldn't be happier with the finished product. It looks great! Enjoy some pics of the process.

Dad's Party and SNOW!

Well, last night we had a huge surprise 60th birthday and retirement party for Kristen's dad (John) at the Safari Bar in Meadville, Pa. Dad had a ball working the room, shaking hands, and telling everyone how he broke is left arm a mere 24 hours after he retired! I guess retirement really can he rough.... (PS: Dad broke his arm when he tripped on a rock pulling grandson Spencer around the yard in a sled - hazards of being a grandparent I guess.). Fortunately, the arm is healing and he has plenty of time on his hands to rest after 40 years working for the telephone company - this literally was his first and only full-time job. Amazing, especially today!!

Lots of friends, family, and former co-workers came to the party to help John celebrate. He was beaming all night and we loved watching him soak it all up. The food was delicious, as was the cake (you can't have a party without a cake, after-all). The only rough part of the evening was the drive Kristen and I had to make back to Pittsburgh. It snowed a good 4 or 5 inches while we were at the party and didn't let up the entire drive home. We were crawling along I-79 at about 40 mph, stopping to allow the occassional crazy truck driver to pass at 60 or 70 mph!! Insane. Oh, well, it was worth it. Enjoy some pictures from the festivities and of the snow piling up around our house in Wexford.