Yeah...there I go again. At least I haven't given up on this blog completely. I go away for months at a time just to build suspense...
SO, I left off where I was about to recap my trip to Texas at the end of September. Since then, Brad and I have both taken another nice long trip to Texas and come back. But anyway, lots to report so here we go!
Six Flags
At Trinity Baptist we've made lots of friends and have our own little "church family" up here; some friends had extra tickets for their Six Flags New England trip and invited me and Brad along!
Mark making a ride out of the bus into the park
Chickens at the chicken exit! (Although by the end of the day Brittany was riding everything!)
We got rained on a few times. But hey, less crowds!
With our pal
SIX people in this phone booth.
Friiiied yuminess.
All in all...the park is VERY similar to our dear Fiesta TX. Many of the same rides, just with different names :) We had a blast with our friends!
Grandpa Red's 80th Birthday
When Grandma and Poohbah stopped by on their road trip to have dinner with us in July (coincidentally the same day Teri and Jared arrived for their visit), they mentioned that Aunt Sharon was going to throw an 80th bday party for Poohbah. Grandma said "wish you could make it, we'll be thinking of you!" and I started hatching the plan in my head at that moment...got in touch with Sharon to find out the date, jumped on some cheap plane tickets out of NYC, and I was all set to fly in and surprise my Poohbah! I came down pretty much just for a long weekend, but it was so great and so worth it. Poohbah had tears in his eyes when I walked up to him in the restaurant, which made me cry too! Almost the whole family was there and it was a wonderful celebration.
Cousin Kacie! Gah I can remember when she was a baby!
Of course, Sharon arranged for an over-the-top display outside of their house :)
While I was in town, we packed in several other adventures...really, I didn't sleep much the whole weekend but I loved seeing my people!
After the bday party Dave and Addie and I went (in the pouring rain) to see Sean play with his band, and also to see Matt play with his band, Tele Novella
On Sunday we had Green Pastures brunch to celebrate October birthdays! Gotta love the peacocks.
And the gazebo pictures.
We swung by Dad's house to hang out for awhile. I got to have some bonding time with Muffin!
Reunited with my BFF from elementary, Sarah! We hadn't seen each other in 10 years, whoa. She found my email address through the stats grad school page, and we'd been emailing back and forth catching up on everything. She had a time capsule we made in 1998, "To be opened January 1st, 2000!" but opening it 13 years after that made it so much better. Ahh, Backstreet Boys. Matt Damon. Feather pens. Good times.
On my last day in Texas, Caitlin had her gender reveal party! Pink and blue decorations everywhere... they lifted the bowl on the counter for the reveal...
Baby G is a GIRL!!!
Skyping with her parents. Very emotional!
Happy parents
My Caitlins!
Other Fun Things
So the TX trip brings us to the beginning of October 2013...I'm not clear on the dates of all these other things, but anyway, the year wrapped up very nicely!
Harvest Festival with Jenna and Anna. Pulled pork parfaits, whaaaat
Jenna had a moment.
BEBE BUNNIES (truth be told, this was the primary reason I wanted to go to Harvest Fest -- the promise of little bunnies to snuggle.)
Dude wouldn't let me hold the tiny precious baby, but I got close.
Fall Foliage along the way back.
Next up, my 27th birthday! I invited all the neat people I've met in our 1.5 years in NY, to a celebration at Dave & Busters.
Erica with a HUGE salad. She and I met through a meetup.com event and we've had several get-togethers since then!
Yeahhh free chocolate!
The whole crew (poor lighting)
On my actual birthday, flowers and chocolate from my sweetie (plus a funny card)
It was a true birthday WEEK, with several goodies arriving in the mail! Pumpkin granola bars from McGuire
Dressed up spiffy to go out to eat (P.F. Chang's)
Notepad, replacement Minnie ball (pretty sure the last one fell off in the snow sometime last winter) and pumpkin cookies from Marybeth!! Jenna also made salted caramel pumpkin cheesecakes for me at work (but...they all got eaten at work of course, and...no photos allowed there.) These girls know my pumpkin-loving heart.
A few more random photos...
Dan at work is pretty much obsessed with the movie "Fantastic Mr. Fox" so he lent it to us and Jenna and I watched it, then made Mrs. Beans Famous Nutmeg Ginger Apple Snaps. It was a successful experiment (although her cats did try to sabotage the process several times)
Our church put on a Trunk or Treat for the kids in a nearby community, and Brad and I did a fishing theme! They threw the line over into the back seat, at which point Brad (laying uncomfortably across the laid-down front seat) attached the clothespin on the end to a candy, then I tugged it back over. The kids were obsessed with it...I got in quite a frenzy throwing lines over the seat, and actually witnessed Brad getting pelted in the head a couple times. He's a trooper.
Now, Thanksgiving...since we couldn't make it down for another TX trip, Cindy and Tim at church invited us to their home! We contributed the sweet potato casserole, they pulled everything else together. We had a great time and we're blessed to have church family up here when we can't get home to our TX family!
Annd on the note of TX family...Aunt Sharon and Cousin Kacie flew up to NYC to celebrate Kacie's 13th birthday in December (she's a teenager, what is this madness). I LOVE how easy it is to get down to the city via the Megabus (and cheap!) I came down for a day, and we had great fun shopping and eating :)
So glad they gave me the heads up on their trip, and that I was able to come visit for awhile!
Holidays in Texas 2013
And, on to our extended stay in Texas (2.5 weeks, how great is that! And Brad got to stay even longer!) Brad finished up his MBA just before Thanksgiving -- how did I not mention that yet? YAY Brad! -- so he was able to schedule a longer trip as he's still on the hunt for a job. I came down 12/18 and the first order of business was showering baby girl Gursslin! We had four hostesses for the baby shower and I'm quite proud of our efforts :) It was a children's book theme (very fitting since Cait's mom is a librarian!) so all of the food tied in to a children's book:
Peter Rabbit's veggies and dip
Very Hungry Caterpillar fruit salad
If you give a mouse a cookie...
Fluffy Rabbit Moon Pies (yes, technically they're more of a whoopie pie...but what matters is, they were tasty!)
Peppermint "Bark"
Cloudy with a Chance of Cocktail Meatballs
Party favors: Jamberry Hearts
Game: cut the ribbon to try to go around Cait's baby bump! (without measuring first)
So many cute little girl things!
The group!
Cait with her hostesses
Next, our traditional Christmastime Texas Tour (in which we have four different Christmas celebrations, in three different cities with four hours apart as the max distance). First up, Hearne, where it was an exciting time since Kent and Cheryl were able to come in town from Virginia with their two kiddos, Teagan and Jorja.
Cousin love (missing Jared!)
Making the Christmas cookies!
Brad and Mimi
Then, Christmas at Mom's house. She had the Christmas decorations out in full force, of course. Here's just a small sampling, the Christmas Story snow village:
Dave and his nog.
Yummy Christmas dinner!
Crowns from the poppers - a tradition.
Gift time!
We learned how to play Farkle. Here, Mom is winning!
And Dave is losing.
Stocking stuffers on Christmas morning
Next stop, Tyler with Brad's mom's family:
Then, before the fourth Christmas with my dad's fam, we went to Stephanie and Ben's wedding at the Oasis!
Love.
Beautiful bride
Aww
Another pic with my Caits! Loved getting to see them so much on my TX trips
Fourth and final Christmas celebration. Whew!
Got to see Sarah again! (And Brad got to meet her and her husband this time!) We ate at Chuy's and played Cards Against Humanity. Perfect.
Annd wrapping up 2013 much like we did 2012, with a fun get-together at Caitlin and Matt's house. All as it should be :) No worries, that's sparkling grape juice in Caitlin's champagne glass, and also in mine, because... (see next post!!)
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