I just wanted to let y'all know about a really fun event for a good cause. The teacher is amazing and it is a great way to come and have fun and exercise at the same time.
Daisypath Anniversary tickers
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Puppies are funny things
Our Garcie keeps us constantly laughing with all of her antics, here are a few we thought we'd share.
She just can't understand why cats wont play with her, but she knows a couple of kids who will.
She's not entirely sure about what to do with large soda bottles either.
Monday, March 19, 2012
A Great Weekend in Chi-town
So I know I'm like two weeks late on this post but oh well, things have been nuts since we got back! Over the 17th Maddie, Linda and Myself all jetted off to Chicago to do some sightseeing. My particular favorite piece of scenery was Gavin, who'd been there for 5 weeks.We packed a whole lot of stuff into our four and a half (you can't really count the day we landed since we got in at 7) days that we were there. We decided to buy CityPasses and that was definitley the way to go. Not only did it let us in to 5 very cool places for free but it also let us bypass most lines and go right in.
We went to 5 different museums in 2 days. All of them were enormous and we could have easily spent a day each on most of them. The Field Museum of Natural History was incredible and has the most complete T-Rex skeleton ever found. The Aquarium was way fun with large underwater viewing areas where you could watch whales and sharks. The Art Institute was enormous, it covers about 2 city blocks and is a three storied maze of beautiful works (including the 2nd largest collection of French impressionism in the country). We all got mildly motion sick on the Skydeck, even though you couldn't really feel the building swaying. And lastly, we went to the Museum of Science and Industry, sounds really boring but OH MY GOSH!!! It was awesome! Definitely a must see, especially if you have kids. It was so big that most of it is between 3 and 4 stories underground. It had full sized trains, tractors and antique fire engines. One whole wing was devoted to weather and natural phenomenon so there were avalanche and tsunami simulators, a giant wind tunnel that generated a small tornado. Plus an actual German U-Boat in the basement. It was way cool.
Saturday, when Gav was with and not at work, we went on a tour of the old Chicago Theater and then went over up to Lincoln Park to escape the press of green people who had come out in force to show chi-rish pride for St. Patty's. We walked around the park for an hour or two then headed back to the city. We did a little shopping on the "Magnificent Mile", a large high end shopping district, and then went to Navy Pier. We sat on the end of the Pier and then walked down and had dinner at Harry Carrey's Tavern. It had really good food and had a small sports museum running through the middle of it.
Sunday, we had to leave for the airport at 2 so we decided to go on the Untouchables Tour that Maddie had found in a magazine the night before. It was a two hour tour and it was really interesting to hear some of the stories and history from the cities most infamous time period. We definitely went through some parts of the city that we wouldn't have gone to, and I don't recommend you go to them outside of this tour. Sadly most of the sites were no longer there, the only two sites that really remained standing were the Holy Name Cathedral and the movie theater where John Dillenger was shot.
It was such a fun trip and we saw so much! Including the Chicago river dyed bright green (they take they're St. Patty's very seriously). On the whole a great weekend and a place I'd definitely recommend.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
A New Addition
Yesterday Gav and I added a new member to our little family. Meet Gracie, our year old cockapoo, whom we intend to spoil rotten!
When we first started talking about getting a dog Gav teased me that the dog wouldn't get super attached to him since he's going to be gone for so long. But I can now roll my eyes with a snort because she follows him EVERYWHERE! She's a super sweet baby who loves everyone, kids and cats included, we were lucky to get her and are so excited to have her!!
When we first started talking about getting a dog Gav teased me that the dog wouldn't get super attached to him since he's going to be gone for so long. But I can now roll my eyes with a snort because she follows him EVERYWHERE! She's a super sweet baby who loves everyone, kids and cats included, we were lucky to get her and are so excited to have her!! 
Friday, January 27, 2012
New Year, New Job
It's official, Gavin has joined the Scotts (or the Swedes if you ask his sister Maddie). Starting February 8th Gav goes to work for the Royal Bank of Scottland Group (think smaller version of Goldman Sachs). He gets to kick off his new career path by being shipped back to Chicago, at probably the worst time of year poor guy, for training.
Friday, January 13, 2012
New Years Resolutions...NOT!!
So fully realize that its been a lazy start to the new year on the blog front but, to be quite honest, I'm not really surprised by that fact.
This time of year everyone is talking about resolutions and goals they have set for themselves, most, if not all, of which will be broken by the end of next month. Then follows the inevitable and irritating feelings of guilt and self pity. Most years I avoid this completely by simply not making any resolutions. This year though I ran across an idea that I really liked and decided to give it a shot. Instead of a list of, lets faceit, usually wildly unrealistic goals I've decided to go with a broad, general mission statement for the whole year. By making it general and then finding specifics within all the pressure, and eventual self loathing, is magically gone and it makes actually wanting to accomplish things easier. Now, my mission statement is still far from complete, and in truth I'll probably still be adding to it in August but here are the two main catagories:
1. Live a fuller and healthier life
This catagory includes getting back in touch with friends, being more active and living an over all healthier lifestyle (ie cooking more at home and choosing water over soda, etc.)
2. Be better about making the Spiritual stuff a priority
Pretty self explanitory
Like I said, its a big umbrella for life improvement and I'm sure I'll probably fall short on many of the specifics but that ok because they roll over easily. And besides, its all the little things that really count :-)
This time of year everyone is talking about resolutions and goals they have set for themselves, most, if not all, of which will be broken by the end of next month. Then follows the inevitable and irritating feelings of guilt and self pity. Most years I avoid this completely by simply not making any resolutions. This year though I ran across an idea that I really liked and decided to give it a shot. Instead of a list of, lets faceit, usually wildly unrealistic goals I've decided to go with a broad, general mission statement for the whole year. By making it general and then finding specifics within all the pressure, and eventual self loathing, is magically gone and it makes actually wanting to accomplish things easier. Now, my mission statement is still far from complete, and in truth I'll probably still be adding to it in August but here are the two main catagories:
1. Live a fuller and healthier life
This catagory includes getting back in touch with friends, being more active and living an over all healthier lifestyle (ie cooking more at home and choosing water over soda, etc.)
2. Be better about making the Spiritual stuff a priority
Pretty self explanitory
Like I said, its a big umbrella for life improvement and I'm sure I'll probably fall short on many of the specifics but that ok because they roll over easily. And besides, its all the little things that really count :-)
Monday, December 26, 2011
A Wonderful Weekend of Christmas
Merry Christmas!!! A day late granted, but really who's going to have time to blog on Christmas.
This year was awesome!! and jam packed with loads of family togetherness. As far as juggling families the first Christmas, Gav and I rocked it. And managed to do it not just one day, but three. We're awesome.
Friday:
It was my dad's family's party, where we managed to make out like bandits with the bingo prizes. (see previous post)
Saturday:
I had to work, which kinda sucked but since Gav still needed to do some shopping its was ok. He picked me up after work and we went out to meet his family, cousins and all, at Chin-Wah; a yummy chinese place in Sandy. We had to wait a while to get seated but there was like 25 or so of us so it was kinda to be expected. FYI the walnut shrimp, Fantastic. After dinner we went back to his parents house, no cousins this time, for a small gift exchange. His family everyone draws a name and gets a gift for that person. This year, since we're going to Boston next summer we were told to do inexpensive, preferably home made gifts. I drew his dad this year, and after racking my brain for a long while I had a stroke of brilliance and made him a putting green. His sister Lisa had my name and gave me a home made heat rice bag and two matching hand warmers. I've used them pretty much constantly, they make life so wonderful. Gav got a case of Frosties sodas and we had great fun taste testing them! Orange soda is the best one in case you were wondering.
Sunday:
CHRISTMAS!!!!!! I don't know why but neither of us slept well, and by not well I mean we were both awake around 2:30 in the am and couldn't go back to sleep. Gav finally fell back asleep around 3:40. I, however, was awake until about 5 and then got up and got ready just after 6. Hurray for holidays on no sleep. Before we left for his sister's house Gav and I opened our presents to each other. I totally won the present lottery. As a combined Christmas and birthday I got a spa day, which I'm so excited to use!!! He got a new hat and a super warm jacket that I might have to "borrow" on occasion.
The rest of the morning went by quick. We had breakfast at Emily's house. And got some great entertainment watching her and Maddie try to kill themselves on Austin's new motorized scooter and watching Greg try to figure out how to use The Force (also Austin's). After that we went over to Lexi's and went to church with her and Curtis. Things calmed down after that because we just went back to his parents house and helped get lunch ready. Around 2:30 most everyone had gotten there and so we had a yummy lunch, Gav and I unfortunately had to pace ourselves because we were going to dinner at my families at 4. After everyone else got there we sat down to do presents, I wasn't really expecting that part so it was a double surprise when I got handed mine. Gav got a new driver and a box of D2 golf balls and I got a bunch of books and a very cute pair of boots. I'm very proud of the boots because Gav and his dad picked them out by themselves with the only female input coming from the shop girl, I was impressed. Then we, together, got a movie gift card from his aunt and a bag of goodies that included a chocolate cookbook that has some seriously yummy looking recipes in them. And then all the adults got different Red Sox shirts to wear on our trip.
After that we drove over to my sisters house to have dinner with my family. Again, way yummy but we couldn't eat as much as we might have like. Dinner was followed by another round of presents. There's so many people in our family that we do gifts by the individual family, instead of people. This year we had my sister Brit, and by luck of the draw she had us. It made it very simple. We got them a board game, a couple movies and a bag of treats. Their gift to us has made it so we have no excuse to be unsociable. We got a bowlful of homemade caramel corn in a super cute bowl that my niece, Shannon, painted by herself. Oh, FYI, most of our gift Shannon came up with, and rocked it. We also got a fondue pot, a gift certificate to our fav pizza place, season 4 of the Big Bang theory, and a game called Banangrams. I'm sure I'm forgetting something but I'll add it in when my brain is functioning better. From my parents we got Dominoes and Utah Pass of All Passes. My dad gave all the guys one of his favorite books and the girls got their traditional figurine, except this year it was a dragon instead of a fairy. After presents games got broken out and the night ended with an impromptu dance party in the living room.
Christmas is by far the best time of the year for a lot of reasons, but family is by far number 1.
This year was awesome!! and jam packed with loads of family togetherness. As far as juggling families the first Christmas, Gav and I rocked it. And managed to do it not just one day, but three. We're awesome.
Friday:
It was my dad's family's party, where we managed to make out like bandits with the bingo prizes. (see previous post)
Saturday:
I had to work, which kinda sucked but since Gav still needed to do some shopping its was ok. He picked me up after work and we went out to meet his family, cousins and all, at Chin-Wah; a yummy chinese place in Sandy. We had to wait a while to get seated but there was like 25 or so of us so it was kinda to be expected. FYI the walnut shrimp, Fantastic. After dinner we went back to his parents house, no cousins this time, for a small gift exchange. His family everyone draws a name and gets a gift for that person. This year, since we're going to Boston next summer we were told to do inexpensive, preferably home made gifts. I drew his dad this year, and after racking my brain for a long while I had a stroke of brilliance and made him a putting green. His sister Lisa had my name and gave me a home made heat rice bag and two matching hand warmers. I've used them pretty much constantly, they make life so wonderful. Gav got a case of Frosties sodas and we had great fun taste testing them! Orange soda is the best one in case you were wondering.
Sunday:
CHRISTMAS!!!!!! I don't know why but neither of us slept well, and by not well I mean we were both awake around 2:30 in the am and couldn't go back to sleep. Gav finally fell back asleep around 3:40. I, however, was awake until about 5 and then got up and got ready just after 6. Hurray for holidays on no sleep. Before we left for his sister's house Gav and I opened our presents to each other. I totally won the present lottery. As a combined Christmas and birthday I got a spa day, which I'm so excited to use!!! He got a new hat and a super warm jacket that I might have to "borrow" on occasion.
The rest of the morning went by quick. We had breakfast at Emily's house. And got some great entertainment watching her and Maddie try to kill themselves on Austin's new motorized scooter and watching Greg try to figure out how to use The Force (also Austin's). After that we went over to Lexi's and went to church with her and Curtis. Things calmed down after that because we just went back to his parents house and helped get lunch ready. Around 2:30 most everyone had gotten there and so we had a yummy lunch, Gav and I unfortunately had to pace ourselves because we were going to dinner at my families at 4. After everyone else got there we sat down to do presents, I wasn't really expecting that part so it was a double surprise when I got handed mine. Gav got a new driver and a box of D2 golf balls and I got a bunch of books and a very cute pair of boots. I'm very proud of the boots because Gav and his dad picked them out by themselves with the only female input coming from the shop girl, I was impressed. Then we, together, got a movie gift card from his aunt and a bag of goodies that included a chocolate cookbook that has some seriously yummy looking recipes in them. And then all the adults got different Red Sox shirts to wear on our trip.
After that we drove over to my sisters house to have dinner with my family. Again, way yummy but we couldn't eat as much as we might have like. Dinner was followed by another round of presents. There's so many people in our family that we do gifts by the individual family, instead of people. This year we had my sister Brit, and by luck of the draw she had us. It made it very simple. We got them a board game, a couple movies and a bag of treats. Their gift to us has made it so we have no excuse to be unsociable. We got a bowlful of homemade caramel corn in a super cute bowl that my niece, Shannon, painted by herself. Oh, FYI, most of our gift Shannon came up with, and rocked it. We also got a fondue pot, a gift certificate to our fav pizza place, season 4 of the Big Bang theory, and a game called Banangrams. I'm sure I'm forgetting something but I'll add it in when my brain is functioning better. From my parents we got Dominoes and Utah Pass of All Passes. My dad gave all the guys one of his favorite books and the girls got their traditional figurine, except this year it was a dragon instead of a fairy. After presents games got broken out and the night ended with an impromptu dance party in the living room.
Christmas is by far the best time of the year for a lot of reasons, but family is by far number 1.
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