Travel Updates

We’ve been fortunate to be able to take a few weekend trips this summer—nothing too far and all within 5 hours diving distance—and we’ve had the opportunity to meet up with some good friends.

In early July we traveled to Hanover, PA for a surprise baby shower for our R-MWC friend Katie. We had fun hanging out with her and her husband and a couple other Macon women who came down for the night. The morning before we left, we helped her make a cast of her belly. Katie is quite the crafty person (we all minored in crafting at Macon) and she’s planning on decorating the cast to put in her nursery.

After we left Hanover, we took a tour of Gettysburg. We didn’t have enough time to see the museum but we got to drive around the national park site and visit the cemetery. During this trip we started to play around with our camera a bit and I ended up taking some pretty good pictures.

Two weeks ago we drove down to Philadelphia to meet up with our DC friends Sarah and Chris. Jennie was the only one never to have been to Philly before and she really loved the city! For a large city it never felt extremely big and we LOVED how much history there was just lying around. For example, we were walking in the historical district and we were amazed at how many national or state owned buildings were just open to the public for free. It was really cool to stumble across them as we were walking around.

Of course, we saw the Liberty Bell and visited Independence Hall and Jennie and I went to the National Constitution Center. We also went to Betsy Ross’ house, the waterfront, South Street, Love Park and tried the three major cheesesteak places in the city.

We were also lucky enough to be celebrating our one year anniversary of our DC wedding and it was so awesome to be able to celebrate with Sarah and Chris because they were two of the very small number of people who we invited to our DC wedding.

For a first visit to the city, it was great!

This week we’re headed to Las Vegas to visit another two Macon friends, before moving on to Seattle for my brother’s wedding. We can’t wait!

Berkeley!

We have a new addition to our family--an adorable shih tzu/yorkie puppy named Berkeley.

Even though we've had her for a couple of months we keep forgetting to post pictures of her. She was four months old yesterday :)

So far life with a puppy has been a bit of an adjustment, for us and for the cats. The first few weeks it felt like we had a newborn, and she didn't sleep at all the first night we had her home. In addition, there have been the accidents (she doesn't quite understand asking to go outside when she has to pee, though she'll go if we're diligent and take her out), the chewed flip-flops, and the need to come home right after work and let her out of her crate. There is definitely a level of commitment that isn't there with cats.

It took the cats a few days, but they're fairly accustomed to having her around. They still run from her when she gets close, which just prompts her to chase them because she thinks they want to play, but I think they've worked out a co-exist agreement. And the cats still cuddle and sleep with us, which I'm very glad didn't change. One sad thing for them is that they don't have access to all of their fun toys anymore, because Berkeley steals them and they're too small for her.

Tomorrow she goes for her first grooming appointment and then Saturday, we're going to check out a dog festival at the local park. She should have fun!

Heather is in love with Berkeley and though it took me a little longer, I now view her as a fun addition to our family. It is nice to be able to take her places and she gets compliments from everyone for being so cute. Its kind of making her a bit of a princess, but she's so little and cute that its hard not to spoil her.