Williamsburg with the kiddies

With Sharon off from school for the summer, we've been trying to get the whole family together in Williamsburg as often as we can. So, this weekend Sharon came down from NY and Kiera, Ryan, the kiddies, Brad, Duke and I headed to my parents house for the weekend. Of course, with all those folks in one place, it was an entertaining weekend.

I seriously can't believe how old Natalie is getting - how is she 4 years old already?? And Blake looked completely different from when I had seen him a few weeks earlier! Here is the big sister and little brother posing for a cute pic ...


When Blake is not crying, eating, pooping or sleeping he is super cute (ok, he's pretty cute all the time - especially because when the crying or pooping happens, I can turn the cutie back over to mommy or daddy!)


Brad had bought a crazy pacifier a while back and was very excited to have Blake try it out. I have to admit the resulting picture he snapped was pretty funny!

Dragonflies

Here's Brad taking over the blog for a post! ...

Lately I've really been wielding the camera a lot and our backyard finally has hummingbirds (obviously a very difficult bird to photograph) and we also have the most beautiful dragonflies of so many colors that are helping reduce our annoying insect population. Sometimes I think they just pose for me.

Independence Day in Boston

After hanging out with my high school buddies on Saturday, we spent Sunday with Brad's high school buddy, Dan, who lives in Boston.

We had a great time walking all over the city - seriously, we must have walked 10 miles that day! Dan was a great host showing us all over the city (and bringing me to a great bakery in Little Italy where I could get an amazing cannoli, yum!).



What kind of tourists would we be if we didn't go to Cheers and take a photo in front of the sign?


And some more shots from around the city ...

We ended the day at Dan's sister's apartment. She lives in downtown Boston and was out of town so let us use her apartment to watch the fireworks. It was perfect - here's the view from her apartment window as the sun set and the fireworks began.

Happy 4th of July to all!

A Danish Wedding full of tradition

So, I mentioned in the last post that I was in Boston for a work conference. So you would think that when my next post talks about being in Boston, it would be the same trip, right? Nope!

After my work trip to Boston, I had to fly back down to NC (for some work stuff on Thursday at Duke and a concert that we had tickets for that night in Raleigh) and then it was back to Boston on Friday. I kid you not - 2 trips to Boston in one week ... at least we're working on our frequent flier miles!

So, Brad and I were back to Boston for the 4th of July weekend. One of my buddies from high school was getting married on Saturday. The wedding was really fun - Kristy's (now) husband is Danish so the wedding was a fun mix of American and Danish wedding traditions. The main difference was that the reception started with a dinner that went on for almost 5 hours! Why you might ask? Because the dinner was led by a "toast master" and many of the guests got up to the mic and gave toasts (or roasts!) throughout dinner. Some were sweet and sentimental, others were hysterical and some were even in song!

It was neat - lots of love and laughs being shared. One toast involved a plastic viking hat which Brad and I managed to borrow later on in the evening for some quick pics :)



Besides the dinner other fun traditions included the first dance being interrupted by the groomsmen who "captured" the groom, stole his shoes and cut the toes off of his socks. Apparently, a Danish wedding tradition in which the bride can examine the groom's socks (to make sure that he hasn't been sneaking out at night) and then prove to her new mother-in-law that she can sew when she has to sew the toes back on!

Needless to say, there aren't any fields on downtown Boston, Joen hasn't been "sneaking around" and there was no sewing machine at the reception hall to test Kristy's sewing skills - but it was funny.

All in all, a lot of fun and great time catching up with old friends. Here's Jenn and Julie from high school (well, really from elementary school - we became friends in girl scouts in the 1st grade!)

And Brad's newest friend - ok, so we didn't know her before the wedding but after 5 hours sitting next to someone at dinner (and admittedly finishing off some wine!), we were all new best friends, ha!

Summer Phishing

What would a summer be without touring around to see some live music? Last summer we drove 2200 miles and took a week off from work to see Phish. This summer we managed to see 6 shows while only taking 1 day off and only driving a few hundred miles.

As I mentioned in the last post, it started with a show in Portsmouth, VA about an hour from my parents' house.

Then a trip to Camden, NJ for 2 shows. Brad drove up from DC (where he was at work) and I flew from NC to Philly and then took the train across the river to meet up with him in NJ. Of course, since no trip of mine is complete without delays (seriously, I have the magic touch - it seems that my flights are ALWAYS delayed!), I sat on the runway at RDU for hours due to weather in Philly. Finally made it to Camden but missed the beginning of the show (including my favorite song = Erin NOT happy with the weather gods!).

But my mood turned around once I got there and we met up with our buddies, Lisa and Jay, for the show Thursday night, a day of tailgating and then another show on Friday night.

We woke up Saturday morning and drove to Maryland for another set of shows - Saturday and Sunday night at Meriweather Post Pavilion. Here we are with Dan as the lights went down at the start of one of the shows - excited for the show to start and clearly hot and sunburned from the day hanging out in the lot.

We made it to the hotel on Sunday night at about 1 AM in a great mood after having so much fun. I was not in such a great mood though when my alarm went off 3 hours later. I had to get up to shower and catch a shuttle to the airport to fly to Boston for work! 8 hours after getting home from the Phish show in Maryland, I was sitting at Harvard Business School about to start a 3 day conference there. Phew!

It was a great trip though and always we had a ton of fun with friends and music!

Golfing in Williamsburg

Summer fun began, somewhat randomly, on a Monday in Williamsburg!

Brad and I came up with the crazy plan to make a mid-week trip to see my parents. I needed to head to NYC for a conference later in the week and Brad needed to head to DC for work. Plus, we found out that there was a concert we wanted to see near my parents house on Tuesday night so we thought, why not drive to Williamsburg on Monday, hang with my parents for a bit, go see a concert Tuesday night and then drop me off at the airport on Wednesday AM to fly to NYC and Brad would continue the drive to DC?

Oh, and while we were at my parents, we figured we could squeeze in some golfing! This was officially my first time EVER setting foot on a golf course. I've been to the driving range but that was about it. So, needless to say it was ummm "interesting"? "kind of hysterical"? or maybe "sad" is more accurate? Anyway, I'm not sure what the right adjective is but let's just say I'm no golfing pro! It was fun though - and there were moments of hope that I could actually hit the ball (tho, more often there was proof that I suck but who's counting!)

On a side note, let me say that this trip was pretty typical of my bright ideas (note all the sarcasm there!). I'm pretty well known for taking on way too much and overestimating how much I can get accomplished in a day. So, here's what the week looked like ...

• Monday = work in NC, 3 hr drive to Casa Layburn, dinner with M&D in W'burg
• Tuesday = 7 AM tee time, work from Casa Layburn, drive an hr+ to concert and stay out late enjoying some great music
• Wednesday = earrrllllly morning flight to NYC, Brad drives to work in DC and Erin starts working in NYC, working late in to the night to prep for our 450+ conference that starts the next day
• Thursday = all day conference begins AND we have the bright idea to hold our Advisory Board meeting at the same time. So, day spent running up and down stairs from conference to Board meeting, trying to keep everyone productive and happy.
• Friday = conference all day followed by a quick drink with my team to celebrate a successful conference and then running off to meet up with JB for the night. Dinner, drinks and sleepover at JB's place - so good to catch up with my best friend from as long as I can remember!
• Saturday AM = make way across NYC to have brunch with a good buddy from the Booz Allen days. Good time reminiscing about the work days and thanking our lucky stars that we have both moved on to better things!
• Saturday PM = take the train to LI and meet up with my sister! Takeout food (and cake, yum!), watching movies and sleepover at her place. Awesome chill out time with my sis.
• Sunday = flight home after a productive week, making it back to NC in time to do some laundry, catch up with Brad and get ready for back to work the next morning!
  

So, it was an awesome week but totally exhausting!

Slacking

So, it's been quite a while since we have posted on the blog - I know, I know, we're total slackers!

But no worries faithful readers (that's right, all 2 of you!), WE ... ARE ... BACK! It's been a great summer, full of traveling, hanging with friends and family and lots of other fun. But now we are back to blogging so that we can capture all the fun times. So, be on the lookout for some new posts - and, yes, I admit in advance that I will be backdating the posts so don't hold that against me ;)

Our annual summer trip to Austin

Last summer, I had just started my new job and had no vacation time accumulated yet so I wasn't able to make it down to Texas for our annual trip to the lake. Needless to say I was totally bummed because it is always SO much fun! So, we were so excited when this year's trip rolled around.

There's nothing like being at the lake house with the Worshams, eating up a storm with Le Anne's cooking and spending a ton of time on the boat, jetskiing, wakeboarding, and, most importantly, just relaxing and spending quality time with the fam!

Had to include a pic of Brad jumping off the dock in "flying squirrel" formation. Hysterical.

It was also our first get-together with Todd and Alex since they got engaged. The family is getting bigger - love it!



And a pic of the whole crew on the porch!

As always, the trip went by waaaay too quickly but we had a blast and can't wait for our next trip to the lake!

Meeting Blake!

A few weeks earlier, a family of three!



And then a family of 4 ... meet Blake!



Sharon and I spent the weekend in Richmond, meeting Blake and trying to be helpful around the house while Kiera and Ryan deal with a newborn and a 4 year old (yikes!). So, that meant lots of fun time with new big sister, Natalie...



Natalie had her first dance recital coming up, so she was more than happy to model her costume for us. I love what a little ham she is :)



We officially have the cutest niece and nephew on the planet :) Welcome to the world Blake!