Bonnie's 30th Birthday

Bonnie is the first of my friends to turn 30. While I have friends who are 30, Bonnie is the first of the people I grew up with...which also means I have exactly 8 months left until my bit 3-0! She had everything very well prepared. Her new house is finally decorated and so this was a bit of a birthday/housewarming. There was a nice roster present and I mostly spent the night talking to Jocilyn, Drew, and Jenn. I would have talked to Alex but he literally was eating for 4 hours straight. He never stopped. I'm not sure why he thought it was to be his last meal. At the end of the night we ended up building a human 4-3-2-1 pyramid. When I get the picture I will add it. It was a fun five minutes. I was glad I wasn't on the bottom. My already torn knee nearly popped completely. But since I am not yet 30, my body stayed intact.

Here are some pictures

Surprise Visit to Raleigh

As we expected, Lori and I have missed having our respective sister. She was feeling homesick and I was missing my sis so I booked a get away flight and went to see her for the weekend. Nothing too eventful, just hanging out with Lori and Dave. They picked me up on Friday night and took me out to dinner at one of their new favorite restaurants, Firebirds.

On Saturday we went out in search of an afternoon outdoors. We found a park and took a short lake-side trail hike. Of course we had our frisbee so Lori and I spent a while doing one of our favorite past times. Lori said throwing the fris on the beach is her favorite thing in the world to do, but we didn't have a beach so we had to make do with a grass field. Later in the day Lori and I went for mani/pedis for some relaxation and sisterly chat. In the afternoon Lori and I went for a bike ride around her neighborhood and of course, stopped at a a park to toss the disc some more. I didn't have a hat so I left my helmet on to catch the frisbee. I'm sure I looked like a dork, but safety's first!

That night we went to a sports bar to watch the Gators play LSU. Milo was in town and staying with George, and they met up with us to watch the game. We won, of course!

The next day we went to church in the morning and then headed to Durham to see Duke's campus. The architecture was impressive and the campus was very pretty. We managed to find Duke Gardens. Much of it was not in bloom, but we did find a flowery area and took some pretty pictures. There were lots of families, children, dogs, walking around and playing in the grasses. I would like to see the Gardens during the spring, because I bet it is very colorful and relaxing.

We decided to go to Chapel Hill for lunch and found a fun place called Spankey's on Franklin Street. I had a very good club sandwich and the best chili I've had in a very long time. We walked around UNC for a bit, which I remembered enjoying from when Alex and I were there before. Cool campus.

Enjoyed the Tyuses, even if only for a few days. I'm thankful for having a sister and appreciate having such a close bond with her. I can't wait to see them as the holidays get closer.

Race for the Cure

My favorite morning of the year. The Rack Pack was in full force again for our 5th Race for the Cure. The sunrise was beautiful and the good energy, emotion of the day, and slight cool front made for a very enjoyable morning. Alex and Maggie ran the 10K, I ran the 5K, and Mom walked with a new friend. The day reminds us how thankful we are that there have been advances in cancer research that kept my mom and our dear friend Becky with us as they battled through cancers. It also gives us hope that one day there will be a cure. And until that day comes we are grateful to all those who spread awareness, devote their work to research, and give hope to those affected with the disease.

I love my mom. She is so strong and my example of how a woman should live her life. I'm glad that she is here still to teach me things and share the exciting times in our life.

Moran Homecoming

This was back in September.

Mike and Rachel came down for their annual fall trip to hang out and go to Gainesville to watch the Gators. George flew in too, and Neno and Adina were going to go to their first game. They picked the Tennessee game, which turned out to be a tough ticket. We were not able to get enough tickets for everyone to go to the game, but we hung out in the Gameday atmosphere and had a nice lunch at Cafe Gardens.

The Gators won the game but the night was a little bit of a bummer since the game and trip didn't work out like we would have hoped. Oh well, there is always next time.

The week also coincided with Mike's birthday. We had a BBQ and played games like Catch Phrase, Guesstures, and Cribbage. I won them all!

Fun with the Morans

Alex and I went down to Boca because Neno and Adina wanted to take us snorkeling in the Keys. We woke up early and made the drive down to Key Largo. We had a nice breakfast while the sun came up and then we got all our gear and headed out. We sat up in the crow's nest of the boat. It was a beautiful ride out to the reef. Snorkeling was fun but within a half hour the rocking and sea-sickness set in. I did every mind over matter trick I know, and made it back to dry land with minimal damage.

On the way back to Boca we stopped at the Indian Casino. Neno and Adina have been very excited lately because they both won $1000 recently playing high stakes bingo. Unfortunately for us, no beginner's luck. At least we got to eat at the all-you-can-eat buf-fet.

Here's me. A big dork.

Tampa Bay Rays vs Boston Red Sux

We went to the Rays game last night for the second game of the series. The previous night the Rays won in extra innings thanks to Longoria, so we were hoping for an equally spectacular show. Bonnie's friend Christopher was able to get us a great pair of tickets in left center field. I have never had outfield seats, but I really liked them. We were in the second row right over Crawford's shoulder. The night was full of excitement for the outfield... I think we had 5 home runs come our way. Anyway, the night was a success. The Rays won 6-4, we got to hang out with Bonnie and meet the very enjoyable Christopher, and even found Janice and Darryl in the traffic jam.

Here we are in our second row seats. The seats we sat in had permanent name plates screwed into them. Alex's said "Ugly" and mine said "Trouble". Whatev!

"Who is enjoying the Rays game with his beautiful wife?.... This guy"

Gran Rosie

My mom's mom, my "Gran" would have been 100 years old today. It's too bad she passed on when I was only 11, but we all feel like we've known her for her whole life and her memory lives on today. She was as elegant and classy as they come, yet she was simple and a lover of family, friends, and animals. She was sweet and caring, and funny without knowing it. We could sit around and listen to Gran stories all day and night and never tire of hearing about her. She leaves behind a legacy of beautiful and strong women, all of us having a piece of her we carry with us today. Anne and Kathy, Jill (Katelyn and Kiley) and Deb, Lynn and Lori. What a woman she was! She always used to say, "How Green was my Valley", an appreciation of how rich and full her life was. We miss you Gran, and are thankful for the time we had you.

Here is my Gran with her husband, affectionately called Dutch, and baby Anne

Fun with the Heidens

Maggie and I went to Chase's house for a play date. It was fun to see Janice, my best teaching friend, and her son, Jacob for a few hours. The dogs had fun chasing after each other. Maggie had to adjust to spinning her wheels on the wood floors, and was tempted to swim in the beautiful pool, but restrained. We took the dogs for a walk to the park and they caught frisbees. Here are the pups. Aren't they adorable?

Maggie's homecoming

Well Maggie finally made it home after being at Alex's parent's house with cousin Halo for a month while we were on vacation. I was missing her so much I almost couldn't stand it. She bounced around the car trying to get out to see us when they pulled in. But no sooner was she in the door than she was greeting her guinea pig and showing us no love. We had a great weekend with Alex's parents, as always.

Alex wanted a puzzle to occupy his days of rest so got him a panoramic NY skyline puzzle. It was a bit challenging with all the building lights, but with the help of Adina and me and Neno a little, the puzzle was finished in 3 days.

Of course Maggie pitched in too!

Adina and I made some yummy Peruvian dishes this afternoon. We made Escabeche, a fish meal, and my favorite soup, Chupa de Camarones, with all kinds of yummy stuff like white fish, shrimp, corn, squash, and the secret Peruvian spices.

Getting better

Alex has made very nice improvements the last three days with his foot. He is able to do some mobility exercises and his swelling has gone down considerably. He can finally fit an ace bandage on the foot- before he had too much swelling. He was able to bear some weight.

A few days ago Alex's left foot had no arch, the skin was stretched so taught he had no lines on the bottom of his foot, he had no space between his toes, and you couldn't see any tendons on the top of his foot.

Here's an updated picture. Look at how well you can see the tendons in his foot now. We are encouraged that this recovery will be speedy.

Alex on the shelf

Alex fell funny on his foot at Frisbee last night. He sat out for a minute but continued playing on it until the end of the game. We went home and I did all the right things of icing the foot, applying heat, elevating, giving Motrin. But what I left out was the tender touches and bedside manner. Alex is historically a bit over dramatic when it comes to bumps and bruises so I wasn't incredibly sympathetic. But as the evening wore on he couldn't put any pressure on it and it was swelling more, not less. So by 12:30am we decided that we needed to go to the ER so we picked carrollwood because I figured it was the least crowded. It was and they ER staff was very nice, helpful, and they had us out there in under 2 hours which is pretty quick.

Turns out Alex sprained his ankle and chipped a bone on the top of his foot. They gave him a walking cast and crutches and he will meet with an orthopedic next week. Hopefully he'll be able to walk a bit in the cast in a week or so and they guessed about a 4 week recovery, but I guess we'll know more once he sees the orthopedic.

So now I have a patient I am being very sweet to. Thankfully he woke up today and the swelling does seem to have gone down a bit already. He will stay home from work today to ice and elevate it and see how he's doing tomorrow. We are thankful his work is always so accommodating with health issues.

Please pray for Alex that he has a speedy recovery so that he can work out and complete his physical skills portion of the fire fighter application process. I hope they take their time calling so he doesn't get his hopes crushed by being unable to compete in the short term. Some prayers have already been answered though. He doesn't need surgery at least! And he broke his left foot so in a few days he will be able to drive.

The funny coincidence is that now he has a bigger boot than me! And he can make his robo cop noises about his own boot when he crawls into bed.

Summer Roadtrip, Vol VI

St. Augustine for the 4th of July

We headed to St. Augustine to spend the weekend with our "Gainesville Family". We call them that because that is where we all met. We rented a condo on the beach that was big enough for Jen and Milo, Jaime and Ron, Alex and me, George and the kids- Zachary and Joshua and Brooklyn and Ben.

We were unable to get into the condo on the day we hoped so Jen and Jaime's mom Roz was nice enough to let us hang out and stay at her house one day. We went to the beach and played in the splash park on the first day, and then had Rita's custard and gelati for me. Alex ate his ice cream and had about two bites of his cone left and asked little Joshua, with a mostly complete if not dripping cone, if he wanted to trade. Joshua looked at his cone as if he forgot how much he had left and then puzzily looked at Alex's cone and shook his head and walked away knowing that was not a good trade. Here they are sharing a moment. Aren't they cute?

The next day we were able to get into the condo and went to the beach again in the evening. It was awesome. That evening George and Jaime arrived. Milo made an awesome salmon dinner and then after the kids were in bed we did what we do best.... play games! The girls made some yummy adult lemonade drink and we played a card game called "Golf" which was a lot of fun. And then we had a Spit (Speed) card game tournament that I won. Later Alex and I went for a walk on the beach and thought we were seeing ghosts until we got closer and realized it was just Jaime and George out for a walk too. Then they tried to get us kicked out of the condo when we proceeded to break all the old people condo rules by being in the pool after hours, drinking at the pool, making excessive noise at the pool, and a stumbling Alex making his way into the wrong condo at 2:00am. Here are the people having too much to drink but not too much fun...

The next day was the 4th of July... Maggie's 4th birthday! Jen and Milo went for a walk on the beach and came home to inform us that the beach was filling up fast. So we headed to the beach with our canopy and food and drinks for all day. The kids had fun playing in the sand and the tide pools and making our way out to the sand bar. The adults had fun playing with them a bit in the waves and having fun of our own. We threw the frisbee, played paddle ball, and bocce ball. Even though this was the 3rd beach day in a row I didn't want it to end. It was a fun day.

So we showered and ate at the house and then headed to the Bridge of Lions overlooking the Fort (Castillo de San Marcos) and the bay for fireworks. We had a great spot and the St. Augustine fireworks were good as usual. Zachary fell asleep right before it all started. We played more games that night.

The next day we went to the pool cause the kids can't swim in the rough beach the way they can in the pool. We taught the kids marco polo and sharks and minnows and then Alex and I broke more condo rules by playing paddle ball in the courtyard.

George left after a Milo BBQ lunch and we were going to leave too except we thought we'd head to the beach for just a bit. Alex stayed at the house with Ben, and Jen and I took on Jaime and Ron in a game of bocce ball which lasted a few hours. We pretty much got massacred. After that we said our good-byes and headed for home. I love how Jen and Milo and Jaime and Ron let us into their families. I love seeing their kids grow up and I love them like they are my own. Zac and Brooklyn gave great hugs and the affection Joshua had been withholding all week finally came through in a cute little hug and kiss.

It was a great trip- 2,629 miles with my husband-- and friends and family sprinkled in. It was awesome and all I hoped it would be.

Now for the unpacking and laundry....

Summer Roadtrip, Vol V

Savannah, GA

We left West Virginia for the longest drive of our trip, about 8 hours. We got in around 8:00 and found our hotel and I took one of the best showers of my life having camped for 4 nights in a row. Then we walked around for a bit to find dinner and ended up on the Riverfront at a Crab Shack. We had outstanding seafood, drinks, salads, a crab soup and a shrimp and corn soup. We sat out on a balcony and had a very romantic dinner. We started walking back towards the hotel and went to Riverstreet sweets. We sampled really amazing pecan pralines and white chocolate covered nuts which we bought. Alex got an ice cream cone and we got a white chocolate covered dog bone with sprinkles for Maggie. We just went back to the hotel because everything around there closed around 10:00 which was weird.

The next morning we woke up and took to our bikes for a tour of Savannah's historic district. They have tons of trolley tours which we didn't want to do so we took a map and a brochure and rode to the good places. Historic Savannah is a neat city, with a lot of charm and old southern beauty. We learned that Savannah was one of the south's first planned cities. It has about 25 garden squares intersecting street after street and the city is covered in giant oak trees to keep things shady. We went to Savannah's history museum and they had lots about the history of all American wars and Savannah's role in each. It was neat but we didn't stay long.

We made our way to the famous Forsyth Park, and could feel the essence of Forrest Gump, which is where the bench scenes from the movie were shot. We had an outdoor lunch at Mellow Mushroom and then found Paula Deen's place to get coffee for Jocilyn. There was a lot more to see and I'm sure learn since we taught ourselves but we had a good half day.

Then we went to Tybee Island, a 20 minute drive to Savannah's closest beach town. We spent the afternoon on the beach. Alex was swimming and some dolphins swam passed him about 20 feet out. I pointed to them and as Alex turned around you could see an entire pod swim around him. There must have been no fewer than 20 dolphins, maybe as many as 30ish. They were so cool, swimming in packs of 2-4 and all in a line parallel with the beach. They were really active jumping and occasionally smacking their tails on the water. My guess was they were feeding. I've never seen so many dolphins in one place. They swam past and then turned around and came right back. It was really cool, and Alex tried to get close but they stayed just out of his reach. I couldn't get a very good picture.

We rode our bikes around the island and found Marlin Monroe's and had dinner on the beach. We had a beautiful seaside meal and had more great seafood. We had the best coconut shrimp with pina colada dip ever! And shared a grouper sandwich with pesto mayo (new taste) and crab quesadillas. Then we ended it with a key lime pie. This is the view from our table.

We had a great afternoon and evening but when we went to our "beach camping" site we were less enthused. The beach camping was two blocks off the beach in a mostly rv camp site where we were in the woods with tons of mosquitoes and the foliage blocked all wind so the cool mountain camping we were used to turned in to hot and sweaty sleep with stagnant air. We tried to go to sleep immediately so once we woke up we could get out of there, but we got a phone call 30 minutes into our sleep and Alex had trouble sleeping again. At one point he suggested packing it up and leaving, or sleeping in the car, or sleeping on the beach itself and I almost went with it. But in the end we decided we'd rough it since that's what this trip was about so we toughed it out. As soon as we woke up the next morning we were off to St. Augustine for the 4th of July weekend.

Summer Roadtrip, Vol IV- con't

More fun in West Virginia- Rock Climbing!

We stayed an extra two nights at ACE after Lori and Dave left. We did a half day rock climbing and rappelling excursion which was so much fun. We luckily booked on a Monday so we were the only ones on the trip and had our own very cool guide Paul all to ourselves. I've never rock climbed other than an occasional rock wall, but Alex is somewhat experienced and is a very good climber, and has done rappelling with fire school and his rope tying came in handy. I was a little cautious about the climbing because these were real rocks and they were very vertical and pretty technical.

First we did a rappel of about 60 ft. The top 10 feet is rock and then after that it is a "free rappel" where you just lower yourself with no wall to walk your feel down. This was fun and we did a few of these.

Then we did three climbs, two of which were very difficult, and one that was hard but fun that took us up through a huge crevasse. Alex was like a little money or a frog or something. He was really good. He went pretty quickly and went on some paths up the mountain that Paul hasn't seen many take. He impressed Paul for sure and Paul would say , "Oh that move is called a..." or " Oh, that's a really tough move". I didn't know there were moves other than to hang on to the rock for dear life and do your best to get up. So I listened to Paul while Alex climbed and tried to do some of those things when I was in a tough place. Alex really enjoyed it and I was so proud of him for being such a bad ass.

We took tons of pictures. Here are some of Alex's best climbs.

Here's the zoomed out version of one of our climbs-- rugged all the way to the top, with some difficult features like the outcropping Alex is about to make it over-- it leaves few options for your feet making it a lot of arm work, which you try to avoid and use your legs when possible.

Several times when we were climbing I made it half way and felt I couldn't go any more or that I was satisfied with how far I made it, but Alex and Paul encouraged me to go on and with a lot of hard work, determination, and scraped up legs I pressed on. I was able to complete every climb in impressive fashion. It was the most proud I've been of a personal physical accomplishment in a long time. It was something I've never done and I had to use all the strength and agility I had. Paul says that little girls are good climbers but he's not sure he's seen a woman scale all the climbs to the top. Made me feel good just a week after my 29th birthday!

Here are some of my best climbs

My best move of the day!

At one point on this climb I was out of strength and didn't see how I was going to finish the climb. I was at a mixture of wanting to cry so bad and at the same time wanting to punch Paul and Alex for making me go on, but being unable to reach them that I was laughing making it hard to climb.

But in the end I made it and here I am victorious!

After climbing Alex decided he hadn't had enough so we did some mountain biking, which was miserable for me. The trail was about 18 inches wide with a drop off the mountain to the side. The trail was so rough and rocky and full of tree roots that you couldn't pedal more than a few times before literally running into a rock wall and having to walk or lift the bike. Then I slipped and hit my who-ha on the bike bar leaving me to shout nasty things at Alex. Then we at least made it to a nice overlook of the World Famous New River Gorge. The pictures didn't do it justice, the view was too vast.

We finally found a better trail to get us out of there and after a while realized it was a combo bike-horse-ATV trail, so it was full of a mixture of mud and puddles the ATVs left behind and horse poop that was hard to ride through and spit mud up all over us when I wasn't falling over in the mud. The only part of the trip I didn't enjoy.

We camped out one more night and Alex's obsession with searching for fire wood and building campfires continued. We had a nice dinner by the fire and slept well with the cool breeze coming in through the tent. We had an awesome weekend and thoroughly enjoyed West Virginia.