Return to the great outdoors...kind of...

The weather was so nice on Friday. Upper 50's. It got us all fired up to get back outside and do some hiking. So Saturday we woke up and it was, well, cold. And I had big plans for hiking. So we waited. We waited for it to warm back up. It didn't happen. I was so sad that we didn't do anything that I had to get us doing something. So we had a game night. How about some Jenga. So today I wasn't waiting around for it to warm up again. Unfortunately, I didn't get any warmer that 40, so we decided to stay close to home and walk the Huckleberry trail up until it hit the VT campus, then loop through campus and back to our car. So not the most exciting weekend we've had, but we did get outside and get a few miles in. Plus, Neit got to go to Petsmart when we were done, and he got a bath today too. We are all pretty tired and happy with our weekend, even if we didn't get to go to a cool new hiking spot.

Waiting, waiting, waiting for it to warm up outside. But it just didn't happen :(

Game Night! Pouring some wine...

Whoa did you see that action shot of the wine pouring? Let's get a close up...

Intense Jenga moment

Here is a shot from our walk today. Not a great one, but here is the campus from a distance

Science Museum

We try to alternate weekends when it comes to who gets to decide what we want to do. Ian stole my idea for next week and took us to the science museum in Roanoke. This was again an activity that is aimed toward little kids, but we learned all kinds of stuff anyway. The museum also has a planetarium that they use to play IMAX type movies, and we caught a pretty cool flick about Africa, the Serengeti, narrated by James Earl Jones. Pretty epic. We took lots and lots of pictures, and here are the ones I think sums up our museum visit best.

The first exhibit they had consisted of a lot of cool rocks. Jarad would have been jealous.

Ian with a big rock

How about this giant mouth? Better be careful before you get....

swallowed! (see me back there?)

They had quite a few mammoth fossils.

And an exhibit with a bunch of sea creatures. Here's a hermit crab.

Ian was playing with some magnetic forces before I made him pose for a picture, and then he stopped doing anything and you can't really tell what is going on here.

I got to forecast some weather. "Theres some big ol' lightening going on over here"

And here I'm waiting for our Africa movie to start.

Fun and educational. Sounds like an Ian and Karleigh type of day. I get to pick next week's fun adventures, so make sure you check back in and see what we're doing!

Ice Skating in the Hill City

Ian and I decided to get out of our comfort zone this weekend and drive all the way to Roanoke (a whole 30 miles!) to get a little ice skating in. There is a public ice skate session every Saturday this month and we had the pleasure of going to the first one. The cool thing about ice skating is that after about ten minutes on the ice, you can be one of the most skilled skaters out there. Ian and I, for example, were a little shaky at first, but were weaving in and out of all the beginners before we knew it. Now, it is beside the point that the majority of the skaters out there were under 8 years of age. Ian and I felt very good about our ice skating skills by the time we left. No falls, only a few close calls.

Waiting for the Zamboni to clear the ice


Action shot! (why yes, that is the hat I just knitted for myself this weekend. Thanks for noticing :)

Ian was very brave taking pictures on the ice, but like I said, no falls, so no worries. We did see an old guy fall and most likely break his wrist though.

Today we took Neit for a nice long walk around town and came across this sign. Now at first this sign didn't really cross me as anything peculiar until I realized that I was in Hokieville, Va...not back in Indiana. Very strange huh? I thought so too.

Wait...where do we live now?

Here is the church that the sign hangs in front of here in Hokieville. Guess they just want me to feel like I'm at home here.

And I told Mom I would post pictures of the sushi Ian and I made for dinner tonight, so here is the final product. These are all veggies and rice. So here you go, Mom.

Well thats it for this weekends updates. Hope all you Hoosies aren't too buried in snow. Miss you all!

All Dogs Go To Heaven

We just wanted to say goodbye to our friend Domino "Poopie" Donaldson. She was a good dog and was very lucky to have shared her life with such great people. And we are all comforted to know that all dogs go to heaven.

Christmas with the old camera

Well, I thought I took more pictures before I got my new camera. Turns out I only took three. Sorry Bacon fans. It certainly wasn't intentional.

Christmas Eve love at Judy's

Opening presents

Neit loves Christmas too.

Christmas via the pink camera

I got a beautiful new pink camera for Christmas. I finally downloaded my pictures from it. These are mostly pictures of my family, so Bacon fans sit tight. I will have pictures from my not-pink camera up shortly. And without further adieu...

It was a beautiful Christmas day

Followed by an eventful bonfire

Klayton got a fancy new jacket, and Kalow expressed his love for it via interpretive dance.

And somehow we got inspired to go bowling...

With a theme, of course. So we all put on our bowling shirts.

There was team Ass-Kickin'

And Team Butt-lickin'

After Christmas Ian and I drove to Chicago

Were we celebrated a hilarious New Years.

And now we are back in Hokieville and back to our old routine of work and grad school. We sure did have a nice time back home. Maybe we will make our way back there sometime soon. But until then, come visit! Ski resorts are close by, and Blacksburg sure is cute in the winter time. Happy 2009 to all!

Happy 2009!

Happy New Year to all of our hokieville followers. I just wanted to let everyone know what a great time we had back home for the holidays. I have some great pictures to share and will do so as soon as we get our main computer up and running here in the apartment. So hang tight! I'll get them up as soon as I can. Until then...happy 2009!