Ocean City, MD

On Saturday, Peter and I rode the motorcycles out to Ocean City, Maryland. It was a beautiful, perfect, warm day for riding. So warm in fact that I decided not to wear my sweater for the drive in... until Peter informed me that my shoulders & back were scorched! Anyhow, we had a great time... with traffic it took us about 7 hours driving round trip - so it made for a long day, but a good one!

On one of our breaks...The bikes
We got new helmets last week!! They match our bikes now, and are so much nicer than the old ones.
Peter's new helmet
At Ocean City on the pier. They charged $0.50/person to walk on the pier, so we just stood in front of it. :-D
... and took photos through the grates... :)
Looking up the coastline - Beautiful day, lots of people!
Rusting look-out station
If you're in need of some life saving, you could probably find it here!
Sun's a-goin' down...
Memorial on the beach dedicated to "all the firefighters in the world."
All in all, a very nice Saturday. Mom and Dad, we'll have to take you here when you come up!!!

Camping Gear!

Yep, we're ready for the BIG, BAD Outdoors now... Bring it on! :)

Sleeping pads. (they self inflate - pretty cool)Awesome new tent
Dozer approves...

Bedroom painted!

BEFORE:
Yuck... AFTER:

I love the way this turned out!!!
SO much more inviting. :)

Dozer's new hobby

Dozer was having some stomach issues last week, so we got him this little water dish that grows wheat grass which is supposed to be good for cats stomachs.
He likes to sit and watch it grow... :-)

Goofing around!!

We didn't even plan to have the same faces each time. Ha!

Living/Dining Room painted!

I finally finished the living room & dining room today! That has been my project this week. I LOVE how it has turned out. Painting has really helped make this place homey!
BEFORE: White (ugh)
AFTER:
The blue isn't quite as bright as it looks in this photo... the flash skewed the color a bit - but you get the idea!"Dining room"
Engagement photo... This was taken 3 years ago now!
Ok, this might get a little sentimental now... :) It's amazing the journeys that life takes us on. Lately I've been missing so many - Mom & Dad, Wes & Del, Sherrie & family & all our other friends in The Dalles, Peter's family, Gramps and Grams (both sets of ya!), and probably if you care enough to read this blog I'm missing you too! But I'm so glad for all the sweet people who are making this a nice place to live. It's slowly starting to set in that this is home now, not just a temporary place to be ~ And that's growing on me. :) But y'all come visit, ok!?!?!

Drive from Downings...

We went down to Downings, VA last weekend to pick up a gentleman & bring him home. Downings will be "our" convention now - it's about 2 1/2 hrs away, but is a beautiful drive. These photos are all out of focus (sorry) cuz' we were driving!
Some huge estates right on the Rappahannock RiverThis is a soybean crop @ 60 mph :) We mostly saw soybeans and corn. The convention grounds is on a beautiful corn farm.
Another beautiful home - in fast forward. Most folks out here keep their lawns beautifully manicured. We'll just dream of a home like this for now...

Time to update...

Sorry for the lack of posting lately... here's what I've been working on:

BEFORE
AFTER:

We bought this neat little butcher block rolling cart at Ikea a few weeks ago. It works perfect for the micro since we don't have much for counter space!
The wall color is a tangelo orangeade... and I love it! It's just what this little place needed to liven it up & give it some color. All the white was just way too sterile for me!
Oh, and just for you loyal Dozer fans...he says "hello - purr purr."
Next up is to paint the living/dining room... it won't be so bright, I promise! :-) Blue & green...
Can't wait to see the finished product! Here's my inspiration for the colors I chose:
I'm off to iron... more later!

Push-Up update

Week 4 Totals
Marissa: 222
Peter: 520

I know this is probably boring for most of you, but somehow posting about our progress motivates me a little more!

Oh, and milestone: Peter did a max today of 100!! He's already at our goal... I still have a LONG ways to go, but am pleased thus-far with progress. :)

Push-Up update

I did 111 push-ups this week!!!! Not consecutively, this is my entire week combined, but I'm definitely much stronger than I was 3 weeks ago.
Peter did 443 push-ups this week - he's such a SUPERSTAR! He motivates me, that's for sure!

Playing with the kitty

Dozer likes to play... a little too much!? We're wondering if the kitten in him will ever grow up?!

July 4th in DC

After getting home from camping early Friday afternoon, we decided to face the thousands and ride the metro downtown to watch the fireworks. It rained off & on, but stayed fairly warm so wasn't unbearable.
We managed to forget chairs, blankets, food etc - but we did remember an umbrella! Next time we'll bring a bigger one... :)
Some of the crowd - and this was before everyone got there!I'm sure most of you all saw your own fireworks display, so I won't bore you with a bunch of photos - here's just two of the best ones. DC puts on quite a show, and the Washington Monument makes a neat backdrop. (or would it be frontdrop?!)
Hope y'all had a great day!

Camping!

Some of our friends here (Nate Smith and Lisa Lerwick), were brave enough to take us camping with them... They let us borrow a bunch of their gear, as we're rookie campers & only had camp chairs & pillows (which wouldn't have been quite enough for that rainy night). :-) However, they've convinced us to make camping a more often occurrence, so we'll work on upgrading our lack of camping equipment. Thanks Nate & Lisa!
Getting camp set up - We camped at Nathaniel Mountain in West Virginia.Peter was shooting this picture from the base of the log to get a neat angle on the photo - maybe not so flattering of his wife though...
Peter & I
Nate was the gourmet dinner chef - awesome hot dogs, sausages & vegetables.
... and Lisa made a delicious German chocolate, caramely, nutty, brownie goodness for dessert!
Gourmet snacks too!
Nate & Lisa
Then the morning of July 4th, we packed up & headed down to the Potomac River. It was fairly balmy out, a bit humid & drizzly, but we had a fantastic time! The river doesn't have many "rapids" so it's great for canoeing. Very relaxing.
Getting ready to take off - 7 mile canoe ride ahead of us.
Yo.
A bald eagle! We saw a number of them while we were floating - but this one just sat in the tree while we bobbed along underneath him. Pretty amazing!
Lots of geese...
Just eatin' away ~
The brawn & brains of our canoe!
Beautiful...
The rest of the photos here!

Dozer, yet again...

...He got his semi-annual bath. I'm not sure what the big deal was, but he was pretty vocal about it all...
He wasn't real happy either. :-P

Bike rack

Since we don't have a garage now, and very little storage in our small space here, Peter found a handy bike rack online that fits just perfect - and gets the bikes off the carpet too!

More to come...

We went camping last night, then canoeing today and now are off to see the fireworks in DC... will write more & post pictures later. :-)

Happy 4th of July!