November to April/ Eurotrip

Not many people can say they have done the following in between blog posts without writing something... anything at all.

1. Travelling to Europe
2. Buying a House
3. Finding out in Europe you are HAVING A BABY
4. Finding out it's a Boy
5. Starting a Masters Program
6. Buying a Car
7. 2nd Anniversary
8. Job Security
9. Learning to Clean Your Own Pool

Anyway, I am going to try my best to get caught up with all of these things, starting with the top and working my way down. This might take a couple days, but I have decided it is time to kick-start this blog into action again.

For starters, Kirstie and I went to Britain, Ireland and France for a trip during Thanksgiving last year. It is one of the better times to go if your family won't choke you out for missing turkey, mostly because everyone else's family would choke them out if they did. For a little more than it would cost us to fly to Florida and see my mom we took a hop across the pond for a 10-day adventure through the European's backyards (not literally). Learned how to ride the Underground without getting lost, rode on a train that goes more than 150 MPH, and met a lot of nice people when I was expecting otherwise. Oh yeah, and the SITES!!! Enough talking, here are some of the better shots of the trip...

This was the first photo taken upon arriving to the UK.

Neat building in downtown London.

The Gherkin! I could never get all of it in the frame...

 The Eye. This was quite a ride. About 30 minutes to be exact.

 Big Ben & Parliament

The waterside of Parliament.

Tower Bridge. NOT London Bridge.

 I'm amazed at the architecture, and more importantly that everything still looks the way it does.

This looks a lot like the entrance to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory to me. Their secret yeast is well protected!

 They make a fine whiskey!

This was as close to Shepherd's Pie as I got in Dublin. Complete with a shot of Guinness!!

 Apparently a lot of drunk people fall over the low ledge and die in this river, but it's pretty at night at least.

 The Louvre!!! (Eurotrip)

 There's a hunchback swinging around in here still.

 Spiral staircase to the top of Arc de Triomphe.

Even Paris has traffic jams. Keep sippin' those Cappucinos.


 Tower de Eiffel.

It started raining right as we got there...

Night shots on the Arc de Triomphe.

This will officially be the tallest building in Europe once it's completed. Go Brits.

Downtown London from Tower Bridge.

Well that's that. The hard part of actually doing a new post is over... Yay.

Kirstie's New Boots

Kirstie got new boots for Europe. She is so excited!

Packers v Chargers!!!

So Kirstie and I went to San Diego for the Packers game. We ended up staying at a house only half a mile from the beach. We had a great time cruising around the area and made some great memories hanging at the beach with champaigne. The game itself was great as well. There were tons of Packers fans tailgating and we had some great burgers while sitting around. As for the game there was lots of scoring, cheering, and rain!

Here are some photos of the weekend!

Halloween Cake

One of the guys from work (more accurately his wife) made a cake today for the office. It was a neat Jack-o-lantern cake made from two bunt cakes where he bottoms are cut off and glued together with orange icing. Imagine a massive donut, covered with orange icing and a Jack-o-lantern face! Well... you don't have to imagine it. You can just see for yourself!

Mobile Blogging

So now that I have my beloved Galaxy II S the possibilities of blogging are endless! I found a blogging app that sets everything up for you to make a post. They also have a blog app for all you iPhoners out there too. Although you will probably have to pay for it... perks of having an iPhone.

These next few weekends are going to be quite hectic, so it will be a good test of the blogger apps ability to be handy!

Time will tell...

Parish's Birthday! (The Big 24 on July 25th)

Shaver Lake was the destination for Parish' birthday. We had quite the time fishing and camping for Saturday and Sunday. And the dogs were exhausted by the end of it all which is a good thing! We only caught one fish the day we fished here at Shaver. It was a little upsetting since we were counting on having a fish feast that night, but we ended up having some tasty hot dogs and S'mores around the campfire. Good times! Here are a couple shots of the lake and where we were fishing.

Jim & Starlyn's Pool

We went to Jim and Starlyn's the other week to visit with Zaelin and have some dinner in Tulare. Kevin, Sharon and the kids were there as well, but as it got dark we ended up making our way outside and the girls wound up in the hot tub. I just couldn't help taking some photos of the pretty pool. I also played with exposure a little bit and figured out that while the photos look a little darker, which I don't mind so much, the shutter time decreased quite a bit too. This helps with clarity. Which means better photos. O_0 Who knew. Anyway, below are some photos that I took while I was there. The last one is of the girls. Obviously the best photo taken all night.