Friday Favorites!!!

1) Raleigh - We started our Christmas vacation off in Raleigh this year. We drove down last Friday  after work. We only worked half a day, so we were hoping to get to Raleigh around 6. 6 turned into 9 really quick. We hit some horrible traffic! We definitely expected some, but we still underestimated. We had dinner plans that we ended up canceling. We stayed with Anna and John for 2 nights and we had a great time. We caught up, exchanged gifts, went to a basketball game, went out for dinner, and went out with friends. All the while, Bailey got to play with Carter! They were really good together, as always :-).

2) NC State Basketball - We got cheap tickets to the basketball game vs St. Bonaventure last Saturday. I've never had seats so far up in the arena, but they weren't nearly as bad as I expected. We could actually see really well. We had a good game, especially CJ Leslie, and we had a great time. It's always nice to go back to visit. 

3) Dinner with Friends - We drove to Josh's mom's house Sunday morning. We caught up with her for a bit, then met some friends for dinner. We went to Carolina Ale house and enjoyed catching up. We hadn't seen Dan in well over a year I think. Time really flies!

4) Day with Natalia - We kept Natalia for the day on Christmas Eve. I tried to get her to stay the night with us, but she wasn't up for it. She changed her mind around 9:00 that night, but I told her it was too late and that we would just pick her up in the morning. 

First, we went to Josh's mom's. I gave Natalia one of her gifts early and Bailey helped her open it. She got a travel, Hello Kitty version of Connect 4. We taught her how to play and played it with her a few times.

Then she played Old MacDonald for us.  

Next, we went Bowling. Of course Josh won, but we still had fun too!

We played a few arcade games. She kicked my butt at this one.

Hunting with Uncle Josh.

After bowling, we got milkshakes and went back to Josh's mom's. Josh tried to teach her how to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. She wasn't interested.

After playing Connect 4 and playing the piano a little more, Natalia helped wrap Bailey's Christmas gifts.

Then, we had to take her to get ready for Santa. I would say we had a successful day :-).

5) Christmas Day - We had a wonderful Christmas day. We had 3 houses to visit, and we did it in a different order this year. It worked out so much better! We did Josh's mom's first. She cooked breakfast, then everyone opened gifts. Bailey LOVES wrapping paper. 

She got a couple toys from Nana that she absolutely loves.

Then we went outside for our nephew to get his big gift. 

After playing outside for a bit, we came back in to clean up. Bailey got to play a little more first though.

Next, we dropped Bailey off at my sister's house and went to Josh's Aunt Gayle's house. We got to stay there a little longer than we usually do since my sister lives right down the road from her house now. It makes life so much easier!

We went back to my sister'shouse after a few hours. None of us were hungry just yet, so we did gifts before dinner. I didn't take very many pictures.

Natalia got a LeapPad 2.

Josh and I got a custom made NC State chest, money and gift cards. I'll have to take a picture of the chest and post it at some point.

We finally had dinner a little later. We usually do the same foods for Christmas as we do for Thanksgiving. We mixed it up a little this year and had a cranberry pork loin and beef bourguignon. YUM! 

We had a very busy, but still great day. We got to spend a good amount of time with everyone, which is a nice change. 

6) Short Week - We only worked Thursday and Friday this week. It was really tough to get up early and go to work after having so many days off to sleep in. 

Early Christmas

We open our gifts together before we go to NC to celebrate with family. It's not very traditional, but it's just not worth it to pack all our gifts, drive them down, then drive them back up here. We usually do it the day or so before we leave. This year we decided to do things a little different. We opened our gifts on Sunday! We thought it would be a good idea since we wouldn't have to rush and this week is already busy for us. 

We had a great time! We let Bailey open one first so she would be occupied while we opened ours. 

It's a puzzle. She has to move the red part first, then lift the yellow parts to get the treats that are inside. Bailey prefers to move the red part then turn the whole thing over. Sneaky girl.

 We like to try to guess what's in the box before we open gifts. Josh guessed fishing gear. (Notice Russell Wilson in the background. Haha.)

Bailey wanted to help Daddy open his gifts. 

It was a Dremel tool!

I got a few kitchen gadgets, some of my favorites!

Next, it was time for Josh to work on his big gift. I wish I would have taken pictures of this part, but of course, I forgot. Josh's guess for this one was a gun. I would have loved to have gotten him a gun, but that's something we'll pick out together. Haha. He had to go through 5 boxes to get to this one! He got a new iPod Touch!

Then, it was time for me to open my big gift. I wish I could remember what I guessed, but it was something off the wall. It was a box filled with random things from around the house and this note...

I went to the half bath and found...

SCORE! I was SO excited! I've been wanting one of these forever and I definitely didn't expect one this year. Josh was super sneaky. He bought it when we went shopping on Black Friday. It was in the trunk the entire time we were in NC (of course, I wasn't allowed to look in there). He has been asking me for ideas since then, so I thought he just got something small and still needed to get something else. He even had me change our Amazon account so he would get e-mails when something was ordered rather than me. It has been hiding in the garage this entire time. He didn't wrap it because I would have guessed what it was as soon as I saw the size of the box.

Next, it was time for stockings. I had some more kitchen gadgets in mine. Josh had a fishing lure and some accessories for his Dremel tool.

Bailey had a Wubba!

Friday Favorites!

1) Christmas in VA - This past Saturday, we went to VA to have Christmas with Josh's grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousin. It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive for us, so we just made it a day trip. We boarded Bailey since we knew it would be a long day. We left our house around 12. Once we got there and caught up a little, we went to Cracker Barrel for lunch. We went back to Josh's grandparent's house after lunch to catch up and exchange gifts. We had a great time with everyone! Josh's grandparents are the only grandparents I have left yet, so I really enjoy the time we spend with them.

2) Giving Back - We started doing the giving tree at church last year. We did it again this year and we delivered our gifts to church Sunday morning. We chose 2 names off the tree, one boy and one girl. For each child, we buy a toy item and a clothing item. We also brought some items in for the homeless for our church's winter relief. 

Camp Bow Wow does something similar to the giving tree this time of year as well. You don't take a name off the tree, but an item. Then you bring it back and they donate it to local shelters. I took a couple items off the tree there as well. All of our items have been delivered and I feel so good about it. 

God has blessed us in so many ways, so I like to give back since we are able. I like to feel like we are making a positive change in the world, even if it is a very small one :-). 

3) Errands - I don't love running errands, but I feel so good once they're done! Since Bailey was boarding, we were able to run errands right after church Sunday. We ended up going to the late service since we got home so late Saturday night, so we had a much later start than I had planned. Other than a couple last minute gifts I had to order online, we finished our Christmas shopping and went out for a lunch date.

4) Early Christmas - I'm SO glad we decided to open our gifts over the weekend. This week has been ridiculously busy. If we would have waited like last year, we would have had to rush through opening gifts between taking Bailey out, cooking dinner and packing. Having it Sunday allowed us to take our time and have a good meal as well. I'm thinking we might make this a tradition, at least until we have kids. I think we'll make some major changes about how we spend our holidays then. 

5) Going to NC - We're leaving after work to go to NC until Wednesday morning! I'm really excited to get away for a bit and spend some time with friends and family!

December Bark Box!

This month's Bark Box came in earlier in the week. Bailey was very excited to get it! I cut the packing tape and let her do the rest...

I'm pretty excited about this box. It has something for both of us :-).

The breakdown:

First, Bailey's favorite...the moose toy from Simplyfido.com.

 It's a little different than other squeaker toys we have tried in that the arms and legs move through the animal. This makes it harder for Bailey to rip them off! It's only been a few days, but that's longer than most stuffed toys last around here.

Next, Puppy Cake, dog friendly cake mix!

 I'm really excited about this! I've been wanting to bake a cake for Bailey for quite some time, but I haven't been able to find a recipe I wanted to make. This is red velvet, how much better does it get?!? I haven't made the cake yet, but it seems pretty easy.

Holiday Feast treats from Bocce's Bakery.

Bailey hasn't tried these yet, but they sound yummy. The combination of chicken, pumpkin, cranberries and cinnamon is the perfect doggy version of a holiday dinner! Bocce's has lots of interesting treat flavors like Truffle Mac n Cheese and Beef Bourguinon. YUM! They're a bit on the pricey side, so this may be the only time Bailey gets to try them!

A 2 oz. sample bottle of Fresh Dog Oatmeal Shampoo.

I saved Bailey's least favorite for last. Giving Bailey a bath is probably the worse thing you can do to her. She hates them with a passion. It is not an enjoyable process, but I enjoy a dog that smells good. I haven't had a chance to use it yet, but this shampoo smells amazing!

Simply Fido Moose Toy: $12.99 

Puppy Cake: $6.99

Fresh Dog Oatmeal Shampoo: $11.99/17 oz bottle (so about $1.41 for the sample bottle)

Bocce's Bakery Treats: $9.50
Total Value: $ 30.89

Was this box worth the $10 I paid for it? Absolutely! Was it worth the $17 I would pay if I did another 6 month subscription? I'm not sure since I wouldn't pay some of these prices for the items. 

Christmas Decorations!

I've been meaning to post this for quite a while, but life has been so busy. 

 Our Tree! I decided to go a little more rustic with it this year. I saw a picture on Pinterest with gifts wrapped in craft paper, and I just fell in love. I decided to use the craft paper and one type of regular wrapping paper. I made all the bows that are under the tree (except one, for one of my gifts Josh has wrapped). I had a co-worker make the bow that is on top of the tree for me. I like it, but it didn't turn out quite the way I pictured. I do like it, but since it's not wired, it doesn't hold its shape the way I would like it to. I bought the material to make another one with tails, but I haven't had time to get it together!

 I have several birds in the tree. Some are in nests, and some are like this one. I love the way they look in the tree.

 I have lots of these little birdhouses throughout the tree. I found a small tree at Goodwill and I bought it for the decorations that were on it. It came with at least 10 or so of these birdhouses and just as many birds in nests. Completely worth the $10 I paid for the tree!

 This is one of my favorite fabrics I bought for bows. That is actually my present. Josh wrapped it and I but the bow on the box. I wonder what is in there...

 I made a few knot bows like this one.

 I found these cute reindeer at Michael's. 

 We don't have a fireplace, so this is where we hand our stockings. I hope to make burlap stockings for next year. 

Friday Favorites!!!

1) Holiday Party - Last Friday, we had our company holiday party. It started with cocktail hour (this is the part I had to work for, but I still had a great time). During our cocktail hour, the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award ceremony was going on in a different part of the hotel. Josh and another friend decided to go check it out. They got a chance to meet Collin Klein and hold the award. He was super excited, which made me super excited! After cocktail hour, we had a delicious dinner, followed by prizes and dancing. We had a great time with some great friends! 

2) Christmas Decorations - I didn't get everything up that I would have liked this year, but I still love what we have. I bought the supplies to make so much more stuff, but I just ran out of time. I may put a tiny bit more up on Sunday if I'm feeling up to it, but it almost seems pointless since we'll be leaving to go to NC on Friday.

3) Basketball Tickets - We finally got around to buying tickets to the basketball game we'll be going to while we're home for Christmas! The tickets are already here. We got them pretty cheap, which is even better. 

4) Another loan down - We paid off another loan this week!!! Now, we just have 1 more to go. That one should be taken care of in January!

5) Retirement Planning - We're stepping it up with our 401Ks big time next year. I've been contributing very little so far, and Josh has only been contributing a little more than me. Since our interest bearing debt (except the house, which is long from being paid off, and the car, which has an interest rate lower than inflation) will be gone, we've decided to max out our 401Ks for next year. This is an easy decision for Josh, but it's a bit tougher for me. It's hard for me to put away that much money that I can't touch for over 30 years! Even though it's hard for me to not put that money toward something more immediate, like saving for a vacation, a second car or our next home, I still feel good that we are planning for our future. 

Friday Favorites!!!

1) It's Friday!!! - Obviously, but I'm SO glad for Friday to finally be here. It's been an extremely busy and particularly stressful week at work. I do pretty well under pressure, but there comes a point where you just need a break. That time is now. Hopefully, I will get to work a half day or at least leave a little early so I can get ready for our Holiday party! I will also be working part of the time while we're there, but I know I'll still have a blast.

2) Overtime - I mentioned that work has been very busy. Being busy with deadlines means lots of hours. While that has left me exhausted, that means overtime. Lots of overtime=a great paycheck. A great paycheck=one step closer to being debt free. Debt free=happy me!

3) Last Friday - Last week was a busy week at work as well. Josh had a basketball game and I worked on wrapping gifts after taking Bailey out to play. I love wrapping gifts! I bought a bow maker this year and it has made it even more fun (but also much more time consuming). After that, we were just lazy. We had pizza for dinner and watched a movie. Such a relaxing night and the perfect way to wind down after a long week.

4) To - Do List Checks - Last Saturday, we checked off a few things on our to-do list that we have been putting off way too long. I shampooed the carpet in the dining room and caught up on laundry and some cleaning. It looks SO much better and I actually didn't mind it at all. Vacuuming is kind of therapeutic to me, and shampooing is very similar. Josh painted an area on the front of our house that has needed it for quite a while and caulked around our front door. The paint looks great and the caulking is keeping bad things out. Yay for taking preventative measures! Haha. 

The not so good about Saturday...we were going to go to the shooting range then out for dinner after getting so much done. We took Bailey out to play before we left. We had her on her lead and it wrapped around Josh's ankle. He sprained it and got pretty bad rope burn. We decided to put off the date so Josh could ice his ankle. 

We made the most out of a bad situation though. I made sesame chicken for us after helping Josh get settled. Then I wrapped gifts while we watched a Christmas movie!

5) Sunday - Last Sunday, we went to church for the first time in months. I'm glad we made ourselves get up and get ready. After we came home and played with Bailey a little, we went to Annapolis for lunch. I got a crab dip stuffed burger and Josh got Rockfish with crab risotto. They were both amazing and I'll have to try to make that crab risotto sometime! YUM!

The rest of the week really was a blur. I had a productive week at work and a pretty lazy week at home, until last night. We got caught up on some cleaning and got to bed pretty early. 

Friday Favorites!!!

It's Friday, y'all! You know what that means...this seems to be the only post I can keep up with these days.

1) Short Week - We had a 2 1/2 day work week last week! We just worked a half day Wednesday so we could get to my sister's house at a decent time.

2) Amazon Lightning Deals - Amazon has Lightning deals all last week for Black Friday. They'll have them again this week for Cyber Monday. I've been able to get a pretty good amount of our Christmas shopping done without leaving home :-). 

3) Bark Box - I love getting Bark Boxes almost as much as Bailey does I think!

4) Thanksgiving! - Of course, I loved Thanksgiving. We usually have 3 Thanksgiving dinners since all of our family lives in the same area. This year, we only made it to 2. We still ate more delicious food than we should have though!

5) Play Date - We stayed with Hutch while we were in Raleigh (Thanks Bro!!!). We got to his house around 4:30 Friday afternoon. We briefly thought about going to the NC State basketball game that night, then decided against it pretty quickly. Neither of us were up for it, so we invited Carter over for a play date with Bailey. I'm SO glad we did. They both really enjoyed themselves! We got to relax and enjoy some time alone while the dogs tired themselves out. What more could you ask for? We ended up winning our game, but it's one I'm not too disappointed I missed ;-).

6) Football! - We got up to go tailgate Saturday morning. We had a really great time catching up and eating lots of delicious, unhealthy tailgating food! We were finally back on dirt and grass to tailgate! That may sound silly, but our last two away tailgates were on asphalt. I do not like tailgating on asphalt, so it was definitely good to be home!

After tailgating for a while, it was time to go to the game. We ended up getting a really good Groupon deal on some pretty good seats (I think what I miss most about being a student is getting great tickets all year for next to nothing)! The game was not amazing, but we still had a really good time and we won. I even got to catch up with Brittany a little at halftime, so that was an extra plus!

7) Ride Home - We were pretty sure we were going to hit horrible traffic on the way home Sunday, so we planned on leaving by 7:30. Of course we ended up leaving later than we planned. We ended up leaving around 8:30 and got home around 1:45. Not bad at all! We hit a few slow points, but nothing like last year, so we were both extremely excited about that!

8) Christmas Decorations - I love decorating for Christmas! We put our tree together before we left for Thanksgiving weekend so it would be ready to decorate by the time we got back. We decorated the tree Sunday after we got home. I'm still tweaking it, but we're getting decorations up slowly. I hope to be finished soon and post some more pictures over the weekend.

This was my fall wreath that Brittany made for my birthday. I just took my fall decorations off and added some more Christmassy things to it. I may add a little more, but I like it for now :-).

9) Dress Deal - Monday, I worked half a day so I could be home for some contractors that were coming to look at our roof. After they left, I had time to shop for a dress for our holiday party before I had to pick Josh up from work. I ended up finding a REALLY good deal on one! I'm so excited I didn't end up spending a lot of money on a dress I was only going to wear once!

10) Last, but definitely not least, IT'S FRIDAY!!! This week has been ridiculously busy and quite stressful. I'm just ready to relax and spend a little bit of QT with Josh and Bailey. :-)

Bark Box!!!

This is a little late, but our box came at a very busy time for us last week! I'm going to try to post about these in detail every month. They have been such a great deal so far, so I want to share with all the dog owners I know!

As I mentioned before, I found a Groupon deal for Bark Box. The regular price for a 6 month subscription is $16 a month. I got our deal for $10 a month! Score! The shorter your subscription, the more expensive it will be. I will start putting any prices I can find for items that go in the box so you can get a better idea of what the box is worth to you.

Bailey loved her Bark Box this month! It came with...



- Fruitables Skinny Mini treats (we haven't tried these yet)

- Mr. Barksmiths Cool Treats Pumpkin Smoothie:
We just got one of these of course. Bailey was a big fan of this. You just stick the container in the freezer and take it out when you're ready to give your pup a treat. They have smoothie servers that you can buy with these, but I know my pup and I would never spend the money on it. We give her things like this when she's in her crate. After she ate the smoothie, she would for sure destroy the server. We just gave it to her in a metal dog bowl. It popped out of the container very easily and Bailey was crazy about it.

- Moose Rac Rope Antler Chew
I'm not sure what size we got in our box, but it was definitely not big enough for Bailey. It won't last long at all. I'm assuming it's the medium, which is $15.

So cute! She also likes to shake it, but it makes me nervous when she does that. Can you imagine an antler popping you in the face?!? She doesn't seem to care, but I prefer her not to beat herself in the face with her toys.

- Bionic Bone
This is a great stuffable toy. Kind of like the Kong, but a little different. I have wedged hard treats into it for her, but I haven't frozen peanut butter in it yet. We will definitely be stuffing it full of yummy treats for Bailey in the future. It seems very durable and I expect it to be around for quite a while.

- $10 gift card to chewy.com. (I'm pretty sure we'll use this)
- $10 gift card to DOGTV = 1 month trial
This isn't currently available for Fios, but they do have online streaming. I'm really interested to see how Bailey does, so we'll definitely give it a shot.
- $10 off Rover.com (dog sitting)

So...what was Bailey's favorite toy in this month's Bark Box?

The Moose Rac!

Price Breakdown:
Fruitables - $6
Mr. Barksmiths  - $7.99/6
Moose Rac Rope Antler Chew - $7.50-$25
Bionic Bone - $14.99

Now, this Bark Box was worth around $30 (that's with the smallest size antler chew), even if you don't use any of the gift cards! Add $30 in gift cards, and you could get as much as $60 out of this box! Totally worth it!

And since I forgot to post this earlier, here's my favorite picture from the October Bark Box...

I saw that mustache toy at a local pet store for about $13, so October's box was a good deal too!

This is Bailey's 3rd box. So far, each box has had at least one item that paid for itself, then lots of other extras! 

Friday Favorites!!!

1) Another Loan Down - We paid off another student loan and made a pretty big dent in another! We just have 2 more to go! 

2) NC State - We started our basketball season off right against Miami (OH)! We only got to watch the second half of the game, but it was a great game to watch. I'm so proud of our team! Hopefully we can live up to all the hype for the rest of the season. :-). AND our football team beat up on Wake Forest pretty bad. Let's hope we can finish off the season the same way! GO PACK!

3) Hutch - We had such a great time while Hutch was visiting! We visited a few wineries, went bowling, had crab cakes a couple times, visited the aquarium, and watched lots of NC State sports!

4) Pictures - Our family pictures are ready to preview! They turned out really well. Now I'm just ready to get the disc so I can order Christmas cards and our canvases!

5) Annapolis Date - Josh, Bailey and I went to Annapolis for lunch and to walk around on Sunday. We had such a great time! After walking around a bit, we took Bailey to the dog park. She was SO well behaved all day. We had a great time! 

Hutch in da House!

I apologize in advance, but I have no pictures of this visit. I didn't even think about taking pictures until now! 

Hutch flew in last Friday evening. Since we were having a party the next day, I was in the kitchen prepping food until late that night. Josh and Chris were both good sports and kept me company.

Saturday, we had some friends over to watch our homecoming game with us. I made jalapeno popper dip, a delicious cheesy dip, twice baked potatoes, BBQ sliders (real BBQ!), Old Bay hot wings, and Arnold Palmer jello shots. The food turned out good and we had a great time hanging out, but we lost the game horribly. 

After the party, we went to a friend's house for his birthday party. We had a great time hanging out with Dave for his birthday! 

Sunday, we lounged around the house and watched football for most of the day. 

Monday We went to The Winery at Olney. It was a new place that had just opened a little over a month ago. Their wines were pretty good, but they all were very young, so we're hoping they get better with time. They did have an amazing Peach Chardonnay though! YUM! 

Tuesday, Josh and I got up really early to go vote. We ended up staying up once we got home, so we just watched TV and hung out until Hutch got up. Josh was supposed to have Halo 4 delivered on Tuesday, but there was a delay in shipment. We went to Annapolis to eat an amazing lunch then we went bowling. I was horrible, but we still had fun. They had a 4 person air hockey table at the bowling alley! I LOVE air hockey! There were only 3 of us, so we didn't play. After bowling, we went to Target to pick up the game. Josh and Chris played Halo while I relaxed and read for a bit, then we all watched some of the election coverage together. 

Wednesday, we went to the new casino that is near our house. We just gave ourselves $20 each to spend. I ended up only spending $10 of mine. Josh did the same and he came out positive, again! He made enough to make up for what I lost :-). After playing in the casino for a bit, we went to the buffet. It is pretty pricey, but we had a buy one get one free coupon. We just split the total 3 ways to make it fair. The food was AMAZING! We have another BOGO coupon, so Josh and I will definitely be going back soon! We walked around the mall that is right next to the casino for a while. It's a HUGE mall, so we were in there a lot longer than I realized. 

Thursday, we went to the aquarium. I LOVE our aquarium! Unfortunately, one of my favorite exhibits is closed until the Summer, so Chris wasn't able to see everything. We will definitely have to take him back once everything is open. We did get to check out a dolphin presentation while we were there, which was very cool! After the aquarium, we went back home. We were having a couple friends over to watch some college football and hang out. I brought out a little buffet (as Josh calls it) again with some BBQ sliders, sausage balls and other assorted dips and snacks. We had a good time just hanging out.

Friday, we visited 2 more wineries. We went to Black Ankle and Linganore Winecellars. We had been to Black Ankle in the past and we really enjoyed their wines, so we wanted to take Chris. Linganore was new to all of us. They had lots of really good wines, and the tour itself was the best winery tour I've ever had. They guy who did our tasting was also our tour guide. He was really nice and the tour was very informative. After the tour, we went out for crab cakes. YUM! After a very delicious crab cake dinner, we came back home to watch the second half of our basketball game. It was a really good game! Hopefully the rest of the season will be that way. GO PACK!

Saturday was another game day. I love snacking on food while we watch football, so I always try to make something for us to eat. Saturday I made steak and cheese quesadillas and crab dip. I had to make some major adjustments to the crab dip recipes, but it ended up being really good. We played a LOT better against Wake than we did UVA. We got a much needed W! 

Hutch flew out early Sunday afternoon. We both had a really great time with Chris. We had lots of fun and luckily, we got to do quite a bit of relaxing too! Sorry for the lack of pictures!

Friday Favorites!

1) Football Party - We decided to have some friends over to watch our homecoming game. We have a group of friends who graduated from State and now live in VA, so we invited them over. We had fun catching up even the game was absolutely horrible. The game was also on ESPN3 for us and we kept losing it. Not good. We finally found it online, but at that point, it was just too painful to watch. Not good. Here's to hoping tomorrow goes much better!

2) Hutch - Hutch is here visiting! He got in last Friday evening and he will be leaving Sunday morning. I willl post more details about his trip later, but it's been great catching up with him.

3) Friends - We're usually so busy, we don't hang out with people very much. While we've been on vacation this week, it has been much easier. We usually don't do anything after work so we can focus on spending time with Bailey. When we're at home most of the day, we don't feel guilty about leaving her for a few hours during the night. Last weekend we went to a friend's birthday party and we had a couple friends over last night to hang out for a while. We haven't had this much social interaction in a while. Haha. 

4) Aquarium - We used to go to the aquarium a lot. Hutch has wanted to go the past 2 times he's been up to visit, but it hasn't worked out. We finally made it work! We went yesterday and we had a great time. One of my favorite areas of the aquarium is closed until the summer (this also happens to be where the sea turtle lives), so I was a little bummed about that. It is going to be SO much better when it re-opens though! We went to a dolphin demonstration and the trainers showed us a little bit about training them. It's actually quite similar to target training a dog. They have 8 dolphins at the aquarium, but only 3 were part of the demonstration. One of them, the youngest, was named Bayley (her named is spelled different, but that's because she's named after the Chesapeake Bay)! Of course, I'm biased and she was my favorite :-). This was by far my favorite part of our day at the aquarium! 

Bayley

Little baby Bayley. SO cute! 

5) Sleeping in - I don't sleep in much, even on the weekends when I can. This week, I have made it a point to sleep in. If I wake up early, I've been going back to sleep instead of getting up and getting right to work like I usually would. I'm going to need it, because the holidays are right around the corner and it's such a busy time for us! I even took a nap one day. Go me! Haha.

6) New Vet - We were not pleased with the vet we used to take Bailey to. I didn't like it the first time we went, but it was closest to our house, so we kept going. The last time we went, I was determined to find a new vet. I found one I decided I wanted to take Bailey to a while back. She was due for her heartworm test and some vaccines in the next couple of weeks, so we took her while we were off from work this week. It's a bit farther from home, but it's a much nicer facility, the staff is much nicer, and most importantly, we like Bailey's new vet better. She let Bailey sniff her before she did anything, she got down on the floor and played with her for a couple minutes, and she let Bailey sniff anything before she did anything new to her. So, this is where we will be going from now on! Hopefully we won't be going back too soon! Bailey has some odd spots on her skin. We just got some topical spray from the vet to see if that clears it up. If we don't see any improvement in the next week, we will have to go back to run some tests.

7) Pinterest - Pinterest has private boards now!!! I've been waiting for this feature and I'm so excited it's finally here!

Friday Favorites!

1) Birthday - My birthday was Tuesday. I ended up getting the day off, thanks to Sandy. I got to sleep in a bit, catch up on the blog a bit, watch some TV, and get some things done around the house. Josh was able to work, so I got some QT with Bailey as well. Once Josh got home from work, we went out for dinner. It was a very nice, relaxing birthday.

2) Short Week - It wasn't a planned short week, but a short week is a short week! My office ended up closing early on Monday and being closed on Tuesday. Yay for a 3 1/2 day week!

3) Power - We didn't lose power during Sandy! We really expected to lose power for at least a couple days. We over prepared and now we have lots of foods we don't regularly eat, like Pop-Tarts. Better safe than sorry though!

4) Revenge - We finished season 1 of Revenge and we're almost caught up with season 2! It's SO good!

5) Pretty Little Liars - I'm finally all caught up! Now I just have to wit until January for it to come back on. Haha.

Beercation!

The Martins came to visit us last week and there's really no better title for their time here. We started off by sharing our first beers from our taps (with guests). It was nice that the first people we drank from our taps with were homebrewers too!

Our bar, a work in progress.

We decided to go to Frisco's Taphouse to try an IPA with no hops the night Anna and John flew in (Wednesday). We ordered one for each of us when we got there, and none of us liked it. We learned our lesson there! We had a very yummy dinner then headed back to our place for the rest of the night. It was fun hanging out and catching up. A low key, but very fun night. 

We wanted to tour a brewery or two while Anna and John were in town. John ended up scoring us a private tour at Heavy Seas, a local brewery. We almost didn't go since our tour at Dogfish Head was scheduled so close to this one, but we decided to try to make both. I'm SO glad we did! It was totally worth it. We got to see a little more than we would have if we would have gone on a public tour (we couldn't do that one since it's only offered on Saturday and we had a game to go to!). At some point, Josh and I want to check out the public tour to see how it compares. Our tour guide was Kelly and she was super nice. We learned a little about the history of Heavy Seas and got to taste some beers of course. We had a great time!

Tasting at Heavy Seas.

We left and made it to Dogfish Head in Milton, DE in great time since there was no traffic. The Dogfish Head facility was awesome. It's really hard to believe companies like this started off where we are now. The Dogfish tour was a really good tour too. Josh already knew the history and all since he had read the book, but it was mostly new to me and the rest of us. We all had a great time. I was excited to try a beer from Randall, since Josh had talked so much about him. Randall is a dry hopper. Basically, beer goes through hops as it's being poured. I was a bit surprised they had their Punkin' on Randall, and not something a bit more hoppy. I was REALLY excited to try their Punkin' beer, but I wasn't all that thrilled with it. Don't get me wrong, it was a good beer, I just didn't really taste the pumpkin. I was a little disappointed that the samples were all picked out for us. I like to have some options :-). We still really enjoyed ourselves and I would go back for another tour (in another season).

The hubs and I, about to tour Dogfish Head!

The Martins!

Look at all those fermenters! Crazy!

Cool tree house we didn't get to go in.

After the brew tour, we went to the Dogfish Head Brew Pub for dinner. We all ended up getting burgers, which were very good. The restaurant itself was a bit cramped. The food was good, but overall, I wasn't very impressed.

Friday was the beginning of Beer Week. We hung around the house early in the day and prepped food for our tailgate on Saturday. We took the lightrail into Baltimore and went to Fells Point. We had a few places we wanted to show Anna and John. We were planning on going to PowerPlant later, but we decided to just hang out in Fells Point. It's my favorite part of Baltimore anyway. We ended up staying past the time the lightrail runs, so we had to get a cab home. Ouch! 

Fells Point!

We got up Saturday morning to pack and prep for the game. Luckily we had the food mostly done, I just had to throw a couple things in the oven and the crockpot. We had BBQ! YUM! Unfortunately, we don't have a pig cooker, so I cooked it in the crockpot all day Friday and pulled it when we got home Friday night. Saturday morning I got up to chop it and put it in the crockpot to heat. We also had jalapeno popper dip, which was delicious! I was really excited about trying beer and bacon mac n cheese. Anna suggested making it into mac n cheese bites, which is WAY better for tailgating. It was just OK. I would try to make them again, but I would make it a little more cheesy and creamier. 

We had plans to tailgate in the same spot we tailgated in the last time we played at MD with some other State fans we met there. That didn't work out, so we ended up parking in a random lot full of MD fans. We did find 1 other State fan to tailgate with and we had a couple other people meeting us there. Don't get me wrong, we had a lot of fun, but it wasn't like other away games we've been to, where you see fans from both teams scattered all over. We were definitely tailgating in the MD section. MD fans have a reputation for being not so nice and humble fans, but they were fine during the tailgate and game. They talked a little crap, but who doesn't? The game itself was just crazy. It was close the whole game. MD fans aren't that loud...until the 4th quarter, then they show up. I don't get it. Anyway, if you watched the game, you know we shouldn't have won it, but somehow, we did. I'll take it!


The hubs and I with the best mascot EVER!

He didn't realize they were State fans until they were about to take the pic. Too late Testudo! 

GO PACK!

Our whole group with Mike Glennon

Sunday was a lazy day for us. We stayed home to watch football the majority of the day. We did venture outside to play a little bit of bocce for a bit. Then we ate some delicious food and watched more football!

The Martins left Monday afternoon. We all slept in since it was our last day of vacation. After we dropped them off at the airport, we went to Annapolis for a lunch date. We had a groupon for crab cake sliders. Once we walked it, we realized it was the first place we had ever tried crabcakes! We've definitely discovered better crabcakes in the 2+ years we've been here, but it was still very yummy and we had a great time! Our groupon also included cream of crab soup (SO GOOD) and a beer. We both had some lunch for the next day! After that, we went home to cuddle with Bailey, watch a movie and get Josh caught up with me on Revenge!

We had such a great time with Anna and John! It was some much needed time off from work with great friends!