Visiting Gma and Gpa in Delaware

This past weekend we took a trip down to Delaware to visit David's grandparents (Jim and Annetta), who we only are able to see about once a year. It was a fun and relaxing pre-Thanksgiving trip!
As usual, David drove the entire way. I was the happy copilot, trying to think of interesting conversation topics to keep the driver entertained. David says I wasn't always the "happy copilot" and that a couple of times I was the "sleeping copilot". I did my best to stay awake, but something about the drone of a car always does me in... It took us about 6 hours to get down there on Saturday, and 5.5 hours to come back today.

The focused driver

The "happy" copilot

The dogs rode in the back seat. After thinking carefully about the safety implications of having the dogs ride in the front seat on our laps, we invested in a nice soft seat cover for the back (in this picture there is a dog bed in view as well) and two safety harnesses to buckle them in. They didn't seem to mind being tethered, and napped for the majority of the trip. On the ride down we did have one mishap when Ash got car sick (as he often does), but nothing that a few towels and some water couldn't fix. We just threw the seat cover in the washing machine once we arrived at David's grandparents house.

The backseat passengers

David's grandparents had met Ash and Coal last year on our trip down, but Pepper was new to them. His grandmother quite enjoyed snuggling with Pepper, and Pepper was happy to have a lap to sit on and someone to pet him. Pepper also quite liked David's grandfather, and would jump up whenever his lap was available. Per his usual routine, Ash spent the first two days watching from afar or hiding under our bed. By the last day, he was more boldly exploring the house and saying hello to everyone.

Pepper with David's grandmother

Pepper with David's grandfather 

We spent most of the weekend sitting around the table chatting about things going on in each of our lives and hearing many great stories from David's grandfather. Jim and Annetta were unfortunately unable to make it to our wedding, so we spent some time talking them through the event and sharing pictures. We cooked a chicken and veggie stir fry on Saturday night and then steak, broccoli, and mashed potatoes on Sunday night. David's grandfather did the grocery shopping and we did the cooking, which is always fun for us. I share a love of Walker's shortbread cookies with David's grandmother, so these were definitely on our dessert menu each night :) David's aunt, uncle, and cousin joined us for the Sunday dinner - it was nice to be able to spend some time with them as well.

One particularly fun thing from the weekend was the ability to let Ash and Pepper off leash in the big back yard that David's grandparents have. The yard isn't fenced in, but they are located on a very quiet street and there is enough space to run around that we were pretty sure Ash nor Pepper would stay within the perimeter. Pepper, as usual, was very well behaved and stayed right by us. We are training Ash to safely be off leash, so only let him run around with his leash dragging. This helps us catch him if he gets too excited and starts to wander (or run) off. Ash was great though! He responded well to commands (and came running for treats) and wanted to spend most of his time playing fetch with a ball and/or a stick. Sadly, we were so focused on watching the dogs (and staying warm) we forgot to take pictures...

Thanks to David's grandparents for a wonderful weekend - we look forward to when we are able to visit again!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone! Those of us in the Boston area decided to celebrate this tasty holiday by bringing out some of the "child" in us. In other words, we got together on Sunday night to carve pumpkins and eat candy. Katie T. and Phil didn't think they had carved pumpkins since they were little kids! We all plunged our hands into the slimey pumpkin bellies, carved intricate designs with carving knives clearly designed for safety and not effectiveness, roasted and ate pumpkin seeds, ate pizza, enjoyed delicious apple crisp courtesy of Christine, and snitched bites of our favorite Halloween candy treats. Fun was had by all! 

Alex and Ruby: we missed you guys!!!! Today for Halloween we will be cleaning up the porch a bit, putting the pumpkins on display, and hoping for a couple of trick-er treat-ers. As our house has a higher likelihood of seeing a couple of kids come by, Christine and Matt will be coming over to join us! 

Our first 5K!

As many of you know, David and I have been working hard to get in better shape and lose some of the weight we gained while eating out all the time during house renovations.  In addition to eating healthier, we have been trying to run a few times a week. David was able to jump back into it a little bit better than I was, but I have slowly worked my way up from suffering through a single mile to being able to reasonably comfortably run about three.  I got it in my head about a month ago that one way to keep myself motivated would be to sign up for a 5K!  Luckily for me, I have an awesome fiance who jumps on board with these sorts of things and he signed up as well. We are even planning to do another one in December!

We woke up early this morning (7:00am) and went through our morning routine (breakfast for Ash, breakfast for us, walk for Ash) and then headed down to Davis Square to participate in our very first 5K. The 5K was sponsored by the Somerville Homeless Coalition, so our registration fee went to a good cause. Oh, and we got cool matching t-shirts :) We didn't quite know what to expect, but in the end it turned out to be a lot of fun! Based on bib numbers there seemed to be about 1000 participants, and it was neat to run with a crowd. We decided before hand that we wouldn't run together so that David could compete for a personal best (I'm most certainly slower than he is, and was happy to trudge along at my own pace). We know a 5K isn't very far, but at least its a start for us non-runners! We hung around Davis after to enjoy a complimentary brunch, and are now back home for a little bit of Saturday yard work.