Halloween 2009

We had a great day today! It was our anual Book Character Day at Woodland Acres Elementary. Our kids dresses as Characters from their favorite book. I think the teachers have more fun then kids. The First Grade team joined together and Snow White and the Seven dawrfs came to life!

Hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween.

Fishing

We LOVE our new boat and have been fishing almost every weekend. It has been a pain getting everything registered, but it is offically ours. So far we have just taken the boat out on little creeks. However, we plan to do some intercoastal fishing in the near future. As you can see from the picture, I am not an expert at removing fish off the hook and dont like to touch the fish. I have graduated to baiting my own hook. I tell Steve that I am just giving him practice for when he takes our kids fishing one day. He his very patiant with me even when I cast into the trees (several times in a row). I guess Practice makes purfect.

Savannah

Savannah is such a great place! We so lucky to live close to places that have such great history and beauty. Savannah is a 2 hour drive for us, which is an easy day trip. My brother and his wife were on vacation there and we decided it would be fun to go visit them. We got there about 1 and had lunch and Uncle Bubba's. What great food!! After lunch we walked river street and found little bars. At the end of the street was a cuban cigar shop. Of course Steve and I could not pass up a chance to smoke a cigar, and Brian joined in the fun ;) After a few more stops it was time to head home. We had a great day!

Mom and Karen come to Visit

Mom and Karen had a chance to visit Florida for a little vacation time! They drove (17 hours) in the car, then drove another 5 to visit family in Ft. Lauderdale. It was a long drive, but they made it. We had a great time, even though I was still teaching summer school. Karen enjoyed the sun by the pool, eating lunch by the beach, and shopping in St. Augustine. I only wish they had stayed longer, their trip seemed short lived. I think my mom is planning on coming here for here Christmas break, since I dont think I will make it home this year. Christmas without snow, just wont feel like christmas at all.

Mom

Steve Rides the Waves

Last Saturday we headed east to the beach. Steve met up with a few friends from work, who had brought along their surf boards. Steve jumped right in, after a few pointers from Francois, and took to the waves. He actually was standing up on his attempt! Now all he is talking about is wanting a surf board for his birthday.

Happy Fourth of July

We had a great time watching fireworks downtown Jacksonville. They put on a great show. They have a barge in the middle of the St. Johns river to set fireworks off. Also they light up the bridge. Here some clips and photos of our night :)

Corn on the Cob

When I came home friday after work, lexy decided to get a hold of some corn on the cob that was sitting on the counter. This bad habit of getting food off the counter has been getting worse! Usually its bread she likes, but today it was corn. I mad for a minute, but then looking at her face, how could I be upset when she looks sorry for what she did.

Shelby's Wedding

Last weekend, I traveled to Omaha NE to be with Shelby and Rod on their wedding day :) I took the last few days off of school so I could travel and be able to spend some time with family and friends. I flew into Chicago and drove to Des Moines. The route brought back so many memories of college (i drove I80 countless times to get to Ames IA). Then picked up les and we drove with her fiance,Nick to NE.

I was a wonderful weekend see all my roomates again. We joked about how it took us 2 year to get together and now with all the weddings, we will see each other 3 times in 4 months! How crazy! I miss these girls tremendously and all the wonderful carefree times we had as college roomates. We are growing older now, and getting married, starting families. I just hope that we can continue our friendship even if we dont see each other but every few years.

Here are a few of my favorite pics from Shelby and Rod's Wedding weekend!

Sock Thief

Lexy, our 90lb shep/rot mix, is very spoiled. She sleeps in our bed, Lays on our couch, and steals food off the counter (When we are not home!)

She also LOVES to steal socks. This has been an on going fetish of hers for about 2 years now. And the smellier the better! Often times, we come home to find socks strone about the house or she often has one she carries around the house until we take it away from her. Normally about 1 or 2 socks will do, well today we had a record! She decided she needed to gather 7 socks. Haha, it was a pretty funny site to see her stuff all those socks in her mouth. Here are some pictures of our baby.

Day at the State Park

Last weekend we ventured up to Stephen C. Foster State park in Georgia. We enjoy going to Hannah Park here in Jacksonville beach for fishing, hiking, and walking the dog. We we wanted to change up the scenery by going to a different park. We found this one the map and decided to try it out. We took the dog and headed up there. It was great spending time with the dog, and she LOVES going with us, but we were unable to go on a swamp tour because dogs are not allowed on boats. We had fun anyway hiking the nature trails and going into the museum but really wanted to come back with out the dog.

So that is exactly what we did this weekend. Today just Steve and I drove to the State park. We decided to take a four hour canoe ride through the swamp. It was very peaceful and we really enjoyed spending quality time together, just the two of us. But the real thrill was seeing all the wildlilfe around us. We saw a spider the size of my fist, lots of different bird species, and at least 3 gator that really were swimming about 10 feet from us. Normally this would be ok, but we were in a small boat and I didnt even have to bend to feel the water. It was a great day trip! Picture are attached of our day.

Just Married!

Ok. New to the blog. But I love following my friends who are blogging, so I thought we could give this a try. Just in case you are curious about what goes on in our non-exciting lives. I will do my best to keep everyone updated on trips, jobs, and news with our newly started family :)

About Steve: Steve moved to Jacksonville 4 years ago. After high school he joined the Navy for six years and then graduated from Southern Illinois University. Steve then went to law school for 2 years in Michigan, but he decided he had enough of the cold weather. He moved to Jacksonville and is currently working as an FA at Merrill Lynch.

About Kristen: I moved to Jacksonville Fl in July of 2006. I am the middle. I graduated from Iowa State University with a B.S. in elementary education. After teaching for a year in a sub of Chicago I decided I needed a change. My sister, Karen, was attending UNF in Jacksonville and convinced me to move to Sunny Florida. I currently teach 1st grade in the Jacksonville area.

How we Met: We met august 6th 2006. I was in Chicago for my best friends wedding. Steve was in Missouri visiting his family. We happened to be on the same flight back to Jacksonville. We briefly chatted at the gate but said our "goodbye" when they called for boarding, thinking we were never going to see each other again - (at least I did). I was the first group to board and found my seat by the window. A child came at sat in the aisle. Steve was the last group to board and one of the only seats left was the middle seat between me and the child. He made small talk to whole flight and we were given complementary drinks. When we got close to landing, Steve asked my number and offered to show me around Jacksonville, since I had only been living there a month. I gave him my number on a southwest napkin.

We have been married 10 days now :) I am looking foward to all of our new adventures together as Husband and Wife.