Fond Memories

The emails have started, to list have been made & the excitement is growing!  It is vacation time!  Chris & I are headed to Emerald Isle next week to spend the week with my family at the beach.  Not only is this Chris's first time to vacation with the Sylvester Fam, but it is the first Sylvester beach vacation in 3 years.  Last year (2009) we stayed in Charlottesville & enjoyed all the local attractions that we had taken for granted in the years of growing up there.

Staycation on the Bentivar- Charlottesville- 2009

Pollock Wine Tasting

Blue Ridge Brewery

Music in the park- Staunton

Peach picking

Peach Picking at Chiles Orchard

Abigail was the paparazzi

Hike on the last day

Corn hole until it was dark

The year before was our off year since it was the summer of weddings & there was no time to get away as a family.  Plus, with three family weddings in one summer (us, Susanna & Matt and my cousin, Sarah & Brian,  it did not leave much time for anything other than wedding planning!

Our family vacations have always been a special time.  My parents are gracious & generous to rent a house so that we can all pile in for a week of sun, sand, games & good food!  I have a picture stuck in my head (before digital) of all 8 of us lined up the stairs at our beach house in the Outer Banks.  Adam was 8 weeks old & we shared the week with the Costello family.  I wish I could find & scan that picture.  Here are some memories of our previous years...

2003 (Corolla)

2003-Outer Banks (Duck)

Mom with her girls

2006- Folly Beach, Charleston, SC

Matt & Danielle (friend)

Family Pic on the Beach- missing Aaron

Relaxing with a good book

Matt, Adam, & Caleb

Sisters

Abigail & Donna on the beach

4th of July & birthday celebration cake for Mom

2007- Emerald Isle, NC

Fireworks on the beach

Family dinner for Mom's birthday

Caleb & Donna on the beach

On our way Home!

So, here is to another great vacation with the ever growing family!  Coming soon...pictures from Emerald Isle 2010!!

Until next time...

Food for Thought!

A friend of mine got married over the weekend & there were many thoughts, prayers & blessings that were given to the bride & groom.  My favorite was...

Enjoy your life together...may it be filled with unexpected blessings!

Do not think of the unexpected as anything other than blessings.  

Happy Monday!!

Until next time...

ABC's of Me!

I am totally copying Nicki who borrowed if from another blog.  I thought is was a fun way put a lot of info into one post & I had fun learning about Nicki:)  I wanted to add pics, but this may never get posted if I add pics:)

A- My AIR CONDITIONER is set on: 73-76 depending on temp outside.  I like to keep it high to save money, but there is nothing worse than waking up sweating.

B- My BEDROOM theme is: mocha brown with brown & blue linens although I would love to re-decorate because, well...that is just what I like to do:)

C- The CAR in the driveway (garage) is: my 2003 Acura TL.  I have had it for 5 years, I paid it off 2 1/2 years early & it still drives like a dream.

D- My DESK looks: a mess!  I never can seem to get caught up, but it is my mess & everything is in its place.

E- The EXACT time I wake up daily is:  Mon-Thurs 4am, Fri-Sun 8am.

F- The FIRST thing I wash in the shower is: my face.

G- My GARAGE is filled with: cars, work bench, Christmas decorations,  a fully stocked freezer & my future dining room fixture for our next house.

H- My HOUSE is: FOR SALE...  two story townhouse- end unit with a garage & 3 bedrooms. I love our house & LOVE our friends, neighborhood & Blacksburg.  I hate to move, but I would love to build the house that Chris & I have been looking at for months!

I- If you peeked INSIDE my bedroom you'd see:  two dogs chasing each other & tugging on toys.

J- My favorite JUICE is: grapefruit juice for me & V8 fruit juice for Chris.

K- The best part of my KITCHEN is: all the space!  We have a large kitchen with tons of cabinet space & countertop room, plus we added pull out drawers for easy access!

L- The LAST person who visited my home was: Home group. 15 adults, 5 kids & 2 dogs = 3 hours of fellowship

M- The last piece of MAIL for me was: my paycheck...thanks Mom:)

N- My NEIGHBORS think: our dogs are crazy. (And they are).

O- If you OPENED my fridge you'd see: watermelon (almost year round), leftovers, milk (organic skim & 1%), & lots of random condiments.

P- My last house PARTY was:  Saturday, July 3rd.  We had a big group over to cookout, play corn hole & watch the fireworks in the backyard.  I LOVE hosting a good party.

Q- A QUICK meal I like to fix is: Trader Joe's shrimp or chicken stir fry meals...throw in a few extra veggies with spring rolls as a treat...dinner is served!

R- My favorite ROOM of the house is:  my office.  Not only do I work well in my yellow room, it is also my scrapbooking room, workout space for practicing Step, cozy movie watching room & it has the best couch in the house for napping!

S- The SHAMPOO brand I use is: whatever is on sale, I have a coupon for & smells good.  I prefer Redken Smooth Down, but I only treat myself when I visit my Aunt Tammy & get it at the supply house!

T- My largest TELEVISION is: 42" in the living room, 32" in the bedroom & 26" in my office. 21" in the guest room...what can I say, we are TV/movie people.

U- UNDER my bed you will find:  Maggie!  She loves to hide out under the bed.  If ever I cannot find her, she is usually napping under the bed with her beady little eyes & wet nose poking out.  I think she likes the dark, cool space, plus Beau cannot get under the bed & bother her:)

V- The last time I VACUUMED was: this weekend & it is on the to do list again this afternoon.  A shedding dog means I have to do this more than I would prefer!

W- Looking out my WINDOW I see: in the front of the house we have a great view of the mountains and in the back of the house a not so great view of the Christiansburg High School & the stadium.

X- I wish I had X-TRA: time this summer to do some fun reading & scrapbooking.  I am looking forward to the beach to read some good books & later this summer/fall I am hoping to have a scrap day with some of the gals from home group!

Y- My YARD is: shared with everyone else in our townhouses.It is nice that we are an end unit so we have our yard, plus the common area next to us for the dogs to run.  Even better that we do not have to mow thanks to our home owners association:)

Z- ZZZZZZZ My bedtime is: usually at 10pm if not earlier...keep in mind that I have to be up at 4am for work.

Until next time...

A wonderful weekend away!

We successfully crammed as much as we could into one weekend-a fun 48 hours & 500+ miles!
Friday looked something like this- Pick Chris up from work right at 5pm, drive to Charlottesville, drop the dogs (speed race down 29 with Adam) & spend the evening at one of my fav places to meet friends...Mellow Mushroom.  Danae, Spence, Chris Spencer & Adam met up with us on the corner for pizza & beer.  We celebrated the start of summer & Danae's birthday in style.  I think Chris said it best as we drove through campus..."it did not feel like Charlottesville, until we were at Mellow Mushroom"

Bright and early Saturday morning, mom & I headed back down to the corner to run the Abundant Life 5k.

  What a great way to start the day, work off the pizza/beer from the night before & race for a great cause.  Although I think a turtle could have passed us on the first mile, we sped up & finished in just over 31 minutes.  Not bad for 5 1/2 hours of sleep, Charlottesville hills & steamy humidity!  

Back home for a typical Sylvester breakfast of homemade, whole wheat Belgium waffles.  I needed to run another 5k afterward, but they always hit the spot.

Back on the road to DC to meet up with Jane-Lauren & David for the NATS game.  A good nap in the car & I was ready to take on the DC metro.  We were typical tourist & totally enamored by the city.  We met up with JL & D and off we went to the stadium. 

We did a little switch-a-roo to trade in Sunday's tickets in order to get 4 seats together on Saturday.  Great idea until we found someone in our seats!!!

To our surprise, we found Blacksburg friends in our seats.  What a small world!  It was a treat to share our seats with Wendy, David, Daisy & Wendy's parents.  Daisy is always a joy to be around & could be the happiest baby I have ever met.  Talk about a chill little lady.

 Even though the Nats did not win, we still had a great time & I loved my first MLB experience.  Plus, I was able to try out my new zoom lens:)

After the game we met up with some of Chris's friends from college (Mary Washington) for an amazing dinner in Arlington.  Thanks to my parents for keeping the dogs for the night so we could stay in the city.  We crashed at JL & D's for the evening. (Note: Not sure what happened to the camera lens, but it looked cool, plus, it was the one of the few pics that turned out!)

Sunday morning we headed back to Charlottesville for a quick Father's Day lunch & got back on the road again to head back HOME to Blacksburg.  Although I was not able to make it to Zazus for my favorite Smoked Turkey Wrap, I was able to treat a friend to a special delivery from...

I am sad that we were not able to fit in a couple things..Zazus, seeing Jen's new house/ helping with the move, or seeing Caleb & Donna, but that just means we will have to make another trip.

We are back home, unpacked (kind of) and settling back into a week of routine.  I must say that as much as I enjoyed the city & all it had to offer, I am glad to be back to small town life, a slower pace & blacksburg traffic.  What a great start to the summer.  I love weekend getaways!

Until next time...

A weekend to be excited about!!

Let me start by saying that I am not a person who dwells on waiting for the weekend.  I take each day as it comes, go through the motions of the week & enjoy the days where I get to take it a little slower.  This weekend is a little different & I cannot wait for Friday! 

Friday is typically my day off & this week I hope to spend it re-organizing my office.  You might ask..."Who gets excited about cleaning & de-cluttering?"...ME!  I love it, it gives me no greater joy than to recycle, donate, organize, & re-discover items that have been in storage.  My mother put me on a mission to locate an apron that I made when I was 8.  Did I find it...YES!  Was I so excited that I called her jumping up & down...YES!!  Did I also find other items that I had long forgotten about...YES! 

Here is a pic of the apron now.  I am still looking for the pic from back when I made it & it fit better.  I am afraid that since it is pre-digital, I may be out of luck.

On Friday Chris & I are driving to Charlottesville to see my parents for the night.  Even though I talk to my mom everyday (I work for my parents), I have not seen them since April or been "home" since January.  I did not realize it had been that long until I put it in writing!  I have also been told that is is "my parents house" not "home".  Home is where I live & share a life with my husband.  I can no longer refer to Charlottesville as "home".  Sad but true!
While in Charlottesville I hope to: get a turkey wrap from Zazus, see Jennifer's new house (just down the street from my old house:), run a few miles with my mom, let the dogs run wild in my parents wonderful back yard & soak up the comforts of  "home".

From Charlottesville we are headed to DC to see the Washington Nationals pay on Saturday & Sunday.  No, Stephen Strasburg will not be pitching:(  Considering I did not even know who he was until we made plans to go to the game, I am not that upset.  I am more excited since this is my first professional baseball game & we get to see some great friends at the game!  We were blessed with FREE tickets, so I am splurging on a foam finger & Nationals shirt so I can be the crazy fan!  Chris is already shaking his head at me:)

Free tickets courtesy of Nan & Tommy.  I plan on taking lots of pics to show our appreciation & include in a Thank you!

After the game & time in DC we are headed back to Charlottesville to spend some more time with my parents & celebrate Father's Day with my wonderful Father!  I hope to see some of my siblings...Adam, Caleb & Donna!!

Needless to say, we like to cram as much as humanly possible into 2 1/2 short days.  I love weekends away & will deal with the time in the car if it means we get to visit friends & family!!

Dad & Hannah- Summer Hike- Sylvester Staycation- 2009

We are looking forward to a fun filled weekend!  

Until next time...

Teaser!!

Funny, I did not think that anyone read my blog, so when some of you have asked for an update & pics I was really surprised!!

I have been meaning to post pics to facebook & update the blog, but I am still recovering.  11 days away makes an empty fridge/ pantry, a pile of laundry and a box full of mail.  Needless to say...I need another vacation:)

The highlights in the Bahamas:
Pink eye
Incorrectly booked air fair = $300 CASH to sketchy airline in Nassau to get to Freeport
Drinks to recover
Movies in the airport
Lots of beach time
Grouper for EVERY meal
Perfect weather
Celebration & dancing with friends

The highlights in the Outer Banks: 
Windy but clear
Backyard BBQ for 50
Wedding on the sound
Dancing in a sprinkler
Breathtaking sunset
Loving wedding because they remind me how lucky I am to be married to my best friend (aww:)

Back to pick up to the dogs (we missed them) & on the road home!!

Ok, not really highlights, but a condensed version of the trip.  We made it home in time to enjoy Memorial Day.  Chris & I decided to stay in shape together so we started running together.  Our day was well spent doing laundry, grocery shopping, grilling, running & making sure we were well rested to start the week! 

It was wonderful to say the least & I hope we can go again.  In the mean time, I have set up a cabanna on the back deck, so that will have to do:)

Our Sylvester Family vacation is in August and that will be another treat.

Pics to follow soon!  Until next time...