Trip to the Buckeye State - Part II

Friday afternoon we arrived at my Uncle Tim & Aunt Kathy's house in Canton, Ohio. While Kathy prepared dinner, I got to learn all about Hannah Montana from my cousin Angela and the secret life she leads. Let me tell you, if you don't know much about Hannah, you are missing out :P. We enjoyed another great meal followed by smores roasted on the grill. They were so good that I bought s'mores ingredients at the grocery store when we got back to Vienna.

Kevin and my parents arrived later on that night, and dropped Kevin off at Tim & Kathy's and then headed to my grandparents house for the night. The next morning Kevin, Geoffrey and I woke up at 6:30am, and headed into town for donuts and coffee which we took to my granparents. Unfortunately earlier in the week my grandmother fell down a partial set of stairs and broke her shoulder. So instead of going out to breakfast as we originally had planned, breakfast came to them! No pictures, as neither Grandma or Grandpa Myers had gotten much sleep nor was in the mood for a photo shoot.

When we got home Angela taught Kevin and Geoffrey some of the balloon making skills that she had learned at Kids College.

Kevin made a balloon hat with an emperor penguin.

Geoffrey got really fancy and made a hat with a jet (the orange thing) and a humming bird. Although I don't think it will win any awards, everyone sure got a good laugh.

After lunch we started setting up for the reason of our trip. A mini-family reunion and the 1st birthday of my cousin Amy's son, Aiden. There were lots of fun and games, including a slip and slide, which Angela and cousin Julie's son, Ryan, really enjoyed.

Mom's cousin Mary Beth was very intersted in taking pictures with everyone. Not sure that Kevin and Geoffrey were as interested...
While I was off talking to other relatives, I didn't realize I was missing the hula hoop contest. I ran out just in time to catch this photo of mom. She won the contest, but was upset as I learned she used to be quite the hula hooper back in her prime.

The party ended with little Aiden getting to enjoy his first taste of sugar...in the form of his personal birthday cake. He loved the cake, especially the icing!

Sunday morning it was time to say goodbye, so Geoffrey, Kevin and I loaded into the Jetta and headed home. It was great to see so much family though and we hope to do it again next year.

Trip to the Buckeye State - Part I

Early last Wednesday morning, Geoffrey and I left the house and headed towards Dayton, Ohio for the first leg of a two part trip. We arrived at Geoffrey's grandparents house around and got a great tour of their new garden home. I'm pretty jealous of the fact that they no longer have to do yardwork or shovel snow, but I guess when you reach their age you deserve it!

We enjoyed a wonderful dinner Wednesday night with Grandma & Grandpa Ruhl, Aunt Barb, cousins Stephanie & Eric (Adam was performing with his sax at another state), Eric's girlfriend Bryce and Stephanie's friend Tim. Afterwards Eric and Bryce had some fun with the camera.

Who knew washing dishes could be so interesting!

Eric goofing around with his poor mother. She sure is a good sport.

The whole gang. Thanks to Bryce for taking this picture. I'm glad there is someone other than myself who loves taking group pictures when they have the chance.

Thursday we headed to a local park and learned a lot about Dayton's history. Geoffrey really liked this sun dial...maybe we'll have to get one at the house.

We then headed to a quick lunch, followed by a brief stop in downtown Dayton to look at some nifty bronze statues. Then we got a tour of the University of Dayton, where Grandpa Ruhl, 2 of his daughters, Mom Buescher & Aunt Cindy, along with Grandpa Buescher, 2 of his children, Uncle Michael & Aunt Chris, and their spouses, Aunt Diane & Uncle Med all went to school! I guess all roads lead to UD.

After breakfast we packed up our bags and got back on the road for our trip to Canton. Although short, we had a great time and hope to go back soon.

And if you have a little extra room in your prayers, I ask that you say one for Geoffrey's dear Aunt Barb. She is battling a very rare disease and is currently waiting for a kidney transplant. We are all hopeful that the right match will come along and that Barb will be able to return to her normal life and routine.

Kristy & Steve's Garden Wedding

Saturday afternoon Geoffrey and I headed south to Richmond, VA for the wedding of my childhood friend, Kristy. Kristy and I have been friends since the 1st grade, when we met in Mrs. Blankenship's class at Gordon Elementary. Fast forward 21 years, and we arrive at Historic Mankin Mansion, the site of Kristy & Steve's wedding.

Kristy's nephew, Will, the ring bearer looked very suspiscious of the whole thing.
Mr. & Mrs. Jordan






I'm not sure what they were laughing about, but it sure was funny. Kristy & Steve danced to Rascal Flatts' "God Blessed the Broken Road." The song was very appropriate, as Steve and Kristy met over 5 years ago, when Steve was the best man in Tracy's (Kristy's sister) wedding.
During dinner Geoffrey and Travis discussed ways to take the leftover steamship round home. I somehow don't think the plan to wrap it in a table cloth would have worked so well.




The funniest part of the night was following the bouquet and garter toss. The lucky guy who caught the garter was blindfolded, to ensure he didn't see anything when he put the garter on the bouqet winner. While he was being blindfolded, the best man sat in the chair. The poor blind folded guy was pretty shocked when he touched a big hairy leg!

One of the great thing about weddings, (besides the actual marriage of course), is getting to catch up with old friends. I've been lucky enough to still remain in close contact with 5 of my high school girlfriends. Hopefully they won't kill me, but I couldn't resist a little "now and then" shot.

"Then" was 1999, at one of our annual back to school sleepovers we held each August before heading back to our respective schools. We certainly have had fun times throughout the years and I can only imagine what we still have in store.

"Now" at Kristy's wedding. As she said last night "3 down and 3 to go." Only time will tell who will walk down the aisle next. :)

Nothing beats free!

A couple weeks ago I happened to check one of my favorite sites, freecyle. If you don't know what freecyle is, check it out http://www.freecycle.org/. "The freecycle network provides individuals and non-profits an electronic forum to "recycle" unwanted items. One person's trash can truly be another's treasure!" I have found freecycle to be helpful in getting rid of stuff, like old wedding items, or clothes etc, but had never been quick enough to secure a free item. I guess it was my lucky day, as I saw the buffet, quick sent and email and got a response saying if I could get it that night, it was mine. Yipee! So in exchange for a 12-pack of Guiness, Kevin agreed to take his SUV and help me bring the buffet home.

This is what is looked like when I brought it home.

Now I'm really not a fan of Ikea, as most of their furniture is veneer over particle board and everything has to be assembled using those darn cam locks. Although the stuff there is pretty cheap, I try to avoid it. But the difference here was it was FREE and it was solid wood. Granted not a hardwood, but the fact it was solid wood meant it could be sanded and painted. It also meant that if it needs some reinforcing down the road, I'll be able to repair it using wood screws, dowels, etc.

The first step was to remove the doors/drawers and get rid of the pulls. (which I'll probably list on Freecyle, they just aren't my style). Then I decided that pink would be a great color for the dining room buffet and I went to town. Just kidding. I already had some primer that had been tinted pink and since I was going to be painting over it in a dark brown/slate color, I figured why not. Plus it was fun trying to convince Geoffrey that it would go great with our current color scheme.

After letting the primer dry, it was time to get painting. I spent around $11 for a quart of Behr satin enamel paint. I put four coats on to ensure that I would get a rich color, plus I figured it would make the finish a little more durable. After the paint has cured for 30 days, it will even be washable! Then it was onto hardware. I found some very modern chrome drawer pulls at Home Depot (my favorite store these days) for a whopping $1.79/each. That meant for less than 30 bucks I was able to totally transform the look of the buffet into this...

The color is a lot darker/richer in person, but you get the idea. It contrasts really well with the white picture frame molding around the bottom half of the dining room and has a very modern, Crate and Barrel style feel. How it matches the carpet is another story, but anyone who has been to the house knows what a great fan I am of the carpet (bleh). Hopefully we'll be replacing the carpet with hardwood in the next few months.

The next step is to move the current dining room table to the sunroom, and move in the new table that Geoffrey has been refinishing. Its a beautiful mahogany table with 3 leaves. It has 2 coats of polyurethane on it, and G believes it will take about 6 total.

Alrighty, enough for blogging. Gotta go and get ready for a wedding we are heading to today. Have a great weekend everyone!