Vacation: Day 5

Our day started off with some sleeping in & a homemade breakfast from my Mom. Yummy. As I said in my previous post, today was also our 6 year anniversary. =] It didn't take us very long to get the itch to open the presents we got each other...Dan went first: I had to have my Dad carry it out for me & my Mom helped me somewhat wrap it.
I got him a new grill - he was in dire need. Our other one was falling apart & had been knocked over about 100 times from storms throughout the years. I haven't taken a photo of it all put together yet, I'll be sure to post that later on. Winker's spot during our gift opening.
Dan then told me to go upstairs because there was "gift #1" waiting for me on our bed in the guest room...gift #1? Here's what I found: Love, love, love them - I've been wanting a pair for over a year now & Dan picked these out all by himself; he's got great taste. :D
After hanging out for a little while with my family, Dan & I started getting ready to leave for Pittsburgh (we had booked a hotel at the waterfront & had dinner reservations that evening, althought he wouldn't tell me what restaurant we were eating at). After I got out of the shower & started getting ready, I walked out of the bathroom to find gift #2 sitting on the floor waiting for me. I opened it & found this: Bangles from Express. If you didn't know, I love bangles - I rarely wear any other kind of bracelet.
As we were packing for our overnight trip I also opened gift #3 that Dan left for me on my suitcase - it was a beautiful picture frame that says "home is wherever we are." :)
We made our way to Pittsburgh later that afternoon to check in at our hotel - Lexi was lucky enough to spend the night with Grammie & Grampa. Once we got settled in our room Dan gave me gift #4 which was a contour leopard belt: Love this also & it looks great with my red pumps. I don't wear it as low as this photo shows because it's stretchy in the back so I wear it with my high waisted skirts, again, super cute.
We then got ready for dinner & made our way to The Melting Pot (he finally told me where we were going) & I've been wanting to go there for months. Neither of us have ever been so we were excited to try something new. Thankfully they put us in the back of the restaurant where it was a little more secluded because we were very camera happy during our dinner.

***WARNING: Lots of self-portraits follow - may cause increased waves of nausea or eye rolling...just be prepared.***

Waiting for our appetizers to come...

Enjoying his appetizers. LOL.
We definitely had some steam going on.
Lover cooking our entrees.
We decided to kill some time taking some funny photos while we waited for our dessert to come out:




Der - I was still talking.
Doesn't Dan look like Jim Carrey from In Living Color years ago??? "Let me show you something!!!" LMAO.
I love Dan's fish face - he's really got the eyes working.
Mmmmm.
Who doesn't like a big, hot bowl of chocolate served in front of them???
The best picture of the night - ironically, neither of our marshmellows made it into our mouths.
Photo courtesy of our server.
Our meal was fantastic & we loved everything about it - my favorite part was the dessert, of course. When we left the restaurant we realized that it took us 2 1/2 hours to eat(!!!). Sweet baby Jesus that's a long time to be stuffing our faces.
We ended the night with a walk along the waterfront where they had the fountains going, music playing & the outdoor bars were packed with people. We sat on a bench & watched the boats float by for a little while, until we started yawning...we then realized it was only 9:15 p.m. :o/
Our last photo-op of the evening. Yes, you are all in the clear - no more lovebird pics.
When we got back to the hotel I opened gifts #5 & #6, which were a 3 tiered, sterling silver, leaf necklace & a fuscia dress shirt from Banana Republic. I later realized that Dan got me 6 gifts for our 6 years together. Isn't that just the sweetest thing? I am such a lucky lady. He did so well planning our evening together & to keep me in the dark as to what we were actually doing - he really wanted it to be a surprise & it was. After our anniversary my Mom told me that she helped him wrap all of the gifts & he had picked out the bags/tissue paper/wrapping paper so they would look similiar (white, red & pink with hearts). Dan also told her what he had planned as far as staging them throughout the day - she thought it was the sweetest thing she had ever heard. Again, I am such a lucky lady.

To My Lover: We've made it 6 years & still counting...I love our life together & I love getting to share each day & every new experience with my best friend. You are compassionate, funny, loving, supportive, romantic, understanding, sweet & when need be, goofy. You are the one I tell all of my secrets to & share my hopes & dreams with; the one I turn to when I need a laugh during a difficult time; the first person I tell when I have great news. Our past, present & future memories will always be kept close to my heart & I am so thankful that I have you to share this journey with. I love you, my soulmate.

Vacation: Day 4

This was more of a getting things done kind of day - Dan went golfing with several of his buddies while I went to the gym, packed for our trip to PA & got things cleaned up around the house. We were extremely excited because our 6 year wedding anniversary was the next day & we were going to see my family as well as a few friends from college.

We got on the road around 3:00 p.m. that afternoon & we were PA bound! Lexi was very excited to see Emma, my parents chocolate lab; when we ask her if she's excited to see Emmy she gives us the head tilt with perked ears & her tail starts to wag. =]

Vacation: Day 3

By the time our third day of vacation rolled around, we were pretty tired from all the heat - it was one of the hottest weeks that we had this summer. We decided to add in some home improvement projects while we were enjoying our wonderfully air conditioned townhouse. For the past several months I've been wanting to paint another accent wall on our second floor & we already had the paint that I wanted to use, it was just finding the time to do it. As soon as I mentioned paint, Dan chimed in that he wanted to paint his man room. I asked him what color he had in mind & he said, "whatever color you pick." I thought that was super sweet of him to say & it instantly made me smile. A few days later when I reminded him of what he said he didn't remember saying it exactly like that - it's funny how that changes isn't it? So we decided to go to Lowe's & see if we could find a color that he liked. We ended up purchasing a blue/gray color called "Man Cave." I really think it was the name that sold him on choosing this color, but I do really like what he picked & I thought it would look great once it was finished. When we got home Dan dropped me off at the house while he ran to the store to pick up groceries for our dinner that evening - we decided to have a crab/shrimp feast. Yummy!! While he was out shopping, I decided to get a head start on taping off the edges of the hallway to his man room...ugh, what a huge pain in the ass. My anal retentiveness was in full gear.
After I had finished the taping & Dan hadn't got home yet, I decided to go ahead & start painting. Here's a before photo: It was very plain & we also didn't have anything hanging on the walls so it was in need of some love.
Coat #1
I had decided during my taping off time that I would leave the ceiling around the light fixture white because the color was so dark that I didn't want it to take away from the actual lighting - it worked out well.

Our little Lexi's spot during our labor of love.
The after photos:
All of his action shots.
It was my idea to hang all of his hats -believe it or not we have more to hang - I'm just glad they're out of our coat closet. It looks cool, huh? We're planning on painting his actual man room a lighter shade of gray - once it's all done I think it'll look really good.
After our long, long, long day of painting, it felt like it took forever, we were starving & so excited for our feast. Here are the photos we took: Shrimp!
Crab legs!
Ready to eat.
Who needs shell crackers when you can use needle nose pliers. ;o)
At one point during our feast I had to tell Dan to "strap the feed bag on & man up" because he was saying that he couldn't eat another bite. After we were all finished, we had no leftovers & we ate 4 lbs. of crab legs & 1 lb. of shrimp. Yes, we were pigs that evening but it was the best dinner I have ever had.

And now to end this post with my favorite picture from that day: I love her. =]

Vacation: Day 2

Our second day of vacation was a little more relaxing. We slept in & around early afternoon we started packing our beach bag to go to the pool for a little while. When we finally got there it was already sooo hot & definitely not worth laying out & trying to work on my tan. If you were at the pool, you had to be in the water to at least stay somewhat comfortable. After a few hours, we came back home & laid around until we had to start getting ready for the Nats game that evening; they were playing the Marlins.

Once we arrived at the stadium, we instantly hit the concession stands for dinner because we were starving & then we went to find our seats. I'm not sure why this happens to me but any time I'm going to a baseball/football game, I turn into a bottomless pit as soon as my feet pass the entrance gate - my Mom is the same way. If we go together, it's bad news for everyone else. Here are some pictures we took: We ended up with really good seats.
Dan's face when I told him I was hungry again. He went & got me a bag of peanuts.
Having a good ole time.

I had to take a picture of my shoes because I think they're so cute - Dan on the other hand does not. He even made the comment when we were watching the game "wow, I didn't know I invited Jesus to this game" (as he's looking at my shoes). :o/
Guess what?! I really wanted a piece of pizza or nachos, but Dan told me to wait a little bit & see how I felt; I decided to take his advice even though my tummy was having a mind of its own. After a few minutes he went & got me a waffle cone with vanilla ice cream & sprinkles. =]
LOL.
The Nats actually lost this game, but it was still fun to go to the stadium & hang out together.

Vacation: Day 1

Dan & I's vacation this summer was a little more laid back then prior years. The plans that we had really didn't work out (life is like that sometimes) so we just rolled with it & decided to spend our vacation at home. It was nice to have time off, relax & spend some quality time together. So our first day went as follows:

We took a trip to the National Zoo. =] I have always wanted to go, but finding the time was a little more difficult. We left for D.C. early in the morning on Monday, July 25th, & prepared ourselves for some extremely hot & humid weather. Little did I know, I was nowhere near prepared. Once we got into the zoo & applied our sunblock, I instantly started sweating (sigh). I thought I was dressed for the warm weather wearing a strapless, loose fitting top with jean shorts & flats but it wasn't good enough. Sweat was dripping down my face & into my eyes causing a very uncomfortable burning sensation due to the sunblock that I had applied earlier - "gentle on eyes" my ass Banana Boat! My makeup, that I probably should not have put on, was just melting off of me; I had to borrow Dan's undershirt just to wipe the sweat out of my eyes - obviously he was annoyed by this. I also had the attractive, spotted sweat marks showing through my top in my lower back & stomach areas; Dan even stared at me at one point & said, "are you having hot flashes?" Once I came to the realization that my sweating was only going to get worse, I was able to suck it up & enjoy the day. Here are the pictures we took of the animals & of course ourselves: Gazelle - where's Waldo?
This Cheetah was rolling around & scratching his back before I took this picture - oh I just wanna kiss his sweet face.
Dan sporting my girlie pink Nike bag - Lord knows I wouldn't have been able to carry it, it probably would've slipped right off my back due to my excessive sweating. :o/
Ducks!
I love this one - LOL!
This was one of Dan's favorites - it never moved.
White faced duck - these were weird; you would only see their faces & not their bodies.
As you can see I am extremely excited to be in the air conditioning. =]
Dan said this guy liked me because when I talked to him he followed us around the fence.
We stayed at the flamingos for a while - we couldn't believe how they were sleeping (look in the upper left hand corner - no idea they did that).
The elephant was so cool.
Well hello there!
The monkeys kind of freaked me out...



Oh so cute.
He was looking at Dan.
Waiting out the rain...he rarely takes a serious picture.
Gorillas.


This is what I saw staring at me when I turned a corner - yes, I screamed.
Dear Lord.
Dan & I kept hearing a squeak noise & we finally realized it was this little guy, a prairie dog - he sounded just like one of Lexi's toys.
I told you.

The tiger seemed to have some anxiety problems...he would take a few steps & turn around, back & forth - he was pretty though.
Lions.
We had a great time & we've already talked about going back; hopefully the next time we go it'll be some time in the fall when it's not so damn hot.