The Grillers

The Grillers
Originally uploaded by kjourdan

We went on a 10-day trek to (and through) the Midwest in August. We visited Niagara Falls, Kurt & Cecilia in Ann Arbor, Leta & Tom & Joe in Madison, Erin & Dave in Wisconsin Rapids, and Mom & Dad in Rice Lake.
Click on the photo to see more of our trip!

Block Island

We headed to Block Island on the Fourth with Kurt & Cecilia (and Tizsa) and Marc & Christine. After a parking adventure at the ferry dock, we made the hour ride to Block Island.

We arrived in time for the big Fourth of July parade:

We rented bikes and rode out to the North Lighthouse. We probably biked about 10 miles, including many hills, so we were all tired by the end of the day. Well, except Tizsa (the cocker spaniel) because she got to ride on Kurt's back all day.

A fun day with great friends!

Impulse Buy

We were in Newport, Rhode Island last weekend to celebrate our anniversary and we made an impulse buy:













Just Kidding, of course. That's just one of the lovely homes we saw along the Cliff Walk. We also saw Rose Cliff, where The Great Gatsby, True Lies, and Amistad were filmed.






Newport is a beautiful place, and the weather was delightful when we were there. We can't wait to go back!

Plymouth or Plimoth?

Well, you saw the Freedom Trail pictures from last Thursday--on Friday we went to Plymouth and visited "the rock" (which is only part of the original rock), and then went to Plimoth Plantation.
Here is the rock:














Here is Dave listening to the nice Park Ranger:


















See how Dave was facing her? Very attentive. Then here is my darling husband "listening" to the park ranger.














Hmm, he's not even looking in her direction, and he's standing about 15 feet away. Erin and Dave are better tourists than we are.

On Sunday we went to the Cape. We got to use our handy beach umbrella from my parents, complete with the original sand auger. (it's quite an amazing thing!) Dave and J got it in the ground, and then J and I posed for a picture for my parents.

loads of fun

So, Erin and Dave left this morning. :( We had lots of fun while they were here, though. See?
Erin reading the Freedom Trail brochure to us:


Dave's first cannoli! (At Mike's Pastry)


Erin at the Make Way for Ducklings statue:


It was HOT while they were here. We went to the Cape on Sunday and loved the sea breeze that cooled things off.
We're sad that they're gone. sigh.

One good picture

Here's that Florida picture you've been waiting for...














It was a lovely sunset...my dad's comment about him missing it was because someone (a Massachusetts driver, of all things!) was busy running into his van in the parking lot. Thankfully no one was hurt and the van wasn't totaled or anything, but it certainly wasn't the relaxing evening we were hoping for.

That's also why we're greatful that neither of us learned to drive in Massachusetts! :)

Christmas Eve

Thankfully, our travels went smoothly (all three flights!) and we arrived in Billings around 7:00 p.m. Christmas Eve. The party was already in full swing at Kathy's house when we arrived.
Below are some pictures of the older kids with their nose warmers...they humored their Auntie Kahla very kindly.

After opening gifts, we all snuggled down for a long winter's nap. :)

Very Behind

Dave says, "I see nothing interesting has been happening with the two of you...there's nothing new on the blog." Oops. I shouldn't harass people to read the blog and then not post, hmm? :)

Too much stuff has been happening, actually....Chrissa's wedding, and then Tim's wedding. The camera batteries are currently recharging so the new photos will have to wait until tomorrow at least. Instead I share this lovely photo from St. John, where we'd much prefer to be today after 3 more inches of rain and 55-60 mph winds (I know, I know, I shouldn't complain because we didn't actually get hit by the hurricane, but we've had maybe 4 sunny days in all of October and we're getting depressed). (P.S. that's also why we haven't posted a completed deck photo...it's been raining and we haven't been able to take a picture)













The good news is that we purchased our tickets to Billings for Christmas and we only have 3 flights each way (optimal is 2, but who wants to pay $800 for each of us?), not 4...Seriously, there was one option that was:
Providence to Detroit
Detroit to Minneapolis
Minneapolis to Grand Forks
Grand Forks to Billings.
All in a 14 hour span! Now we just go Providence to Detroit to Minneapolis to Billings. Those of you around Minneapolis we'll be calling you if we get stranded there on Christmas Eve. :) We'll keep our fingers crossed that the weather cooperates.

Ok, that's all for now. I can't believe that it's a week until November.

Fun in Holyoke.

Today we met Suzy, Andy, Tom and Lexi in Holyoke, MA at a state park. It was a gorgeous fall day and there was much fun to be had.
Here's a picture of Tom, the cutie pie!

We had a nice picnic and then we RODE THE MERRY-GO-ROUND!! Let me tell you, it's been a while since I rode a merry-go-round and it was a lot of fun. J swears his horse beat mine, but I disagree.

Happy Wedding, Donna and Drew!

This weekend I traveled to Ohio (sans Justin) to celebrate the wedding of my cousin Donna and my new cousin-in-law Drew (obviously I know that's not really his title). The wedding was a lot of fun because the bride and groom were very obviously happy. Here's a picture of the happy couple:





















I also got to see my parents and Erin and Dave. Here's a shot of me with Erin--everyone kept saying we look alike.



















J was a work horse and worked on the deck while I was gone...and he helped some friends of ours move. I definitely think I got the better end of the deal.

White Mountains

Here's a little more detail on our trip:
We drove up to Bretton Woods on Sunday afternoon and checked into the Bretton Arms Country Inn (part of the Mt. Washington Resort, but not in the big hotel). Here's a picture of the Mt. Washington Hotel from the main road:

Tiny, huh? Probably could have found a nicer setting, too, if they worked at it. :)

But seriously, it was built in 1902 and it was one of those grand, all-inclusive resorts where people used to "summer," back when people took the whole summer off. It was much cooler up there, so we understood why people flocked up there to escape the summer heat in Boston. We got a recommendation for dinner and had a nice meal outside on the deck at Rosa Flamingo's on Sunday night.

Monday we got up and had a disastrous meal before heading out on our hike. We hiked up Mt. Willard to overlook Crawford's Notch (see picture in the earlier post). Then we went to an overlook called Cathedral Ledge. After lunch we relaxed (J read a book and I knitted) on the AMAZING veranda that overlooks Mt. Washington. Here's a shot of the veranda:

And here's the view of Mt. Washington that you have from the veranda:

On Monday night we were going out for our fancy anniversary dinner and stopped for gas on the way there....and in true J and Kahla traveling fashion, tried to start the car only to find that my car battery had died and we needed a jump. Thankfully the restaurant was very understanding and had a table waiting for us 1 hour later (only 30 minutes before closing). The dinner was amazing--Rick's Cafe at the Grand Depot in Littleton--and more than made up for the bad battery incident. The car started just fine and we made it back to the hotel.

But of course on Tuesday when we went to start the car to leave, the battery was dead again. Thanks again, Mom, for the AAA membership! :) We made it home and my car is now the proud owner of a new battery.

Crawford's Notch

Thanks to some of you reading this, J and I spent two lovely nights in the White Mountains of New Hampshire celebrating our first anniversary. The trip was filled with a lot of highlights (hiking, beautiful mountains) and a few lowlights (dead car battery Monday night, dead car battery Tuesday morning), and we'll share more details later, but here's a nice shot to set the mood. :)