Fall treasures

After being away from a good Virginia fall for two years, I've finally come to realize how much I've taken for granted most of my life. We're experiencing spectacular colors this year, and John and I have been loving it! It's been a while since I've written a good, descriptive update on life, but life has been busy--a good busy for once--and I'll have to stop to gather my thoughts a bit before I can write something more meaningful. For now, enjoy these beautiful fall scenes:








Up next: Nikki and John's most rally-ing-est adventures!

Happy birthday, John!

Yesterday was John's 25th birthday. We didn't get together with his family until today, so we celebrated at home with my family first in the way my family knows best--with food, and lots of it!

For lunch, John I made him a strange conglomeration of leftover linguine and meat sauce, fresh sweet peppers, and a modified version of egg-in-the-hole. A weird mix of things, but he still probably ate better than his buddies at work:


Mom made an amazing meal full of John's favorite Asian goodies. Appetizers included:

Cucumber Salad


Shrimp Toast

The main course consisted of John's ultimate favorite dish, mom's secret recipe chicken masaman curry:

(the Ginormous Pot was full at one point, this was taken after everyone had gotten a large helping)

I was in charge of dessert, and whipped up a coconut cream pie, per our new tradition (est. last year):

I had to include this picture, for none of us have ever cut a less sloppy piece of cream pie.

Today, festivities continued with John's side of the family. John's parents took all of us out to a fabulous brunch at Brio, where they have the most fantastic lasagna bolognese. We feasted on flavorful bruschetta, beef tenderloin, crab crepes, and eggs benedict. Dessert was a real treat--Brio serves sample sized desserts (at sample sized prices, thank goodness) and they really were a perfect portion after such a decadent meal. I had the chocolate hazelnut brulée and it was AMAZING. Usually when you get chocolate hazelnut anything, it just tastes like pimped up chocolate but you don't really get a feel for the nutty flavor. It was unmistakable in my brulée though--bravo, Brio!

Afterward, we all went to see Get Smart, which was absolutely adorable. I recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the series as a youngster, or anyone who enjoys comedies in general. 99 was a bit sassier in this version, and Maxwell Smart was actually more competent than in the series, but I thought that made it all the better.

It takes one bad apple...

There seems to be a pattern emerging in my life. It's not enough that I'm a big dork; I feel the urge to pull others into the depths of dorkdom along with myself. What can I say? It's lonely down here. ;)

Exhibit A (lemon-lime sisters):


Exhibit B (Mr. and Mrs. How-Did-You-Know-We-Were-Tourists?):

I'd also like to add that these two photos were taken within a week of each other. Think of the atrocities I will be able to commit by the end of the summer...

America the beautiful

We just got back from the beach Sunday evening, and all of us had a blast!


Of course, family vacation wouldn't be family vacation without a little drama. My sister's Ford Explorer had transmission trouble and was having trouble starting and going. Her husband ended up loading up all of the luggage Saturday night and left at 5:30 am to avoid traffic and try to get the truck back home in one piece. My sister and her two boys hitched a ride along with grandma and grandpa later in the morning, all of us worried about whether or not my brother-in-law would be able to make the whole trip himself. Thankfully, he called at around 10:30 am and confirmed that he had arrived.

John and I brought up the rear end of our two-car caravan (the two friends that had come along this week went ahead in another car), and as our worry over the truck drama subsided, car conversation turned to dreamier musings about life, happiness, and the future. We have been driving around so much of the US these past few weeks and have seen so many things--scenery, botany, animal, funny misprinted sign. It's amazing what an expansive country we live in! We have mountains, deserts, rain forests, ocean life, not to mention the vast array of climate you can experience in any given day in any given state. Having finally started to realize this, John and I fully intend on taking one of those two-week cross country RV vacations as soon as we get the chance. We spend so much time dreaming about traveling to Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean, but I am starting to think we're missing what's right under our own noses.

On the road again

Today, two weeks after our big trek home, John, a bunch of family, family friends, and I packed up and headed on over to the Outer Banks, NC for a little vacation. Thankfully, this trip was only 5 hours instead of 18! We didn't even listen to our iPod on the way down, but had fun talking, laughing, eating, and caravaning. We thought we had it good, filling up our tanks with $3.94/gallon gas, until we went a few more miles down the road and saw some for $3.83/gallon. D'oh! Better luck next time, I guess.

I've had bronchitis all week, so I'm not expecting to do much during the next couple days but relax and sleep--if the coughing will ever let me. Thankfully, it's been getting better day by day and I'll be up to horsing around on the beach soon. Poor John is looking forward to sleeping in since I've been keeping him up at nights with my cough and he's been going to work regularly during the week.

This week should be great fun though--vacationing in a large group is always pretty exciting. We're all taking turns cooking dinner for each other (there are 15 of us total, we split up in to groups) and I'm really interested in trying everyone's food! My group is making spaghetti and meatballs, a salad, and cheesy garlic bread--I figure you can't really mess any of those things up. For dessert, we're having the banana cream pie I promised I'd make my sister after she gave birth and got rid of her gestational diabetes, and my good friend is making crepes with a yummy mixed berry sauce.

You know how some people keep a Bible in their nightstand? I have apparently gone off the deep end. My beach nightstand is currently holding Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. Why do I even have it on vacation with me? I'm not quite sure.


Oh, and can you believe it's June already?

Happy Anniversary!

Today is John and my second wedding anniversary. So far, the most extraordinary thing that's happened is that I'm sick with a lower respiratory infection AGAIN, for the second year in a row! I never thought I'd be so sick on our anniversary twice in a row. Maybe this is payback for getting away with beautiful weather, superb health, and very little stress on our actual wedding day?

That aside, it's been a fairly pleasant day (aside from the incessant coughing). Hubby left me a card and a Snickers bar on my computer this morning before he left for work, and came home to enjoy some Pad Thai with me for lunch. We had planned on going to Maggiano's for dinner today, both for deliciousness and sentimental reasons. We went there the day after we married, and it was just one of those calm, blissful, perfect dinners that you dream about having as a little girl. Since I'm busy hacking up a lung today though, we've put those plans off until we can fully enjoy the evening, and are going to Panera for some soup and sandwiches instead. Hey, after four months without Panera, I'll take it! If I'm up to it, we'll go to Wegmans after dinner to pick up a baked good. They have the best and most diverse fruit tarts I've ever tasted, and a bakery section larger than most Whole Foods, if you can imagine that!

Happy anniversary, Sweetheart! <3