Showing posts with label outdoors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label outdoors. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Uncle Bri

While I sat around hoping not to go into labor did a bunch of projects during the first week of July (stay tuned for a post dedicated to all of my recent projects-- I'm very proud), Brian got to fly to Oregon for the Wright Reunion!
 Doesn't he look so lonesome without me?

Just kidding, he had plenty of fun:

 Brian has many "roles" that he plays in life, but I think his favorite is being Uncle Bri to (in my unbiased opinion) the cutest and most awesome nieces and nephews!




(He didn't make it back with pictures of Avery, Bre, or Sophie.... but they're pretty cute, too! You'll just have to take my word for it.)
 
Luckily, I had some great friends to watch the fireworks with in downtown Nashville while he was gone!

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Summer Time

There was one thing I really wanted to do before Little Girl comes:
Kayaking!
....at 34 weeks pregnant?
Well, let's be honest, kayaking on the Duck River in Columbia, TN is less like
 
(source: listofimages.com)

and a lot more like
(source: www.dltk-kids.com)


but it's so much fun and I knew that there would be no way to do it again once we have a baby.
 
We enjoyed the sunshine, cool water and beautiful Tennessee scenery.



We saw lots of turtles!
We even had great company:

I think we all got toasted, but we had a blast and it was totally worth it! 

And here I am at 35 weeks:
"Proud to be a Vandy! Homegrown in Vanderbilt"
I think it's still too big for her!


Sunday, July 15, 2012

Picked a Peck of Perfect Peaches

...well, it was actually 4 pecks.

My sweet friend Rebekah invited me to go peach picking in an orchard with her this week. That is definitely not something your average Arizonan girl has done in her lifetime, so I was pretty excited.

It rained all week but that didn't stop us, no sir. We went and picked those peaches, rain and all! Now I'm looking for a really good peach cobbler recipe...

Friday, July 13, 2012

Semi-Annual Pilgrimage to the Homelands

As soon as I finished school, I started on what ended up as the biggest project of my life. It is a family tradition to receive a quilt when you are married. I volunteered to make the quilt for my sister's wedding. She picked the fabric, and I drew up a plan. It was a great plan... if I had had several months do to it. Luckily, I had all day every day for 3 weeks to work on it. I used a technique I found on The Welsh Quilter.
 the back of the quilt is gray and yellow. this is square 1 of 100... I quilted a treble clef/bass clef/heart design on each square. I actually ended up mis-calculating and making 45 extra squares (?!) so there may be a mini-version of this quilt up on etsy in the not-so-near future.

This quilt was huge, she took over my entire desk!
It's hard to see in this picture, but I embroidered their names and a quote from Shakespeare about love and music.
 Brian was also working on the biggest project of his life: studying for Step 1 Exam for the Medical School Boards (aka "The Test of questions about anything in existence"). So he didn't mind that I was completely occupied. He studied for 6 weeks, 14 hours a day, 6 days a week for that bad boy. He resisted all kinds of social temptations (movies, game nights) that were posed to him. And he conquered that 8-hour test! He just got his scores back this week and he scored above the Vanderbilt average! (cue the music.. "Hail the conquering Hero! da da dun dun dun....."

We flew to Arizona for Sarah and Zach's wedding. We had a week full of Chimichangas, Just Dance 3, decorating, ice cream, and generally enjoying the Arizona sunshine.
Mom and Sarah manning the frying station.
Michael and Brian claimed the "quality control" station while making chimis
 Just Dance3... bringing families together
 Beautiful centerpieces for the reception
 caught in the act...


The wedding was beautiful, the day was beautiful (though HOT), the bride was beautiful, and everything went generally smoothly. It was so fun to be their photographer! My amazing friend Amanda has been so great to help me along as I learn how to take better pictures.




After the chaos died down, we flew to Oregon. There we had a week full of sleeping in outrageously late, visiting the Keldsens in Bend, s'mores, puzzles, golfing, Disney Sing-Alongs, nieces and nephew, mini-golfing, movies, reading, PS3 gaming, the beach, fireworks, and (of course) more ice cream.
500 piece puzzle!
 Eli--Commanding and Conquering
Disney Princess sing-alongs
 cute Avery!
 Silly Alayna
 Reading the Bearnstein Bears
Jenna, Alayna, and Uncle Brian shooting for Par
 Brian likes his ice cream...
 Alayna and Aunt Stacey
 Fireworks!

  The Oregon Coast is beautiful, but COLD!



All too soon it was time to fly home. It's back to real life... I am studying for the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Exam and Brian is starting his rotation in Anesthesiology. Always staying busy!