Monday, July 20, 2009

Exciting News...

Ryan and I are getting a puppy this fall! A beautiful silver lab to be exact. We're so excited! There is a litter of puppies being born next month near Birmingham, so cross your fingers for a silver female!! We put a deposit down months ago and will have first choice. Ryan even started building her kennel-- out of a dresser. Trust me, it's going to look good. Ryan's been so creative and has been working so hard on it. Since our home is quite small we wanted her house to blend in with the decor... you'll just have to see it. (And you can... once we get our new camera!)

I can already picture this little thing running around our house! Puppy time is almost here!

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Lions, Tigers, and BEARS...

Oh My!
For the forth of July, 4 couples headed to the Smokies for a mountain weekend! Jeff so kindly invited us up to his mountain house in Townshed, TN. Looking back on the weekend two things come to mind - guns and beer pong. But not at the same time, of course! The boys and girls shot rifles, shotguns, hand guns, bow and arrow, even Aaron's grandfather's old revolver! The boys had skeet shooting competitions and showed off their skills, and let us girls shoot around in between. Shooting guns was actually pretty fun! Even the girls hit some clays! You can't tell me that's not impressive! When it turned dark, the group was usually surrounding the beer pong table (yes, of course Ryan brought the table). We learned a new game at Bev and Christian's the night before called Baseball and it's really fun!

Oh, and how could I forget Meg and Aaron's hike... Saturday morning they decided to hike up the mountain on a trail by the house. On their way down they saw a bear cub!!! It was so close to them, and you know what that means.... so was the mom!!! They booked it back down the mountain and safely back into the house, but for the rest of the weekend we were a little more cautious. It was so close to the house! But don't worry, Jeff told us how handle a bear attack. You have one of two options... play dead or do the "bear scare" which consists of flailing arms and growling (we did a lot of humorous practicing throughout the rest of the weekend). Oh yeah and stay calm.

Well, Saturday night some of us decided to drive up to the top of the mountain trail. We put out some chairs and listened to music for a bit. Then when we got back in the car to head back down, the car battery was DEAD! Are you kidding me!? We won't go into details about how that happened :). We had to walk all the way back down the same trail where the bear was earlier, and it was almost dark! It was scary!

Besides that, we cooked out, made s'mores each night, played Catch Phrase around the fire (which by the way the girls ROCK at!), and just hung out and enjoy the company! Thank you Jeff for having us all up! It was so fun!

Oh, and bad news, my trusty camera finally died... for good. So I only have pictures from the first afternoon! But don't worry, I'll be getting a new one soon!

Bev and me in Knoxville eating lunch

Eating at Jacob's - best burgers in town!
All packed up ready to go

We brought so much stuff - gotta make room for the beverages!

Arriving at the house!

So rustic and neat inside!

Love these girls!

Learning how to shoot a hand gun

First time! Look at the smoke!

Bow time

Look at that determination!

Aaron and I lost a bet

So hardcore

An old revolver! You can even spin the bullets like you see in movies!
First time shooting a handgun

BULL MOOSED!

Aaron and Meg

my hillbilly husband! haha

Jeff and Natasha

love Christian's face

the girls - relaxing on the swing

the boys (minus Jeff)

me and my mountain man!

close up!

Skeet shoot

Natasha throwing clays for the boys

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Busy Bee

I know I haven't posted in a while, but you have to cut me some slack. This is our busiest time of the year at work. It's almost over though! I promise to post this weekend or a night when things slow down.

Hope everyone is doing great!

Rachel