St. Arnold's Brewery

Tripp and I met a group of friends at St. Arnold's Brewery this past Saturday. We enjoyed beer, food, and friends. Well, I enjoyed the ROOTbeer since I am NOT a beer drinker! Tripp and I visited St. Arnold's a few years ago at their old location. Their new location was soooo much nicer with more seating, huge facility, and air conditioning!!

One down!!!

Tripp and I are thrilled to say that we have paid off one of our student loans much earlier than expected!!! We have been loosely following Dave Ramsey to reduce our debt. We are proud of ourselves for cutting our student load debt in half!

One down, one to go!

Wedding Weekend

Tripp's cousin, Kate, got married here in Houston this past weekend. Lots of fmily traveled to Houston to be part of their big day. Tripp's mom and grandmother stayed with us for the weekend. We enjoyed a dinner with family Friday evening, a lunch with family on Saturday, the wedding Saturday evening, and a brunch with family on Sunday. It was a really fun weekend! Here are a few pictures!

Tripp giving his cousin, Michael, a haircut!

New Orleans visit

Tripp and I drove to New Orleans for 4th of July weekend. Over the weekend, we enjoyed lots of yummy food. We had lunch at R & O's for seafood po-boys. We had dinner at Dante's Kitchen with my parents, our friends Ray and Meghan, and Meghan's parents, Roy and Debbie. Dinner was amazing but even more amazing was spending time with our dear friends. We spent Sunday enjoying the pool after a 4th of July lunch with family friends. Sunday evening we had our favorite Bloddy Marys and delicious hamburgers at Port o Call. Monday we drove to Lafayette to see my sister and her boyfriend. We visited over lunch and then got to see Darr's house being built. Tripp left to drive back to Houston from there and I stayed for the rest of the week.

The remainder of the week consisted of visiting friends, family and spending time with my sister, mom, and dad.

The week ended with a drive to Shreveport to visit my sister, Laura. We got to see her adorable rental house, go swimming, hang out , shop, and of course eat.

It was a fun time!!

Finally!

We finally have a few pictures on the walls in our master bedroom! It took is forever to get some prints framed that we bought while we were in Italy. We bought a watercolor print in Rome, a colored pencil print in Florence, and an oil painting in Venice. They look great!

Rome

     

Florence

Venice

Good morning Baltimore!!

Tripp and I spent just shy of a week visiting his sisster, Quincey, her husband, Blake, and their adorable daughter, Emmaline during the last week of May. They moved to Ft. Meade outside of Baltimore last year and we had yet to visit them. We were excited to spend time with them and explore some nearby sights.

We arrived late on Thursday evening. Blake picked us up from the airport and we headed to bed when we arrived at their house.

The next morning, we headed to Gettysburg, PA. Tripp was so excited since this is somewhere he has wanted to visit since he was a child. We walked through the museum, watched a film giving us the highlights of the battle of Gettysburg and then we got in the car for the driving tour. At each stop, a CD told us the history of the location. We were able to get out an explore several of the stops as well. Here are a few pictures of what we saw.

 Once we got back to Quincey and Blake's, we gave Emmaline her belated birthday gift. I think she liked it!!

Saturday we drove into Baltimore to take a stroll through the city. We saw variuos restaurants, the inner harbor, boats, and such. Walking in the heat left us hungry so we headed to G & M's restaurant that was recommended to us for their crab cakes. The crab cakes were FABULOUS!!

Beautiful!

Delicious!

                                             







After lunch we headed to the pool for a bit. Emmaline could not decide if she wanted to be in the pool or out of the pool!!

 

Sunday we drove to Annapolis, MD. We parked at the Naval Academy, had a picnic lunch on the water on the Academy's campus, and then walked through the city. The city was so cute! It was full of shops and restaurants. We stopped for dessert at an amazing ice cream and chocolate shop. While eating outside of the shop, we encountered a local dog that Emmaline loved. But the dog was more interested in hoping that Blake's ice cream would spill onto the ground!

That evening some of Blake and Quincey's friends cam over for a Memorial Day barbecue. We enjoyed ribs, veggies, salad, corn, and dessert.

Monday we spent the day playing and relaxing. That evening, Tripp and I watched Emmaline so that Blake and Quincey could enjoy a child-free dinner.

Tuesday Tripp and I took the commuter train into Washington D.C. for the day. It was a fun, busy day! We saw the Newseum, U.S. Capitol, White House, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, World War II Memorial and more. So fun!

Wednesday, we headed back to Houston. We had a great visit!!!

Greek Fest

Back in May, Tripp and I went to a nearby Greek Festial with some friends of ours. Of course we enjoyed listening to Greek music, watching the Greek dancers, eating delicious Greek food, and touring the beautiful church.

What was slightly different about this festival was that there was a gyro eating contest at the festival. We figured it would be a handful of normal folks just having fun eating as many gros as possible. Well, we were wrong! What we witnessed was a true Major League Eating food eating competition. We watched big name professional eaters such as Joey Chestnut and Pat Bertoletti. It was interesting to watch a real food eating contest. I have no idea how they consumed that much meat!!! Joey Chestnut won by eating 21 and 1/2 gyros in 10 minutes. Crazy!!



It was a fun afternoon!