Moving where...

First of the year, we get to move to Tampa, Florida...YEAH take us away from Michigan!!! I know we just got to Michigan, but Chris's job is actually taking him to Tampa and we couldn't be more thrilled.

Our Trip to DC

Earlier this month, we had a chance to go to DC. Chris went there on business for work and I got to tag along. We had so much fun. We were able to meet up with a couple of our friends that were in the same program as Chris in Texas who ended up moving to Virginia (right outside of DC). It was great being able to catch up with them and they were pros at all the site seeing so that was great. Taught us how to use the metro - more confusing than you know.

Getting started on our trip to DC...yes we drove, it was a fun roadtrip though, only about 10 hours with stops and all the crazy traffic.


Some crazy, big pumpkins we saw while driving through Pennsylvania. One took up the bed of the truck and then two others took up a trailor.


Our first metro ride with our friends Kent and Jena.



All the neat things we got to see














Downtown Alexandria, Virginia



Dinner with our friends Kent and Jena at Glory Days Grill



Yum, the cheesecake factory - dessert with our friends Kent, Jena, and Jessica


On our trip here, we were able to pick up a few more keychains to add to the places we have been...Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and DC - we now have 19 different states (including DC even though that isn't a state).

Finally some pictures of our new place!

Graduation Day

Chris graduated with his masters degree today and I couldn't be happier or more proud of him. It is a nice feeling knowing for the first time in our lives he will not have any more homework.








Us with some of our friends in the fellows program






Went to lunch afterwards to celebrate at McAlister's Deli and got some of the famous sweet tea for the last time. :(



Congratulations Chris!!!

Watermelon Festival

This past weekend we went to the watermelon festival in Hope Arkansas and it was pretty fun, but really hot and kind of interesting. Lots of...well, let's just say "countryish" people. :)I cannot believe I didn't get pictures of the watermelon slices, but they were 1/4 of a watermelon...huge! In fact, I really didn't get pictures of much, it must have been the heat exhaustion getting to us. Anyway, I did get pictures of the best part...so funny. Chris and I got to see our first ever lawn mower races...lol! It was great.

Here is a picture of a huge lawn mower just outside the races - we just thought it looked crazy!


Lawn Mower Racing :)


This place was completely silent except for some cheering so all the noise you hear in the video is the lawn mowers. They were so loud. We ended up not watching too long because us and our friends ears were starting to hurt. Our hearing was a little impaired for like an hour afterwards.

Crazy Thunderstorms

So we have been having storms all week...one second it will be nice and sunny and then BAM all the sudden there is a down poor. Absolutely love it though. It has been nice to be cooled down to the low and upper 80s rather than the normal high 90s and low 100s.

Before the storm


During before it gets too crazy


Video of the craziness...the thunder is really loud, but you can only hear it slightly on the video over the crazy rain.

July Happenings

Well, it has been forever since I have been on here so time to fill you in on what's been going on. Chris and I took an apartment hunting trip to Michigan the end of June and found a really nice place that we are so excited about, but don't really have any pictures of our exact place so won't really post any until we get there. Really, this month our time has consisted of deep cleaning, projects, and packing things up in boxes or bags to take to goodwill so we don't have so much to do come actual moving time. Luckily, this time we don't have to pack ourselves, so that will be really nice. Time is flying, already it is only about 1 month until we move and less than that until they come to pack us up. We will be packed up about 1 week earlier than we head out of town so hotel living here we come!

Project - we have been talking forever about painting our tv stand black to match all of our not so new decor anymore and finally this weekend, we did it.

Before

After

Cleaning - I didn't take a before and after picture of the oven because that is just wrong, but here is the oven half way done cleaning, looking pretty good - I hope my next place has a self cleaning oven. :) Actually, I found this easy oven off spray and it works amazing!


Boxes and bags - yes you see correct, we are getting rid of all our John Deere!!!



Much to our surprise, we found this little critter in our apartment this weekend. He was just hanging out in our bedroom on the ceiling! Chris caught him and went and put him in some bushes outside. He was such a tiny little guy!




And last but not least, we finally got all of our keychains in a little display case. We collect a keychain in every state we go to. We are still missing Idaho and Nevada, but we will be able to get 5 more keychains on our next move plus we hope to find one in Canada too sometime while living in Michigan.