The Farmers in the Dells...

Well, not quite farmers, and really not officially in the Dells either...but the point is that I was able to get together with a college friend near her home in Wisconsin this week! She is not a farmer, in fact she is an engineer who specializes in cardio stuff regarding medical equipment. This could be way off, so Sarah, please correct me if I'm wrong! You could probably find a better word than "stuff" for what you do!

Anyway, we enjoyed a great meal and a great conversation and we even managed to take a self-timed picture. Good thing I was with an engineer. Even cameras are high-tech for me, cardio or not.

And it should be noted that the college friends welcomed a new baby into our circle...welcome to little baby Sawyer! Hope everyone's doing great, proud parents Heather and Jeremiah! What a beautiful little guy he is. And seriously, will you just look at perfect Heather? Whose mom looks that great after giving birth at 2:00 am?! Well, Sawyer's mom, that's who.

Angela and Asher!

(I love the look on Asher's face in this picture! That kid is ALWAYS cute!)

Well it was a fabulous weekend in the VileationNation. My friend from childhood, Angela, and her sweet son, Asher, came to visit us! They came all the way from Denver and the only thing that was missing from it being a perfect weekend was that Angela's husband Paul stayed in Colorado to get some work done. But I think Angela and Asher have promised us that the whole family will return in the future, so we're doing our best to not take personal offense to Paul's absence!

Anyway, among the fun things we did...Angela and I went to my prenatal yoga class together (Angela is a yoga instructor so I don't know that she got a whole lot out of it, but it was wonderful to have her guidance and instruction as I attempted my pigeon pose). We took Asher to a place called Playwise, we ate dinner at a great little BBQ restaurant in Baltimore, we spent the day touring the zoo in Washington DC (Angela LOVES pandas and we got to see them up close and personal!) and we topped it all of with dinner and s'mores at Cosi in old town Alexandria.

(Check out the hippo eating in the background)

Luther also had fun this weekend because Asher gave him a lot of attention and even a new name! Luther is "oof" to Asher, and it was the cutest thing to watch them interact.

Everyone had a fun time at the zoo and we were amazed at how active the animals were, it was incredible. Check it out!

Pictures are located here...thank you for the incredible visit, Angela and Asher!

Some Important Information

Well, we would have liked to have waited a couple more weeks to announce this news...but it turns out we're going to be parents! We're expecting to welcome a little Vile in July. We're getting our fun 18-20 week ultrasound in early March, so we were hoping to post that picture as our announcement, but I think that in our vacation pictures it might be obvious that we're on our way to parenthood! Look, in this picture we're practicing being parents to a sea cucumber. Those who know us well enough to know our wardrobes will recognize the fact that Amy is wearing Kevin's shirt. Because her belly has outgrown her own clothes and she looks like a sausage. We're about 18 weeks in to the journey, so it's getting exciting!

Stay tuned for some baby updates in the future. If anyone has any advice as to what we should register for and what we should do to prepare, we are very open to suggestions! I can't believe how much stuff a small human requires.

Since we don't have the fun ultrasound picture yet, here are a few of us celebrating back in November when we found out the big news.

Ode to My Cousin

How does this woman do it all????

She makes being a fabulous wife and incredible mother look like it's the easiest thing in the world.

She keeps our entire extended family in touch. Which is no small feat and which would probably not happen without her attention. NOTE: this is not because we don't love eachother!!! It's just that we are "geographically challenged," as they say.

She is an exceptional businesswoman...she was recently promoted at her "normal" job and keeps Charlotte-area moms healthy and inspired in her "free time!"

She is quite possibly the most versatile and talented photographer there is. The picture of Grandpa a couple posts below is hers and the gorgeous self-portrait at the beginning of this post is also her work. Grandpa used to carry the picture below, of 3 of his grandkids, in his shirt pocket. Every day. And yes, this is her work, too.And most recently she has cleaned up my colossal mess and somehow led me to success in recovering our lost Key West pictures.

Thank you, Angie...you are a true genius and a precious and LOVED cousin! Thank you for helping us recover our Key West memories...we'll post them soon. You're incredible!

Margaritaville

Well, we went to Key West and had a great time. Here is one of the only pictures that we actually have.

While transferring our pictures from the camera to the computer, I inadvertently deleted pretty much all of them. Pictures deleted include:

• Touring the Harry S. Truman Little White House


• Touring the Hemingway House (along with all the 6-toed cats)


• Snorkeling (those who have been with me when I've tried snorkeling before know that proof is needed)


• Kayaking at night, wearing headlamps, holding sea cucumbers and urchins


• Kevin in shackles at the Pirate Museum


• An amazing strawberry shortcake that we saw at a cute little restaurant


• Us standing a mere 90 miles from Cuba at the "Southernmost Point."


• And I'm sure many more.

So if anyone knows how to retrieve deleted pictures from the memory card of a camera, please send that information our way immediately! I am really, really upset. Those headlamp pictures were pretty great. I guess I'll just whip up a key lime pie and devour it in one sitting to make myself feel better. It is Tuesday after all, and that's normally what I do on Tuesdays.

Anyway, below is Kevin in the Miami airport (all of those crazy designs are actually fish) and me standing by our pool. I can't believe I messed this up so badly. No matter what, it was a great time and I think Key West is a quaint and lovely place. Tips for those of you going that direction soon:

• Do not rent a car. Stay off Duvall Street somewhere in the middle. We stayed in the Merlin Guesthouse on Simonton and Petronia and loved it.


• Do not expect there to be any hoopla around the signs that indicate the beginning/terminus of Highway 1. Mainly it's just some cars at a stop light.


• Expect to see (and hear) A LOT of free-roaming chickens.


• Expect to see a lot of beautiful women...and if the woman is especially beautiful it's likely she's in drag. We saw many beautiful drag ladies.


• Definitely do the sunset/nighttime kayak trip. But consider the strength of your marriage if you elect to use a tandem kayak with your spouse.


• Eat pie at each Blonde Giraffe location.


• Use Big Al's taxi service from the airport. This could be tough because the service is only Big Al, so you might not get him. He told us a lot about the island and gave us a list of good restaurants.


• Don't expect to eat grouper. I couldn't find a grouper sandwich for anything.


• Consider the Ghost Tour where you learn about Robert the Doll. Oh boy. Scary stuff.

So that's it...great trip, wish we had proof that we went. And that for about 15 minutes I had a little bit of a tan.

Roar.