Busy Busy Summer

Wedding-palooza 2010 has been in full force. This is what I/we've been up to lately...

Liz's bridal shower, July 12

Liz is Joe's sister and will be getting married in October. Her shower was a nice gathering of family and friends. My mom was able to come over also.

Lindsay's bridal shower, July 20

Lindsay is a fellow Census Bureau employee who previously worked in Joe's area. She will be getting married in August. Her shower was in her aunt's lovely home in Baltimore.

Lindsay's bachelorette party, July 24

The following weekend we had a fun girls night. We went out to dinner and out on the town. It was a blazing hot night but we managed.

Paul & Amie's couple's shower, July 25

Although not a wedding, it falls into the same sort of party category. We headed over to Delaware for an open house/shower for baby Addison's parents. It had been a while since I had seen a lot of the fam, so it was a good evening of socializing. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures.

Upcoming:

Brian's bachelor party, July 31
Brian & Becky's wedding, August 7
Lindsay & Jesse's wedding, August 14

Christina's Wedding & Festivities

I've worked with Christina since I started at the Census Bureau in 2006. It took her a bit to warm up to me but now I'm sure she can't imagine her life without the Guidos. She's all married off now...here is how we got there...

Step 1: The Bridal Shower

Back in April, we gathered in Bel Air, MD for a bridal shower honoring Christina. Food, gifts, the works!

Me, Chrissy, Cynthia, Jill (Census girls)

Step 2: The Bachelorette Party

In May, we headed up to the Baltimore area for some wine tasting and dinner.

I loooved the TangoPeach wine I tried!

Step 3: The Wedding!

It was a beautiful affair on the 18th of June. Beautiful weather, lovely church, delicious food, good dancing...everything a wedding should be!

Congratulations!

I think we looked pretty spiffy too :)

Step 4: Happily Ever After

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47 posts later....I still only have 5 followers. Pretty please?

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And thanks to the five of you who care!

Well hello there, 2010.

It's a new year, how about that? I think my current job has kind of jaded me from getting excited about a new year because we start preparing our survey for the next year at least six months ahead of time. So, that means I've already said "twenty-ten" a gazillion times and now that it is finally here I can say "Phew, ok, onto 2011."

We had a nice and chill New Years Eve with friends, just the way I like it.

No new year's resolution for me this year. I have big dreams of losing my post-wedding ten (probably more like fifteen) and exercising more but I'm more interested in making better choices instead of unrealistic goals. We are hoping there will be some exercise equipment deals so we can add an elliptical to our home. As usual, we are holding out for the right price.

Anyway, this weekend we were excited to see Elon play basketball at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. The last couple of years the team has played a school in Maryland which is great for us. It's exciting to see alumni come together, even states away, and cheer for the guys. They lost, of course, but we had a good time.

Go Elon!

Tomorrow I leave for two weeks of travel for work. I'll be in Atlanta, San Antonio, and Tucson. I wish I could say I was excited to go, but honestly I can't wait for it to be over. Hopefully there will be time for a little sightseeing amongst all the work. See you when I get back....

Tequila...I love it!

We recently returned from a little vacation in Mexico. Last weekend we were in bathing suits by the pool and this weekend we are waiting for the predicted 10-20 inch snowfall. Crazy! We traveled Thursday through Monday so we spent about three and a half days in Mexico. We stayed at the Iberostar Tucan in Playa del Carmen which is about an hour south of Cancun. Our favorite travel buddies, Jill and Adam, were along for the ride as well. It was a vacation all about sun, relaxing, and drinking and eating until we burst. I believe those are essential parts of a great getaway!

The pool was our favorite place to be. Especially with a drink in hand....


At night, we enjoyed having dinner together and catching the show at the resort.

We really had a great time. The weather was beautiful and overall it was just a much needed break. You can view all of my pictures here.

Which brings me to our travel year in review (2009):

January - Nevada & Arizona to visit Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon
February - Deep Creek Lake in Western Maryland for skiing
April - Italy. We visited Venice, Florence, and Rome.
July - Williamsburg, VA for a little Water Country USA action
September - Kill Devil Hills, NC. Our anniversary at the OBX
October - Elon, NC for homecoming
December - Playa del Carmen, Mexico for some fun in the sun

Not too shabby! Here's to more of the same in 2010!

Elon Homecoming 2009

As many of you know, this past weekend Joe and I attended Elon's homecoming. Knowing that we didn't have much planned for October, we had scheduled the trip months in advance to motivate us for the drive. Of course, it is always great to be back at our beloved alma mater.


We caught up with some friends, did some exploring, and attended the rainy football game. Although the weather didn't want to cooperate with us, we were determined to enjoy ourselves anyway. I'm very excited at how good Elon is at football this year! The surrounding town and campus have changed so much since 4 years ago. Some parts of Burlington, in particular, are almost unrecognizable. But, the overall charm still remains and we find it hard to leave every time. Will somebody please open a Steak n Shake in Maryland? I will drive many miles to eat there!

Oh, and let's not forget that Elon president Leo Lambert was spotted at the bar. He is so super and looking very fit and trim lately I must say.

But, you can't have a current Leo picture without remembering the good ol' days at his house for Christmas. I had to include this for your viewing pleasure:

Christmas at the Lambert's, 2001.

Unfortunately, I can't go without mentioning the biggest disappointment of our trip, aside from the rain. We decided to try out a Bed and Breakfast that was recommended on Elon's website. I wasn't familiar with it but since the rates were equivalent to the surrounding hotels I thought hey, why not? Needless to say, next time we are sticking with the hotels. You expect a certain amount of noise in a 100 year old house with neighboring guest rooms. Well, lucky for us, a whole group of 40-50 (year old) somethings had rented out all the rooms in the house except for the one we were staying in. Their lack of maturity kept us awake into the wee hours of the morning as they ran up and down the stairs, talked in their outside voices, drank, hoot n hollered, you name it. At 1:00 a.m. the women decided to throw a PAJAMA PARTY! and announce it in the loudest way possible. Well, we complained and ended up checking out a day early because I was not going to stand that for another night. I was very bummed! Not the kind of atmosphere you expect when you go to a B&B. What is the moral of this story? Ask the B&B if there is a group staying with you? I'm just not sure.

Anyway, all I can say is.....

LONG LIVE ELON!

L&J +0 Update

Joe is on a flag football team at work. I watched a game this past week. He made some good catches and scored a touchdown - yay Joey! But, he also spent a fair amount of time yelling at the refs - a side of Joe most of you have never seen before. I am working to adjust his bad sports attitude.

Last weekend, I went to IKEA. I purchased:

A lantern which is now on our bedroom dresser.

Sticks aka "dried plants." They are in a clear vase beside our TV in the family room.And, a wine rack for Jill.

I also got some plants. Gotta love IKEA. Unfortunately, when I was packing up to leave, a lady pulled in the parking spot in front of my car and bumped it! UGH! She didn't even back her car up before going inside. Thankfully, there wasn't any damage done to my car.

Speaking of cars, this week I got pulled over for the second time in my life. And for the second time, I didn't get a ticket. Phew! I was doing 29 in a 20 in my very own neighborhood. There have apparently been a lot of complaints about speeding. I understand the annoyance with people who fly down neighborhood streets but I don't consider speed under 30 to be that dangerous. To maintain 20mph on most of the roads I have to ride my brakes the whole time because there are hills. 20mph is agonizingly sllllooowwww.

In other news, I had a girls night with some pals last weekend. We met The Captain.

I'm also excited because we recently purchased tickets to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra when they come to D.C. in December. They play rockin' Christmas music and we are music nerds that appreciate it.