Jackson Michael Dolen

This weekend Chris and I went to Kingston to meet his brand-new baby nephew, Jackson. He is so cute and was awake 90% of the time we were awake. Not a sleepy little baby like we expected. We were able to go mini-golfing with Mike and Erin and bring Jackson along and he didn't really fuss much at all. Erin even got a hole in one on the last hole to win a free game.
Not fair. The baby has been outside twice in his life and he is so much more tan than me. haha ;-)
I love this one. Doesn't it look like Jackson is holding Chris's face still so he can punch him?
Daddy and baby.
Jackson Michael Dolen. Sooo cute. Weighs 6 lb. 14-1/2 oz. right now.

Saratoga State Park

Last weekend, Chris and I were out visiting Dave and Lisa for Father's Day and also Lisa and Lynn's birthdays. One day, we headed over to Saratoga State Park to walk around with Dave and Lisa.




There a bunch of trails here, as well. This is one of the places Chris actually used to run cross country.

Blog post

My first blog post recently went up on the Dguides site. Just some musings about chance encounters in NYC:

http://dguides.com/newyorkcity/blog/travelogues/chance-encounters/

I even took that picture of the Sand Art Guy the weekend Chris and I got engaged. :-)

New York City has launched!

I am so excited this morning to be able to finally share the New York City pages of the DGuides website that I've been writing for over the past year or so. Follow the link below to browse the site. That's one of my articles on the front page ("above the fold" haha). Two of the three spotlight articles are mine, in fact. If you want to find some of my other articles, you can type my name in the search box.

http://dguides.com/newyorkcity/

I've written for pretty much every category, but I have a lot of articles in Attractions. Also, if you're up for a longer read, check out the History of NYC under the Information tab. It's a biggie, but I worked really hard on that one (Chris' family may remember me sitting in front of my laptop in Dave and Lisa's kitchen for almost an entire day last summer while we were visiting).

Yay! So happy this is finally up!

Jim and Rhonda's Wedding

At lunch with Dietl and Liz in downtown Syracuse.


Couldn't get a good picture of the bride coming down the aisle. They were walking too fast. lol I guess she was excited to get to her groom. ;-)


Mr. and Mrs. Youngs and their dog, Lily.
Lily.
At the reception.
Lily in cookie form.
Their first dance.
Jim really let loose at t
Oh Dietl.

Balloonfest in Jamesville

Well, we missed the balloon launch, but we did see this one balloon "glow." lol
Even better, though, we got to see Speedy the Tortoise. haha He was zooming all over the place.

Afterward, Chris and Oreo snuggled on the couch.

A Fine Mess

Yesterday we had an appointment to go look at Dibbles Inn for the reception site. About 10 minutes into the drive, the Camaro slid off the road because it was a little wet. We're totally fine; we slid off at about 20 or 30 mph because we were exiting the highway.
The car isn't so great though. Luckily it stopped here before sliding into these woods and hitting a tree.

Unfortunately, the underside of the car went right over this steel post. I'm not even sure what it was doing there, besides waiting to rip off our wheel.Poor tire. Chris just bought new tires a month or two ago.
Basically we slid from where the cop car is in this picture to where I was standing when I took it.

I didn't get a picture of the wheel with the popped tire after the tow truck driver started pulling it out of the ditch, but he pointed out to us that the left wheel was turned all the way left and the right wheel was all the way right. So I'm sure that's good. lol Can't wait to hear what the repair shop has to say ...

Random

One of my final projects this past weekend, besides clearing the junk out of the front room and scrubbing it down while Chris was away, was painting the silverware box to match the cabinet.

The wood box holds his mom's silverware, which is in great condition, but the box was sorely in need of a face lift. I think it turned out well. So shiny!Flowers from the yard. I have a feeling the little yellow ones on the right are weeds, but oh well. They're pretty.

The squirrels are enjoying our new bird feeder and what drops below it.

Today's Projects

I painted the wood frame on the mirror my mom gave me. Shiny black. :-) It looks good with this new arrangement in the guest room.
I also hung up the sign and the picture collage Adam and Andrea gave me, and the wrought iron candle holder Katrina gave me for Christmas last year.I also hung up the little birdies I bought online. So cute and useful!


I also hung up the three-tiered basket Adam and Andrea gave me. :-) It looks awesome! I can't wait to get it all filled up.

Today's Garden Pictures

Per the advice of my mom, I restocked my bird feeder with thistle so that it would flow better through the tiny openings on this particular feeder.







I managed to snag a new feeder for my wild bird seed at Wegmans for about $4.00. Can't beat that. And it actually matches the black bracket better than the other feeder.
Something new growing. Can't remember what it is that I planted last fall. lol
It's another super tall plant like the allium, though.
Blueberries!

Mini-rose. From when I took the pictures last night, several blooms opened up! Man, I can't wait to rip out the chain-link fence though.My little clematis isn't quite big enough for this trellis yet.


Haha, my poor peony. I planted it about a month and a half too late for it to do much this summer, I think.

Endless Summer hydrangea.
My hybrid tea rose. Not to impressive this year, but hopefully next year will be better.

My sunflower sprouts are shooting up like crazy. I think they have about 5 more feet to go, though. lol