Beach Vacation - July 4 - 11

I know we are posting this a "little" late, but we had so much fun, we just had to share!!  Jeff and I went to the Outer Banks in North Carolina on a family vacation with my parents, my brother, and my brother's friend and his family!  We left on Sunday, July 4 all decked in red, white and blue and began our three car caravan trip to the beach.  After what seemed like an entire day of driving we got to the beach and while the "adults" were grocery shopping, all the "kids" headed to the beach!  It was a beautiful evening at the beach.  That night, my brother, Nick, and his friend, Wesley, found their love for crabbing.  Needless to say, I was not a fan of crabbing.  We tried to catch a glimpse of fireworks later that night, but there weren't too many to see, so we decided to set some of our own off! :)

The rest of the week we spent being lazy and relaxing at the beach for most of the day and sightseeing and shopping in the evenings.  One day we took a day trip to Ocracoke Island to play on the island and get a feel for island life.  It was a nice day for everyone who got burnt earlier in the week to stay out of the sun!  :)  Another night we headed to the go-cart tracks to race around the track with each other and also got to play some put-put golf.  Jeff of course beat us all... But he was also keeping score... :)

We had beautiful weather until the last full day there.  It started to rain late in the afternoon which actually worked out for us since we were needed to get off the beach and get ready to celebrate Nick and Wesley's 18th birthday.  To celebrate, we all headed to Hooters - fitting for 18 year old boys - right?  After telling our waitress about the celebrations, they made Wesley hop like a bunny around the restaurant while Nick stood on a chair, flapped his "wings" and spelled his name in the air with his rear-end.  While those two were making a fool of themselves the Hooters girls sang to them and the entire restaurant laughed and laughed.  It was quite the memorable celebration for their birthday!

We had a wonderful time and were sad to return home... but all good things must come to an end! :)

Here are some pictures from the trip...

Jeff trying to fit into the go-cart... :)  I beat him in the race, although he probably won't admit that... 

Awe, how cute Jeff! :)

Put-Put Golfing! :)

On the ferry to Ocracoke Island <3

Wesley, Nick, Jeff and Gavin... Silly boys! :)

Jeff relaxing on the beach

So this picture deserves an explanation... We were out at a shop one night and we were looking at key chains and noticed that these key chains would flash a person's name on it.  It looked pretty cool!  So we started looking for my name, even though usually it isn't found in these kinds of things... and we came across this... we didn't rearrange anything... it was like this on the rack... :)  We thought it was cute enough for a picture!! :)  For those of you who don't know, Jeff's mom is Cynthia and his dad is Dale... :)

At the same shop, I found these awesome sunglasses... 

Jeff even found a fun pair! :)

The ocean was just so pretty!  The waves were pretty rough most of the days we were there...

Us relaxing on the beach! :)

Jeff found this awesome little hermit crab!  He was still alive and caught in a bunch of seaweed.  We tried to save him and keep him as our pet, but we are pretty sure that he died...

The only day that it rained (our last day there) we found a leak in the ceiling in the living room... Jeff and my dad together engineered this contraption to catch the water and keep the floor from getting soaked... They used a pitcher, a giant spatula and a baby spatula... they were certainly creative!

When we went to Hooters, we ordered some chicken wings.  Needless to say, the chicken wings did not live up to our expectation.  These wings were pretty sad looking, especially if you compare them to the size of wings at the Tavern! :)

Yummy dinner at Hooters! :)

Birthday boys at dinner...

The Birthday Boys and the Hooters Girls... 

When these two get together, I am usually afraid of what may happen.  My brother usually has enough crazy ideas of his own.  When you add Jeff into the mix, they both encourage each other and you never can predict what is going to happen... The other customers in this store were not really sure what to think when they saw these two in their new hats... :)

Like I said, these two are crazy enough alone... together, it is even crazier! :)  This picture was taken the morning we were heading home... 

The happy couple posing for a final picture at the beach before heading back home...

Family picture time!!!

I took this right as we were walking back to the car... The beach looked beautiful! <3

Updates! Jeff's summer haircut!

To all of our followers out there, I am so sorry that we haven't updated you on what we are up to!! We have been incredibly busy since our last post!  We have been traveling tons, working on lots of plans and trying to catch some sleep in between!  So here go the updates...

Before our beach vacation, Jeff decided that he needed a haircut.  Jeff mentioned his plan to get a haircut to my parents, and my Dad told him he could save him the time and money of a salon haircut by giving him his own personalized "salon style" haircut at our house.  Now, my grandfather has cut several people's hair on multiple occasions.  My dad on the other hand, had never cut a single person's hair... not even his own.   Jeff agreed and we borrowed some clippers from my grandfather.

Jeff and Dad sat out on the porch and starting cutting Jeff's hair.  A storm blew in and they had to move the salon  to the front porch where they would be covered from all the elements of the storm.  The haircut seemed to turn out pretty well!  The next day, we noticed that there was a small place where Jeff's hair was cut a little shorter than other parts... We later found out that while Dad was cutting his hair, there was a loud clap of thunder and Jeff and Dad both jumped a little... and the result was the shorter hair in one place on his head.  :)

Here is a before and after picture of Jeff... and one of the barber... :)

Catch up!

Sorry we haven't posted in awhile!  We have both been incredibly busy over the past week or so!  Since our last post, we made another dinner together that was really yummy!  We made eggplant parmesan nests - thanks to the recipe from Rachel Ray!  We also made some bruschetta! Here are some pictures from our meal:

Last week we also made some "progress" on the wedding plans!  We got a budget worksheet created in excel thanks to Jeff's expertise.  Next on the list of wedding "to-dos" is working on the guest list!  I hear that it is quite the task... We shall see!!

Jeff and I also recently visited his family in Clymer the weekend of June 11-13.  We had a great time visiting everyone.  Jeff's mom and I spent Saturday working on a quilt project that I was working on for a friend of mine in Rainbow.  Before we left for Clymer, Jeff helped me cut all the pieces apart for the quilt!  He was a great help!  We also got to go golfing with Jeff's parents while we were there!  I had a blast golfing - especially since I actually hit the ball more than I missed it!

Here are some pictures from the project...

I forgot in the midst of all the rush at Grand Assembly to get a picture of the final project hung up but I am on the search to see if anyone else has a photo.  If I get ahold of it I will be sure to post it!

After we got back from Clymer, Jeff unpacked and re-packed for a business trip to San Antonio, Texas to learn about a new piece of software.  He left Monday evening and returned home last Wednesday night.  While he was in Texas, I was unpacking and re-packing for Grand Assembly.  I left on Wednesday morning and returned home in the evening of Saturday!  I was so tired but thrilled that I got to see Jeff again!  I really missed being away from him!  On my way home after visiting with Jeff when I returned home, I saw a giant Rainbow in the sky!  How fitting?!

Today, Jeff and I went to church in the morning to say goodbye to the current priest.  He is retiring and moving to Charleston.  Jeff and I have really enjoyed listening to his homilies in church over the past many years and we will certainly miss him.  We are looking forward to meeting the new priest who will be the one to marry us!

After church, we spent the day relaxing at my parents house watching the World Cup (soccer) and the US Open (golf).  I took a long nap to try to catch up on all the sleep I lost!  We had a great day together just hanging out and relaxing.  Back to the real world tomorrow!!!

Chef Jeff & Chef Mallory strike again!

Yup!  You guessed it!  Jeff and I decided to make another Rachel Ray recipe!  This time it was pretzel crusted chicken with a cheddar mustard sauce.  We had to crush pretzels, fry chicken, make the sauce and much more.  We had a fun time dancing around the kitchen making this dinner.  It wasn't our favorite.  It needed a little more flavor to make it more appealing to us.  The recipe called for thyme to be added to the chicken coating but Jeff didn't think it was necessary to add the thyme so we left it out.  We decided that the flavor we were "missing" was the thyme - even though it probably doesn't add any flavoring!  

Chicken with the missing thyme "flavor" while it was cooking

The chicken coating... minus the thyme...haha

Chicken cooking again....

Sauce for topping the chicken....

Finished product!

After making the chicken, we made some broccoli cheddar rice (from a bag - not Rachel Ray) and then decided to make peanut butter cookies.  Jeff took some into his office to share with his co-workers.  We made 6 dozen and froze them!  They are delicious!

Memorial Day

As Memorial Day approached Jeff and I couldn't decide what we should do for the holiday.  The weather was supposed to be hit or miss and we felt like we needed to do something outside to celebrate the holiday and to celebrate the beginning of summer.  Well as luck would have it, the Pittsburgh Pirates were playing at home on Memorial Day!  We sat around for awhile that morning watching the weather before deciding to finally go to Pittsburgh.  The Pirates were going to be playing the Chicago Cubs.

We arrived in Pittsburgh and parked at Station Square after a frustrating drive in Pittsburgh.  I was so excited that we were back at Station Square and we could re-visit "the spot" where Jeff made me the happiest girl in the world!  Before visiting that spot, we had a game to attend!  We caught the last shuttle on the Gateway Clipper from Station Square to Heinze Field for the game.  While were standing at the ticket booth buying our tickets, a stranger came up to us and handed us a ticket for free.  The man said he had an extra and thought we might like it.  Well it turned out that the ticket was in the club level seating and we were able to get a matching ticket in the same section for cheaper than we could have bought two tickets in the regular section.  It was definitely our lucky day!

We headed into the club seating and were amazed!  If you ever have a chance to get inside the club seats in Pittsburgh for a Pirates game, we recommend it!  We were able to escape the rain showers inside and were able to head back out when the showers stopped.  The Pirates won the game 2-1!  It was an entertaining game!  We had a blast!

After the game, we caught the Gateway Clipper back to Station Square and had dinner at Bucca di Beppo and then visited "the spot"!  It was a beautiful night filled with great food, good sports and each other!

Here are some pictures from our little Pittsburgh adventure...

Images from the game...

Us at the game...

After they won!

Jeff aboard the Gateway Clipper on the way back to Station Square...

Mallory aboard the Gateway Clipper after the game...

View of the stadium from the Gateway Clipper...

Picture from THE SPOT!!! :-)

Beautiful city view from THE SPOT!!!

Another city view from THE SPOT!!!

Pomp and Circumstance!

The day finally arrived!  My little brother graduated from high school!  The commencement ceremony was held at the WVU Coliseum on Saturday morning at 10am.  After his graduation we had a party to celebrate his graduation at my parents house.  There was tons of food - rigatoni, meatballs, pasta salad, potato salad, lettuce salad, fried and grilled chicken, fruit, veggies, cake and more!  We are still eating the leftovers!!!

Here are some pictures from graduation:


Nick walking across the stage to get his diploma...

Family after graduation...

Grandparents with the graduate...

Me and my brother...

Two WVU Alumni and a future WVU Mountaineer...

The happy couple...

My lovely grandparents... Still together after more than 50 years of marriage!  Love them!

The yummy cake!!!