ALOHA baby!

A few weeks ago, we had dinner with our friends Steve and Helene. Aaron and Steve were best friends in high school and have been friends ever since. Steve was in our wedding and Aaron was in his. We try to hang out every time they're in PA and any time we are in the vicinity of their home in Richmond, Virginia. So anyway, we had dinner together a few weeks ago, and randomly Steve asked if we were going on vacation this summer. We said yes, probably the usual Canada and my parents cottage in Tionesta. And then Steve blurted out, "Do you want to go to Hawaii?" Umm ... is that really a question?! We just about fell off our chairs! You see, Aaron and I have been trying to plan a vacation to celebrate 5 years of marriage. Things kept coming up- 4 new tires, bonuses spent on health funds, and we were no closer to a second honeymoon than back in July. Enter proposed Hawaii trip. Steve and Helene are going in May, have a 2 bedroom timeshare and they invited us to come! Free place to stay with great friends = awesome! All we needed to do was figure out a way to pay for the plane tickets. Enter tax refund. Normally we'd spend it on something like paying off student loans or try to save it, but the chance to go to Hawaii may never come around again! Tonight we made it official. We sat on the couch, compared flights and then booked two tickets to Kauai, Hawaii in May! We are SO excited!!! Hawaii here we come!

My out of office message

Aylen Lake, Ontario, Canada

Plans include eating, reading, boating, hiking, husband, son, repeat. See you in a week!

ahh summer, how i love thee

a month of firsts...

Everett made his first trip to IKEA with me and my good friend Sara Thomas. I always forget that they don't give you bags, so Everett was stuck holding everything. He didn't seem to mind ;)

It seems like we can never quite finish all of the bananas before they start turning mushy. This was one of those mornings, so I decided that the mushy bananas should be used to make some chocolate chip banana bread. Everett sat in his bumbo seat and watched me make it. He loved the noise of the little hand mixer and fell asleep watching me. First try at making banana bread "together" was a success!

First July 4th holiday.

Everett got to see fireworks in Downingtown, although he didn't seem all that impressed?!

First attempt at eating rice cereal.

He was unsure at first, but ended up loving it. We can't seem to shovel it in fast enough now!

First trip to the cottage. I spent my childhood traveling to Tionesta, PA (north of Pittsburgh) and playing in the river, hiking in the woods, and fishing with my dad. I have so many great memories of that little cottage on the Allegheny, and I'm thankful that Everett can have the same!

First tube ride. We dropped Mimi, Pop-pop, Aaron and the boys at the bridge about a 1/2 mile upstream from the cottage. Aaron was so excited to take Everett! He cried for a little bit, but Aaron said he really seemed to enjoy it! It was also Everett's first time wearing his life vest from Grammy. He didn't seem to mind it, which is good because I forsee Everett getting a lot of use out of that little vest :)

It's pretty amazing how much fun we've had with Everett. Watching him experience new and different things makes it that much more fun for us. He is awesome and we're loving every minute of being his parents :)

crazy, busy summer (june)

It seems like from the very day I got out of school in the end of June, Aaron and I have been running. Every weekend in July and August spoken for, vacations, grad classes, weddings, and church softball. We've had a very full summer, but have had plenty of fun too.


The last week in June we went on vacation with my beloved college roommate Natalie and her husband Josh. We went to the jersey shore and had more than our share of fun! They are such awesome friends- funny and laid back and it made vacation perfect! Nat and I did all the things together that the guys weren't interested in like biking on the boardwalk and getting up to see the sun rise. We gorged ourselves on all you can eat crabs, 28 inch pizzas, and of course (per Nat's request) ice cream every night :) It was precious time with friends that we don't get to spend nearly enough time with!

love her!

way too much to eat...



beach!

being studious...

can you tell it's 5 am?

biking... we got too close to hitting a large number of people on the boardwalk and decided that we should probably just take the streets back instead ;)

typical

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice cream guy

my love

crazy, busy summer (august)

August was full of vacations... we went to Canada with Aaron's family. We had some great weather and enjoyed our time up there as usual. It was really nice seeing our Kewley cousins since they live in Virginia and Oklahoma! The dogs loved being in Canada because they were allowed off leash and were able to roam where they wanted. It was awesome just seeing them be dogs and made us feel bad when we had to leash them after we left! We left Canada a few days early and headed to my parent's cottage in Tionesta, PA. We were there during the Indian Festival and got to go to the parade and of course golfing. We feel so blessed to have such incredible families and cherish our time spent with them!

kai getting a stick and logan pretending to be just like him :)

aaron getting ready to take off from the dock

boo ya

love!

marley throughly enjoying the boat :)





logan throughly enjoying marley :)





boat ride at night

the windle fam

The end of August has brought soccer season and the start of rugby for Aaron. Soccer has been fun and exhausting. I am enjoying the opportunity to coach- it reminds me how much I miss soccer and playing! We also purchased an SUV!!! We bought a Honda Pilot and are loving all of the room, as opposed to our 2 little sedans. I know, I know, it's not very earth friendly, but I figure having a hybrid balances it out ;)

our new car!

After such a crazy, busy summer I feel more tired than refreshed, but it's okay because we had so much fun in all of it! I keep thinking that maybe, just maybe, life will slow down sometime soon :)

atlantic city

so, this week on thursday and friday, aaron and i were in atlantic city. Aaron had to do some work at the Borgata and, because of all the overtime he put in on a project earlier this summer, his company paid for us to stay over. So we got a sweet room overlooking the bay, a free hotel, and an awesome dinner at Wolfgang Puck.

the crazy hotel entryway

again

and again

aaron and the view from our room

our sweet shower

aaron and i (and my new haircut!)

instant family of four... make that five

A few weeks ago, Aaron and I got to watch our nephews Aidan and Ethan for the week. It was crazy :) But we loved it! While the boys were here, I was telling a friend on the phone that we had become an instant family of four... to which Aidan chimed in "family of five kiki -you forgot Marley!" We did everything from Chuck E Cheese and boating to cookouts and dirt biking. Yes, dirt biking, Aaron took both the boys out seperately and they loved it! We went swimming 3 different days... the boys are such waterbugs! Aidan and Ethan were both jumping off the diving board into "untle awin's" arms. The boys and Marley got along pretty well. With all of his crazy energy he can be intimidating but the boys told him "no mawlee dog!" when he jumped up or tried to take a chicken nugget ;) Marley got neutered and was at the vet's (or doggie doctor as we called it) overnight. When we went to pick him up, Ethan said... Mawlee dog we missed you. (it was the sweetest thing!) Erika and Todd (my sister and brother in law) came in for the weekend to see our new digs and pick up their boys. We had a great time out on the boat and just hanging out. Erika and Todd both got up on the wakeboard- it was impressive! And Aidan went out tubing with Todd. All in all it was a pretty fun week. We had a blast being a family of five with the boys! Here are some pictures from our adventures and from our weekend at the cottage before:

marley dog

ethan being cute

the boys on the dirt bike

the boys and mawlee dog watching diego

dad and ethan "floating"

kisses for bebe!

Aidan after floating down the river