Just messing around in Utah!

Not too much going on...we are hanging out in Utah until mid December when we head up to Washington for a couple of weeks and then back to PA. I drove out to Utah from PA with my Mom and the kids and Steven flew after an interview in Buffalo, NY. Steve started his trip out here with a 2 week rotation at the UofU anesthesiology department, which he loved! We got here a week later after battling a snow storm in Wyoming and Nebraska. My Mom and I spent 3 wonderful days in places like Ogallala, Nebraska. We got to Utah at 6:45PM on Halloween so Bennett threw on his costume and headed out trick-or-treating with his cousins. We had a blast at Aunt Genevieve's house the night of Halloween. Mom had to head home the next day to Spokane, so we barely made her flight. We were very lucky to be able to celebrate Halloween at all this year! Since then we have just been enjoying family and hanging out with friends. I am working part time while I am here at Banana Republic at the Gateway (which has been really fun so far!). Steve is headed off to Iowa City, IA and Omaha, NE next week for more interviews. Good thing I have awesome In-Laws who help me with the kids! I think I have eaten Cafe Rio like 5 times already too. We are loving the SUNNY days and family packed weekends!

Family Picture Fall 2009

Our first day of Fall Festivals

The kiddos and Mommy at our first outing for the Fall season in Central PA!


Love a John Deere


Bennett picked out his favorite gourd, there were many to choose from!


This was at a Fall Festival at greenhouse near our home in Hershey, Stauffer's of Kissel Hill.

Bennett learned to ride a 2-wheel bike

One day Bennett told me that Daddy needed to take off his training wheels because he could ride his bike without them. The next day Dad did and Bennett just took off! He had a little trouble starting at first, and now a month later hes a pro!

Our Trip to Maine

We took a family trip to Maine in August. I am a little bit of a slacker when it comes to actually documenting our life so I thought I would post a little bit of what we did...

1) We drove up to York, Me our first day and spent the night. Before we even got to our hotel that night we stopped in Portsmouth, NH to go to a "Good Feet" store (I know sounds exciting!!) Its a store that sells insoles for shoes. I know you are thinking what adventurous people we are, but if you knew my father in law...you would know that if he wants you to do something - JUST DO IT- life will be SO much easier!
2)Day Two we went to York Beach and Nubble lighthouse. It was very picturesque. The beach was fun, the water was decently warm and the lighthouse was really pretty. We continued to drive through little towns up the coast.
3) Olivia had never jumped off of a bridge, so we saw a little one with 12 yr olds jumping off and we jumped off too! We even convinced Steve to do it too. Fearless.
4)We changed a ton of blowout diapers! The worst one of all there on the grass by the bridge we jumped off. A little treat after jumping off, I guess it scared Elizabeth!
5)We stayed night two in Brunswick, ME.
6) Wake up and go to Freeport to shop at some pretty cool outlet stores. Its the capital of LL Bean or something too. There was a huge LL Bean store, but more impressive was the Northface Outlet.
7)Drive, Drive, Drive to Bar Harbor, ME. We stayed 3 nights at a campground in Bar Harbor right outside of Acadia Nation Park.
8) We went to Acadia and drove around the park. We saw tons of really cool places with awesome waves (there was a hurricane off shore!), beautiful seashore with rocks and trees, pretty scenes of the ocean with cool boats and islands. It was really breathtaking! We saw Thunder Rock, Sands Beach, and lots of cool hiking trails.
9) We went to a cool magic show at our campground and swam in the pool that was closer to a hot tub because it was so warm! Did I mention that we swam at all of our hotels, when you are 4 this is more exciting than the vacation itself!
10) Pick out a live lobster and eat it! I got to eat a whole lobster that I picked out, they cooked, and I cracked open and dipped in butter. No one else appreciated this. THE BEST LOBSTER I HAVE EVER EATEN.
11) Stroll the streets of downtown Bar Harbor, very cool and quaint. Pretty shop lined streets, neat restaurants, and fun Inn's.
12)I forget already a lot of what we did.
13) We drove another loop of the island on Bar Harbor and got to see another lighthouse. Bass Harbor Head lighthouse. It is still lived in today and active. We got to walk right up to it and overlook the ocean.
14) Drive to Newport, RI.
15) We stayed in Newport for 2 nights and spent our full day there touring the Elm's, a mansion owned by coal mogul Edward Berwind. It was built in 1901 and was only a "Summer Cottage" for the coal mogul. It cost 1.5 million to build way back then. AMAZING. Enough said, if you ever get the chance to go to Newport, RI...GO!
16) We drove a scenic loop around the island and saw a little of Fort Adams. We then toured downtown Newport and had a great time taking amazing pictures at sunset and shopping in little tourist shops. We had ice cream at a little restaurant and called it a day.
17)Drive back to PA in a day. Exhausting.

So that was our trip to Maine and Rhode Island. What a Blast. I hope one day we do it again.

Cafe Rio Post #2; Kids in training...

Here are only a couple of the kids in training to LOVE Cafe Rio. We are starting out there little lives the right way! There were 8 kids, 4 babies, and 2 on the way! I'm not sure how we fit 20 adults and 12 kiddos in our house, but it sure was worth it.

Cafe Rio Sunday...again!

We have occasional Cafe Rio parties out here in PA. Usually its our class of 2010, but we had some guests this time! Here are some pictures of the party. Jordan gets props for the awesome quac and being faithful to the tortillas all night long! Mel gets props for her AWESOME cafe rio rice (and also for leaving me with the leftovers)! Chrissy gets props for the nicely cut romaine lettuce (if the lettuce is cut wrong, the whole night gets thrown off!) Jessica Heslop, we use her last name because she just married Jeff and its fun to call her by her new name, gets props for the creamy tomatillo dressing, Ashely brought the BEST peach and raspberry pie ever! Katie picked out the most beautiful bunch of cilantro and chopped it so nicely! Becky did amazing black beans, well maybe Joel too....Seriously amazing beans! I don't want to forget Nancy's prop for her (as always) perfect pico! Wes brought the best coconut sorbet ever, but the best part is that no one ate it so we got to keep it all for ourselves! Thanks everyone for an awesome party.