Best.Weekend.Ever

For our 15th Anniversary we went to Hocking Hills and stayed at Ravenwood Castle. We actually stayed in the Candlemaker's cottage in their little Medieval village next to the castle. The cottage was cute and quaint and blue (my favorite color!). Even more important we LOVE the new owners. They are gamers! They had tons of board games and we even borrowed a game from them to play. It was a different map of Ticket to Ride and we loved it. They plan to have gaming conventions at Ravenwood in the future. I hope we can go - how awesome would that be???

Sarah's drawing of our family. Daddy, Mommy, Jenna, Sarah, and Sarah's doll. Who is missing?

Ravenwood Castle

The great hall

 On Friday we went hiking at Hocking Hills. Before we had kids, we would always follow the trail from Old Man's cave to Cedar Falls and back. This is 6 miles and so much fun!  There were very few people on the trails and on the way back we only saw two other people. Sometime I'd like to do this route twice but we would have to pack snacks to do a 12 mile route. We get a little peckish when hiking.

 The weather was unbelievable the entire weekend. The trees were changing colors, the sky was a brilliant blue, and the temperature was 70's and sunny. Wonderful!

A view from our hike

Erik hiding behind trees

 On Saturday we rode 36.3 miles on the Hocking Adena bikeway. While I enjoy the Olentangy Trail, this bikeway was much better. Most of the time we didn't see anyone else on the path (the Olentangy Trail is very crowded - you are riding on top of other people). Trees provided a beautiful canopy as we rode and the path was smooth and scenic. It was a fantastic ride! We both got to do things we really love. I love hiking and Erik loves biking. Win-win!

The Hocking Adena bikepath

Besides hiking and biking we also played Agricola twice (we both won) and Ticket To Ride that we borrowed from the Innkeeper at Ravenwood. I didn't realize there were so many maps for Ticket to Ride. He also had Pathfinder there which is an apparently more fun version of D&D. He had so many cool games!

 The food at Ravenwood was excellent too. They served breakfast every day and we also ate dinner there on Saturday night after our ride. I wore my blue dress that used to be tight. Now that I lost 4 lbs from the Advocare 24 day challenge I could fit into it! 4 lbs makes a big difference when you are 5'2" or 5'3" or 5'5" like me.

Me in my dress!

This was a fantastic Anniversary weekend! Thank you to my Mom and Dad for watching the kids so we could get away.

74 points on quiddler today and I got to make the word "amino"

Ducks in the Renaissance

Our weekend was fantastic with gaming and the Renaissance Festival. On Friday night we had a board game night and got to play several new games along with some old favorites. I played a new game called Airlines Europe that I liked a lot. It is so similar to Union Pacific that I kept calling it Union Pacific.

Trina, Mark, Matt, and Me playing Airlines Europe

Jon, Michelle, Beth, and Erik playing Ticket to Ride

 Jon and Michelle and my sister and her fiance Dave stayed at our house for the night. It was so much fun to have everyone here! On Saturday we went to the Renaissance Festival. And we dressed up like the geeks we are. I made matching knight's tunics for Erik and Matthew. Notice the distance shot. If you get close up you notice the extremely poor sewing job I did.

Matthew and Erik in their matching tunics

There is no fear that I will actually become a seamstress since I used a sewing machine three times. Although I did buy my own sewing machine that is really awesome. It is a Brother CS6000i. I bought it because of all the great reviews on Amazon. Other than that I know nothing about sewing. I still need to finish Jenna's bonnet for Halloween. Crossing my fingers that it actually looks like a bonnet.

We all posed for a picture at the Renfest. You will notice that Erik and Matthew are dressed as knights, I am dressed as a renaissance lady, Jenna is dressed as a princess and Sarah is dressed as a duck. I'm sure they had ducks in the Renaissance. Sarah is 4, she is cute, she can wear a duck costume to the Ren fest if she wants to.

Ye olde Coopers

 Last year at the Ren fest Matthew grabbed little Vina's costume. This year we wanted to get them together to see what they would do. We sat them on a bench together and Vina tumbled off the back. This is the picture I snapped at the exact moment she fell with Matthew caring little what happened to poor Vina.

Tumble Vina

Michele, Vina, Matthew, and Me (yes it was windy)

We saw the Mudde show, full armored jousting, the girls rode a camel!, we ate lots of yummy food,  saw interesting little shops, and had a great time. We love to go every year even if it does make us geeks. Aaron and Michele, Jon and Michelle, Matt and Allison, and our family were all dressed up. I will post a picture later of our whole group when I get it.

We even played games with Tim and Jen after the Ren Fest. It really was a great weekend of gaming and renaissancing (is this a word?)

66 points on Quiddler today

Sew Awesome!

I promised you I would write about buying fabric at Joann's fabrics so here I go:

I made a dress.

Seriously. A dress! 

I used Becca's sewing machine and she taught me how to read a pattern, which is in another language. It uses words like interfacing and baste and batiste, all words that I do not know. Sewing = new vocabulary!

Sarah and Mrs. Kuhl on her first day

Jenna wants to be Laura Ingalls Wilder for Halloween. So Becca and I picked out some fabric for the dress, an apron, and a bonnet. I finished the dress and apron while I was there and am so proud!  I also included a picture of Sarah with Mrs. Kuhl her teacher in preschool this year. I hope it will be a great year for her.

Jenna as Laura Ingalls Wilder

Me sewing the dress

When I got home I went absolutely crazy and bought patterns and fabric to make more costumes. So now I just need a sewing machine!  I hope I can figure out these patterns without Becca to translate. 

Me and baby Charlotte

In other news:

1. I finished reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan. This book really challenged me to live for God rather than myself. I can't wait to read the rest of his books. 
2. While on the trip I read a good deal of Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier. When I got home, I had to finish this book. This book had the best declaration of love from a man to a woman that I can remember reading in a long time. I was bawling!
3. I also finished half of Silverthorn which is the third book in the Riftwar Saga. This series just keeps getting better and I'm loving it.
4. Our coo* book club is still working through the Mistborn trilogy and we are about halfway through Well of Ascension. 

87 on Quiddler today

Sunny Sacramento

David and Becca's baby Charlotte is so beautiful. I flew to Sacramento Friday Sept. 7 and stayed until Tuesday Sept. 11 with the hopes of helping them with their newborn. I didn't actually help them at all. Rather we just ate awesome food the entire time. And I mean AWESOME!

Starting her early as a Buckeye!

 On Friday, Becca picked me up from the airport and she made us a scallop, mango, and avocodo salad. It was light and refreshing and delicious!

Saturday we planned on going to Napa Valley to see a Vineyard but David was sick (he was pretty sick the entire time I was there - bummer!). However he was feeling up to us going to the Rice Bowl restaurant for Dim Sum. Wow! This was so incredible. The waitresses came by with carts filled with delectable dishes. I'm in love with Bao.  I have to find a place with Dim Sum here.

Becca, Charlotte, and Dave at Rice Bowl

Then Becca and I went to Joann Fabrics so I could buy fabric for a dress (more in this in a later post). Then we hit Bambu for bubble tea. I got a Pina Colada smoothie with bubbles (little tapioca like balls). It was fantastic however I wanted to be daring and try some weirder flavors next. For dinner we had Vietnamese Banh Mi sandwiches. These were pork sandwiches with pickled vegetables. The pickled vegetables made the sandwich delicious and kicked it up a notch!

On Sunday we packed everyone up to go to Napa Valley to the Robert Mondavi Vineyard. The Vineyard was beautiful with rows after rows of grapes and roses dotting the landscape. We got a tour that included 3 wine tastings. The only one I really liked was Moscato D'Oro.  For lunch we went to In-and-out Burger. I've never been there and was so excited to go to a fast food place I had never been. The burgers were a step above the usual fast food.

Me, Dave, Becca and Charlotte at the Vineyard

Grapes and Roses

After the Vineyard we went on the Jelly Belly factory tour. The Jelly Belly factory gives out tons of free samples of jelly beans, candy and fudge. Yum! Still love buttered popcorn the best. 

Babies don't need to wear funky hats I guess

 For dinner we ate Pho at Pho Bac Hoa Viet. I got beef pho and added yummy sriracha sauce to give it some kick. It was pho-tastic!  Then, because we hadn't eaten enough we got sushi from Banzai Sushi. Normally I get sushi from Kroger, the local grocery store. The sushi from this place was a lot better with flavorful sauces.

Me and my menu

Lunch on Monday was at Danielle's Creperie. You may think... crepes? That doesn't sound exciting. And you would be wrong. These crepes were interesting and fun. I had a karma crepe which was filled with Indian spices topped with mango chutney and cashews. I also got a bowl of scallop bisque with huge chunks of mushrooms in it. Then for dessert I had a dark chocolate crepe filled with fresh raspberries and served with vanilla ice cream.

For dinner Dave and Becca's friends came over and we ordered an assortment of takeout Chinese from Regent Chinese Restaurant. It was fun to try so many dishes and sample salted fish fried rice which David had previously raved about. I thought it just tasted like fried rice - which I like anyway. I ate two plates of food but that wasn't enough.

I told David I really wanted to try the weird bubble tea flavors so he went out and got us Durian, Jackfruit, and Avocodo Bubble tea smoothies. The durian smelled like stinky feet and tasted worse. We had to dump it out. The Jackfruit and Avocodo were pretty good. I was surprised the avocodo bubble tea was good (avocodo in a drink??) but it really was yummy.

I flew out on Tuesday probably about 10 pounds heavier.  The vacation was great fun and while I didn't help much with the baby, it gave me some time to just read, relax and eat a lot of fun food (and hold baby Charlotte to get my baby fix).  I really missed my family though. It was very hard to be away from them so long. Next time we go to Sacramento I want them all with me!

90 points on Quiddler today. It wouldn't let me use the word "vader". Why not?

Pumpkins!

Our "watermelons" turned orange and now I'm 100% sure they are pumpkins. Check out our three pumpkins from the garden. We have a lot more pumpkins growing that we will harvest later (they are still in the green "watermelon" stage). On the counter behind our pumpkins we have tons of tomatoes and cucumbers. We've had a successful year gardening!

Our Pumpkins!

We also finished our 10 day herbal cleanse and are now starting the 14 day burn phase of our 24 day challenge. The diet for the herbal cleanse was pretty strict and we followed it closely. The diet relaxes for the 14 day burn phase so we'll be able to eat carbs again. Yum :).  At the end of the 10 days Erik lost 6 lbs and I lost 3.2 lbs. Yipee! Tomorrow I'll go running and I had better be 6.4 seconds faster per mile.

Yesterday was my last day of class for summer session. I have this next session off. Yea!! I'm not taking any classes either so it should be relaxing and fun.

89 points on Quiddler today