weekend update: July 29-31, 2011

Blogger's been KIND-OF ticking me off lately. Doesn't want to upload more than one picture into the blog at a time (I can upload into one box, but have to put in pics individually and click the pick button in editing for every single one). Extremely annoying for this weekend's update because I have a million pictures.

Friday night we attended a wedding reception for Josh's boss's daughter, held at his other boss's house, right on the lake. The wedding had been a small affair on Thursday night and the reception was spread out on the front decks of 4-5 of the row houses.

We got a tour of his boss's house - Mike & Linda - they had totally gutted and redesigned the house around 2000. All the other houses have two floors, theirs has three w/ a flat-topped roof. Bathroom on every floor, decorated with gorgeous artifacts from their travels, it was decorated in bold, bright colors and was just beautiful. I have hopes to revisit with my good camera some day for a house crashing post! It's so worth it.

They even had fireworks! It was a very fun night.

Saturday was a busy day! Nikkie, her hubs Matt, Katie and I headed off to Staci's husband Shane's family cabin. Staci, Shane and Kristen were meeting us there. We had lunch of buffalo chicken tacos (yummo - influenced from HowSweetEats blog post). Katie provided all the toppings, and lunch was great!

Katie had a little mishap with the leftover lettuce...

After lunch we geared up, packed coolers and blasted ourselves with sunscreen and Captain Shane took us out on the pontoon boat!

Here we are exiting the canal and heading into Lake Chautauqua!

Trail Mix snacks, paddle boating, ridiculous-word bananagrams and a massive 10 oz "Rodeo" Burger from Village Casino @ Bemus Point (you order food and eat it on the boat! so awesome)

Katie & Mike, Katie, Peanut Butter Cup Smoothie and boating home during sunset

Fun times getting pooped on by birds, celebrating Katie's birthday with cake and playing Pass the Pigs!

Sunday after returning home, Josh and I ate dinner and pretty much crashed at 9PM. We were exhausted!!

We had a GREAT weekend thanks to Shane for being our Captain and big thanks to Shane's mom Rita & her husband Don for letting us stay at the cabin and take the boat!! Thanks to the girls and their hubs for an amazing and fun time at the cabin!!!! Can't wait for another trip!!

Spiked Orange Creamsicle Smoothies

Last weekend on Twitter I mentioned that spiked orange creamsicle slushies were on our menu for that evening. It all started with Josh's request for the above vodka - whipped cream flavored. (see me in the reflection taking the picture? what a nerd i am)

Although the original creamsicle recipe only included crushed ice, Orange Crush pop and the whipped cream flavored vodka, we have since perfected it.

These were so amazingly delicious. The replacement of (triple) vanilla ice cream for the crushed ice made them go down WAY too easy.

Also, I didn't realize we had these fun glasses to put them in.

A fresh fruit or mint garnish would have been nice, but they didn't last long enough for either of us to really care (I'm sure Josh would have drank it from the blender cup). I don't really have any measurements for this - I did a few scoops of ice cream per person, 1 "shot" of the vodka and enough orange pop to give it a good consistency (helpful, huh?). I also added another splash of the orange pop at the end to make it easier to drink from the glass instead of eat with a spoon.

pasta salad

pretty simple, but very yummy! cooked pasta, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, fresh parsley, cherry tomatoes and garlic sauteed in olive oil.

great side dish for a summer night!

i really should blog...

nothing has really been going on here. i have no pictures to post (a certain blushing bride took my camera on her honeymoon and has been spending time now they are home taking pictures of her cat...), and nothing else really exciting has been going on.

summer has been good so far. haven't been able to enjoy our beautiful presque isle beaches however and it's rained most of July.

Nicole's bridal shower is this weekend, Katie's wedding reception for her Pittsburgh friends is next weekend, Nicole's surprise bachelorette party (that she knows about) is in 3 weeks, and Josh and i are performing (me = singing, him = guitar) at a friend's wedding the last weekend in August. busy, busy month!!

anyway, here are some pics i jacked from my sis, who photographed Katie's wedding. Katie is doing all her own editing, so these are just a few sample photos rach sent to me when i bugged the crap outta her ;)

is it seriously the last week of July??

i can't even believe it. this pretty much always makes me feel that summer is over. i've been to the beach once! i haven't really taken advantage of being outside! blah...oh well.

this is what's going on in my life this month:

• bosses leave for Germany next Wednesday for two weeks. i told him i'd stay at their house and watch the doggie. i hope they ask me to!!
  
• weddings, weddings, weddings! one this friday, one next friday and one the 16th.
• "teen-sitting" for some church friends. the woman getting married this Friday asked me to stay with her two girls Saturday & Sunday night.
• ONE OF MY BESTEST FRIEND'S BIRTHDAY! yes thats right folks - kt @ Holy Vataha is turning the big 24 this Sunday! unfortunately i don't see a "birthday ushe" in the cards for me :( :( :( but we do plan to celebrate in some way on her actual birthday. i have an awesome idea for cuppies...can we say Mudslide Cuppies?? or maybe Trifle Cupcakes?!?!
  
• volleyball! eek, i'm not ready for this. practices are supposed to start next tuesday. first game is the 22nd! first tournament the 30th.
• church picnic
• Pittsburgh Post-Chicago training event the 21st. don't know if i'm going to this or not...
• singing at church!

i guess that's it...but it seems like enough...this month is going to fly by as well. we also are expecting a bunch of major projects to deliver and be installed by the end of the month.

dory bought some fun things for the office. more notebooks and some black & white folders with polka dots on the inside - in this pattern [bottom black & white pattern]:

by Jackie McFee

"go up 5 beaches"

yesterday we had our youth group's end-of-the-year summer bash at Erie's beautiful Presque Isle. we had yummy food [mum's awesome fruit pizza!] and an absolutely gorgeous day. it was truly a blessing with the morning being dark and stormy for it to turn out as amazing as it did!

yesterday's event marked my last youth group event as a youth leader - at least for a while. no one knows what the future holds, but after continuously being involved as a youth leader/mentor/creative team member etc since...oh, 8th grade...it's time for a break for me. volleyball [coaching] is coming up in a few weeks and i've been more involved in the music/tech ministries, so i figured a break and reevaluation was in order. i'm definitely going to miss it, but it's going to be nice to have a little more time to myself and all the other things [and people] going on in my life.


and happy wednesday!! josh and i might catch a movie later. and tomorrow i have a dentist appointment. they are going to yell at me for not doing anything about my wisdom teeth yet [i have two only - on top - and they told me last year to look on getting them taken out...yeah, i haven't].

[title quote from student Joel, in reference to a friend who had gone to beach 6 instead of beach 11. it was funny...at the time]