Tracks Made in DC......

I know it has been WAY too long since my last post so get ready to get a lot of updates at once:)

 Chris and I got away on a little vacay......our first in many years in fact. Living far away from home, family and friends means that most of the time our "vacation" time is spent visiting our fave people. This trip was much the same, as we were visiting friends, however, it was a very refreshing 4 days away from home because we got to experience so many great things. Our travels took us to Washington DC. DC has been a place I have wanted to visit for the spectacular views and monuments for a long time. Especially since living in Florida and hearing about everyone rave about it! So what better excuse than to visit two of Chris's greatest friends! This trip was spectacular and certainly made me appreciate all the sacrifices that American's have made that have given us so many wonderful opportunities. Although I will always be a true Canadian at heart, the past few years have certainly made me appreciate our neighbour's to the south!

One of the first things we did in DC was go to the Holocaust Museum. I've always been a big reader/watcher of holocaust history so everyone's warnings to me about how disturbing this museum was fell on deaf ears. Boy was I wrong about how affected I would be by this museum. Not only is it a great experience it is also much more disturbing than I ever would imagine. About an hour and half into the tour there was a room full of shoes from people who had perished in the concentration camps. The smell was enough to turn my stomach and I started getting woozy......this is not something that happens to me so I didn't know what to make of it. The next stretch of the tour was the portion that discussed all of the children that were killed in the camps. This is where I finally called it quits and begged for some fresh air. I think this quote on the wall outside of the museum does an adequate job of summarizing the devestation that was felt by this war.

Holocaust Museum Plaque

 Now onto the "brighter" side of things......This trip was exceptionally special for Chris. Unfortunately, he lives much further away from home than I do and with his parents living in Texas temporarily he doesn't get to see his friends very much. Being able to go to DC to visit Paul and Mike was such a special treat for him and we really did have the greatest time with them both.

Chris and Paul

Washington Monument.......much bigger than I anticipated!

WW II Monument

Mr. Kaiser and I at the WW II Monument

Soldiers outside the Lincoln Monument

Abe!!!

The roof of the Lincoln monument was one of my faves.......go figure!!

Korean War Memorial.........I took this picture not only for the monument but also because I've missed the changing colour of the leaves over the past few years!

Lincoln Monument

 Of course, since we were in DC we had to go and see Mike play for the Caps that night. One of our favorite teams!!!! We have seen Mike play multiple times in Tampa but this was a special treat because we got to be back in a true "hockey town" and be amongst the roaring crowd! Mike is definitely a fan favorite there too so it made the experience that much more fun.......especially since he won player of the game:) Woo Hoo GO MIKE!!!

This is Chris's dream child......this baby literally cheered the WHOLE game! So adorable!!!

who's this guy????

Out for dinner after the game

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Body guards at Obama's house

All in all this was such a great trip. It was refreshing and amazing to see so many great new things. Trips like this just make me so excited for Chris and I to start our lives together, keep travelling, and getting to know one another's friends whom we adore so much!

Double the Kaiser fun.....

The Kaiser Brothers

Last week we had double the Kaiser's in our house......for those who know the Kaiser men can sympathize with what a handful that is haha of course I'm kidding. Darcy and Amanda came to visit for a whole week and it was a total blast. There are two big Kaiser weddings this summer, poor Mamma Kais. It was a tonne of fun having Amanda here so we could have lots and lots of wedding talk.

Over the weekend we made a trip to St. Augustine which is the oldest city in the US.....Canada still gets credit for the oldest city (Quebec City) in North America:)

 The sights in St. Augustine are a must see if ever travelling to North Florida. The amount of history is incredible not to mention all the great candy shops, bakeries and restaurants. All in all it was a great week to catch up and get re-aquainted to my future brother and sister-in-law:)

falling into the moat

 As you can see life in the sunshine state is still a blast and there is never a dull moment......until the next adventure, stay tuned.

A much needed facelift.......

Between my constant ramble about my sewing ideas and  how I want to redecorate/improve our apartment I might drive Chris nuts. We have been thinking about throwing out this old dingey storage ottoman for a while because, well, its old and dingey. That was until my dear friend Melissa Hare's blog  inspired me to re-surface it.  Here is the link to her blog entry:

http://melissahare.blogspot.com/2010/08/adding-pattern-and-pizzazz-to-fabric.html

and the final product

a great improvement if I do say so myself:)

The breakfast club.....

Happy Halloween!!! This weekend we had a blast with halloween. Some may think we are a little over the top with our puppies around here but we decided to celebrate halloween by taking the pups to a costume contest:)

The theme of the puppies costumes was the breakfast club. Our inspiration for this idea was of course, Moose and his best friend Shenzi "Z". These two are absolutely inseperable and totally in love with one another. They walk together and play daily following eachother around like little shadows. So a natural nickname for them would be "peas and carrots".

For example:



We decided to try and be clever and dress them up like bacon and eggs. We also had to invite their little friend Bear to join so the obvious choice for him was toast. Here are a few pictures of the final product on the big day.

Z was a total trooper to even wear an egg hat!



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All in all this was a very fun sewing project for me and relatively simple. We were all very happy with the final product. It was extra exciting becuase the bacon, eggs and toast actually won the costume contest for having the best themed costumes:) Not a bad pay off for a few hours worth of sewing and some really cute puppies

Family shot

Homecoming, Cowboys and Sewing club

Again, life in Gainesville was VERY busy this weekend. We had a long weekend, which you think would be relaxing but not for us! Friday was our day off to kick off the homecoming weekend. We started our day off with the Gator Gallop, a 2 mile race down University avenue. It's a tonne of fun because people line the street waiting for the parade to start as we run by. This year over 100,000 people were lining the road. It was a great time, especially because I convinced Chris to run with me......a HUGE accomplishmen, he's not really the running type:)

A view of the street while running

The running gang

After the run we watched a bit of the parade which was entertaining. I can't believe the lengths people go to around here to show their gator pride. It sure does make this city a fun place to live and there is definitely never a dull moment. Here are a few pictures from the parade and what you can expect in the Gator Nation over homecoming weekend.

puppy parade

It was also our very special friend Nicky's birthday last week so we celebrated with her on Friday night in style. At Nicky's request we all put on our cowboy boots and went to 8 seconds (the cowboy bar). Here is a picture of the birthday cowgirl and her gang.

The Bday girl!

Her Cowboy Joe

This was an amazing night and everyone had an absolute blast!!!! The boys even rode the mechanical bull.

We all had a great time and danced the night away. Jaimie was the biggest trooper of the night. The poor girl was hit by a truck last week while riding her bike, but she's a tough one. She still pulled on her one cowboy boot and joined in on the dance floor

All in all Nicky's bday ended up being one of the greatest nights!!!!!

Next on the agenda was for Kimmy and I to have our inaugural meeting of our sewing club. This meeting started out very well........with a lot of humming and hawing......for those that know Kimmy know how thoroughly she likes to think things through hahaha.

Eventually sewing club turned a turn on us and started to get pretty frustrating.....that is why you see the two glasses of wine in the picture above;) After some time of learning about/fighting with our new machines these were the final, slightly altered products

As you can see Kim's clutch turned out darling and my bag/satchel/sewing supply holder came out in questionable form........oh well, we are all learning:) Hopefully we will be able to produce something brag worthy at some point!

Moose, Gators, Tigers, and a Turkey.....

I know this post is coming a little late into the week but things have been a bit hectic. This past weekend was a great one! We started off the weekend on Friday night with me breaking in my brand new sewing machine:) I have been wanting one for a long time and I finally caved and got one! I wanted to start with a small project so I decided to make my main man Moose a little bed for his crate. Believe it or not it is starting to get chilly at night in Florida so I figured he could use a cozy upgrade. I found a really cute flannel fabric at Wal-mart of all places. Here is a close up of the pattern:

And the finished product.

It was a very simple project to start out with but it was a good way to get used to the sewing machine.....especially since I haven't used one since high school home ec! At first Moose was not sure what to think

But finally I got his approval:) Now he is very proctective of his crate bed. If I take it out or even start to go near it he runs over and sits on it.....I guess this is his way of saying thank-you.

The next day was a big day in Gator Football.....which by the way, you have to be CRAZY about if you live in Gainesville or you will be crucified. As usual we headed to the Tailgate to cheer on the Gators as they played the LSU tigers. Unfortunately, we lost:( This is the second loss in a row for us......which hurts when you are used to winning all the time. Here are a couple pics from the tailgate with some good friends.



This is a group shot of the Fosters challenge. I do not recommend taking this challenge. The beer is gross, it gets warm because it takes forever to drink and it makes you very drunk, very fast. Which = sloppy. It is a Florida tradition for everyone to drink one an hour before kickoff. This is a tradition I do not take part in very often even though I have been told I'm not respected for it, in the nicest way possible of course:)

Even the puppies were pooped by the end of the day.

Sunday was a big day for us. Every year Chris and I make a Turkey for Thanksgiving and invite our Canadian and American friends over to help us celebrate. This year we had a great turn-out and a tonne of delicious food. We had a total of 24 people in attendance. We had 7 Canadians there and were supported on our holiday by 17 great American friends. Who can complain about 2 Thanksgivings a year?

The boys even managed to squeeze in some corn-hole outside.......which was great because our apartment is not big enough to have 24 people in!

So between sewing, tailgating, cooking and celebrating things have been pretty busy. Chris and I definitely miss home, and miss family and friends but life here in Florida is always good. Having such an amazing group of friends in Gainesville is definitely what we are so thankful for. They have helped make Florida feel more like home and certainly are like family to us.

The Moose in the Mirror......

This past week Chris and I FINALLY bought a full length mirror. Hopefully this means I will look a little more put together at work.....since I can actually see what I look like before leaving the house. I guess now I have no excuse not to put a little more effort into myself.

My favorite thing about the new mirror is Moose's obsession with it.  The funniest thing is that we haven't been able to find him a few times in the last few days and have found him in our room standing in front of the mirror staring at himself.....he's so vain haha.The proof is on the mirror too. There is a continuous line of smudges accross the mirror at his nose height. I think it is not only adorable that he thinks he is so handsome but it also provides a good little laugh each time we catch him. Especially because he gets so embarrassed when we catch him.

He also loves to sit beside me in the mornings when I sit in front of the mirror to put on my make up. He is insistent on sniffing and licking every piece of makeup I put near my face. He is either very protective of me......or he thinks I do a horrible job.....which may be the case! Here is a picture of how I get to spend my mornings before I go to work.

 

 And another picture of him protecting us from the rough neighbourhood we live in:)