OBX: Wrap up

It has been almost a week since we left Corolla - Outer Banks, North Carolina. I guess its about time that we wrapped up that portion of our summer on the blog.
Survivor: OBX proved to be a bit of a bust this year. After Josh was voted out on Day 1, the Trymynuts Tribe lost the immunity challenge again. This time, Matt was voted out... ... he looks pretty sad with his bags packed in this picture, but it was his own vote for himself that sealed his fate. This trend continued when the Trymynuts Tribe lost a third consecutive immunity challenge on Day 3. The last three tribe members, Gigi, Mandy, & Emily all voted out Gigi... yes, that means Gigi voted for herself. On Day 4, the Lake Kick-A-Butt Tribe finally lost their first immunity challenge. All five tribal votes were cast for Pop-pop, resulting in another case of ousted player voting for themselves. It was obvious that nobody wanted to hurt any feelings - which is a good thing, but not the best scenario for a no-holds-barred family Survivor battle. Jeff Probst would be disappointed. In hindsight, we should have stipulated from the beginning that you could not vote for yourself, but nonetheless the excitment of Survivor: OBX had been lost and the final days of the trip were filled with more wholesome activities.
On Wednesday, Laura and I took our girls and cousin, Emma, to the North Carolina Aquarium in Manteo - about an hour from our house in Corolla. Because we are annual members at the Maryland Zoo, we get free admission to many other zoos and aquariums throughout the country, this being one of them. It was much smaller and not nearly as great as the National Aquarium in Baltimore, but for free admission, we weren't complaining. It was a great way to spend a rainy day.
Here are Maeby, Emma, & Kinzie posing in front of one of the tanks.

Maeby really enjoyed seeing the fish! She pointed and talked to everything in sight.

There was a nice little park on the aquarium property (right on the water), so we took a few pictures after the clouds parted.

Laura poses with the girls by the fountain.

Our last few days at the Lady of the Lake house in Corolla were relaxing and lot of fun.
Kinzie and Maeby really enjoyed the trip!

And Gigi & Pop-pop spent lots of quality time with each of their granddaughters.

Kinzie helped Gigi work on some of her homemade jewelry...
... and Pop-pop tickled Maeby silly!

Many of you have already heard details from our post-Corolla trip to Ocracoke Island, but for those who haven't, you'll have to wait for the next blog post....

Sroka Survivor: OBX episode 1

Due to internet difficulties, we are a few days behind.... This is from Sunday....

Sunday was a SPECIAL day because it was Brooke's 3rd birthday! :) So Mandy made a beautiful cake...

and here's the birthday girl...
It was Matt and Emily's night to make dinner. They make yummmmmy shishcabobs!

Once the girls were in bed, it was time to let the games begin! .... We started by making teams. We had papers in a bag with either the number 1 or 2. Whichever number you picked, thats what team you were on. We then took a few minutes to come up with our team names and a little strategy if need be.... Here's what it came to be.... (***note: I cannot be held accountable for the other teams name...***)

After teams were chosen we then started our first individual immunity. If a player wins individual immunity they may give it to another player if they choose. If their team is not up for trbal council, then they may give immunity to someone on the other team....Our Individual Immunity game for tonight was wering a pedometer on your head for thirty seconds and however got the most "steps" won. Here is a little taste of the fun haha....

Bert's turn:

PopPop's turn:

After all was said and done, Emily won with 128 "steps" in 30 seconds (shew!). Here is proud Emily with the immunity tiara.

But don't worry my friends, the night is still young. We still have tribe immunity up for grabs. To decide which tribe had to go to tribal council, we played a cornhole tournament.

After three tense games, Lake Kick-A-Butt Tribe won! Watch the videos below to see how Tribal Council turns out:

The votes are in:

So after our first day of Survivor, TryMyNuts Tribe choked and kicked off a strong player. See you next time on Sroka Survivor: OBX

OBX Day 1

So we packed up the car the night before and when our 3am alarm went off, we put the girls in the car and headed to outer banks hoping the girls would sleep most of the way.... They definitely were awake most of the time, but thanks to Sleeping Beauty, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Little Einsteins, they were quiet and content. We didn't hit any traffic at all and were in our Corrolla destination by 10am. Unfortunately for us, they wouldn't give us the key until 4pm. So for the next 6 hours we went to some fun shops, had subway, drove around, and went to the wildlife preserve museam/big grassy area to run around. Around 2 we were joined by pop-pop, gigi, sissy and chris (Chrissy??) ....went grocery shopping then GOT THE KEY!!! yayyyyy!!!

We start off with a lovely game of Chutes and Ladders (PopPop made Kinzie cry because he didn't let her win!)

Then PopPop almost burned down the Lady of the Lake.....

I love this pic of Kinzie and Bert swimming....

Matt and Emily finally got here around 8ish and we played a crazy game of spoons...

Josh, Mandy, Emma, and Brooke got in around 10 but by then everyone was beat from a long day of driving...

Stay tuned for the Survivor intro later today! :)

Red, White, & Blue

We had a really great Fourth of July weekend! My parents held a cookout on the waterfront for family and friends. The weather was nice, the food was good and the fireworks were excellent!

For the occasion, Laura broke out her red, white and blue dress... ... baby Mackinzie wore the outfit back in July of 2006 when she was just a chubby little nine-month old. Now, in 2010, Delaney is wearing the same outfit at almost 15 months old - not quite the "fat-baby" that her big sister was. ("fat-baby" being Kinzie's term for her younger self :)
My wonderful wife, although having shorter hair - still just as beautiful four years later!
Speaking of which, Laura and I also celebrated our second wedding anniversary this weekend on July 5th. Loyal blog readers will remember that we actually started this blog as a countdown to the wedding back in 2008 - since that time I have experienced the most amazing two years of my life and I look forward to each day, week, month and year I get to spend with this wonderful woman and the two beautiful girls she gave us!

(photo courtesy of Mandy Sroka Photography)

"Workin' at the Car Wash, Girl"

This past Saturday we volunteered to help raise some funds for a good cause. A car wash was held at Broadneck Evangelical Presbyterian Church to support Matt & Emily Sroka's upcoming trip to Tanzania. They will be working for Village School International, teaching English and sharing the gospel.
While I worked the drying and window washing station, and Laura scrubbed and rinsed, Mackinzie split her time between hosing off cars and bringing in the business with her cousin, Emma.
(photo provided by Gale Peck c/o Emily Sroka)
We had a fun afternoon altogether.
Matt and Emily have set up their own blog and we encourage you to follow them and keep them in your prayers. They depart in September and will be in Africa for almost an entire year!

Two Weeks From Tomorrow

Long time, no blog...
Summer 2010 is upon us and along with it, we hope to do lots of blogging.
Two weeks from tomorrow we depart for our summer vacation. We will be spending an entire week in the Outer Banks, North Carolina (Corolla) in a big beach house with the entire Sroka family. You might remember we made the same trip two years ago.
After that, we will continue to head south to Orlando, Florida (technically, Leesburg, FL) where we will spend the remaining three and a half weeks enjoying some relaxation and Disney magic. (I will be trying to squeeze somewhat of a regular working schedule in there too)
This trip will require lots of driving, so hopefully Laura and I will enjoy lots of this:
..... and this:
Be sure to check back regularly to see what we have been up to. We'll be sure to include lots of photos!
Also, check out the new Twitter feed on the right-hand potion of the blog where you can receive live real-time updates of what is going on with me and Laura.

Playoff Recap

Laura and I watched "Julie & Julia" last night (because apparently Netflix thinks its funny to send you a movie that is actually 15th in your queue). Anyway, it got us talking about blogs and we realized that while Laura usually does the summer blogging, I've been dropping the ball lately. So here is a little recap of the last few weeks. (... I hope Erin doesn't mind me "stealing" her photos. She is the memory-keeper, after all)We hosted a "front-yard" tailgate for the Ravens/Colts AFC divisional playoff game on Saturday, January 16th. While the result of the game sent everyone home unhappy, the pre-game festivities were very fun! Will and Brittany brought the fire pit to keep us all warm.

We had lots of food - everything from pizza to steamed shrimp to taco dip to buffalo wings to taquitos...

Everyone brought their kids. Here is Dustin posing with Ian and our own Maeby.

Justin & Sam brought Jackson dressed in his Ravens gear!

Brothers rocking our goofy Ravens hats.

The Taylor family stayed warm in the front yard.

I'm pretty sure that Mike had a purple shirt on somewhere under all those layers.

.... meanwhile, Mackinzie and her cousin Emma supported the Ravens by wearing matching Cinderella dresses.

So obviously, like I said, the Ravens disappointed everyone in the end, but we did it up right that night.
Laura and I just arrived home from a long weekend in Tampa, Florida. We celebrated her birthday on Friday, January 22 and my birthday on Monday, January 25. (My 30th) My cousin, Beth took lots of pictures, so I'm hoping to get my hands on some copies soon and maybe I'll post a new blog again soon.