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.

BJ's Wholesale Cuteness

Who knew that a simple trip to BJ's could produce such a sweet photo-op This was Maeby's first ride in a shopping cart. I think she enjoyed herself and Kinzie really liked sharing the large BJ's cart-riding-space with her sister.

One More Look

Mackinzie has been a big fan of Mamma Mia! ever since she first saw the movie with her Grand-pop. Since that time she has come to know each character and every song. When we heard that the stage performance was coming to Baltimore, we knew we had to get tickets. This past Saturday Laura and I took Mackinzie, along with both of our parents - Gigi & Pop-pop, and Mimi & Grand-pop - to the Hippdrome to see Sophie, Donna, Harry, Bill, Sam, and the gang live on stage. Needless to say, Kinzie was extremely excited!
The show was excellent, the music was really good and a great time was had by all.
At the end of the show, for a monetary donation, the audience was offered the opportunity to get their picture taken with the actors portraying Sophie and Sky. This was the icing on the cake for Kinzie. Here is the Polaroid we got to take home.

More Chuck For Your Cheese

When one visit to Chuck E. Cheese's isn't enough, you can count to Gigi to make a second visit happen!
This visit was special because Kinzie's and Maeby's cousins, Emma & Brooke, had just returned from a long visit to Walt Disney World and they were eager to reunite....
... and where better to do it than where "a kid can be a kid".

Kinzie and Maeby both took a ride with Chuck himself...
.... these photos were captured by one of those new speeding cameras you're seeing now on the busy roads. I keep telling those girls to slow down!
(it looks to me like Chuck needed a designated driver - too much pizza and skee-ball will do that to a mouse)

Where A Kid Can Be A Kid

On Friday night our family was invited to Chuck E. Cheese's in Bel Air for Tasha's birthday party. Tasha is Kinzie's friend from school. Here is a picture of Kinzie and Tasha at Kinzie's birthday party, back in October. We had a great time at the party!
And of course, what is a trip to Chuck E. Cheese's without a stop at the photo booth... it only costs one token.

... a small price to pay for an original piece of artwork drawn by Mr. Chuck E. Cheese himself!
We last visited Chuck E. Cheese's and his photo booth back in December of 2007.

Kinzie was just two years old and we were still seven months away from getting married... (not even engaged yet!)
Here are a couple more shots from the photo booth:

Our big girl!

Kinzie and mommy!

I Heard I Was In Town

Laura and I made a "long-weekend" trip to Nashville, Tennessee a couple of weeks ago (sans kids) to visit some old friends from college. I attended Belmont University from the Fall of 1998 through the Spring of 2001 and continued to live in Nashville until early 2004. Over five years later, I still have a lot of good friends down there - mostly Phi Delta Theta fraternity brothers. As soon as we got off the airplane and got our rental car, we headed over to my friend, Garth's, house. He and his wife, Laura, would be our hosts for the weekend - for which we were very grateful! After briefly settling in, we hit the town to meet up with friends.

On Friday night, we had a great time at the Varsity Grille and the Red Door Saloon. It was quite a switch for us to be out till almost 4:30am!
After some Saturday afternoon recovery time, we hit up the Embassy Suites hotel bar (where Blair was staying), Pie In The Sky for dinner, followed by a visit to the Riverfront Tavern... capped off with a final stop to the "World Famous" Lonnie's Western Room in Printer's Alley. It was great to share with Laura some of my old stomping grounds from my college days.... and another post-4:00am night!

Here I am with Garth, who has been one of my closest friends in Nashville since we were both Freshman at Belmont back in 1998.

It was great to have Blair in town to hang out with us too! He is a big fan of Laura's. "You look just like Sara Evans!", he always says.
Sunday morning included a trip to Sam's Sports Bar & Grill to watch the Ravens lose to the Vikings (I used to watch every Ravens game at Sam's), a trip to Sonic!, and some relaxation at Garth & Laura's house after two straight long nights out.
I'd just like to, once again, thank Garth and Laura Click for opening their home to us while we were in town.... also, to Laura, thanks for taking some great pictures and sharing them with us!
Check out their blog too!

-Bert