Monthly Archives: July 2016

Summer 2016 – travel & Lena!

So after my last test Thursday, May 26 we went home and packed up our condo and then Friday we moved into our new house :). We were a little worried about our movers being a bit late but they brought 4 guys instead of 2 so it went quite fast. Then Saturday, my friend Erin from the PhD program moved her stuff in (she’s going to live w us during this school year) and we had a fun game night and taco salad with my PhD friends. Then Sunday Erin went home to GA for the summer and we drove 2.5 hours to Indiana to see our 5 wk old puppy Lena!IMG_3328

Lena was born April 23 to Macy and Samson who belong to Faye Skelton.  There were 7 puppies in her litter – 3 girls and 4 boys. We got to visit when they were 5 weeks old but took her home after all our travel when she was 9 weeks old. Her name is Lena after Athena the goddess of wisdom in the Parthenon replica here. (Originally we were thinking of getting 2 puppies a mastiff mix and name him Zeus and Lena but decided to start w one this year.)

(<Lena on the left & her sisters)

Monday I cleaned out our condo, Tuesday Ben flew to DC to work at the OFR, Wednesday (my birthday 😀 woot 27!) I got a pedicure (first time in 3 yrs? lol) w my friend Kristine, then I flew to DC and had dinner w Ben at our old favorite Indian place (Spice 6) and went to our friend Danmo’s home where she surprised me with a delicious ice-cream cake and watermelon! Her baby is getting so big! Then my dad picked me up to go up to my Grandmom&Grandpop’s in MD while Ben finished working for the week and joined us on the weekend. Maryland was beautiful as ever and it was great to see my Dad, uncles&aunts, and G&G!

Danmo&Jian Chism&MaggieBear Dad G&GSchollian MDGeese MDmistymorningrun

I went home Tuesday and Ben came back from working Thursday and that weekend we hiked Old Stone Fort to celebrate my birthday :).

OldStoneFort3 deer_OldStoneFort

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next week Ben went to DC again Tuesday morning while I flew to AZ to see my family. I had fun going to the dinosaur museum with Afton and her kids, and enjoyed lots of shopping w my Mom, Chelsey, & Afton and lots of swimming, family, and Mexican food :). It was fun to see my Nanita and aunts&cousins (idk where all the uncles were this time lol)! Ben came out Friday in time for a swim party and the next afternoon we started our drive to Utah (Ben had a finance conference in Park City the next week).

DinoMuseum3 DinoMuseum2 DinoMuseum1 Afton&kids

GrandCanyon

 

Saturday we stopped at the Grand Canyon (Ben’s first time seeing it and I think I only saw it for a 7th grade field trip lol I guess we under appreciate the things we live by). Sadly 10 feet on the trail & I hurt my toe badly (ya ya don’t wear flip flops on a hiking trail). But Ben bandaged me up and we enjoyed the sunset at the Grand Canyon.

We stayed the night in Page, AZ and in the morning we toured Antelope Canyon — very pretty but a bit crowded. We then continued down to Park City, Utah and stopped briefly at Bryce Canyon which had very pretty views (next time we’ll have to take time to hike it).

AntelopeCanyon BryceCanyon

Monday we were planning on hiking Mt Timpanogos  (9 miles each way) but my foot still hurt and Ben needed to prep for his Tuesday presentation at the WFA conference. But we had a couple hours Thursday and hiked 8 out of 18 miles.

MtTimpanogos MtTimp

Besides the conference and seeing a bit of Park City we got to have a taco night w 3 of my mom’s brothers and their families and we spent the last night with my step-grandpa (my stepdad’s dad) and went out to eat w him and my stepbrother Kyle & his girlfriend. More pics here.

Then early Friday, June 23 we flew from Utah to Indiana where we picked up Lena and drove home :). She is adorable. Now at 12 weeks she is sleeping thru the night and has only had 1-2 accidents in the last week so almost house trained :D. She has sit and come down and is pretty good on the leash. We are just working on no nipping, no jumping for food, and no chewing and getting on furniture lol. But she is lots of fun and is doing well w her Petsmart puppy training class and we had a puppy play date w a Bernese Mountain pup that was fun (three weeks younger but he held his own good ;). She loves her new bed, to sneak in daddy’s chair, and to chew everything including her tail lol.     
IMG_3743 IMG_3780 IMG_3925 IMG_4099 IMG_4078 IMG_4089

Becky

 

 

Over 4th of July my friend Becky visited which was lots of fun to hang out and show her Nashville! And she helped us host a BBQ on the 4th w some of Ben’s coworkers and our neighbors.IMG_4091

 

 

 

 

And then my mom visited and taught Lena to love her tail and helped us decorate :).

 

 

Its been a fun June & July!