Thursday, July 31, 2008

Gone, Baby, Gone

Sorry I have not had time to post the second piece of Family Reunion Tour '08. Just after we returned we were invaded by two more small beasts...I mean children, which brings us up to a total of five. So, yeah, not much time to write lately. Also, I am headed out of town for a week (abandon ship!) to do some reserve duty in CO. I hate leaving the kids for so long (believe it or not!), but I am really excited to be meeting up my girlfriend, L, who I haven't seen since her wedding two years ago. So you'll just have to make do with some more pictures to tide you over until my return.


Uncle J and Cousin Y (otherwise known as my b-in-law and niece)


Aunt B is actually a woodland fairy.


Hubs takes a well-earned break from pig-tending to relax with cousin RM & uncle G


Pretty much the coolest photo ever ;)


Uncle G pulls his hand-made pig-cooker-thingy around to the house in one of his many tractors

Pig roasting...mmmmmm

Close up of pig. It's good to know where your food comes from.

Biker babes.

The whole Pu family (Pu and peeps to the left, De-I & Wife in the middle, sister MR & family*)

* Sister AinA was unable to make it to this year's reunion due to her heinous choice to be in a dear friend's wedding in India...selfish, selfish ;) **

**You can check out her journey here...I am so totally jealous




Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Family Reunion Day 1: Doin' it NY Style!

I think this picture says it all :)



Trip Breakdown


Day 1 - Travel from Abq to Buffalo, NY
We flew from Abq to Cleveland, OH since my family reunion was held just 30 min south of there, but we took a very (!) brief detour to Buffalo to see Hubs' family since we so rarely make it out there. Flights are fairly uneventful. Kids are whiney but good for the most part. No delays or lost luggage, plus Continental still serves in-flight meals (sort of, it was half a sandwich and a bite size Kit Kat, but that's better than most airlines!). Rental car was a bit of a different story. After a 20 minute drive to te rental car place (WTF?) we find that apparently quotes given by Expedia are a farce as Dollar wants to charge us $300 versus the $166 we were quoted online. After about 30 minutes of waiting and arguing (on top of the 30 minutes we waited in line just to find out that they wanted to charge us double what we were quoted) I manage to get it down to about $260, only $100 more than we were originally quoted* (I know, serious negotiator here ;) Then we have to wait another 30 min while they prepare our car for us (apparently none of the cars that were patiently waiting in the parking lot were good enough). By now the kids are tired and cranky, Hubs is beyond pissed, and I am just trying to futiley keep things from going into a complete meltdown. We finally get on the road a mere 2 1/2 hrs after landing** Then it's only a four hour drive to Buffalo! Oh wait, yeah, that part sucked, too. The kids completely melt down in the car before two of the three fall asleep and the other one decides that she should continually ask, "Are we there yet?" every five minutes. After about two hours of blissful silence, the little monsters, er....I mean angels, wake up and whine for the remaining hour into Buffalo. We do, however, make it all in one piece and are treated to a wonderful evening visiting with Hubs' dad and his family in lovely Orchard Park, home of Ralph Wilson stadium!! We enjoyed a fabulous evening of pizza and wings (a given for Buffalo!) and a huge bonfire with lots and lots of alchohol :) Kids enjoyed being spoiled rotten by their Grandpa John (I mean ice cream for breakfast kind of spoiled...they Loooove their Grandpa John! :) They also enjoyed a stroll at dusk into the woods with Grandpa John and Daddy where the hightlight was seeing a bunny rabbit poopin in the woods. Plus Shelly (John's wife) cooked us a wonderful breakfast in the morning, and I also got to meet John's mother and brother for the first time. John and Shelly have this huge, black Lab named Chopper that the kids absolutely fell in love with. Here's some pics from that part of the trip:








After we left John and Shelly's on Friday, we went to Hubs' mom's house for a few hours (stopping only to take advantage of the 50% off Bills gear sale at Dicks and Friendly's, which is an absolute MUST for me when we are in that area of the country). We hung out with Ma and bro-in-law Drew for a few hours and then headed off to Homerville, Ohio for what will become a later post ;) Anyway, here's some pics from the second part of the Buffalo trip:







*sidebar: Why is it when I go on business travel my Expedia quotes always remain the same, yet when I travel for personal reasons I get screwed? Discuss.


** Definately not a fan of the Cleveland airport!

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Guar-an-tee




WHITNER GUARANTEES PLAYOFF BERTH FOR BILLS

Tucked away in an item from Clifton Brown of SportingNews.com regarding the development of Bills rookie cornerback Leodis McKelvin is an eye-opener from McKelvin’s mentor, safety Donte Whitner.
Asked whether he thinks the Bills will make it to the postseason in 2008, Whitner says, “Do I expect us to make the playoffs?
I’m guaranteeing it.”
Guarantees don’t mean as much as they used to in sports (think Joe Namath). Lately, guarantees often turn out to be a kiss of death. But Whitner’s words suggest a level of confidence that hasn’t been displayed by Buffalo’s pro football
team in a long time, and we like it.

We like it, alot!

This guy here is our starting QB..

And we have the hulk brutha!!!
Of course you can't be a Bills fan without taking the heartache...ha ha ha

Photoshop rules!





Sunday, July 06, 2008

Celebrating Independence Day the Only Way I Know How...With Food!

The three day weekend has been fabulous. We started out on Friday being extremely productive: weeding the front and back yards, prepping all the food for our big meal (grilled pork chops w/asian marinade, backed potatoes over the fire and grilled corn with garlic butter, yum!), shopping for food prep stuff for Saturday's extravaganza, etc. Friday night we decided to forego the large crowds and just set off some fireworks at home. I wish I had gotten some photos of it, but J totally flipped out at the noise and light, so I spent a lot of time calming her down and putting her to bed while Hubs & C played with sparklers and ate cookies (okay, I ate a shitload of cookies, too). But, here's a picture of the morning after...






Saturday we had my parents over for an all-day-long barbecue marathon. Click on the link above if you want all the juicy details, but suffice it to say that we ate and drank ourselves silly (we had actually planned ofr more dishes but decided to skip them after much alchohol contributed to a more lackidasical attitude towards our massive endeavor...also it was like 100 degrees out and we were hot as shit)

Today we got a mite more slothful and decided to expend our energies doing absolutely nothing ;) We recently acquired a summer yacht known as the Scurvy Dog:


Pirates on their way to the Scurvy Dog:


Priates playing one of their favorite pirate games (Poke Your Brother):



A good time was had by all ;) Next week we head off to beautiful rural Ohio for our long awaited family reunion with the G-side of my family. Three days of non-stop action and pig roasting (no really, we plan to roast a whole pig on a spit while consuming mass quantities of alchohol) Don't ever let anyone tell you that Mennonites don't know how to party!