Home Sweet Home!

Our first two weeks home have flown by. We have loved the fact that we are surrounded by friends and family. We have enjoyed living with Seth, Brittany, and Kylie, and try to help out around the house as much as possible. Seth and Brittany raise chickens, and so we have jumped right into helping out with the chickens and their rooster, Lewis.

Katy has really enjoyed her job and the people she is working with. It is intense going to the outpatient setting since it has been over a year since she has had any experience in outpatient, but Katy works hard on studying every night and being prepared for her patients each day. Even though the drive is a 35 minute commute, its a gorgeous drive through Albemarle County, passing right beside Monticello. 

Our first week home was a busy one considering it was also Katy's first week of work. Wednesday we had a cookout with friends, and then Thursday Dave and Sherry came over for dinner.

Our first weekend home we had a big get together Friday evening with friends from high school and college, some of whom we had not seen in a long time. Saturday we spent the morning relaxing and doing some shopping in downtown, and then that evening went to Ashley Van Fossen's wedding. Ashely was a close friend of Katy's growing up. That night we went to Mom and Dad's where we met up with our close family friends, the Dishmans and the Kuykendalls, to visit around Mom and Dad's fire pit while roasting some marshmallows. It has been way too long since we had been able to see the Kuykendalls, who live in Boston, so that was quite the treat to catch up with them as it was long overdue. On Sunday we spent the day with the Herrs as it was Dave and Sherry's 40th wedding anniversary!

Our second week was pretty low key, which was a nice change from the previous seven months. That weekend Seth and I spent Friday evening hanging out with some guys and golfing, Saturday we spent the day with the Lovells relaxing and making homemade pizza, and Sunday was a lazy day that Ron and Jessica joined us for. Other then hiking on Sunday, we really just did a whole lot of nothing. It was great!

Its been a good two weeks, catching up with friends and family, doing some hiking and some exploring around the Charlottesville area, but truthfully my favorite part has been getting to spend lots of time with my new niece, Kylie!

Smith Mountain Lake Part 2!

On Wednesday evening, August 10th, we left North Carolina and drove back up to Smith Mountain Lake to join the Lovells for a long weekend relaxing and enjoying one another's company. Aunt Cyndi had flown in from Denver to join us, which meant a lot to everyone to have her join our vacation. We also had little Kylie with us on her first ever trip to the lake at only two weeks old! She loved laying out on the sand in her little bed under the tent. She would sprawl out and enjoy the warm breezes while napping the day away. Most of our time was spent swimming, boating, and just relaxing. It was wonderful trip. On Friday, August 12th, Katy and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary, and so we celebrated with the whole family by going out to one of mine and Katy's all time favorite restaurants, The Landing, where Cyndi treated all of us to an incredible meal!  It was a wonderful evening celebrating the amazing 5 years that Katy and I have been blessed to spend together as husband and wife, and being surrounded by our loved ones made it that much more special. On Sunday we left the lake and headed back to Charlottesville to begin our three months living with Seth and Brittany and on Monday Katy will begin her thirteen week rotation at an outpatient clinic in Fluvanna.

Sweet Caroline!

On Monday, August 8th, we left Smith Mountain Lake and drove to North Carolina to spend the next several days connecting with some of our good friends we had made over the past four years in NC. We started off by spending the afternoon and evening catching up with some of Katy's classmates from Elon. We started off by driving to Carrboro to meet up with Rachel Dirito and grab a drink. We then headed into Raleigh where we met up with a small crowd for dinner. That night we stayed with two of our best friends, Ashley and Chris, and enjoyed being able to visit with them and do some serious catching up.

                 

Tuesday we spent the morning and early afternoon with Kathy, another dear friend of ours who has been especially supportive of our travelling as she really encouraged us to embark on this adventure when we were deciding on whether or not to do it.



Tuesday afternoon we visited with several of our neighbors, including our favorite dog sitter, Deb. Deb was wonderful to us and to Colby and Barlow while we lived in Gibsonville and we were sorry the dogs were not with us for this visit.



That night we stayed with our next door neighbors and close friends, Paul and Sam, and their one and half year old son, Henrik. We had a blast with them as we ate at our favorite restaurant, The Village Grill, finally were able to drink some Yuengling (they don't sell it on the west coast), and visited and laughed the night away. It was definitely weird staying right next door to the house we own, but we thought that the girls that are renting it for the year might find it strange if we showed up to spend the night!


On Wednesday I surprised the kids at the summer camp I used to work at while Katy spent the day with Trent and Izzy, the two kids she used to babysit. After hanging out with all my old kids, I spent the next several hours doing some work at our house and our storage unit. Then I met up with Katy, Trent, and Izzy, and we played together and then met up with Trent and Izzy's parents and our good friends, Helen and Rawley for dinner. That night we headed to Smith Mountain Lake for another round of fun in the sun, this time with the Lovells. It was wonderful spending some time in NC catching up with friends and we will hopefully be able to make it back another weekend while we are on the east coast.

Smith Mountain Lake!

Not even 24 hours after we had arrived back home to Staunton, Virginia, we found ourselves on the road again. This time only two hours south down to Smith Mountain Lake for some relaxing with the Herr clan. We got to Katy's family lake house around lunch time, and it was not long before we were up at the pool. We spent the long weekend doing a lot of swimming, tubing, and most importantly spending good quality time with family. 

After 28 weeks gone, we're coming home!

On Saturday, July 30th, we left Napa and started our road trip home. We decided to get some coffee first and a bite to eat. We went to the Oxbow market to a place called Ritual Coffee Roasters that Josh had discovered the other morning and claimed they had some of the best coffee he had ever tasted. Katy and I agreed, it was very delicious. We then stopped at Casa, also in the Oxbow market, to grab some breakfast tacos. Once we were filled up we hit the road.

It was a pretty drive during our first day as we drove through Sacramento, drove over the Sierra Nevadas, then once into Nevada the scenery changed and we were driving through desert. After 700 miles and 12 hours on the road we pulled into Salt Lake City and called it a night.

Leaving Salt Lake

Sunday we were up early and back on the road as we were pushing to get to Fairplay, Colorado in time for dinner with our Aunt Cyndi and her partner, Carole. We were going to stay at Carole's cabin up in the Rockies which Katy and I have visited several times, but Josh had never seen, so we were excited for him to get there and see this part of the country. Once again it was a gorgeous drive as the changing of scenery is so dramatic, from the mountains around Salt Lake to the canyons and sandstone cliffs of eastern Utah to the snow covered Rocky Mountains in Colorado.

San Rafael Swell in Utah

After 500 scenic miles we arrived in Fairplay. Once there we decided to stretch our legs by hiking up to an overlook behind the cabin. We enjoyed the views and played a little baseball with pine cones and sticks. It was just the kind of fresh air we needed after our day of driving. 

That we night we feasted on filet mignon with homemade bearnaise sauce, potato casserole, bread, salad, and for desert we sat around the fire and ate warm chocolate chip cookies! You can never go wrong when Cyndi's cooking!We hit the sack early and all slept like a rock.

On Monday we drove around some of the little mountain towns, but the highlight was going to the Hungry Five Mine and Parris Mill, the remains of what was once a thriving town during the gold rush.

Hungry Five Mine

Parris Mill 

After exploring up in the mountains for the morning we headed down into Denver. Once to Cyndi's house we showered, packed a picnic, and then headed to the Red Rocks Amphitheater for "Film on the Rocks." We listened to some local bands perform and then once the sun set we watched the Pineapple Express. We went to Red Rocks with one of Cyndi's co-workers, Alex, who is our age. If Katy gets a roatation in Denver then it will be nice to know some people our own age already.

View from Red Rocks

On Tuesday we spent the morning doing some laundry and helping Cyndi with a few things around the house. That afternoon we went to Golden and toured the Coors Brewing Factory. It is a great tour (best part is its free) and you get three full beers at the end! After touring Coors we went into Denver and met up with Alex and one of Josh's friends, Megan, who also lives in Denver. We had a few drinks and an appetizer and then headed to Coors Field (it was a Coors themed day) to catch the Colorado Rockies play the Phillies. We had awesome seats and enjoyed the game with a Rockie Dog and Coors.

On Wednesday morning we hit the road at 7:30am and our goal was to push all the way to Louisville, Kentucky. It was a great trip visiting with Cyndi and Carole and, like always, we really appreciated their wonderful hospitality. As we left Denver and the Rocky Mountains in our rear view mirrors, we started getting into Eastern Colorado and Kansas, which seems to run together with long flat expanses and farm land everywhere you look. The great plains, as repetitive as they get driving through them, are still pretty in their own way with fields of corn and sunflowers all over the place. We pushed all the way to Louisville, and by that time it was past midnight and into Thursday, so we just decided to keep pushing the caffeine and drive all the way to Staunton. So, after 1,600 miles and 28 hours from leaving Denver we were pulling into Mom and Dad's house! Mom was at work and so Seth and Brittany brought Kylie over to Wilson Memorial High School so Josh, Katy, and myself could meet our new niece with Mom and Dad there as well. I think we all agreed, it was love at first sight and just reinforced the fact of how thrilled Katy and I are to be spending the next three months in Charlottesville helping Seth and Brittany out around the house and spending lots of time with Kylie Ruth!