Anniversary Trip to San Diego

Luke and I celebrated three years of marriage with a long weekend getaway to San Diego, CA. Neither one of us have been to Southern California, and figured it was a good time to go. We flew there on Thursday evening and flew back Monday afternoon. We spent Friday exploring the Gaslamp District and shopping, it rained off and on all day, but we made the best of it and had a lot of fun. Saturday, we got a rental car and drove to Mission Beach for a late lunch. After spending some time walking around on the Mission Beach boardwalk we drove to Torrey Pines National State Park. It was by far my favorite part of the trip. We went hiking on several of the trails and captured some beautiful pictures. Saturday night we went to a really fun Mexican restaurant called Funky Garcia’s. If anyone is in the Gaslamp District, I highly recommend this restaurant. Fun atmosphere and delicious delicious food! Sunday, we had another relaxing day. We took a long walk along the Bay and then went to a sports bar to watch the Bengals play. Below are a few pictures from the trip.


The Bay we walked around


Torrey Pines National Park

Lily

Lily is our anti-social, somewhat psychotic, but very intelligent dog. This past Monday we had quite the morning. Luke has taken a consulting job with Encore, so he flies to Philadelphia super early on Monday mornings. Leaving Lily and I to go through our normal Monday morning routine, which involves me letting her out prior to getting in the shower and letting her back in after make-up has been applied but before I have dried my hair. This past Monday, our lawn service came early so Lily had to stay inside until they were gone. After they left, I let her out and got in the shower. I had Pandora streaming, it was a good little morning. Got out of the shower applied my make-up, brushed my teeth, possibly sang into my hairbrush, and decided it was time to let Lily back in. With my robe on and hair pulled up in a towel, I opened the back door and called her name. She usually comes bounding from somewhere in the yard and I can’t always see her. She didn’t come right away, so I went ahead and used her kryptonite word “treat” this ALWAYS does the trick. Still…no Lily…I started to panic a little and walked as far as I could bare foot without going in the cold, wet grass. I didn’t see here anywhere. I ran back in the house put on clothes (t-shirt and shorts) and flip flops and came back out. Took 3 steps into the yard so I could see the gate, and realized the lawn service guy had left the gate open.

FREEDOM for Lily, and panic/stress for Alex…I walked down our drive way calling her name and couldn’t see her anywhere. I called Luke, but his phone was still off since he was flying. I ran back in the house, grabbed her collar along with my keys and started the search. I slowly drove up and down the streets in our neighborhood, asked people walking if they had seen a brown dog, and called her name. I finally got Luke on the phone and I was a bit upset to say the least. I decided that I need to check Atlanta Highway, even though the thought of it made me nauseous. We live one house in from a very busy 4 lane, 60 mph highway. I figured if she ventured out there, I can only expect the worse. I drove about a mile each way, and no Lily. This made me very happy. I decided to check our neighborhood again. After about an hour of searching for her I decided to come home and figure out the next plan of action. (I was not as calm as this is sounding). I pull into the drive way and there is Lily in our neighbor’s front yard. I was elated and mad at the exact same moment. If you know Lily, the next part is the worse. She loves the game chase (which we will not teach our next dog). Long story short, I can’t catch this dog, and my empty promises of “walks, car rides, treats, and trips to the park” are not working. Luke calls our friend Travis and he comes over with his dog, Sam. After another 15 or 20 minutes we were finally able to get Sam in the house and Lily followed. Phew...what an exhausting morning. The lawn service people received a wonderful email and call from Luke.


She only looks cute and innocent...

Weekend in Ohio

This past weekend we went back to Ohio to visit family. Friday, we spent a lot of time at Grandpa and Grandma Chaney’s house. We sat and visited and reminisced on different things that have happened in the past, talked about why Grandpa stopped smoking. It’s kind of a cute story; he quit smoking because he doesn’t like paying taxes and decided this was one tax he didn’t have to pay. This went into effect January 1st, so he smoked up until then, but after that New Year’s Eve he quit cold turkey. After our visit with them, we drove to Fort Loramie and met Dad and Ann at the German Festival. It was fun and Luke was able to enjoy some yummy German beers and food. The potato soup was to die for! Saturday we spent the day watching Amy tear it up on the volleyball court. Saturday night we had a lovely dinner with Mom, Grandpa and Grandma Hoying at Outback Steakhouse. Another great visit with Grandparents where we reminisced on past events, shared stories, and talked about the different happenings in our family. Sunday, unfortunately, Luke and I had to travel back to good ole Alabama.

Last Beach Trip of the Summer?

One of the only advantages of living in Montgomery, Alabama is the fact that we are 3hours from the beach. Two weekends ago, Luke and I decided to take advantage of this and spent 3 days in Destin, FL, one of our absolute favorite places on the Gulf. We had a fun and relaxing time. Since I spend so much time in Birmingham, I have a lot of hotel points, so every time we venture down there we use my Hilton Honor points and our hotel room is free! I would say this was probably our most fun visit to Destin. Friday, we spent the day on the beach and the weather was perfect. It wasn’t too hot, and there was a nice breeze. Friday night we decided to have a date night and went to Ruth Chris. It was absolutely wonderful, we had a saxophone player serenading the crowd who was very good, and the food was amazing as per usual. Saturday, we got up and drove to Fort Walton; they have a lot of fun restaurants on the beach. We parked along the boardwalk and spent a few hours on the beach and when we had had enough, went to one of the fun seaside restaurants, sat on the deck in the shade and listened to the waves. It was especially nice because they were broadcasting all the college football games. Saturday night we went to Howl at the Moon, a dueling piano bar. (I love dueling piano bars!).This one was a lot of fun because they played more instruments then just the pianos, and they did fun routines. Sunday, we decided we wanted a few more hours on the beach since the weather had been so wonderful. We spent another hour and half relaxing on the beach, came back to the room, got ready and went to the outlets before we headed back home. We didn't take many pictures from this weekend, I guess that's what happens when you have a really good time.

A few key highlights from the weekend; I stepped on a dead jellyfish, when Luke told me I was standing on said jellyfish I screamed and jumped, naps everyday (key!), I almost fell off the elliptical in the hotel gym, Luke’s great idea to get a bottle of Captain Morgan to spike our Diet Pepsi’s from Taco Bell (ha-ha!) while sitting on the beach, and Luke of course, doing pull-up’s any chance he could in the hotel.


Jellyfish! Yuck


Luke and I are a little red...we bought sunscreen after the second day.

Attempting Paleo

Luke has been doing Crossfit consistently since January/February of this year. He has started to see a lot of positive results. Along with Crossfit they recommend doing Paleo or a caveman type diet. I like to think of it as a less stringent Adkins diet. We decided this past weekend we would start to slowly transition. We’re not going to take it seriously or cut any major food groups from our diet, but wanted to try and eat 70 – 80% Paleo. This past Saturday was our first full meal. We made homemade meatballs and homemade marinara sauce. It was DIVINE! We have always wanted to make our own marinara sauce and finally took the time this past weekend. We even bought a bigger food processor for the chore. Alex is working a conversion for the next 2 weeks, which tends to make dieting a little difficult. She sits in a room full of cookies, chips, pop, candy, etc. anything you could possibly imagine, but is trying her best despite her surroundings. Here’s to a healthier Albertson household!


A picture of the our delicious dinner!

Lake Martin, AL

I thought I should do a post on the lake Luke and I have spent a lot of time this summer. It’s located in Equality, AL about 45 minutes from our house in Montgomery. Our friend Kevin has a boat there and we have been out on the lake several times this summer. It’s a very clean man-made lake created and maintained by Alabama Power. We usually leave our house in the morning and get there by 11:00, load the boat, and spend the day either riding around or swimming near Chimney Rock. It’s a pretty big rock where boats gather, and people climb up on the rock and jump off. Luke actually jumped off “Chicken” rock a few weeks ago, which is a little shorter than Chimney Rock. Around 2:00 – 3:00 we frequent Chuck’s marina, which is a really great pizza place! Below are various pictures that have been taken during our weekends spent at the lake.

Weekend Update

Luke and I spent a lot of the past weekend traveling. We flew into Kansas City, MO drove to Hastings, NE to visit Luke’s family (Stephanie, Matt, Saylor, and Tagg Pershing). We had a wonderful visit with a few HOME cooked meal s– always a big win for me. We got a grand tour of Hastings, NE and spend the evening talking and catching up. It was a really fun visit. The next day we drove to Salina, KS for Katie and Regan’s wedding. Katie and Regan are good friends of ours from Kansas City, and we met while I was still with Cerner. Here are a few pictures from our adventures this past weekend.


The newly weds! Congrats Katie and Regan!


Luke and I at the wedding


Windmill we saw while driving....either in Nebraska or Kansas


Luke trying to figure out how we're going to get to Hastings.


Flooding on the way to Hastings, NE