Elijah's Birthday Weekend

This past weekend Jim and I made the trek up to Bakersfield to celebrate our nephew Elijah's 1st birthday. Elijah is one of the happiest little boys, always smiling. He also gives the best hugs.


Here are some pictures from his birthday:

this is good...I need to enjoy every bite and lick of the finger.

Elijah sure knows how to go to town on his cake.

birthday presents!!!

his first pair of crocs

I also got to meet the newest member of our family this weekend, my cousins little girl Josephine. She is a month old.

my other little cousin Sophie...she's five months old.

A Week in Paradise

Jim and I were fortunate to spend a week in Maui with my parents, sister and brother-in-law. There was a lot of rest and relaxation that took place as well as sight seeing and soaking in the sun. Maui has some of the best and most beautiful beaches in Hawaii which we were able to see up close and enjoy. While us girls enjoyed the beaches, the guys were out shore fishing trying their best to catch us some dinner. When we weren't out enjoying the sun, we did what tourist do best...shop.






One of the coolest experiences of the trip was snorkeling molokini crater and turtle town. There were sea turtles swimming around us within an arms reach. We stayed on southern-western coast which is significantly dryer than the northern shore.



Looking around at times it was hard to believe we were in Maui since a lot of the vegetation was dry. We did take a day to drive the road to Hana on the northern coast through the rain forest. Luckily I wasn't driving so I got to enjoy the breath taking views. For the person driving it is a little scary because of the 60 one lane bridges and over 500 hairpin turns within a 40 mile distance. The waterfalls, bamboo forest, rainbow eucalyptus trees, streams, black sand beach and coastal views make the drive worth it.


No hawaiian vacation would be complete without going to a luau. The performers at the luau were extremely talented and we even got to see a fire dancer. It was a great way to end our week in paradise.



I hope you enjoy the pictures!

If you want to see some more pictures check out our albums: http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040861&l=07f53&id=161502075
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040865&l=7d298&id=161502075
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040862&l=edf3d&id=161502075

Time to Catch Up

I was just thinking about how much I enjoy reading new posts on friends blogs and realized that we haven't posted anything new on ours for a while. A lot has happened in the last month...

Earlier this month, July 2nd, Jim and I celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary! I know it is cliche but time really does fly by. To be where we are now is a blessing. Thinking back to the big day brings back so many memories.

For the fourth of July weekend Jen, Matt and Elijah came to visit. Being around family really makes you appreciate them more and also makes me wish we lived closer to each other. Elijah is growing up so fast and will be 1 in August. He is always smiling and talking up a storm. My parents, Jen, Matt and Elijah came up to our place for dinner, swimming (Elijah loves to swim) and fireworks. Watching Elijah's reaction to the first few fireworks was quite humorous. I could tell he wasn't quite sure what to think.

Elijah in his 4th of July lobster shirt

The weekend didn't slow down after the fireworks. The next morning we all met up again to go to the fair. Jim had won tickets off the radio and we thought it would be fun to take Elijah to his first fair. The best part of the day was watching the Fido 500 dog races. All the dogs that raced were under 15lbs. To make it a little more interesting, Jim, Matt and my dad decided to place bets on the races. Unfortunately it wasn't Jim's lucky day so he ended three bucks in the hole. There was a petting zoo in one area of the fair that I thought Elijah would love. I went to go take pictures of him with the animals only to realize he had fallen asleep on the way over. Oh well, we still all had a blast.

Us just before the Fido 500

Since the first weekend of the month, things have slowed down. We are enjoying the free entertainment our puppy Maddux provides us with. Her newest thing is destroying all of her toys, even the ones that claim to be indestructible. I do have to remember though that she is still a puppy. The best is when she crawls right next to you to cuddle...it is priceless.

...priceless

best buddies

Well there is a little glimpse into our life for the last month or so. We are now getting ready for a much needed vacation in Hawaii. We will post some pictures when we get back.


Jim & Jac

1 year anniversary

Yes we have been married almost 2 years, yes the title is correct. 1 year ago last week we purchased the condo we now live in. I wanted to add some pictures of our lovely abode. In fitting fashion as soon as summer hits and after we have had the place for a year, our ac decides not too work correctly. It is a little warm in the house but hoping to have it fixed this week.

Saturday night we went to the casino for the amazing buffet with some friends. While waiting for them to get there i decided to try my luck and ended up winning 110 bux for the night, I was happy.

Happy father's day to all the fathers reading. I spent a couple hours saturday and a couple more on sunday making up some of the best ribs I have ever had. I cooked up 5 racks and we had jac's parents up for lunch. We also started our new church hunt up in our area and went to a new church that was very charismatic so it was an interesting experience.

We are heading to the county fair this weekend, I havent been yet, so should be fun and maybe seeing Get smart this weekend. Have a great week folks

Movies: We saw Freedom Writers: definitely one of the best movies I have seen recently ( iron has been the best). We also rented Apocalypto, I was pretty disappointed. I was expecting a lot since it was a Mel Gibson movie, but was very different from the normal Gibson greatness and was pretty bored with the movie.

Books: nothing new this week, I am still slowly reading the 3 harry potter book.

Just a couple photos:

Or dining room

Part of our living room (fireplace covered, since they arent used to often in san diego)
The front of our place
Our beautiful backyard garden, haha. Our back patio with my young dying orange tree and some rosebush or something.

Weekend is almost over.

I have decided that I am going to write to the powers, weekends should be 3 days long and work weeks should be 4. I find myself having a ton of fun or relaxing on the weekends then all of the sudden it is sunday night and I realize work is 10 hours away. I know this is not a new idea but as I am sitting her writing this it is almost 4 on a sunday and I feel like I just finished working 10 minutes ago and it should still be friday night.
Anyways, I wanted to put up some pictures from the weekend. Went bowling friday night with some friends and my high score was 158, which is about normal but all went downhill from there. Saturday we took the dog down to Fiesta island. It was our first time down there and we had a blast. She is a little freaked out by waves but it was cool watching her play. Then Saturday night AAA had a big padre get together and we saw a rather boring game with a cool walkoff 10th inning homerun. Hope everyone else had a great weekend and heres to another exciting work week.

Book: I just started the 3rd Harry potter book ( prisoner of azkaban) and yes you can punch me if you want for reading kids books.

Movie: To go with my Harry Potter theme, I watched the second Harry potter movie. Another story where the book is a bajillion times better than the movie, but I wanted to see it none the less.

These are out of order but this is her just after coming home from the beach, she was so tired she barely made it past the front door without falling asleep.
Looks like jac is choking maddux to death, haha.
Definitely a little nervous about the water.

A quick update and random pictures

We are both a little red this weekend after playing a doubleheader in softball on saturday and then walking around for about 2 hours today at a street fair. Cubbies come to San Diego tomorrow so I am extremely happy. If anyone is reading this and wants to come along I think we are going to the Tuesday game. On that note cubs have won 7 in a row and they are 15 games over 500. The last time the cubs had the best record in baseball on the 1st of June was 1908 when they won their last world series... this will be the year. Some people have been wanting to see more dog pictures so I put a couple up for your viewing pleasure.

Currently reading: The lake House by James Patterson. I think this may be the 20th or so book of his I have read.

Current movie: We watched Great Debaters with Denzel Washington this weekend. Pretty good movie. On another note do not, I repeat do not see Indiana Jones. Honestly one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my life.

Sorry this is not too long but wanted to do a quick update.

Jim - Go cubbies

PS: I turned 25 this week. Sadly, birthdays aren't as exciting as they used to be. But I did get a new set of Taylormade golf clubs, so that makes up for it.


Here is our nephew Elijah
Just like her dad with remote in hand.

Trying to get on track with this thing

Figured I would post a quick update on here in an attempt to start posting more on here.

Monday night we got back late from a short trip to Chicago. We had a great time but it was packed full of people and eating out.

Friday we went to the cubs game and saw them beat the pirates (again). Friday night went out with some old high school friends in wheaton and ate way too much desert over at houlihans after.
Saturday we had a small graduation party for my brother ( just graduated from Illinois state) and some college buddies were nice enough to drive up from Indiana to go out to eat and then head back.
Sunday went to brunch with some cousins and then hung out with some old church friends for dinner/desert and games.

We had a great time and if it weren't for the lousy weather and lack of an ocean I would love to live back in chi-town to see more of my friends and family.

I figured I would also start adding an update of a book/movie/show that I am currently reading/watching/or hooked on.

Currently reading: Me, Myself, & Bob - a book by the creator of veggies tales Phil Vischer( a family friend of ours)

Current movie: I saw the new Narnia movie. Absolutely excellent. A little weird at one part where it looks like God is in the water and almost gives away the hidden story behind the story, but I am hooked on these movies and the books are incredible.

Here are some pictures of the weekend at the cubs game and some friends at Giordano's Saturday night.

-Jim