A Trip to Pittsburgh

The past few years, I've gone out to Pittsburgh every October to go to the pumpkin farm with E and the kids. The timing didn't work out this year where that was going to be possible, so instead I just went out and went on a hike with the whole family:



Andrew and Katie showed me "Turtle Rock" - a giant rock that's shaped a bit like a turtle:





Andrew and Katie were both counting the steps it took to go over each bridge - there were TONS of bridges!





It really was a beautiful trail, going on either side of this small river/stream/creek/whatever:





At the end of the trail was a soccer field, and so a soccer ball was brought along for the hike:















After playing soccer and eating some cookies, we turned around and made our way back to the car. I tried to take some more scenic photos on the way back:

Botzum Farm

In case you're curious - no, the remodel hasn't started yet. But so far we have the following sitting in our house waiting to be installed: The kitchen floors (dark stained bamboo), the entryway/pantry/bathroom floors (ceremic tiles that look like slate), the dishwasher and microwave (keeping the same fridge and stove I have now)... oh, and the new window for the kitchen. You'll notice we STILL don't have the cabinets, which is the first thing I ordered! They're scheduled to arrive sometime next week, though.

Anyway, I seemed to have skipped over posting these photos, which I took the day John and I got back from our State Park vacation. I went with a group of Akron Young Professionals to a farm to have a bonfire and hayride.

Just some misc photos

I was in Connecticut last weekend and had a WONDERFUL time. Dad took us out to eat at 2 Hopewell with something he won at a Silent Auction - it was a dinner and wine thing where we got different wine with each course of the meal. It was not only so yummy, but I had a great time just talking with mom and dad. During the day we fit in some shopping and they were able to help me finalize some plans for the Big Remodel, specifically helping me pick out the floors (which have now been ordered!). It's all pretty exciting - the cabinets, countertops and kitchen floor have all been ordered, I've picked out my new dishwasher but haven't made the trip to Home Depot to actually purchase it yet... which means most of the big decisions left are all for the bathroom.

Anyway. I thought I'd catch up on some random around-the-house pictures. I'm hoping to finally edit the photos from when I visited Elizabeth and the kids in October so I can get those posted soon.



That's Maia up there. I don't usually get good pictures of her because she's a bit afraid of the camera, but I think this one turned out pretty good.



Above is what my phone looked like after I dropped it on the bathroom floor at work (oops). Luckily, John is a master of all things electronical and was able to buy a new screen for me and put it on. For the record, he was impressed with how well the phone (an HTC Droid Eris) was constructed, and he's taken apart a lot of small devices, so if you're in the market for a new phone and are debating an HTC, I think you have John's approval.



Above is one of the last baskets I got from my CSA. I really enjoyed having the fresh, local, organic veggies all summer long, but I'm also happy to back to planning my meals around what I want to eat instead of what came in the basket that week. That being said, I'm picking up a Thanksgiving Basket on Wednesday :)



John has been just as crazy - and awesome - as usual. I feel bad for him because I tend to stress out just a little when having to spend large amounts of money, and the money I'm pouring into this remodel is pretty significant, so he's had to deal with me going a bit crazy. He's a good man for putting up with it all :)



Playing board games tends to calm me down a lot, though... this is Settlers of Catan, the one we're most addicted to at the moment.



Above is just a glimpse at the sweatshirt I bought from Mohican, the State Park we went to earlier this year.



I love that I live in a house with big, mature trees in the yard... but it can be annoying when I have to rake them all up... at least they're pretty :)



Just something a bit abstract up there!



SHARPIES!



This is the new (ish) furniture I have in the living room - a tv stand and ladder bookcase. It looks really good, and was a much cheaper solution than having something made down at the amish furniture place.



The guy you see above is one of John's friend's younger brother. I did his senior pictures for him. If you're interested in seeing the whole set, you can see those here.

The Last of Mohican

I'm finally done editing all the Senior Photos I took, so I was able to get back to my Mohican State Park photos. Here's the rest from our vacation there:

One day, Johnd and I were exploring the grounds of the Lodge. There were a bunch of unmarked, paved pathways. We managed to find a small "beach" (a little bit of sand, a few rocks and lots of driftwood), that also had a retaining wall with a "bridge" out to wall and then a fall right down into the lake. It was... odd. This next set of photos is from that walk:











Back at the lodge, we enjoyed the (fake) flowers in our room, playing games (Carcassonne) in the hotel lounge, and playing Air Hockey (John won. pbbt.):







On the last day there, we hiked a (poorly maintained/slightly dangerous) trail to a (rather pathetic) "waterfall". I'm sure it's more impressive in the spring, but if you look closely at the photos of the rocks you can see some small splashes. Yup. That was the waterfall. Large drop, but not a lot of water:







And then it was time to go home. I snapped these photos on the drive back to the highway (don't worry, John was driving):

Vacation - Part One

I've been in photo editing overload lately! First we went on our vacation to Mohican State Park, so I have all those photos to edit (still not done), then I decided to do a mini-project for the month of October where I'm taking a photo every day with my 50mm lens of something that I love (I'm also tweeting a quick photography tip every day, too), then this past weekend I went and did Senior Portraits for a brother of a friend. So. Yeah. I'm a bit overwhelmed! But with so many photos being edited, I figure I should catch up here before there's just too many to post.



The flower above is from an arrangment that Mom & Dad sent me after completing my big project at work. I have more photos of the entire thing, but apparently I didn't edit them yet - add that to the list, too!



Above is part of the view from our room at the Lodge. The Lodge has one "main" building that has the front desk, restaurant, lounge, arcade, gift shop and swimming pool in it, and then attached through hallways are three buildings in a row with the rooms in them. We were in the last room of the third building. You literally couldn't get any farther away from the main building than we were. But the upside is that we got this amazing view.



And inside every room was the pamphlet that you see above for the Photography contest - and that's my photo (of the Converse shoes) that won us the vacation!



After checking into the room and unloading all our bags (we brought a lot of food to put away), we walked down to the deck of the lodge to watch the sunset. Above is looking to the north, where the warm colors from the sun were lighting everything up.





Just a couple photos of the setting sun.





The next day started off with kayaking (and we had awesome weather for it) - a 7 mile trip down the river. After kayaking (and a quick lunch) we went on a hike, the pictures above are from that hike (I didn't take the camera kayaking with me because I was afraid to!)



That night we went to eat down at the Lodge, and above is the view from the restaurant.



On the third day, we packed a backpack with some picnic lunches and books, planning to hike to a picnic area down by the river. Above you can see John carrying the backpack. We didn't get very far in the hike, though, before it started raining so we decided to turn around.





Above are some pictures from the trail I managed to take before it started raining (the camera bag I was carrying has a weather-proof cover you can pull out and wrap around the bag, so the camera was pretty safe on my back after the rain started).



Later on, when the weather cleared up, we explord some of the paths near the lodge and found the view you see above.