My family and I spent the day on the Chesapeake Bay today! Because my dad grew up on the water, he wanted his family to as well. Ever since I could remember we have had a boat. I will always remember spending most of my summer days on the water. Although my sister and I are older and married now, we still find time to be on the water together as a family.

Jeff had a lot of fun with the noodles. He's like a little kid when he's around water!


I, on the other hand, had horrible allergies and looked like this for the majority of the day...


We spent some time wake boarding...


Thought of some baby names for my sister :)...


Spent time together in the water...


And simply enjoyed each others company. I love nothing more than being with my family!


Although we're all exhausted from the sun now, we left with smiles on our faces.


Off to bed, back tomorrow! Have I mentioned how much I LOVE being home?

Some of you guessed what we were crossing off our bucket list yesterday...and it was celebrating our 1st anniversary together! Our anniversary is actually on Sunday but since we are spending that day on the boat with my family, we went away Friday night. We stayed at the Inn at Saint Peter's Village, a little bed and breakfast only a few miles away from my hometown.

The town is incredibly small but adorable. We visited the bakery, ice-cream shop and arcade (since those were basically the only three places to visit in the town) when we first arrived.


Since there weren't too many places to entertain us, we had to make our own fun. Jeff's best friend Charles and his wife, Amber, and brother, Mark, visited us! Of course the boys found a cliff to jump off of...


My heart was racing every time each one of them jumped. Thankfully, they all made it out of the water alive and without getting in trouble...


Behind the Inn are beautiful rocks that go on for miles. We spent some time jumping them, it was quite the work out.


We wouldn't have wanted to spend our anniversary any other way. It was great seeing friends and being outside the entire day in gorgeous weather! Jeff and I had a nice romantic dinner at the Inn that night then breakfast at the bakery next door in the morning.


Muffins, sticky-buns, fresh fruit, coffee and orange juice. We ate overlooking all of the beautiful rocks and waterfalls!


We were sad to leave this quaint little town, but happy to head home to family and of course our puppy, Ollie. We were even more excited to be able to drive our "new" (used) car for the first time! We sold my older Volvo and upgraded to this beauty...


Heading out on my parents' boat tomorrow on the Chesapeake Bay. Be back then with more pictures :) Hope you are enjoying your Memorial Day Weekend as much as we are.

Is it weird that I love corn muffins for breakfast? I used to work as a cart girl on a golf course and ate one almost every morning there! I realized this week that I had never made corn bread (except from the box) so decided to try. Using Ina Garten's recipe, I knew I couldn't go wrong. Ina always helps me out.

I love mini muffins. I love love love carbs and always feel better having a smaller portion to grab instead of a larger one (even though I usually eat too many anyway). Jeff had a few with dinner last night and I had some for breakfast! I'm sure they will all be gone by tomorrow :/


I also wanted to share some pictures of my day today. Sean and I had "farm class" today! I love Wednesdays because we get to hold baby bunnies and chicks and even milk goats. If only it was a cow...then I could have crossed it off of our bucket list!


He was the first one to volunteer to milk the goat:) And of course, as seen above with the sheep, he made friends with everyone on the farm...including animals. I love my job (most days).

Cait had some errands to run after we got home from school/work, so she asked me (Jeff) to cook dinner while she was gone. This week has been rough because we sold Cait's car last week in order to upgrade to a nicer one, but the only problem is that our new car is currently PA. We won't be able to pick it up until this weekend, so that leaves us with one car to share for the week. This gets a little tricky when we have conflicting schedules and a puppy that needs to be let out ever 3-4 hours! Anyway, back to dinner and my second blog post! If you missed my first ever blog post, you can check it out here. Cait suggested that I just throw some stuff on the grill, and I happily obliged. How can you say no to the grill?? Minimal clean up, bright outside pictures, and all you do is throw it on and let it cook. So I took some zucchini and potatoes along with Trader Joe's mahi mahi burgers to make a quick and easy dinner...or so I thought.

I love the way Cait showed me how to grill potatoes and zucchini on the grill. Cut the zucchini and potatoes in slivers like in the pictures. Then spay some "I Can't Believe it's not Butter" on them, and finish by sprinkling some Lawry's salt on top.

All you need to do after that is throw them on the grill, and cook them on both sides. They always turn out great!

I threw these on the grill to cook and was waiting to put the mahi mahi burgers on later since they take less than 10 minutes to cook.

Everything was going great (besides the fact that it's been raining all day) until I went out to check on the veggies/potatoes and add the burgers on to the grill. When I looked, the fire was out so I went back inside to get the lighter and re-light it. But it wasn't re-lighting. It was then I realized that the propane tank was empty. Dagger. I definitely didn't feel like going out to get a new one, so my easy on-the-grill dinner quickly turned into this:

Dinner was still ready when Cait got back from her errands, but now the apartment was a mess, there were extra dishes to do, and every room smelled like mahi mahi! But we were still able to sit down and enjoy dinner together :)

So sorry I have been neglecting the "food" part of the blog recently. Jeff and I started up a small photography business (if you love us, will you please "like" our new photography page on Facebook?). This weekend we have a total of 5 shoots, so we have been busy chasing adorable children around with our camera and editing pictures! Here are a few of our favorites...

I am in love with this next one...

What do you think? Again, if you like them won't you "like" our Facebook page too? :)

Jeff and I went downtown will Ollie tonight to practice taking some pictures of a shoot we have Monday night there. I also gave Jeff a haircut today! Buzzed it all off. This is how his hair was when we first started dating so I love it :)


Say "hi" to Ollie!


We're off to a friend's house to spend some time roasting marshmallows around a fire pit! Up early in the morning for two more photography shoots! I promise food will re-appear on this blog tomorrow :)

We always joked about the first time we met. I was showing off, doing cartwheels in my front yard at 111 Clearfield Lane. I thought you were so cool. Two years older than me, and you and Kelvie had this friendship that I wanted so badly to be a part of. Little did I know, I would soon have that friendship without having to show off. We had an immediate connection. I'm not sure if it was because our big sisters were best friends and practically the same person in high school, or because we have the same name...but right away we knew how to have fun with each other.

I'll never forget our adventures to KKC Island, or sitting your car for hours talking at Starbucks, or the many Clark/Hunt/Kruse/Versteeg gatherings, traveling to Mexico, the sleepovers in your basement, Creation, popping two of your tires, The Great Wall, the high school football games and dances, Slalom trips to Vermont, our Chinese brothers and sisters, New Year's Eve dinner with our boys, or the last day we spent together at our favorite restaurant, Cosi. Our friendship only grew as we grew older...


Today is your 3rd birthday in heaven.


I cannot thank you enough for what you have taught me. Not only how to be a faithful friend, but how to truly live for the Lord in everything that I do in life. You did that. You respected your parents, loved your siblings, were faithful to your friends, cared for the elderly, took care of God's creation and had a heart for missions. I can only hope to live a life as full and abundant as you did. While many friendships go through phases, ours never did...we were always consistent. You are still alive, I know that. I find rest in that. I cannot wait to spend eternity with you and laugh with you again like we did as little girls at our sleepovers. I'll meet you at the table, Kate....

Kate passed away in a car accident on February 7, 2009. She is now home with her Lord. Although nothing can be done to bring Kate back to earth, I can continue to participate with God and humanity through prayer. Similarly, although we can do nothing to bring back the children who die of starvation or those that pass away due to addiction, we can participate with God in fulfilling His goal on earth. While God cannot prevent all of the catastrophes that occur throughout out world, He continues to redeem humanity through these tragedies. Because Kate was not only a friend, but a sister in Christ, I continue the work she participated in her short time on earth, and join with God in redeeming His Kingdom here. Finally, although I still do not hold all of the answers concerning my dear friend's tragic and unfair death, I find peace in knowing that if I were to go up to heaven asking Kate to return to earth, she would with her beautiful smile, politely decline the offer.

Happy birthday, Kate...I love you.