Weekend with Nikki!

This last weekend, the 22nd, we visited Nikki in Austin! She was there for work for 2 weeks - so we went to say hello on Sat/Sun. Nikki's co-workers told her to check out Hamilton Pool (a sunken grotto), so we headed out there, then Reimers Ranch (a park right next door) and then dinner at the Tree House Grill with Kira - what a perfect night!! Kira was ironically in town for a conference that was at Nikki's hotel! And of course, we had to show Nikki Magnolia Cafe for breakfast before we left!

10K Trail Run!

August 15th, we ran our first 10K Trail Run with Paul and Christina at Pedernales Falls State Park! It was a blast and WAY harder than a road 10K! I even got an injury!!! The trail was very pretty though - lots of hills and rocks! Before we got to camp Friday night, we stopped at a restaurant in Austin for a pasta dinner - what a gem! This place - the Treehouse Grill - was amazing! Great food, live music and $3 beers! We got some carbs and even had desert! After the race Saturday morning, we headed to New Braunfels and went tubing to soak our tired bodies! We had a blast down the Comal and then had a fantastic Mexican dinner before heading home Sat night.

Ed and Paul enjoying our Italian Dinner!

Christina and I post-run!

My knee injury! (had to take pics before I could clean it!)

Christina and Paul post run - enjoying a drink!

The Pedernales

Summer Part 2

We left off at July 4th in the last post...so what happened next?

Ed and I were planning to attend the Outdoor Retailer show in Salt Lake City, UT in mid-July, so this year, we decided to go a few days early and enjoy a little bit of the area. A few thoughts about Salt Lake City: beautiful, breathtaking, outdoorsy, adventurous and MORMON! The Mormon religion is a definite way of life in this area. Here in Houston, we have drug stores on every corner...there they have CHURCHES on every corner - no lie. I think we heard the average was 1 church every 0.25 square miles. Insane! Regardless, they have so many trails and outdoor activities - we did a hike up an 11,000 ft mountain - although the altitude hit us harder than we imagined and we didn't have enough time or water to make it to the top. Here are a couple UT photos:

This was not snow - but rather fuzz from a plant that was all over!

You can see Salt Lake in the background

The summit still had snow! In July!

The Outdoor Retailer show was a ton of fun! We got to see so many new products that will be coming out in January 2009! We even got a TON of samples - some were totally free and some were at a severe discount:

Sadly, while we were in SLC, Harmony headed back to VA. I (Kristin) did get one last picture with her before she left:

After getting back from SLC, I was busy busy getting ready for Christy's babyshower! The baby is due any moment now! Christy's mom is trying to open her own cake business, so she made the cake - how awesome!! It's all sugar!

After the shower, which was quite exhausting for both the Mom-to-be AND me!

The next weekend, we headed to New Orleans for some great food and Jazz music with Brett and Lisa! The Jazz festival - Satchmo - was happening downtown along with tons of other things! We got to visit Missy while we were there (no pics though) and really have some fun. Ed and I even got to visit the insectarium!

So New Orleans was fun...and very hot! But the next weekend (I told you we were busy!) we headed to Dallas for Terri's wedding reception (a joint reception with her new Sister-In-Law). The reception was a blast! It was great to see Terri and Josh and Terri's family - it had been at least 10 years since I had seen them!

So pretty!

Throwing the boquet!

Jeff had "a little Captain in him!"

First Dance!

Ok - Whew! It's exhausting just typing about our busy summer! Next came our 10K trail run at Pedernales Falls State Park - but I'm doing a new post for that one!

We've Been Busy!

I know it's been a while since we updated this blog...but what can I say? We've been BUSY! We last updated with some gardening pics in Mid-May - so what have we been up to since then?

Big Bend - end of May (The Weekend Harmony and Corey moved in!)

Then we build a pantry in early June....

Then we took a canoeing trip in eastern Texas...

Then Galveston with Christina and Harmony...

Then there was a 4 mile trail run/camping trip at Brazos Bend State Park with Christina/Paul and Hamony...but sadly we were too exhausted to take photos!

Then in July!

We started our very long runs on Saturday morning (6 miles +) and rock climbing regularly!

In celebration for the 4th of July Ed and I went tubing down the Comal River (no pics though cause didn't want to lose the camera!) then we headed out and spent the evening in Austin at a cabin that Christina and Paul rented for Christina's dad's visit - awesome place and awesome birds!

The rest of the summer to come in the next post!

May Gardening - Lillies!

Houston recently saw some significant rain (and flooding!) and our garden LOVED it! All our lillies started opening up and our vegetables started growing!

Backpacking at Point Reyes

We know this is a few weeks late, but here is the blog from our backpacking trip at Point Reyes National Seashore, north of San Francisco. The trip was awesome - better than we could have imagined. It was a little cold - highs in the 60s and lows in the 40s - and very windy at times. The wind was arctic and forced us to wear hats the entire time to protect our head and ears. Out camping sites were awesome and had amazing views! Our second campsite was close enough to the beach to fall asleep to the crashing of the waves! The birds were all over the place - in fact dogs are not allowed in the park at all because they scare birds! We did have an angry raccoon charge Ed, but we scared it a way before it hit him! The ranger told us that the raccoons have learned that if they run at people, they will drop whatever they are holding - which is normally food. Unfortunately for the raccoon, Ed and I were only carrying water - oh well! Below are some pics from the trip:

San Francisco!

Ed and I had an AWESOME time in Point Reyes National Seashore Park, but let's start off by giving you our thoughts on San Francisco or as the locals call it "The City" from this past weekend! The City is a spectacular display of spastic movements that would make an ADD individual feel right at home. The multitude of undulating streets that went off in different directions left us speechless and dumbfounded when it came to navigating the ins and outs of The City. One way streets changed directions without warning, Two-way streets turned into one-way streets and some streets just ended abruptly. The hills were definitely not for the faint at heart and the constant chilly temperature required layers of warm clothing.

Now The City was not all bad you see. When we were not attempting to navigate the streets we got the chance to walk the streets down to Fisherman's Wharf. We made it a point to walk around and see some of the key tourist spots. We viewed Alcatraz from afar and it lived up to is intimidating reputation. We also got to take in the Sea Lions at Pier 39. Now we didn't get to traverse Lombard St or Chinatown and Little Italy, but we did pass by them in our travels. Next time we will definitely hit these hot spots. Check out our photos below.