Week 5: Takin' it Easy

Glen and I decided to take it easy last week. We've been doing so much traveling and sight-seeing that we thought it would be nice to cool it for the weekend. This was our 5th week here and we can hardly believe that we are halfway done. Fortunately, we plan to have a lot of fun events planned in the coming weeks so we're not wasting a single day here!

Day 33: Glen had a long day at work and I had a long day of dog walking, so we decided to treat ourselves to some take-out Chinese. We hopped on Google and found a little restaurant 3 blocks away from us. The food was dirt cheap and pretty delicious. We camped out in front of the TV while eating our food, and then called it a night.

Day 34: Date night! Glen had asked me out on a date earlier in the week and told me to pick him up from work at 6:30. When I drove up he had a bouquet of flowers in his hand, it was really cute. He took me to a restaurant called Pizzeria Stella. It is known for it's Italian inspired pizzas. We really loved the food. We shared a salad, ordered two pizzas, and then shared some gelato. Afterwards, we went to a tiny movie theater called the Ritz East, which shows mostly independent films. We saw the movie "Moonrise Kingdom." We really like Wes Anderson movies so we found this movie to be very enjoyable.

Day 35: Glen and I started the day off with a haircut for Glen. It was about time! He was very grateful, it's been very hot here lately and his thick hair did not help. After his haircut we got pretzel breakfast sandwiches at the Reading Terminal Market. We just really love those things.

Glen and I have never been big spenders. We are really good at entertaining ourselves for free and if not, for very cheap. We love "renting" movies at the library. Instead of going out to dinner we will think of our favorite foods and learn how to make them. Our date nights often consist of free events in the city, picnics in the park, or game night. It works very well for us.

Because we are so frugal, we never feel the need to buy clothes very often, and if we do we like to go thrifting. The only time either of us gets new clothes is for Christmas or our birthdays. But, for some reason, we decided it was time to do something neither of us had really done.

Go on a shopping spree.

With both of us making money this summer and not a lot of expenses, we decided our budget could handle it. Of course, because we still have trouble allowing ourselves to pay full price for things (remember how much I love craigslist?), we went to the outlet malls. But still, we had a lot of fun. We shopped for a whopping 7 hours! And both of us pretty much got everything that we tried on and liked. We took turns choosing stores to go into and it was a good system. After hours of shopping and lots of clothes and shoes we ate a hearty dinner in the food court. We felt pretty victorious at the end. I came out with a cute pair of shoes, a few shirts, a pair of pants, capris, and a skirt. Glen got a nice pair of shoes, lots of shirts, and a hoodie he really loved. I have no idea why he wanted a hoodie in the middle of the summer, but he really loved it. I'm not lying when I say that he finds an excuse to wear it at some point almost every day.

And here is a picture of Glen in his new hoodie hanging out with Simon, one of the dogs I walk.

Well that's it for now! Have a great weekend!

Week 4: Dancing and Delaware

Day 23: Glen and I did something really fun that we didn't expect to like. We took a Salsa class together! And I don't mean the food. I've been dancing my whole life, the last few years focusing on Ballroom dancing. Ever since I met Glen he's wanted me to teach him some dances so we could dance together, but I always declined. But when Glen told me of an opportunity to take a Salsa class I finally gave in, and I'm glad I did! We had so much fun. Glen was such a fast learner and it was fun to be his dance partner. We laughed a lot and left wanting to keep dancing. We definitely want to do it again.

Day 28: Glen and I woke up early and started the day off with a dog walk at 7:30 am. Did I tell you that I have a little part-time job walking dogs? Well, I do. Our land lady walks dogs and she asked if I would walk some dogs every day for her for some cash. I am loving it so far because it's been a great way to exercise, get some sun, and see the city. Anyway, I usually only walk them Monday-Friday but she needed someone for Saturday so I volunteered. Glen usually doesn't get to come with me so it was nice to spend some time with him at the park. It was so beautiful outside, the sun was out but there were no people, which was unusual for downtown. After we finished walking the dog we headed over to the Reading Terminal Market. We were going to meet Glen's brothers and their families at the beach so we wanted to pick up some fresh fruit to fill our cooler with and grab some breakfast. Glen got a breakfast sandwich from a place he thought looked good. I wandered the market a bit until I saw the perfect thing: breakfast wrapped in a pretzel. It was so delicious. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

The beach we were meeting at is called Rehoboth Beach, in Delaware. It was a 2 1/2 hour drive for us but it was so worth it. When we arrived at the beach Steve, Carolyn, and Cadance were already there. It was nice to catch up with them while waiting for the others. Not much later Brant, Coralee, Annie, and Mabel arrived. We had a fun-filled day with a lot of sun.

I think one of the highlights of the trip was the kite. Brant and Coralee had brought a kite but had said they were never able to get it to fly. Glen took a look at it, untied, re-tied, MacGyver-ed it and made it fly! It was really amazing. The girls had such a good time with it. 

This is my delicious pretzel breakfast sandwich

Also, we saw this car. Is this for real? We couldn't decide.

My first EVER view of the Atlantic Ocean

They got it to fly!

Don't you love that blue sky?

Cadance found her way over to her cousin Annie and sat down right next to her.

Cadance. What a doll!

Mabel, chilling out next to me on a chair.

Digging tunnels! (Glen's shoulders are already burning after 1 hour of being there! Sunscreen, don't fail us!)

And we bring out the kite again!

Sooo high!

 

Brother time

Uncle Time

Then I got a few minutes to spend with all three of my nieces while their parents played a game.

After spending some more time in the water we took off to have dinner in the city. Then we had to say goodbye to Steve, Carolyn, and Cadance!

Cadance was having a really good time saying goodbye to Uncle Glen

Glen and I followed Brant and Coralee home to spend the night. It was a looong drive back, so it was a good thing we had checked out some books on tape from the library. I was falling asleep to "V is for Vengence" by Sue Grafton. What seemed like a few minutes later, I woke up again very confused as the narrator described someone sucking someone else's blood. Turns out Glen decided to switch to "Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter." Needless to say we switched back in effort to save me from nightmares. We arrived around 1 am and had a good night's sleep.

Day 29: Brant made us all waffles and we played with Annie and Mabel before we had to get ready for church. Afterwards, we headed to Gettysburg where Coralee's parents graciously hosted a crab fest. Glen and I had never eaten crab like that before. Brant and Coralee showed us how to break off the crabs legs one by one, open up the shell, and eat the meat. I lost interest very quickly and decided to stick to my fried chicken, but Glen went at it like a champ! Unfortunately he ate some lung from the first crab on accident, but he learned quickly what he could and couldn't eat. I didn't get any pictures from this part (darn!) because our fingers were so messy, holding a camera was not really feasible. After lots of crab, chicken, and corn on the cob, we played in their beautiful yard. Coralee's dad had fixed a swing to a tree nearby and everyone had fun taking turns swinging. Later, we played a fun game called kubb (pronounced like "cube"). Basically you throw large dowels at the other teams blocks and try to knock them down. It was a lot of fun. The sun set and we said our goodbyes to Coralee's family and started our drive home. On our way out Brant and Coralee led us through the more historical areas of Gettysburg, like where all the battlefields are. It was too dark to take any pictures, but it was really neat and we hope to visit again soon. We did make one stop at a tower that you can walk up so you can see everything. We got out of our cars and ran up the stairs (which made for some good exercise) and took a look at what we could see before headed back down and parting ways.

Annie taught Glen how to pick the best raspberries

Annie wanted to take pictures by herself. The following pictures were taken by Annie:

She quickly got tired of taking pictures and wanted to do a puzzle with Uncle Glen

The drive through Gettysburg

This is the tower we ran up!

This picture made Coralee and I laugh for a little bit.

It was such a fun week! We can't wait to see our family again!