Mother's Day - Hershey, PA

We went to Hershey, PA for Mother's Day. The dork Chemical Engineer in me was excited to see the Hershey factory. But apparently Hershey doesn't allow that anymore so we took the tour of the faux factory. Think Disney World - It's a small world with singing Hershey cows and fake chocolate everywhere.

Seattle Business Trip

 A co-worker (and friend), Cecilia, and I got to go to a SUPER exciting freezer catalog software week-long intensive seminar for work back in April. Let's just say we took advantage and got to have some amazing food (seafood, seafood, and more seafood) the entire time and managed to spend 1 day hitting up the local sites, despite me having a little too much fun the night before.  The best tip - the Underground tour.

Oh yeah and we met Eden!  Thanks to her, apparently the three of us made the hotel concierge think he should suggest a super special club for us.  All three of us experienced our first ever all-asian nightclub. First time for everything!

One last bit of seafood for breakfast at the airport. 

Mike and Angie's Wedding - MEXICO!

Brian and I got to go to our first destination wedding. Thank you Grandma for watching Riley for us! It was the best wedding - a super private small boutique hotel with great food, cheap drinks and pretty much a private beach in Mexico. We went to Cabo San Lucas for a couple days and got to see a great couple get married while hanging out with some great friends.

Hello ocean, I'm back.

I'm on a boat ya'll.  Whoa, sea lion up ahead.

A very interesting cave entrance.

Kate and I living it up without our kids.

Oh wait, somehow they managed to tag along.

It's sunset wedding time.

Soaking up the sun on the beach waiting for the wedding to start, 

it was so hard to wait in that awful weather.

Wedding time

Early in the evening, everyone is still dry.

Girl photo op

A little bit later in the evening, thank you tequila.

Oh tequila, how did we end up in the pool at the end of the night?

Christmas 2011

Well hello blog.  I'm only a little behind so these will be nice and brief. Here's Christmas in a nutshell. We went to the Outer Banks and got Laura, Ryan, and Dad to tag along with the Stepps' for Christmas. It was so nice to get to celebrate with both families together......and by the ocean - my favorite place to be at anytime.  It was a little windy, but we toured the lighthouses and enjoyed some local seafood.

Riley was 2 1/2 this year, so he understood Christmas for the 

first year, and definitely enjoyed himself. Even the doggies got gifts.

Thanksgiving in DC

We got to spend Thanksgiving in Washington, D.C. in 2011. Some relaxation in a hotel, no worries about cooking or cleaning, I say an annual event please! We did the typical tourist attractions and the kids were great and didn't mind all the walking. We started at the Lincoln Memorial and trekked to almost everything in the area - the White House, Jefferson Memorial, Roosevelt Memorial and MLK Jr Memorial. We even tried Texas BBQ in DC, not bad east coast, not bad. I did, however, learn that pecan pie is NOT pecan pie where we ate for Thanksgiving. If there isn't a thick layer of goo goodness, then it's just a pecan tart, blah.

Riley, Grandma, and Shaelyn

Brian, Shaelyn, Me, Riley and Abe the Vampire Hunter

Thanksgiving Dinner

Why won't you pose Riley?

Milk in the ear please

Washington Memorial - anyone see that crack?

Sun in the eyes

Almost at the Jefferson Memorial.....not really

Big Boy Jefferson

Roosevelt and his little dog too

Newly opened MLK Jr Memorial

My poor attempt at planking outside the National Aquarium

Mount Vernon

Making sure the grass is up to par