Utah Trip

Last weekend, Jeremy and I took a little mini trip back to Utah.  We were able to fit a lot of fun things into a pretty short period of time. It was really great to be back Utah. There are a lot of things I miss...family...the lack of humidity...the restaurants...the roads and the speed limit. Even with the 1-15 construction going on the freeways in Utah are waaay better than any of the sad excuses for highways in Pennsylvania. On Thursday, we drove to Provo for Jeremy's brother's convocation from BYU. Being back on campus always brings back so many good memories

 

We went to Cafe Rio for lunch, which was pretty much the highlight of my day.

 

After Brandon's graduation ceremony, we drove to the Joseph Smith Building on temple square in Salt Lake City for my cousin Katelyn's wedding reception.The Joseph Smith Building is another place that brings back special memories for me. Jeremy and I had our wedding reception there just about four years ago. The reception was beautiful and it was really great to see a lot of family members that we hadn't seen in a while.

 

The next morning, we drove back to Provo for Brandon's commencement ceremony.

After the ceremony, we went to J-Dawgs for lunch (another Provo classic) and walked around campus a bit. That night we had a yummy graduation celebration dinner at Tucanos. On Saturday morning, my sisters, mom, and mother in law threw a baby shower for me at my sister's house. It was great, I was able to see a lot of family and friends and we got a bunch of really cute baby things.

 

 

 

 I think seeing all of the tiny baby clothes made everything seem a little bit more real to me. It is crazy that baby boy Kuhre is going to be here in just a little over 3 months!

 

my mom and sisters made these adorable baby cupcakes

 

My mother in law, Phyllis made these cute little favors

and my Aunt Johanna made the fabulous diaper cake. That night my Dad's side of the family got together for a barbeque. I think this is the best picture I had of everyone together

We had a great time in Utah, it just went by too fast. Now I am ready for summer to be over in Pennsylvania and for fall to finally be here. I don't care what the weather looks like, I am putting up my fall decorations on September 1st!

Summer Updates

It's been a great summer so far. It's hard to believe it's almost July. A couple of weeks ago, we went to Newport Beach, CA with my family. It was really nice to get away from the humidity in PA. We stayed at the Marriot villas. They were gorgeous!

On one of the first days in California, we went to Balboa Island. We had a great time riding the ferris wheel and riding bikes along the beach.

We also rented a Duffy boat and took it for a spin around the bay. I fell in love with all of the little houses along the waterfront.

I think my favorite thing about California was just relaxing on the beach. Luke had a great time building sand castles, and Nic and Jeremy became pro boogie boarders.

On our last day in California, we went to Disneyland. It had been forever since Jeremy or I had been there and it was a lot of fun to go on all of the classic rides like the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Carribean.

We had a really great time with my family and I think the only way Jeremy was able to convince me to leave California the next day was by promising we would get Cafe Rio in the Salt Lake City airport on the way home. Since we've been back home, Jeremy and I (mostly Jeremy...) have been working really hard at re-staining our deck. It has been a really big job. Here is a picture of what it looked like before (I took this picture in November when they deck was a little bit wet and so you can't quite tell just how faded and weathered it really was)

This is what it looks like now that we are all done with it! Jeremy did a really nice job.

Last week, we took a little break from working on the deck and went to Longwood Gardens to see the light display by Bruce Munro. It was really spectacular. We thought it was even better than their Christmas displays. To all of our Philadelphia friends, definitely go if you have a chance this summer. They had tens of thousands of lights set up throughout the gardens. I thought it looked like a fairyland. Jeremy thought it looked like the movie Avatar. Either way, it was pretty cool

And last but not least, last week we celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary. We went out to dinner at the Seven Stars Inn in Phoenixville. Jeremy got their specialty, the prime rib. I think the piece of meat he got weighed about 3 pounds. It was incredible.

Happy anniversary Jeremy!

Announcing...Baby Kuhre!

Jeremy and I are thrilled to announce that we are expecting a baby on November 29th! I am just about 15 weeks now and my pregnancy has been pretty easy so far, the morning sickness hasn't been too bad. Here are the ultrasound pictures. I waited a bit to go in for my first appointment, so I think the pictures actually look like a baby and less like an amoeba.

I haven't really decided whether working labor and delivery will be an advantage or a disadvantage during my pregnancy. On one hand, it's great that I know how I need to prepare and what to expect, on the other hand, I have a much larger pool of knowledge from which to draw things to worry about...I am really excited though to be able to deliver at Reading. I really do have awesome coworkers and I know they will take great care of us. We'll be able to find out the gender of the baby in about 5 weeks. Jeremy and I are so excited to be starting this adventure together!

Boston Trip

Last week, Jeremy and I took a trip to Boston. We drove up Wednesday night after we got home from work. We stayed at the Bullfinch hotel. It was a pretty good price for being right in the middle of downtown. They even upgraded up to a suite, one of the ones right at the tip of the building.

 

On Thursday we drove out to Lexington and Concord. Our first stop was the Buckman Tavern. This is the place where all the "minutemen" waited to hear whether the British were coming.

 During the tour here and a bunch more times during the rest of the day, we learned that these men weren't really "minutemen", they were militia. It was kind of funny to Jeremy and I how big of a deal this seemed to be to everyone in Lexington and Concord. After the tavern, we walked part of the Battle road. It was actually really interesting for me to learn about the battle of Lexington and Concord.

 

The fighting continued all along the "battle road" as the British retreated the 15 miles back to Boston. Hundreds of people were killed.  Also in Concord, we went to Walden pond and the cabin site where Thoreau wrote Walden.

 

The area all around Concord was so beautiful. I would absolutely love come back here in the fall. After Walden Pond, we went to Louisa May Alcott's home, Orchard house.

Little women was one of my favorite books growing up and it was really interesting to visit here because the book was largely based on her life and everything in the house is almost exactly how it was when she lived there. Our last stop in Concord was the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.

 

 

We walked up "author's ridge," where Thoreau, Emerson, and Alcott are all buried. It was a really interesting cemetery. On Friday, we took the subway to Harvard University. We took a tour of the university and learned a few interesting things while we were there. This is the statue of John Harvard.

 

 Supposedly it is good luck to rub his toe. Our guide told us that one of the things every Harvard student has to do before graduation is to pee on the toe. All of the freshman dorms surround this statue and I have no trouble imagining them watching all of the tourists touching the toe and laughing. Needless to say, we did not touch the toe. This is the Widener library.

 

As the story goes, the mother of one of the student's donated the money for the library after her son died on the Titanic. She was convinced that he would have lived if he had been able to swim 50 yards to the lifeboats. One of the conditions of her donation was that in order to graduate, all Havard students would have to be able to swim 50 yards. This rule was in effect until the 70's when the Americans with disabilities act struck it down. Of course, while we were there, for lunch we had to pay a visit to Mr. Bartley's Burger Cottage. The onion rings were delicious!

 

 Later that day we walked around Boston Common, walked down Newbury street, and went to the Boston Museum of Art. On Saturday we walked the Freedom Trail with our friends, the O'Farrels. It was so great to see them again! As we walked through little Italy, we stopped at Mike's Pastry and Modern Pastry.

 

I guess there is a big debate about which is better. Kind of like the debate about Pat's and Gino's in Philly. We got dessert from each. I think the consensus was that Mike's Pastry was better. The specialty in both shops was canoli, which i discovered I really do not like. Give me a cupcake any day. We also visited Paul Revere's house, Faneuil Hall marketplace, the North Church and the battleship USS Constitution.

It was a great trip...good food, good friends and history for the nerdy at heart, couldn't ask for better!

Landscaping Project

Before:

Our lawn was in bad shape upon moving in (in contrast to the house which was in great condition). The above picture is a pretty good indication of what we inherited (with the exception of the marking paint). After drawing up a plan and soliciting a quote to get the work done, I decided that I'd do it myself as a learning project. Scroll to the bottom of the post for the 'after' picture if you want to skip the boring stuff.

I quickly found out why none of the previous plants had done well--our "soil" was actually a combination of rocks and clay. Part of this project was simply amending the soil with compost. Additionally, I wanted to extend the beds around the front, so I started by removing the sod in these areas. If you look closely, you'll be able to spot the elusive wildlife of the Kuhre's front yard.

The next step was to install the stone edging along the perimeter of the sidewalk. This gave the walkway a more 'framed' feel and also allowed me to raise the beds. I set the stone edging in about an inch of sand to minimize future movement. What's the trick to getting your course to start and end in exactly the right spot?--prayer. But seriously, it was difficult to match a multiple of the 6" width of each stone to the various lengths of sidewalks.

After that, I backfilled the areas that were excavated. I don't have a good photo of this, but I actually brought in a couple yards of screened topsoil to raise the beds. The last step involved choosing a few plants that were either native or adapted to life here in Pennsylvania. We ended up going with a couple of blue junipers, a nandina, a holly, and another I can't recall at the moment. Whenever I teach a class about greenbuilding, I always pose the question: "Who watered plants before humans came along?" It may seem like a bizarre question, but even more bizarre is the answer--No one! Water hungry plants aren't good for the water bill, my health, or our local water source.

After:

And there you have it! Melody is planning on planting annuals such as flowers and mums depending on the time of year. The grass even looks better now after some much needed rain. You'll have to visit to get the whole picture--our cherry tree had beautiful blooms this year.

Texas

Melo and I recently spent a week with my family in Texas. We spent half our time in Dallas and half in San Antonio. Still quite busy, so suffice it to add some photos with captions.

The Alamo

The Riverwalk

SeaWorld

World-famous "Pizookie" from BJs

"The Robbery"

We knew the Pizookie was too good to be true, and sure enough, minutes later, we arrived at the rental car which had been robbed. Luckily everything was replaced and everyone is alright! Overall we had a great time and look forward to our next visit.