East Coast Adventures: Philly

For part 2 of our trip we took the train up to Philly. Neither of us had ever taken the train before, so that was an adventure all in itself. I really enjoyed the ride and the scenery, and it was far less stressful than flying (and way cheaper!).

Like I have said before, the Jansen side of the family gigantic. They are in almost every major (and many minor) city in the country, so we stayed with Rick's cousin Kevin and his family across the river in New Jersey. We got to see where JJ's dad grew up and see what small town America looks like up north.

I will admit that I dropped the ball on researching what to do in Philadelphia. We were only there for a short time, so I didn't know how much time we would have to explore. Despite my lack of travel preparation (totally out of character), we ended up doing a Duck Boat tour. Duck Boats are vehicles that are combination cars and boats so you see all the landmarks downtown, and then you hop into the Delaware River to see the skyline from the water. It is a really cool concept and we really enjoyed seeing all the sites. Unfortunately, one of the boats had an accident the day after we did the tour and as far as I know, they are no longer operating. Timing is everything.

Independence Hall
All of the How I Met Your Mother fans understand why this picture was important

One of JJ's agents also lives in Philly, so we joined him, his wife and their two boys for a Phillies game. The fans were awesome and I had so much fun. Being a Diamondbacks fan, I had forgotten what a difference a full stadium makes. The game just felt way more exciting. And to top it all off, the Phillies were playing the Braves and JJ's friend Eric Hinske hit the game winning home run for Atlanta. So other than the devastated Phillies fans, it was an awesome night. We also got to enjoy Philly's famous stadium food, Chickie's and Pete's Crab Fries and cheese steaks. Yum :)

Phillies game

East Coast Adventures: DC

July was an absolute whirlwind of travel all up and down the East Coast. We explored amazing cities, spent time with friends and family, went to baseball games, and finally took advantage of living on the East Coast.

First Stop, Washington, DC! There are thousands of reasons to visit DC, (like the White House, the Capitol, countless museums, historic sites, monuments...the list goes on and on) but my main reson for coming was to see Robin and meet her new boyfriend Dan. (Side note: Dan passed all my tests and has been officially welcomed into the circle of trust. And another bonus, now that I have met him I can comment on all of his facebook posts with feeling like a super creep!)

Back to our travels...we stayed downtown at the Renaissance, right by the Chinatown Metro stop (great location for seeing all the sights). Our first day was spent getting the official Robin and Dan tour of the city. We saw all the big stuff and then decided to cool off for a bit in the American History Museum. The coolest thing was saw was the original Star-Spangled banner. It was waaaay bigger than i thought it would be. That night we had a fabulous dinner at PS7 near our hotel.

We eventually got closer, but this was our first view of the Capitol

The Washington Monument

On the 4th of July we hopped on the metro and headed to the Nationals game. Both JJ and I love baseball (JJ much more than me, but I love going to the games), and one of our goals is to see a game in every major league stadium. We are currently at 4 of like 30? Baby steps...

Nationals Park, check!

So glad I was with Robin when she got to meet her favorite from the President's Race

After the game, we bought a picnic dinner and drinks and sat out on the Mall to watch the fireworks. I would post some pictures, but it was so hot and we were all sweaty and none of the pictures are remotely flattering. Despite the sweltering heat, it was an awesome experience to celebrate the 4th in our nation's capital.

Before we got on the train to Philadelphia the next day, we spent some time at the Air and Space Museum. It was pretty cool, but I don't think I appreciated it nearly as much as my dad or dad-in-law would have!

It was a great trip, but not enough time to experience it all. Robin and I are already planning on me coming out again to get beyond a lot of the typical touristy stuff and get to see all of the things she has discovered as a local. I hope she's ready for another visit :)

Happy Anniversary to Us!

On Saturday, JJ and I celebrated 1 year of wedded bliss (Get it? I love puns.). We decided to try out our version of a stay-cation. We got a puppy sitter for Barney and went to the Ballantyne Hotel, which is about 20 minutes away from our house.

Our room was on the 4th floor, overlooking the 18th hole

It was fabulous. We slept in late, ordered room service, and spent the majority of our time sitting by the pool drinking pina coladas. It was just like our honeymoon on the beaches of Jamaica...minus the beaches. But still enjoyable :)

Perfect way to spend the day when it is 97 degrees and HUMID!

JJ also had a little surprise for me and got us tickets to the Rascal Flatts concert at Verizon Amphitheatre. It was a bit warm out, but it cooled off as the sun went down. We had great seats and had so much fun. The first (and only) concert we went to together was Rascal Flatts and Taylor Swift up in Green Bay with the Crosbys and the Nelsons, so it was fun to go to another one. They are so fun in concert and it is crazy how many amazing songs they have.

Chris Young

The newly engaged Kellie Pickler

Rascal Flatts

Neither of us can believe it had been a year since our wedding. I think the thing we miss the most is having everyone we love in the same place at the same time. We are truly blessed to have so many people loving and supporting us. Now we just need to come up with an excuse to plan another party weekend that gets everyone out to visit us...maybe a two year anniversary party???

Blonde Moment

I got my hair highlighted yesterday with a new guy that I really like. He went a little bit blonder than I would have wanted, but I still like it and afterall it is summer so I think I can get away with it.

Aparently, it is too much blonde for me to handle based on what I did this morning.

Tomorrow is our one year anniversary and I was trying to do something nice for my dear husband. I wanted to make him pancakes to surprise him when he got home from his workout. So I got the pancake mix (which is in a plastic bag) out and set in on the stove top. I grabbed the tea pot and filled it with water, set it on a burner, turned it up to high, and headed upstairs to grab some laundry. When I got back downstairs I saw smoke coming from the stove top.

It seems I had turned on the wrong burner and had heated up the bag of pancake mix instead of the tea pot. So I turn off the burner and try to grab the bag of pancake mix. Too bad all of the plastic on the bottom of the bag had already melted off and I was left with a mountain of dry pancake mix on a hot burner.

Keep in mind, the entire thing is still smoking and I am just waiting for the smoke alarms to go off. I had to find some kitchen tools to scrape the burning mound off of the hot stove and into the garbage without melting the garbage bag. So I dug through all of our cabinets and drawers to find something and finally managed to scrape most of it into a glass bowl. I had to let the burner cool down completely before I began the joyous process of scraping melted plastic off.

So much for a sweet surprise. At least everything was (for the most part) back to normal by the time JJ got home so I was able to save face a little.

I swear, I am usually pretty good in the kitchen. I blame it on the highligts.

Hotlanta

For Father's Day weekend, JJ and I put Barney in the car and headed down to visit JJ's aunt and uncle in ATL. JJ is done with OTAs (organized team activities) for the summer, so now his workout schedule is flexible and we are free to travel a little bit. We will for sure take advantage of that.

We went down on Saturday and spent the afternoon at the pool. It has been ridiculously hot in the south so far this summer, combine that with the humidity, and a trip to the pool was necessary.

One of our goals is to visit as many major league ballparks as possible, so we thought we would take advantage of our trip to Atlanta and go to a Braves game. One of JJ's friends plays for the Braves so it was a bonus to get to see him play! It was also an awesome surprise that he was able to hook us up with tickets on such short notice. We had great seats right behind home plate about 25 rows up, in the family section. I won't lie, I had fun checking out what all the baseball wives were wearing and seeing what they were like. They game itself was really good and it ended with a walk off home run, which I had never seen before.

Enjoying Turner Field

Tickets courtesy of this guy. Thanks Eric!

On Sunday, we went downtown to the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coke. It was a fun way to spend a hot day. The aquarium was impressive, you wouldn't expect something like that in the middle of Atlanta. My favorite was the otters, they were so cute while they were playing. We also had fun tasting all of the different Coke brands from all over the world. We don't drink soda really ever, so we were both on sugar overload after the first few tastes.

After we finished downtown, we drove around (a.k.a. got lost in) Buckhead for a bit before stumbling on the Buckhead Diner. Not your typical diner; they had fabulous gourmet food in a fun atmosphere. I would love to go back for dinner one day.

We finished the weekend off with a Father's Day BBQ back at the house. We had a great time and can't wait to go back!

Pawleys Island

Another event that I failed to blog about in a timely matter...our trip to Pawleys Island, SC.

JJ was invited to participate in a charity golf tournament (benefiting AMI Kids-Georgetown) near Myrtle Beach. For us it was a no brainer. Beautiful location, helping out a great cause, golf and an excuse to go away for the weekend! Sold.

We were very excited about our upcoming trip and mentioned it to JJ's parent when we were visiting in Phoenix. I was explaining that JJ was invited to play in a celebrity golf tournament that next weekend and his mom got really excited. We explained that one "celebrity" would join each four-some for the tournament. Here is how the rest of the conversation went:

Carla: "Oooh! How fun! Who will the celebrity be?"

Me: "Well...JJ is one of the celebrities."

Carla: "Oh...I thought it was going to be like...a Jonas brother."

I couldn't help but laugh, but I think the funniest part was that her "go-to" celebrity was a Jonas brother. Not sure which one, but you know, one of the three. We are definitely using the term "celebrity" pretty loosely, but that is the term used for most of the appearances JJ does.

Anyway, back to our weekend at the beach. We stayed in the condos at True Blue golf course and the tournament was at the sister course, Caledonia. Both course are listed as one of the Top 100 Public Courses in America. They were both beautiful courses, and JJ thought Caledonia was one of the best he has ever played on. My favorite part was the clubhouse, it is a beautiful old plantation that screams "Welcome to the South!"

JJ made some connections the night before the tournament and was placed on a team with some phenomenal golfers. Besides being great golfers, they were just really good guys and so fun to get to know! Another bonus, JJ's team finished tied for 1st.

Look at that swing!

Another bonus, getting to meet Hall of Famer, Tony Dorsett

We were lucky enough to get some recommendations from the locals for places to eat and ended up having dinner at Bistro 217 and then headed over to the famous Frank's Outback for dessert. We had great food at both places, but next time we go back I want to eat dinner at Frank's, their atmosphere is just so fun and they have a beautiful patio.

Sunday we headed to the store, bought a paddle ball set, two beach towels and some sunscreen and hit the beach. I loved how un-touristy it was. We would love to go back someday for a longer period of time. It would be a great place to rent a beach house for a week if you want to avoid the crowds of Myrtle Beach. And now we have friends there!

Playing Catch Up!

Oops! I guess its been a while since I last wrote anything. Where to begin...?

The last thing I wrote about was NASCAR, and I'm sure it was what everyone was dying to read about. What I forgot to mention was the week before the race JJ and a few other teammates got to participate in the Pit Crew Challenge. All the guys had different jobs (JJ was pre-assigned the role of Gas Man...ironic, no?) and they had to compete against other "crews" made up of people from all the local news stations. It was really fun to watch and see what the real pit crews do, and I got to sit in one of the cars. After I spent about 5 minutes wedging myself in through the window (no doors on these cars), working my way around the steering wheel I started to panic wondering how on earth I was going to get myself out, if it was that difficult to get in. That's about the time that Tyler came over and showed me how to remove the steering wheel. that would have been good to know before I started.

Memorial Day weekend we had house guests, the newly engaged Katie and Brian. They were in town for a wedding, and we got to play during their down time. It worked out perfectly! Barney was not happy when they left though. He and Brian developed quite a special bond, and Barney decided that just JJ and I were no longer good enough. Glad we got to celebrate their engagement with a night out in Charlotte. We went to Mama Ricotta's for dinner (a-ma-zing), Strike City for bowling and then Blackfin for drinks. Katie also got me hooked on a new drink, sweet tea vodka with water and lemon. Nothing screams "I live in the South!" like sweet tea vodka. Thank you Firefly for this delicious invention.

One of the wives on the team had an 80's themed birthday party so JJ and I had an excuse to get all dressed up. It brought back great memories of living in the Theta House, scrambling to put together a great outfit the day of the event. I will say this, it was SHOCKINGLY easy to put together an 80s outfit browsing the racks at Target. I really could have made 10 outfits! I guess fashion is cyclical. The party was complete with an 80s ipod playlist, a magician, and TAB soda. We had so much fun. The best part was seeing all the outfits, I was quite impressed with the creativity of our friends.

I think that is all for now. I am going through my camera trying to remember what has been going on for the last month. I will come up with more tomorrow.