fun times

Last Sat. night we went out with my cousin and my sister-in-law. We had a fun time and here's a pic to prove it!



The next day I made a killer Peach Cobbler (thanks to my sister-in-law's recipe). I added blueberries on top.


YUM!

Here's the super easy recipe:

Approx. 6 cups of chopped peaches
1 cup of all-purpose flour
1 cup of milk
1 cup of sugar
1 stick of butter (melted)

Mix the flour and sugar in a bowl, add milk and butter. Combine it with peaches and bake for about 45 min. to an hour at 375. Enjoy!

Coolest Stroller!

I thought I would take this opportunity to tell everyone about one of our newest and greatest products: the Micralite Toro Stroller. Not having any kids myself, I admit that I don't have a lot of experience with strollers. That being said, I do work in the juvenile product industry so I have actually seen and pushed a few strollers in my time at SCI.

The Toro Stroller is the lightest (non-umbrella stroller) I have ever seen, weighing in at 19 pounds. Not only that, but it is super easy to maneuver. Seriously, you can turn it on a dime...with one hand. The folding mechanism takes a few tries to get the hang of, but once you're past that initial learning curve, it is super easy, as well. The thing that sold me, though (if all the above weren't enough) was how small it folded and the fact that it will stand upright, on it's own, when folded, too. You don't have to use an awkward kick stand, either...it just stands up!

The Toro comes with a multi-position, fully reclining seat, rain cover, all weather hood, tire air pump and foot muff. It has a bumper bar and an under-seat basket, too. There are numerous accessories to purchase, as well, including a washable, fleece seat liner, travel bag, all terrain kit, car seat adaptors and sun & bug shield.

You can get the stroller two ways: just the stroller or as a "Newborn System." The Newborn System comes with the same things that the stroller does, but with a carry cot and car seat adaptor, too! (oh, the carry cot can be purchased separately, as well)



While I agree that there is no "perfect stroller" on the market, I have to say that the Micralite Toro comes pretty darn close!!!

Personality Test

A friend of mine showed me this cool site where you can take a short personality test (thanks, ER!). Here's my results in a nutshell!








Move the mouse over the different colors to see what they mean. You can also click here,
My personalDNA Report to see the complete report!



For fun, here's Kevin's results...



And, here's Dave's results...

I got a bike!

Check out my new bike....

Kevin got it for me for my birthday. It's gonna take some time for me to get the hang of it (remember, I haven't ridden a bike since I was about 13 years old!).

Happy Birthday!

So, at 3:02 this morning I turned twenty-nine! Wow... I'm almost thirty!!!

Kevin surprised me with beautiful, huge sunflowers and an ice cream Carvel cake this morning (he said it was from Bailey!)... my brother surprised me with a beautiful plant delivered to my office this morning (that may be the first time I have ever received flowers or a plant actually delivered to me!)... I can't wait to see if I have any other surprises today. I love surprises!

Tomorrow night I am going out to dinner and a movie with the girls. I have no idea what else is planned for the weekend as I have asked Kevin to take care of all the plans. I just want to go along for the ride and not stress over planning for once!

The office took me out to lunch for Mexican today!

Happy Birthday to ME......oh, and The Hoff. That's right, you heard correctly. I share my birthday with David Hasselhoff (who is 56 today, by the way).

Elk in the Grand Canyon National Park

One more video... this was the Elk at the Grand Canyon. Isn't he beautiful?! (check out all the cars pulled over to look, too!)

Hopi Indians

Here's a video of the Hopi Indians dancing at the Grand Canyon. (don't worry, they gave us permission to take pictures!)

Home again, home again

We're back home in NC. What a trip! We had a wonderful time exploring NM, CO and AZ. It was also wonderful to see my brother and spend some time with him. I can't wait 'till he moves back to NC, though! :) Here's a few extra pics from the trip...

Old Town Abluquerque

Sunset from the top of Sandia Mountain (just behind Dave's neighborhood).

Train Museum in Durango, CO.

Stopping on the drive back from CO. (don't the guys look so excited here!?)

Grilling out at Dave's (note the mountain in the background).

Petroglyph National Monument (just one of the many petroglyphs there).

Elk in the Grand Canyon park!

The ledge where we watched the sunset at the Grand Canyon.

Beautiful sunset at the Grand Canyon!

Hopi (pronounced like "Hope") Indians dancing at the Grand Canyon.

Lavender field at the Lavender Festival in Albuquerque. It smelled so good!!!

Huge sun flowers at the Lavender Festival.

Back in ABQ

The Petrified Forrest was amazing.... It was so strange to look at trees that dinosaurs used to walk around.




The colors were beautiful...bright orange, red, yellow and green. They had shiny little crystals in them, too. Trees that turned into rocks!



We stayed in Williams, AZ. It was such a neat little town. I felt like I was in an old western movie!

An hour north was the Grand Canyon. The only words I can use to describe it is breath taking! You stand there looking out into the canyon and suddenly you feel so small. We got there about 7:30am.



As we walked to the look out point, we saw a man standing out on a small ledge, balancing while another man video taped him. I thought to myself, "That looks like the magician guy." Then, as we got closer, Kevin and I said, at the same time, "Hey! That's David Blane!" Sure enough, it was David Blane (the street magician guy). I asked what they were doing there; they said they were filming for a special airing this fall.




After that, we headed to the Kaibab trailhead. We started down the steep trail at 8:50am. It only took us about 40 min. to get a mile and a half down. We stopped and found some shade on the cliff...had a snack and in an hour headed back up.

By now, the sun is blazing and it was very difficult to go up! It only took us about an hour and a half to get back to the top. I had to stop at every switch back to catch my breath, though!



In total, we hiked three miles in about three hours. We headed back to the hotel to clean up before finding a secluded spot to watch the sunset. It was the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen!







We had to go back to the Grand Canyon one more time before leaving AZ!

Arizona here we come!

We're off to the Grand Canyon this morning.  We'll stop in Gallop, NM for lunch.  Then, right after we cross the border, we'll check out the Petrified Forrest.  We're staying at a bed & breakfast on Rt 66 in Williams, AZ.  Tomorrow morning, we're planning on getting up very early so we can hike the Grand Canyon a bit before lunch time.  I hope the weather cooperates.  It's been very rainy and overcast the past few days.  I'll post again when we return.  Bye!

Colorado!

After Bisti, we ventured up to Durango, CO.  It was beautiful....lush, green mountains.  A far cry from the dry desert lands in New Mexico!

Kevin's first time in "Colorful Colorado"!

Downtown Durango

Train station in Durango

more pics

Here are some pics Dave took at Bisti:

Bisti was sorta hard to find.  There was only one, small sign on the main road.  Then, we followed a dirt road for a couple miles.  Above is where we started our hike.

Admiring the strange terrain... and trying to decide which way to go!

This is one of my favorites.  I love the "coffee & cream" colors!

Waaaaayy in the distance, you can see Kevin and I (click on the picture to make it bigger).

The land was very dry!

Time for a much needed break!

Bisti Badlands

We visited the Bisti Badlands on Friday.... what a crazy place! It's about 45 min. south of Farmington, NM. It was so hot, but some nice big clouds rolled in and that helped a lot. I have never seen such a place; it honestly seemed like we were on another planet. The landscape changed from bright red & orange rocks to black & white sand within a few hundred feet. There were flat, smooth stones and then tall, jagged peaks.... tiny black pebbles and then huge red mountains. Unbelievable! We hiked this rugged, dry land for almost 5 miles. The pictures will never compare to the beauty of actually being there, but here's a few...