Visit to Rochester

Jason and I finally made it to NY to visit my sister & Greg - after they've lived there for over a year. We went Friday morning and came home Monday night. We had a fabulous time, and I will try to post the highlights.

First, they have a house in the city of Rochester which is an adorable old house with a ton of character, and an awesome back yard with a ton of landscaping (something our house is severely lacking):

Friday night we went to the Rochester Zoo, where they were serving beer & I think maybe some food (we clearly weren't there for the food!). They have this little (and I stress little) tunnel that you crawl through that ends inside the lion/cheetah cage (can't remember which animal). Kelly & I struggled in our skirts to climb through the teeny tunnel for a photo op only to find out they would only come out blurry. You get the idea though - I think this picture is really funny.Saturday the boys golfed, and therefore Jason was in heaven, while Kelly & I went to Letchworth State Park where there is beautiful scenery and 3 cool waterfalls. It was a fun day despite the need to roll up our windows and drive in neutral on our way out of the park to ensure the last few drops of gas would get us to the nearest station - oops! We had one tired puppy on the way home! Saturday night they had a few friends over for dinner - we had fun eating delicious steaks and drinking wine, which leads us to Sunday, where we continued the wine drinking extravaganza. We went to the Finger Lakes to go winery-hopping. It was a beautiful day - perfect for wine tasting. Jason & I ended up buying 5 bottles of wine, so it was a little tricky packing to come home. Here's the map of all the wineries we visited:

http://senecalakewine.com/jc/content/view/25/49/

OK, so we only actually visited about 6 of them, but still... At the last stop, we accidentally crashed a wedding. Well, it was accidental until they came and told us to move even though we were nowhere close to being in their pictures. That made us mad, so we decided to stay and spy. Turns out the bride & groom were about 18 years old - eek! Our camera has a really big zoom - I swear we weren't intruding on the wedding!

Monday we went to Greg's dad's house for lunch - he has a very nice house with a beautiful yard. Otis had a hay day running all around and chasing his tennis ball.

Speaking of Otis, the trip summary would not be complete without a few pictures of my adorable, 9 month old, 70 pound nephew:

Conundrum

I had a very low key weekend with Jason at the lake for the coveted Golf Extravaganza, so I don't have much to update.

Instead I will update you on my American Idol conundrum. I have never been an Idol fan, but this season I decided to give it a try. Of course, now I'm hooked. I love David Cook and really think he deserves to win. However, I entered a pool with some friends way back at the beginning, and I picked David Archuleta to win. It turns out if he wins Wednesday night I win the whole pool! Therein lies the problem - who do I cheer for? What's more important? The cool guy beating the dork, or me winning more money?? Oh man, I lead a tough life...

Wall Update

I took a few more pictures of the wall tonight. It's finished, except for the top layer (the cap). Jason went this weekend and got a truckload of gravel to backfill the inside of the wall for drainage. He also bought some filter cloth that you put inside the wall to keep dirt from seeping through, along with some adhesive that you use on the cap stones. Now, if we could have a few more gorgeous days like today rather than the endless rain that is predicted, he could make some more progress!Also, here are a few pictures of our little Mia - watching a 2 year old eat corn on the cob (which she loves, by the way) is pretty darn cute.

Moo

A few months ago, Jason decided we should purchase 1/4 of a cow from a farmer who works with him. I thought he was nuts, but as I talked to more & more people, it turns out it's not unheard of. In fact, a few of my friends said they have done the same thing in the past. His reasoning was that you can't always trust the beef at the grocery store, but we know this cow was raised au naturel and is disease-free.Anyway, we drove 1.5 hours to Perryville, MO today to pick up the freshly slaughtered meat. We are splitting 1/2 of a cow with my coworker Thomas, who is currently in Kenya, so we have his share as well. In total we have 170 pounds of beef in the deep freezer and the regular freezer in our garage. Phew!The picture below is actually Thomas's half, but it was easier to take a picture of the upright freezer than the deep freezer - it is completely full, including the door! Behind all the big steaks on the left are 28 1lb. packages of ground beef. We should be set for BBQs for quite some time!!

Patio wall

The weather is finally cooperating, and Jason made a TON of progress on the patio wall yesterday & today. It looks awesome!!!