Sweet Summertime

Ryan LOVES summer.

And I'm not talking about how most people love summer.  As the weather gets warmer Ryan is truly himself and happier than any other time of year.  He's always talked about wanting to move to California and now I'm truly seeing that he would be happiest in a warm climate than anywhere else.  I guess I should have believed him when he said he doesn't do cold. :)

Well, the weather is warm here and it's not going away.  We're finally in the 80s and 90s where I know we'll stay for the rest of summer.  PITY.  I loved the 65-75 degrees we've been having.  Maybe I should move to California where it's that 75ish year round...

Moving on.  Friday was a day off for both Ryan and I and probably the best day we've had together in a long long time!  It truly felt like a little one-day vacation.  We started the day by strawberry picking with Necia and her girls. Waller Family Farms is a quaint little place just a few miles from us.  Necia's family were experts at picking the best strawberries and showed us the ropes.  I've never tasted such delicious strawberries; it was so difficult not to eat them before they were weighed!

It also gave me a great opportunity to play with my camera.  Like I said, aren't the photos just fantastic?

After strawberry picking we went and sold my car as mentioned, shopped for a new car, 

one of these in particular:

Siiiigh.  It's so pretty and fun to drive!

Then we went stuffed ourselves with some boneless wings and practiced my frisbee golf skills which are lacking to say the least. Finally the night ended with a BBQ at a friend's house followed by "the train game" a.k.a Ticket to Ride.

Picture perfect day, huh?

Well, now that I've finally caught up on my blogging, I have another day off of work and it's time to clean the house which I have neglected for probably about a month.  I'm in a spring cleaning mood which is a little dangerous.  The house will prove to become a larger disaster before any signs of improvement are seen.  Such is my life!

The Sweeney family welcomes....

A NEW CAMERA!!!!

 Boy, this thing is a piece of beauty!  I still only use it on Auto but oh it takes amazing pictures.  Want to know my favorite part?  When I push the button, it actually takes a picture!! Not a big deal, right? WRONG.  I was so tired of my point-and-shoot camera that had a mind of its own.  Sometimes it would just refuse to take the picture, or have a flash when unnecessary or no flash or make it blurry, etc.  I hated taking pictures because they never turned out how I wanted.  Alas, no more.  Practically perfection in every shot.  Probably the best [early] anniversary present EVER.

To every thing there is an opposite, right? Well as we welcomed the one baby, we said goodbye to another.  

Say hello/goodbye to the Lawnmower. 

(Affectionately named by my brother, Jeremy)

I bought this car the day before I turned 17 and it has been surprisingly good to me these past 7 years!  There have definitely been a lot of memories in it and I don't think it's completely hit me that it's gone.  For good!  

It has a very happy ending, however.  I sold the car to my friend, Michael, from work at a time when he desperately needed it.  His car completely died last week and he had no idea what he was going to do because he could not afford a new car.  Fortunately with it being summer, Ryan can take his motorcycle and I drive the Jag.  So, we did a good deed and helped a friend who was so incredibly grateful for our generosity.  Seriously, when I told him I would sell it to him his face was priceless.  That's a picture I wish I had.  I think this is the biggest act of kindness I've ever been able to provide and I'm so grateful that the Lord has provided Ryan with I with enough means to do this for him!

Oh, the Kentucky Derby...

So we went to the Kentucky Derby.  However, we did NOT go to the Kentucky Derby that you have envisioned in your head.  You know - the pretty dresses with the gorgeous hats, seersucker suits, mint julep and other classy drinks in hand.  No, we went to the infield:

 "That whole thing will be jammed with people; fifty thousand or so, and most of them staggering drunk. It's a fantastic scene--thousands of people
fainting, crying, copulating, trampling each other, and fighting with broken whiskey bottles."
-Native son Hunter S. Thompson

Other websites say there is usually around 80,000 people there and I would believe it.  This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience pretty much because I, personally, would not want to experience it again.  Oh sure, for 40 bucks I could pay to go another year - but NO THANK YOU.  Here's not to say we didn't have fun and see all sorts of sights (in fact I wish I could have just video taped everything my eyes saw) but it was enough to last me a lifetime.  If we do it again, I'll be paying the big bucks for the grand stands.

Now knowing what the infield is like, it was completely appropriate for our group to go with a denim white-trash theme. 

The florist at work and I created my hat - deeming me the "Produce Princess"

This hat was amazing! I had my picture taken over 50 times, received countless compliments,

was interviewed by the Kentucky news AND made it onto the newspaper's website! (#45)

EPIC.

Here are just some of the other sights we saw - clockwise from left in a spiral :)

1. The Grand Stand a.k.a The Kentucky Derby you envision

2. An airbrushed hard hat

3. A teeeeeeny tiny little jockey

4.  A man with a bloodied face from one of the TWO fights we witnessed

5. Elvises

6. Another awsome hat

7. Suprisingly one of the few mullets I noticed

8. Some of the classier folk

9.  Ross and the lime green suit he would like to wear next year

And finally - the stars of the Kentucky Derby - the horses.  We were able to see a few.

I hope this gave you a glimpse into possibly the most interesting day of my life.  I would say more, but there really are no words and not even enough pictures.  The quote above truly describes it all.  It is not a place for children and definitely not for the faint of heart. 

The rest of April!

Blogging has been on my to-do list for way over a month now and it was time to just get it done! 

I normally wait until I've edited the pictures and oftentimes put them into little collages to save space, etc.

but you get none of that today.  I do think I edited the files but you're getting 28 pictures 

one right after the other because:

1. No collages like I said

2. I hate choosing only a few pictures

3. A lot of things went on at the end of April!

So let's begin... The Med School had a "Spring Fling" so we got all dressed up and went to dinner

beforehand with Mitch and Maile (be warned, they are in a lot of these pictures!).  Mitch pulled up 

a coupon off of Restaurants.com = Genius!  Definitely how we will be eating out from now on!

The next night we met up with them again to go down to temple and to have Qdoba for dinner (there's not one in Durham - boo).  Due to a lot of unfortunately timing issues we were too late - the doors were locked!  So we took some pretty pictures to attempt to make up for our 40 minute drive down there.

Next was our trip to Illinois to see Whit, Dave and new baby Penelope!  It was about a 12 hour 13 hour drive with our slight route deviation but it was through gorgeous hills/mountains of West Virginia and Ohio farms, etc.

Meet Penelope!

 I brought my Cricut with me and we cut letters saying "I am a Child of God" 

in 6 different languages to hang on Penelope's wall.

Dinner at B-Dubs was A MUST! And Penelope's first restaurant experience.  

Minus not knowing how to put the car seat in the provided high chair she did 

wonderfully by sleeping the whole time under the car cover I made her.

 Ryan and I made a little jaunt up to Chicago despite the horrible weather.  

We were coming from 75-80 degrees and sunshine and ended in 32-38, windy and rainy. 

BUT we were able to go to Wrigley Stadium (Ryan LOVES the Cubs).

Do you notice what it says on the marquee? :)

 Due to the cold weather we did NOT want to tour any of outdoor Chicago

so we found the Ukranian Village and headed to the grocery store where

Ryan was in heaven once more!

Chicken and Lamb cakes for Easter?  I unfortunately did not get a photo of the lamb-shaped butter.

We made it back to Urbana before the tornado struck and spent one more day with

baby Penelope before heading home a day early to again avoid the bad weather.  If you've seen Whit's Blog she mentions the roles that Penelope plays.  This is Angry Baby.

 A little bit of Pirate Baby

Sleeping Baby

 And this is Ryan with a baby.  He was okay until she moved.  

Then he didn't know what to do.  He'll learn someday...

Last item of business for April - EASTER!  Maile and I went Easter Basket shopping and ended up buying WAY TOO MUCH candy.  But what can you do?  We know better for next year.  Mitch had to leave town Easter Weekend so we surprised the boys a few days early with the baskets while we decorated Easter eggs.

That would be Mitch's egg in a candle trying to get wax on it for a cool effect.  Not so cool in the end. :)

I got this little guy from work and he was the runt of the litter. 

Somehow when he was being assembled he ended up on his head.  

We think he's adorable!

On Easter morning Ryan was passed out as usual so I got up and hid some eggs 

around the apartment for him to find.  Some were a little trickier like this.  Can YOU find the egg?

 The Easter Bunny was not so happy about having her photo taken. 

I actually was not feeling well and threw up in the middle of hiding the eggs.  

Not the best start to the day.

 This picture describes Ryan's personality EXACTLY.  Do you see that he ORGANIZED his eggs as he found them?  Who does that, honestly??

Our Easter Sunday Attire

Easter Dinner was some BBQ chicken and our one remaining hot dog. :)

And of course Maile joined us!

Whew, that was April!  Next up:

THE KENTUCKY DERBY....

DUN DUN DUUUUUUUN.

It was warm even a month ago!

So I'm behind with my blogging.  What's new?  But I didn't want to get too behind because we have lots of fun things coming up! As the title of this post says, it was warm here even a month ago.  Warm meaning I was able to sit by a lake with the sun beaming down on me and get a tan, even back on April 7.  We knew there were some reasons we liked North Carolina!

Meet Necia and her three little girls Mia, Ellen and Hannah:

Necia is one of my dearest friends here and I look up to her in so many ways.  We've discovered we're living almost the same life just 11 years apart.  Every time we talk we find out more and more how similar we are which is why she is such a great example to me.  If I turn out anything like her and her daughters 11 years down the road, I'm set!

Necia is an expert at finding fun free things to do in the area and she introduced me to Lake Wheeler.  The girls were able to play on the edge of the water while we basked in the warmth and just gabbed as we women like to do.  It was perfection!

I just love these girls!  When they took me back to my car they asked if they could call me Aunt Caitlin and my eyes couldn't help but well up with tears!  No worries, they can't replace my real nieces, but they are great substitutes. :)

Necia also recommended that I needed to go to Duke Gardens like IMMEDIATELY.  The tulips were in full bloom and it was gorgeous according to her report!  So Ryan and I made a date night of it.  Unfortunately, my dinner spilled at sometime throughout then night on my pretty white shirt. :(

 Ryan is convinced that this is a "turduckin"

 There are so many cardinals here!  There is one (or a few?) that live in the trees right outside our apartment and something about them just makes me happy to see.

Unfortunately my camera just doesn't do it justice - especially on a cloudy day! 

But I'm sure you can tell it was gorgeous and I had a wonderful night with my hubby.

THE END.