Shelby, NC & King Mountain Hike

On Thursday we drove to Shelby, NC to visit with my best friend, Lauren and her husband Matt. We arrived around 9:00 that night and they had homemade lasagna all ready for us... yum! Lauren even called Kyle earlier that week and made one of my favorite drinks (that I usually get at the melting pot) Strawberry Basil Lemonade... that really blew me away that she had taken the time to make it!

Our yummy meal!

Tyson and Chaco loved eachother... very funny

On Saturday morning we woke up and had delicious waffles with homemade whip cream! We sure did eat some delicious meals while we were there! Thank you so much for letting us come stay and crash at your place Lauren & Matt-- we had a great time!

Next Kyle and I headed to Kings Mountain to do one of our first practice hikes for our trip. We hiked about 8 miles in 2 hours, keeping a pretty good pace the whole time. It started raining 1/4 of the way through, but we didn't try to turn around until the lightning came! Fortunately it all worked out and we found our way back to the car-- going the long way by accident. Tyson enjoyed it-- we even bought him a cute little backpack to wear so he can carry his own water (and some of our stuff-- raincoats!)... he loved it!

Here is the view from the top. Kyle and I also just ordered some Dakine camel backs for ourselves, and we'll use the sleeve for our trip in our bigger packs.

And here is one just in the woods somewhere:

Once we got back to the car all soaking wet:

On our way home to Raleigh we picked up a CJ7 that Mr. Guenther just bought. Kyle drove it home the whole way and I followed to make sure it wouldn't break down.

He also got to drive it a lot this past weekend... I think he's completely hooked now and it's on our list to get one of these someday

Charlotte Guenther Family Weekend

This weekend we headed to Charlotte for a busy but fun-event filled time! Friday night we arrived to Rach and Mike's just intime to give everyone hugs and head to bed. Kyle's whole family traveled in as well for the weekend. Saturday morning we all woke up early to go support Kerry, Brad, Rach & Mike in their Muddy Buddy Race.

And this is how they looked afterwards!

We were all calling it the Muddy Buddy RUN because there was a lot more running then we all had imagined! They ran to certain areas, had to perform certain tasks then run again to the next station. Here is one task they did... star jumps!

And here is another one... the Mud Pit!

Of course we brought Tyson and Raven to watch!

Kyle and I left early so he could make it to his ASU Alumni Hockey Game which was being held this year in the Checkers Stadium!! They had a great time, and the Alumni only lost 13-9... not too bad!! Here is Kyle all ready to go!
Half way through the game Molly & Marshal showed up, which was an awesome surprise! We all went to lunch at Brixx Pizza afterwards and stuffed ourselves till we couldn't move!!
We went home that afternoon, sat out in the sun for hours (how relaxing!) and then celebrated Kerry's 30th Birthday!! We all grilled out, and Rach made her some yummy strawberry & cream cheese icing cup cakes!
Sunday we all woke up and spent some more time together outside since it was so pretty! Even Pop enjoyed the warm weather!
Kyle and I met Molly & Marshal to go on a short hike before I cleaned up to head out for Tiffin's shower at 3. After mapquesting directions (being unprepared!) and seeing how far away it was I had to cancel on her last minute. I would have had to drive 8 hours total (2 hours there, 2 back, and 4 to ATL) that day, and not been able to get home to ATL till 1:00 am so it just didn't seem logical. I'm sad I missed it though. We met M&M for a quick lunch before we headed home, where we saw Cassidy & Renee-- small world!!

It was so nice to get back to ATL around 6:00, when it was still light outside!! We both have busy weeks this week, so it was nice to rest up! Hope you all had great weekends as well!

Hibernation

That's right we are calling this weekend Hibernation... because we accomplished nothing but sleeping :)

Friday night we both came home from work, watched a couple of our dvr'd shows and went to bed around 10:00. We woke up Saturday morning around 10:30 (that is 12.5 hours) to rain outside which made us want to do nothing but watch more tv. Around 1:00 we finally got dressed and went shopping to REI. Our goal this weekend was to buy a pack for me for our trip in August... and we did it! I was fitted for a pack, and after trying on a couple picked out which one I thought would be the lightest and most comfortable... an Osprey! I am so excited about this one... woo hoo!

It has a suspension system that helps distribute the weight and since it's mesh it keeps a constant air flow going to my back!
After shopping we came home, cooked some dinner (had sloppy joes for the first time!) then decided to go to the $1.75 theater down the road. I think it's so cool and I couldn't wait to bring Kyle there. I found out it's only $0.75 on tuesdays, what a deal! Anyways we went and saw Revolutionary Road with Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. We both knew it was really sad and depressing before hand, so maybe that's why we thought it was good?! Their acting was unreal, but it's a very sad story and we spent the whole ride home talking about what we can do to never get in those situations in our marriage :) haha THEN we went to bed that's right again at 10:30.

We had been planning on skipping church and going hiking, since it was going to be the first sunny day in a while AND since Kyle had a group project meeting at 1:30 so we wouldn't have been able to go in the afternoon. Well we didn't set an alarm because we always wake up at 9:00 at the latest. Turns out we didn't wake up until 11:30... which is a grande total so far of 25.5 hours. Kyle woke up feeling very sick (we think it's sinus' but not sure) and I had a pretty sore throat so we ate some chicken noodle soup and then he was off to his group meeting. I was feeling pretty tired still so guess what I did? Went back to bed for 2.5 more hours! So I slept a total of 28 hours this weekend!!! He came home from his group meeting, and we went to our Newlyweds Biblestudy. We had a great time like always, and there was such a big crowd this time-- 34 people!

After newlyweds we decided to try out our Orikaso fold flat table wear that we had ordered a couple weeks ago!
This will be great to bring with us as well... I have a pink set and Kyle ordered an orange one. It comes with:
A MUG
A PLATE:

okay here is the finished plate... AFTER he read the directions:

and A BOWL:
And that was our boring but relaxing weekend. We were supposed to go to Boone but since it was going to rain there the whole time we decided to just stay here. It was a nice break from traveling though for sure!

Kate's First Annual Chili Cookoff!

Yes that is right, as if our company wasn't already identical to "the office" (we do have a party planning committee!) we had our first annual chili cookoff today! It was really fun! We started by all trying the 7 different chili's they had layed out:
and then we voted by putting poker chips in those red cups. Whichever one got the most chips won! It was fun as they all had different tastes: cinnamon, spicy, meaty, stew-ish, oily, etc. After you voted then you actually got a bowl of whichever kind you liked and then put all the toppings on it:

We all ate for a while then they announced the winners!

The winning team was Pat's! And they gave them aprons and hats... absolutely hilarious.
Her whole team:
One of the writers at our company made them (after much thought the MMIX means 2009) haha
Then they also gave 2 more aprons out to the 2nd and third place winning cooks. Here is Pat, Kevin and Laura:
Fun way to spend our Friday lunch I think!

Orlando Trip!

WHAT A FUN WEEKEND WE HAD!!!! We all headed down to Orlando, Florida! Kyle and Nick flew there and arrived into West Palm Beach Thursday night to visit with Mark and go fishing with him all day Friday! They woke up super early and headed out to sea! They have some hilarious stories from the day, and now I do believe all 3 are officially attached at the hip :) It was neat for my dad to see his son (Nick) and his son-in-law (Kyle) go fishing with his best man's (Van) son (Mark). They are already planning the next trip where the "kids" can compete against the "dads" in a fishing contest, and see who gets more!

Here's one of Nick's catches of the day.... a dolphin fish! Took both of them to hold it for the picture, once it's eyes saw the water again :)

The also caught some King Mackerel!

Kyle helped Mark fillet and clean the fish up, learning a ton about how much meat you can actually get off of a fish! Then they came home and cooked some up for us for dinner! (And for the record I now officially like fish... but only if it comes from Mark's cooking!)
With all the flying costs we've had this month, I ended up taking a half day to drive to FL, getting to Orlando around 8:00 that night, just in time for dinner! We all crashed after stuffing ourselves full for the night!

Saturday morning we got up and had a wonderful breakfast cooked by Aunt Debby. Then Nick, Kyle and I headed to Orlando WaterSports Complex... a place we had seen on the side of the highway a couple times and always wanted to try :)

Ky & Nick. We finally have Nick back from his recent sailing/camping trip in the British Virgin Islands! (see how tan he is!)It's actually a huge lake with cables that pull you through the water and off jumps! It's insane but so cool to watch. We watched for about 2 hours and then Kyle's like "I'm going"... big surprise right?! So he gets all strapped in, and goes for an hour. It's pretty tiring, but there were some 7 year olds out there going off huge jumps... incredible.Go Kyle Go! He had no problem jumping off the dock and immediately getting pulled at 20 mph. I would have face planted without a doubt! I enjoyed getting to sunbathe as Kyle did his thing!

Next was going back to the house to get ready for the wedding! Sarah has truly met the man of her dreams, and he could not be any better for her. We all love David and are so thrilled he's joined the family!

The ceremony was very fast, but my favorite part was their kiss and dancing out after it was over. Here is a video of him spinning her down the aisle :)

The reception was held at The Elks Lodge.
Her colors of purple and yellow were so pretty!

Cousin picture! Nick, Ben and Mark!

Aunt JoAnne and Aunt Debby:

My Great Aunt CC (G-ma's sister) with Nick & Mark.

Mark, Aunt Debby, Van and Grandma:

All having one drink for Sarah & David!

Grandma & I: (She represented all the grandparents for the weekend! I'm so glad she was able to come-- a huge thank you to my mom for watching grandpa!!)

After Sarah & David had left, we all helped pick up and then got talked into going out downtown with Ben and his girlfriend. Unfortunately my camera died half way through the reception so I didn't get any pictures of it. It was HILARIOUS as we all now call Ben "the Mayor" since he knew EVERYONE: all the bouncers, all the bartenders, all the people down there! None of us had to pay for ANYTHING or show ids... "oh you are Ben's cousin? Come right in" hahaha. We had a great time, but by 3:30 I could not keep my eyes open anymore and it was time for bed!

The next morning we woke up and headed over to Johnny and JoAnne's house for brunch with the rest of the family. We got to see Sarah & David open all their gifts and visit with Addison (their beautiful baby girl!). We headed out late around 2:00 and rushed home to get Tyson from Chris & Kathleen (thank you guys SO much for watching him!). It was a long weekend but we had an absolute BALL!!!

Leave you with my 2 favorite pics of the night... Here is my cousin Ben (7'1") with my grandma (5'4") dancing the night away...

And then I saw the backside... Grandma's hand straight on Ben's tushy!!! hahaha it's as high as she could reach!