freakhogstupendousnessfest 2010

July 2009
phone call with my bff Alicia
pining away about going to the beach
a decision was made.

we were beach-bound:
North Carolina

Budget:
as little as possible

Trip name:
freakhogstupendousnessfest

Why?
Because we can



And we did. Here we are actually on Myrtle Beach in SC but most of the week was spent at a sandy campground in Wilmington, NC on Carolina Beach.

While we would love to be able to repeat trips to the beach every summer, that's just not realistic. So this year's fest looked a little different:



We decided to make a weekend trip down to Accord, NY near Poughkeepsie (because I'm sure noone, not even an upstater would know where Accord is) to visit our college friend Dave.

I drove first to Alicia's place of employment to pick her up... and while waiting for her to get done I did some recon.





But soon enough it was over and we headed back to the site to store section where she clocked out and we were headed on our way.



What's documentary of a wal-mart worker without pictures of said worker with random other workers?



This is the point I was not allowed to go past. So I stood outside the door with my very large camera and lens (which looks so much bigger with a lens hood on) and got stared at by the marties walking in.



still waiting to get on with freakhogstupendousnessfest 2010!!!



Another question: what's a road trip without appropriate window paint detailing the event?!

(word of caution: even though car window paint is made for *ahem* car windows it may still take hours to scrape it all off)











It's a long drive without a lot of places to stop... capiche?

Once we arrived at Dave's we toured his house and talked of making a bonfire... but to woods were too dry to do that. We reminisced about the *old* days and played dutch blitz until it was time for bed. The next day we went to church in Kingston and had a picnic after, returned home for another rousing game of blitz and then headed on our way home. It was a short trip, but great to be with good friends nonetheless.

In putting this post together, I felt it was appropriate to gather the other pictures we have taken over the past few years of our get-togethers...



This was our first trip to see eachother in Syracuse which is where Dave went to college at ESF. We were at a high school musical of the Sound of Music in this pic.



Among other things we did that weekend, this is possibly my favorite memory and most definitely my favorite picture of the trip. No explanation really needed, you'll either see the humor or you will not ;)



Then a few months later we had another splendiforousnessfest where we learned some ninja skills and trained my kitten to be an assassin (see below)







Most recently, we all got together back in October when Dave's brother got married and we travelled to Troy to photograph the wedding.

Good times...

So from now on, freakhogstupendousnessfest will refer to any one summer event had with Alicia. Any others may join but two will remain the same. I'm accepting applications for next summer where the plan is the Outer Banks in September!

vacation summer 2010

Last year around the same time I met Steve, his family was going through a huge life change. His dad got laid off from his job of 20+ years but thankfully was able to find another job very similar to the one he was laid off from quickly. However, it was 5 hours away in Allentown, PA. His parents put the house up for sale and Dad moved to PA to live in essentially a bachelor pad so that Mom could stay here and sell the house.

Along with all those changes there was a death in the family, an engagement, marriage and various moves. Just a lot going on in the Robinson family... Consequently, as a result of new jobs, moves and all other factors weighing in, the Robinson family vacation was a little different than years past.

There is a small cabin set in the Adirondack mountains that Steve's family has travelled to every year since he was about 2. They missed the year his baby sister was born but other than that have been every year. And sadly this year we were missing some of the family, but we still managed to make it into a very memorable time.



Usually it's mom and dad robinson along, obviously, but since they couldn't make it we invited my mom and dad. And my daddy brought me flowies :) sunflowies :D



This is the view from the cabin looking down the short trail to the waterfront.



At the waterfront there is a little dock and some sand... so it's kind of a beach!





my Dad :)









Funny story. Steve forgot the charger to his electric razor... which we discovered on the first day up there as he was about half done shaving his head... lol. So he turned into a mountain man the rest of the week ;)



Another funny story. There were ducks everywhere and they came to visit often... in hopes of food obviously :P One day in particular though we didn't have any ducks around, so we went out in the rowboat looking for some. We found these guys and fed them some stale chips and bread.

Then on the way back we ran into a gaggle of little ducklings and as we fed them they followed us back all the way to our dock. They were literally eating out of my hand and long story short, I ended up catching one. I'm almost afraid to post the pictures of my duck catch and the consequential mama duck attacking me, but if I get enough comments saying you want to see how it went down, then I guess I'll have to oblige.



We rented a 100mm f/2.8 macro lens for the wedding I did at the end of July, but when picking the dates to have it accidentally got it a week early. Which was actually kind of nice because we both got a chance to play with it. I really loved using this lens and in all reality did not get as much use out of it at the wedding as I would like... but it was still a lot of fun and definitely on my wish list. This moss picture is one of the ones I took with it... along with the sunflower picture.



A fallen tree we saw on our rowboat ride to lure in some duckies...



and my face after capturing one of said ducks!

It was a fantastic vacation and I can't wait for next summer to do it all over but this time I hope everyone can be there together!

the honeymoon

This post along with a couple others I realized I've left in draft form the last couple months, so I'm revising and getting them up! Hence the weeks/months strike-off ;)

It should really be called the honeymoon vacation, because really, the honeymoon isn't over! Being married the last 3 weeks months has been amazing, and while we've already run into challenges, I am more convinced today than the day we took our vows that we were brought together by God.



This is the first view of our ship from the terminal, as we walked down the hallway to board we noticed they were touching up the paint. I thought it was just so cool that even though we were cruising in the Caribbean that our ship was decorated Hawaiian... I love Hawaii. I've been there twice when my brother was stationed in Pearl, it was so amazing. Steve and I most definitely want to go there and share that experience together! This ship was decorated Hawaiian because before it became the Norwegian Sky, it was actually the Pride of Aloha.



This was our stateroom. Totally tiny, but we didn't need a whole lot of room. There was plenty to do on the ship and lots of food to eat :)





This is the breakwater in the channel out of Miami... there were some kids out fishing on it.



The boat that made this wake in the channel was a 40-50 foot thrill ride that's goal was to get its passengers soaked ;) I think they were using the cruise ship's wake to do so.



Yes, the water really was that blue.



We chose to get a balcony room and it just so happened that every evening when the ship sailed, we were on the side with a sunset. That was just so cool! On our way out of the Miami port I took the most pictures... possibly because I felt like I was in an episode of CSI Miami?



Whenever I go on vacation, I like to get/do something that will mark the time and make a memory... This time I decided to get my hair braided. While my braids were complimented and totally "in" down there, when I got home I felt a little out of place ;) I was definitely praised by the locals though for being a blondie white girl with my whole head in braids... they called me Bahama Mama {ha!}





All braided up in Nassau, the whole ordeal only took about an hour. Plus the time it took to go find more money after my head was only half done ;) We then toured about on the island of Nassau and took pictures of ourselves with random pirates around. Steve in his classic Captain Morgan pose...



What's a trip to the bahamas (or anywhere tropical) without pictures of the beautiful hibiscus flower?



The first of these two was taken as we got off the ship (which is in the background there) and the second when we got back on



Gotta document the braids while they were still fresh! They got so frizzy after only a few days...



When we would come back to our room after dinner there would be little towel animal friends waiting for us. The ship gave lessons on how to make the lol, the only one we remember how to make really was the monkey ;)





It was a beautiful vacation! We had a lot of fun and when we got home we really got to having some fun! Somehow, I almost feel like real life is more fun than playing all the time :) Makes you appreciate the down time more maybe? I am loving married life, my husband and all the changes that this past year has brought :)