Coyotes and Marshmallows

We went camping this past weekend near Gee Creek and while we had a good time, it was soooo cold! I think we had three or four blankets spread out on the bottom of the tent and then another one thrown on top of our sleeping bags! We had a great time though and Maggie just loved it. She's getting a North Face jacket for Christmas I think! Well, I don't know if they make those for dogs, but she's getting one if they do. Anyways, we had a great time, ate good camp food, listened to the coyotes in the middle of the night and had the best coffee the next morning. Thanks for the pics everyone!

The next morning...

Ben likes to jump over fires for amusement

Our campsite

Amber looks great the morning after

Beth and Jason - so glad they made it

Maggie was such a little camper

Aww

Notice Laura's outfit. :)

The ladies of the campsite

hmmm

and again. hmmm.

I just love Maggie's floppy ears!

I don't know if you can see it, but we are brewing freshly ground Starbucks coffee out of the back of the FJ. Thanks babe for taking care of that!

How adorable is she?! Yes, we are those people who love their dog like a child.

A little coffee quiet time

Our tents

Sausage and eggs for breakfast. Yum!

Maggie's Best Friend

Maggie has a new best friend - meet Prissy. Prissy belongs to Jason and Jaime and her and Maggie have bonded quite nicely. I think they are the two most adorable dogs ever!

Engagement Party!

Like I said in the last post, we have some great friends. Laura organized an engagement party for me and Ben and Tina and Adam. We had a great dinner in Cafe Roma in downtown Cleveland. It was so nice and we had wonderful food and equally wonderful company. Thanks to everyone who came! (And thanks to Kevin for the photos!)

Lovely friends and Creme Brulee

*Disclaimer: this post will be lacking in pictures, but chock-full of mushiness.

With that said, we have been truly blessed by our friends here in Cleveland. We have an amazing core group of people that we've grown quite close to. We laugh and cry together and we've become close enough to be genuine and honest with each other. We don't say it enough, but Ben and I appreciate this group of friends so much. Each person brings something so unique to the group and we are honored to be around them. We couldn't imagine a better group of friends.

A couple of those friends, Jason and Jaime, had us over for dinner a few weeks ago. It was so lovely and yummy (Jaime is an amazing cook.) We always enjoying hanging out with them. For dessert Jaime put to good use her great score at the Habitat Store earlier that morning - pretty, white souffle cups. She made some excellent creme brulee, which Jason and Ben happily set the torch to. :)

The Habitat Home Store

Jaime works at Habitat for Humanity and a couple of Saturdays ago we volunteered at the home store. It was so much fun and Jaime walked away with something great to use in the kitchen (more on that in the next post!) Also, thanks for the pictures Jaime!

On our way to Firehouse for lunch. Yum!

There was a heater above us keeping our hands toasty.

We are expert sorters.

You never know what treasures you'll find at the home store.

Flowers, madame?

Use those muscles, boys!

Superbowl Party

My roommate Tina and I hosted the Superbowl Party at our place this year. It was so much fun and we had so much good food! Needless to say, my weekly weigh-in the following Tuesday did not go so well. (thanks Kevin for the pictures)

The game was on during our usual Bible study time, so Ben shared on Lent a few minutes before the game began.

Ms. Tina, the beautiful

Mike and Rebecca

Me and Maggie

Ben again, because he's so cute

Amber and Laura

Ben. Hmm.

Ready to cash out