Happy Halloween!

It's been some time since we have carved pumpkins so this year we decided to dig in (literally!). After some careful inspection, the perfect pumpkins were selected. Here is Chris showing off the goods.

The final products, after considerable work:

Nestle and Hershey were the cutest trick-or-treaters in the neighborhood!

The girls weren't the only ones who played dress up for the day!

The Battle of Ohio

Thanks to our friends Kate and Steve, we were able to watch the Buckeyes beat up on Ohio University from The Shoe. We "upgraded" our seats and ended up sitting in the north end-zone; it was a great view! The sun was shining, it was warm (bordering on hot!), and the Buckeyes completely dominated--could you ask for a better day of college football?

Hocking Hills Weekend

The dogs, Chris, and myself spent the weekend in Hocking Hills. We had a great time exploring the parks and doing some pretty major hiking. The dogs love hiking and did a great job with all the people and other dogs who were also out enjoying nature. We stayed in a cabin (not a rustic cabin--one with air conditioning, a jacuzzi tub, and a hot tub) outside of the parks. Okay, so we're not the "camping type" but we are really enjoying getting out and seeing nature. We won't be purchasing sleeping bags any time soon, but who knows...maybe another cabin rental is in our future!

The whole family at Old Man's Cave

Rock House

Conkle's Hollow, Rim Trail

My parents were camping at the state park that weekend so we spent some time with them after we checked out of the cabin

The Young Family Sisters in The Big Easy

My sisters and I decided to take a trip to The Big Easy for three days this past July. We met up in New Orleans, checked into our hotel, and then set out to explore the city and it's rich culture. We did so much in three days, including: multiple city tours, a mule-driven cart tour of the French Quarter, a glimpse of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, a quick visit to Algiers, Mardi Gras World (awesome!), a streetcar ride with views of beautiful New Orleans style homes, lots of eating, and some shopping. Oh yes...I can't forget the thing we did the most: sweat!! It was very warm and humid but I love the heat so it was great! (I'm not sure Chris and Jen felt the same, though.) We all had a good time and would like to continue the tradition of a sister trip yearly or every other year.

Here we are outside of Mardi Gras World.

We were able to see past (and future!) floats from the
many Mardi Gras parades. (We even were able to climb

on the floats (illegally) after our tour guide left us.)

On our way to dinner, just down the street from our hotel.

Cruising!

Chris and I have officially entered the world of cruising! On July 4th we boarded the Emerald Princess and began our journey to the Western Caribbean.

Here are all the ports we visited:

Here we are with our ship in the background at Princess Cay, Bahamas. The weather was a bit overcast but it was still quite warm, which we love!
We found the formal nights to be fun and a great excuse to dress up!

This is the furthest point we could access on the ship, watching an amazingly beautiful sunset on the open seas:
One of the best parts of our trip was getting to climb this Mayan ruin. It was a huge workout but well worth the sweat!
Another amazing sunset on our last night on the boat. It was as if the ocean was saying "goodbye."

Overall, we had an amazing time and thoroughly enjoyed just relaxing and spending some time together. It was great to see some new islands and try out the local beaches. Believe it or not, we both even got a tan (or as much of a tan as we, the fair-skinned, are capable of getting)!

Many people have asked us, "Will you cruise again?" The answer: "ABSOLUTELY!"

A New Hobby

Chris has been wanting a bonsai plant for quite some time. One Christmas, he received bonsai seeds to cultivate his tree from scratch. That didn't go so well....

This past Christmas, Chris received two trees from Mom and Dad Young. After a few scares this winter (all the leaves fell off!), his trees came back beautifully.

Chris has been really great about taking care of the trees, including pruning them, watering them, re-potting them, etc. I think it's a good stress reliever for him!

He now has a total of five trees: two Fukien Tea treas, a Chinese Maple, a Juniper, and a Jade tree. Here are a few from his collection.

Fukien Tea Tree

Juniper

Chinese Maple

Shall We Dance?

I finally cashed in my Christmas gift from Chris: four ballroom dance lessons. The hardest part of this process was deciding which styles we wanted to learn. I've always been intrigued by Salsa dancing so this was definitely one we wanted to try.

At our first lesson, our dance instructor informed us that Salsa is one of the hardest dances to learn so she suggested we start off with the more basic "Mambo." For three lessons we learned the basic steps (quick, quick, slow!) and learned how to put the steps together. These basics are also found in Salsa but at much faster pace. I, of course, thoroughly enjoyed learning the dance but I think Chris had a good time too. We also picked up a few swing dancing steps (single-time or jitterbug) and have found that we like that as well. Right now we can dance to a multitude of songs and switch back and forth between the two dance styles with only a few "oops."

The decision now? Do we continue on with additional lessons? It's quite pricey but I think it might just be worth it. It's great exercise plus I feel like this is something we can do for the next fifty years! If nothing else, maybe I can convince Chris to take me out to a Salsa club or swing dancing every now and again.