A boring, no pictures post

It's not that we don't have pictures as of late...we just haven't had time to grab them off the camera. It's been a very busy few weeks....

Chris and I are finding becoming "puppy parents" is harder than we originally envisioned, but we're loving every minute of it. Barkley can now sit, lay and fetch! Potty training has been tough on us, though. Because we both work full time, we've been trying to hit the training hard on the weekends. He's getting better, though.

We've also had friends in town and took a trip out of town in June. Kory and Laura Dee, two of Jen's friends from college, were in town the second weekend in June, and then we went to Myrtle Beach for Pi Kappa Phi RoseBall the third weekend. Pi Kappa Phi is Chris' fraternity, and we were invited to go as alumni. We had a hotel room on the beach at a resort with a lazy river - there were many floats in there with a cold drink in our hands because it was too hot to walk on the beach.

Chris has been keeping busy at work, and I've been keeping busy with work and working with the Big Ten Atlanta Alumni committee on an event called the Big Ten Pub Crawl. This is a yearly event between all of the Big Ten alumni groups, and last year it drew 800 people to a series of bars in Atlanta to raise money for a charity. This year, our charity is Bert's Big Adventure - a local radio host takes kids with chronic and terminal illnesses (and their families) to Disney World every year, and it truly is a dream trip for them. I'm really glad to get involved with a fun (and generous) project. We're shooting for 1,000 crawlers this year!

That brings me to an open invitation: if anyone wants to come down and represent Iowa at the pub crawl on August 22, you are more than welcome to stay with us and make a vacation out of it! :)

Hope everyone had a Happy 4th - I spent most of it sick with a cold on the couch. I very generously passed it on to Chris, though. What can I say? I share!

Jen

Introducing Barkley!

We have a new addition to the Yarber family...our puppy, Barkley!

Barkley is an 8 week old shih tzu puppy. And yes, we are getting really good at yelling, "grab him, he's peeing!" and running him over to the puppy pad. Since we both work, we're training him on the puppy pads since he's just a little guy and can't hold it much more than two hours, then we'll work on outside training when he's a little older.

His full name is Barkley Pokey Yarber. Barkley because he looks like the Sesame Street character, and Pokey because Chris and I both read and re-read The Pokey Little Puppy when we were younger.

He looks good with us, doesn't he? :)

For the last time...

...NO, we are not having babies anytime soon!

But we sure do look good posing with one. :)

This little cutie is Emaleigh - she's the daughter of our good friends Chris and Kim. Ema was born in March (the day after Chris's birthday!) and we're thrilled every time we get to see her and her parents. We're going over to their house tomorrow for a BBQ to celebrate Kim's birthday and are hoping for a re-emergence of the slip'n'slide of death. A big backyard hill + water + dish soap + adults reliving their childhood = lots of fun. Ema won't be able to participate, but we'll make sure to take an extra slide for her. :)

Have a great weekend, all!

Ice is known as "poor man's candy" in Tampa.

What a weekend - can we take a vacation after our vacation? :P

Chris and I traveled to Tampa/Clearwater Beach, FL for Memorial Day weekend, and although rain threatened our plans...it was still a great weekend. The weekend started early on Thursday (my birthday!) with dinner at El Azteca with friends and then a trip to a nearby pub for trivia - which, of course, we dominated. :)

Friday morning we made our way to Florida, and we fought rainstorms all the way there. Luckily, the sun came out as we rolled into Tampa, where we checked into a Hyatt downtown and met up with our good friends Andrea and Tony for Happy Hour and dinner at a place called The Lodge. They have delicious cheeseburger spring rolls and the waiter was kind enough to bring me a birthday shot! We also went to Ybor City (the nightlife district) for many adventures and to celebrate my birthday one day late.

Rainstorms on I-75.

Not sure about the pineapple upside down cake shot...

During our Tampa travels, we also found it's good to have friends in high places. Places like the director of children's camps for the Lowry Park Zoo. Andrea took us on a behind the scenes tour on Saturday - we got to feed the monkeys, watched her wrangle a hissing alligator out of its cage, got up close and personal with a porcupine, fed the stingrays, and also got to be the special guest feeders at the 3:30 alligator feeding (they eat chicken and unnamed chunks of meat...). We also had plans to feed the giraffes and get up and close with the chimpanzees before pouring rain thwarted our plans.

Chris feeding the stingrays.

Andrea convincing Tony to pet the hissing alligator.

After the zoo, we made the half-hour trek to Clearwater Beach to check into our hotel on the beach. While our "three-star" Hotwire hotel left a lot to be desired* and we'll be booking directly from now on, we still managed to snag a hotel directly on the beach. We showered, enjoyed a frosty beer in our hotel room, walked to a pizza place across the street, and returned to the hotel room for more beverages on our balcony.

No rain on Sunday (which was heavily forecast) meant...BEACH DAY! We loaded up the cooler, met up again with the amazing Andrea and Tony (Tondrea? Anny? What's the proper Brangelina name?) and parked ourselves on the beach for the rest of the day, followed by a trip to a favorite restaurant, Crabby Bill's. Try the crabcake sandwich and a cold "crab trap." :)

On the beach outside the hotel.

We sadly loaded up the car and arrived in Atlanta around 6pm on Monday. Chris and I both have a day of work under our belts for this week, and are already craving the weekend. It's going to be a long week - Chris is going through some big changes with his job, and I've just got a lot on my plate at work. We're looking forward to a BBQ at the Bradley house on Saturday and a day of painting on Sunday - but Chris doesn't know that yet. ;)

*We used Hotwire to book a room at a hotel that claimed to be a three-star, but was easily a two-star at best. Funky smells - no, stenches - in the hallway, scary and almost broken elevators, a plugged up tub, a room with three tables and florescent lighting was called a "restaurant," broken ice machines. We were also charged a $12 resort fee per day that covered internet that didn't work, parking that wasn't guaranteed, and beach towels that may or may not be there.

A friend who works in the hotel industry tried to warn us that Hotwire is a scam, but we had already booked. He advises using Travelocity (which shows the hotel before buying, compared to Hotwire, which will only tell you the name of the hotel after buying) and then comparing that price to the hotel's direct booking site. Just a little helpful information!

Welcome to Our Blog!

April 2009: At the Atlanta Thrashers' last game of the season,

in a suite courtesy of our friend Tony.

Here it is, drumroll please...our first blog post!

Having family members literally all over the United States, it's hard for us to keep in touch with everyone. We know both sets of parents are excellent news channels and keep family members informed of our escapades and adventures, but we started this blog so our friends and family can hear our news (and lack of news...) directly from the source!

We'll update with news and pictures as often as possible!

Love, Jen and Chris