Mabel Update (in Instagram)

Today Mabel, our basset puppy and newest member of our family, is 17 weeks old!  It's crazy to think that she's only been in our lives a little over two months.  Life with Mabel has had its ups and downs.  She had a lot of health issues when we first got her: worms, ear mites, fleas, etc.  Combine that with all the puppy vaccines and our vet bills were definitely not fun.  She's also still struggling with her potty training, and other things like jumping and chewing on things she shouldn't (i.e. my winter hat, Cheese's harness, rocks, mulch...).  She's also a wild, little ball of energy, more so than Cheese ever was, or at least that's how it feels!

But man, oh man, does she melt my heart.  Those big brown eyes and her utter silliness just slay me.  She loves to chase her tail like it's out to get her and she will very often roll around in Cheese's dog bed (by herself) and growl and do somersaults!  She is definitely a mama's girl and will curl up on my lap like a cat...but then, true to her puppy-nature, the next second she's flying off my lap to investigate the cat or to crawl up Antoine and put her face in his face.  She's also quite fond of climbing on the back of the sofa, like Gui used to do when he was a kitten.  She's a little weirdo, but I love her!

Camping Weekend in Instagram

What a great weekend, but man, I'm tired!  And, is it just me, or did the weekend just fly by?!  Camping was a big success, but I think I need a couple days just to recuperate.  I took a bunch of photos this weekend, including some night-sky photos that I'm hoping turned out well, but until I have a chance to edit them here's some photos from Instagram...

 Antoine and I were in charge of all the food/cooking.  I was in charge of the coffee, something I've never made when camping before because Antoine doesn't drink coffee.  But since we had some serious coffee drinkers in the group this time I got this and this (which also came in handy for making some warm spiced cider Saturday night!) and some tasty coffee from Stauf's...and it turned out really well!  Plus my sister gave me this sweet set of metal mugs, bowls and plates (thanks sis!).

 These photos are from Saturday morning.  Antoine and I made an egg bake (somewhat similar to this one) with potatoes, onions, and peppers from Amanda's garden.  We topped it with Parmesan and aged white cheddar and it was very tasty!  Cheese, of course, wanted to help with the cooking process and kept getting way too close to the fire...but he managed not to burn himself, somehow.

 On Saturday we went to Apple Hill Orchards in Mansfield, OH, which was about a 30-40 minute drive from where we were staying near Mohican State Park.  I had never been to Apple Hill and just found them online earlier that week.  It's a great little place that I'd highly recommend (and they are dog-friendly which is awesome!).  We went apple picking, feasted on apple donuts, and sampled some delicious cider.  Good times!

 After Apple Hill, my sister and brother-in-law spotted a sign for the Ohio Bird Sanctuary just down the road.  It turned out to be a really great impromptu stop!  Cheese was allowed in most of the areas, they had a cool selection of owls, hawks and falcons, and they even had an enclosure that you could walk into (but no dogs!) that had all kinds of birds in it, quails, blue jays, chickens, killdeer, etc.  And then as we were getting ready to leave we spotted one of the very friendly staff exercising one of the hawks.  And then another one of the staff members brought out this little screech owl, Lazarus, to talk about!  I have better photos that I'll definitely share later!

 As you can see Saturday night got a little silly!  We were all drinking and playing cards against humanity and then this happened...don't worry, that's not cocaine it's powdered sugar for campfire pies!

It was a fun, but exhausting weekend...especially for the Cheese-man!  All the smells, all the random people petting him and rubbing his belly...it's so rough!

Stay tuned for more camping photos, though it might take me a while to get to them since this weeks is Midpoint!  Happy Monday everyone!

Life Lately (in Instagram)

 Okay, so remember when I promised to have a real post for you (part 2 of the Mansfield Reformatory) by the end of August?  Yeah, well...it's September now and that didn't happen.  And I'm really not sure when it's going to, to be honest.  We've just been so busy lately, but in the best way possible!  So here's a "life lately" via Instagram to hold you over:

Antoine and I celebrated three months of being married at the end of August, which is just crazy!  Seriously, where has the summer gone? [pretty flowers from Trader Joe's]

 Summertime-Jessica is a total lush, in case you didn't know!  I made a batch of strawberry simple syrup so I obviously needed to whip up some tasty alcoholic beverages: left- strawberry mojito, right- strawberry margarita.

 I had been craving a cobb salad so Antoine and I got all the fixings, including some Amish eggs and tasty Ashland-raised bacon.  It totally hit the spot!

 On the weekends Antoine almost always makes a delicious breakfast for us...but I decided to sneakily make him breakfast on Labor day!  I used this recipe; it was really tasty, but next time I would scramble the eggs firs before putting them in the nests.  

 So many pretty skies lately, these are just two that I happened to capture.

 Work has been pretty busy lately!  Recently I photographed a bunch of items from the Winkler Center that will be going to New York for exhibit.  All the pieces are from the Albert B. Sabin archives and are pretty cool.  The photo to the right is a box of Polio slides; Sabin developed the oral polio vaccine in the 1950s.

 On Friday Antoine and I left work early to drive up to Columbus for a Black Keys concert.  For our pre-concert dinner we got some tasty hot dogs at Dirty Frank's Hot Dog Palace.  It was my first time there and it was so good!  I got a bacon-wrapped "Classy Lady" (cheese sauce and crushed potato chips) and Antoine got the "Slappy Pappy's Super Sloppy" (bacon, coney sauce, cheddar, sour cream, topped with french fries).  We also shared a side of fried leeks, which were awesome!  It was all so good and so cheap (and they have a lot of vegetarian and vegan options!).  If you find yourself in Columbus I would seriously recommend you check it out!  After Dirty Frank's we still had time to kill so we headed over to Grandview so I could pick up some coffee and we could get some ice cream at Jeni's.  Always so good!

Antoine's brother (my new brother-in-law) got us Black Keys tickets for our wedding present.  Awesome gift, right?!  We had a great time, I particularly liked the leader singer from Cage the Elephant's dancing.  It was hilarious and mesmerizing!

The whole auditorium lit up by cell phone light before the encore. Craziness! 

We're going camping with my sister, brother-in-law, bestest friend, and her boyfriend in two weeks so I got this basic but large pour over (since Antoine doesn't drink coffee so we didn't have anything to make coffee with for camping, except a small French press).  Also, delicious coffee from Stauf's, one of my favorite Ohio roasters!

The prince on his pillows and some of Antoine's clothes.

This weekend and last Antoine and I did a fair amount of antiquing and walked away with some goodies I'm very excited about!  [this photo is from one of my favorite booths at Heart of Ohio Antique Center]  

That's all for now.  I'm going to try my hardest to get my photos edited sometime soon (i.e. this week or next).  I haven't really taken any photos since Mansfield, but I know I'll take a ton when we go camping!

July 4th Weekend in Instagram

I hope everyone had a nice long weekend!  Mine had its ups and down, but overall there was lots of good food and time with my little family.

 The weekend started a bit early at work with a birthday celebration of one of my coworkers.  I whipped up this chocolate cake with chocolate frosting from Completely Delicious.  It went over pretty well!

 I started off my Fourth with a very patriotic yogurt bowl.  It was pretty and delicious!  Then we headed over to French Park for a nice leisurely walk through the woods, which is always a good time.

 Then we headed over to my sister's, though they were out of town, to grill some food and hangout with Cheese on their new patio! [Above: blueberry lemon white wine spritzer I made for myself]

 Cheese had a blast playing fetch...look at that smile!

 Antoine grilled up some steaks and fresh corn, but the highlight for me were the grilled honeyed peaches with vanilla bean ice cream....SO GOOD!!

I couldn't resist a little nightcap once we got back home, it was the Fourth after all!  [Above: a blueberry mojito, made with fresh blueberry simple syrup]

 Saturday morning Antoine spoiled me with probably the best breakfast hash he's made yet!  He's a wizard when it comes to breakfast!! [Rosemary-garlic-chive breakfast potatoes, with Turk's bacon, cheese and a perfectly fried egg (at least how I like them), sprinkled with some fresh parsley!]

After breakfast, while Antoine was doing some yard work outside, I decided to go to Spring Grove to take some pictures.  And of course, because it's me and I'm apparently an expert at hurting myself, I fell and twisted my ankle.  I was walking by the pond, taking pictures and not paying attention, and I stepped into a hole and "CRUNCH!"  Then I hobbled back to my car and by the time I got home I had a swollen, sore ankle.  So the rest of the night was spent icing my ankle and watching tv.

 But no worries, I had this guy to keep me company...he even held my hand!

 With my ankle still swollen and sore my Sunday pretty much looked like this [me and Cheese taking it easy on the sofa]...though I'm not complaining!

Oh, and that husband of mine went ahead and spoiled me again with a delicious homemade breakfast:  homemade biscuit/bacon/egg/cheese sandwiches and breakfast potatoes!  He actually made the biscuits from scratch and they were AWESOME!!  I'm too lucky!

So, that was my weekend in a nutshell [ie Instagram]!  How was your 4th of July?  Did you do anything fun?!

Hawaii: Part 1

We'll call this, "Our first 24 hours in Hawaii"...yeah, that's right, I took this many photos (well more actually) in the first twenty-four hours!  And 9 hours of that was sleeping, trying to recover from a day's worth of traveling to get to Hawaii.

We spent the first half of our trip on the big island (Hawaii Island) and the second half on Oahu.  The big island was definitely our favorite of the two, and not because that's where we got married.  The big island was more relaxed and easy-going, way less touristy and crowded than Oahu.  It felt more authentic and less commercialized, which we really liked.  After a day of traveling, flying from Cincinnati to LA (with a three hours layover), we arrived in Kailua Kona around 5:30pm (on Friday).  Once we got our rental car and found some food for dinner, we checked into the Kona Reef Resort, got showers, and pretty much crashed.  The Kona Reef Resort is basically a condo unit on the beach in Kailua Kona.  It's not the most luxurious accomodations ever, but it's an affordable place to crash for the night or if your want a reasonably priced, comfortable place for a couple of days that's on the beach and is near town.

After recuperating from our travels, we woke up before the sun!  I think I woke up around 3:30am that day. But in general, while we were in Hawaii we almost always woke up before the sun and went to bed around 9pm...and I think most of the locals do too.  So, after we woke up we lounged around a bit until right before the sun decided to come up, then we went out to the beach to investigate...

You can see part of the Kona Reef on the left.  Most of its beach consisted of lava rock except for a small sandy beach off to the side (right by our room).

Plumeria, which blooms all over Hawaii and comes in a variety of colors...this being one of my favorites.

A little bit of reef I found.  Now, I think right after I took this photo is when I slipped on a rock and fell flat on my butt!  It hurt so bad, but luckily I cradled my camera as I was falling so I only had a bruised butt not a broken camera!

The sun coming up.

Little crabs EVERYWHERE!  But they were skittish and fast, so it was hard to get a good photo of them, unless they were already dead.

A better view of the Kona Reef Resort and the beautiful palm trees that lined the property's beach!

The most eventful part of that morning (besides me falling on my butt) was our very first turtle sighting!  Antoine spotted this guy among the rocks, I think he was feeding on something in the shallow waters because he pretty much stayed in one spot and would pop his head up occasionally!  It was adorable and exciting for us!

These crazy, beautiful trees where everywhere in Hawaii and their bright orange blossoms were huge!

After exploring the beach at Kona Reef and grabbing some breakfast, we checked out and slowly made our way toward the Waipio Valley (on the northern coast of the island).  Our first thing on the list was to pick up our marriage license in Kona (!!).  Once that was done we headed to the Kekaha Kai State Park, which was on the way and I had read some pretty good reviews about it.  It was a very pretty beach and I wish we had had more time there (we were on a time-crunch), BUT...the road to the beach is horrible (and kind of fun, if you have a rental car).  I had read the comments in the reviews mentioning how pitted and bumpy the road was, but boy, oh boy!  

It was an absolutely beautiful day, as it was most of our trip...though we had a little rain here and there.

I loved how the rock had been carved out by the waves over time...it actually extended pretty far out and we could have easily walked out there if we had had our swimsuits on.

The big island has a lot of beaches with lava rock or a mix of lava rock and sand.  I thought this looked really cool, especially against the bright blue water!

My soon-to-be-husband posing all cute and whatnot on the rocks!

Here's the video of us leaving the park, so you can get an idea of what the road was like...

And that's just 15 seconds...it was a long road, very winding and narrow too!

After the Kekaha Kai State Park we headed over to the Waipio Valley, which was hands down the best part of our trip!  Partly because it's where we got married, but also because we absolutely LOVED where we stayed and we loved the valley itself.  It was perfect!  So stay tuned because the next post (or two) will be all about Waipio!