flower time!

(oops...I wrote this a few days ago, and forgot to post it...)

Hello!

Well, this post isn't going to be the most 'up-to-date' info of what is going on, but I took pictures a while ago that I never posted and I decided it's better late than never...

Ryan was in LA last week recording, while I was in Tucson promoting Charmin Ultra Strong toilet tissue...yes, it's true, I was one of those people in the grocery handing out samples (of toilet paper) and then doing a demonstration to show just how strong Charmin really is! :) Ryan wishes he would have been home to take a picture of me on my first day of work...but to be honest, I'm quite fine with the fact that there isn't a picture. :)

I picked up Rachel from school one day and we had fun making big soft pretzels...


In fact, I got to see a lot of Ryan's family throughout the week...We had a great family dinner on his mom's side at Bazil's one night, Sara and I had lunch one day, and then we had a ladie's dinner for the Green side of the family another night.

Our flowers are all still blooming quite nicely...a lot of this has to do to all the TLC Grammie gives them when we are out of town...




Right now we are in Lewisburg, PA at Bucknell University for a show that the guys will be doing tonight...tomorrow we are off to Pittsburgh for another show at Carnegie Mellon. I'll fill you in with pictures probably sometime tomorrow!

The Greene Room

Well, Ryan and Cameron are back in the studio, this time they are at "The Greene Room" Studio...we had a lot of fun loving on the name of course. :) It's a home studio, although not exactly attached to the home...more of a converted garage w/ a great studio, control room, bathroom, fridge/microwave, etc. It was a really nice area to be in...they had a backyard and table that got to be our lounge area...



Ryan in the studio...


Ryan and Cameron playing a lap steel that was lying around...


We went out to a great family-owned Italian restaurant for salad and pizza...we got pepperoni and spinach, and then read in the newspaper the next morning about the E.Coli breakout with spinach, but fortunately we are all feeling fine. :)


On Tuesday evening, I met up with my friend Katie Koski from City Year/Americorps. It was so nice to see her...she lives right by UCLA, so we walked around by the campus a bit and through the "hip" area surrounding it...had a great yummy dinner and a scoop of ice cream for dessert. It was a pretty amazing ice cream deal...only $1 for a scoop of ice cream, or you could have it sandwiched between their homemade cookies for only 25cents more! I wish I wasn't so full and I could've gone for the ice cream sandwich...next time! :)

I forgot to take a picture with Katie this time, but here is one from last time when we got together in April..


Well, I'm back in Tucson now and the guys are still busy recording in LA. Tonight I'm going to a young married couples small group that is starting through our church that I'm really excited about.

And, I just got word that Jill ran her 20 miler today in preparations for the DC Marine Corps Marathon...and it was her best run yet!!! Yeah Jill!!!

The Rock 'n Roll Hotel

After church we drove to LA for another week of recording. We talked a lot in the car, listened to the new John Mayer and Chris Thile cds, and played tri-bond until we realized we had gone through the whole deck of cards.

We are staying at our friend Ken's house for the week...we prefer to refer to it as 'The Rock 'n Roll Hotel'. It's so nice to stay at someone's house as opposed to a hotel. When we arrived, he had the patio table all set with candles and an incredible dinner prepared. Ken lives alone in a 3 bedroom house, so Ryan and I get our own bedroom and Cameron gets his own room. It kind of feels like showing up at Grandma and Grandpa's when we're here...the feeling of just carrying our stuff right up to 'our room' and then coming down to eat dinner....he's a great host!
We keep talking about how fun it would be to have a whole tour where we just stay with people we know the whole way instead of in hotels. In being able to stay with someone we know, we'd be totally fine with sleeping on the floor...it's just nice to have the company and opportunity to visit with a friend we don't get to see all the time. So, don't be alarmed if we show up on your doorstep with sleeping bags! :)

And, likewise, if anyone is ever in Tucson, please feel free to stay with us...or even stay at our house while we are on the road!

I didn't take any pictures today...so instead I'll post one of us traveling in the Carolinas last December....

Double Date!

Last night Chris and Melissa took us out for a super nice dinner as a belated anniversary treat! It was a super nice restaurant, Wildflower, in the Casas Adobes area of Tucson which is nestled in the northwest mountains.

After dinner we went to Tucson Community Church for their Saturday Night Cafe, an outdoor concert with a festival-like atmosphere. It was one of those events where I thought, this is exactly an event I'd love to bring our kids to someday...there were tons of families with kids running around and playing together outside; parents and teens were standing around talking, listening to the music, and taking in the atmosphere...

Then, we went for dessert...delicious gelato at Frost....I love gelato! Unfortunately, no pictures...we ate it too fast. :)

Beantown!

I just returned home to Tucson last night after having spent 8 days in Boston visiting friends, attending weddings and wedding receptions, walking until my feet blistered, seeing lots of cute pregnant bellies, and witnessing Jill put her first offer in on a condo!!

I just don't get the weather in Boston...I went from sweating like crazy (it's my own fault for not wanting to wear anti-perspirant anymore I suppose :) to freezing overnight! It was nice to see the fall weather and the very beginning of some trees starting to change colors...it's my favorite season for running!, but I must also admit that I'm happy to be home in my 85 degree weather where I know what it will be like outside before even walking out the door.

Jill and her roommates had a party on Friday night...lots of fun conversation, great food, and of course good music too! (he he he, I was given the duties of making a playlist...I think since Ryan's a musician, people think I know music too...I like to pretend I do, but the truth is...I only know what Ryan has taught me!:)


(Jana, Jill, Megan, Toby, and Matt)

On Saturday Jana and I went to the Vineyard Festival to hear Kathleen Dieguez perform!! Kathleen and her husband Francisco were in our small group when we went to the Vineyard. For those of you who haven't yet heard of Kathleen Dieguez, she's an amazing singer/songwriter who got her start in Cambridge, MA. I think she is the only person I know who just one day said she wanted to write a song, and wrote something soo beautiful and worthy of performing on her first try.


(David Linhart and Kathleen Dieguez)

Rebecca from our small group was also there and looking sooo cute and pregnant...she's got one more month to go!


Orla, who was my roommate while I was studying abroad in Ireland, got married to Will (whom she met while we were studying in Ireland!). Will's immediate family and Orla's extended family came over from Ireland for the big celebration!




It was such a fun wedding!! When Orla was little she used to tell her mom that she wanted their neighbor, Willy's band to play at her wedding. And sure enough the 5 piece band drove all the way from New Jersey to play at their wedding.



There was tons of great music, including some good Irish pub songs, and lots of Irish dancing. Orla went to the World Championships for Irish dancing, so she and some others from her dancing group did some incredible Reels and such. We all got up and did the Seige of Ennis, which was super fun and dizzying all at the same time.



Sunday morning I had breakfast with Meredith and Erin before church. So great to see them!!


It's fall...a tree that was already changing colors...



I spent all day Sunday and Sunday night at Liz and Douglas' house. They made a delicious Ugandan dinner of gonja (baked plantains), curried beef, avocadoes, and Irish potatoes.



We planned Liz's baby shower and went to Target to get her registered! She's due on December 6th!



Jill, Jana, and I got to be back together and spend some quality time talking, running, eating, walking, etc! Sooooo great to see them again in person (not that I don't love our web cam dinners together, but it's harder to hug a person over camera than it is in person.)


Jill may soon be entering the world of condo ownership as she signed for an offer on a great place in Washington Square! Ryan is a little confused as to why she didn't get a 2 bedroom for when we come to stay...but I have him assured that we can still visit Jill when she's in Washington Square!


The saddest part of my trip came at the very end. There is a great musician named Teitur. Ryan and I went on two "not"-dates while we were just friends to see him in concert in Boston. We listened and sang on the top of our lungs in the car to one of his songs just before Ryan proposed to me, we danced our "first dance" at our wedding to one of his songs, and then that same song came on shuffle on Ryan's iPod at 11:59pm on our 1 year anniversary. You get the picture...we really love this guy's music and he's become a special part of our relationship. Anyway, I decided to extended my visit a few days so that I could see him in concert while I was in Boston. I got to the show sooo excited...only to find out that Teitur hadn't been able to get into the country because of visa troubles! Mauryn and I were devastated...so we went to Angora Cafe to get pizza and sulk. (I'm not sure why the gold squiggle around Mauryn's head is there...perhaps it's a halo.)



Ryan picked me up at the airport and brought me home to a fabulous dinner that he had prepared: parmesan crusted chicken w/ red pepper alfredo sauce and pasta, and spinach salad with mixed berries in it. And for dessert...A CANNOLI!! :)

Labor Day Weekend Part 2

(DAD, please scroll down slowly so that you end where I menion for you to, and your birthday surprise doesn't get spoiled!...thanks...we love you!)

I hope everyone had a great 3-day weekend! There was a large music and film festival downtown Tucson all weekend long, which is where we spent a lot of our evenings this weekend. There were 3 large stages, a ton of bands, one guy who did spoken word, and lots of people to enjoy the entertainment. As I mentioned in my last post, Cameron and Ryan both played at the festival over the weekend as guest performers in other bands.
Cameron played guitar and sang with the band "The Sidewinders", formerly known as "The Sandrubies"...he did an awesome job and had a ton of fun, which was very apparent to all watching. :)



Ryan was the guest guitar player for Al Perry, a Tucson legend for being one of the first to introduce 'desert rock'. The day before the show Al told Ryan a rough idea of what songs he was going to play...then the day of the show Ryan got a call from Al saying, "I forgot to tell you that we don't play any of those songs in the same key as their recordings.."...there goes any sort of rehearsal or preparation that Ryan could have done. Then again, we are talking about Ryan..."the maestro"...needless to say, Ryan was incredible...he blew the crowd (and Al Perry) away with solos!



Our friend Chris' band also played a great set! (Chris is on the far left in the photo)...


We also had some great meals over the weekend with family and friends...(unfortunately no pictures, but I'll mention them anyway...)...

We went out to the French Quarter with Chris and Melissa to hear Jim's classic rock band play and had alligator and fried pickles!...I don't even like pickles, but these were soo good!

Aunt Teri and Jim (from Classic Rock band above) came over for lunch and we had squash apple soup, salad, and Ryan's yummy garlic/cheesy bread.

Lori and Todd had us over for fish and chips...and wings...and corn on the cob...and gluten-free brownies! :)

Oh...and over the course of the weekend we watched two episodes of Little House on the Prairie!! Ryan got me dvds of some of the episodes as a surprise...we love that show!

This morning we woke up bright and early...aside from when we were in the Grand Canyon, this might have been the earliest we've ever woken up together! We got up at 5:20am for an 8mile race at Saguaro National Park. It was my first race since running the DC marathon in 2004 and I loved it! I'm so pumped to get back into racing again...there is a great running club here that I'm super jazzed about. The 8 mile course was super tough! I'd dare to say that it was by far the hardest 8 mile run I've ever done in my life. The entire thing was hills! Starting right in mile 1, there were hills...larger than "rolling hills"...then from mile 3.5-5 it was completely uphill...it evened out for about 1/2 mile, and then continued to climb for 1/2 of a mile! It was crazy, but very beautiful!!

pre-race stretching...


the start of the race...


approaching the finish line...




done! I finished in 1 minute and 2 seconds under my goal time! :)


It was soo fun to have Ryan there with me!


My free post-race massage!!


DAD...IF YOU ARE READING THIS, PLEASE END HERE SO I DON'T RUIN YOUR BIRTHDAY SURPRISE! :)









After taking naps once we got home from the race, we spent a large part of the afternoon making a "Gimme 5" game board for my dad for his birthday!


Ryan just left for LA to do another week of recording in the studio..
I'm heading off to Boston on Wednesday for Orla and Will's wedding, and Summer's Boston wedding reception!! Can't wait to see all of you Bostonians and Cantabridgians!

Labor Day Weekend

Hello! So, I realized that we've been up to a few things lately, however I haven't been too good about carrying my camera around! However, I thought I'd post anyway...

Last night we had Grammie and Sara over for dinner (vegetarian lasagna and peach custard pie) and then of course a game of "Gimme 5"....Grammie and I beating Ryan and Sara 5-1! :)

Then this morning we woke up VERY early to help a friend load and unload her moving truck. It's funny, when I lived in Boston it would be normal, albeit gross, to see a dead mouse under a couch when you went to move (or if you are my friend Jana, you might see 8-10 mice skeletons :), however here, you are more likely to see a dead lizard...possibly even missing it's tail because the cat ate it...it's a much more pleasant experience seeing how dead lizards don't have any sort of an odor.

We picked up Rachel from school today, she's in 2nd grade this year, and took her over to Grandmo and Grandpo's house to go swimming...it was actually a pretty hot day today considering it's September 1st...I suppose that's just life in Tucson!

This weekend there is a big music festival at Club Congress...Ryan and Cameron aren't playing a show together there since they are trying to take time off in Tucson to build up for their cd release, so instead Cameron is guest singing tonight with another band and tomorrow Ryan is sitting in as a guest guitar player for yet another band...should be a fun weekend!

Colorado snow...

Well, it's August 26th and we drove by some scattered snow on the ground here in Colorado. It's freezing...and I have no long sleeves...who knew that it could be so cold in August? Just yesterday when we were in TX, it was 115 and HUMID!...I think I need to get back to Tucson where the temp is always just right! :) The show at Western State College of Colorado went really well tonight! Everyone crowded around the front of the stage and sat down...it felt like a small acoustic venue, despite it being a ballroom. Well, we just got back to the hotel and my battery has only 2 minutes left, so I'm going to post this now before I lose it! :)

Who'd want to mess with Texas?

The show last night at Texas A&M Commerce went pretty well. They were great hosts and hooked us up with king suites at the Holiday Inn Express, chocolates, a delicious dinner, and cheesecake for dessert! Our drive today to Dumas, TX was through every small town you could think of...names such as 'Farmersville' and populations as small as 368 people! Luckily, we were able to add some excitement with more games of Outburst (Ryan and I are currently tied and need to do one more round to see who is the champion).
We go through a lot of states and I usually feel like I could live in almost any of them...but Texas....hmmm...this feels like the most depressed place I have ever been. Everyone seems as if they are just stuck where they are and unable to make any change with their lives. Other than wanting to go to Austin at some point, I don't really feel any desire to come back and visit TX.
Tonight we went to eat and ate the "salad wagon"...their name for a salad bar. And, then we played in the pool, hot tub, and sauna.
I think we are going to get ready for bed so that we will be ready for our drive to Colorado tomorrow morning! :)

TEXAS!

Well, we've made it to Midland, TX...tomorrow we drive 6 more hours to get to Commerce, TX for Ryan and Cameron's show. It was a fun drive...we played Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture Edition, a little bit of Tri-bond, and some Outburst. Unfortunately, I realized that my camera battery is dead, so the next few blogs are likely to be without any photos...but still some commentary. :)

posting comments

I think I have changed the comment feature so that anyone can post a comment without having to register with blogspot. I believe there will be an option to post "anonymously"...so just be sure to right your name at the end of your comment! :)

Grand Canyon and Sedona!

Ryan and I decided to celebrate our first anniversary camping in the Grand Canyon and at Sedona. It was an incredible trip...I'd dare to say it was our best trip together yet...even better than our honeymoon, which is a good thing...trips and time together should continuously be getting better as opposed to staying at the same level, right?

We live about 6 hours south of the Grand Canyon, so we drove there and spent our first night in a lodge just outside the canyon. There were super heavy rain, thunder and lightning for the second half of our drive and through the entire night. We were both starting to question how good of an idea it was to camp inside the canyon, but with the following day predicting only a 10% chance of rain, we decided to go for it.

Our first glimpse of the canyon...(we both held hands and ran to the edge while looking down so we'd see it all in full at the same time...I think Ryan cheated...but only because he didn't want to trip and fall into the canyon. :) )


We each carried a pack of about 30lbs with all of our camping gear, food, and water. We hiked down Bright Angel trail to Indian Gardens which is 4.5 miles.


We set up our camp at Indian Gardens...




(view from inside the tent)


Stretched....




Ate....


Played some cards...(we had to keep score in the dirt since we didn't have a pen)..


Then decided to hike another 3 miles (roundtrip) to see Plateau Point, which is said to be the best view in the canyon...we'd have to agree...




The view from Plateau Point on what we had hiked that day...(our campsite was in the middle of the cluster of trees)...


Cooking pasta over our little Coleman burner...


We woke up the next morning at 4:45 and started hiking by 6am. Our neighboring campsites (a couple from England and two guys from Ireland) started their hike out at the same time, so we were able to get to know them more and share in some laughs and cliff bars along the 4.5 miles uphill.

The start of our trek to the top...


We saw 9 deer that morning, and 4 the day before...


Ryan's Napolean Dynamite pose...


This is a view from the top looking down at our hike. The middle of the picture, where there is a cluster of trees is where we camped, and the dirt trail that ends in what looks like the middle of the canyon was were we hiked to, "Plateau Point"...


We had expected it to take us 5 hours, but it only took 3.5...which meant that we were ready for lunch at 9:30am, but had to wait until it was served at 11am!...some leftover girlscout peanutbutter cookies tied us over. :) My body was as sore and stiff as when I had finished my marathons...actually, my calfs are still recovering...I'm going to try going for a run in the morning to try and loosen up the muscles a bit more.



On our drive to Sedona, we stopped to see the Meteor Crater which is said to be the best preserved meteor crater in the world...


We set up camp in Sedona...


and then went out for a nice dinner at an outdoor restaurant that is supposed to be known for their sunset views...it was nice, but I think we are spoiled by how great the sunsets are in Tucson...


Ryan making breakfast the next morning...yummy eggs and honey wheat pancakes! It was a little chilly, so he wore my jean jacket...he looked really cute in it, if you ask me!


Our drive home from Sedona...