Most productive day off ever!

Yesterday Paul and I went up to PA to taste wedding cake...and we did so much other useful things!!

After my doctor's appointment, we got on the road early before 10:00am.


After a light lunch with my Mom at my parents' house, I got to open my birthday present and Paul opened our wedding present from Aunt Judy - we got a Le Cruset ceramic loaf pan that matches my Le Cruset mini cassarole, and for the wedding present we got a Le Cruset cast iron 2 3/4 quart deep oval baking dish! It's so beautiful, and it's red-fade-to-orange, so it matches the two other Le Crusets we have, and with the orange it will also match the Kitchen Aid that Paul's mom got for us (we don't actually have that yet)! So exciting.

After that my Dad happened to stop in, and he agreed to drive out to the Verizon store with us to get Paul's phone put on our family plan! Paul even got a new phone (nicer than mine!), and now we don't have to worry about his phone bill every month! We're just going to pay my Dad for a year at once, and we save over 50%!

After that was the cake-tasting appointment...we picked strawberry ("heavenly strawberry"), and the cake is going to be so beautiful...but you will have to wait for the wedding to see it!!

After that we went back to my parents' house, where Paul made us Garlic Chicken for dinner, which was delish. After dinner came the last awesome surprise of the day - my dad finished our coffee table! It is so beautiful, solid oak, and exactly what I wanted with a shelf on the bottom. He built it from a picture of a table that I liked! It is the most wonderful coffee table ever. My co-worker Sarah said it best when I showed her the coffee table: "Your Dad is the BEST!" I know! He really is.


In other news, I haven't really been keeping up with the picture-a-day yet, but I am turning over a new leaf as of today. To cover the last few days, here are some pics:

On Saturday 6/1: My bike after I filled the tires with free air behind the Falls Church fire station on the W&OD Canal trail on the way back from my 15-mile round-trip ride to Barcroft Field, where we didn't have the softball game I was expecting to play when I got there:


On Sunday afternoon 6/2: My arm stained with blue after helping a fellow Nawakwa-ite tie-dye some sheets (10 of them!) for decoration at the under-sea-themed VBS this year:

After we were done (it took all afternoon!!), Karen treated me to Chipotle, which despite being owned by McDonalds is really super delicious!! I also got to play with Karen's cats and hear lots of fun stories from and about Karen's three adorable and very cool kids, the youngest of which I had never met before because she's only 1 year old - all three of them are so cute! Sorry no pics of them, but my hands were covered in latex gloves and tie-dye the entire time they were around.

And finally, out of chronological order but saving the best for last, on Monday 5/28 (Memorial Day): Playing Trivial Pursuit with Paul, future Mom-in-Law Linda, future Sister-in-Law Megan, and future Next-Door-Neighbor-in-Law Hope. I didn't lose miserably, which was a nice change, but boy are those Askeys good at Trivial Pursuit!!