a busy week

It's been a while since I've posted because we have been so busy! Last Wednesday, we left town and headed for Annapolis.  We had so much fun while we were there.  Seeing all our friends who are still there is always a good time.  John and Ann {it is still weird to call you that!} came up and we got to spend a lot of time with them and the wonderful Caldwell family, too!  I'm sure it doesn't come as a surprise that we all visited one of our favorite Applebee's for dinner :)

NAPS played George Mason and won big time; they are still undefeated at 6-0!  Vince and I went to the Navy game on Saturday and even though they didn't win, it was still a good time.  I can't imagine how intense Vince was on the field because he was seriously focused from the stands!  We'll be rooting for Navy this weekend when they play Notre Dame... fingers are crossed for a win!

Last night we got ready for Halloween and carved the pumpkins we picked at Sweet Berry Farms.  Can you tell that we are missing home???  {I gave in and used auto for some of these because there was absolutely no natural light-- I've gotta learn to work with what I've got!  But I finally figured out how to soften skin in Lightroom.  It is a miracle worker!}

A little overboard on the skin softener on this one of me-whoops!

the prettiest of newport

We're spending the week in Annapolis, Maryland and loving every minute of it.  It feels so good to be somewhere familiar after all our time away from home.  We have missed our friends here more than we even expected!  Vince's parents are flying in tonight and we can't wait to see them and the Caldwell family {Vince's USNA sponsor family} too.  It is such a treat to be back!  NAPS plays tomorrow and they're 5-0 right now so we're keeping our fingers crossed for another "W".  We are going to the Navy game on Saturday too and it will be the first football game Vince and I ever go to together-- usually he's on the field and I'm cheering him on!  I can't wait to root for Navy from the stands again.  

Since Vince works most of the day while we're here, I've had a lot of time to play around with a new photo editor I downloaded so I took the opportunity to take some of my favorite pictures of Newport and make them black and white {it's harder than it sounds--and I still need a lot of practice!}.  These are pictures of Kingston beach, Fort Adams, and downtown:

Here are some more I've taken that I couldn't stand turning to black and white because the colors are so beautiful!  These are from Barrington, RI and Kingston Beach:

Thank you so much to Melissa for introducing me to Lightroom!!  I have a lot of learning to do...

bye weekend

Our weekend started on Friday night and Vince and I were in a New England sort of mood so we drove out to Anthony's {a seafood mart we will surely miss when we move} to try something new.  

Since we couldn't decide-- so typical of me-- we pretty much got one of everything.  It was a true seafood feast!  We had stuffed clam, bacon-wrapped scallops, stuffed shrimp, AND... my favorite, crab cakes.  It was sooooo good and believe it or not, we cooked it ourselves.  Vince is a pro at cooking the crab cakes by now and even though I'm just a rookie, the rest turned out pretty tasty too. It's true that we ate it all in just one sitting!

Saturday was a good, good day.  Nick and Gus flew in to the Providence Airport... it is always a treat when they visit!  We never laugh so much.  I dropped them off for a round of golf on the way home.  When I picked them up a few hours later, they were all whining about their skills.  Vince took his first golf lesson last week and was bummed that it wasn't paying off!

We spent the rest of our spare time watching season 1 of Prison Break.  Fifteen episodes in {there are 80 on our Netflix}, Nick and Gus finally decided to google the ending so we skipped ahead to the best part!  Now that Vince and I can't spend our free time watching that series, we have resorted to watching Seriously Funny Kids, a show that Jenna and all other America's Funniest Home Videos lovers would enjoy... so I leave you with this:

  

feels like fall

Monday Vince and I had off work for Columbus Day so we took advantage of the free time and went to the pumpkin patch at Sweet Berry Farms in Middletown, RI.  They had a huge field full of pumpkin vines so there were plenty to choose from!  Vince is excited about the giant pumpkin he found.  We'll carve them a little closer to Halloween so that they don't go bad before the trick or treaters come by {I am SO excited for our first trick or treaters}.  I had to post these pictures because the day was just so fun but I really need to work on getting the right lighting!!

Vince with my perfect-sized pumpkin

We needed a wheel barrel to carry them!

Vince got in a "two-a-day" because we played tennis in the morning and then he went to a nearby golfcourse to play a round with a friend.  While he was golfing, I went to Oktoberfest in downtown Newport with some of the other NAPS coaches.  There was a lot to see {dancers, bands, bag pipes} but best of all was the delicious food to try... I couldn't pass up the New England lobster bisque.  Delicious!

Brice {the kindergartner I babysit} and I are having fun enjoying the nice weather while it lasts.  We visit the park a lot and have been to feed the horses at Fort Adams too.  They live in a huge field and right now, it's covered in pretty purple flowers!  Tuesday, we were in a fall kind of mood so we did a Halloween craft and made these delicious baked apples... ours didn't look quite like this when they were done but still tasted yummy!

click here for the recipe!

Brice feeding the funny miniature ponies

I survived another night without Vince home on Wednesday.  He had overnight duty... poor guy.  I got to visit and took him a burrito bowl from a Chipotle copycat restaurant--closest Chipotle is 40 minutes away... we have barely survived without it!

We have our last free weekend here in Newport until we move {NAPS has a bye weekend} and are looking for a good adventure.  I'll update you soon!

Love and miss you guys.

happy birthday carli jo!

with a little encouragement i'm starting this blog for our friends and family at home in kentucky so they can keep up with us as we move around from state to state.  since i miss them so much i think it'll be fun to share this adventure of ours in an easier way {don't worry mom i am still going to call all the time!!!}.

we've been in newport, ri since mid july so there's a lot of catching up to do! vince is a football coach and so far the naps team is 5-0.  this weekend was parents weekend and it was so special to see all of the families visiting their kids for the first time in months! i wanted to jump up and scream with them when they saw their boy run his first college TD!! vince is having a lot of fun working with the kids and seems to be doing pretty well working with the offense from the press box.  he's still working on his golf game too.  has a tee time tomorrow and his brothers will be nervous when they hear that he's driving the ball further than ever.

i'm still working on learning photography in my spare time and will be sharing some of my photos on the blog to keep up with my progress.  i can't wait to come home and take photos of all my pretty little sisters.  i'm babysitting a kindergartner named Brice in the mornings and afternoons until we move.  he keeps me entertained... and tired.  since his mom just came home from her military deployment in cuba, i've had all week off and have had lots of time to take pictures. a very generous and talented photographer from rhode island went with me to the green animals topiary gardens in porstmouth and showed me the ropes.  it's exciting to start figuring out my camera! here are my two favorite shots of the day:

vince and i have been acting like kids and staying the night in our very own homemade fort {that's us in front of it up top}.  we might just leave it up until we leave for maryland in november... unless maybe we have company! we're a little old for this.

we are wishing we were home today to celebrate carli jo's 15th birthday.  we hope she has the most wonderful day and enjoys her outback steakhouse dinner and special birthday cake.  we are so proud of the beautiful, kind, fun, adventurous girl you are becoming and can't wait to see you for thanksgiving!

HAPPY 15th TO MY BEAUTIFUL SISTER CARLI JO!