The worst pain of my life!

Michael was awoken early Tuesday morning (like 1:30 am early) by an intense pain in his lower right back in the area of his kidney. After toughing it out for roughly a half hour, he was forced to wake Megan up and have her take him to the hospital. The pain was just too much. Even though it was 2:30 in the morning, Megan was up to the task. It turned out Michael had a kidney stone. For anyone who has had one you know the kind of pain they can bring, and for all of those out there that have not had one, I hope and pray you never have to expereince it. It was that bad. Thankfully the doctors adminstered some good pain killers and now three days later, thanks largely to the great care I received at home, the stone has passed and Michael is pretty much back to normal! I want to thank my loving wife for taking such good care of me!!!

Hall Wedding and Valley Forge!

We spent the weekend of October 11-12th up in Philadelphia at the wedding of Michael's good friend Jason to his lovely fiancee Megan. The wedding was great fun and they couldn't have asked for better weather in October. It was sunny and the temperature was in the 70's. I was honored to be standing up in the wedding and to be a part of their special day. It's still hard to believe that I've known Jason for over ten years. Wow - how time flies when you are having fun, and Jason and I have had a lot of fun together over that time.

The wedding ceremony was wonderful and that was followed by a delicious dinner at a nearby country club. During the reception, they had some Korean musicians play traditional korean music (see below) to celebrate Megan's heritage. A very unique, thoughtful, and fun touch to an already perfect celebration. The dessert's weren't too shabby either!

Here we are enjoying ourselves out on the patio during the reception!

The hotel we stayed at was just a few miles away from Valley Forge National Park, so the day after the wedding we spent the day exploring around there. It was another absolutely beautiful day! The picture on the right is General Washington's Headquarters.

And here down on the left is a picture of Megan in front of John Brown's Farm and on the right you can see Michael on the phone with his Mom, making sure Megan's weekly football picks are submitted on time. Hi Mom!

Saturday Morning Photo Shoot

Fall weather has arrived!!! And with it, crystal clear morning skies. So this past weekend Michael got up early and took some pictures of Georgetown's campus in the early morning sun. Here are some highlights, I hope you like them!

The Bluemont Fair!

Fall arrived with some absolutely gorgeous weather this past weekend. And what better way to enjoy it than attending a fair out in the country with our good friend Amy. Amy took us out to Bluemont, VA this Saturday for the 39th annual Bluemont Fair! The weather was sunny with the temperature roughly 80 degrees. The town itself is a quaint little gem, nestled at the foot of the Blue Ridge mountains, and the fair was great! Best of all was the food. We sampled everything from BBQ beef sandwiches to kettle corn, with some ice cream and sno cones thrown in for good measure!

Amy and Megan had lots of fun admiring many of the beautiful hand made quilts for sale at the fair. We almost bought one! Michael, however, was a much bigger fan of the trains they had there. Almost as much fun as the fair itself was the drive there and back. Amy knows the most scenic roads and always treats us to the most relaxing, enjoyable country drives. We may just have to mark our calendars for a return visit next year!

Yummy...

With our cupboards over filled with all the delicious fruit we picked this past weekend, we had to come up with new ways to enjoy them all. To that end, Megan made her first ever peach cobbler!! She got the recipe from a true southerner, her friend's Mom from Alabama. We had a lot of fun making it, and by we I mean Megan as Michael was very little help, managing to only peel about three peaches. Also, the smell from the kitchen while it was baking was delightful! Megan was a little unsure at first as to how it was going to turn out, but it ended up being totally delicious! Michael not only had some for dessert last night but he also had a piece for breakfast this morning! Here are some behind the scenes photos of Megan working hard on the above pictured masterpiece!

A "Peachy" Afternoon

We spent this past Sunday picking fruit at Larriland Farms in Woodbine, MD. It was a beautiful afternoon, albeit a little hot! We took advantage of it being the last weekend for peaches to stock up on one of Megan's favorites! Here you can see Megan with our first fruit of the afternoon! Michael had never been peach picking before but caught on quickly (with lots of great advice from Megan). Even though it was supposedly the last weekend for peaches, the trees were still amply stocked with fruit.






We ended up with alot of big ripe delicious peaches! In addition to peaches we also picked a few blackberries and some delicious gala apples (Michael's favorite!).

We had lots of fun and ended up with quite a bounty of fresh fruit! I'm sure we'll be eating fruit a lot over the next few days that's for sure.

Labor Day Weekend In Buffalo

We spent Labor Day weekend in Buffalo with Michael's family. The weather was gorgeous and we had such a nice time visiting with everyone. The weekend was chock full of fun events. This included a family trip to the National Buffalo Wing Festival. We even got Michael's sister Alysia, Todd, Trevor, and Riley to join us.

There were all different types of chicken wings and chicken wing related foods being served by restaurants from all over Buffalo and some outside of Buffalo as well. We stuffed ourselves on wings and a few other things as you can see...

Afterwards we had to walk off all of our calories, so we headed over to Buffalo's new waterfront for some much needed exercise (and a little ice cream as well!)

Another highlight of the weekend was a backyard barbecue at Michael's parents house on Labor Day in honor of little baby Ella! Ella is the relatively new born baby daughter of Michael's cousin Bryan. It was our first chance to meet Ella and we fell immediately in love! She is just so tiny and adorable!!!

And even though its still very early in her development, it's already clear that she takes after her father in some ways!

The weekend was wonderful and gave us so many happy memories. It was so nice getting to see everyone and spend such quality time with all. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we didn't want it to end and found it very difficult to actually get in the car and head out on our long drive back to DC.