Puerto Rico with the Psillos Family

Well Charlie and I were lucky enough to go with his family to Puerto Rico! It was such a great time. The place that Katie found was perfectly located near the beach ( a short walk from our back yard [backyard included veranda and pool]), plenty of nice clean rooms, and overall perfect! Although the surf wasn't all that they hoped for it didn't hold back all the guys from going at least once a day. We did some great snorkeling and Eric brought his scuba stuff too in search of the Puerto Rican lobsters [we heard more about them then actually seeing them]. Played all kinds of games, one especially fun night of a game called "Mafia" which Erin had introduced to us. It proved to be really challenging, trying to lie or convince others you aren't lying! Great game, we had a ton of laughs, and a lot of mistrust (in a fun way ;). There was also a day where we rented paddle boards and everyone gave it a go, it's a lot tougher then it looks. You need some serious balance and gripping from your feet (that can probably be attributed to lack of balance ha). We also ate a lot of great food, empanada's, Thai, Mexican (yes Mexican, not Puerto RIcan), and lots (and LOTS!) of eggs sandwiches and pastries! mmm..I think I just made myself hungry!

We stayed with the family from Saturday to Thursday and Charlie and I stayed a few extra days in Rincon. Josh and Katie also stayed a little longer but at a nice bed and breakfast. It was nice they stayed too because we were able to hang out with them every day we were there. Always the more the merrier.

We had an amazing time and i am so grateful that Kathy and Rich worked around our schedules to get us there because I know it is so hard for everyone with their big families! Although it was nice to have all the adults we missed Hannah, Danny, Zeke, Rachel, Olivia, Colt, Ellie, AND Johnson :D I will also mention it was so fun to be able to see Katie pregnant too, since we are so far away I was afraid we wouldn't see her baby belly until summer. So excited for you guys!!!

Now the fun part...the pictures :)

Here are some pictures of us hanging out by the house!




Here is the view from the veranda, our beach path and one of the many beautiful sunsets!







Here are a few pictures of me and Katie paddle boarding. She was sort of a natural at it (obviously the guys were too) and better then me even though she was pregnant! Charlie initially helped me with balance but then I got it :)





Heres a picture of the guys and family at the beach. Since the Psillos family is still working on the concept of daily sunscreen a lot of them got burnt, Charlie was one of the worst though, he looked like a lobster.






I love this picture Charlie! He looks so handsome and colors are great.










Family outing for some Mexican food which was actually really good!




Game time!









We also celebrated Jessica's birthday! Erin made her a cake and the rest of us attempted to create a diversion while Erin and Kathy were looking for candles and matches. I think she was surprised :)






One night we went to check the waves and watch the sunset at a beach called Surfers Beach. At one point Charlie disappeared into the jungle and returned with a flower for me. So sweet. I love this guy!






One of the last days we were there, all the guys getting ready for their am surf session



When Charlie and I were on our own we ventured to one of our favorite empanada spots we went to a lot with our friends who came with us last year. Right nearby is a hotel with a restaurant/bar that is right on the beach. The water is really calm so it is a great swimming beach. They also had lounge chairs so we would get their famous coconut drink, lounge, and swim=paradise. Evidence of the relaxation is how out of it i look in the picture..But of course Charlie takes such a good picture no matter what.






We also ventured around to a lot of different beach's when we were on our own. We went to Crashboats and El Faro (the lighthouse). I got some amazing pictures at crashboats, the colors are unreal.











Well those are all the pictures! As you can tell it was amazing. There are definitely parts of Puerto Rico that are run down but Charlie and i have been aspiring and conspiring for a few years to buy property and move there (sorry Mom and Dad). It really is a little piece of paradise. WIll see what happens :)

Clean Carpets from ChemDry

Well this blog in no way can compete with all the cute pictures of everyones kids but we have been M.I.A. from blogging for so long I thought I should post something so everyone knows were all alive, well and fine :)

Charlie has been working for a carpet cleaning company called Chemdry for..over 6 months now i think! I have been bugging him to come and clean our carpets ever since he started working there and he finally had a chance to come and do it! It was good timing because of flu season (which we are trying to avoid getting) i think it was good to get all the dust and junk up from the carpet. I was good and actually got some action shots of Charlie working hard. He is good and got up all of our traffic marks and mysterious spots. It only took him an hour and me and Johnson were helpers. I also took the opportunity to try to totally rearrange the apartment.



I lied a little bit about Johnson helping, he was actually kind of freaked out but got over it quick enough.




He worked really hard and was a good sport about me taking all the pictures ;)








Great shot of our TV we got for Christmas!! THANK YOU KATHY AND RICH!!!!





Thank you Charlie!!

Christmas time in NY

We ventured to NY on Christmas night to spend a few days with Charlie's family.

His generous parents gave each couple an ipad! We were beyond excited, but we traded it in for a 42' LCD flatscreen HD (is that all of the key words :) TV!!!! We have been using donated box tv's for many o'years now so we were extremely excited.

I took a few of these pictures off of Erin's blog because I am so forgetful about taking any photos anymore...THANKS ERIN!


Whole family, minus Johnson



We did the white elephant present exchange again this year. Charlie and I picked Spam and Sardines as the gag gift, we were pretty excited when Richie went first and chose our gifts because we thought he would appreciate them the most :)
When it was time for Charlie to chose he probably picked the perfect gift which was a subway giftcard (his favorite) and a personal enema to go along with it! HA!

Hope everyone had a happy and safe holiday.

Dana Point Sport Fishing

A group of us has had a groupon to go sport fishing at Dana Point for a while so last Sunday we finally made the reservations and went! Kevin came down to join us and we left the dock around 12:45pm. What they failed to mention on the phone when we were making our reservations was that there was a "Kids Clinic" that would be on our boat. We were a little discouraged at first but we posted up at a spot on the front of the boat and everything turned out fine! The kids turned out to be pretty entertaining until they started to catch more fish then us..

Niki was pretty camera happy in the beginning :) That's why there are some shots where we seemed unprepared..I was happy that she did take the pictures though because everyone else is so bad about recording stuff like this!

We had a good time on the boat, had some good food and drinks BUT due to the fact that we had red tide here last week, it really hurt our fishing. I did catch one fish that was maaaybe 6 inches and looked like a rock fish. Most of what we were catching was mackerel. Kevin did really good and got 5-6. Charlie caught a few, Miguel caught one and i think my cousin caught one too. There wasn't a lot of biting going on. It was a great to cruise around on the boat though! The weather was beautiful and we all got nice tans. After our adventure we topped off fishing with dinner at Joe's Crab Shack (it only seemed appropriate). We all wanted fish but since none of us caught anything worth eating we had to get our fix some where!










And if any of you are still worried about how Johnson is adjusting just look at these pictures..They should put your worries to ease..If anything I SHOULD be the one worried..

5 Years And Eggplant Parmesan

Well on September 29th Charlie and I celebrated 5 years of our relationship. We are both just blown away out how time is flying. And surprised how happy we still are together :)

Kathy recently sent us Grandma Psillo's Eggplant Parm recipe and that has always been one of my favorite dishes so we had to make it as soon as possible. Unfortunately on the actual day of our anniversary I was on a juice fast SO we cooked it the next day instead :) We exchanged some gifts on our anniversary and had a relaxing evening together. I got Charlie the latest surf DVD he had been talking about, surf magazine, and a book on CD. He got me a shakeweight which i was very excited about (corny and tacky but still fun) and a target giftcard. He did good :) The next night we made bruschetta and eggplant parmesan which turned out EXCELLENT! I was so impressed with ourselves. He did most of the cooking though :) i just helped with the preparation.

We started our dinner with a delightful appetizer, bruschetta, this is the first time we have tried to make it but it is soo good! We probably could have eaten just that for dinner..with rojo vino of course :)



Here are some pictures of Charlie frying our eggplant! He is a pretty good chef and although doesn't do it too much, enjoys cooking!





And then our finished product..






I couldn't be more grateful to have him in my life. I appreciate so much of the things he does for me, most of the time he doesn't realize just how good he is. I love you Charles Michael Psillos and can't wait for our next anniversary :)

Also, Thank you Grandma Psillos for the recipe's!!!!!