Pirates Game and Gavin DeGraw Concert

At the end of August, my sister and I decided to go to the Pirate game that had a Gavin DeGraw concert afterwards.  We love his music.

Missy is pretty good at taking selfies.  Mine are always crooked.

We got a chance to spend part of the game in a suite (it was really hot out!).  The view from our seats was pretty good for the concert.

We had the option to go on the field, but the last time we did that the sound was really bad because of the speaker placement.  My friend Ashley was on the field and she got a few good photos.

The view from inside PNC Park still amazes me.  The view of the city is spectacular.

Missy and I tried to get some photos of the city at night on our walk back to the car with mediocre success.  A lot of them are blurry.



It is always a good time when Missy and I get to hang out and this night was no exception.

Sam <3

New River Gorge

In the middle of August I went on a girls weekend trip.  We went to New River Gorge in West Virginia.  There were 7 of us and we stayed in this super cute little house that had a hot tub!  There were all kinds of things to do in the area that it was kind of hard to choose what to do!

My sister Missy took a selfie on the 3.5 hour drive.

On the first full day we were there, 3 of us, Missy, Brandy, and I, went on a bike ride.  That sounds simple, but we had a guided tour on mountain biking trails.  I've never been mountain biking before.  Turns out 14 miles of hills CAN be fun!

A lot of these photos were taken during breaks, because we needed a lot of breaks.

Tour guide Joel did not need breaks.

We got to stop at a waterfall.

This next picture shows the New River Gorge Bridge in the background:

Then us, under the bridge:

Many parts of the trail had drop offs...

...which made me realize that there are times where heights make me really nervous.

I'm glad I did that bike ride because I felt so accomplished afterwards.  It was hard and I did it!  I may have a few bruises to show for it.

This was a jam packed day because there's more.  We went zip lining that evening.  We did the Gravity Zip Lines and the longest zip was over 3,000 ft long!  Supposedly we got up to 50mph.  Four of us went zip lining that night, the three above, plus Andria.

Even later that night we all went out to dinner, it was a great pizza place called Pies and Pints.

Then even later that night, some of us relaxed in the hot tub.

The next day we did our other half of our zip lining package.  This one was called TreeTops Canopy Tour.  We zipped around from treetop to treetop and went on a few bridges too.  This one was a blast too!

There was a couple that came with us that we didn't know to round out the group.  Tour guide Jillian on the right loved us girls, we were her favorite! :-)

That night we all went out to dinner again.

I can't say enough how much fun I had on this trip!  It was great!  I would definitely go again.  We didn't stay on the resort, but the Adventures on the Gorge Resort was pretty cool.  We'd consider staying in a cabin there.

I got a tshirt from the shop at the resort.  I figured it was fitting since we did the zip lining tours.  I don't usually like shirts that just say a location across it, plus this shirt is that dryfit materia.

The group of girls I went with are pretty cool too!  Some of them are my soccer teammates and the rest are soccer wives.

Sam <3

Little Things

• My friend Candice and I went to lunch, then shopping last week.  We had a really good time.  We bought a lot of stuff, and we had a great lunch with Sangria!

• I got a manicure the day before our engagement photos and it made me look at my ring a lot.  I probably look like an idiot, but I think its so pretty. :-)

• Have you noticed that stores sometimes display scarves like skeins of yarn?  I think I will store my scarves like this.  It will save space and I think I can display them better so I don't forget what I have.

• Jimmy chewed my knitting needle.  It wasn't an expensive one, and this was the first time he's done anything like this.  He is a big chewer, but thankfully he loves his nylabones.  I left this out after I finished Baby Boy Stripes.  Thankfully, he didn't swallow any wood.

• Owen says, "Go Faster Pappy."  My dad was pushing him around the mall the other weekend.

Sam :-)

FO Friday

I actually have a couple of finished objects, but I think I'll show them to you one at a time.

I showed you the baby blanket I had started for my new work friend Becky in August, during my last WIP Wednesday post.  The blanket only took me 2 1/2 weeks!  I was a machine with this blanket.  I was just so excited about it.

I think it turned out great!

I'm really contemplating making another blanket with this yarn, maybe held double or triple for extra squishiness, for my living room.  It just matches my furniture so well!

I did a double think border and it helped me make the back just as pretty as the front.  It hid all of those ends!

I really love how this blanket turned out.  I can't say it enough.

Details:
Pattern:  No pattern really, I was inspired by this project, Noah's Blanket, who was inspired by this blanket, Hoodie Baby Blanket.  For the border, I used the border from Coastal Hoodie.
Yarn: Vanna's Choice in colors Dusty Green, Linen, Silver Blue, Taupe, White, and Dusty Blue (border)
Needle: US 8 - 5.00mm
Size: 33"x35" - I always worry that baby blankets are going to be too small and then end up bigger than I anticipate.
Time: 2.5 weeks!
Ravelry: Baby Boy Stripes


I gave the blanket to Becky last week and she loved it!  She keeps raving about it and how her mother loves it, so I'd say she is very knitworthy.  She kept saying, "You spent so much time on me!"  I think I binge watched 3 seasons of Lost Girl while I mader her blanket.  She laughed that I measured it in TV seasons.  I heard that is how some famous knitting guy measures how much time he puts into projects.  I think it fits!


Sam :-D

Changes

So my whole department at work moved floors.  We used to be on the 5th floor, and I was very lucky to have a window seat.  This was my desk:

This was the only photo I could find of my old desk, besides a lot of bottles needing to be recycled, you can see I have tons of pictures up and crochet garland that a swap partner made me.  The window was behind me while taking this photo.

Now, this is my new desk on the first floor:

It is a little messy because I took this photo while I was unpacking.  You can see that the walls of my desk are much shorter than the old ones.  No one was looking forward to going to this new furniture.  Plus, you didn't have a square, you had half a hexagon.

This is the view behind me.  You can see how the pods are hexagonal.  My one big plus to the move is I have even more windows!

I really thought I was going to hate the move, but it isn't bad.  I liked that I got a fresh start and got to throw a ton a stuff away.  I like the new person who sits behind me, Hi Becky!  It does get a little loud sometimes with the low walls, but it really isn't THAT bad.

Earlier in the summer, I told you about making the decision to get healthier.  My sister and I were makign weekly goals.  I did really well over the summer.  I've lost about 12lbs.  I've gone down a pants size, it probably would have been two sizes, but the size I was in when I started was really tight.

While I was making these new and better health decisions I found a website to follow called The Shrinking Kitchen.  I've tried a few of the recipes already. 

The Berry-licious Muffins are amazing, I made them 4 times in a row.  They recipe says that they are 147 calories per muffin, but I got more muffins out of each batch.  My muffin were about 125 calories a piece.

My dad made the next recipe, but it also from The Shrinking Kitchen.  We made Easy Weeknight Lo Mein and it was healthy and delicious!

It was only 286 calories a serving!  Ours might have been a little different, we added more of the veggies.  I would definitely make this again, my only problem is that Dave is picky!  So, I'd be cooking for one.

The last new recipe we tried was Lightened Up Spinach Lasagna.  I thought it was really good, but my dad said he could taste that we used skim ricotta cheese and skim mozzarella cheese.  He still said it was good though.  I didn't get a picture of it.

Do you have any good healthy recipes?  Do you have weird furniture at work? :-)

Sam :-)