We've have two busy weekends in a row recently. It's been fun and even got to see some of you! So, for those of you we didn't get to see... well, sorry. Maybe we'll be able to catch up later. We should be free... next summer, by the looks of it. Hope that works out!
Two weekends ago Leslie and I tried to go
camping. I say tried because the weather didn't want to cooperate. We were going to camp Friday and Saturday night*, do a little hiking Saturday morning*, relax by the fire* Saturday afternoon, and pack it up Sunday morning*. By the way, * = "if it didn't rain too much" for this entire post.
We headed out for
Shades on Friday after work and got to the campground a little before 7:00. We got the tent setup, started a fire, roasted a few marshmallows - the typical camping events. It wasn't the clearest of nights, but we could see a few stars above the campground and wanted to see more. So we jumped in the car, drove to the edge of the campground to an open field near the visitor parking lot, spread out a blanket, and spent an hour
just looking up at the stars. There was a little cloud cover, but not enough to completely obscure our view. Leslie said it was the most stars she had ever seen. After that we headed back to camp to get some sleep. Shortly after the rain started. We had checked the weather before setting out and there was a chance of rain that night, so this wasn't a surprise. We slept as best as we could through the thunder and pouring rain.
The next morning we got up and started getting breakfast ready. Starting a fire proved difficult since everything was still pretty damp from the storm. We eventually got it started and just after getting our breakfast (foil pouches filled with potatoes, veggies, sausage, and cheese) in the fire, it started raining again. And I don't mean a light rain... real rain. Hard rain. Turn-the-ground-to-nothing-but-mud rain. This time it was a surprise. According to what we saw before we left, it was supposed to be clear that morning with a chance of rain in the afternoon and a storm or two that night. Clearly this was not the case. The rain extinguished the fire, leaving our breakfast half cooked, and according to weather radar (we decided it was time to turn our phones back on at this point) more storms were inbound. We decided it was time to call it. So we hastily packed up and headed for home.
Luckily it's a reasonably short drive from Shades to our house in Avon. We got home, took showers, and make our breakfast (more like lunch at this point) on the stove. Then, from the comfort of our home, we watched it steadily rain for almost the rest of the day. And night. And the next day. I think we said to each other about ten times over that time period, "I'm glad we aren't still camping." We still had fun doing it, but it would have been more fun without all the rain. Oh well.
Then this past weekend we headed back to our old gold and black. We went up on Friday to see some friends at one of
our favorite bars in the area. What's funny is that we did this a year ago before the homecoming game against Wisconsin and that's when
my cousin and his now fiancee met. I don't think anyone met their future spouse this time around, but it was a lot of fun. That night we stayed with one of my old roommates in what used to be my old dorm room. And it looks like sleeping on dorm furniture will probably need to be added to our
Murtaugh list before long.
Saturday was game day against Nebraska. We had gotten a block of tickets with a bunch of my dad's family and were planning to tailgate after the game*. The game was... well, about as good as our camping trip. Except instead of getting a bunch of rain we got a bunch of points scored against us. And instead of getting a fire started eventually despite the less than ideal conditions Purdue never got much of anything started at all. So we left after the start of the fourth quarter (didn't want to miss
Shout, of course) and headed back to the intramural fields for some tailgating. And it didn't rain! We had a great time eating lots of food - Leslie and I brought chicken to grill, banana chocolate chip oatmeal bread, and zucchini bread to go with the hotdogs, brats, potato salad, pudding, chips, crab dip, cookies, brownies, and fresh homemade apple cider! We had a great time hanging out and catching up. Just goes to show that you can have fun on game day even if your team sucks.
After tailgating we headed home and Leslie's parents arrived shortly after. They had wanted to see the house and the cats since it had been awhile since their last visit. We visited with them for awhile, but not for too long since it was getting late and we had a long day ahead of us.
The next morning we headed up to Leslie's sister and brother-in-law's house in Noblesville to do some tile work. They had just put in new kitchen counters and cabinets and wanted some help installing a new backsplash. Leslie's parents had spent the night there so they could help too. Things went pretty smoothly since we had plenty of people to do all the necessary jobs involved, including watching their two year old. We finished up that evening and headed home, tired after another full day. But hey, the tile ended up looking great and we were glad we could help.
And that about covers what we've been up to recently. Thanks for reading and we'll be back on Friday with another fun fun post. In the meantime, you can check out the "About Us" page that has been updated slightly. Ok, we basically just added a picture of Frank. But check it out if you'd like. Because he's cute.
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