The weekend before we picked Dexter up, we flew to Santa Barbara for a long weekend to meet up with a some friends.  We stayed one night in Santa Barbara then drove up the coast to find a place to camp for a few nights.  The views from the coastal road were amazing!

The weather was a bit chilly and it was very windy the first day but the guys still went surfing while I stayed on the beach reading.  

Camping was great!  We ate great food, had great company around the fire and I learned how to play backgammon!  I have to admit, I was not very good but I still liked the game.

We have so many updates!!!  I kept telling myself “I’ll post today” but day after day, I didn’t get it done.  The more days that went by, the more things I wanted to post and now I feel like I have some back tracking to do.

We brought Dexter home May 7th.  He was so little, so quiet and slept so much.  We brought him in the yard when we got home and the grass was almost as tall as him…although that was due to us going to CA for a long weekend (that will be my next post) and not getting a chance to mow before we picked him up   Here are some pics

He is already so much bigger and so much more active!  We just signed him up for puppy kindergarten that starts in a week.  I will post the more recent pictures of him soon!

I posted a bunch of pictures on facebook of Dexter but I wanted to put one on the blog as well.  He just turned 5 weeks this past weekend so only about 3 weeks left until we can take him home!  He was so fun to play with on Sunday!  He was so curious and affectionate.  After 10min of playing, he got really tired and fell asleep…so cute!

Matt and I have decided to get a puppy!  We have been thinking about it for a while and decided we wanted to get a boxer.  We did our research and found a great breeder in our area and….here he is

He is only 2 weeks old in this picture, he is going to be 5 weeks this coming weekend.  Matt and I are going to visit him this weekend so we will post more pictures when we see him again.  He should be ready to come home with us in just a few weeks and we can’t wait!  Here is another picture of him with his mom

I’ve always thought of spring cleaning as cleaning out my closet, switching my sweaters for tank tops, heavy pants for shorts, washing the windows, etc.  This is my first spring owning a house and spring cleaning has taken on new meaning for me.  Matt and I have filled 25 bags of leaves and brush that we didn’t get to before snow fell (and believe me, we were not lazy in the fall, we picked up twice that before snow fell!).  We had two HUGE trees down in our back yard that we just had cut up but still have a ways to go before the wood is small enough to fit in our wood stove.  And we are finally thinking about painting!

Since the swim season as ended, I’ve been working on one of our guest rooms.  Removing wall paper for the first time has been quite the experience.  I knew removing the wall paper would take a while but washing the walls, filling holes, painting the windown trim, cleaning our basboard heating and painting the covers, took much longer than expected!  Here is how the room looked before:

You can’t appreciate the wallpaper in the picture…it is a dark blue with pink pasley print.  Here’s where we are now:

All the cleaning has been done.  The room is ready for the primer!  I’m still going back and forth about the color for paint.  I guess since we haven’t painted a room yet  I’m nervous about picking the “right” color!

This is very over due, but it still deserves a post   Meg and I went on a Carribean Cruise the last weekend in May.  It was a short 3 day cruise but perfect for catching up with each other and a little R & R!

We went on a cruise together the spring of our 5th year at IU and looking back, it is amazing how different this cruise was for us from the one when we were 22.  Instead of drinking and dancing all night in the bars, we watched Twilight and read in our room.  Instead of tequila shots and hard liquor, the wine and ice cream were our daily favorites.  Instead of sleeping off hangovers in the sun or getting some “pre-party” drinks in the early afternoon, we sat and people watched all the people who were doing what we did 5 years ago.  I hope we can continue to do something like this for years to come!!

I’m so excited to finally see lots of green and flowers blooming!  I love being able to run outside and take walks to get ice cream   Providence has finally made the transition into Spring!

The winter here is pretty long so I tend to get over excited when it starts to warm up.  Matt and I have packed the car and headed to the beach TWICE only to find out it is only 65 and windy as hell at the beach.  Not quite laying out weather.  But we sucked it up and at least ate our lunch on the beach.  One day turned out to be a great surfing day so Matt surfed while I sat on the beach in my sweatshirt and read my book   The weather was MUCH warmer in Providence…but I know the beach is always a bit colder.  I guess I was just too excited.

We’ve been enjoying the nice spring weather in Providence.  We have been able to go biking, running and walking a lot.  We were so excited about the blooming trees and flowers that we took a camera with us one day on our walk to get ice cream.  This route is also one of our running routes.

Matt and I went to San Francisco this past weekend to do some site seeing and visit Sofra.  I have been to San Francisco once before but, like most trips I went on from ages 13-22, it was for a swim meet and therefore I didn’t really get to experience all the city had to offer.

The first day we were there we took a trip to Alcatraz.  That was at the top of my “to-do” list.  We had amazing weather so the ferry to the island was great and we did the audio tour and walked around the island by ourselves for a while.  After Alcatraz we walked along the Pier, got lunch and then continued walking around the city…up to Coit Tower for an great view of the city.

Saturday we drove down the coast to Santa Cruz, visiting beaches and parks along the way.  Sunday we went to the old forts around the Golden Gate Bridge, walked along some of the famous streets in the city and had dinner in China Town.  On Monday, our last day there, went to Napa Valley to do some wine tasting!!!  The number 2 “to-do” on my list!!!!  We tasted at 4 different wineries.  The wine there was awesome and needless to say, I can’t wait to receive our shipped order

Liz got a weekend off from work and Matt and I were able to make a date to meet up with her and Rich!  We decided to meet half way between where we both live which ended up being Westerly, RI.  We did some wine tasting a really nice winery…

Then it was off to an awesome seafood lunch in Mystic…

We lucked out with some good weather and a nice little town to walk by the water.  Hopefully we’ll get to hang out a few more times before Liz and Rich leave to head back out to the mid-west!

LIzzy-sorry it took me so long to post these pics…i just got back from San Fran…those pics are still to come

My mom, dad and grandmother all have birthdays within a week of each other so Matt and I took them all out to a nice Brunch for their birthdays.  We went to the Old Mill in Westminster, MA.  Great food and free champagne with brunch!!!!  Can’t say no to free champagne…haha