Weekend of August10-12, 2012:
We had given tickets for a Legends Game to my Dad for his birthday, so he and my Mom came in on Saturday August 11 for the game. We all had a fun time!
There were some great fireworks after the game.
My parents stayed the night with us since the game ended late (and so we could play cards the next day). Since we have a small place and no guest room (we use our second bedroom as an office), Brandon and I let my parents have our bed and we slept on the couch feet-to-face. It was fun for a while, but that only lasted about half the night until Brandon got so uncomfortable that he moved to the floor with some couch cushions.
Weekend of August 17-19, 2012:
We left out early Saturday morning for Cincinnati. Brandon's parents had given us and Brandon's sister and her husband tickets for a Dinner Cruise for Christmas 2011 and we finally found a weekend that worked for the four of us to go use them.
We had booked a lunch cruise on the BB Riverboat.
Billy, Kim, Me and Brandon all ready to cruise!
How cute - the railing on the side of the boat resembled hearts....
....and some of us got all ooey-gooey about it. ;)
Sites from the cruise:
Shortly after the cruise started, they opened the buffet line. The food was very yummy and very plentiful.
The top of the boat was a big deck area - very sun-shiny.
We participated in a few games of Bingo after lunch and Kim & Billy won a prize!
After the cruise, we headed to the hotel and after a quick nap, we swam some (the pool was pretty cold, but we had fun).
Later that evening we headed to Newport on the Levee - an area of Northern KY with lots of shops, restaurants and even an aquarium.
We ate at a yummy place called Arnie's - great burger joint!
We walked around levee area for a while before turning in for the night - the view of downtown Cincy with the blue, cloudy sky was so pretty.
The four of us had breakfast at the hotel the next morning before parting ways. We had such a great time! Last year we got to go camping together and this year, a trip to Cincy. We decided that a yearly trip together is a MUST.
Brandon and I made a pit-stop at the IKEA near Cincy before heading home. We didn't buy much, because as Brandon reminds me, I only have about 9 square inches to put anything I might buy (I've mentioned we live in a small place, right?).
And in my opinion, no trip to IKEA is complete without a stop at their cafeteria for some Swedish meatballs....of course, since it's a Swedish store, Brandon says they just call them meatballs. :)
Tuesday August 21, 2012:
I got to meet up with two sweet friends, Jenn & Kori, that I hadn't seen since my wedding!! Kori brought her sweet little one along too - I was so excited to meet Miss R! We all enjoyed catching up and laughing and talking....man, I miss those gals.
Friday August 25, 2012:
Brandon and I attended a Cook-Out of one of his co-workers, Mike. Mike & his family go all out each year for this cook-out. It was the 11th annual one they had hosted. They rent a bouncy-slide thing for the kids, grill mass amounts of burgers and dogs and even set up their TV to communicate with a a picture app on people's phone - folks can submit pictures from the evening through the app and they show up on the TV. It was a gorgeous & fun night.
Tuesday August 28, 2012:
We awoke this morning expecting some bad news from Brandon's employer. There had been rumors for a while that *something* would be going down, but Brandon didn't know what exactly. Because he works for a global, public company and they have to do things a certain way, the bad news we had expected had already hit the news and we read about it all before he even got to work. This day would mark a major round of lay-off's. An entire division of the company was shutting down which included 1,700 people, 550 of them here in Lex. Thankfully, Brandon's job was spared (he wasn't in that division). However, several of his direct co-workers were finding out they were part of the cut. Even though his division as a whole was safe, the lay-off's affected folks company-wide, so there were a few lay-offs in most every division. It was a pretty tough day, obviously. We're so thankful that Brandon still has a job, but it's so hard to see others let go and have to move elsewhere for opportunities.
Thursday August 30, 2012:
Well as not to end this post on a low-note, here's one last picture of a very excited guy heading to his first day of Jury Duty! I kid you not, he was like a kid on the first day of a new school year. This was right up his alley. He wanted to get picked and be a juror for a trial so bad.....but unfortunately he never got to report once after his initial orientation. But, he knows the ropes now and maybe his number will come up again soon. ;)
