willandadri.com

july was dreadfully, awfully, terribly long.

will worked long hours at work for yet.  the non-passing of a state budget is making his life hell at work.  the 4th of july holiday brought great drama and little relaxation.  working on international projects (for me) is nothing more than all consuming.  emotions are high for both of us with too many dr. visits, shots, and pills.

i am so thankfull that in 6 hours – july will be no more. 

and so to july – i say:  GOOD RIDDENS!

here’s to august bringing better news, a wonderful vacation, and more relaxing times with each other!

iliana turned 8 this month. 

it’s hard to believe that our baby dog is 8 years old.  it seems like just yesterday that we returned from our honeymoon at the Ihilani Hotel in Hawaii. ( http://www.ihilani.com/)  once we got back, we decided we wanted a play mate for amelia, and decided to get a new puppy.  we found an ad for toy rat terriers in the local paper and drove to md to have a look see.  once we got there we fell in love with the tiny little pup with the round belly.  she was definately the runt of the litter and we decided she’d have to be ours.  we packed her up and drove back to va with our new baby.  on the way home we tried to decide what we’d name her, and came up with a variation on the ihilani hotel – iliana.  and thus began the life of the dog that we now call any of the following:

iliana

illy

ii-wii-ahh-nahh

silly illy

lilly

lilly pond

lil sis

amelia fell in love with her right away.  they became the best of friends, just a lovin and a snugglin from the get go.  however, they were the tag team that made us send eligh (our former kitty cat) to cat camp (maw maw and paw paw’s house) and never return.  they tortured him and made him live a life of solitude on top of the washer/dryer in our tiny 1br apartment in fairfax, va.  they’ve grown up together, being only two years apart and always pal around the house together.  sure they have had their share of fights even resulting in broken teeth, scarred cheeks and ears, and many trips to the doggie er, but they love each other.

we wish our sweet lilly pond a Hau`oli La Hanau!

love,

mom and pops

this past weekend we headed to williamsburg for a little r&r.  we stayed at kings mill resort right outside of bg.  saturday morning we got up and headed to the park.  we managed to ride all of the roller coasters twice in the front row!  score!  we ate lunch at the bbq place, and that was some yummy stuff!  we decided to ride the roman rapids to cool down, but that did me in!  we were soaked!  we squish squashed our way back to the hotel and settled in for some relaxing! 

after some hot showers and drowning in the covers at kings mill we decided to head over to the marina.  if you’ve never been, you should really check it out!  we thought we were just going to go for a drink by the water, but the weather, the music, the atmosphere was so perfect we did not want to leave our riverside table!  the marina is on the james river and has an amazing sunset view.  the marina was crowded with people listening to the music (very jimmy buffetesq) and just enjoying the view.  the hostess said it would be an hour before a table was ready, but before we could get our koolaids from the bar, the buzzer was going off and a table for two overlooking the water was ready!  we scurried on over and both looked at each other and said “we’re not moving until they make us move!”  we really had one of the most relaxing evenings we’ve had in 2009!  it’s always great to have the sound of the water, the breeze on sunburned skin, fresh seafood, great koolaid, good music, and your love bug at your side!

sunday morning we woke up and decided we’re too old for two days of bg back to back,  and resorted to breakfast in bed via room service.  doing this allowed us to stay snuggled up in the down comforter and our matching robes while we snoozed for our late checkout.  after checkout we went on the “good” coffee search, as we both decided two things this weekend – we are wine and coffee snobs.  now that we had that settled, we needed something besides folgers to be “the best part of wakin’ up” – off to starbucks we went.  while its not the BEST coffee, it would have to do.  one venti double chai tea latte and grande vanilla latte later and we were on our way.  we headed down to colonial williamsburg to meander down the streets until we had to head back to nc to pick up the doggies.  we saw some amazing garden layouts that we’d love to put into effect in our yard one day. 

we definately had an amazing time on this quickie vacation getaway, and can’t wait for the bahamas in august!

i recently traveled to sml (smith mountain lake) to visit the roanoke fam for the holiday.  will had to work (finishing up yet), so it was just me on a solo adventure.  the car ride was pretty uneventful, which is always pleasant. 

mom and i met dad at fork in the city, a new restaurant in downtown roanoke, for lunch on friday.  we really had some great food and fun in the sun on the patio that day!  that night i cooked us up some amazing food on the grill. 

dad was feeling under the weather, and we’ve all sorta had a funkus since coming back from disney, so we resorted to the “netti pot”.  dad was terrified of the thing, but ended up liking it after he gave it a whirl.  it really does work, so give it a shot if you have not tried it out!

saturday, we all loaded in the car and headed to sml.  the weather was amazingly perfect and we all enjoyed ourselves on my uncle’s new boat dock.  after a day of fun in the sun we headed back into roanoke to view the fireworks in downtown roanoke.  we were totally exhausted and went to bed after getting back to mom and dad’s.

sunday we went out to look at new homes for mom and dad, and of course it poured down rain.  its always fun to get into the car, out of the car, into the car, out of the car, into the car, out of the car, in the pouring down rain.  however, the prices are readjusting themselves, so it was good to go see what you can get for the $ these days.  after the home tour we finished up the weekend with a visit to the barrel (cracker, that is).  the place was packed, due to the holiday weekend, but we secured a table and dove into some delicious eats.

all in all, we had a great weekend!