Just another Sunday

So I am falling behind on my posts. Not shocking considering my five classes are keeping me busy with school work. General update: Shawn and I are doing well. His shift got switched to a 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. shift, and he might be moving even earlier in the coming weeks. He is pretty excited about it.

As for this weekend, on Friday evening Shawn and I went out to dinner with the other students in my cohort at a great pizza place. Shawn met us after he got off work. He rode over on his motorcycle because we have been having pretty nice weather lately. Shawn and I then spent Saturday doing some exciting stuff. We went to dinner and a concert in Raleigh with some friends. We got to hear a country group called the Black Lillies. It was a lot of fun and a good show, and we now have a new CD.

Other than that though, it was a pretty routine weekend. I thought I would share some pics from our routine weekend so you could see what a Sunday typically looks like (Sidenote: These pics were taken with my new iPhone. Another exciting part of Saturday was purchasing new phones!).

On Sunday, Shawn and I went for a morning jog. We then did the usual grocery shopping and housework and then some laundry. The pets inevitably try to crawl all over the clean clothes or sleep on them before it gets folded.

Then I did some work while Shawn read some forums on the internet.

We made shish-kabobs for dinner. They came out pretty well, but we need to invest in some good skewers.

And then it was time to hit the couch to watch some television. Shawn and I DVR our TV shows throughout the week and watch them throughout so we can avoid commercials, but lately we have gotten hooked on a show called Dexter.

I found the show really creepy at first because it is about a serial killer, but I now really enjoy it. We are in the middle of season two, so we typically watch an episode (or more) each night and are working our way through that. All in all, a pretty typical weekend here in North Carolina. Of course it helps that our typical weekend has included blue skies, sunshine, and 60 plus degree weather!

I'll try to get more on the ball about blogging though!

Enjoying the weekend and exploring NC

Shawn and I didn't do much this week except work and school, but last Sunday we did decide to do a bit of exploring. I wanted to see what other outdoor activities we had around us, and since the weather had decided to cooperate by providing a beautiful sunny 65 plus degree day, it seemed silly not to explore.

I went online and starting searching for "outdoor activities in Durham." I always come back to the same Durham visitors' center web site, and I have yet to be disappointed. I read through some of the different parks and hiking trails, and we decided to check out Lake Crabtree, which is only a short 15 minute drive from us.

Bella was so excited, she got ready to go really quickly.

Lake Crabtree was actually much bigger than I expected. The park area had various picnicking spots, playground equipment, boat rentals and fishing piers. We walked along the water on the paved path (with Bella underfoot) and then climbed to the top of the observation tower.

We then looked into what other offerings the park had. There were two sand volleyball courts, and the boat rentals sound like a fun option for the spring/summer. They have kayaks, canoes, row boats and sailboats for very reasonable rates. The park also had a number of hiking and mountain biking trails for riders of various levels. Shawn and I do not have mountain bikes yet, but it sounds like something that may be happening in the future.

There was a small sandy beach area too. Bella enjoyed running through it. It was her first experience with sand and she seemed to enjoy it.

After enjoying the area and the beautiful scenery (even though on one side of the lake you can still see tall buildings), we headed back to the house. We ate lunch out back in our Adirondack chairs before I went inside to do some work. Shawn then washed the car (one of his favorite nice weather activities) and in the evening we had our neighbors come over for a nice barbecue. We are pretty happy with the January weather so far--now if only it would get into the 70s and stay there!