Playing Catch Up

So much to talk about, so little time. Since I have to cover a month's worth of events, I had to cut my pictures and my topics down to just a few. Once I get out to San Diego (next SATURDAY!!!) I'll have a lot more time to keep up with the blog. Although, it will really just be Crystal's adventures since Joey will be staying in Atlanta for a while and the chances of him actually taking pictures for the blog are slim to none. Ok, so here we go...

WEEKEND AT JENNYS

A few weekends ago, all the Heithaus siblings and sig others (minus Tim and Lauren) got together for a weekend at Jenny's house. It was so great to have everyone together. It felt just like Thanksgiving. It makes me wonder why we don't just do this every month. Why wait for a holiday? Although, now that Joey and I will be in California, it will be a little more difficult, but still!

For some reason I didn't get the camera out at all until the next morning so I don't have any pictures of our delicious pasta dinner, playing taboo when the kids went to bed, or anyone with brushed hair...but here are some cute pictures of the kids getting ready for church in the morning.

Good Morning Grace!

Katelyn, can you please make me a strawberry milkshake? And SMILE Sam!

Alex is a popular kid! I got him first!

And then Joey took him!

Trying to get 5 kids under 6 to stand still in a picture is NOT easy...

DAD'S NASCAR EXPERIENCE

As you may or may not know, my dad is a huge Nascar fan. Like many men, I think he's always wanted to be a racecar driver. For years he has wanted to drive one of the cars so last year for his combined Father's Day - Birthday - Christmas present, Joey and I bought him 8 solo laps driving a real nascar race car. He was originally scheduled to go in October but it was rained out and rescheduled twice. It was a bummer but to make up for it, they gave him 10 extra laps.

So last weekend he went down to the Atlanta Motor Speedway for his 18 solo laps. He had to be there bright and early for the morning training class (after a delicious Waffle House breakfast of course) and Joey and I met him during the lunch break. This is how he greeted us-smiling ear to ear.

After lunch, the 30 student drivers started to take their turns driving. The people with less laps got to go first and so my dad had to wait a little while. Anxiety started to set in a little bit as you can see from this glamor shot.

Finally, it was his turn and he hopped in his assigned car, but not before posing in the window.

He got off to a slow start initially but he quickly got the hang of it and started whipping around the track. It was hard to say how fast he was going since the cars don't have regular speedometers but we think it was around 100 miles an hour or faster. Here is a video of his take off.

He decided to split up his laps a little bit. He did 10 laps and then took a short break and did the last 8. This is his picture and a video right after he got out of the car.

He loved it! I think he is already planning his next experience. Here are a couple more pictures from the day.

Woo hoo! We are champions!

What a fun day! We were so glad to be able to be there with my dad for such and exciting experience!

EASTER HOUSE HUNTING?

Since the move to San Diego has been anything but predictable, Joey and I had a hard time planning a time to go out there to look for houses. When Joey got an opportunity for an interview out there we finally just decided to book the trip and go even though it was Easter weekend. We were sad to miss family activities for the holiday but we had take the chance while we had it.

We flew out Thursday night after work and stayed until Sunday night and took a red eye in for Monday. Friday morning I set out on the house hunt while Joey went to his interview. Joey's interview went really well (other than the fact that he accidentally packed blue pants with a black jacket - Ooops!) but he won't hear anything for 2-4 weeks, so we'll see. After that, he met up with me to continue looking at apartments. We pretty much looked at apartment complexes in the downtown area. They were all pretty nice but they were kind of overpriced, small, and had no character.

We continued the search on Saturday and took Sunday off. We went to a local church in the Little Italy area and it was wonderful. The church was beautiful and the priest gave the best homily I've heard in a long time. After church we walked to some of the cafes on the main Little Italy strip and had a nice lunch. Here is Joey sitting on the sidewalk at the restaurant.

After lunch, we drove up the coast a little bit and checked out the beaches. Everything was so beautiful and so many people were outside enjoying the weather. At about 4 oclock our car started rocking back and forth at a stop light and we realized we were experiencing our very first earthquake! It didn't seem like a very big deal to us, probably because the car was absorbing the vibrations, but all the locals seemed to think it was a big one. So now that we have that under our belt, we don't have to worry about earthquakes anymore!

We flew back on the red eye and went straight into work the next day. What a fun and tiring weekend. Oh and as you can see from the picture below, I'm going to need to wear sunscreen in San Diego!!! I turned into a little red lobster!

MY MOM'S BIRTHDAY

My mom's birthday is April 2nd so we invited her over to the apartment for a delicious home-grilled steak dinner. It was a beautiful night and the weather was perfect.

For dessert, we had a chocolate cheesecake. Yummm...

So that should do it! I actually have a lot more pictures of things like pretty birds on our bird feeder, terrible cookies I made, and random pictures of stuff we are throwing away while we are moving but I think I should stop here. I have to get up really early tomorrow to take a bunch of stuff to a group yard sale while Joey continues packing. And I've been working like crazy at my (now former) job so my eyes are stinging just looking at the computer. So I wish everyone the best and I hope to add another update VERY soon!