3 ingredients=yummy!

Easiest pumpkin bread/cake recipe ever!!!  I first saw this recipe over at one of my favorite blogs Bower Power so I thought I'd give it a shot. 

Seriously, only 3 ingredients!  1 can pumpkin, 1 box spice cake, and little bit of pumpkin pie spice.  Mix together and bake. This was so yummy!!!  I think it would be really good if you topped it with some frosting too.

Backyard remodel!

Our backyard has come such a long way from when we moved in!  Our backyard had a huge garden directly in the middle and a big kids play set that the previous owners left.  We sold the play set on Craigslist to a nice family with a toddler who would put it to good use before we can.

I didn't take a great "before" shot, but you can see the garden and swing set through the windows in this living room shot.  The garden was in such an awkward place and it took up so much room!

Here is the "after" shot with the garden and play set gone.  It feels so much bigger and open!

We also added a fire pit for the cool fall nights.  We bought the stone from Lowes and Drew put it together.  I love it!!

Good morning!

This is what we woke up to this morning in our backyard!  Beautiful fall colors!

King's Island

On Saturday we went to King's Island with our friends Niki and Tom.  It is about a 2 hour drive right outside of Cincinnati.

Niki and I on the drive...I look pretty tired!

We were hoping that it wouldn't be too crowded but we were wrong!!! We got there around 11:30 and went on two rides right away.  After we ate lunch all of the rides were at least an hour wait so we decided to go on one more.  After waiting for 1 1/2 hours in line we went and got a snack and then decided to walk around a little.  Our legs were so sore at that point that we decided to leave.  It is crazy that we were at the park for almost 6 hours and only went on 3 rides.  Next time we will invest in the "fast pass" which let you skip the entire line! 

This is us waiting in line for "The Beast" ride!!

Niki and Tom

Leaves!

We have never lived on a wooded lot and I must say there are a lot of leaves.  Drew bought a leaf blower and has already mulched 7 bags of leaves!  We aren't even into the height of the season.

Below are leaves just from our front yard. Penny didn't have any interest in playing in the leaves but we did make her pose for a few photos.

Pumpkin Makeover

I bought a few different colored pumpkins and wanted to add a little bit of something to one of them to get in the Halloween spirit.

I searched my go-to website, Pinterest, and came up with inspiration here and here, and I started with this:

I went to Joann's Fabric to see if I could find anything to create a spider web effect.  I ended up with a few choices but I went with these steel tacks made for upholstery.

I started with a basic shape and continued from there!

After some help from Penny, (just kidding she was being lazy and no help at all) I kept adding more steel tacks to create the webbing effect.

In the end it came out great and adds a little spookiness to the fireplace!

Up Up and Away!

Drew's brother Brad is a pilot. Drew, his Dad, Steve, and Brad were lucky enough to take one of their friends small planes out for a ride the other morning.  They took off before work and had an awesome cruise while the sun was rising!  Not a bad start to the work day. 

Honeymoon! Aloha!

Our honeymoon was one of the best vacations I've been on!  We spent 10 days in Hawaii!!  We left the Monday after the wedding and our flight was at 5:45 a.m. That meant we were up at 3:45 a.m. driving to the airport. We flew into Oahu and hopped in our rented convertible to drive to Turtle Bay Resort on the North Shore. 

It was pretty windy but overall the weather was great! We spent a lot of time just hanging out by the pool and drinking cocktails!  We did venture out to the Dole Plantation and got a pineapple whip ice cream cone.  That was some of the best ice cream I've ever had!  After 4 days on Oahu we jumped in a plane and went to Maui. 

Maui is my favorite island and we had such a great time there!! My dad and step-mom got us our hotel on Maui for 6 nights at The Sheraton!!  It was such a great room and we are so happy that we were able to stay so long in Maui because of their gift!  Our room was so awesome.  Here is the view from our private balcony.  Thank you Dad and Diana!!

We got to our hotel in time for lunch and headed straight to Whaler's Village in Ka'anapali beach.  We ate at Leilani's and loved sipping on fruity cocktails!  The pina colada's were great!

We kept our vacation pretty low key with mostly just hanging by the pool/beach and eating good meals! Drew ventured out golfing one day and I headed to the spa to get a massage.  We did have a beach day where we rented one of the little cabanas.  This was one of my favorite days! It felt like our own little fort and we just got beers and stayed there all day!

Drew got in the ocean more than I did and after he came back one time he laid straight down on the sand!  Growing up in California I have many memories of coming home with sand ALL over myself from being at the beach.  When you are kid it doesn't really faze you but after I grew up a little bit I started to hate having sand everywhere! Sand is extremely sticky and it doesn't just wash off if you jump back in the ocean like you might think.  When he laid down all of those gross sand feelings came back and I thought "Oh no! He is going to regret this later..haha!"  I was trying as hard as I could to only get sand on my feet and he just dug in. 

The Sheraton hotel has a nightly ceremony that is so fun! This is the description of the Hawaiian ritual.  As the sun begins its slow dive into the ocean, torch lighting signals the nightly ritual of Lele Kawa (cliff diving). Legend tells us the last chief of Maui, Kahekili (Thunderer), proved his spiritual strength by leaping from sacred Pu’u Keka’a to the Pacific.

With sunset painting the sky, a young cliff diver honors his heritage each evening by re-tracing footsteps in the sand on Kaanapali Beach. A chant of old Hawai'i begins the progression of our warrior; the echo of the conch shell announces his arrival. He leaves a trail of glowing torches surrounding the lagoon as he makes his way to Black Rock. Upon reaching the summit, he offers his torch to the ocean below, casts his flower lei into the sea; and finally takes the breathtaking dive from Black Rock into the rolling surf below.

We also went to a luau one night. The food was so good and the entertainment was great.

At one point they had all the honeymooners stand up and they called all the guys to the stage to do a "love dance" for their new brides!  It was so funny to see all the guys get embarrassed! Drew was the best one on the stage!

We went to the town of Lahaina a few days as well.  There are a ton of good restaurants and shops in Lahaina.  Our favorite place to eat was Kimo's!

Hawaii was such a great honeymoon and we can't wait to go back! Aloha!