« June 2008 | Main | August 2008 »

July 31, 2008

Marblehead Family Reunion

We had our annual family reunion up at Uncle Sam and Susie's in Marblehead, MA (where my dad's side of the family grew up). To see our last two family reunions, click here: 2007 and 2006.

When we arrived, we drove through Peabody where we saw this guy on Groove St.:

Mom and Jocelyn at Uncle Sam and Susie's:

Sam IV and Uncle Hugh:

Uncle Sam, Aunt Susan, and Aunt Anne:

Uncle Les, Aunt Susan, Aunt Anne, and Uncle Sam:

Staci, Dr. Herb (from next door), Uncle Les, Susie, Aunt Susan, and Aunt Anne:

Dad and Susie:

Why walk your dog when you can take him kayaking in the harbor?

Dad and Uncle Sam manning the grill, cooking the most delicious filet:

Sam IV, Jocelyn, and Me:

Jocelyn taking the ladder upstairs:

The harbor at sunset:

Staci, Dad, and Alison:

That night we had the most beautiful full moon. It rose up over the harbor and was not only enormous, but completely red:

What a view:

Reflection:

Moonlit clouds:

Moon and Venus over the harbor:

What a perfect night for our family BBQ. I'm sure we'll do it again next year!

Also, everyone was so nice to send us their family reunion pictures, so if anyone would like copies of mine, just click on it and you'll be taken to my Flickr page where you can select "all sizes" and download the largest size there.

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 03:03 PM | Comments (4)

July 30, 2008

Fireworks At Binney Park

Sorry some of my pictures are getting a little out of order, but I finally got my 4th of July fireworks pictures ready to be posted.

Before the fireworks (which go off in a park at the end of my street) everyone came over for a BBQ. Parking is impossible in the whole area when it's fireworks time, so it's much easier for everyone to be able to come park at my house, have dinner, then walk.

BBQ on my deck:

Aren't those burgers HUGE?

Claudia, Cathy, Alberto and Jessica (one of Mike's friends from school):

Cathy and Mike on the trampoline:

Brian making s'mores:

Cathy, Mike, Claudia, Alberto, Jessica, and Katie:

Rocky eating some burger off of a fork. What manners!

Brian and Cathy:

Erin and Me:

At the park... Front row: Dad, Claudia, Jessica, Katie, and Brian. 2nd Row: Erin, Cathy, Kelly, and Dana. 3rd Row: Spencer's dad and Spencer:

Me, Jenn, Mike, and Hayley:

Jenn, Mike, and Hayley. Remember those necklaces?:

And finally, the fireworks:

I love this one:

I don't know how they do this:

It almost looks like the sky is on fire:

After the fireworks, we all walked back to my house to finish the BBQ. Here's Mike and Katie:

Cathy, Mike, Katie, Kelly, Dana, Jessica, and Erin:

Group shot (same as the last one, but Brian and I are in it too):

Cathy and Mike. Can you tell they're brother and sister?

Meghan, Kara, Katie, Mike, and Cathy. Mike is doing what he likes to call "Photo Bombing" where you dive into someone's picture last minute making a face. He said it's even more fun to do when you don't know the people:

More Photo Bombing... Mike, Kelly, and Dana:

Next year for the 4th of July we're going to try to get Island Beach for our camping trip! What's funny about that, is that we're going to have to camp out outside of town hall in the middle of the winter in order to be able to sign up for the most desirable camping day of the year. Two camping trips for the price of one!

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 11:49 AM | Comments (4)

July 28, 2008

Ricky the Riverside Raccoon

I know many of my readers went to Riverside Elementary school with me and must remember our old school mascot, Ricky the Raccoon. Of course... that was before the school decided that raccoons are dangerous because they carry rabies and changed our mascot to the less cool Riverside Rabbit. Now don't get me wrong, you all know I love rabbits (I have two!) but the giant stuffed pink bunny in our hall was way uncool at the time.

Anyway, my dog Rocky found a family of four raccoons in our backyard and chased them up a giant tree. I grabbed my camera and shot a few pictures of them before it got too dark. If raccoons are "dangerous" then why are they so adorable?

Relaxing:

Babies:

So cute:

While I'm somewhat on the topic... getting my rabies shots (after my traumatizing monkey attack) was the best thing I ever did! I love animals, even wild ones, and now I can play with them without any worries! So let me send this out to all the stray raccoons out there - if you want to come be pet cats, I'm here!

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 02:26 PM | Comments (1)

Greenwich Roundup

Greenwich Roundup, a Greenwich news site, linked my Island Beach pictures! Not only did they give me some great advertising (of course choosing my embarrassing Laguna Beach quote as the title of their post) but they picked up The Blonde Excuse in their Bloggers from Greenwich column! That makes me feel like we're one step closer to having a reality show. We're still 600 or so steps away... but one tiny step closer, and that's important.

Anyway, to check it out click HERE.

-Lauren

Update: Even more love from Greenwich Roundup

Posted by lauren at 01:02 AM | Comments (0)

July 27, 2008

Vanessa's Going Away Party

As some of you already know, Vanessa has officially left for her job in Philadelphia. What you might not know, though, is that she got sent to California for the next three months! We all miss her so much already. Anyway, we recently had a little going away party for her. We started out at California Pizza Kitchen for dinner where there were so many of us, we had to divide up into three different tables (all next to each other and with free appetizers, so it's all good).

Kristina and Hayley:

Erin and Me:

After a delicious dinner, we went to Bobby V's, a bar that hosts a karaoke night every Wednesday.

Ali looks really funny in this picture:

Vanessa, Molly, Brian, Cathy, Nicole, and Lou:

Nick singing:

Hayley, Jenn, and Cathy:

Erin, Molly, Ali, and Me:

Cathy, Vanessa, and I got up to sing "Baby Got Back." It wasn't until part way through, when it was too late to turn back, that we realized how dirty that song is! I think it was somewhere around the line My anaconda don't want none unless you got buns hon, that we all got really awkward and uncomfortable. I guess being awkward and uncomfortable is what karaoke is really all about though:

Lou and Nicole:

Brian doing a solo:

And a duet:

Alex, Spencer, Vanessa, and Alberto:

Molly singing:

I wish Vanessa didn't have to go. She promised me last night she'd come back to visit as soon as she's home though, and we're all going to hold her to that!

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 12:47 PM | Comments (1)

July 26, 2008

Fantastic

Authorities found West Nile in mosquitoes about 2mins from my house today. I'm so glad I have 32 new mosquito bites from the last 48 hours. I guess from here forward I'll have to include West Nile as a possibility in my mystery illness

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 12:55 AM | Comments (0)

July 25, 2008

Island in the Sun

Recently, my friends and I rented Island Beach in Greenwich, CT for a night to have a campout! This was our fourth annual camping trip, and our second time at Island Beach (Check out our first time HERE). What better campsite than an entire island?

Our trip started with the ferry over to the island:

Brent, Eric, and Suzanne:

Houses on the water:

I'm extremely jealous of this person's private beach:

This person's boat dock is a scaled replica of the Brooklyn Bridge:

Eric and Brent:

Molly, Cathy, and Suzanne:

Cathy, Me, Molly, and Suzanne:

Island Beach:

Vanessa, Jason, Alex, Cathy, and Hayley... ready to get off the boat:

Spencer and Alberto getting the grill fired up:

Volleyball on the beach:

Alberto in a photo shoot-out with me:

The ferry that took us over:

Nicole and Alex on the playground:

This is actually one of my favorite pictures from the whole night - Eric running down the jetty with his beer:

Brent and Eric gazing at each other, lovingly:

This is definitely bromance at its best:

Suzanne, Brent, Spencer, Shana, and Eric at the grill:

Brent and Me:

We had an unbeatable 360 degree view from our island:

Setting up the tents before it got too dark:

Brent:

Shana, Molly, and Eric:

The sunset kept getting better and better:

Brent with a gigantic Heineken:

Brent and Spencer:

Brent and Me:

Group candid shot:

Funny picture of Brent and Eric:

Food:

Bridget, Cathy, and Erin:

Me, Cathy, Erin, and Vanessa:

Laguna Beach has nothing on us! I think we should have our own reality show:

Brent, Alex, and Eric:

Brent and Jason cooking:

Burning embers in our grill:

Lindsay, Mike, Claudia, and Katie:

Cavemen discovering fire:

This looks dangerous! Luckily Spencer made it out ok!

Gazing at their masterpiece:

The fire:

Using some weird settings on my camera, I got this picture that makes it look like there's a bouncing ball of fire:

Playing football over a fire is probably a bad idea, guys:

Katie, Cathy, and Me:

Eric:

Creepy picture of Alberto - it looks like he's stepping out of his own body!

Mike, Claudia, Katie, Cathy, Lindsay:

The beginning of Mike and Molly's water fight:

Best face ever:

Brent and Eric on fire:

Relaxing by the fire:

Needless to say, it was a very late night and a lot of fun. The next morning, Brent and I somehow woke up at 5am. The beach was foggy and so quiet, it was really beautiful:

Fishing in the morning:

We went back to sleep for a while and then had to get up to pack everything for the morning boat back to the mainland. Here's the caretaker cleaning up the beach while we took our tents down:

Brent decided to throw the football at Eric's head to get his attention. Luckily, he missed:

Nicole, Sarah, Brent and I played cards in the morning after breakfast:

Shana, Spencer, Alberto, and Bridget on the boat back:

Jason and Kristina:

Bridget and Alberto:

We'll definitely be back next year!!

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 08:46 PM | Comments (6)

Happy 15th Frisky!

Today is Frisky's 15th birthday!

To celebrate, Brent came down for the day and we had cupcakes and went out to see Wall E in Frisky's honor. If you haven't already seen Wall E, you absolutely must, it's the cutest movie I've seen in a long time:

Other than that, I'm currently working on my Island Beach camping entry, which I know a lot of people have been waiting for (mostly all my friends who want to steal the pictures, haha).

Check back later tonight and wish Frisky a happy birthday!

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 07:52 PM | Comments (0)

July 23, 2008

Alberto's Birthday BBQ

For Alberto's birthday, everyone met at the beach for a summer BBQ! Alberto's parents made the most delicious BBQ at Tod's Point in Greenwich for all of us with chicken, steak, chips, and guacamole. Yum!

Alberto and Vanessa getting out the food:

Kristina and Bridget at the grill:

Cathy and Alex playing volleyball:

Bridget, Alberto, Alberto's mom and sister, Cathy, Alex, and Vanessa:

This guy running past in his hot pants thought he was pretty awesome:

Someone should really give Alberto's mom a cooking show or something, this woman is amazing. She showed up with a few avocados and some other random ingredients and made fresh guacamole for us right there at the beach! I've never had better guacamole before:

Alex and Alberto:

Vanessa playing frisbee:

Bridget, Alberto, Cathy, and Alex:

Kristina, Me, and Vanessa:

It was a great time and hopefully we'll all have another beach BBQ soon! In other news, when I got home that night I found my adorable little Rocky at the foot of the steps, completely wrapped up in one of my blankets with just his little nose sticking out:

Also, a couple days later, we all went to Stamford's Alive at Five where we had dinner and then tried to see Blind Melon perform. Unfortunately we were late and only caught the last song.... Oh well.

Vanessa, Jenn, and Hayley at Black Bear for dinner:

Blind Melon... leaving the stage:

Lastly, I took this picture in my backyard because I couldn't find Rocky and didn't have a flashlight (camera flashes come in handy for lots of things!) The way the picture came out, it really makes my backyard look terrifying, like something out of a horror movie with a little possessed pooch creeping about:

Many, many more pictures to come!

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 03:48 PM | Comments (4)

Flickr Fixed!

I am officially back to blogging! Ever since the cable switch in our area, our internet has been SO SLOW. It's been so bad, that I haven't even been able to use my Flickr account because every time I attempt to upload anything, it crashes on me. Jocelyn solved my problem today, though, by introducing me to the new and improved Flickr uploader that works with our sub-par internet!

So anyway, once I finish uploading my 500 or so pictures from the past month, I'll be back to posting!

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 03:01 PM | Comments (2)

July 18, 2008

From My iPhone

I haven't disappeared, I'm on vacation but will be back. Thanks for sticking around while I suck at blogging....

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 12:46 AM | Comments (1)

July 04, 2008

Christian the Lion

This is the most heartwarming video I have ever seen:

Posted by lauren at 11:14 PM | Comments (3)

Another Night Out At Black Bear

Here are a few pictures from another night out at Black Bear.

Molly, Ali, Cathy, Me, Vanessa, Erin:

Cathy and Erin:

Cathy and Molly dancing:

And here are a couple pictures I stole from Vanessa since I took so few...

Molly, Ali, Cathy, and Me:

Molly (after a few drinks I assume) and Ali:

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 05:11 PM | Comments (2)

Happy (Belated) Birthday Vanessa!

June 3rd was Vanessa's 22nd birthday, so we all went out to Sundown Saloon to celebrate.

Cathy, Alberto, and Vanessa:

Molly:

Vanessa, Me, and Molly:

Vanessa, Kaltrina, and Cathy taking a tequila shot to Vanessa's 22nd!

Alberto:

Speaking of Vanessa, she just moved away to Philadelphia!! We already miss her so much.... Maybe I'll use The Blonde Excuse try to make it look extra fun here so that she'll come back!

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 04:45 PM | Comments (0)

Posting Marathon

Now that I'm back to posting about more recent stuff going on, I'm going to have a little posting marathon, with a few new entires every day until I'm caught up. Just keep that in mind when you're checking back over the next few days - make sure you scroll down a couple entries to be sure you aren't missing anything.

I hope you all enjoyed my last Barcelona entry, and now I'm back to the end of May (I know, I'm so behind...) when I was kittysitting Shadow, the cutest kitten in the world:

Yes, that ball of fur with feet is actually a cat:

And now, some pictures from a couple different nights at the beach (remember, all of these were taken out of a moving car, so the quality isn't great):

The turkey that lives at the beach and eats burgers and fries all day:

Colorful boats:

Lots of sailboats:

The NYC skyline:

Bird:

Lots more coming soon!

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 03:48 PM | Comments (2)

End of the Road - Barcelona

This entry has the last pictures of Brent's and my entire Europe trip. I would say it's my last Europe entry... but I actually still have half of Rome to post about. For those of you who don't remember from last summer, when Brent and I got to London, the first stop on our post-Rome trip, I decided to skip the rest of Rome until later so that I could keep up to date. Well, I didn't end up keeping up with my entries, considering that it's a whole year later and I'm still catching up, but I'll finish Rome soon and be done with all of Europe!

Anyway, when we were still in Barcelona, we went to the Cathedral of Santa Eulalia, which had a huge open courtyard in the center filled with beautiful palm trees, fountains and lots of geese/ducks:

I'm guessing someone is buried here:

Chandelier:

Diorama of... something:

Ceiling:

Statue behind bars:

Brent in the courtyard:

A goose checking himself out in the pond:

Fountain:

Inside the cathedral:

Gargoyles:

Passeig de Picasso:

After visiting the cathedral, Brent and I stopped for lunch... on a boat! It was a large boat docked in the harbor that was set up with lunch tables and served only tapas:

Here's Brent on the boat; he's smiling even though this is the day he got tonsillitis:

Me on the boat:

On the walk back from lunch, we saw these giant caterpillar nests in the trees:

When I looked back and saw this picture, I realized it's the same kind of tree that we saw in Mexico and thought was so strange!

The one in Mexico:

The next day, Brent and I went to the beach and the boardwalk area to take a few more pictures and look at the Mediterranean for the last time:

I love this picture. America in Barcelona... is this really what they think of us?

Kind of creepy:

This lamp was actually silver, but it's reflecting the ceiling:

While walking down Las Ramblas again, Brent and I saw Woody Allen and Scarlet Johansson filming Vicky Cristina Barcelona. I sent my pictures in to Perez Hilton, but he didn't take them. If you want to read the entry with ALL the pictures I took, CLICK HERE. Otherwise, here are just a couple:

Weird:

There were a lot of weird people on Las Ramblas dressed up trying to get money from people. One of the weirdest ones, however, was a man wearing nothing but body paint. No one seemed to notice except Brent and me. I didn't get his picture though, sorry.

Statues we passed at the beach nearly every day:

The beach:

Brent:

If I remember correctly, I think this guy brought soap to take a bath in the ocean. I figured that gave me the right to take his picture while he was sleeping and post it on the internet:

City, beach, mountains... what more could you want?

Barcelona at night:

For our last night, Brent and I decided to go to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner:

Saxophone Chandelier:

While there, Brent ordered the "Ledgendary Burger" and received much approval from our waiter. I ordered a caesar salad and got a very dirty look. Oh well.

Anyway, it was such an amazing trip and I wish I could go back and do it all over again! Maybe I will some day. For now, I'm going to get caught up on some more recent stuff, then go back to finish up Rome. If you haven't ever been to Barcelona, though, you should get on that right away!

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 02:36 PM | Comments (1)