Puzzles

In addition to our lego building we've also recently started working on some puzzles together. This actually goes back to years ago for Christmas one year I got Kris a 1500 piece Star Wars puzzle with the intention that we could build it together. At the time I think we made it through the border before abandoning the project. In March we decided to bring it out again and we finally finished it the other night.

Our next puzzle is a "mystery puzzle" that Steph has kindly loaned us. If you haven't heard of these before you read a story, then build the puzzle. Contained within the puzzle are clues that will help you solve the mystery. The other catch is that you don't know what the puzzle is supposed to look like! We made a good dent in it last night and will post pictures whenever we finish :)

Legos!

It is no secret in our house that Kris loves Star Wars and especially Star Wars Legos. We have boxes in the attic full of lego sets waiting an appropriate display area.

It is also no secret that lego sets are expensive and as Kris is quite talented at building them. Even a very large set only keeps him busy for half a day at the most.

By sheer luck I stumbled upon a company that falls into the "now why didn't I think of that?!" category. The company is called "pleygo" and the description is that it's like netflix for legos. You pay a monthly subscription fee and they mail you lego sets. You build/play with each set as long as you like then return it, at which point they mail out your next set. Genius!

For an early anniversary present I bought Kris a subscription, so needless to say I think this summer will be the summer of much lego building! To that end here are the pictures of our first completed project. Each set is built twice, once by Kris and once by me. For those who can't recognize it, this is Emperor Palpatine's Shuttle from Episode III. This is the shuttle used to save Anakin and is also the shuttle on which he is transformed into Darth Vader. Enjoy the pictures, we are excited to see what set we end up with next!!

Paddleboards!!!

Here we go again to try and keep this blog up to date (HA!). As a quick recap Kris and I have now finished all our classwork for our DMA's. We will be taking the written portion of our comprehensive exams this summer in August (eek!). Which answers the question of what we will be doing all summer...Studying!!!!

In the meantime we will try to find ways to relax a bit, and those will hopefully be what mostly fills this blog this summer.

This first post actually goes back to last summer. Last July we took a mini vacation to Deep Creek Lake. We stayed a few days at the WISP resort and enjoyed some of the summer activities in the area. One of the activities we tried Stand-Up Paddleboarding. Kris had been wanting to try this for a long time and luckily Deep Creek offered guided tours of the lake on paddleboards. After about the first 30 min we were both hooked. It is a relatively easy activity (as long as you can balance standing up on the board) but is a great full body workout. In addition, this is one of the few sports where we are mostly equally matched. Part of the appeal of SUP's (the abbreviation) is that they can be manuvered into tight spots which makes them perfect for wildlife watching and just general exploring. It also means speed is not really a concern. After returning we bit the bullet and got our own inflatable SUP's from a company called "Tower Paddleboards".

We immediately put them to good use on our trip last year to Michigan and througout August/September in WV. We explored a few local lakes and luckily we live only 1 mile from Cheat Lake making it a very convenient entry point.

This past week was the first time we got the paddleboards out for this summer! As Cheat Lake is normally busy with boats we tend to frequent the end of the lake away from the main docks. However, as it is still early in the season, not a lot of boats are out so we've been taking the time to explore the other end of the lake. On our first outing we got caught in a thunderstorm (opps!) and didn't make it very far. The next day, however, was amazing. We got to paddle down the Cheat River and explore a beautiful little waterfall. See pictures below....

Courtney relaxing on the paddleboard

In addition we also got to see 2 beavers paddling around. Kris startled one of them and we even got the tail slap on the water to warn us away! Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of them.

Here's to the start of summer and hopefully many more adventures on our paddleboards!