A Beach Getaway

About a week and a half ago, we got to spend the weekend with Aaron's whole family down at Virginia Beach!

We showed up on Friday morning and spent the morning at the beach with Aaron's oldest brother, Joel, and his family.  They were camping at a nearby campground for a few nights instead of staying at the hotel (props to them since they have a almost-4 year old and a 1.5 year old).  Their campground was pretty quaint and the beach there was beautiful!  Once Aaron's parents and grandparents arrived at the hotel, we headed out to check into our room.  We got upgraded to a suite with a city-view balcony!

We took some family pictures on Saturday morning because the whole Ballew clan was in one place!  They turned out really nice (even with 3 kids under 4 not always looking at the camera)!  I won't post them because I feel bad posting pictures of other people's kids when I know that they are trying to avoid the ridiculous-amounts-of-kid-pictures-on-social-media thing, but here is one of my hubby and I!

Ain't that adorable... 

We (Aaron, his middle brother - Brent, Brent's wife - Jessica, and I) went out with some of Aaron and Brent's college friends (who live in VA Beach) on Saturday night.  It was fun to get to know them a little more!

We also played Putt-Putt: Jungle themed... it was super fun, but I was awful.  At least it had fun animals!

Aaron's dad had brought a kite along.  Apparently they've had it for quite some time and just never remembered to bring it along!  It was an intense dragon kite...

They flew it for awhile and the rest of us discussed the premise of the kite-flying activity.  What do you do once it's in the air?  Stand there?  We weren't sure, but I think we ultimately landed on drinking.  Surprise, surprise.

There was also this tent.  It was super easy to put up and helped keep the baby in the shade (although she preferred to be out in the sand because it is apparently a tasty snack).  The issue with this tent is that, while insanely easy to put up, it was equally as difficult to put back into the bag... they put it up twice and both times, it took 4 engineers, 1 set of crappy directions, and 20 minutes to finally get it back in it's bag... where it stayed for the rest of the weekend.

The rest of the weekend passed with some relaxing sunbathing, playing in the waves, playing in the sand (to try to stop the high-tide waves from reaching our slightly-too-close beach spot), and eating delicious seafood!  It was a fabulous vacation and I can't wait to go again next year!

My Pro-Bottler Title is Confirmed

So last week, we also bottled the Raspberry Wheat beer!  After the success of Wednesday night, I was worried that I had jinxed myself and that I would screw something up.  No worries... it all went swimmingly and we now have 96 beautiful beers sitting in our bathtub.

Once again, Aaron handled all of the actual work... he prepped and transferred and added priming sugar and and and...

I just capped.  But did I mention that I'm a pro?  Cause I think that's an important point.  I didn't break anything.

Lucy helped too.  She supervised.  It was tough work for her, I'm sure.  And then Gus wanted to drink sanitizing solution... so outside they went!

So here is the pretty sight in our bathroom!  Notice the color coordinated bottles... red for Raspberry Wheat and gold for Honey Vanilla Brown Ale!

12 days until we get to taste the final product!!!!!

I am a Pro-Beer-Bottle-Capper

Last night, we got to bottle our first beer!  The Honey Vanilla Brown Ale got put into bottles and now we are patiently awaiting the weekend extravaganza that will allow us to finally taste our beer!

Aaron did the setting up, the sanitizing, the priming sugar adding, and the bottling.

I was in charge of capping... mostly because it comes with a fun little capper tool that looks like a crab.

I was "practicing" (with sound effects and everything!) right before we started and Aaron was laughing at me... and then I was a pro and I didn't break any bottles, so who's laughing now.  Practice makes perfect.  (Keep your fingers crossed that my skillz - yes, with a 'z' - transfer over to tonight as well, when we bottle the Raspberry Wheat)

There were a few spills along the way... but no worries, it was the sanitizer and not the beer.  Aaron would never be so careless as to spill the beer.  The sanitizer is food-grade though, so he was less than concerned about it getting just about everywhere.

Just like I was a pro-bottle-capper, he was a pro-foot-towel-spill-cleaner-upper (it's a thing... I promise).

Sam showed up at the end.  Apparently Aaron had invited him to help, but he showed up just as we were finishing the last bottle... so instead, he drank the last Sam Adams and watched Aaron try to test the specific gravity of the beer (unsuccessfully because we don't have the right container for it).

We ended up with 50 beers and from the taste test (of the warm, flat beer), it's going to be delicious!

Monsoon Season arrives Early

Yesterday was supposed to be a productive day.  I was supposed to finish cleaning up from our weekend trip, take some things back to friends' houses (that were not taken after a party), and go to bed early knowing I got everything accomplished.

It all started just fine.  I unpacked suitcases, Aaron did some random chores around the house, we started laundry, I made dinner... and just as I was plating dinner, it thundered.  Aaron said (and I quote) "It isn't raining... yet" and walked outside to put the trash out.  By the time he got back inside (it's about 25 steps to our trash bin), it was pouring.  It rained like crazy through dinner and then started lightening and thundering as well.

No big deal.  Just rain.

Then the power went out.  Whatever... we have candles and camping lanterns and flashlights.  We'll survive.  (I didn't think about the completely full washer and partially run dryer until later)

Then the hail started...

And we aren't talking about normal hail... we are talking about 1/4" hail that made me thankful for a garage to house our stuff and made me understand why my plants look so sad today.

It kept up this crazy monsoon for about 45 minutes.  Lucy hated her life... Gus was completely fine with running around without a care in the world.  Major lightening? Loud thunder? Heavy hail balls falling on our roof?  Lucy wouldn't leave Aaron's side and Gus was all "Oh look, a bone, let's play!"

Then the flooding happened...

These pictures were taken after the "event".  After we knew our house wouldn't flood.  The water was rising very quickly in our backyard to meet the porch... I was concerned.  We had contingency plans to throw towels and dog beds at the back door to stop water if it got that high.  Welcome to Arizona monsoons (that come early...)

No worries though... the rain stopped and the power came back on at about 11:30.  We were already asleep and the house had gotten hot enough to wake up a very fuzzy Gus (it was 75 and he is spoiled with air conditioning since we have to keep the brewing beer below 72).  Aaron was concerned about his beer getting too hot, I was concerned about our dogs getting to hot.  Priorities.

Back to normal today... with loads of laundry to re-wash.  Hooray.

Wedding Weekend

Last Saturday, my cousin got married!  It was the first family wedding we have been to that didn't involve my family (beyond simply attending) and my Grandpa was quick to point out that it was the first wedding where the couple was announced as "Mr. and Mrs. Liggett", since my sister and I are the only two that have gotten married and therefore, are no longer Liggetts (in name... there is a special kinda crazy that I'm sure both of our husbands will quickly agree is a "Liggett" thing).

I showed up at my sister and brother-in-law's house on Thursday night after work (I was in MD that week, so it was just a hop, skip, and a jump away).  My mom was already there and my dad showed up shortly after.  Mike grilled chicken, Renee made salad and beans, Mom and I did nothing and hung out with the dogs (and drank beer - Christmas Ale!).

Then Britta came over!  She stopped by to say hi on her way home from a friend's house!

Aaron showed up the next morning, just in time to golf with Mike and Dad.  Apparently it was not a good day in golfing land... but they had fun.  Eddie arrived in the afternoon.  We cooked out (I, again, did nothing and it was fabulous) and made s'mores by the fire.  It was all very casual and it was nice to just get to hang out with my family.

The next day was the wedding!  It wasn't until the afternoon, so we got to be lazy all morning and take our time getting prettied up for it.

Lebron announced his decision to come back to Cleveland... my brother-in-law was thrilled.    Hence the 2-3.

The wedding was beautiful!  It was very simple and short, all of the people in the wedding party had beautiful outfits, and they just looked so happy!

The reception started with cocktail hour (and in Eddie's opinion, too many family pictures).

Then we ate dinner, danced, and drank.  The bar became a cash bar at 10:30, so my family and a few other cousins stocked up on the free drinks before it switched...  I think this qualifies for AA memberships...

This was only about half.  I love my family.

It was a really great weekend!  I loved getting to see my family and Aaron and I talked about how this was really the first time we have been able to just casually hang out with my family without the craziness of holidays or our wedding.  It was awesome... I just wish we didn't have to fly back to AZ afterwards...