The 4th of July celebrations & Erie's 4th of July Parade

Interesting that I always do happy birthday post but didnt do one for America. my bad.

Either way we celebrated as much as possible. Since I had the day off from work I promised not to even open my computer once {which I tend to do & then get stuck answering emails all day} It was so nice spending the day doing whatever we wanted & as much as possible.

The morning started with crepes thanks to Martha Stewart. We were going to do blueberry pancakes but I didnt have the right ingredients so Martha saved the day with her bomb.com crepe recipe.

Freeland getting creative and adding festive red, white, and blue toppings:

yummy yummy yummy! the are sooo good with honey drizzled over the top:

After breakfast we realized how late it was & ran out the door to make sure we didnt miss Erie's 4th of July parade. We read about it in the paper & decided to go.. but we didnt know what to expect before we left we just wanted to see what it was like. Let me tell yall - this was one awesome parade! We were so impressed with all the people who were there & with how long it lasted. I love that people in Erie actually get involved with all the events that go on! We will for sure be going back next year. Here are some pictures:

Gotta love guys in skirts:

the kids were my favorite part of the parade. They were everywhere & loved watching all the floats/groups go by:

never seen an orange fire truck before. Im sure it may be common - but Ive never seen one:

This band was rocking out. They were called Chrome {at least thats what the banners hanging from their truck said}. They were really good & had the crowd going:

whats a parade without kids running & chasing after all the candy? I loved it! These kids were not willing to miss any of the candy that was tossed their way. Im tellin you I saw them running & sliding under chairs to make sure they caught the tootsie roll and their siblings didnt. It was intense & adorable all at the same time:

parents had to get involved in this one:

Did I mention we were at least 30 minutes late and thought we missed the entire thing? Boy were we wrong! We stayed for almost an hour & it still wasnt over when we left! Im so glad we went & got to see how Erie celebrates Independence Day.

after the parade we darted over to the peninsula to spend the day on the beach & have a picnic. More pictures to come soon.

The Gladden Family {party of 5}

Im am soo stinkin exciting to be posting this right now! Remember when I said one of my friends found out she was prego but I couldnt tell you who?? After weeks and weeks of waiting I finally get to share with all of you that my best friend is having another baby!!!

That's right Dawn & Justin are having their 2nd baby! {You may all remember their first precious baby, Lola, from these posts: here, here, and here} I cannot wait to meet the little nugget! Oh and PS. Dawn is the most beautiful pregnant person ever.

BUT WAIT.. there is more! Not only am I sooo excited to share with you that they are having a baby.. Im also SOO excited because they just started a blog!!!!!! I have been begging & begging & begging and finally she did it! {thanks to Justin getting a new computer!} So you should all go & see her beautiful family. Here is the link: The Gladden Family.

*I purposely didn't tell yall if its a boy or girl. I will keep that little secret for her to share with everyone! ahh the suspense. Oh and its a party of 5 because they also have a cute little pup too!

besties

Okay, now everyone stick your tongue out & say cheese:

were off to celebrate America's birthday.

rain rain go away come again some other day

this is the current radar map:

Now, Im not the smartest person in the world but it looks to me like its about to rain cats & dogs outside. But then again, Im told the weather cannot be predicted here & that the weather channel is not always accurate.. so we shall see.

They did say its supposed to clear up for tomorrow so hopefully the 4th of July activities will not be postponed.

Were searching the papers and reading everywhere possible to figure out what the best thing to do on the 4th of July is in Erie. We havent decided for sure what we will do but I know whatever we decide will be sometime outside for the entire day. I cant wait.

Tuesday Night Block Parties & Downtown Erie

Phew. Long time friends. Sorry.. things have been busy & I honestly just havent taken the time to sit down and update this thing. But Im back and finally started uploading all the pictures from my camera.

The other week we ventured out to the Block Party that Erie hosts every Thursday night. According to the Erie Downtown website the Block Parties "bring the excitement of Fridays to a traditionally off night. Every year Block Parties draw over 25,000 people downtown on Thursday nights and also raise thousands of dollars for Erie community charities."

So we wanted to see what it was all about. We got there a little early just as the band was setting up. It was our first trip to downtown so it was a lot of fun to see what dtown was all about. Here is the street they block off for the event:

Here is the stage where the bands play during the block party:

Here are the people that start to gather to watch the bands & enjoy downtown:

And thats about all I have from the concert! Since we were early & saw about all there was to do pretty quickly we decided we would go explore downtown instead. So we went walking all around. Come to find out Erie has some pretty amazing places downtown! Here is the library:

This is a fountain downtown. Im not sure what it is or what they do here yet - but we have seen lots of kids playing in the fountain and its pretty stinkin cute:

We came across good ol' Molly Brannigans where we also went with Adam & Camille back in January for about 5 minutes.

These are all over the place in Erie.. frogs too. More on that later because I haven't exactly figured it out yet but Ive been told a few stories.

This is The Erie Club. One of our waitresses said its exclusive and only "important" people can go here. But that was also after she told us not to go clubbing at some other place down the street.. if we wanted to go somewhere "good" at least. So Im not sure Im really listening to her explanations of Erie at this point b/c Im pretty sure i dont "go clubbing" or use that term ever. :) Anyway, here is The Erie Club. Its a nice building:

Below is part of Gannon University as the sun was setting.. by the way this school has some amazing buildings!

The Erie Court House:

Some of the houses {or offices maybe} downtown:

Then we turned the corner & quickly realized that Erie has some of the most beautiful churches we have ever seen in our lives! Who knew?! This one is The Cathedral of St Paul. Its an episcopal church. We visited this church the next Sunday:

This one is the First Presbyterian Church down the street. We also visited this one the same Sunday. You wouldn't believe how beautiful it is! Camille, they are just like Harry Potter inside also - you would love it!

And this one is the Catholic church right down the street from the other ones:



And thats when my camera died - so thats all I got. But we quickly grew very fond of downtown. We did walk back by the block party after our little "tour" and saw that a lot of people were crowded everywhere enjoying themselves, the music, and blocking off the street!

I think its great that Erie puts together so many events each week for people to enjoy during the summer. School starts on the 28th so were trying to enjoy as many of them as possible while we can.

another wednesday night sunset beach concert series

last week we attempted another summer concert at the peninsula. Abbey Road & String Theory were playing. If you remember the week before we went out with Adam & Camille and it was beautiful weather. There were tons of kids playing in the water, families eating dinner around their picnic baskets, kids building sand castles {and digging holes to china}.. and people were even laying out.

This week was a little different.. thanks to the weather in Erie. It was cold! Yes, in the middle of June we had fleeces on and were doing everything we could to bundle up. How crazy is that? Im not lying! We even ended up leaving early because we didnt plan on it being that cold. I should note, its because of the wind that it was so freakishly cold. Were not really that big of wimps! As soon as we left it wasnt half as cold..

Note the people below in jackets:

Freeland sad because it was so windy and we didnt really care about pulling out all of the food we brought with us:
The band. They are a Beatles cover band. It was great music.

Please look at this and laugh with me. Do you all see the humor in this photo?? It was insane. One family bundled up.. another group of friends in 2 pieces playing in the water?! Im sure these girls thought they were very cool for being so brave. Im also sure everyone else thought they were crazy & going to catch pneumonia.

We are quickly learning the weather in Erie cannot be predicted. I will say not matter what the weather is - its way better than a Texas summer for sure!

celebrating quarter of a centurty (a month late)

its true Im now over a quarter of a century old. However the birthday celebrations just happened to fall right while we were moving {may 27th} so Im just now getting around to blogging all about it. It was a great birthday. I dreaded turning 25 because now Im only 5 years away from 30. But I decided thats not worth caring about and so I just embraced it.

The birthday celebrations started earlier in May because that was the only time we were going to see my dad & Tracy together before we left. My dad treated us to dinner at Steve Fields. It was amazing and now Im craving their crab cakes just thinking about it. After dinner he gave me my gift. It was a necklace that they picked out in Europe during their trip. Its beautiful & I love it. Oh Steve also gave me a big fat piece of cake for my birthday. Thanks Steve.. we loved it:

On the day of my birthday it was also my last day in the office & we also had a goal of finishing the entire house the same day - so it was a little hectic but I did have a great day.

I woke up & Freeland was pretty much dying waiting for me to open all my gifts. He had been asking the entire week if I would open them but I told him we had to wait until my actual birthday. He is that way with any surprise or gift no matter what it is .. so its a miracle he pulled off the engagement like he did. Anyway, so after following me around all morning waiting for me to open them I finally agreed. {not that I dont love opening gifts.. im just the type that would rather wait until were doing cake at the same time. I guess I like the suspense} So here I am opening the gifts:

The below picture was the first one I opened. A running book. Quick background: This is a funny one because over the last year Freeland has just happened to sneak in a gift with every occasion that "encourages" me to start running again. Like running shoes, some nike shorts, a new arm band for my ipod.. etc. Clever. So he couldnt resist giving me this book for my birthday:

He followed it up with this one. The Joy of Cooking... that made it all better. Now I guess I can make some amazing cupcakes after I go running. Which by the way, its a miracle - I have actually started running again in Erie.

Then that night we did our usual and joined friends at Baris. Matt, Katie, Zach & Vanessa all came to eat with us. It was a blast & a great way to spend one of our last nights in Waco. Matt & Katie were so gracious and bought dinner for all of us! And Zach & Vanessa surprised me with the most perfect gift ever also! After dinner we followed it up with Cake & the some NBA finals at our house. Here is the cake:

Its an ice cream cake! They are my absolute absolute absolute favorite. I could have finished this thing off myself if everyone would have let me.

25
wait, that was 52 not 25.. try it again:

and there you have it! That was how I celebrated my 25th birthday. I wont ever forget eating cake & ice cream on plastic plates with all of our best friends there with us in an empty house & boxes surrounding us. I loved it. Of course my mom, grandparents, and everyone else also celebrated with us & showered us with gifts. I just didnt see them on the actual day.

My mom and grandparents both gave me money that I had to use on myself and not for moving. {they were smart & knew I would spend it all on buying new things to organize and set up our house} So far I have only bought a bag from gap with the money. Im holding out to find the perfect thing. Maybe I should invest in some good snow boots while I can.. Oh Meg, Rachel, and Crystal also all surprised me with gifts! It was so thoughtful! I wasnt expecting anything and everyone of them gave me the most perfect thing ever!!! I have such incredible friends!