Happy Fall!

It finally dipped down into the 70's this past week with nice clear skies and a crisp breeze. It was Lindsey's first trip out of the house for awhile so we took the time to go over to the Lake near my school. The fall semester is starting to wind down as well. Lindsey will be graduating in a few weeks and then we'll be driving up to Minnesota for Christmas, with stops in Chicago to visit Peace Corps friends, and then it's off to Nicaragua for a vacation before I settle in to finish my last semester. We are also so excited for our niece who's on the way!

Happy Fall!

Sick Binzer and Pumpkins

Well, Binzer has been down for the count for about 13 days now with mono. She was just sleepy and had no appetite for the first few days but now her throat is really sore and shes been really nauseous. Hopefully she starts to feel better soon. Shes been getting lots of rest but has missed a lot of stuff, I just can't wait to see our old Binzer back!

Just this past weekend Lindsey was feeling a little better so we took her over to Liz and Christian's place to watch the Saints game. Then we went over to our friend Hailey's house to carve pumpkins. I think it was good for her to actually see some friends for a little bit, but she sure got tuckered out.

Here's the pumpkin I carved. I have not idea what it is.


Me and the pumpkin


Pumpkin carving party...I don't know how long the pumpkins are gonna last when it gets back up to 80 this next week...

A little classic street football action after The Saints destroyed The Giants.


Christian made all of the gravestones with movie characters and quotes.

Back to China!...Kinda

Lindsey got me some cupcakes for my birthday...mmmm! White frosting, chocolate cake, in the fridge...best dessert ever.


We went out for my birthday to this fancy little place called Clancy's in Uptown New Orleans. Lindsey had crab and I had baby cow.


Our lunch from the other day. I was so excited that we found Laotian sticky rice at the local asian market along with our favorite curry (second best food behind refrigerated cupcakes). Lindsey also made Vietnamese soup which was equally awesome.


Just last night we performed a scene from a traditional Chinese story from the Three Kingdoms Period. We started taking a Chinese class only three weeks ago and on the first day we learned that we would be part of a play. We're both glad it's over because Chinese classes and play practices every week were getting to be a little too much Chinese. It was fun though and everyone did really well.

Here is Lindsey's costume...真漂亮！ How pretty!

Here we are. I gave an introduction in Chinese and then bowed a lot. Lindsey was a servant and did awesome with her lines and the poem.

Me and the other guys in the class.

Here's out whole class and our Chinese teacher.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRI!

Happy birthday to the best husband EVER! 27 here we go! Where will we be for 28??? Love you honey! Old pictures of the band in high school I found. !

Whole lotta Pictures

Wow, it's been a month! Woops... Well, we ended up taking a trip to New York, Lindsey finished her insane summer semester, and we went hiking and camping on the drive back down to New Orleans. Lindsey's last semester is about to start and I'm just getting started on my last year.

This was Lindsey's last day of Statistics class. She had a really busy and crazy summer semester, but now it's all done! We left for New York the day after she finished. She also got a 4.0 for the semester, good job babe!

Classroom

Lindz and her class

This is Lindsey and her buddy Mandy, whose heading off to India in a few weeks for a short study abroad trip

Well, we drove up to New York after Lindsey finished and we camped at the halfway point in Virginia...not the best campground but it sure was nice to see stars again.

Here's my whole family! Well, mothers side at least. Everyone hasn't been all together in a long time, it was great to see everyone.

Chillin with the fam.

Also had some time to dust off the old whiffle ball bat with the ol' man.

I crushed this one.

We also played cards a couple of times, which is always really fun. Somehow, my ol' man is really good at the one game we play.

Got to see Brady!, whose now in Japan visiting with Cimino. Can't believe that hammock held...

Me, Lindz, and Caitlin at Sylvan Beach, a small beach and amusement park near our house...not nearly as glorious as it was in my memory, but it was fun.

Beach time!...central NY style. Its pretty crazy there because people just pull their boats right up and blast music...pretty classy

Momma B and the girls went out for pedicures, I just went and chopped down some trees, ate beef jerky, and shopped for steel toe boots

nice feet.

The best pizza in the world from this small place a town over from mine, NY style pizza is the only style!

Went to the local Syracuse brewery for a quick tasting session, really neat place.

Another beach! This one is called Green Lakes and Lindsey and I biked over there from my parents place down the Historic Erie Canal.

This is my favorite spot at Green Lakes, really neat limestone formation.

Here is the canal museum that I use to work at, right on the Erie Canal where Lindsey and I biked down.

The canal path, oh, and Lindsey saw this huge black snack that she also ran over with the bike, I think it might have been a Massasagua (if you are so inclined to google search for an image).

My buddies from college came over for a day and spent the night, Caleb, Nate, and his wife Kelly. Good times playing video games and just goofing around.

My Mom ran a 'duck derby' down at the nursing home and dragged everyone down to help and watch, it was cute, but I didn't win.

My buddies Chris and Cathy from college, Chris was my roomie for two years.

On the drive home we stopped in the Smokey Mountains of North Carolina for two nights. We camped and hiked, it was really nice.

Here is a shot from our 12 mile day hike.

Little sweaty in this one...


We ended up hiking along the Appalachian Trail for a little ways. I thought it would be somewhat busy or a little wider, but it's just a regular old trail.


Lindsey right near the top...


There was a really neat old fire tower located at the top. So, we sat on that and had lunch before we started back down.


Here's the fire tower...or was it a lookout...

Coldest water ever...but it felt so good after the long hike.


So nice.


The most dissapointing part of the whole trip. I think I spent an hour trying to search the woods for wood! There was literally nothing, and it was all wet anyway. So, then we both tried in vain to start a fire...and failed. A scoutmaster stopped by a few minutes later and tore my cub scout patches off my back pack.