Birthday Camping Weekend

This weekend is Mike's birthday weekend. Tomorrow is his 26th birthday and we just got back from our camping, biking trip that we decided to take in pre-celebration of his birthday. Friday after Mike got home from work we headed down to Burke, VA, which is right outside of DC. We barely made it there in time to rent a camping spot (about 15 minutes to spare before the store closed). Once we got to our site, we realized we had two flashlights, and no firewood. We ran back to the store which had already closed by the time we got back to it. So while I worked on setting up the tent with flashlights, Mike gathered sticks and wood in the barren forest. Luckily, Mike is determined, and he came back with a whole bunch of sticks and logs! By the end of the night, we had a cosy fire to sit by and hot italian sausages off the grill. It was a fun night! The next morning, we got up fairly early and headed off the the bath houses for showers. Mike kept teasing that we were really roughing it...but after showering with 3 daddy long legs IN the shower, I am convinced that was roughing it enough for me! We then packed up and headed off in search of the Mt Vernon Trail where we planned to take our first long distance bike ride on our birthday bikes! It took us a little longer than we expected to actually find access to the trail, but once we did, we unpacked and got in our gear to head off on our bike ride.

We got to see a lot of pretty scenery while on our bikes, the path ran along the Potomac river and went all the way from Reagan National Airport to Mt Vernon.
This is a picture of the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge crossing the Potomac River.
We road 15 miles down, stopped to eat lunch at George Washington's House, and then 15 miles back. We're pretty proud of ourselves for making it the whole way with just a few stops to stretch our legs or drink some water.

On our way back, we got to stop in Springfield, VA which is where I lived from 1st-4th grades. With the help of my sister and our GPS, we were able to go by my old house. It brought back a lot of memories to get to see it again! We also made a starbucks run and walmart run to buy an air mattress for the night and some burgers for dinner. We spent the evening cooking on the gril and sitting by the warm fire. We were so thankful to get to sleep on an air mattress the second night since the first night we spent it on just a couple comforters for padding on the hard, cold ground. Although our air mattress was comfortable, it was still quite cold out. I woke up in the middle of the night so cold, Mike thought I was having a bad dream. I spent the rest of the night in my sweatpants and hoodie trying to keep out the cold. I checked the weather for that area tonight and it's supposed to get as low as 33 degrees, I have no doubt it got that cold last night. We slept in this morning and headed back to MD for the afternoon. Mike wanted to catch the Raven's game (we're ahead 27-13 right now, yay!) and I was happy to come home and rest my sore biking body on the couch.

This next week is an exciting week! Tomorrow is Mike's birthday and we're excited to get to go out to dinner with his parents for his birthday. Wednesday, my sister Stacy is having a C-section and our new little niece will be arriving. Also this week, hopefully Mike's brother's wife, Victoria, will be having her new little baby girl. We have been praying every night for both little girls' safe arrival. That's all for now, we plan to spend the evening cleaning up from our camping trip and we might watch the Indiana Jones movie tonight that we gave in and bought at walmart : ).

I meant new niece AND niece-in-law in the previous blog. Both my sister and sister in law are due in the next couple of weeks!

Amy's new baby, Ethan

Well, I have lots to catch up on for our blog....but I have been waiting to find my camera card!! Just when I was getting on a role in updating my blog (haha), I lose my camera card. So, until then, I will just have to describe what's been going on. Last week we bought a tent and set it up in our living room. No, we didn't sleep in it, we just wanted to see how big it was. Let's just say it was a little bigger than expected. It pretty much filled our whole living room and of course was set up in the middle of our house for two days. We bought the tent in preparation for our camping trip this weekend. Mike and I bought each other early birthday presents....BIKES! We plan to go on two weekend camping and road biking trips for our birthdays! We've gotten to ride our bikes twice in preparation for our trip so far, and Mike has already gotten a flat on his. He is currently trying to repair it. Let's just say we better not get flats on our bike rides this weekend because they are quite a project to fix. Today I went to the hospital to visit my girlfriend who just had her baby. She is actually about 2 weeks early but everything went great and she was more than happy to have the baby early. She actually named him Ethan, which is my nephew's name...so that was pretty exciting. It also got me VERY excited for the arrival of my new niece -in-law here in the next couple of weeks. I can't wait. Well, looks like we may be headed out on a quick bike ride before my bible study. Mike was successful in fixing the tire : ). More later!

Apparently the remodel is back in progress. Back to microwaveable meals and plasticwear!
Our dining room table in our living room. Nice : )


The rest of our dining room set covered in plastic...thankfully. And paper floors!


Our kitchen. The spackle (I have no idea what that is or how to spell it) guy comes tomorrow.
Yay for our house back to being on it's way to being done!

So it's catch up time...so we can actually start using our site as a daily/weekly blog site! Yes we are married now and are officially the Coxs! On our way to our own wedding, we went to 5 throughout the summer:The Parlettes
The Zittles
The Barkleys
The Fryes
And I guess no pictures at the Shaw wedding.

Then came our own!!!!! First came our rehearsal luncheon. We are so thankful for Mike's parents hosting our rehearsal cookout at their home! It was a beautiful day and was tons of fun to get to hangout with close family and friends before the big day. Mike's cousin and brother decided to honor Mike...and me by giving him a ball and chain. Real nice : )


Then the actual day came. Everything went better than we could have ever imagined! It never would have worked out so well without all of our family and friends. We are so thankful for them and all their hard work they put into our day to make it even more special.

Our Flower Girls

Our ring bearers

The guys decorating the truck.

Megan's new family

Mike's new family

What a wonderful day...worth all the planning and hard work....we never could have asked for anything different.

Then off to Cabo Mexico for the honeymoon!



PINK GOOSES!!!!Andddd....now we're back to reality.
It hasn't been so bad....we love married life. Love love love it. Except all the laundry : ).
Everything else seems to be going well, we are getting used to living together and making our home function together. We haven't quite started back up on the remodel, but word is it will be starting up this week! So look forward to some more picture updates. Mike is getting back into the swing of things with his job....but I'm not. I WANT A NEW JOB! I really need a change and I think both of us are feeling it. Please pray for endurance for me when I go to work and can't imagine how I'm going to get through my 12 hour shift, and pray for guidance and motivation to find something I DO want to do.

This past weekend we were so excited to go visit my sister and her husband....only TWO HOURS AWAY! This is the closest I have had any family live to me in 8 years, so I am very excited. We got to see their apartment, visit with Teddy, Stacy, Zach, and baby Whalen girl, and we got to see their new home!! It is beautiful and we can't wait to come visit in their new home. We're so excited to meet baby Whalen girl too.

Engagement photos

Here are the super cool engagement photos by Jack Ko who is an amazing photographer. Hope you all enjoy! http://kojack.smugmug.com/gallery/5371608_JEhHs#328936267_b8erQ