Weekend excursion

A beautiful sunny Saturday deserves appreciation! This weekend Austin and I headed south to Ocala National Forest for some hiking and snorkeling. This park is huge and we only explored a tiny bit. We are eager to come back to try some more trails and do some camping as well.

We spent 2.5 hours hiking through the longleaf pine on the Yearling Trail

After our sunny afternoon hike, we took a dip in the freshwater springs. A huge school of mullet, a couple of bass, and lots of giant cichlid-looking fish. And I saw a big turtle!

What a nice way to spend a Florida Saturday :) We were tired after our busy afternoon but came home feeling refreshed and rejuvenated by our hike and swim. Looking forward to the week ahead!

Daily joys and challenges

Today after work, I had planned to clean up the apartment in preparation for a weekend get-together with friends. Austin and I got home at a reasonable hour from work and got started so we could get some dinner afterwords. We soon got to work until the sound of the vacuum stopped...apparently Austin had broken my closet door! He spent quite some time trying to get it back on track, with no luck :P

Once we were almost done cleaning and only had the bathroom floor to vacuum, our vacuum stopped...but this time for another reason. I knew the rotor had a tendency for coming loose, so I had Austin tinker around with it so I could finish cleaning. Once finished, Austin was still busy taking apart and attempting to put the vacuum back together. After some internal rearranging and almost electrocuting himself, the vacuum was half put back together and we headed to dinner.

Oh, the things that make life interesting! Certainly our simple cleaning turned adventure was a good excuse for a sushi and sake dinner afterwords :)

What have we been up to?

2012 ended with lots of fun activities and numerous chances to see family and friends. My sister and brother-in-law were in Orlando for my niece Sophia's 5th birthday to take her to Disney world. As her birthday gift Austin and I took her to Sea World. We all enjoyed the whales, sting rays, dolphins, fish, and sea lions. Such a fun experience to see the natural world through a child's eyes!

Sting rays galore! Sophia liked reaching out to touch them as they swam by in the touch tank.

We also spent 2 weeks in the Midwest visiting family over Christmas. We celebrated with the Anderson side of the family and my sisters (one of them newly engaged!) in Minnesota. My older nieces and the twins are growing so fast and are all so cute and sweet!

Austin found a fort at Sophia's house :)

Juliet wearing Leo's hat

My parents drove us back down to Nebraska and Iowa for Christmas Eve and day with my mom's family and Austin's folks. We had some time to ourselves before the next group came into town so we relaxed with some movies, lounging around, and did a little bit of work when we got bored :) We also shared some time with friends in town. Always fun to reconnect with our college pals! Austin and I were also glad for a chance to spend Christmas Eve and Sunday morning with my parents at their new church in Council Bluffs and to have some quality time with my grandma Perry.

Brian, me, and Scott after a Christmas Eve lunch at Bohemian Cafe!

The snowy view from my parent's house. The weather was cold but we ventured out on a warmer day to walk along a frozen lake and do some sledding.

After being dealt some bad letters, I had an epic comeback and beat both Austin AND my dad at Scrabble!

As the New Year approached, we opened gifts with my aunts and grandma's, including our traditional in-kind exchange. We had a Very Kitchen Christmas this year-lots of bar-related or cooking items were received, along with some nice camping gear and other fun toys for me (headphones and a kite!) and for Austin (shirts, slippers, other manly items). We then got ready for a houseful of kids as we celebrated Christmas on New Year's Day with Austin's family. Lots of yummy food, great gifts, fun games, and free entertainment from the children!

Austin teaches Elijah and Lauren a different version of Ticket to Ride :)

We love our cowboy hats!

2013 will certainly be full of excitement, challenges, and big changes as we both work towards graduating in December. We continue to be thankful for our wonderful family and friends that bring such joy to our lives. Happy New Year to all and may your year be as full of adventures as our will certainly be :D

Giving thanks

We were blessed with safe travel and reasonable weather as we returned to visit family for Thanksgiving break.  We enjoyed our first holiday as married folk, and much to niece Lauren's good fortune we are still quite silly.

Alternating nights between the Nebraska and Iowa side of the river, we even got to have two helpings of Thanksgiving day desserts and two different recipes of Black Friday chili.


Between an Xbox dance off, a sprint into a head-on praire wind, and 3 children under 6 we were ready get some rest. As it would have it the end of the semester always brings heaps of deadlines. We are just beginning to catch up now in the second week of December. I guess that means we are ready for Christmas!

1st annual Brockmeier halloween party

After 4 years of living in Gainesville and always talking about getting dressed up and hosting a Halloween party, we finally did it! No classes or qualifying exams to give us an excuse not to host this event. We enjoyed having our friends over for some food, games, drinks, and to see their great costumes.

This is our first marriage pumpkin carving :) Austin free-handed the "B" and I did the leaf cut-outs

Austin dressed as a summer festival goer/peaceful samurai (i.e. no sword)

I went as Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games book and movie series. Mainly easy because all I needed was a braid and a sweet bow and arrow set and I was good to go :)

Austin made some orange pepper decorations for the food table

We also had some unusual snacks (thought of and made by Austin)-peanut butter and bread-and-butter pickles on crackers...

 Some of my lab mates came dressed up like the characters in the "Gagnam Style" music video

Austin's lab had a diverse array of costumes-vampires, flappers, and a Colombian guy :)

 

Lisa made some fantastic sugar cookies for the get-together!

 Mameshiba kept an eye out on the party goers...

Happy Halloween everyone! We currently have plans to help out with a church event on Wednesday evening and then will go out for a drink with some friends. I will post any more fun photos we take while we are all dressed up :)

October shenanigans

We've had a really fun and busy month! Soon after our honeymoon we hosted a belated wedding reception with our Florida friends. We had several people from both of our labs come-it was quite the party!

Lots of wine, fruit, and cheese to be had!

People always end up in the kitchen :p

Austin with his labmates

Erica and the tox group

Thanks to our wonderful friend Divya for taking photos!

October also means birthday time for me (Erica)...this year I celebrated the big quarter century mark in GNV with friends and my wonderful husband. We had some drinks at downtown on Friday night and then hit the archery range on my birthday to try out our skills with a bow and arrow. It was a lot of fun! We finished off the evening with some amazing Indian food at our favorite place in Ocala and even had some birthday cupcakes :) All in all it was a great way to ring in the big 2-5!

I am very much still a novice after only shooting once but it was a lot of fun! Looking forward to trying it again soon.

This weekend we decided it was time to get out of town for a bit. We have both been rather busy at work with projects and papers and were needing a break to clear our heads. We spent the day at the beach at one of our favorite places in the Tampa Bay area-Fort de Soto park-a great beach and camping area set away from the busy city. After some sun and relaxing in the water we arrived back in Gainesville refreshed and ready for another busy week!

After spending the day at the beaches in Fort de Soto, we headed to Pass-a-Grille to watch the sunset.

The very happy Florida Brockmeiers :)

Honeymooning in Maine

It's hard to believe that it was only a week ago that Austin and I came back home to Gainesville from our honeymoon in Maine! We couldn't have asked for a better time to enjoy each other's company while enjoying some of our favorite pleasantries of life. We spent our first two nights driving and exploring some coastal cities, four nights of camping and hiking amidst the spendor of the ocean/rocky/mountainous landscape, and two nights at a charming bed and breakfast in the lovely city of Portland. I

t was quite the trip-lots of driving and the joys and challenges that come with camping-but it was great because we got to do so many of the things that we both love: being outside in splendid scenery, hiking in the woods and along rocky mountain paths, visiting three different art museums that all highlighted some amazing American artists, and lots of delicious dinners in the very foodie-centric cities of Maine.

We both had an incredible time and came back to Florida rejuvenated and even more excited for our lifetime to come :) We took TONS of photos (over 900 between the two of us) but below you can find a couple of our favorites.

This next month of matrimony looks to be a lot of fun as well between tailgating, my 25th birthday, a visit from my parents and aunt and uncle, parties and happy hours with friends, and hopefully a beach trip and some Halloween festivities. Stay tuned for more updates on the Brockmeier adventures!

 Portland head light

 Pemaquid Point (the lighthouse on the Maine state quarter)

 View from the summit of Mount Megunticook at Camden Hills state park

Along the ocean path at Acadia national park

 Gorgeous morning color at Acadia

After summiting Mt. Champlain in Acadia