Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a blessed and relaxing weekend :) Austin and I enjoyed the nice weather this weekend as we enjoyed some quality time in Gainesville this holiday weekend. I went biking on Saturday and we also went to a friend's birthday party that evening. Sunday we celebrated at church and then spent the afternoon drinking coffee, going to the art museum, enjoying flowers in the nature center, and then had a fabulous lamb dinner!

We are thankful for such a wonderful weekend and for such a wonderful world that we live in!

The sunshine and warm weather has returned!

Found some of my favorite candy at the Indian store :P

We bought an espresso press last month and are enjoying our new milk whipper as well! But Austin still needs some practice with making designs in the foam...

Our lovely lamb dinner!

Below is a link to one of my favorite church songs; we did this one last week for Palm Sunday but it's a great Easter song as well. Enjoy and have a great rest of your Easter weekend!

Weekend in Tampa

We spent 2 weekends ago in Tampa with my parents. They were able to stop by after a meeting in Fort Lauderdale. We had lots of sunshine and some slightly cooler temps. It was a nice weekend and always a great chance to catch up with the folks :) Sorry for the lack of photos!

We sampled some rum that Austin brought from Costa Rica. YUM!

I met a friend while souvenir shopping :P

Sunset at the pier

Watching boats come under the draw bridge-cool!

Austin's trip to Costa Rica

Hello! Sorry for the delay with the blog posts. It has been a busy month at Chateau Brockmeier :)

Here are a few photos from Austin's mission trip to Costa Rica:

One of the churches where they did daily worship

The view from the mission

Pura Vida!

Some post-mission zip lining

Amazing flowers! He has tons of gorgeous flower photos

All around thumbs up for this trip!

Hopefully I can get Austin to write a little something about his trip. And his parents' visit. Fingers crossed but don't hold your breath :P

Update from Austin

I had a couple of minutes to chat online with Austin this evening while he was at an internet cafe in Costa Rica :) He said he is having a wonderful time so far, that it has been colder than he thought it would be and he has been doing a lot of painting (I assume on buildings and not on canvases). He sends his regards and I'm sure will be sharing his stories with you all when he gets back home on Friday!

All over the place...

Hello, blog! Long time no see. Austin and I have had a busy couple of weeks. I was in Krakow, Poland for a conference (see my other blog for more on the meeting) and then spent the weekend with my friend Sohan in Rome. It was a really fun and exhausting weekend-lots of great food, catching up with Sohan, and walking, walking, and more walking :P I just started going through my photos, so I will try to upload the link to them as soon as I get around to it later this week or this weekend.

For the record: iPhone 5 panorama feature = awesome!

At St. Peter's basilica.

The last week was a busy one, with getting caught up on lab work, conference calls, and all that fun stuff. I'm thankful for a fun weekend in Tampa visiting my old lab mate Noel, enjoying the beach, and seeing one of my favorite bands, Muse, live at the downtown Tampa arena. We got some well-needed rest on Saturday night after getting to our campsite around midnight and then spent Sunday walking along the beach and then I did some clothes shopping for my next conference :)

We found a stingray really close to the shore!

Great visuals, epic set list, overall a great show by an amazing band.

On top of all that, Austin's parents came to visit last week as well! They had some fun Florida adventures. He will post some photos and stories sometime in the near future.

Tonight we are enjoying a brief respite from our busy lives, as this week I prepare to leave for a meeting in Nashville on Thursday and Austin will head to Costa Rica for a weeklong mission trip this Saturday. We are thankful for these fun times and are looking forward to share more of our upcoming adventures!

Weekend funtivities

Where has the time gone! Amidst both of us being busy at work and lots going on each weekend, I can't believe February is already here. Tomorrow I leave for a conference in Poland and wanted to share some photos before jet-setting off :)

Last Friday we went to the Hoggetowne medieval faire. It was a fun and silly way to spend a Friday but we both enjoyed being out in the sunshine watching people dressed up fighting each other! The beer and feats of strength (archery) contests also made for a fun afternoon.

 Epic battles (which were actually pretty cool/nicely choreographed) 

Roman stuff??

A hilarious magician. The jokes were lost on the kids but he had Austin and I laughing in the back!

Jousting!!

Bonus: Awesome moustache/sideburn combo

Replicas of armor and weapons used during the War of Roses in England (15th century). Cool stuff and really educational (i.e. Edutainment). My favorite part! (besides the side burns)

Enjoying our brews 

The entrance to my castle. And yes, we did wear our cowboy hats to the medieval faire.

After a Friday night celebrating a lab-mates birthday, we did some nature walking on a trail on campus on Saturday since it was a lovely day. Finished off with a short trip to the art museum. With Sunday busy with church and biking the weekend was packed!

So long for now! I'll leave the blog in the hands of Austin this week while I'm gone :)

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!