Winter started off with hangin’ out at the bench for my bro’s anniversary.
My co-worker Chris strikes a pose for my new lens…
Which was a Christmas gift from me, to me.
Kelli and Riley, busy as usual.
Our tree this year for Christmas.
We continued our tradition of going to Aida’s for Christmas Eve eve.
Check out my short hair.
The food there was amazing, as usual.
Everything at Aida’s is housemade.
Try the rockfish, you won’t regret it!
As I said, they are always really busy.
Christmas Eve dinner was at Erin and Mat’s this year.
There was a table for the adults..
..and the kids….
…and the little kids.
Do you know where your house elf is?
After dinner, Mat trimmed his tree…
…his kids opened their Christmas Eve gifts…
…and we all watched.
It was a fine time.
My dad always reads Taylor a story on Christmas Eve.
Ok, enough of these.
We always spend Christmas eve sleeping in front of the tree.
Waking up Christmas morning and enjoying the most relaxing part of the day.
Then its off to Kristi’s where Kelli gave her the scrapbook she made for Sophia.
It turned out great.
After gifts we put Kristi to work on breakfast.
Ashley shows me some of her new crap. I mean toys.
Kristi got a Wii fit.
After Kristi’s house, its off to my brothers.
Amber opens up gifts.
I took Ashley with me so they could all play.
I provided the tunes, of course.
Check out those matching pjs!
After Mat’s house, its off to the outlaws…
…where Mom and Megan get the spread ready.
The kids enjoy their new toys.
Carleigh and Ashley.
Peter takes a break with Jillian.
Then its off to my mother’s house. I got some liquor filled chocolates.
Man’s best friends.
Grandpop and Aunt Chrissy chat it up.
My mom and Kelli relax.
My father always has his camera.
Any trip to the kitchen means a treat for Riley.
Aunt Chrissy and Mike.
Me and my grandfather.
My mother’s tree.
Last shot for Christmas day. Lets go home!
One day Kelli, Mark, and I decided to tool around B-more.
We spent some time at the Owl Bar…
..and then headed here for some delicious brews.
Taking a rest with Sophia…
…and Riley.
A fun evening out with my parents and their friends at Tio’s.
Hitting a Raven’s game with Rob Dudley.
Check out this cat.
For New Year’s Eve we dress to the nines.
One more shot.
We went to Victoria’s for a swank celebration.
It was all you could eat. More of anything?
Kelli gets ready for the countdown.
We had a great time.
A great year of wedded bliss:)
Ringin’ in the New Year.
Dick’s still doin’ it.
It was taking too long to get a cab so at 2 in the morning Mike came to take us home.
Can he be any cuter?
Hangin’ at the beach one weekend.
Jamie makes us some tableside bananas foster at Reflections.
Kelli and Riley watch some football at my mother-in-law’s.
Her cat Simone sniffs at a treat.
Hey why does SHE get a treat?!
Check out Sophia’s sunny smile.
Kelli and Peter hang at the pub for his birthday.
Another Peter showed up.
Afterwards we headed to the bench and saw Chuck there.
Cleveland Joe goes where we go.
Looks like they are ready for some football.
Me too.
So’s she.
Let’s get it started.
After the Raven’s game, we decided to great the players on their arrival back to BWI. This is Ray Lewis. Click here for more pictures.
It was so exciting seeing the players!
Obviously we weren’t the only ones who had this idea.
We headed to Victorias and watched the airport coverage on the news.
Kelli made Mark and I some lunch one day.
She always has something cookin’ in the kitchen.
Interestingly enough, she roots for both teams.
One night we had a mini high school reunion at The Melting Pot
It was so fun catching up with old friends.
This guy Nick was Kelli’s freshman year homecoming date.
This is Cathy who introduced them.
Lauren and Julie and Kel catch up.
We got a little more adventurous as the evening wore on.
We were all talking a mile a minute.
Kelli checks out Cathy’s ink.
Apparently she’s got it everywhere.
Kelli reaches down to get her purse.
Amy and Nick think she’s doing something else.
Jeff, Cathy and Vivian give looks.
They are a sickeningly cute couple.
So are they.
I’m sure thats not directed at me.
They got pretty schnockered.
So did they. It was a blast of a night.
One night the guys came over for some Rock Band action.
It was hilarious.
Sure we know what we’re doing.
Group shot.
Kelli sings some Blondie with Jeff on drums and Brian on guitar.
Then Kelli has some fun on the drums.
My mother gives Kelli a mushroom growing kit every year for Christmas.
She cultivates a lot of mushrooms.
The goldfinches love their thistle feeder. They are the only ones who can use it since they have to hang upside down.
A downy woodpecker at one of our other feeders enjoys some suet.
Sophia gets a dose of her own medicine.
Kelli and Katie enjoy some pizza.
I don’t think so, Riley!
Ashley loves to show me her arts and crafts.
Celebrating Chinese New Year at Jenny and Dinkle’s house.
Everyone was in the spirit.
Hangin’ out with the guys.
Jenny had quite a spread.
It was great to hang out with Dinkle.
They actually do go to other places than the pub.
For those of you who don’t believe he really exists.
You were supposed to wear red to the party.
One day Kelli requested my french onion soup.
Looks like Kelli is working on valentines cards.
This was a birthday card for one of her wino girlfriends.
Another CHS mini reunion, this time at Nottinghams.
Hangin’ out with Amy Craft, Tina Murphy, and Amy Schneider. I have no idea what their married names are.
First time seeing Scott Lesikar since high school.
Like us, Eric and Janice went to the same high school and got married.
Amy loves showing off her bra straps.
In the spirit of the occassion, 80s band The Reagan Years cranked out our favorite songs.
They even made a special announcement about our group.
Amy was on our kick-ass volleyball team.
Holla’ ladies!
Kelli and Amy get frisky with Tina’s man.
Who’s hand is that?
One day my brother and I installed a dog door for Riley. Ok its actually for a cat, but he’s the same size so whatever.
Scott Gray came over for the Superbowl.
It was a great game, but too bad the Raven’s didn’t make it in.
Scott brought over mussels and shrimp.
Gearing up for the commercials in 3-D.
Before Baltimore had the Raven’s, I was a Steelers fan. My grandmother made me the quilt in Steelers colors in the late 1970’s.
But I didn’t mind.
Anytime a Friday the 13th movie comes out, we meet up with Mike and Dave King.
They are horror movie fanatics.
I was mostly there for the before and after drinks.
Mark and I went to Zack’s one afternoon.
The kids are never too far away.
We stopped by Kristi’s on Valentines Day…
…and then headed to Terseguels for some eats.
Everything was delicious.
I’ve never had salmon this big.
Dessert was a taste of heaven.
All in all a fantastic night!
Ashley and I went to my brother’s house one day, and we decided to coordinate our outfits.
Ashley and Taylor are pretty inseparable.
Kristi feels at home with my family.
I guess we all decided to match that day.
My brother decided to chop down some of his apple tree.
He thinned it out pretty well.
Amber and I hung out…
…while Ashley and Taylor did the same.
Erin gave out tattoos.
Mat doled out food for the kids to feed the fish.
This is how that operation went.
Nice tank.
Remember the days of just playing outside?
Who wants more pizza?
Time for an evening walk before heading home.
Everyone hold hands!!!
Hanging out with Kristi and the kids one night.
Don’t look at me I’m naked!
For my father’s birthday we took him Skeet shooting.
My father and brother discuss how they are going to try and out shoot me that day.
Mathew talks to a man about a horse.
Mat lines up a shot.
And was able to hit one!!
My father didn’t fair as well that round.
A fun day was had by all.
But especially me, because I had the best score.
Hanging out afterwards I ran into Michele, an old high school friend.
Erin strikes a pose.
Before heading to more birthday celebrations at my parents, we stole away to LeeLynn’s for a quickie.
My brother shucked some delicious oysters from Franks Seafood.
Notice us all helping him.
Happy birthday Dad!
Not everyone likes oysters.
Kristi came over for Oscar night in her pjs.
Every year Kelli orders pizza.
Getting ready for the big show.
Enough with the camera.
Erin, Taylor, and Amber catch a snooze.
One day my TV broke and this guy came out to fix it.
I know you were wondering what the back of my TV looked like.
For restaurant week we always return to Aida’s.
Kelli paired the menu with beers…
…while I did mine with wines.
Did I mention how amazing the food is??
They make the crème brûlée perfectly.
And a fun group shot…..
Ani DiFranco at 930 club.
We went to both shows that weekend, and on the second night Chad Stokes from State Radio opened!!
We got there early to basically get second row.
Heading to Philly one day…
…and checking in to the hotel.
The great view from our window.
I always have to photograph the bathroom.
When we went outside for sightseeing I noticed Ashley had been playing around.
Philly has so much to do. We started out at Reading Market.
It’s like a smaller version of Lexington Market.
I got some treats at the chocolate stand.
This bar was redone from last time.
It was a fine way to start the day.
Did I mention we were in town to see Seether, Saving Abel, and Nickelback?
The mac and cheese was not half bad.
We found out it was Philly Beer week so we had no time to waste.
This place always gets stellar reviews in the beer mags.
They are very kitchy.
After chatting up the folks there they gave us other recommendations for great beers.
Our hotel was close to the train station, so we took that to Wachovia center.
Using the walking function on my gps was how we got around that day.
This place was great. I tried sour beer for the first time.
Getting ready for the big show.
Hey, it’s lyrics from a song.
We had great seats, thanks to cousin Barb.
Seether was amazing, as usual.
Nickelback was surprisingly awesome!
Our winter was just explosive! Hope you enjoyed!