On the Road Again...

We are done with the Jersey Shore... I mean Storm! Ha. :)

The work was good, the people were interesting, and we had a great time jumping over to NYC a couple times! Last Friday we went into the City and met up with some of Dan's buddies as well as his sister Karla and her boyfriend Jamie. It was a great night (into the early morning) out. On Saturday Dan got us tickets to a show on Broadway! We saw "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying". The play was phenomenal. The leading character was Daniel Radcliffe - the Harry Potter kid! After the play we went on a fun stroll down 5th Ave - mostly window shopping. Dan bought me a new watch for my birthday... it's big and silver and chunky... I LOVE it! Then we hit the road back to CO. 

Dan surprised me with a pit stop at Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, OH for my birthday! I love, love, love roller coasters and Cedar Point has the most in the world. We were incredibly lucky... 2 for 1 tickets since it was my birthday (or maybe cause Dan is such a sweet talker), hardly any lines, and perfect weather. There are like 30 roller coasters and we made a pretty big dent by riding about 20 rides - a couple of the top coaster more than once! I can't pick a favorite... it's a toss up between millenium (the #1 roller coater in the world), dragster (the second tallest and third fastest in the world), and the maverick (it has a 95 degree drop).

Dan also gave me (26) $1 scratcher tickets... which turned into $21 dollars, but we forgot to cash in before leaving OH. :( 

It was such a perfect birthday!

We are currently approaching Brush, CO. Looking forward to seeing the Swintz/Bruecker crew for a day and then heading to AZ. Can't wait to see all my family and my super preggers sister!

Peace out! :)

FALL!!

We walked out of the Hilton this morning to a PERFECT Fall day! The sun was bright and warm, and the air cool and crisp! I LOVE IT! Fall is absolutely my favorite season, and since AZ doesn't really have a Fall, it's actually kind of nice to experience it again. I'm even wearing multiple layers of clothing!! No trees changing colors, but the weather is beautiful. Sorry to all my AZ peeps - just a few more weeks and the temps will break for you all! :) The fire alarm went off on our floor of the hotel this morning from roughly 430am to 730am - not fun. We are out working now - Dan is inside an insureds home and I am working in the van - all caught up for the moment, so I thought I would share my enthusiasm about Fall! Wish I could go for a run, then curl up with a blanket and watch some football!!


Oh, and I forgot to mention in my last post how THANKFUL I am to not live in Jersey! Other than the wonderful weather I described above, this place is nuts!


Below is a picture of Jack - he has been with Dan on every storm he's been on. I know that some of you have already met Jack, but for those of you who haven't, just know that he is awesome.

Peace, love, and all that! :)

Update 9-16-11

Well, it’s been awhile since I last blogged, and talking with Karla (Dan's step-sister) last night inspired me to post an update…. plus we are sitting on the plane from DEN to EWR-Newark with not a whole lot to do).

So we are just headed back to Jersey to finish up working some claims from Hurricane Irene. On Thursday, 9-1, Dan started driving from Colorado Springs to Paterson, NJ for work. His mom, Betty, agreed to make the drive across country with him since I had accepted an offer to work on a project by project basis with Wilson Electric and had to head straight to Houston. The project that I am going to be working on for the next 6 months is a hospital called TOPS in Houston, TX – not my favorite city, but a great opportunity to do some work on the side. Anyways, Dan and Betty had to drive across the US WITHOUT air conditioning since it had gone out just before they left – not fun, but a huge THANKS to Betty for being such a trooper through it all – we hope she knows how helpful it was to have her there.  I was only in Houston for a day, so I then flew up to Jersey to meet Dan. We’ve run about 10-12 claims a day up until last Tuesday, 9-13 when we flew to Denver.  Oh, and we took off 9-10 and 9-11 to spend some time in New York City, which was quite an experience. We saw the 3,000 flags in Battery Park and saw the new black building from a distance; the memorial was closed off to family members of the victims only.

The claims have been working have been relatively “easy” in that there isn’t a whole lot of total devastation – mainly $2,000-$5,000 in damage per claim with a few $10k-$20 claim totals mixed in. There is definitely a lot of flooding, but Dan and I don’t estimate flood damage. The people in New Jersey are interesting. In general, they are not friendly on the phone or when you first arrive at their homes, but most tend to warm up after a few minutes when they realize that you’re there to help. Lack of A/C in the van has been trying, but we are hoping for some cooler days this coming week. It’s not worth the money to get it fixed, so we’ll be toughing it out. 

The picture below shows some of the typical damage we've seen.

Now let me recap our trip to CO for Ben and Lauren’s wedding (Dan’s step-sister and new step-brother in-law). We flew into Denver late on Tuesday and drove straight up to Breckenridge. I dropped Dan off at the Bachelor Party and then met the girls at the house to crash. We woke up early on Wednesday to head to Lauren’s brunch in Vail. The brunch was beautiful and it was great to meet new people and see some of Lauren’s friends again. After brunch we went to get mani’s and pedi’s and then checked into the hotel for the next 2 nights. While the ladies were getting pampered, the boys played disc golf in Beaver Creek. We all met up for the rehearsal at 3pm and enjoyed getting a glimpse of what the big day was going to look like for Ben and Lauren. The “venue” that they chose was Piney Lake – a beautiful lake in the middle of some amazing mountains just outside of Vail. The road to get to the venue was a 10 mi bumpy, dirt road, but the scenery was absolutely worth the drive. I was a little disappointed that the aspen’s are JUST starting to change colors – it will be a sight to see in a couple weeks. It started to rain right at the end of the rehearsal, so we spent the rehearsal dinner at a park near the hotel under cover where we enjoyed each others company for a few hours, and then headed into town to go bowling. The night ended relatively early since we all had to be up early the next day to get ready.  The wedding day was rainy and freezing, but the ceremony was so amazing that I don’t think any of us really even remember how much we were shivering or how our teeth we chattering away. Lauren was an absolutely gorgeous bride and the scenery made everything even more magical. Jeff (Dan’s brother-in-law) officiated of the ceremony and did such a phenomenal job of bringing everything together. Even though Dan and I are not yet married, I was still included in the ‘immediate family only prayer’ as well as some pictures with Ben and Lauren and the rest of the family. I felt very honored to be included and really enjoyed every moment. Everything flowed well from wedding to pictures to cocktail hour to dinner to dancing. It was truly a great day and we all continue to wish Ben and Lauren well on their new journey in marriage together. 

See picture below of Piney Lake...Dan is very proud that his wife to be still fits in her senior prom dress! :)

Here we are headed back to Jersey now. It was definitely a little sad to leave CO today as it feels as if our trip was a complete whirlwind. It was great to spend time with the crazy Price/Swintz/Bruecker crew, but anther day or 2 would’ve been REALLY great. We’re hoping to have about a weeks worth of work left before we can pack up again and head out. Tomorrow morning we start bright and early with a full day of appointments. I fly to Houston for a jobsite meeting on Tuesday and then back to finish up the week helping Dan. Karla (Dan’s step-sister) and her boyfriend will be in Manhattan later this week so we hope to catch a night in the city with them. As for what comes next, we’re not sure. We still need to get all of Dan’s stuff out of storage in Colorado Springs, and I will need to be in AZ for my bridal shower on 10-1, but other than that, who knows?!?!

I’ll try to post more regularly… As always, lots of love to you all!

Oh, and wedding planning is coming along well – hopefully all of you have received our save the dates by now! When you have time check out: www.danandtrishaforever.com

Pictures of our recent events! :)

It's been awhile...

Lots has happened since my last post. We left OH and went to Chicago. In Chi-town we had a Vemma event that went really well, and then we played the rest of the weekend. We went to the Lincoln Park Zoo with Kali and Cooper, then to The Bean, and Navy Pier where we rode the ferris wheel and played mini golf. Sunday night and Monday night we stayed with the Sheehan's in the suburbs. We ran 10 miles on the Prairie Path on Monday morning, and then went out to tour Wheaton. We had lunch at Los Burritos and Tapitios – one of Dan's favorites from college. We spent some time with Dan's football coaches which was absolutely phenomenal.

Tuesday we headed off to CO. On our way, we stopped in Denison, IA to see my Aunt Karen, Uncle Gary, Cousin Brenda, and G-ma and G-pa. We had dinner at the pub Tuesday night – delicious prime rib! Wednesday morning we headed for CO.

When we pulled into the Springs Wednesday evening, we went straight to Dan's storage unit to drop off our adjusting stuff and put some seats back in the van. After that, we met up with some Vemma friends for sushi. Around 10pm Dan headed for the airport to pick up 2 Wheaton buddies (Todd and Jason) flying in from Chicago for the weekend. I headed to George and Betty's to crash for the night. The next day, Thursday, we decided to climb the incline again to shock our bodies into acclimation. So... Jason, Todd, Betty, Dan, and I hiked up in the middle of the afternoon – everyone did great! We grabbed Chipotle after finishing and Dan disappeared for about 4 hours. Turns out he was helping his Aunt move some stuff that he promised he would some time ago. After we all cleaned up, we went to dinner at a quaint Mexican joint down the street. The Hamstra's joined us with their 2 little ones, Tyce and Cade – too cute!

On Friday we ran some errands in the morning – went to Dick's Sporting Goods to get our official Tough Mudder Team uniforms, checked out the sale at REI, and then headed up to Breckenridge. We were starving when we got up there, so Jason, Todd, Dan, and I went to the Breck Brewery for some grub and then up to the Breck house to get settled in. George and Betty arrived shortly thereafter and we joined forces to cook a delicious pre-mudder meal – steak, sweet potatoes, asparagus, corn, bread, etc. After dinner we went to the Garvin cabin to spend a little bit of time with the rest of our mudder team and add some final touches to our uniforms.

Saturday morning we woke up early to get over to Beaver Creek. The Tough Mudder was probably the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. It started with a 30 min hike up a black diamond ski slope, then we swam through 36 degree water, climbed over 10' walls, ran along muddy bike trails, crawled through tubes that dumped into muddy water, crawled on the rocky, muddy ground under barbed wire, hiked up more ski slopes, walked through more freezing cold water, climbed a snow hill under a cargo net, ran up a half pipe, crossed monkey bars over freezing cold water (I don't exactly have the upper body strength for monkey bars, so I pretty much swam across), and finished by running through electric wires that provided up to 10k volt shocks. The total “challenge” was 10 miles long and took our team just over 3 hours. We all completed every obstacle and we finished as a team. It was an absolute blast! The team is already talking about signing up for another one...

We grabbed sandwiches at the Smiling Moose Deli, cleaned up, and then went to the Garvin cabin to celebrate with the rest of our team.

Sunday morning we went into Frisco to rent Mountain Bikes. We were all pretty sore, but thought some activity would be beneficial. Jason, Todd, Luke (another Wheaton football alum who lives in Vail), John (one of Dan's buddies from Denver), Dan, and I went for about a 3 hour mountain bike ride (Betty joined half way through). This was only my second time out mountain biking. It was a lot better than the first; I'm starting to figure out the gears. Sunday evening we went to Empire Burger for dinner, which was delicious, then we relaxed in the hot tub for a bit before hitting the sack.

Monday morning we all woke up sore. It was Todd and Jason's last day in CO, so we decided to finish strong with white water rafting. (side note: When packing up, I went to get my fivefinger shoes from outside where they were drying since I had to wash the mud off of them, and ONE shoe had disappeared. All 5 of us searched the area for it without success. Our conclusion is that a fox or raccoon ran off with it. Huge bummer!) The river was freezing, but we had a great time rafting. We raced to get Todd and Jason to DIA for their flight; they BARELY made it! After dropping them, Dan and I met my dad for dinner at Northfield Mall. We ate bbq at Jim and Nick's and then had frozen yogurt for dessert. We stayed Monday night at George and Betty's in Colorado Springs.

Tuesday we actually laid pretty low; we organized Dan's storage unit, made another trip to REI to get me a new sleeping bag, had dinner with George and Betty, and then crashed.

Today is Wednesday and we are currently driving to Jackson Hole, WY; we are about an hour and a half out. Our plan is to camp there tonight, play a little bit tomorrow, maybe camp again tomorrow night, and then head up to Portland! We should get up to Portland sometime on Friday. My folks get into PDX on Saturday, and so do Kali and Cooper. I'm really looking forward to seeing my parents, and also spending some time with Kali, Cooper, Dane, Dave, Sarah, and Bill. :)

Sorry this one was so long, but that's pretty much the gist of what 'p squared' has been up to! Huge thanks to George and Betty for their hospitality last weekend! Not sure where we are headed after Portland – maybe Nor Cal for some more hiking, a stop at JH Ranch, and then down to San Diego? We'll see...

Praying for safe travels. Love you all! 

Almost done with storm #2...

Looks like we are about done here in Ohio.  Tomorrow we have a couple claims first thing in Dayton and then 4 up in Cleveland in the afternoon. 


My laptop died last week - blue screen and all - not good, but.... Dan got me a new Mac Book Pro as a 'bonus', so I'm back up and running! (Except for all of my pictures and music - still working on getting those off the dead dell).  


We took last weekend off and played in Ohio.  One of Dan's 'adjuster buddies', Daniel Malone, was here adjusting as well, so we went to dinner with him on friday night and then went and saw Fast Five - pretty much what you would expect from another fast and furious movie! On Saturday we went to a small, hippy town and ran through the forrest, then chilled in the park with some stir fry from the street fair, and listened to a live band. On Sunday we went to church in Cinci and then bought my new mac! :) After shopping, we went to another awesome little town and met up with 'Biker Bob'. We rented mountain bikes and followed Bob through the trees. It was my first time mountain biking and I absolutely loved every part of it.  I could use some practice - definitely not naturally a 'pro', but it was a phenomenal first experience and I can't wait to go again! Dan is really good, and dangerous, of course; it was fun to watch him doing something he loves so much.


We went to a vemma event last night near Columbus. It was really good to spend time with some of Dan's leaders and connect with some new people.


That's about all I really have to report. Thursday we might be going to the Brad Paisley/Dierks Bentley/Jerrod Niemann concert in Cinci - my fingers are crossed! :) Friday we head to Chicago for the weekend for a few Vemma events. On Monday or Tuesday we are going to start driving from Chicago to Denver.  We will be in Denver for almost a week (tough mudder adventure race), and then we are driving from Denver up to Portland for the 4th!


I'm bummed to be missing Father's Day with my dad AND my parent's 30th wedding anniversary this coming Sunday, but the good news is that Ma and Pa Peppers are meeting us in Portland the weekend before the 4th, so we can celebrate again then!


Oh, and if you are wondering what next... we're not really sure!  No more storms right now, so we're going to play and work vemma until something else comes up. Not HOPING for hurricanes or anything... but if one happens to hit, we might go help clean up! Just sayin...


Miss you all! xoxo

Maintou Springs Incline...