Happy birthday Matt!

For Matt's birthday this year I was going to be in Boston for Jacki and Keith's wedding. I knew this in advance and wanted to plan something fun for Matt to do on his birthday so he would not be alone. I emailed the guys that Matt hangs out with and asked them to meet him at Stubbies, a bar that carries many imported beers. Bob Merrell took Matt out to dinner at Leonardo's for pizza and then somehow got him to Stubbies.
Ironically, three days before Matt's b-day he decided to invite the guys to meet him at Stubbies to celebrate his birthday because I was not going to be there. Matt announced this at Family Group and I could not believe my ears. I had already planned the exact same thing and here Matt was telling everyone he was going to email out the same things I had already planned. So I had to email the guys saying to not respond to Matt's email. Somehow the whole thing worked out and Matt was totally surprised.

I am glad that he had such a great birthday. I was sad not to be there for it, but was glad that he was taken care of.

Before I left for Boston on Thurs. afternoon, I left school early and went right to the new Dunkin Donuts that just opened up in Gainesville. I got Matt an iced coffee as a surprise and early birthday present. He enjoyed it.

This Easter Matt and I invited some of our friends to join us for Easter dinner. For the first time ever Matt and I went to the sunrise service at 6:45 am. It was an unusually cold morning in Gainesville (45 degrees) and we were rather chilly. I felt like we were back in Boston.

We set up our regular dinner table as well as a folding table. What celebration wouldn't be complete without a kiddie table?

Everyone brought something to share for the Easter dinner. We had a great spread of food including ham, chicken, baked beans, salad, broccoli, and mac and cheese. For dessert Laura made a bunny cake and there was ice cream too. There were tons of left overs and we all ended up full.

After dinner we wanted to get out and go for a walk to burn off some of the food we had just eaten. Laura had just visited the La Chua Trail the day before and highly recommended it. Matt and I have always wanted to see the gators. So we gathered our courage and walked the trail.

When we reached the end of the trail we couldn't believe our eyes. The trail wound through Paynes Prairie and there were hundreds of gators lying on the bank and in the water. We were so close and there were no fences between us and them. It was a little intimidating. We walked on this trail for about 2 hours. There were other crazy people walking the trail too, which made us feel better. At the end of the trail there was a lookout tower where you could see for miles across the prairie. We saw a lost gator wandering the open land. He looked like a dinosaur.

To celebrate Caleb's birthday we gathered at the Sorgius house. We played games and ate cake and ice cream. We played a new game called Imaginiff. The Sorgius always have fun new board games to play. It was a great time!

In trying to take a group picture we set up our camera timers. We had to retake the picture a few times and had so much fun trying to make the timer. See Laura's facial expression!

The Florida Gators made it to the NCAA basketball championship for the second year in a row. We all got together at Dustyn and Lucy's house to watch the game. I was so glad that the game was on my spring break so I could stay up late. It was so fun to be in a room full of Gator fans screaming at the TV.

After the Gators won Bob, Lisa, Sean, Laura, Dustyn and I went to University Ave to see all the crazy excitement. The street was jammed packed with people cheering, screaming and waving flags. I got home at 2 am.

On March 5th, 2007 Matt and I went out to dinner to celebrate his first publication; his thesis. We are so proud of this accomplishment. There will be many more publications to come, but never a first publication again! Congratulations Matt!

Matt and I celebrated Valentine's Day early since he had stats class that night with Bob. Lisa and I went to Sarah and Fritz's house with Tom and Amy to celebrate Valentine's Day. We had a fondue dinner and dessert. It was really yummy.

After dinner we played Amy's camera game. We laughed our heads off.

Lisa and I registered to run the Gainesville 1/2 Marathon. Here we are picking up our bib numbers and packet of information on Saturday. Later Sat. night the Merrells cooked us a carb loading dinner to get ready for the race.

On Sunday, February 18th Lisa and I ran the 5 Points of Life Half Marathon in Gainesville, Florida. The race started at 7:00 am. It was an unusually cold morning with temperatures in the low 40's. It felt great to run in that weather. Here we are before we had to take off all those warm clothes. The guys were so excited to be able to cheer us on. This was the first race that Matt and I had not run together.

Amy and Tom came out to the start line to wish us luck. It was great to get so much support.

Bob and Matt drove around Gainesville and parked at different spots along the course to cheer us on. It was fun spotting them where we did not expect them to be. I loved seeing Matt' and Bob's smiling faces and hearing their encouraging words. They truly were an amazing support. We felt so blessed to have such amazing husbands.

Lisa and I ran together at about a 9 minute mile doing walk breaks. We finished the 13.1 miles in 2 hours and 5 minutes. It was a great race! I loved running all over Gainesville. We even ran through the stadium!!

Here we are proudly holding our medals. Praise God for the healthy bodies He has blessed us with that we can run.
After the race, the temperature had dropped even from the start of the race. We wrapped up in the tinfoil looking sheets to keep warm.

Our proud husbands with their proud and happy wives!After the race we went home and showered. It took a while to warm up. We proudly wore our 5 Points of Life 1/2 Marthon shirts and went out to breakfast. We met Bob and Lisa at the 43rd Street Dinner for a rewarding breakfast! It was fun to recount the events of the morning and fun times of the race.

Before we went to Isla Mujeres, Matt and I visited Dave and Joetta in Sarasota, Florida. We had so much fun with them. Dave took us out on the boat. While we were cruising around the Gulf, we came across these dolphins. They were so playful and entertained us for an hour. We took so many pictures of them as they flipped and swam near us. They were so close we could reach out and touch them.

Joetta made us her white chicken chili in the crockpot for dinner. MMM. It was so good and a new favorite of mine. Our chicken tortilla soup might be getting a break for a while. While we were at the Troyer's we also road around on their four-wheeler all over their property. Trigger would race us the whole way. In addition to the crockpot meal, Dave smoked ribs and pulled pork for us all day on Sunday. It took over 6 hours, but it was yummy.

Matt and I just got back from Isla Mujeres, a small island off the coast of Cancun, Mexico. We went there to celebrate Mark (Matt's brother) and Julie's wedding. It truly is a gorgeous place to visit. It was neat to go back to this island because Matt and I went to Cancun and took a day trip here during our honeymoon. I hope that you enjoy some of the beautiful pictures we took of the scenery. I put these pictures into a collage and you can click on them for a much bigger view.

The hotel we stayed in was right on the beach. Each morning Matt and I got up and went for a run. The island is not very big and we got to see many things. It was cool running through the town.


After the run we'd join the Buman and Casalegno family for breakfast right on the beach. The food was amazing. Our favorite meal was Chilaquiles, which was basically nachos with sour cream, cheese, a green sauce and 2 eggs over easy. It doesn't sound like a breakfast food, but believe me it was good.

The beach was so pretty, with turquoise water, palm trees and great sun sets. There was a huge sandbar and we were able to go out far without the water getting deep. I couldn't help but say over and over again how relaxing it was to be there. Our favorite thing to order for lunch/snack was chips and guacamole.




Here are a few creatures we saw on the island - a crab and iguanas.

The rehersal dinner was at an Italian restaurant. The floor of the restaurant was sand. We ate at tables with stumps of trees as our seats. The food was delicious. I had the caprase salad and Matt had a goat cheese salad. The chef was cool and cooked my Gluten Free pasta.


The day of the wedding we rented 3 golf carts and drove around the island. It only took 2 hours. We had a blast caravaning together. Matt and I drove Grandma D and Aunt Ruthie. We had the slow golf cart. Along the way we saw some beautiful houses with great views and some poor house. It really made us thankful for where we live.

The wedding was on the beach that we had hung out on for the previous days. It was gorgeous. There was an English translator becuase the wedding was in Spanish. Christian was the ring bearer and Daniela was the flower girl. Christian carried the rings down the isle in a conch shell. Julie looked beautiful. Just as they were presented as husband and wife, God opened up the sky and a gorgeous sunset appeared. After the ceremony we ate dinner on the beach. The food was awesome - fajitas, tomalis, salad, beans, rice, and carnitas. I put these pictures into a collage and you can click on them for a much bigger view.