June and July held many events- one of which was the camping expedition in mid June with Mom/Dad Hoffman. Because it is an 8 hour trip from MA to E-town, we decided to meet in the middle. The meeting place? Fahnstock State Park (NY). Upon arrival, we were surprised to find the camping spaces so close together and the bathroom so far away. But due to our early set up time, we were able to claim our territory (between the posts) and create (thanks mainly to Dad's excellent tarp creativity (an art form)) a homey and comfortable site. Here is the tarp master relaxing after a long afternoon's work:
Dad and Mom honored my request to bring the canoe and throughout the weekend we had ample opportunity to explore the two scenic lakes:
It was also Mom and Dad's 39th wedding anniversary weekend (wow!) and they were kind enough to let us intrude on what could've been a very romantic weekend for them. They are still very much in love. :-)
Matt and I decided to attempt to create a romantic atmosphere for them (as much as is possible in a crowded campground with neighbors singing songs around their campfires and many guffaws coming from the distance). So...we made a steak and potato dinner for them. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate, making the dinner preps rather difficult. My husband was valiant in his grilling efforts: 
The happy couple- here's to many many more years... 
This weekend also happened to be Father's Day weekend. It was such fun to be with mom and dad on both festive occasions. 
Packing up involved packing up the heavy canoe. The Subaru (and the men) handled it quite easily. 
The park was full of Mountain Laurel. Since we share a name, it was only fitting to take a picture:
Wrapping up the time with a rousing game of 'stress and greed': 
At the end of June, I turned a 1/4 of a century old (gasp!). Matt and our families provided me with such an excellent birthday (one of my best yet!). One of Matt's gifts to me: 
He also took me to Outback Steakhouse and to see the movie 'Get Smart'. Matt rocks my world.This summer we've been trying to explore more of the North Shore. Matt is pictured here at the 'Singing Beach' in Manchester-by-the-Sea. We also recently visited NH and Ogunquit, Maine (beautiful beach town) with friends from church.
In the midst of all this, Matt has been busy taking Greek and two semlinks. I have been busy dishing out the cash. On my end, it has been fascinating to see people panic about the economy. People are so low on cash that they are often coming in with wrapped coins (finally digging into their coin jars) to exchange for bills. Matt just got hired as the 'Sports Information Director' at Gordon College. He will be keeping track of the stats for the various sports and doing media/website write-ups about the teams/games. We are thrilled about this opportunity. The job is flexible enough to work around the Gordon College baseball team. For this, Matt has been busy recruiting high schoolers to come to Gordon. The Gordon team is going to be REALLY GOOD. The competition better watch out, cause there are some hefty boys coming in in the next couple of years.
This past weekend, Matt and I traveled to Buffalo to be with the Morans. It was a weekend full of baseball (both Peter and Charlie had tournaments). Rain ended up getting in the way toward the end of the weekend (to the disappointment of all :-( ), but it was still a weekend of excellent games. Peter and Charlie were awesome. I felt very proud to be the sister-in-law of the Moran stud on New Era and the Moran stud on the Titans. Charlie pitching:
Faithful spectators:
Peter playing first base and hitting. Sadly I missed his all-star pitching appearance (thus the lack of pictures), but Matt was there and raved about the performance. 
We also celebrated Peter's 14th birthday and got together with Pastor Rob at 'the Irishman' (I highly recommend the reuben sandwich). On Friday night we got together with some college/Buffalo friends at the always famous 'Anchor Bar'- home of the Original Buffalo wings. It was insanely loud due to the live jazz (no more Dodo- she died a few years ago- sniff*), but in between sets/songs we managed to catch up and have a really good time. From left to right: Jen Neroni, Jonathon Bona, Matt, Emily Smithers, Rach
David planted a garden once again this year. This year it includes corn, carrots, cucumbers, cantaloupe and lettuce (uh...I might be adding or forgetting some things- sorry, David!). The garden is quite impressive. 
Photograph courtesy of David Moran (the up and coming photographer genius): 
Till next time!
