Our Honeymoon

We honeymooned in San Francisco. We had a great time wandering around the city, finding Lombard Street and Coit Tower, staying at a fun eco-friendly hotel, walking through Golden Gate Park, hanging out in Chinatown and the Japanese Tea Garden, eating at a multitude of delicious restaurants, getting the royal treatment at a spa, visiting Alcatraz, hanging out at the pier, climbing at a gym, goggling at all the gear in an REI store, seeing the gorgeous Muir Woods, visiting wine country, and seeing Dave's family that lives outside of San Francisco. We couldn't have asked for a better a week...although we could have brought warmer clothes.

Honeymoon

Click on the photo of us above for a fully documented slide show of the week.

Jessica's Graduation Party

Jessica's graduation party was this past weekend in Des Moines. Lots of family and friends were there to help celebrate! Congratulations Jetty - we love you!

Jessica's Graduation Party

Natalie's Graduation in NYC

Natalie's Graduation

Jamie was able to make a second trip to NYC this year to surprise Natalie for her graduation from The New School....she had a wonderful time with the Hutchisons! You'll want to check out the photos as there are pictures from Staten Island, both graduation ceremonies, restaurants, the Strand Bookstore, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, etc.

Tuscan Spaghetti

By request...here is the delicious Tuscan spaghetti recipe!

We cut the recipe in half and still had 2 full dinner meals and one lunch meal. Here is the original recipe:

Tuscan Spaghetti
Serves 8

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
12 cups Kale, cut into small 1-inch pieces
1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes
1 1/2 cups low sodium vegetable broth
1/2 tsp salt
1 15 oz can of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed (aka white kidney beans)
3/4 cup pitted black olives, thinly chopped
1 12 oz pack of whole wheat spaghetti (you really want to use whole wheat because it soaks up the broth you will be making)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Heat olive oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Saute onion in oil for 5 minutes. Stir in garlic and red pepper flakes. Add 6 cups of Kale and cook for 2 minutes or until wilted, tossingoccasionally. Add remaining Kale, tomatoes, broth, and salt. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer 15 minutes, tossing occasionally. Stir in beans and olives. In a separate pot, cook spaghetti according to package directions. Place cooked spaghetti in the pot with the Kale mixture. Cook 2 minutes over medium-high heat or until the pasta absorbs most of the liquid. Sprinkle withParmesan and serve.

Nutritional Information per serving:

270 Calories
10 g Protein
7 g Fat (1.5 g Saturated Fat)
2 mg Cholesterol
10 g Fiber

Rainy Day

For us outdoor enthusiasts whose outdoor activities are not conducive to rain, days like today are difficult to handle. It's hard for us to enjoy the rain when it interferes with our climbing. We have to remember that the rain brings good things....

Nevertheless, it is testing our patience. With the rain thwarting our plans Dave has resorted to boredom at the computer. We must find something better.

Yesterday we went to the Lakehouse to help Skip and DeDe rip out the old floor in the basement of the lakehouse....what a busy day for us all! Dave worked in the closet putting a floor in while Jamie, Skip, and DeDe worked in the back room tearing floor out.

Lakehouse Floor May 5, 2007

On an unseasonably warm day in April we grabbed little Jon and headed up to Hoot Bluff. The weather could not have been nicer!

Hoot Bluff 4-5-2007

Spring Break March 2007

We're slowly catching up...only two months behind now on blog posts.

For spring break this year, we joined up with Jon, Talia, Jaro, and Drew for a bouldering trip to Rock Town in Georgia and Horse Pens 40 in Alabama. We've posted a ton of photos with commentary to document the trip - so read and enjoy!

Spring Break Rock Town and Horse Pens 2007

Bridal Shower

Jamie's tea party bridal shower in March was wonderful! With all the bridesmaids' help the day turned out perfectly. We all got to enjoy delicious hors d' ouevres and tea, play a "get-to-know-the-bride" game, and enjoy each others company!

Bridal Shower March 3, 2007

Dave's project: John's House

Dave has been keeping busy working with a friend refurbishing his house. They've been building walls, putting on drywall, laying tile, putting in an antique ceiling (and of course spending hours putting on layers of paint), putting on trim, electrical work, etc.

Dave's projects: John's House

Natalie's 21st Birthday

Jamie flew off to New York City for a long weekend in February for Natalie's 21st birthday. She got to celebrate Nata's birthday, see the city, see Natalie's school and apartment in Brooklyn, and basically just "catch up." As an added bonus, Emily came from Pennsylvania for a few days and got free tickets for a showing of a new play. What a wonderful few days!

New York City for Nata's 21st bday Feb. 2007

Dave's Birthday

We went to Des Moines for a birthday weekend way back in February. Heather hosted a marvelous dinner at their house and we got to enjoy hanging out with family for the weekend.

Edited Dave's B-day

Update

So we've been terrible bloggers the past few months...we really had good intentions to post our photos as we have had a lot of fun occasions of late. So here comes a slew of entries of different things... enjoy!

Jamie's Birthday

Jamie's 21st Bday weekend

Jamie's 21st birthday was a blast. Rick and Lori came to Iowa City to help us celebrate. We enjoyed good beers at Old Capital Brewery and although the night was poorly docuemented photo-wise, there are actually quite a few pictures from the rest of the birthday weekend. (P.S. Don't let Rick tell you that he's no good at pool...he cleaned up!)

Cross Country Skiing

Cross Country Skiing

We had our first ever cross country skiing experience...what a blast! We enjoyed it so much we've already been back!

Jamie's Hair

Jamie's New Haircut

Jamie got a new haircut!

Poker

Poker 1-13-06

Jessica and Adam came to Iowa City to visit the weekend Jamie returned from St. Lucia! Here's some photos of us playing poker.

Christmas 2006

Christmas 2006

We headed back to Des Moines for the Holidays. We had a great Christmas, got to see both sides of the family, friends, and even squeezed in a morning of ice skating in between wedding plans!

Graduation Celebration at the Pit

Graduation Celebration at the Pit

Josh and Jamie celebrated their graduation with a joint party at the Pit!

Pepper Plants

So it's official: our pepper plants have died. The short winter days were just too much for them...we will have to try them again in the spring.

Graduation

Graduation

Jamie's Graduation, December 16, 2006 at Carver Hawkeye Arena.

Honors Commendation

Jamie's Honors Commendation Ceremony in October...better late than never, right?

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Climbing in Southern Illinois (So Ill)

We enjoyed a few days of bouldering/sport climbing in Southern Illinois with Jamie, Josh, Jon, Gabriel, and Drew. The weather was perfect for climbing! Then we headed to Des Moines for Turkey-day.

Please keep Dave's family in your thoughts and prayers as they mourn the loss of Grandma Petts.

St. Lucia

Jamie has just found out that she will be going to a village in St. Lucia (in the Caribbean) to work on a Community Based Health Care Intervention in Decemeber and January with three other people from the University of Iowa...hooray for great opportunities!

A Beautiful Fall Day

10-29-06

So we made a sad day slightly better by going climbing for a short round of bouldering to remind us about the good things in life...it was gorgeous weather. We followed that with a study session at a coffee shop. The colors were too good to pass up the photo opportunity. Enjoy...

But please keep Jamie's cousin Lauren in your thoughts and prayers as she recovers, as well as her family, and Martin's family.

Redemption

So I had to redeem myself because I was getting so much crap about Dave's pepper plants doing better than mine...now for the record (as the pictures show) we are tied...each with six plants!

Success!

We had two successes this past week! Dave's new pepper plant is starting to sprout...hopefully mine will be on it's way soon. Also, on the wedding front, we hired a photographer! Sadly, Jamie's Great-Grandma died on Sunday evening so we will be heading north for the visitation and funeral.

Decorah Trip 9-23-06

We spent last weekend canoeing/kayaking in Decorah on the Upper Iowa River. We met up with Skip and DeDe, Steve and Jane, Ron and Bonnie, Heather and Ryan and Parker, Adam and Jenny (plus dogs) on Friday, enjoyed the river and weather on Saturday, had a nice breakfast both mornings, and had fun gallivanting around the orchard and gardens at Seed Savers.

Decorah trip 9-23-06

Sep 23, 2006 - 24 Photos

Weekend of Sept. 15

We had a wonderful weekend seeing lots of friendly faces.

Friday Skip and Adam came to Iowa City for the Iowa vs. Iowa State game (dare we ask who won?). It was great to see them!

Saturday we travelled to Des Moines. Jamie got to see Jessica off for her last homecoming - she was beautiful! Then there was a celebration at Rick and Lori's house for their 25th Wedding anniversary...what fun seeing so many friends and family!

Sunday we met with a potential photographer for the wedding.

We'll be adding more photos of this weekend soon!

Hello

Hello all,

We are new to this blogging thing...not quite sure how it all works yet...but we're working on it. Hopefully we'll have some nice pictures up soon of Jamie's study abroad this summer (check out the ones from our trip to Germany and Austria)...so add us to your bookmarks and we'll keep you updated on what's going on in Dave and Jamie world....

Summer trip to Germany and Austria

Click Above to see a slideshow of our photos