Visit with Donna and Dave in Myrtle Beach

Donna and Dave travel quite a bit throughout the year. This year, they spent two weeks in Myrtle Beach in December prior to Tim's Graduation. As usual, they kindly invited us down to spend some time with them at their condo. We had a great time over looking the beach, watching football together, and taking holiday photos. In grand style, the condo had a huge hot tub. Donna is so fun had bubbles for the bubble bath. We made such a mess with bubbles, but there were some fun pictures. Finally, Tim and I rarely get pictures with one another, Dave was gracious to take some holiday photos for us. Enjoy the pictures.

Cant' imagine what he was like when he was five!

We had a great time in the bubbles

Like this one!

Definitely Xmas Card Worthy!

Tim is so happy at the beach...check out the smiles

Check out the skies!

Even in the middle of cold December, the beach still has beautiful sunsets!

Watching the Colts game at the local bar!

Bienvenido a Miami!

One thing that has been a great opportunity for me while working at NASCAR is that I am blessed with the opportunity to travel to some pretty cool places on the race circuit. Our last race of the season is always held in Homestead-Miami (which, by the way, is an awesome place to be during the third week of November if you grew up with November weather in Indiana). I was selected to go to the race this year as I have several clients that attended the event. In addition, since I manage our licensed apparel program, I developed our Championship hat and t-shirt and I had to had those out to the winning driver and team.

I had never really spent time in Miami before so it was a whole new experience for me. Since there are not many places to stay in Homestead by the track, NASCAR put us all up in the Loew's South Beach--let me tell you, staying that the Loew's was really tough. I loved the Art Deco design of South Beach...all of the color....and the international flair.

The race weekend itself was hectic. However, I was fortunate to get to watch both races from our suite. Seeing who is up in the suite is always an interesting time. This weekend the guys from the Deadliest Catch were having a good time up in the suite. (One of my guilty pleasures is the show Deadliest Catch so I was pretty excited.) What was even better was that the crew that was up in the suite were from my favorite ship, the Time Bandit! While Captain Andy was not there, Captain Jonathan, his sons, and his whole crew were there. They just completed King Crab Season, and are getting ready for Opie season for the inquiring minds that would like to know. They had some of their king crab overnighted into the suite for everybody to try...and try I did! Anyway, enjoy the pictures.

The view of South Beach from my hotel

A gorgeous sunset from my hotel.

The famous St. Moritz Hotel...the view from my balcony. Me and two of the guys from the Time Bandit....

View of the Miami-Homestead Track

Halloween!--The Malayter-Stankus Family Carves a Pumpkin

Tim and I had a great Halloween weekend. First off, it is rare that Halloween falls on a Saturday. It definitely gives one a better chance to have a little fun. The weekend kicked off with the Charlotte Bobcats opening game. Janet was able to hook us up with Row A tickets to the season opener agains the Knicks. The Bobcats won and we were pumped.

Halloween itself was low-key. We carved our first family pumpkin together...It was a group effort and we had a great time. We wanted to paint our pumpkin because it is less messy and things tend to rot here a little quicker than at home. However, for some reason, the idea of painting pumpkins is a foriegn idea to the people of Charlotte. Tim and I searched high and low for pumpkin paint kits--we went to Wal-Mart, Target, Rite Aid, CVS, Walgreens, Michaels, Harris Teeter in search of a kit and came up unsuccessful. C'est la vie...we carved out of necessity.

After pumpkin carving, we went and spent the evening with our Indianapolis turned Charlotte-based NASCAR friends, the Larsens and the Weavers. Both couples are from Indianapolis and relocated to Charlotte due to a NASCAR position. Between our three families, we have Hamilton Southeastern, Carmel, and Zionsville high schools covered. Most of all, we love the fact that we have fellow Colts Fans in the city. While I did not take any pictures from the party, I did take a few of our pumpkin carving adventure. We had a great time this weekend and hope that you had a good Halloween too!

The unlucky pumpkin...the object of our carvings...

Tim...the focused "surgeon" drawing his lines to begin cutting.

Tim was adorable when carving the pumpkin. He kept mentioning that his Dad was the one who would cut the top and clean the inside of the pumpkin...These tasks were a first for Tim. He is SO FOCUSED!!!!

Tim is trying his best not to give you his famous "thumbs up" sign.

This pumpkin had a ton of seeds and strings.

Don't kid yourself. This picture of me with the "pumpkin guts" was for show....the honor was all Tim's

Boys will be Boys....Apparently Tim wanted to be Peter Pan for Halloween or a Toys R Us Kid because he does not want to grow up! Ha!

Now it looks like he is holding the pumpkin like a little baby...

Tim forgot to take pictures of me carving our little monster! The finished work!

I do love the look of Jack-o-Lanterns!

Tim trying to scare me!

My two pumpkins!

Me with my work of art!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO ALL!

Fall Color Explodes on the Blue Ridge Parkway

It is no secret that if you want to see leaves, the North Carolina Mountains offer some of the finest "leaf-viewing" opportunities in the United States. My lovely husband suggested that since we are only a 90 minute drive from all of the splendor, that we should take the opportunity to go enjoy the nature around us.

On one of the final weekends in October, Tim and I hopped into the car and took a drive. We drove up to Boone, NC--the home of Appalachian State University. Their campus is awesome. it is tucked in the top of the Appalachian Mountains. This little mountain town has a quaint little city district and fun little restaurants. Tim and I agreed that we need to come up there more often. After enjoying Boone for a few hours, Tim and I merged onto the famous Blue Ridge Parkway. The mountains were absolutely EXPLODING in color around us. Tim and I kept commenting about how gorgeous everything was. It was definitely one of those moments that we wished that our friends and family were with us so that they could experience the same things that we were. We took a ton of pictures because we want to give you a "taste" of the sights--Hopefully it will convince you to come and visit us so that we can experience everything together.

There are stops about every mile on the Blue Ridge Parkway. This was our first stop...Clear Lake Park...During the summer, i would love to jump right in!

Black and White Shot of Clear Lake

Tim posing in the fun scenery

Color and beauty was all around us. This shot was taken while driving down the parkway.

Overlooking the valley below...You can see why they call this part of the Appalachian Mountains the Blue Mountains. The Mountains in the distance appear to be blue!
They same shot can look so spooky in black and white.

More shots of the Blue Ridge Valleys Below.

The tough thing about being just the two of us is that we rarely get pictures of us together. Me with the valley in the distance. (Pardon my hair--we got up early and jumped into the car so we could have a full day)

Tim with the same valley below.

To be specific...the Wilson Creek Valley

We continued to press on to Grandfather Mountain. You can see the view of Grandfather Mountain in the Distance! So pretty.

A Splash of Color

I just had to shoot this tree. It had the reddest leaves that I have ever seen!

Minus the power lines in this shot, it is my favorite shot of the day...You can see fall taking hold and can see the mountains going on for the infinite distance!

We even had a colorful drive home.