Happy Cinco de Mayo!!

Having a reason to celebrate has never been lost on this crowd and since our dear friends Marty and Maribel are proud Mexicans, they invited us over for a Cinco de Mayo celebration. I have learned in the past if Maribel is cooking it is not wise to pass up on her food. She is an amazing cook. Poor things had to travel far and wide in New England to secure carne asada but their effort was not lost on the Coyers. Maribel made homemade refried beans, salsa and rice while Marty grilled up quesadillas, pollo asada and carne asada. We were in Mexican food heaven. We spent the whole day playing games out in their yard and eating as much as possible. They even had maracas and somberos for everyone and even a piñata for the kids. We have some awesome friends!

Look good Toddi!

Tequila. This was our addition to the party. When we were in Seattle we were gifted with a bottle of this really nice tequila from Todd's parents from a trip they took to Mexico. We thought it was a great excuse to break it out. Thank you so much Mom and Dad!

It was a big hit. Cheers!

Marty, PJ and Todd show off their maraca skills

Maribel, Estelle and Tiffeny

I'm going to be honest, Cinco de Mayo is now officially in my top 5 holidays. ::sips on her margarita::

Hanging with the Coyers

We made it! After a delay free flight we finally touched down in Washington. We were so happy to be there. I just love this place, it is so beautiful and we were fortunate to have barely any rain. Though the weekend went way too fast we had an amazing time. Brian and Sandra were wonderful hosts and we were so lucky to get to spend my fabulous mother in laws birthday with her. We went out to a wonderful birthday dinner and then the next day went off to the Tulip festival. I personally love tulips and it was so cool to see thousands and thousands of fields of them. Not to mention that Brian, Todd and Sandra had me in stitches the whole day. They are so much fun. Though it was hard to leave, we are planning quite a few trips back there shortly and I can't wait. I am so fortunate to marry into such an awesome family!

The Coyer women celebrating Barb's birthday.

Make a wish! Happy Birthday!

Me and my fabulous sis in law, Sandra. She pretty much rocks.


Tulips!

The beautiful and fabulous Barb hanging out in the tulips

Hey there.

Brian and Sandra

The adventures of Shan and Sandra. We were on a tulip mission at this point.

Barb and Kara

The Coyer boys. I think they got in trouble after this was taken for walking through the field. Oops.

Billions and billions of tulips!

Thank you so much again for having us. I can't wait til we live closer again. ::sighs::

Off to the Emerald City!

Tonight Todd and I are off to the mythical city of Seattle to see our family! Yay! Ok, so its not mythical, I've been there, heck Toddi grew up there, it exists. We apparently just didn't realize how difficult it was to get there in the winter months. Well, it is now officially Spring with means that this time we might have more luck but just in case any positive travel thoughts you can send our way would be most appreciated. :)

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

The Quest for Perfection Continues....

Or at least my dentist's quest for my perfection continues. I am the first to admit that I am not perfect. I stub my toes many times a week on furniture, often times in the same places. If I am walking on an uneven sidewalk I will usually trip, even if I saw it coming and my sweet Todd sometimes calls me 'hurricane Shannon' as whatever room I enter, a mess is whats usually left in my wake. No, I am not perfect and I have accepted that.

Now I have been seeing my dentist going on 1 year and of the 4 or so appointments I have had with him the exact same conversation commences....

Dentist: (complete with telescopic glasses and a billion instruments in my mouth) "hmmmm...aha....hmmm..." then accusingly says "Are you happy with your teeth???"

Shan (complete with Dentist and a billion instruments in my mouth): "ah, I uess...r ew haffy wit ay eetf???"

::translation: I guess, are you happy with my teeth?::

Dentist: "You have beautiful healthy teeth and no cavities but I definitely see room for improvement."

Shan: "Ohay"

Dentist: "First, lets straighten up those bottom teeth a touch more, then whiten them all up a bit and then throw on a few veneers and I think you will be perfect just like a movie star."

Shan: "Ohay."

I was then immediately fitted for an invisalign retainer and whitening trays. So there you have it even my dentist agrees I have flaws. If he only knew the many years and thousands of dollars already invested in these teeth, sheesh. He better know what he's doing and when this is all done my teeth at the very very least...should be perfect.

Happy Easter!

Holidays are big at Casa Coyay. I don't even want to imagine what they are going to be like when we have kids....yikes! Today we went off to church to see our friends cute baby, Mary, baptised and then home for ham, potatoes and cake and a little egg dying. We hope everyone had a great Easter!

Yay the Easter Bunny came!

Prepping the eggs. I personally am not a fan of hard boiled eggs, just not my thing. Luckily Todd loves them, so he's going to be busy in the next few days.

Time to get serious


My cute friend Amy. Her fiance was out of town so she came over to help dye some eggs

I bought the most ridiculous dying kit. It had glitter, paint, beads, foil....it was too much and entirely too complicated.

Ya I'm pretty talented

Cheers!

Something stinks in RI

Today Todd and I made the devastating realization that his battle with a squirrel a year ago may have been a mistake and that perhaps he messed with the wrong squirrel. Apparently squirrels talk and we think they are joining forces. Why you ask? Well, I'll tell you. Late last night for no other reason than pure Coyer hatred a skunk, a suspected squirrel ally, cruised up to our front porch turned around, lifted his tail and gave us all he had. Yep, our house was sprayed. ::Seriously?!?!?!::

So there we are at 4am awakened as the stink filters into every inch of our house, completely convinced that a skunk had snuck in while we weren't paying attention. Todd searched and searched but alas it appeared to just be a spray and run, no skunk was found. Regardless, we now have an unfortunate living environment. The house smells, our clothes smell, the inside of our cars smell, everything smells. Sweet Todd is calling for justice but I think we are just going to lay low for a while. ::lights another scented candle and looks anxiously out the window into the darkness::

Girls Weekend!

I have been blessed with the best girlfriends in the whole world. When we all get together we just laugh and laugh. A few months ago, after realizing the last time we were all together was at my wedding, the four of us immediately started planning our first annual summit. Location: Newport. Candy and Teresa were flying in from California and Nix was coming in from DC. A full weekend of catching up was exactly what we needed. Candy and Teresa made is just fine but in typical New England fashion a freak lighting storm hit and completely grounded my favorite Nix in D.C. Boo! ::raises fists to the clouds:: We will plan something soon Nick! The whole weekend we just ate, gabbed, walked around, gabbed, drank, ate, gabbed, ate some more, gabbed...It was the perfect weekend. One thing New England does not have is these ladies and I cannot wait til we live closer again.

Tired little friends

Out to lunch

The ladies on the cliff walk

Out wine tasting. Standing next to Teresa just makes me paler.

fabulous friends

I can't wait for the next girls weekend! Perhaps D.C. next time?

Honorable mention: I would like to thank my sweet sweet husband for just being awesome. You would think with 3 women in the house he would be overwhelmed but he was his usual charming self. He waited on us hand and foot, chauffeured us all over town and dedicated his whole weekend to making sure we had the best time. Ya, my husband pretty much rocks.