The Big Move

Well...we are about two months behind in blogging...so get ready for a Draeger rush over the coming days!  We finally said "good bye" to the east coast in late July.  It was extremely difficult to leave all the people we have called family for so long, but it was a needed change for us.  The move didn't start well at all.  When I went to pick up the truck, I was told that I wouldn't be able to get it until 1pm, but the movers were coming at 11am.  A lady at Pep Boys haphazardly rented me the truck and I ended up getting a car trailer instead of a car dolly - which is quite a bit longer.  Overall, I got the truck an hour late and the total length of the beast ended up around 37 feet...Wowsa!

 Here I am, proud man with the truck!

 Our last DD stop before we hit the road:(

 What's that you say?  There's a thunder/lighting storm in the middle of no where in New York?  Oh, and a tornado warning?!?!  Well then....I think its about time that your trailer tire explodes.  So here's what happened.  We're driving along and Sarah notices that a semi truck is pacing us.  We look over and he's motioning to the back of the truck mouthing "You have a flat tire!"  Obviously we pull over and here's what we see...

 As you can imagine...that sucks.  A few minutes later, we find out from Sarah's mom that there is a tornado warning in the area.  We are literally in the middle of no where.  Meanwhile, I'm on the phone with Budget.  They are going to contact the closest tire repair place and have them meet us to fix the flat.  They hang up and tell me that they will notify me when they find someone who can come.  THEN, the floodgates opened up.  It was ZERO visibility around us and we are parked on the side of I-69.  I decided that I needed to go get the flares and light them so that no one plows into us while we're sitting there.  I jumped out and was drenched by a ridiculous wall of rain.  I got the flares out of the trunk and spent about five minutes trying to light them.  No go.  I was complete soaked through and just got back in the truck.  We just had to wait for the repair man to show up.

 Eating some chips.

 Here he is.  This guy came out in the middle of the storm and with two pry-bars he removed the old tire and put a new one on.  It only took him about 20 minutes to get us on the road again and he was very nice.  We got back on the road and found out that a tornado touched down and ripped some roofs off of buildings about five miles behind where we were stuck.  We ended up getting to Elyria OH about three hours late.  We slept for 7 hours and got right back on the road.  The trip from OH to MI went smoothly, but we got round two of the storm literally as we exited the interstate into Grand Rapids, MI.  We had to check-in to our apartment and unload the car from the trailer in another ridiculous downpour.  

In the end, we are happy with our apartment, despite a few quirks.  I have a good commute to work and it's nice to be Sarah's family.  We have taken on the yard work and odd jobs for one set of grand parents, but Sarah's been pretty sick so we haven't spent a lot of quality time with people yet.  That'll change soon though:)

The Draegers Invade NYC

Before we leave Boston, we are trying to visit as many people as we can.  This past weekend we went to visit Carrina (Sarah's former roommate from Boston) and her her boyfriend Adam.  They live in Astoria, just 9 short subway stops from Times Square in Manhattan.  Carrina lives right on Astoria Blvd, which is a pretty busy street, but it wasn't very loud inside.

We left Boston at 5pm on Friday, which was taking a pretty big chance of getting caught in traffic.  It did end up taking us almost an hour to get to the Worcester area - about 40 miles.  After that it was pretty smooth sailing, except for the torrential rains and the ridiculous drivers going 40 mph on the interstate.  We crossed the Triboro Bridge (RFK Bridge) about 9:35 and spent about 10 minutes looking for a parking space.  Carrina eventually came out to stand in a spot in front of her apartment while we circled back around to park.  We hung out for a while that night and Sarah and I made plans to visit an old friend from Boston while Carrina was at work.

Little Sarah in the Big Apple

My friend, Kara is a manager with Starbucks near Times Square, so Sarah and I went down early to do some shopping and get a drink before we met her.  Sarah ended up finding an orange dress at GAP on super-sale.  That made both of us happy:)  You'll see her wearing said dress in later pictures.

After hanging out with Kara, Adam and Carrina met us downtown and took us to the High Line.  This place was awesome!  It is a park created on an old elevated train line running mostly parallel to 10th ave.  There is a decently wide walking trail and many varieties of plants and flowers.  It was pretty cool to see.

Sarah enjoyed seeing all of the water towers on most of the buildings.

Adam and Carrina. 

Bench.

 On Sunday morning we all went back into Manhattan to meet up with Kara, her boyfriend Brendan and Karl Vanderwoude (VW for short).  We went to a place called Southern Hospitality for brunch...co-owned by....Justin Timberlake.  It was amazing...pulled pork for brunch, check.  After that we all went to another restaurant where almost everyone indulged in a Bulldog.  This is a crazy concoction of a margarita, a shot of tequila, and a corona.  If you reacted the same way to that as I did, I ask you to hold your judgement.  The beer and margarita actually blended quite well.

After that, there was nothing to do but say our good-byes.  It was a short trip but we saw quite a bit and hung out with a lot of good friends.  We're are very glad that we got to go back to NYC before we left.

We made sure to get a shot of the Triboro Bridge from the subway platform on Astoria Blvd.  Nice sunset surrounded by tons of concrete and steel.  We liked NYC for a few days but being there always reminds us that we do not want to live in big city!  

Memorial Day Barbecue

For Memorial Day we had a bunch of our friends over for a BBQ and Just Dance Party.  It was a ton of fun and we had a lot of laughs. Thanks to the DeMuths, Puetzs, and Englehart/Passenos for coming over!

Many of the ladies spent time outside.

Not to be outdone (by anyone), Asher was rockin' the sweet fishing hat.

Of course, Buddy got in on that action.  He wouldn't sit still so the hat flipped up "Gilligan style".

Pete and Deb - oh yes, they got into it.

Having Tyson there was like having "Wedding Tyson" in your house for five hours.  He definitely danced almost non-stop and did rack up the highest score of the day. 

The ladies showing the guys how it's done, Brittany Spears style.

Deb, Monica and Ty doin' it Beyonce style.

This might be the only time Tyson sat down.

Sarah and I doing our favorite dance.  "Promiscuous Girl"

Toward the end of the night, they guys challenged the ladies to a dance off.  The guys won in decisive fashion.  As you play the game, you earn 'stars' for how well you mimic the dance...we routinely beat the ladies by two or three stars.  As an added incentive, we were trying to make it to 1000 cumulative stars since buying the game seven months or so ago.  I kept pushing people to keep playing because I wanted to see what would happen at 1000 stars.  Well, no one else was as dedicated as I was and they all left at 955 stars or so.  Sarah, being the amazing wife that she is, kept dancing with me.  We made it to 1002 stars AND nothing happened.  No extra song or new dance, not even a "Way to go!".  It was deflating.  I tried to post a video of one of the dances...but it didn't work.  I'll try again later.