Passing of the Gavel
Posted on July 12, 2019 by Ching under Events.
Brian and I attended a very special Rotary club social last month. Brian isn’t a Rotarian but I’ve been a member of the Rotary Club of Andover, Kansas for a few years now. On the final Thursday of each month, our clubs has an evening social open to members and their families in place of our normal Rotary luncheon. Last month was a special one. It was a passing of the gavel from Alison Couey our 2018-2019 Club President to Josh Vargo, 2019-2020 Club President.
Alison
Alison and Josh
I started teaching Aqua Zumba at West Central Genesis on Thursday nights so it’s harder for me to make these events. However, I usually send Brian to attend on my behalf. This time I gave him the very important job of taking pics.
The event was held at Areo Plains Brewing, one of the breweries that participate in our signature fundraising event – Haus of Brews, and we had a pretty good turnout.
We haven’t been the best at taking pictures at our meetings and events but, between Alison and Brian, we got some great pics this time. Josh asked me to be PR Chair for 2019-2020 so I really want to make sure we get lots of good pics each time. Before it was just kind of a thing I did at the events but it’s officially my role now. At least until the next person takes over. LOL.
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Leslie Coffee in Delano
Posted on July 10, 2019 by Ching under Food and Drink, Things to Do.
Had the opportunity to try a new coffee shop thanks to the Wicked Brew tour. Leslie Coffee has been open for a while. I just haven’t had a reason to venture out there because it’s in Delano and we usually prefer places that are walkable.
Alicia drove so I bought the coffee. Seemed like a fair trade. Here are some pictures from our visit…
The place is super cute. The kind of coffee that I get was just okay over there though. I still prefer it at Reverie. Anyway, I’m grateful for the Wicked Brew tour or I wouldn’t have had any reason to check it out.
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Photo Shoot Pictures
Posted on July 4, 2019 by Ching under Projects, Zumba.
Here’s a link to the photos that Hannah took a few weeks ago at Riverside Park. In case you don’t have time to follow the link, I’m sharing some of my favorites here.
Okay, so since I shared so many of these, you’d think that I liked them all. There are actually quite a few more photos that I didn’t share here. They were all very good. I just didn’t like how I look in them.
I’ve already used a few of them to promote some of my Zumba classes. They’re perfect for that purpose.
Hannah did such a fabulous job on these that Brian and I have scheduled another shoot with her. This time it will be with both of us and the dogs.
Speaking of photo shoots, Brian and I had a photo shoot a couple of weeks ago with another photographer. The photo session was given to us by my coworker Tammie who had won it at the Memory Gala.
We also loved those photos but the price was kind of expensive so we didn’t end up getting the rights to use them. We are getting an 11 X 14 mounted print that we can frame and hang on the wall, though. We won’t get it for a few weeks but will definitely let you know when we have it.
Brian did take a few photos of me and the dogs while we were waiting for the photographer. His photos actually turned out well.
While these pictures that Brian took aren’t professional photos, they’re actually quite good and they didn’t cost us a penny! LOL.
Until next time. GNG.
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Riverside Park Fun
Posted on June 30, 2019 by Ching under Things to Do.
Brian and I had some fun at Riverside Park while waiting for my friend Hannah (HN Photography). We took some fun photos together as we waited.
These pics didn’t turn out too bad despite having been taken simply with a phone. But, when you see the pics that Hannah took, you’ll definitely see that she’s PRO!
On the next post I will share some of my favorite shots from the ones she took that morning. Stay tuned!
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Belated Happy Birthday
Posted on June 25, 2019 by Ching under Events, Family, Food and Drink.
In case y’all didn’t know, my handsome husband turned another year older this month. He is now officially middle-aged. LOL. He will probably argue this fact but I looked it up. According to the dictionary, middle age is “the period between early adulthood and old age, usually considered as the years from about 45 to 65.”
Yes, babe, you are, in fact, officially considered a middle-aged man.
Despite being old, he’s still very handsome and aging quite gracefully.
Unfortunately, I had to take a CPR/AED renewal class on Brian’s actual birthday. It was my only affordable option and my CPR/AED certificate was set to expire on June 15. To make it up to him, I took him out the Hill Bar & Grill (one of our favorite places to eat) on the eve of his birthday.
We cannot go there without having chicharonnes.
This is the crab and chorizo queso which was pretty good and quite filling. It was the first time we’d ever ordered it.
We were not too full for the mini doughnuts though. They are not to be missed.
I took a picture of the daily specials so we can better plan our return trip.
Here’s a picture of me with my dummy at CPR/AED renewal training the next evening. I felt bad that we couldn’t celebrate on Brian’s actual birthday but we did that pre-birthday dinner and we still had the Symphony in the Flint Hills (more on that later) and his mom and dad’s visit at the end of the month to look forward to. There was plenty of celebrating to be had.
We began his birthday weekend celebration on Friday, June 14. Brian took the day off work to volunteer with me at Symphony in the Flint Hills. For those who don’t know, volunteering is a great way to enjoy the event for free.
Here are a few pictures from that day.
I was so excited because the site they picked this year was absolutely amazing. The organizers improved the set up and the layout of the tents was the best I’d ever seen. The site is also the closest its ever been. It was only about an hour away from our house. When we left the site on Friday afternoon, we were both super excited to return and enjoy the festivities the next day.
As (bad) luck would have it, the storm rolled through and destroyed nearly everything. All of the hard work the volunteers did over the past few days was obliterated. For the first time in its 20-year history, the Symphony in the Flint Hills canceled the event.
Here are some pics of the devastation.
I was bummed because I had been looking forward to it all year. It was how we were celebrating Brian’s birthday weekend. Selfishly, Brian was felt like he spent that whole day volunteering for nothing (since the event was canceled). I told him, as disappointing as it is, I was glad that we had an opportunity to volunteer and see the beautiful event site on Friday. Had we not volunteered, we would have missed it altogether. I was grateful that we got to see that beautiful land.
At first it was going to be postponed to Sunday. It would have been really tricky with me teaching Zumba at 3 PM and then both of us having to go to work the next day but Brian and I were really going to still do everything in our power to still go. Eventually, the event organizers decided to cancel. It was a huge bummer but it was all for the best because it was going to be a real challenge to attend on Sunday.
Since our Symphony in the Flint Hills plans fell through, we ended up going to Stearman Field for their annual fly in. We also wanted to go to it but we couldn’t because of the Symphony event, which happened to be on the same day. There’s always so many fun events going on around town that it’s so hard to choose which ones to attend. You just kind of have to prioritize. Don’t ever believe anyone when they say there’s nothing to do in Wichita. They are lying.
Or, as they say, there are no boring places, only boring people.
Here are a few of the pictures that we took at the air field.
These vehicles were on display on someone’s yard. We couldn’t tell whether or not they were part of the show. Brian felt weird taking these pics.
It turned out to be a beautiful day for a fly in.
But it was also too hot. We wanted to cool off inside the restaurant but it was a two-hour wait. Instead we decided to drive over the WBC for early supper.
As luck would have it, it was the official first day of the Wicked Brew Tour so we got our first stamps there.
Fittingly, Brian happened to be wearing his Wicked Brew shirt from last year, which is one of his favorite shirts to wear.
The Wicked Brew Tour is something we look forward to every summer.
There are even more local breweries and coffee shops participating this year!
We went to Churn & Burn East after dinner. The East location has been open a while but it was our first visit there. We always end up visiting the original location on Oliver out of habit.
The East location is super cute and close to our house.
Here’s a picture of our Swiss Cafe Mocha Churn & Burns (our favorite drink there). I got the big one!
We continued celebrating this past weekend when Brian’s parents came to town. Brian and his grandma always try to celebrate their birthdays together because his birthday is on the 13th and hers is on the 19th.
In Brian’s 45 years, they’ve only missed celebrating three birthdays together and those were the years Brian lived in Memphis.
Grandma turned 97 this year. As if that wasn’t enough to celebrate, we also celebrated Brian’s parents’ 46th wedding anniversary (June 2, technically) and belated Father’s Day. We’ve been so busy this year that we didn’t do cards or presents. In lieu of gifts, Brian and I just decided to buy everyone dinner.
I will post pictures of our food and you guys try to guess where we went.
CLUE: It’s pretty much our go to place for celebrations and dinner in general.
That’s pretty much how we celebrated Brian’s birthday this year. No huge party or big trip (since we did Costa Rica in April and we still have Orlando in July and Cancun in November) this year. We did talk about going to Colorado but we just couldn’t get it together in time.
Perhaps next year we will make it out there but, either way, we will be back in time for our traditional family celebration because grandma and Brian have to celebrate together. It’s kind of their thing. Until next time. GNG.
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