Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving at the Swains! On Wednesday, we packed the car and drove all night to Jay's family's house. We arrived at 4 in the morning! After getting some sleep, we spent the rest of the day resting and spending time with Jay's family. Ashley's family arrive mid-afternoon from Northern Virginia. We had a wonderful meal thanks to Jay's mom! Kojak enjoyed playing with his cousin Buddy,too!

On Friday, we did some shopping and then celebrated Nana and Grandaddy's 51st Wedding Anniversary. On Saturday, we went to Richmond to visit the Robinson clan. It was so good to see everyone- especially the two babies Lily and Kayla. We drove back on Sunday after a great weekend!

New Car!

This past weekend, we bought a 2002 BMW 540i. It is a very comfortable and fast ride! We traded in the Z3 and the truck to consolidate our cars. We've had a lot of fun using the heated seats and nice stereo!

Tennessee Trip

This weekend, we went up to Tennessee to visit Andrew, a friend from college. We got there Saturday afternoon and went on a 4 mile hike. We saw some amazing sights from House Mountain. The fall colors are so pretty! We had a wonderful dinner with Andrew's family and then headed out to see the night life of Knoxville. The Carberrys have a new little 12 week old puppy, who was a bichon and poodle mix. She is so precious but does not like Kojak. When she saw him for the first time, she literally screamed and peed on the floor! It was too funny.
On Sunday, we went to Andrew's church and to Lisa's Kitchen for a good ol' southern meal. We headed out Sunday afternoon and got back to Atlanta Sunday evening. It was so good to see Andrew and his family!

Two Parties in One Day!

Georgia vs. Florida Game
On Saturday, we had our small group from church come over to watch the Florida vs Georgia game. Although Jay and I were not strong supporters of either team, it was very humorous to see our friends rival!

Costume Party

Later that evening, we had a costume party where our guests dressed up as a favorite television or movie character. We had a lot of fun and gave out superlatives such as Best Costume (Zod), Most Creative (Deal or No Deal), Most realistic (Ugly Betty), etc. You can view these pictures below!

Jay as Dwight from the Office and Keri from Deal or No Deal

Melissa as Ginger the Flapper and Tommy as Bugsy the Gangster

Keri and Ashley (Dunder Mifflin Paper from the Office)

Keri and Jay (Zod from Superman)

Ben as Homer, Joy as Ugly Betty, Ashley and Jay

Williamsburg and Weddings!

We went on a great road trip with the Morgans last Friday through Monday. Of course, we sat in Atlanta traffic and arrived in Yorktown around 2 in the morning. After spending some time with Jay's parents Saturday morning, we headed to Williamsburg to eat lunch at the Cheese shop and see the colonial buildings. After lunch, we headed to Jamestown and saw the fort, ships, and the indian houses. We loved showing the Morgans around William and Mary's Campus as well. We ate dinner at the Foxhunter Grill- awesome italian food!- with Jay's parents. Jay gave a Ghost Tour of certain buildings in Williamsburg- Danielle and Ashley were a little spooked!
On Sunday, we met up with Ashley's family who were in town for her brother's college's parents weekend. We saw his new apartment and went to church where we got married! It was great to see some old friends- especially the pastor that married us!
We were headed to go out to lunch when Ashley's brother, Chuck, found a nail in his tire! So, Ashley got to learn how to change a flat tire! :) After forty five minutes, we met both families at Pierce's BBQ and ate lunch in the beautiful weather.
After lunch, we headed to Yorktown to see the trenches and Cornwallis's cave. We quickly got ready for Allison and Grant's Wedding at the Wren Chapel. We had a blast at their wedding - especially going back to Ford's Colony where our reception was. It was great to meet some of Jay's old friends and acquaintances.
After the wedding, we had a great time at the Green Leafe and mug night. The Morgans enjoyed their new souvenir mugs! We headed over to the Corner Pocket to play pool- Matt was too good and we werent any competition for him!
Sunday night we did get some rest. We got up early Monday and drove back to the ATL. We made it home in 10 hours with stops! That may be a record!
We promise we will put up pictures soon!

Trip to NY!

Last weekend, Ashley flew to Long Island to spend a weekend with Lara and Rebecca. The main purpose was to celebrate Lara and Phil's engagement on Saturday night. Ashley flew into NY on Saturday morning and met Rebecca, Lara and her family at the airport. For lunch, we ate authentic New York style pizza and garlic rolls. yum! We spent a few hours bridesmaid dress shopping and then headed over to the engagement party. It was great to have a few hours to spend with Rebecca at the party while Lara and Phil were spending time with all of their guests. On Sunday, Mrs. Chmela, Lara's mom, made us waffles. Lara and Rebecca and Ashley got a few more hours to spend together then we went to Phil's house for leftovers for lunch. Although, it was a quick trip- it was a blast!

On Sunday, Jay flew from Atlanta to Las Vegas for buisiness. He got his second In-N-Out Fix in two weeks! Boy, we love those burgers! :)

Dylan is going to visit this weekend from Maryland and we're looking forward to catching up with him!

Labor Day Weekend!

After a long week at work, we were ready for a three day weekend! We went to Knoxville, TN to visit Andrew and his family. On Saturday, we spent some time with Andrew's new school friends and hung out on the lake. Everyone (except Ashley, Andrew's sister and her friend) jumped off this HUGE cliff into the water. Yikes! Jay went three times. We even went tubing and saw fireworks from the boat too. After Andrew's friends left, the three of us went out to see what knoxville had to offer. We found a fun bar/restaurant with a Talking Heads cover band!
On Sunday, we went to Andrew's church with him and his mom. And then we had a very southern meal at a restaurant called Lisa's Kitchen. After lunch we went to visit Andrew's brother, Matthew who owns his our hatchery business where he sells clownfish amoung other aquarium life. It was amazing to see all the progress he has made and how much the business has grown in the past year since we last visited.
That night we went to Boom's Day to celebrate Labor Day. There were so many people there- the newspaper estimated that there were 400,000 people. We saw wakeboarding in the street and the best fireworks we have ever seen! On Monday, we slept in and went out to lunch with Andrew. Then we headed back for Atlanta!

Wedding in Virginia!

Bub, Ashley, and Andrew enjoying Sno to Go after the reception!


Andrew, Emily, Dylan, Jay, and Ashley at the reception.

This past weekend, we flew to Williamsburg for Bradley and Celeste's Wedding. We had a fun three day weekend! On Thursday, we were supposed to fly out of Atlanta at 11pm and the flight got delayed so we didnt get to Virginia until after 3 am!
After we rested up, on Friday we joined some of the guys from the wedding at Carolina Barbeque, an old favorite from Jay's college days. We spend the rest of the afternoon with Jay's family and even had a birthday party for his Aunt Jacky!
On Saturday, we attended the wedding at the Wren Chapel. The Wren Building is the oldest academic building in the country. We had a great time celebrating with Bradley and Celeste and spending time with some friends from college. We even got to have a 'stuffed Bahama Mama' from Sno to Go! It is the best sno cone!
On Sunday, we went to church with Jay's family, out to lunch at Salsa's and then on the plane back to Atlanta!

Family Vacation to California

Ashley's family around Bill Hart's signature (as our grandfather's name!)

At the San Diego Zoo

On the USS Midway

After celebrating our 2 year anniversary, we went to Los Angeles in June with Ashley's family. We visited with her grandmother, aunts, uncles and cousins. We got to tour Hollywood and go to an Augustana concert. We traveled to San Diego for a day- went to the USS Midway and the Zoo. We also went to the acquarium and toured The Queen Mary Ship. We left Kojak with some friends from our church. They took such good care of him! It was much easier to leave him there than the kennel.

London!

Tower Bridge

Big Ben

London Eye

My friend from college, Kirsten, and me at St. Martin's Crypt

In our hotel in Dublin

We apologize for our delayed posting on our trip to London in February! We went to London for six days and Dublin for one. While we were in London, the weather was amazing. It was in the upper 40s all week and barely rained once. We did all the touristy activities like riding on the London Eye, walking by the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, touring the London Tower, and of course eating at all the famous Pubs! On Thursday, Kirsten, Ashley's roommate from College, came to visit us from Leicester, England. After eating in the St Martin's Crypt, we were walking around Trafalgar Square and we saw the queen! Her chaufers drove right by us! We were standing on the curb and she even was on that side of the car. In Dublin, we went to the Guiness Storehouse and then spent some time walking around the streets. After eating dinner at a pub, we went back to the Clontarf Castle Hotel. Its was a real castle that has been transformed into a hotel! Unfortunately, we only got to stay there one night.

Trip To Minnesota

Last weekend, we traveled to Minnesota to visit Jay's family: his Uncle Randy, Aunt Cathy, cousin Craig, his wife Andrea, cousin Jen, her husband Pat, and their little girl, Madeleine. We had so much fun with all of them. We were sad to leave Monday morning.

Since we could not take Kojak with us, we had to leave him at the kennel for the weekend. It was his first time away from us in the 8 months since we adopted him. We dropped Kojak off at the kennel Saturday morning before we took a shuttle to the airport. It was so incredibly hard to leave him there! We really missed him and we both had some separation anxiety as we drove away. But when we called over the weekend, the staff assured us that he was adjusting fine.

We arrived in Minneapolis around 11 am Saturday morning. Jay's uncle and cousin, Andrea, were there to greet us and take us back to the house. We spent the rest of the morning at his cousins', Jen and Pat, house. We got to play with their precious baby girl, Madeleine who is now 14 months old. She is so smart and affectionate!

Later Saturday night, we watched a very exciting hockey game at the University of Minnesota. It was fun cheering on the Golden Gophers! We got to spend some time with his cousins, Craig and Andrea, at the game.

After church on Sunday morning, we ate a delicious greek brunch with Jen, Pat, Uncle Randy and Aunt Cathy. We went over to Uncle Randy and Aunt Cathy's house and watched some cute old family videos of Jay when he was a baby.

Later Sunday we went to Andrea and Craig's Super Bowl Party. The girls took over the middle floor and the guys resided in the basement with the big screen. We all made bets on the score of the game and Jay won the bet! So we came home with a little extra cash!

After the game, we spent the rest of the evening at Jay's aunt and uncle's house. After spending a few hours with them, we rested up for our flight Monday morning. We had a great time catching up with everyone and look forward to our next visit!

Welcome to the Darcy's Blog!

We are excited about sharing our life stories and events with our family and friends through this blog. As we near the end of our second year in Atlanta, we realized there are a lot of updates to make! Here is a quick overview of the past year and half.

First of all, we are enjoying life in Atlanta! Our biggest changes have been the purchase of our house in October 2006, the addition of a dog to our home, Jay working with a new company, and last but not least Ashley starting a master's degree program.

We have been in our home for almost a year and a half. We have built friendships with two of our neighbors and enjoy inviting them over for dinner. We also enjoy having rooms for guests to stay when they come to visit us! So, please feel free to come stay with us and explore Atlanta!


Our house!
(With Ashley's parents' red van in the driveway)

In May 2007, we rescued a precious dog named Kojak. He is a brindle-colored boxer mix with a huge heart. He loves guests- especially giving kisses and snuggling on the couch.


Our precious doggie, Kojak!

In September 2007, Jay accepted a new opportunity with Sandvik Mining and Construction, a Swedish company that manufactures heavy equipment and tools. He manages recruiting for the United States and Canada. He greatly enjoys his new role and working with colleagues from around the world. He has already had the opportunity to visit Vancouver, British Columnia, Pittsburgh and Dallas. He has plans to go to Golden, Colorado, Las Vegas and Sandviken, Sweden during the beginning of 2008.

In January 2008, Ashley began a master's program at Kennesaw State University in Early Childhood Education with a concentration in Montessori. She is enjoying her classes each week as well as applying the knowledge to her teaching position at the Suzuki School.

These are all of the important past updates and we promise to keep you abreast of the new ones as they come along!