First Visitors and A Very Soggy Browns Game

This weekend, the Hollisters and the Hansons began their road trip from PA to CO. Their first stop was here! They got in around midnight on Friday night and left early this morning, but we still got to hang out for a bit and take them to one of our favorite spots before they headed out! Our small apartment had a lot of people in it! The girls and Joey slept out on the futon, and the guys slept on our bedroom floor since our room is air conditioned. haha.

We're looking forward to them all visiting again sometime! (For more than 9 hours!)

On Friday, one of Jon's co-workers got us tickets to see the Cleveland Browns for the first home game. It was raining most of the day today, but we were determined to use the free tickets, free parking, and great seats! We got very wet, but it was still fun! Neither of us had been to a professional football game before! Apparently Penn State football doesn't count. Below you will see the progression of our pictures from the time we got out of the car (starting to get wet) to when we get back in the car (very soaked!). By the time we left, the parking lot had over a foot of water covering the majority of it! The worst part about the night was that they wouldn't let me take my umbrella into the game. R.I.P. pretty fuchsia umbrella, Jon will miss holding you over our heads.

Cleveland's Best

In the last 10 days,

• Mary and Doug got married!!!
• Jenn and I had the greatest sleepover of all time (at my parent's house).
  
• I rode a horse for the first time in 2 months... WAY overdue.
  
• I got my hair chopped!
  
• Joey met his new BFF, Chandler, and it was love at first sight.... Chandler is a girl.

This weekend we were able to relax in Cleveland, which is always nice considering our crazy summer. We didn't do anything too exciting, just checked out a few new places nearby that we heard were great... and they were! Cleveland's best pizza and Cleveland's best ice cream are within a 5 minute drive from our apartment! We showed up to church this morning to find it was canceled due to a plumbing problem... so we went for breakfast at a coffee shop down the street from our place, Erie Island Coffee.

This leads me to "The List"... this list of Cleveland's best and worst (according to me).

The worst:
While Jon doesn't appreciate my negative Cleveland comments, I must say driving here is much more stressful than what I am used to... and that's the polite version of what I would really like to say about Cleveland drivers! Other than the driving, I can't complain too much. In fact, I really am enjoying living here despite missing everyone from PA.

Walking Joey on a leash is not the greatest either, particularly when he squats 15 times before finding the perfect spot... but on to the good stuff!

The Best:
I have discovered many things I love about living in Lakewood, which is the first tier suburb of the city of Cleveland. Here's the list!

• A local chocolate company, Malley's Chocolates. It's amazing. I have a bumper sticker from there, and I can win money if they spot me! Still waiting on that...
• We can walk to SO many things! (countless restaurants, Pizza, coffee, beer, dry cleaner, my hair salon... the list goes on!)
  
• We live above a bakery, so it smells good ALL the time.
• The Dog Park. It's only a half mile from us so we can either walk or drive Joey down to run around and be free from his leash!
  
• Edison's Pub. Although it's not technically voted "Best Pizza in Cleveland", Jon and I beg to differ. Jon says "it's a hidden treasure, AKA the best kept secret this side of Chicago" (direct quote).
• There's so much to do here. The options are endless! (Slightly different from Lancaster County)
  
• Lake Erie. It's half a mile from our apartment and there's lots of park and beaches on it to enjoy.
  
• My favorite restaurant, The Cheesecake Factory, is less than a 10 minute drive! And another favorite, Smokey Bones, is nearby too!
  
• Francesca's, a new favorite store, is .8 miles down the street from our apartment. A little dangerous, but still awesome.
  
• My new favorite place, as soon as I get a chance to actually go there, will be The Chocolate Bar in downtown Cleveland. I've heard it's amazing and with my love of chocolate I think it's going to be heaven on earth when I get there. (I'll let you know!)
• Being married and living with Jon. I must say it's been so nice not to have a 6 hour car ride between us! and being married is pretty great too.
  

I think that about wraps it up for now. Here's a few pictures from the latest events mentioned before....

P.S.- Mom, just because I love all these things about Cleveland doesn't mean I don't miss PA. Don't worry, we're still planning on living closer some day!
































































































This last picture is of my Parents' cat and her last kitten... WHO WANTS HER?! :)

Catching Up!

It's been awhile, so thought I would catch everyone up on what the Pombos have been up to!

The weekend of July 17th, we headed home to PA for Erin and Jeff Dill's wedding in Philadelphia! We headed to Philly early in the day with Claudia and Ross to hang out and catch up. We ended up going to Dave and Buster's and it was awesome. After hearing that it was "virtually impossible" to win the 500 (pictured below), both Claudia AND Jon won it. Awesome.




























From there we headed to Erin and Jeff's wedding, with a quick stop to change!



































































That Sunday, we invited all of our Mt. Joy friends over to eat lunch and left over wedding cake! My Mom was awesome, and she prepared everything for us.






















The following weekend we headed to Pittsburgh on Saturday for another wedding! (a friend of Jon's from Grove City)

On Sunday, back in Cleveland, we were on our way to church when Jon's friend Pete (from Grove City, but lives in Wooster, OH- about an hour drive from Cleveland). He and his girlfriend Mary were headed to the Cleveland Indians game and had two extra tickets... so we skipped the last song at church and ran home to change and meet them at the game! It was a fun day, and my first Cleveland Indian's experience... and we had AMAZING seats!


This past weekend we relaxed in Cleveland, wrote lots thank you notes, and did some shopping for our apartment and for upcoming weddings!

This weekend we head to PA for Mary and Doug's wedding weekend!

In other news, I came down with some kind of sickness over the last few days, so I'm resting up, watching my Friends DVDs, and hoping to be back to my normal self for the wedding!

That's all for now. We'll post again soon! I've been listing (in my mind) all the things I love (and don't love) about Cleveland...