Brother and Seesters

Poor Grace has been begging us to take her to MagiQuest to use her Christmas present for the past several months and a few weeks ago we FINALLY got the chance!

We really didn't know what to expect, but had such a great time at Wizard Quest over the summer and were hoping it would be similar. Well it's a bit different, but we still really had fun.

Basically you have a computerized wand and you enter a magical realm and begin completing quests. Every time you find a clue you wave your wand at it and it registers on a computer. After you gather all of the clues you complete that quest and increase your magical powers. We had bought Grace a wand and two hour game pass for Christmas.

In two hours we completed the 12 basic quests, became a master magi and finished the dragon adventure. We did really well and in the end our feet were killing us! There is so much walking involved!

Overall, it was really fun. We enjoyed the challenge and working together as a team. But the clues were really easy to find, which was really different than Wizard Quest. Also the realm wasn't that decorated which made it not quite as cool. But we did have fun so I'm sure we will go back!

Grace was really excited!

She was very powerful with her wand

Getting a bit wand happy and attacking her brother

After we completed our magical quest we journeyed to another fantasy world, Rain Forest Cafe for some much needed rest and relaxation. We got there pretty late, 8:30 p.m., but that got us an excellent table right by the fish tank.

Pretty fishy. I think the pattern would make a nice purse!

Brothers and seesters!

Man and his grill

I'm very happy to report that after six months of sitting in the box in our kitchen, we've FINALLY got the grill put together!

Matt and his Dad tackled the beast a couple of weeks ago. And contrary to what the box claimed, it was not "easy" to assemble. It took the guys about four hours to put it together, but to their credit the instructions were the worst anyone had ever seen!

"Hey, this is harder than it looks!"

But it did get put together, and later that weekend we christened it by cooking up some juicy steaks!

Matt is in heaven

This is all a man really needs, a grill, some steaks and his beer!

My food vs. Matt's food

There has been a bit of a weight challenge going on in the Leibrock house since the wedding. For the past six months both Matt and I have been working hard to become our best "physical" selves.

For me this means losing weight and for Mattie this means gaining weight! So Matt has been eating a lot more and Jess has been eating a lot less. This has been an interesting dichotomy which often results in some odd meals.

Like this one. Can you guess which one is Matt's dinner?

But I'm very happy to report that both of us have had great success! I've lost about 15 pounds since the wedding and Mattie has gained about 15 pounds of muscle!

For all you women out there who are dieting you can feel my pain when I say that men can be so frustrating, eating everything in sight and not gaining a pound. Let me tell you, I would much rather be trying to GAIN weight! But either way, I'm happy that both of us are accomplishing our goals.