Back in Iowa

When we were in Iowa in January for my grandpa's funeral it snowed, and until the past few days that was really all the snow that Iowa had gotten so far this year. It figures, the one time we are back that it would snow! Dylan was excited though. That was the most snow he had seen and he was very excited to go outside and play in the snow. Luckily his Aunt's Dana and Cathy and Grandma Judy were happy to accompany him outside in the freezing cold to play in the snow! Dana tought him how to make snow angels. Cathy and Jane even bought Dylan a sled! With it being almost 70 degrees in Tennessee today, I doubt (hope! I am ready for Spring)we are going to get a chance to use the sled again. There's always next year!

Dana showing Dylan how to make a snow angel.

Helping Grandma Judy shovel snow.

Cathy saving Dylan from Dana!

Painting a picture for Dad.

Painting with Grandma Judy.

He finished!

That's what the picture message I got from Dana said! It also had a photo of Dave after the race!
Dave told me he wanted to finish the race in under 2 hours and he did it! He said the obstacles were tough and he had some cramping at the end. I just talked to him briefly just after the race and when I get more details I will let you know.
Here are Dave's race stats:
Overall 2940 out of over 7500 participants
Placed 443 out of 706 in the 30-34 age division
Final time: 1 hour 49 minutes and 23 seconds

If you are interested in anyone else's stats click here to go to the results page.

Two-fer Tuesday

Dylan and Melea

Dana, Mom and I at Dylan's birthday party.

Chicago Part 2

We slept in a bit on Sunday morning, but awoke to the sounds of breakfast being made. Sandra is excellent at making breakfast, so we were in for a treat. She made the standard monkey bread, which was wonderful, eggs, bacon, and sausage.

After our huge breakfast we decided we should head back out on the lake for some fishing. We all piled into the boat and went out to Sandra's fishing spot, where we were guaranteed to catch a fish or two. Sarah was the first to catch a fish, about 14" and 7 or 8 lbs. It took me a while, but I also caught a little smaller fish. He sure felt really heaving when I was reeling him in though. Allison was not so lucky and didn't catch a fish, something about the pregnancy hormones scaring the fish away...

Sarah and I got our photos taken with our fish so we can grace the wall of fish in the basement. Now we just need to get the photos from Sandra (hint, hint).

After we were done fishing Sarah and I said our goodbyes and headed back into the city to go to my sisters house. We did get slowed down by traffic, so it took us a little longer than we had hoped to get to Dana and Paul's house. Luckily they live right off the interstate so their house was easy to find. You certainly wouldn't know that they live right off the interstate though, there is no noise from the busy road and their tree lined street looks like something out of a story book. I didn't know these neighborhoods existed so close to the city!

It was great to see Dana and Paul and their new house. I had seen pictures, but it looked even better in person. The house is older, but has great details in the woodwork, built ins, windows, and just the rooms in general are very open letting in lots of light. Unfortunately, Charlie, their cat was not so excited to see me and hid most of the time I was there.

Not too long after I arrived we all started getting ready to head out for an afternoon and evening at Rivinia. If you don't know, Rivinia is a huge outdoor amphitheatre and space where concerts are held all summer long. It is right next to/in the Chicago Botanical Gardens. Everyone that goes to these concerts packs up food, drinks, tables (fun fact, most of the people had the same Rivinia table from Crate and Barrel, the table was named for the place!) chairs and blankets. The gates opened at 5pm and by the time we got in at 5:30 we could hardly find a place to set our camp up. And it was HOT and sunny and we didn't find a spot under a tree. But it wasn't actually as bad out as I thought it would be. It was fun just to sit and people watch and catch up with everyone. We had an excellent assortment of food, Dana brought cheese and crackers, and brownies. we also had taco dip, hummus and veggies, turkey and cheese wraps, Popeyes chicken, corn and mashed potatoes and lots of wine and beer.

Paul, Dana and Holly trying to beat the heat!

Sting started promptly at 7:30 and sounded great. He was playing with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and while we couldn't see him (seriously, this place is huge!) the sound was great since we were close to speakers. The sun had also started to set, so we could enjoy being outside a little more.

We didn't have a problem leaving Rivinia and traffic was light.

Monday morning Dana went in late to work so she would walk me to the train. We had a pretty relaxed morning having breakfast and me getting packed up.

My flight home was also uneventful. We left on time and I arrived into Knoxville a few minutes early! Nina was wonderful and picked me up from the airport since Dave was at a golf tournament in Nashville. It was great to see Dylan when I picked him up from daycare on Monday, I had certainly missed him!

Chicago Part 1

Luckily I had an uneventful flight from Knoxville to Chicago. Sarah picked me up at O'Hare. It was great to see her after way too long. Our friend Beth works very close to O'Hare, so we stopped by to see her before we went to lunch. I haven't seen Beth in even longer than I'd seen Sarah, so just a few minutes of saying hi was nice (even if it was at a funeral home...).

After visiting with Beth for a little bit Sarah and I headed back to her neighborhood (Lincoln Square) to have lunch and catch up. Lunch was excellent, we both had salads and a glass of wine and caught up on friends and family gossip. We headed off to do some shopping after lunch at all of the cute stores and galleries in the area. Our first stop was a general store that has unique cards and gifts. I found a few birthday cards and a "Goodnight Chicago" book for Dylan. We also hit up a few clothing stores (a teal sleeveless shirt and over sized ring for me!) and a gallery that features Chicago artists (where a "Midwest is Best" t-shirt may also have been purchased).

When we finished shopping we headed back to Sarah's apartment to wrap presents for Allison's baby shower on Saturday and get ready for dinner.


Dinner was at a very cute place a short cab ride from Sarah's, Magnolia Cafe. They have an excellent menu of appetizers, drinks, salads and entrees. Unfortunately they were sold out of the beef short ribs, but we were not disappointed with the Crab Cake appetizer,
Sarah's Delmonico Steak, Au gratin potatoes,


and my braised pork shoulder with fingering potatoes.

Saturday morning had us up a little earlier than we would have liked to head to Indiana to visit our friend Sandra. After a quick trip to Starbucks we were on our way! There was a little traffic on the drive, but it didn't slow us down too much. When we got to Sandra's we started getting a few of the dishes we were having for dinner prepped, while lunch was also being made. (We are excellent multi-taskers!) Allison arrived just as we were getting ready for lunch and after a long drive from Iowa.

After a great lunch we suited up and headed out on the lake. We spent the afternoon lounging on rafts in the lake and catching up. And no, I did not leave my raft all afternoon, I had people handing me food and beer. What more can you ask for from your friends? :)

We all pitched in to get dinner ready, and we had a feast. While we were getting dinner ready Beth arrived. She had to work all day Saturday, but made the hour drive out to Indiana to hang out with us for the evening. We dined on asparagus with prosciutto and Parmesan, fingerling potato salad with green beans and bacon, chicken, pepper, tomato and mushroom kabobs, and cucumber salad. Everything was excellent. After dinner was all headed downstairs to the festively decorated basement for Allison's baby shower!

And Allison opened her gifts!
It was a great day spend with great friends!

Look for Chicago Part 2 tomorrow!

Two-fer Tuesday

The Chicago re-cap will be posted later today or tonight!

Dana and I at Rivinia.

Sandra, Beth, Allison, Sarah and I.

Can't wait

I booked my flight for my trip to Chicago in July! I can't wait! I haven't been to Chicago in what seems like forever. It will be great to see Dana and Paul's new place and hang out with them. I will also be seeing my friends Sarah, Sandra and Beth, friends of mine from high school. That's right people, high school! There are 8 of us that have been friends since high school and still keep in touch. We don't get to see each other all that often since we are now living in Iowa, California, Illinois, Indiana, Florida and Tennessee, so I am super pumped to see great friends I haven't seen in a long time.

And I love Chicago. I think it's the different neighborhoods that I really like. It doesn't seem like such a big city when you spend time in the different neighborhoods. I do like strolling along Michigan Ave and shopping, but the different neighborhoods of the city have great shopping too! Sarah has lived in different neighborhoods the 8 years she's lived there so when I visit it's fun to explore her neighborhood with her and see what great shops and restaurants are close by. Dana and Paul just moved into their house in Irving Park in March and I've only seen photos and can't wait to see the house and their neighborhood.

Me, Sarah & Sandra during my last trip to Chicago in 2006. It HAS been forever!