Omaha

The first weekend in October, I went to Omaha to visit with a couple of high school friends. We all live in different cities, but get together once a year. This year, we all went to Omaha (where my friend JJ lives). It's so nice to catch up with them!

We grabbed dinner and drinks in the Old Market area Friday night. We even did a little late night shopping! We went to this store that had the strangest combination of books and things. There was a whole section devoted to bacon. And they had books with titles like "How to mess up your kids (without even trying)".

On Saturday, we watched the kids play soccer (Stryker is 8 and Tori is 5). We also went to the largest pumpkin patch I've ever been to - Valas! This is like a big fall fair with tons of things going on - hayrack rides, pony rides, face painting, shows, pumpkin cannons, a huge corn field maze, pig races, etc.

The kids in the witch's cauldron

Make your own snowcone - so many flavors

Face painting - Crystal got hers done too!

Huge tic-tac-toe board - with toliet seat O's

At the entrance to the corn maze

Huge "bubbles" to jump on - these looked like so much fun!

On the hayrack ride

On Saturday night, JJ's husband Jerry grilled out some steaks for all of us and we carved up the pumpkins we got earlier that day. Messy, but the kids loved it!

I made a bear claw

Crystal picked a very green pumpkin!

More pics from the weekend saved on our Shutterfly site.

Welcome Kayla Marie!

On Sept 26, Hany and Grant welcomed their new baby girl to the world. She was born around 12:20 pm and weighed in at 7 lbs 2 oz and was 19 inches long.

Erin and I went to visit them at the hospital and little Kayla was adorable! So tiny! She has a head full of dark hair.

Congrats!

The last two weeks

The last two weeks have flown by!

Over Labor Day weekend, we drove down to Rochester to hang out with the fam. We also went down to St. Louis on Saturday to visit my uncle Dan who is in the hospital there. He had just made a big turn around and was doing really well... he even got moved out of the ICU while we were there!

On Saturday night, we had dinner at Syberg's by my aunt's hotel in St. Louis. Coincidentally, it was karaoke night! Erin and I sang a couple of songs. The place was pretty empty besides all of our family.

Brett and Matt shared 50 wings at Syberg's!

On Sunday, we drove back to Rochester and had a cookout at my parents' house. My Dad made homemade ice cream = SO good! We made root beer floats with the leftovers for a snack later!

Best stuff ever!

I spent this past week in Seattle for work. My boss had called me on Friday afternoon before Labor Day and asked if I could help out on a project there. I had to fly out Tuesday morning. I flew on Alaska Air and lucked out with the flight there. Some guy wanted to sit by his wife, whose seat was next to mine. So, he asked if I would switch with him. And by the way, his seat was in 1st class! Um, that's a no-brainer!

One of the guys I was working with and his wife took me to dinner for my birthday (Wednesday), which was super nice of them. We went to this seafood restaurant called Ivar's. The food was delicious!

Me with my birthday cake

Oh, and the weirdest part of the trip to Seattle was the earthquake on Friday around noon. I was waiting for the elevator when I started hearing one of the elevators clanking more than usual. I just thought, hope I don't get that elevator. Then, I started swaying involuntarily - like my weight kept shifting from one foot to the other. I had no clue what was going on. I thought to myself "am I about to faint?", "am I sick?" = I was so confused and thought something was wrong with me! I looked down at the floor and tried to make myself stop, but couldn't. Strangest feeling. It finally stopped after about 15 seconds and then I hopped on the elevator and grabbed some lunch. When I got back to the office, everyone was talking about "the earthquake". Then, it clicked that I hadn't been swaying, it was the building that was swaying and I was just trying to balance myself! No wonder I couldn't make it stop!

I got back into town after midnight on Friday. Matt won husband-of-the-day award, because he stayed awake and picked me up from the airport. : )

Yesterday, we went up to the PO to watch the Iowa v. Iowa State game. I hadn't been there in a while. Fun times, but bummed that Iowa lost.

Birthday shot

Last night, Matt and I met up with Ross, Erin, Brett and Sandi for dinner at Carmichael's to celebrate my birthday. We had so - much - food! I loved the carrot cake for dessert! Left there in a total food coma! Good times! : )

Check out Matt's lobster tail! Now you see it...

Now you don't!

Baby shower

Today, Erin and I threw Hany a baby shower. She's due in one month and is expecting a little girl. The baby's room is going to be decorated with pink and purple butterflies. So cute!

A few pics from the day...

Everyone decorated a onesie for Baby Reiss

Fancy stuff!

Lauren had a ball with the fabric paint!

Group pic - Lauren was saying "cheese" the entire time we took pictures - SO CUTE!

Welcome Baby Reiss

She's ready for football and baseball seasons!

Trying out the burp cloths

Such a cute little shorts outfit

Onesies drying - this crazy drying contraption is from Hany's mom in Malaysia and worked out so well!

Erin wins the award for most elaborate design!

She's ready for her first Christmas!

One of Lauren's creations

Jane did this one!

This one is mine

Ravinia

On Saturday night, we went to see the band Chicago at Ravinia. The concert was sold out, but we picked up some lawn tickets from a guy at work who couldn't use them.

We took the Metra up to the park. Erin, Ross, Brett and Sandi hopped on at Ravenswood. Worked out perfectly!

The weather was gorgeous for the concert! Even a little chilly once the sun went down.

I didn't really know what to expect from the concert. I know the more popular Chicago songs, but I didn't realize it was going to be so instrumental. It was like part Jazz concert. They played so many different instruments! We got to hear a few of our favorites. They even threw in a Christmas medley... kind of strange!

It was a fun time! And I got my Ravinia fix in before the season was over! : )

Trying out a couple of new places in our 'hood

Wednesday night, we went to Paddy O'Fegans for dinner. The place opened a few weeks ago. It's an Irish pub (if you couldn't guess that from the name!) a few blocks from our place. The beer list was really good - what more can you expect from the Irish!!! The food was ok, nothing to come running back for. The service... well, that was not the greatest. Matt thought our waitress had never actually waitressed before. She was really sweet, though. First, Matt asked her what the Sam Adam's seasonal was and she said Octoberfest, so he ordered that. She brought him a Bell's Oberon. She apologized and told him she'd take half off the price or something like that. Matt was like, no big deal - I'll drink it anyway. Then, when our food order came out, she brought us both the same thing. I had ordered a burger and Matt got the fish-n-chips, but with sweet potato fries instead (which she told him was a sacrilege in Ireland). The bad thing was I even saw her write our order down and she wrote that I wanted the burger. Not sure what happened between her walk from our table to the register and why she couldn't read her own writing... but, I got my food about 10 minutes after Matt. Then, when we finally got our bill, she had charged us for 2 fish-n-chips (which was more expensive than the burger), but had given us a $2.50 credit for her "MISTAKE" as it was shown on the receipt (which was for the first beer she brought). Too funny.

Thursday night, we checked out a tapas place called Meze. It's in the Fulton Market area, sort of out of the way (Lake and Peoria) - not one of those places you would walk by and see and want to try out. When we got there, the place was empty. It's very loungey and clubby feeling. I think it actually turns into a dance club later in the night. The music was sort of techno and then some weird French stuff = very interesting. I decided to "check-in" on Foursquare and up pops a Groupon for the night - $40 for $60 worth of food and drinks. Sweet! : ) All of the food we had was really good! The drink list was not as great. Apparently, they were getting a shipment in the next day of wine/beer, so they were out of a lot of stuff. Matt's beer options were Miller Lite, Hacker Pschorr and Heineken. I hope they keep up that Groupon offer! I'd definitely like to go back!

Weekly Update

I'm going to make the effort to actually update this blog once a week! I've been totally slacking off!

A couple of pics from the last week...

Friday night, Matt and I went out for Greek food in our neighborhood to Athena. We sat out in the garden area and it was gorgeous. Perfect weather! Made me miss being in Greece. I told Matt we need to go back there sometime in the future - one of my favorite vacations ever!

Saganaki and Tzatziki - yum!

My parents were in town (my Dad was having a reunion with his brothers and sisters). My mom's train got in Friday night. On Saturday morning, we took a walk around the city. It must have been window-washing day, because they were out in full force!

I would NOT want that job!

After a VERY rainy morning, the weather cleared up and the day was gorgeous. We went to the Cubs vs. Cards game. We were definitely divided on our loyalty - I grew up a Cardinals fan and my parents still are. Now that I'm in Chicago, I cheer for Chicago. If I had grown up in Chicago, I'd probably take a side and be more of a "Cubs" or "Sox" fan.

On Saturday night, we hung out at our condo. We played Millionaire party mode. I think Brett was the big winner. We also played Gummy Bear mini-golf - what a train wreck! We were NOT good at that game, but it was very entertaining! : )

Who wants to be a Millionaire?

On Sunday, we went to the Chicago Air Show. Kind of a hassle getting there, but SO glad we went. The weather was beautiful and the show was fun!

Crowded!

View of the city

Brett and Sandi

Typical Matt - "do not take my picture"