Fall Eye Candy

We just finished up a wonderful, fun-filled weekend with Tanner and Zena! Recap coming soon.... but for now, I'm off to Virginia Beach until Thursday. Sean is going to be out of town, so I get to help Heather take care of those two adorable kiddos! I'm so excited to see them and can hardly wait to meet Tenley.

On a random note, I saw these pictures and it really made me miss having a house with a porch. I think a pretty entrance really makes a house and I can't wait to have a house again so around this time of year, I can make it look something like this....

Hope everyone has a fun Halloween! I know I will, getting to play with Bergen and Tenley in their costumes!!! (pictures to come!)

Mid-Week Update

This week, Landon and I have started following an 8 week 10K training guide. We have no plans to actually run a 10K, we just want something to follow to build up our distance (and I figure if I talk about it, we'll be held more accountable). With the weather being so nice, we're off to a nice start with a 2.5 mile run along Lake Shore in the 65 degree weather. It was quite refreshing and the view just never gets old....

This weekend, Tanner and Zena are coming to visit us and it will be their first time to Chicago! We can't wait to show them the city, catch up and have lots of fun.

Hope you're having a wonderful Wednesday! And hopefully the Rangers will win it tonight!

Family Fun

They made it! It was if-y but my parents made it on a standby flight to Chicago late Wednesday night! They took the train from the airport and I met them at what I thought was their stop, but we had a little trouble finding one another. After reuniting and dragging them through the rain and cold, we made it to our apartment and cozied up for the night just to visit. It was so great to see them and I would have been just as happy sitting and visiting with them, but of course we had to see the city!

Landon had to work Thursday of course, so it was just the three of us. It was still rainy and cold, so we decided to do a hop-on hop-off bus tour. This was the perfect thing for us to do on a cold, rainy day (mom's idea, we'll give her credit!); we stayed nice and dry, but still got to see the city. We hopped on right across the street at Millennium Park and we saw nearly the entire downtown area. We got off at Navy Pier for lunch at Harry Caray's, which was a neat experience. (So-so food, but a lot of sports memorabilia and neat celebrity's pictures all around)

Navy Pier

Harry Caray's

The next stop we got off at was the John Hancock Center. As you can tell, this has become our go-to place when we have visitors. They'll all tell you though, it's for good reason!  Even on a cloudy day, it's a great view! 

Being such a dreary day, these were the only two stops we hopped off at so we just rode back to our starting point at Millennium Park. Thursday night, we all got comfy, picked up a Chicago-style pizza across the street at Giordano's and watched that awesome Ranger game!

Friday was a beautiful day! We walked all through Millennium Park....

....and through the Chicago Cultural Center, which is the old library building....

After another sight-seeing filled day, we got ready for dinner and walked just a few short blocks to Bandera. Per Julie's recommendation, we started off with their famous cornbread and grilled jumbo artichokes. I'd have to say the appetizers were the highlight of the meal; and that says a lot, because it was all so good!

After stuffing ourselves silly and topping off the meal with a slice of banana cream pie, we were happy and full!

Saturday, before my parents had to leave, we took them over to see Wrigley Field then to our current obsession.... Gramwhich. We're averaging about twice a week here lately, but it's just so addicting. I've forgotten to mention before how amazing their popcorn is. It's topped with parmesan, salt & pepper, chives and truffle oil... so of course we had to get some, yum. It was the perfect ending to a perfect few days together! Mom and Dad, we had such a great time and are so glad you came to visit us - love y'all!  

Now we're back in Greenfield for the night to grab some warmer clothes for the rest of our stay in Chicago. It's nice to relax on our own couch, watch the Ranger game, and do some free laundry! We'll be back on the road first thing in the morning!  

Hope you had a wonderful weekend as well! Go Rangers!

Fingers Crossed

I am so excited my mom and dad may be coming to visit us tomorrow!  I say may because they'll be trying to fly standby, so my fingers are crossed that they won't have any trouble getting on a flight.  Although it's going to be cold and rainy the next few days, I have no doubt we'll still have a wonderful time.

We have lots of family birthdays this week; both brother-in-laws, Aaron and Sean share a birthday today and Heather has one on Thursday!  So.....

Weekend Recap

This weekend, we had absolutely zero plans, but we loved every minute of it! Friday, we decided to try a new sushi place (new to us, not new to Chicago; it's quite a hit in Chicago) called Toro. We had read tons and tons of reviews on Yelp about it, and knew this was going to be our "go to" sushi place. The reviews warned us that there would be quite a wait, (but it'd be worth it) and they were right. We arrived around 7:30 and the wait was already an hour and a half.  Luckily, there was a cute little wine bar around the corner that kept us plenty busy for an hour and a half!

Toro did not disappoint! We ordered 3 different rolls and I asked Landon to rank them in order of his favorite, and it worked out so nicely that his least favorite was my top favorite, and vice versa. The picture is of Landon's favorite, the Arizona roll....

Saturday was an extremely lazy day for us! Landon watched football all afternoon, and lucky for me, these came in the mail to keep me occupied.....

I love getting my monthly magazines in the mail, especially when they have fall recipes/decorating ideas. This months edition of Real Simple had tons of good recipes in it and made me really miss cooking! I bookmarked several recipes for when return to Greenfield.

And how about that Ranger game?!? So exciting!! I went over to our new (favorite) grocery store, Mariano's for some wine, cheese and crackers, so we had quite the spread to just stay in and watch the game (despite the cheese I chose smelling like feet, according to Landon). After the game though, we had to go back to Iguana Cafe for a celebratory crepe.  Landon had been craving one for several days, so we had to go get one.

Today, Landon had a haircut, so I walked with him a little early and we shopped around. We went to Grahamwich for lunch, which is the sandwich/lunch version of Graham Elliot, where we went for our anniversary. It was so delicious; this Graham Elliot guy really knows his stuff!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend as well!!

Breaking News

Ok maybe not breaking news, but exciting news!  All along, we thought November 6th was going to be our last day in Chicago, but we found out yesterday that we'll be here until December 2nd! Although I'm a little nervous about the weather getting colder, I'm thrilled to have more time here! (which means YOU have more time to come visit us)

Today we had an amazing massage at Four Hands Massage, compliments of Landon's mom, who was so kind to give us this as an anniversary gift.  Talk about pure relaxation..... It was wonderful!  Thanks Denise!

Afterwards, we decided to fully indulge and relax with a glass of wine at the Purple Pig.  We even had some bone marrow, which may sound a little strange and gross, but is quite delicious.  We had "whipped bone marrow" at Graham Elliot on our anniversary, so we were feeling brave and decided to go for round two.  This time, it came out in an actual bone!  Topped with capers, pickled onions and cilantro, this was a perfect little snack!

Hope everyone has had a terrific Tuesday!

....and go Rangers!!!

One year of wedded bliss!

I cannot believe it has been one full year since we said "I do!"  October 9, 2010 was by far the happiest day of my life but I have loved every minute of life since that wonderful day!  It's been a whirlwind of a year, having moved from Fort Worth to Greenfield to Chicago, and I sure wouldn't be moving across the country for anyone but Landon.  You've gotta be pretty special to move to Greenfield, Indiana for!

October 9, 2011 was a very happy day as well.  We slept in, sipped coffee out of our new "anniversary mugs" and Landon gave me the most thoughtful gift he'd ever given me.  It was a box filled with notecards that had all sorts of important dates throughout or relationship; starting back in 2003!  Since it was our paper anniversary after all, this gift was perfectly fitting and I was bawling like a baby reading through all the cards.

After getting ready, we decided to go to brunch at Toast.  There was a 40 minute wait so we decided to take a stroll through the park and nearby neighborhood while we waited.  It was a perfect fall day, leaves have already started to fall quite a bit, but the weather has been near 80 all week.

After eating the best eggs benedict EVER (with prosciutto, artichoke hearts and a lemon, truffle hollandaise) we came back to the apartment, picked up Charlie and headed to the dog beach! This was the most fun we've seen Charlie have; he had an absolute blast and we let the fun go on for over an hour.  He was in & out of the water and played so hard with the other dogs.  We had as much fun watching him as he did frolicking in the water!

Once we successfully wore Charlie completely out, we came home, all took showers and Landon and I got ready for dinner at Graham Elliot.  We had heard wonderful things about this place, but it's more of a special occasion type of place, so we held off until now.  This was HANDS DOWN THE BEST MEAL WE HAVE EVER HAD!  It was 10 courses, but each course was a relatively small portion and not a single course disappointed.  Words cannot describe, so hopefully pictures can....

 
The presentation was amazing and our waiter even printed a copy of our personalized menu from the evening so we can remember what all we ate, as their menu changes seasonally.  We had such a wonderful day together; (and despite living far away from our family and friends) life could not get any better!!!

Lake Shore Love

Ever since we moved to Chicago, I've wanted to run along Lake Shore Drive.  There are always tons and tons of people running, walking and biking out there and every time we drive by I wish I was out there, too.  Well, today was my day.  The weather was perfect and I felt super motivated, so off I went.  This run blew any treadmill run waaaay out of the water.  It was like running on the beach, without the sand (let's be honest, how is that really fun for anyone?!) and with an amazing view.  I had the water on one side, the city skyline on the other and Navy Pier straight ahead.

Navy Pier

Marina

Not a bad view, huh?!?  Hopefully I can make it out there again this week before it turns cold!

It's official people, I love Chicago! (til winter at least)

Mid-Week Update

As Landon packs for College Station, (where he'll be til Friday, working the career fair) Charlie and I are lounging on the couch, catching up on things, watching a little Barefoot Contessa, and it seems one of us can't seem to let go of something......

Yesterday was two years since the day we got engaged!  It's crazy how fast the time flies, I feel like it was just yesterday when we were all busy wedding planning.  

October 4th was a bittersweet day this year though, as sweet Uncle Earl passed away.  Being described as "the backbone of the family," Earl (my mom's, father's brother) was one of the most kind, caring people on this earth, as everyone would agree, and will be missed terribly.  October 4th was also Grandma's mother's birthday, who would have been 113 years old!  

We went to dinner last night at a place we saw on Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives called Kuma's Corner.  I'm not going to lie, I was a little afraid when we drove up to what appeared to be a "biker bar."  I felt like we should be riding up on a Harley with our patched up leather vests on, but we went ahead and trusted Guy that this was going to be some good food.  He did not let us down! The menu claimed the beef patty was 10 oz. but it seemed closer to a pound; these burgers were massive!  We went with their "famous kuma burger" which was topped with bacon and a fried egg and also the "megadeath" which had chorizo/potato hash, pico de gallo, cayenne avocado cream and tortilla strips.  Talk about filling, but these may have been some of the best burgers we've ever had.  

Clearly we had leftovers, hello dinner!

We came home and took Charlie for a walk where the boys had to stop and watch a little tennis....

Well, Charlie and I are officially on our own again for a couple of days, but Landon will be back Friday, just in time to celebrate our 1 year anniversary this weekend!!

Weekend Recap

This past weekend, I was so excited to have Ashley Imhoff and Ashley Aven come visit me in Chicago!   Since Landon was out of town (along with the car) the Ashley's had to ride the train from the airport to our apartment.  I met them at their stop, and on our walk to the apartment, we found the cutest little wine and cheese shop called Pastoral.  Since those are two of our favorite things, we just had to walk in, luggage and all.  After a little sampling, and deciding on two different types of cheeses, we walked the rest of the way home and immediately poured ourselves some wine and cut into the cheese!

We had reservations at Quartino for dinner, which turned out to be like Italian style tapas.  We ordered 3 different dishes, which all came out at separate times that we all shared.  Great place, I would definitely go back!  (If I wasn't trying to not go to the same place twice :)

After dinner, we went to Pops for Champagne for, of course, some champagne! Fun place, but was pretty crowded so we made our way over to Rockit where we were welcomed with some free shots!

 

We stayed here for several hours and really had a fun time that night.  Maybe a little too much fun... we were all dragging the next day.  We powered through though and walked to Yolk for brunch.  Their eggs benedict is voted best in town, and well, it was my first time to have eggs benedict in town, but I'd have to agree, they were pretty darn good!  On our way back home, we walked down Michigan Avenue for a little sight seeing....

We went on a nice walk through Millennium Park and saw at least 5 different wedding parties taking pictures.  It was quite the hot spot that day!  

And yes, we all had on matching boots most of the weekend :)

On our way home, we stopped by Pastoral again for some more cheese.  We enjoyed it so much the first night, we had to go back for more.  While enjoying our wine and cheese,  we got ready to go to dinner at Mercadito.  We can't go too long without Mexican food so we had to go for a fix. They had lots of specialty cocktails, but I opted for this yummy cucumber/lemon concoction....

That would be cumin salt ALL OVER the side of the glass (yum!) and guacamole in the background (double yum!).  Here, we ordered two orders of tacos, one chicken, one tilapia, and shared.  It was the perfect amount since we filled up on cheese.  

After dinner we took a cab over to the John Hancock Center to the Signature Lounge at the 96th Floor.  This was the same place we went last weekend that had such an amazing view, but it is a must see! We lucked out with a window seat again, too!

Sunday, we had lunch and watched the first half of the Cowboy game at a sports bar in Wrigleyville.  Of course while in Wrigleyville, Wrigley Field is the go-to place....

After Wrigley Field, our time together was coming to an end and we had to head towards the airport. This weekend was so much fun and I am so thankful these two came to visit, love you girls!