the first of many weddings

Andrew and I were out of town this weekend for summer wedding #1: his cousin Hannah’s wedding to her longtime boyfriend, Taylor. I traveled down a couple days early and got dropped-off in Dayton, OH, to hang with this girl and the cutest baby EVER:

I hung with Jen and Aiden for a couple hours around our old stompin’ grounds (Beavercreek) before heading south to my ultimate destination.

We had City BBQ for dinner:

Kids’ plates and new outdoor seating! I can’t decide if I like it when things change while I’m gone, or if I’d rather them stay the same.

Then we ran some errands before picking up Graeter’s to-go:

Oh, black raspberry chip, how I love thee! ESPECIALLY in sundae form with real whipped cream, hot fudge and a cherry. Did I tell you I discovered their secret for melt-in-your-mouth chocolate chunks? MUST figure out how to replicate that at home.

And where were we headed that night? To Chez Wilhelm, of course! Emily worked late, so Dan and I power-walked for awhile, regaling each other about our recent house purchases. Well, I did most of the regaling; Dan politely allowed me to monopolize the conversation and inserted his own house comments when I paused to catch my breath.

The next morning we headed to Sugar Creek MetroPark for a trail hike, one of our absolute favorite things to do together.

OK, between the sunglasses and headband, do I not look like an alien cancer patient?? Not sure the angled glasses are my best look…

Afterward we refueled at EarthFare for lunch! We sampled Indian food from the hot bar, I couldn’t resist the emerald kale or broccoli cranberry salad, and we both got tea to drink.

And the highlight of our day? Laying out by her pool! (Don’t worry, Dad, we used LOTS of sunscreen.) In fact, I learned my lesson from Memorial Day weekend and reapplied multiple times; I was rewarded with a beautiful brown tan and no red at all 🙂

We cleaned up and dressed to the nines to go out to….wait for it….FIGLIO! Emily and I have been trying to fit this wood-fired pizza place into one of our visits for awhile now, and we just never seem to be able to. Funny story: Andrew and I thought it was a furniture store the entire time we lived in Ohio! Imagine our surprise when Emily and Dan informed us it was a relatively fancy Italian place…

We made it in time for happy hour, so we each got a mini-Martini and split a pizza as an appetizer. We ended up getting their signature Peasant side salads and cups of the shrimp and crab corn chowder instead of entrees, but it was hard to be disappointed since they were both so good!

After all, we had to leave room for this:

Rita’s! I went with a regular gelati (water ice with custard) with the chocolate peanut butter water ice. I knew Andrew wouldn’t be able to resist a stop on our way out of town the next day, so I figured I’d have one more chance to get my favorite, mango, before leaving Ohio behind.

And perhaps my favorite part of the whole day? Cleaning out Emily’s closet!

Oh, how I love a good closet clean-out! Ever since I had a trendy co-worker come over a couple years ago and help me purge my tired wardrobe, I’ve been going through my clothes regularly to get rid of what doesn’t fit, things I just don’t wear and anything old and tired looking. It’s cathartic, I tell you.

Emily emptied her closet of about five bags of clothes, a bag or two of shoes and a few purses. They’re moving in a month or so, so it’ll make that load lighter. I even got a couple items in the process–score!

The next morning, we headed to a nearby track for a self-designed circuit workout. We matched!

After our workout and bunch at First Watch–our favorite!–we headed to Emily’s office where she blessed me with a PHENOMENAL massage. Seriously. This girl is amazing. I had some majorly sore calf muscles from a workout earlier in the week, as well as some chronic neck and shoulder pain, and despite her working on those areas pretty intensely, I STILL almost fell asleep on the table! Talk about heavenly!

Andrew picked me up from there and we headed into downtown Indianapolis for the rehearsal dinner.

Saturday brought my usual run on the Monon Trail near grandma’s house, followed by errands (had to run to Crate and Barrel for their wedding gift! Too bad there wasn’t time to shop for myself…) and lunch at McAllister’s with the family (minus Abigail, who was in the wedding party and was already downtown getting prepped).

Here we are, all spiffy:

(Terrible shot, but it was the best I could do while Andrew was driving.)

Here’s the outside of the Scottish Rite, where the wedding was held:

(Disclaimer: this photo was actually taken on our way home from the reception, but I wanted to get at least a little of the outside for you.) They light it up at night and the colors change.

Andrew’s grandfather (the one who passed away this past December) was a Mason and spent time each week here. I’d never been inside before, but he’d given Andrew a tour once awhile ago.

They held the ceremony in one of the rooms and then we left for cocktail hour while they re-set it for dinner:

This picture is absolutely terrible. It was amazing in there! Better photos can be found here. (It’s a FB link; hope it works!)

Here we are, hanging out before the reception:

Those Layer kids really know how to cut loose:

(Really, it’s the girls who steal the show at every dance party they attend; Andrew gives it the old college try and does relatively well.) Ben, Luke (Hannah’s brother) and I grabbed some stretch of wall to chat and watch the ‘entertainment.’

Afterward, we all found our way to archive room to see if we could find grandpa’s pictures.

There he is, back in 1971 when he was first invited to join:

And here is a more recent picture of him we found:

It was really neat to be able to visit the archives–all of us together (well, Hannah was off being the bride and all)–to take tiny peek into part of Grandpa’s life.

And, look! Just as we were driving away from the church, who should we spy pausing for some nighttime photos? The bride and groom 🙂 (Very blurry, but the blob of white kinda gives it away.)

but i thought i WAS being spontaneous…

So, on Friday Andrew calls to ask if I want to go camping with some of his friends on Saturday night. As in, the-next-day-Saturday night. Less-than-24-hours-later Saturday night.

Of course, I said no.

No, because I wanted to RELAX during my first weekend free from school. I wanted to sleep in my own bed. I didn’t want to worry about organizing and packing (much less locating) all our camping gear up.

What’s that you say? Camping IS relaxing? Yes, camping is relaxing ONCE YOU’RE THERE and unpacked and the weather is perfect and SOMEONE ELSE did all the planning for you.

Well, once Andrew offered a little more information, like that he knew where our camping stuff was, and that the campsite was only a 30-minute drive and that we didn’t have to go until dinnertime on Saturday, and that another female had already taken care of much of the food planning, I started to warm up to the idea.

So we went. And it was fun. The location was actually the giant parcel of land (100 acres, maybe?) belonging to the family of one of Andrew’s co-workers. There was a tiny ‘cabin,’ but it was all but useless. Apparently it’s being remodeled/renovated later this summer…

Disclaimer: it’s looks a little red-neck, and maybe it was. I mean, there were dirt bikes for pete’s sake! At least they were all Moog engineers, (except me–a student–and the friends’ fiancee–a teacher) which really just means that the bikes were NICE and in good shape. I don’t know why, but that fact made me feel a bit better. I mean, we were in the sticks.

Hadrian had a blast. Actually, that would be understatement. He’s never had so much fun in his life. He’s still sleeping it off…

Dead trees were cut down with a chainsaw for firewood…

Bananas were sauteed in butter as appetizers… Amazing! Slice some up and throw them in a skillet with butter–I dare you not to love them.

Dinner: corn, beans x 2 and burgers (note Andrew’s cheese-less patty). Sahlen’s hot dogs and brats were next, as well as some surprisingly good Wegmans pre-made potato salad. I’m not usually into pre-made “tub” salads, but this one wasn’t bad at all. Actually kinda good. Must be the camping talking.

We set our tents up in row on the makeshift driveway. Thank goodness for air mattresses–I don’t care that it’s not hard-core camping; I value my sleep, AND my back!

Plus, there was NO TOILET. It was trees and thank-goodness-I thought-to-bring toilet-paper–tell me that’s not hard-core! I mean, even our boundary-waters trip up in Minnesota and Canada in which we had to CARRY OUR CANOES (wish I’d been blogging then!) came with holes in the ground at each campsite…

Not surprisingly, I was up before 6 a.m. the next morning. Between the birds and other woodland creatures, nature is just deafening at sunrise! I did, however, come prepared:

I paired a banana and some peanut butter with my Bible study and enjoyed some peace and quiet before people started stirring around 7:30.

Also brought running gear in case the opportunity presented itself. (It did, of course.)

I took Hadrian with me for a loop I think was about 2.5 to 3 miles. HUGE downhill one way, HUGE uphill the other. I dropped him off at the campsite and did it again myself, this time in reverse once I got to the bottom so I could run the middle, more shaded, less hilly length twice on the second go-around. Fifty-four minutes later, I was pooped!

We ended our short stay with Andrew giving one of the dirt bikes a try. He had fun, but I don’t think he’s itching to go buy one any time soon… That’s the problem with having lots of single male friends–they all have expensive toys!

Oh well, he has a (hot) wife 🙂 Or at least that’s what I keep telling him.

my ‘not-skiing’ ski trip

So, Andrew and I joined a small crowd of his co-workers this past weekend up in the Adirondacks for some skiing and, well, partying. I’ll just say that Andrew and I weren’t quite the party animals that the rest of the crowd was, but we still had some fun.

We arrived Thursday night and socialized until the wee hours of the morning, and when Andrew and I couldn’t keep our eyes open any longer, we ducked into our room to turn in at 2 a.m.

I made breakfast Friday morning for the group–Foster’s Market’s Panama Pancakes and Ina’s Maple-Roasted bacon–before everyone headed out to ski.

I’m not a huge skier, by any stretch–I’ve been before and can ski decently–but it’s been years (like seven) since I’ve tackled the slopes, so I begged-off the ski trip in favor of some R&R in a quiet house. ALONE.

I started my morning off with a six-mile run in the slush, followed by a hot shower and intense stretching (because in real life, who has time for more than a couple quick leg-pulls?) before lugging out my schoolwork. Yes, I brought homework. The crazy part? I was sorta-kinda looking forward to actually DOING my homework without any distractions.

Well, two hours and a not-quite-finished Chem lab report later… I gave up, admitted defeat and took my cooking magazines to bed for a nap. I awoke to voices announcing the group’s return and went out to snack (pretty much the highlight of this trip…) and socialize before dinner.

Andrew skied and said he had a good time, and after finding out how foggy it was (not to mention the advanced skill level of the rest of our group), I’m glad I didn’t go. I would have been left behind on the slopes and not enjoyed myself one bit–all while worrying about the homework I wasn’t doing.

The next day, while everyone else went back to the slopes for day number 2 of skiing, Andrew and I chose to stay back and do our own thing. We googled (thank goodness for wi-fi!) until we found somewhere to go snowshoeing and bundled up. It was a beautiful sunny day, very unlike the day before, and the snow was melting like crazy.

We drove just a few minutes to the Friends Lake Inn, which is an inn and wine-tasting room located at the base of some hilly trails intended for hiking, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. We had planned to rent snowshoes, but with the degree of melting, we thought we’d be fine without them, and we were.

We hiked up and down and around, sometimes on and sometimes off the trail, for a little more than an hour before we decided it was probably about time to head back. We’d seen “Cardiac Hill” on our map the whole time, but it seemed a little far away from the inn to aim for initially. However, we found ourselves in the general vicinity of the hill (or what we thought was the hill!) at the end and decided to give it a try. After ascending a gently curving incline and finding ourselves near a priory and face-to-face with Route 8, we figured we’d made a wrong turn.

It didn’t take much trudging in the opposite direction and DOWN a very steep hill to realize that we’d approached Cardiac Hill from the opposite direction (which is why we didn’t see it to begin with) and then gone up and around and off the trail. Not to be outdone (and outsmarted!) and in the interest of a good calorie-burn (I wouldn’t say our hike up to that point was really that difficult), we trudged down Cardiac Hill, only to turn around and race up again (hey, why walk when you can run?).

After surmounting the hill, catching our breath and snapping this shot, we decided it really was time to head back. Highlight of the trip: walking hand-in-hand, talking and even praying together the whole way back. We joked that we pulled an “Emily and Dan” by hiking–our adventurous, outdoorsy friends who take-off on awesome weekend trips to places like Colorado and Arizona just to enjoy outdoor activities–and their ‘togetherness’ inspires me.

Another highlight of the trip: ice cream! There is a chain of convenience stores in the Adirondacks called Stewart’s–you can buy their specialty sodas at the grocery store–and Andrew (for once it wasn’t me!) wanted some. After sampling about five different flavors, I chose a sundae and devoured it the entire drive back to the house.

With dinner completely ruined, we returned to find everyone back and prepping snacks and munchies. Why, oh why, am I tempted by bagged, preservative-laden, cheddar chex mix? WWWWHHHHYYYYY?!?!

Our last night was filled with games (Guesstures, anyone?) and eating (I got my cook on and made brownies) before turning in. The next morning Andrew, Bart and I were up and out first in order to arrive in time to pick Hadrian up from puppyy camp.

On the way home, we stopped in Syracuse for Dinosaur BBQ, a local favorite featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and one Bart knew about.

Andrew and I split a sampler–meat and fries mostly for him, sides mostly for me–and enjoyed every bite! The place is known for their chicken (is was pretty darn good), but their ribs were truly amazing. Definitely rivaled what I had in Texas… Andrew made a good point–in less than three-weeks’ time, I’ve sampled BBQ at three well-known BBQ joints. Am I a lucky girl or what?!

Coming home after a trip is always a rude awakening, filled with laundry and cleaning, and my chem quiz was seriously stressing me out. (Thankfully, all my prep with the practice quizzes paid off–I got a 92!) We ended our night at Wegmans, me filling up at the veggie bar and Andrew with a sub, as well as picking up groceries for the week.

All in all, our trip was fun but I don’t know that we would go again next year (apparently this group goes annually). Andrew and I had a great time together and I enjoyed ‘getting away from it all.’

Speaking of getting away… Spring break is TWO CLASSES away (!) and our next visit to Ohio (to see baby Aiden!) is three weeks away!