November 2018

Hiking and more hiking in November.  We've been out every weekend for 8 weeks.  Exploring lots of new trails in Southern Indiana.  We're fortunate to be within an hour on tons of easy and moderate trails that we can do with the dogs!

We attended our friends' 55th wedding anniversary party at the Inn at Irwin Gardens.  What an accomplishment!  Just 29 to go!

Violet and i went on another adventure, this time to Louisville to see my favorite author, Liane Moriarty, in person.  She is just wonderful and gave us a book!

Brennan at Gabriel selling concessions for the Robotics team at the Lego League Competition.  It's great to see Brennan engaged in the high school team!

Brennan took an art class at the public library and painted this beautiful landscape!

Amber and I hosted 150+ at the Park Theater to see the Ruth Bader Ginsberg documentary, RBG.  It was such a great night with family and friends.  Event planning MAY be my thing.

David and I played "The Office" tv show trivia at 4th Street Bar with co-workers, including Vanessa our team captain.  We certainly did not win, but had a great time!

It was so nice to have Thomas home for the Thanksgiving holiday!!  The dogs were especially excited to have him home.  I love this photo with Remy.

After Thanksgiving with friends we decorated for Christmas.  Remy's first Christmas!

Bailey and I snuggled to watch football and Hallmark movies quite a lot in November.

My team at work met up in Nashville, TN for a couple of days of fun and staff meetings.  We started at ICE at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel.  So fun!  Everything inside was made of ice - hard to tell from the photos.

That's a slide!

We also toured the Country Music Hall of Fame which is a must see in Nashville.

Elvis's gold-plated interior car

Lots of gold records

We toured downtown Nashville - Broadway and 4th is rather iconic. 

We had dinner at Ole Red - Blake Shelton's restaurant.  Great live music!

Broadway at night

 And we celebrated John's birthday with some of my favorite people at our new favorite restaurant in Nashville, Indiana - Hard Truth Distillery.  What a beautiful spot!

Happy Holidays!!

October 2018

It's November already!  Unbelievable.  We had a fun October!

I had to make a quick trip to Appleworks to get some apples, pumpkin bread, and other treats.  Such a gorgeous day!

David and I went with Brennan to Pittsburgh for a college visit.  I don't know that we've ever gone on a trip without Thomas!  We had some time for sightseeing along with our college tours and visiting with Rissa who is in her freshman year and doing great.

At the Andy Warhol museum.

At Ft. Pitt

The Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh

Dinner with Rissa at the Hofbrauhaus - delicious!

University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon are beautiful campuses

Overlooking Pittsburgh

 

Thomas and Neil came home for a couple of hours to attend Ethnic Expo.  I took them to vote for their first time!!  And they got to see the little boys who were along for the ride.

David and Brennan took a quick trip to visit The University of Chicago for a college tour.  They really enjoyed the campus.

I took a quick work trip to Nashville.  My colleague and I had dinner downtown at Woolworth on 5th which was the location of peaceful sit-ins at the lunch counter upstairs in 1960.  Now renovated and the food is amazing.

While we were there for a bunch of meetings, we also get to attend the annual Kiddie Parade for over 300 children.  The employees go ALL OUT to make it special, handing out candy, taking photos, etc.  Every department picks a theme.

Our area was construction and it was awesome because the little ones loved it.  We had two wrecking balls. 

Speaking of Halloween, David and I went as Amy and Sheldon for the Gecklers annual costumer party.

And we celebrated David's BIG birthday!  It was great to have Thomas home for the weekend to celebrate.

They got David a gourmet sweets platter from Brennan's favorite candy shop.

After our celebration at home we went to Zwanzigz's for his party.

1968 Babies

We had our annual fire pit book club at April and Todd's where we discussed "The Forgotten Garden" by Kate Morton.  It was an awesome night.

Remy graduated from Puppy Kindergarten!

And David and I have hit some state parks lately with the little boys.  It's been a lot of fun and the weather has been gorgeous!  Anderson Falls and Clifty Falls State Park in October.

Brennan's hand bell choir played for us in church.  It was such a beautiful song to close out the service.

And after a run Brennan made caramel apples, from scratch!  They were delicious, just ask David!

Happy Thanksgiving!