2 years

Today is our 2nd anniversary- yay! Yesterday we had a Day O' Fun downtown to celebrate, as we knew we would both be working today. We spent all day walking around, looking at boats, doing some very minimal shopping, and of course, eating. PF Chang's = yum! It was so much fun to just spend time together with no real agenda or place to be at any certain time. Plus the weather was gorgeous, making it a great day to be downtown :)

Here's Bryan's pensive look. Clearly thinking deep thoughts about how wonderful the past 2 years have been. Or how wonderful Potbelly's was a few minutes earlier.... One of those for sure.

Here we are in Crate & Barrel, picking out our favorite couch for *someday*...

Another 15 mile journey!

We took another 15 mile run/rollerblade today through the forest preserve. 10 minutes faster than last time! And yet, my ankles are just as sore... Hmm...

Here comes Bryan around the bend...

A little bit closer now...

Pretty trees...

Bryan requested this picture be taken to show what his view was the whole time...

Deer!

Today I took my camera on our run/blade, so I was on the deer lookout the whole time. We saw 16 deer! 9 does, 5 bambis, and 2 bucks.

This was the first buck we saw, with little shorty antlers.

This deer came right up to the trail and then ran across right in front of me.

Aren't the trees pretty? Makes you almost forget you're in the middle of Chicagoland...

This was the biggest buck I have ever seen, right at the end of our trip. He was enormous! And just standing there right off the trail, staring at us. Very cool to see so close.

Satan's Lair

This is known as Satan's Lair. Ok, maybe we're the only people who call it that, but I think it's fitting. It really is odd to have something this creepy in the middle of our lovely Forest Preserve. I can't even imagine what goes on there at night.

I was looking for a place to sit down for a minute at this point on our run/blade, however, the broken glass....

...scary red spiders...

...and blood... (???!!)

... made Satan's Lair not quite the rest stop I was looking for.

Bambi

This might have been my favorite part of our whole journey. I happened upon 3 of the tiniest little bambis you ever did see. White spots and all! They were so so sweet!

They ran off after a few minutes, but I found them again right around a bend in the trail, only this time they were with their mom! They ran right up under her and started nursing.

Horrified.

Imagine my horror when Bryan found This monster waiting in the bathtub when we got home from dinner last night. It's too bad you can't really tell how big it was, but trust me, it was a monster.

There is never just One spider. You know he has friends all over this house now, just waiting to scare me out of my skin.

The war is on.

Wedding Season: 7-21-07

Congrats to Josh and Michelle Koning who got married this past Saturday in Kalamazoo. Josh and Bryan were friends in grade school, junior high, high school and finally roommates in college. It was great to be a part of their wedding- especially seeing old pictures of the guys together in the slideshow! What a fun time!

The happy couple.

And another happy couple...

And one more happy couple... Andy and Julie Kiel. More friends from high school/college.

I thought the flowers were very pretty and deserving of a picture as well.

Wedding Season: 7-21-07 (part 2)

Here we have the groomsmen advising Josh on how best to remove Michelle's garter.

Next we all watched while Nate Mejeur (the catcher of the garter toss) try to put the garter on Jill Koning (the catcher of the bride's bouquet). After much pressure, and having his previous tries not accepted by the DJ and the crowd, Nate finally gave in and used his teeth on the garter. This greatly entertained the crowd, and made for a hilarious picture.

Driving, driving, driving

Since we spent so much time in the car this past weekend on our way to and from the Pennsylvania wedding (see previous post), I thought I'd show you what the majority of our trip was like. Although we went through 5 states on our way to the wedding (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, for those of you who were trying to picture it and see if I counted correctly), it feels like Ohio most of the way. Ohio lasts forEver.

This is what Ohio looks like- completely boring for hours on end:

This is what Bryan and Nate look like when driving through Ohio for hours on end:

Wedding Season: 7-14-07 part 2

Here the boys have a little fun before the ceremony...

Wedding Season: 7-14-07

Last weekend we drove out to Pennsylvania for Kevin and Abby's wedding (congrats!). Bryan was in this wedding (groomsman #4 if you look closely), so I sat in the balcony to see what kind of pictures I could get with my new Digital Elph. As it turns out, nothing too fabulous happens without a flash, but it was a nice try...

Wedding Season: 7-7-07

It's true, wedding season is officially here. 7-7-07 brought the wonderful wedding of Teresa and Drew (congrats!), plus I got to see my very own Christy Schmidty, which is always fabulous :)

15 miles!

Today Bryan decided to go for a long run as part of his marathon training, and we figured the only way I could join him on this fun was if I was on wheels. So I strapped on my rollerblades and off we went!

On our journey through the forest preserve we saw: 2 bucks, 2 does, several squirrels, 1 dead chipmunk, many swarms of bugs, and countless bikers, runners, joggers, and walkers (with and without dogs). Oddly enough, we did not see anyone else on rollerblades. This can only mean one of two things: 1- All of the other 'bladers knew that the trail was wet and therefore quite slippery in some spots. 2- Rollerblades are no longer considered Cool. Either way I missed the memo.

15 miles later Bryan is understandably exhausted (longest run yet!), and I am more sore than I probably should be, seeing as I was on skates. A good time though!!!

And they're off!!

It's true, our dear friends have actually left us for GR. We are already missing them terribly!!! You can read all about their new adventures in residency and downtown GR here. I know we'll be checking up on them daily...