Sarah and Matt's Wedding

On June 26th, also Dan's birthday (Happy 29th birthday Dan!), Tim and I attended our first wedding of the summer (1 out of 3). Tim's parents, brother and fiancee drove down in Madison on Friday, and we all drove down to Wheaton, Illinois the next day for Sarah and Matt's wedding. It was a wonderful wedding, and reminded me a lot of mine and Tim's wedding. They had a simple ceremony is a beautiful church, and a reception at a golf club nearby. Sarah and Matt looked like they were having a lot of fun on their big day, which is always a good sign when the bride and groom are enjoying their wedding ;o) The weather also could not have been better! Congratulations Sarah and Matt!

On our way down we passed a Dunkin Donuts, which we DO NOT have in Madison and it kills me! So me made a mandatory stop. The World Cup was going on and the US team was playing, so off course Tim was on his stupid blackberry as long as possible to keep track of the score!

The church was beautiful, but unfortunately I didn't have a good view to get more pictures!

Instead of assigning table numbers, they did "themes". Each table had a theme that related to a part of their lives together; it was very sweet, but made finding your table a bit tricky!

As you can tell from the quality of these pictures, my little camera didn't do the best job, but I did manage to catch a great picture of Sarah fearing the cake-in-the-face move! She managed to avoid getting smeared with cake, though just barely!

Cooper's Haircut

Alas our fuzzy puppy could not handle the heat anymore, so we got him a haircut! We always shave him down, instead of doing the typical cocker spaniel cut, so he always looks like a little rat when we get him home. We laugh at him for about 2 weeks, and then he starts to look super cute again. Luck for him, he needs to look cute for Dan and Sarah's wedding in September, so he will be getting another haircut in August, so he'll be nice and cool!

Cooper's new do, and the lazy dog days of summer :o)

One Year Anniversary!

It is hard to believe, but Tim and I have been married for an entire year! Unfortunately our work schedules did not permit an extravagant celebration, so we made do with what we could here in Madison. Our anniversary was on a Sunday, so we were able to play mini golf on Saturday before the bad weather rolled in, and unfortunately the rain kept us indoors all of Sunday. Tim did get me an Edible Arrangement bouquet (chocolate covered strawberries!!!), and we went out for a nice steak dinner at Johnny Delmonicos. The baker who made our cake includes a free "replacement cake" when you order through him, so Tim ordered us a carrot cake and cream cheese frosting "replacement" to celebrate our anniversary. We did have some left over from the original one-year frozen cake to compare. In my opinion the one-year old cake wasn't bad, but in the words of our baker, "I have hockey pucks that taste better than one-year old cake!" It was above hockey puck status, but not above "replacement cake" status! It was a good anniversary, and hopefully next year we can play a big trip to celebrate!

Tim brought us all breakfast from Eistein Bros., including a doggie bagel for Cooper! He could not have been happier once he figured out how to eat it!

After breakfast, the boys took a mandatory nap. After watcing one of the world cup games with our neighor, it was off to Johnny Delmonico's!

We started with the crab cakes for an appetizer.

Stuffed chicken, corn au gratin, and yes, this steak is just as amazing as it looks!

Of course we both had to order dessert! Cheesecake and bread pudding.

Back home again, we ate some chocolate covered strawberries and one-year-old cake (our replacement cake was not yet available).

One happy family (Cooper is obsessed with trying to eat the one-year-old cake)!

Happy One Year Anniversary!

Other Memorial Day Adventures

In addition to the SYAP reunion concert, I had a wonderful 4 day weekend with family and friends. Tim and I were home from Friday through Monday evening, so we had 4 solid days to relax in Stamford. Unfortunately bad weather delayed us in both directions (how is there always bad weather in the city we are travelling to, but not the one we are currently in?!?!). However we made it safe and sound to and from Stamford.

The first day home my parents took us to Grand Prix New York. My dad, the amateur car racer, said that this was the closest thing to racing a car he had done in a while, so I KNEW it was going to be fun. We got to do two 10-minute races on the bottom track (see link above). These carts can go up to 40 mph, and you are required to wear a full racing suit, and a helmet. These tracks are not the typical oval track at most go carts areas either, there are hair-pin turns and straightaways and strategy is actually involved! It was so much fun! I was able to prove that I am in fact a better driver than Tim, and my dad was able to prove that years of amateur racing experience trumps every skill we thought we had. It was a blast!

I also got to spend some time with my friends. I had a party at my parents house on Saturday night, and we ate fabulous home-made food (because it wouldn't be a party if my parents didn't hand make everything), and I got caught up with everyone on life and had a great time hanging out with everyone! I miss my friends from home so much, and I wish they were closer, so thanks to everyone who was able to make it :o) I also got to meet some people for breakfast at IHOP (always delicious!) before we left on Monday. Hopefully it won't be another year and a half before I can come home again!

The weather was beautiful, and we could not have had a better trip home! The reunion was great, and it was a good balance of friends and family. Hopefully I'll get to come home again soon! Thanks everyone for making our trip so fun!