Yo-cago

Last weekend our friend Mike Yo came to visit.  The last time we saw Mike was a few years ago when he came to visit us in Alabama (Yohanabama).  (For some reason we like to give Mike's visit an official name...we should do this with everyone!) 

Mike got into town Friday afternoon and we headed to Old Town for some dinner before catching another show at Second City.  We ate at O'Brien's, which ended up being perfect. The heat finally decided to break a little bit so we sat outside and caught up before heading to Second City.  We saw the same show that we saw a few months ago with Joe and Laura (100th Revue), and it was just as good the second time around! 

Saturday morning we had breakfast at our new favorite diner (the Sunshine Diner) around the corner before heading downtown.  We thought Mike would enjoy the Architectural boat tour, so we booked tickets and ended up with the same tourguide we had when we went with Joe and Laura.  He told the same lame jokes but we still found them funny. You can't go wrong when you're sitting on a boat with a cold 312 in hand on a summer afternoon in Chicago!

After the boat tour we took the obligatory trip to the Bean in Millenium Park before heading to the original Pizzeria Uno for some deep dish.  (Or maybe we did pizza first and then the Bean since Mike is holding our leftovers...aka a 10 pound weight...in the Bean picture below)!  Tom kept making fun of me and Mike the whole time because we were bonding over how awesome our iphones are.  (Mike was a late iphone bloomer like myself). 

Saturday night we made plans with our neighbors to meet up at this german bar that is right down the street from us (Mirabell). Our friend Kedar drove down to join us and we had a good time hanging out in the beer garden, catching up, drinking german beer and laughing!

And of course Bailey was beyond excited to be able to sleep on the couch bed. Mike said she even cuddled with him the second night! She never cuddles!!

Paige & Wes get hitched!

We travelled to Hot Springs, NC this weekend to see our friend Paige (from Bham) get married!  Hot Springs is about an hour northwest of Asheville, right smack dab in the middle of the Appalachian Trail. We had an absolute blast!  We arrived Friday night, just in time for the post-rehearsal dinner party. 

We stayed at the Iron Horse Station (one of three "hotels" in Hot Springs) where the party was being hosted.  We got to catch up with some old friends from Birmingham that we haven't seen since we left and some new friends of Wes's that we met a few weeks ago.  AND we got to have some YEUNGLING!!!  I was beyond excited!  Go figure, you can get Yeungling in the middle of the mountains, but in Chicago they won't sell it!  After the party, we experienced Hot Springs night life at the Spring Creek Tavern with live music and plenty of drinks, dancing, and conversation.

Live music at Spring Creek Tavern

The soon-to-be newlyweds

Saturday morning we didn't get up in time for breakfast, but had an awesome lunch at the Smokey Mountain Diner (complete with fried green tomatoes)!  After lunch, we took a drive up to Max Patch and hiked about a mile up the mountain for some ahhhhhmazing views. We met Luna at the top, a local dog who likes to go on hikes with vacationers (a couple staying at a local B&B brought her along on their hike).  She was so good, Bailey never would have hiked up and stayed with complete strangers!! Once we got to the top, there was a large clearing with a 360 degree view of hundreds of miles of mountains.

This is what it looked like when we started out...thankfully it passed over before we got to the top!!

Luna, the town hiking dog

After the hike we walked around the town for a little bit and went to this cute little ice cream shop for root beer floats.  They were delicious!!  And a perfect way to cool off after being up in the mountains!

The weather was in the high 80's all day and it seemed to cool off exactly at 6:00, when Paige and Wes got married.  The wedding was outside at the Mountain Magnolia Inn and it was beautiful!! After the wedding Tom and I entertained, (or rather were entertained by) Noah (Ashley and Tony's baby - who is no longer a baby anymore)!  Ashley was in the wedding so she was summoned for pictures and Tony unfortunately couldn't make it to the wedding.  Tom and Noah played "catch" or "baseball" or "hockey" (it changed each time) and we laughed at Noah's favorite phrases, "See that?!" and "I'll be right back."  After dinner we danced into the night and had a great time!! 

Noah still must be working on his aim ;)

Sunday we got up, said goodbye to everyone, and headed back to Asheville. We had some time to kill before our flight, so we stopped at the Stoney Knob Cafe in Weaverville, NC. I highly recommend this place if you are ever in the area! It's about 10 minutes north of Asheville and it was sooooo good!  I got the shrimp n' grits (I couldn't pass up grits since we were in the south) and Tom had biscuits and gravy.  After brunch we checked out Asheville and then finally headed to the airport to head home. We had a fabulous time!!

Garden Update!

These pics were taken last weekend. I'm kind of mad at my tomato plants.  It's almost the middle of JULY and I don't see a single tomato. Grrr.

Tomato plant #1
(My pride and joy)

Tomato plant #2

Oregano
He's going a little crazy



Cilantro
It's beginning to grow flowers which means it is finished producing cilantro leaves. But I have 2 more cups of seedlings on the window sill, just waiting until they get a little bigger to put them outside

"Dill".....if that's what it really is

Pepper plants
We had to move away from the railing because the wind kept blowing them over

Basil

Birthday Staycation: In Review!

I'm posting this a little prematurely as Birthday Week will continue into the weekend, but I am going back to work tomorrow (let's hear it for a 2 day work week) and to be honest I have already forgotten things that I've done at the beginning of Birthday Week so I figured I should blog about it now.

Friday
I don't really remember what I did on Friday, other than enjoying a relaxing morning with coffee. I know that I blogged and went to PT (for my back, btw I love my PT, she's so great).  I think I went to Target too, but no pics so I couldn't have scored that many good deals.  Friday night I made homemade pizza complete with basil and oregano from our "garden." 

Saturday
During the day we relaxed, cleaned, and prepared a little bit for Saturday night.  Our friend Paige was in town since her fiance was here for a conference so we had them over Saturday night. We grilled out and drank and ate entirely, entirely too much.  Wes's friends from the suburbs joined us, and we just hung out outside all night, catching up and enjoying the weather.  Bailey was exhausted and super excited to go to bed on the couch bed with her Aunt Paige and her new friend Wes. 

Birthday Cupcakes!

Bailey got a birthday cupcake from Aunt Paige too!

Chillin'

Sunday
For breakfast, we finally checked out this local diner right down the street from our apartment. Tom and I had been wanting to go there for a while, and what better time to check it out than after the night we had.  It was AH-maaazing!  So good and greasy and good we will definitely be going back.  Bailey was so happy to be able to hang out on the couch bed all day that I just couldn't put it up.  It was storming outside anyways so we spent a wonderfully lazy Sunday afternoon cuddling on the couch bed and watching bad tv.  The storm tried to destroy our entire garden, but thankfully it looked worse than it actually was, and everything was fine (stay tuned for a garden update!). 

Sunshine Diner

Lazy Sunday

Storm Damage

Monday
My fourth 29th Birthday!! I slept in, enjoyed coffee in the sunny living room (way too hot to sit outside) and went for a little run around the neighborhood with Bailey.  Tom unfortunately had to work Mon-Wed, but Bailey and I still managed to have a good time. I went to get my haircut Monday afternoon (I was waaaay overdo) and then I did a little shopping before picking Tom up from work.  We went out for sushi at Umi, our neighborhood sushi restaurant and it was a perfect birthday dinner. 



Birthday Sushi

Dessert

Tuesday
Tuesday was my Suzy Homemaker Day.  I knew I was going to have to plan at least one day to do a bunch of stuff around the house that has been on my To-Do list for a while.  I did a bunch of laundry, cleaned the bathroom, made homemade cleaner (why I had been putting this off, I have no idea...it was the easiest thing in the world!), made beercan chicken in the crockpot (too hot for the oven), whipped up some freezer meals for the upcoming weeks, paid bills, made chicken stock, cleaned the kitchen, and ran to CVS for a few good deals. 

Wednesday
Happy 4th of July! Unfortunately, Tom had to go into work today, so Bailey and I enjoyed another relaxing morning at home.  I got caught up on a few other things around the house, and might have played in the sprinkler in the back yard when I took Bailey down to go pee....it was just TOO hot! I went for a mani/pedi at this great little nail salon and then swung by to pick Tom up from work before heading home. We originally had plans to grill out, but it is just too hot. Instead, we're having soft shell tortillas with chicken, shredded cheese, avocado, cilantro, and my famous avocado/cilantro/lime dipping sauce!  We plan to relax on the back deck when the sun goes down and toast America's birthday while watching people set off fireworks in the neighborhood.  Cheers!

Pedicure and new sandals!