Birthday Celebrations!

It was Stephanie's birthday yesterday and we made sure that we celebrated with her! We took her out to her favorite restaurant - Biaggi's - a great Italian restaurant. It was Matt and my first time and my meal was AMAZING!!!  I had the butternut squash ravioli and it was one of my favorite meals since moving here (tied with a mushroom ravioli - hmm...I'm consistent!)

We also went to see The Switch and we all liked it. I really like the two staring actors, so I was biased, but thankfully the plot held up to our expectations as well. :)

We concluded the evening with cupcakes and presents. I'm disappointed with how the cupcakes turned out, though. I stated with white frosting when writing, "Happy BDay Steph," but I ran out so I had to opt with teal. You can barely see it! :(



As you can see, Bonnie participated in the festivities as well...

Finally, An Interesting Day to Report!

Today was a lot more interesting that yesterday, that's for sure! It started with me taking Steph to work since her car was still having trouble. Afterwards, I had a meeting with a lady from KinderCare, a day-care company that is interested in sponsoring one of my kids' events. We decided to do a Halloween themed craft event and I'm pretty excited to be taking things up a notch. :)

Next I went on some errands and got my haircut. It's back to it's shorter style which makes me quite happy. :) I then treated myself to a bit of clothes shopping and man alive, did I find some great stuff! Matt and I are taking Steph out for her birthday tomorrow, so I cannot wait to wear one of my spiffy new outfits!

Matt had his first day of training today. This week is for something I cannot recall - too many trainings! We went out for dinner on our date night and Matt had me try his huge beer! As you can see by my expression (which was intentional by the way) I was a little overwhelmed by the size of the mug!

We took, what seemed like a dozen, photos of my new hairdo and sadly, the best one that came out was the one I took of myself that is partially cut off.

Hmmm....

Wow, seriously I had a really boring day. I feel it only necessary to write so you all didn't think I forgot to post. I did manage to get out of the house to help Steph with some car trouble, but all we did was wait for AAA and caravaned in case her car broke down. She was kind enough to buy me dinner, and I tried Penn State Sandwiches for the first time. I had a really yummy artichoke sandwich, so that was nice. Um, but seriously, that was it. Sorry for being boring...  :(

Matt And His Buddies...

Matt came home on Friday evening from Toronto. He was pretty tired from the long drive so we laid low that evening. The next day we went over to Chris' house to watched college football. Saturday evening was also spent in a rather low-key fashion of playing video games with Chris.

On Sunday, Matt went out to play golf with his buddies. That evening, Steph came home from a weekend with Eric so she and I went to dinner. Afterwards, I was invited to an OI friend's place to watch the Dolphins game. Matt had a long day of golfing, so he elected to stay home. Which means, I didn't really see much of Matt this weekend. It was weird that I found out about Matt's golf game from his buddies and not him... They reported he had a great game on the first 9 holes. I guess he only did so-so on the back 9...but we don't have to focus on that part out, right!? When I got home, Matt was already asleep so I haven't really spoken to him since yesterday morning. I'll do my best to actually see him tonight so I can blog about things he tells me, rather than his friends! :)

All Trips Must End... :(

I took Mom and Dad to the airport yesterday. :( We all had such a nice trip and I was sad to see them go. We spent the morning packing and then we had lunch at Jed's, a nearby restaurant. They have a really cool lighthouse sitting next to it so we all got a picture.

After a short stint of shopping at our nearby outdoor mall, we went to the airport and I dropped them off.

During my drive home, I stopped at Luna Pier. I'd been wanting to visit it and since I was driving right by it, I decided to take a pit stop. It was a beautiful day for a walk, to which I walked down the pier and the beach. It was a nice treat. :)

Theme Of The Day: Forts And Fishing

Ever since I moved here, Mom and Dad have wanted to see Fort Meigs, a fort that was built for the War of 1812 - didn't know I was living around such history, huh!?

Mom and Dad watching the orientation video

Once we toured the museum inside, we were able to walk to the fort outside and tour the grounds

The first building had a mock up of what the fort would have looked like. They had toy soldiers represent in all sorts of senarios - fighting, building, doing trades. But what I want to know is, in all my history classes, why didn't they mention that Elvis fought in the War of 1812???

I had a little friend join me at one point...



We found one tree starting to turn colors, so we thought we would simulate fall...







The fort had musket demonstrations - we learned that a drafting requirement back then was that a soldier needed at least 4 teeth that could come together when biting down. That way, he could open up his pouch of gun fire!





Afterwards, we went to the Bass Pro Shop - a store Dad had been wanting to check out for a while. Mom was a bit resistant - understandably since she doesn't fish! But, what she didn't know is how cool it is with all sorts of themed decor, great clothes, shoes and a general store! We all bought clothes, had ice cream and Dad and I played checkers - to which he kicked my behind!

Tea For Two!

While Dad was off meeting up with his old college roommate in MI, Mom and I went out for a High Tea lunch and shopping. We had such a nice day - the restaurant was so nice and cozy. The food was excellent - we dined on sandwiches, quiche, and salads. Afterwards, we shopped downtown. Mom got a great new necklace that hopefully she'll wear tomorrow (hint, hint, Mom!)

When we got home, I met with the clubhouse for a while to discuss the kids events for the remainder of the year. Let's just say I see of holiday themed craft activities in our future. :)

We bummed at home during the evening watching movies and eating leftovers. Ah, I guess all of our busy fun has caught up with us!

Getaway Day!

I've been wanting to take Mom and Dad to Maumee Bay State Park ever since my 2nd visit last month. The restaurant has a killer seafood bisque and we all welcomed a day of relaxation. And what better way to relax than enjoying good food and a even better view!

Mom, chit chatting with Aunt Patty:

Dad enjoying his rocking chair:

And Kirsten being silly...

But, hmmm... I wonder who I get it from?

(Apparently, this is Dad's "I just discovered this beach" pose.)

For dinner, we met up with Stephanie at City Q BBQ. This was their first time meeting, so it's nice that M/D now know who Steph is when I tell all the stories!

As for Matt, he made it safe and sound to Toronto. This is his final week until he comes home for 3 weeks of training. Apparently his work load is still on the lighter side (which makes us wonder why he's up there) but at least he can check out the city this week during his off hours.

The Collegiate Theme Continues

Since we were in the neighborhood visiting family, we decided to visit Michigan State. The campus is beautiful and reminds us all so much of Chico State. I was able to get pictures of Mom and Dad at their most significant places...

Mom and Dad's dorms:

The buildings they spent most of their college classes in:

And of course, where they got engaged!

(isn't that a nice picture?)

The fall colors were just coming out:

I was told this building was where G/G stayed when visiting M/D and AP/UB:

Before we toured Michigan State, we went to a family brunch.  There were 15 all together so it made for a very tight shot!

And here is one of my cousin's kids - aren't they adorable!? You can see that the blonde hair, blue eye genes take over!

A Collegiate Themed Day

We all headed up to Michigan on Saturday to watch the Michigan/UMASS football game. This was our first time at the stadium, aka - The Big House - and it definitely held up to it's name.  Over 110,000 people can occupy the stadium and it was pretty much at capacity from what we could tell.

The fans, to say the least, were certainly dedicated to their team. I cannot recall a time in which I saw more yellow - even though they cheer on the team by saying "Go Blue!"

Hmmm...can you tell where the students were sitting?

To Dad's dissapointment, Michigan won 42 - 37

After the game, we drove up to Lansing to visit with Dad's side of the family. It's always a fun time with them and it had been a while since I'd see many of them. Since they are proud Spartans, they had the Michigan State/Notre Dame game on in the background. I must say, I'm not a huge fan of watching football on TV, but even this game was worth it. Go Green!