Waco Wedding

You may remember when my friend, Brooke, got engaged here in NYC last fall. Well, I was so happy to be able to plan my summer trip to Texas to include her wedding weekend! She got married in Waco, so I got to travel down with my friends Michelle and Andi. I was pretty exhausted on the way down (not used to having to get up early, feed three small children breakfast, lunch, snacks, keep them entertained, get them dressed and re-dressed after swimming, down for naps....all the while making sure I also get myself showered and ready to leave at 3:30 for a wedding)!

My high school friend, Jessica and her BF, Bobby, drove all the way from Austin to meet us in Waco for dinner before the wedding. We ate at Ninfa's - an old Waco favorite and the food and some caffeine really helped perk me up a bit. It was really nice to finally meet Bobby, but I wish we'd had a better chance to chat. Thanks for coming up, Jessica!!

After dinner, we went for a drive around Baylor...I always say this, but it is so different from when I was there! My Baylor is still there somewhere in the middle of all the newness, but it's still so strange.

From Baylor, we were wedding-bound. The wedding was held at the arboretum in Woodway (kind of a suburb of Waco). I never even knew there was an arboretum out there!  It was a very pretty setting, but it sure was HOT! Luckily, we weren't in the heat for too terribly long for the ceremony. The ceremony was really nice and seemed so perfect for Brooke! The reception was held in a nice room right there on the arboretum grounds. There was some really yummy punch there and Brooke let us in on the secret ingredients...creme soda and ginger ale! It was very good and so refreshing after coming in from the heat. One of my college accounting professors was at the wedding...I actually had her twice during college. Once for one of the basic accounting classes that all business majors had to take and then again for one of the upper level classes. I always really liked her and I went up and re-introduced myself to her. She seemed to recognize me, but I doubt she remembered much else about me. She was really sweet though and seemed genuinely interested in knowing what I was up to. She was so excited to hear that I'm still in the accounting field.

Now for the wedding pics!

I love cute flower girls and loved

their little flower kissing balls!

Here comes the bride

The scripture readers...that's our friend, Jenifer,

in the blue/black dress!  Brooke's dad put

together a really neat set of scriptures.

So pretty

Brooke's mom surprised her by letting off

butterflies at the end of the ceremony - they were

flying all around us - so neat!!

There goes the bride

Andi, Michelle, and I with Brooke & Michael

Cutting the yummy cake!

All the girls I used to watch the

Bachelor/Bachelorette with,  and still discuss

the Bachelorette with via the Internet!

They had those popper streamer things for their

send-off.  I was scared of them, but it turned out cool!

AND hilarious...Brooke and Michael got pretty tangled

up in the streamers.  Don't you just love Brooke's

get-away dress??  I feel like people don't do

get-away outfits much these days, but it's a tradition I love!

Mediterranean Cooking Class

There's a teeny little restaurant in the East Village called Porchetta that's been all the rave for a little while.  There are only a few seats and the menu only holds a handful of choices.  But, it's quite popular and the owner/chef, Sara Jenkins, is on the up-and-up.  Lucy emailed me some time ago to see if I would be interested in taking a cooking class with Sara at Whole Foods.  Yes, I was interested, but I still hadn't been to Porchetta and I felt like I just HAD to take care of that first.  So, one Sunday evening before church in May I met Lucy at Porchetta for a scrumptious meal.  You can basically have the Porchetta sandwich or the Porchetta plate, which is just the meat w/ a couple of sides.  I chose the sandwich and it was delicious.  I was ready for the cooking class!

The Whole Foods class was actually not over porchetta, but rather Mediterranean fare.  There was no way we could go wrong with this class.  Sara Jenkins (a fab chef who was raised on Mediterranean fare) plus Mediterranean fare in general (one of my faves).  Greatness all around.  The class did not disappoint.  It was small, intimate, and hands-on.  There were only 12 of us in the class and we were split into groups of 4.  Sara would make a recipe and then we would make the same recipe with our group of 4.  At the end of the evening, we got to eat our creations...and it was delicious!

On the menu?

-White Almond Gazpacho
- Roasted Baby Beets with Anchovy Butter
- Cretan Bread, Tomato and Feta Salad
- Fresh Summer Beans Simmered in Tomato Sauce
- Pan Roasted Asparagus

The gazpacho was to die for.  I mean really, really amazingly good.  It was incredibly rich, so just a small cup was all you needed.  Oh, I hope for an occasion to cook this again for friends or family at some social gathering.  But, it's kind of a weird dish, so it's got to be just the right occasion and just the right people.  I also loved the asparagus which was tossed with some arugula, shaved Parmiggiano cheese, Faro (a grain...kind of like rice, but bigger) and some oil and vinegar.  So good.  The Salad was excellent as well.  I don't like tomatoes much, but pair them with feta and they take on a whole other flavor to me.  The cretan bread (hard barley bread) just added to the texture of the salad...I loved it.

To top off the whole evening, Sara sent us all home with a tin of Porchetta's famous seasoned salt!  It's normally $10 at the restaurant!

So, it was a very fun class and fun night with Lucy. I'd love to take another class at Whole Foods since this was such a great experience!  Between the salt, the amazing meal, the new recipes, and an entertaining evening, I think we got our money's worth out of this class!

Stayin' wit da boyz

I left for Dallas very early in the morning on Saturday, June 5th.  I was there by 10AM and that began my 3 full days of caring for Ryder, Beau, and Shep.  Beth and Brian left for a California get-away on Friday morning and after a night spent with cousins (Ryder and Beau) and my mom (Shep), I was in charge!  I will fully admit that it was not easy.  I found myself rather exhausted on Day 2.  Caring for 3 young-ins is tough stuff!  And it didn't help that I hadn't seen them in about 5 months and wasn't familiar with their routine anymore, they had bouts of missing their mom, and I had no clue where my sister keeps ANYthing in her house.  Honestly, that may have been the most frustrating part..nothing seemed to be where it was supposed to be so getting anything done took at least 10 minutes longer because you were searching the whole house for one small thing.  But, it wasn't all bad...not at all.  I love, love, love those boys and getting to spend a few days with them was great.  I want them to know me well and vice-versa.  And they are really good boys and pretty easy for the most part.  We stayed very busy for the full 3 days!  Here's what we filled our time with:

-- Lunches at Chick-fil-a!  One with my mom and one with my NYC-turned-Dallas friend, Sarah.
-- Swimming every single day.  Easy entertainment right at the backdoor.  The boys love it.  I love it.  I especially love that Beau somehow learned to swim during the winter this year.  Weirdest thing - he couldn't swim last summer, but first time out this summer he jumped in and is swimming.  Those boys are little fishies, I tell ya!  Makes it a lot less stressful.  The scary part now is that they are both still fearless and are starting to do dives and flips and stuff.  Beau will stand right on the edge of the pool and do a full flip before landing in the water feet first.  It's quite amazing and impressive to see him fling his tiny 3-year-old body into the pool like this.  Bu it still scared the living daylights out of me every time.  Ryder can flip too, but it seems a little more controlled and less scary.

"Surfing USA", as yelled by Ryder

Shep swam with us some, but also was pretty

happy hanging out on the porch in his exersaucer.

-- Family dinner with KayKay and Buster.
-- Bed time NYC stories.  I bought the kids two new children's books all about New York City.  They know that's where I live and know small details about NYC.  My mom recently said she was reading to them and whatever book it was had a city scene picture and Beau said "that's where SuSu lives"!  So, they do have some idea of what it might be like.  But, I really want them to grow up knowing and loving NYC...it is one of my great loves, so I must share it with them!
-- Homemade gummies.  That's right, HOMEMADE!  Am I the coolest aunt or what?  Ha!  I bought a kit for this in NYC and took it with me to Dallas.  It was actually kind of like a baking/science/art project all rolled in to one.  You used dried up seaweed as part of the recipe...apparently seaweed has gelatin in it??  Anyway, whatever it is, it worked.  We ended up with some fabulous bright pink gummies and the boys loved them.

-- Picnics outside.  A post-swim lunch or dinner on the porch under the ceiling fans is always a perfect meal.
-- Meeting Anna Lee!  She's one of the boys' favorite babysitters and she took over for several hours while I went to a wedding.  She's the cutest, sweetest girl and loves my nephews so well.
-- Swim lessons!  All 3 boys were taking lessons and the lessons were being held in their pool.  Beth lent out her pool to the swim school for 2 weeks so that she could get free lessons for the boys (quite a good deal for her).  So, that meant that there were people in the backyard and pool all day long.
-- Games with Ryder!  It's so fun to play games with him these days since he kind of gets the concept.  (He does not, however, like the thought of losing.  I usually don't just let kids win, but I let Ryder win because he was so quiet all day on Monday...I think he was missing his mom).  I enjoyed the one-on-one time with him during Beau's swim lesson and later during his nap.
-- Ryder's karate class...so fun.  I sat on bleachers outside his class with the other parents, but we could see in through glass windows.  Ryder would occasionally look out to see if I was looking and give me a sweet smile or a wave...so cute!

-- If there is ever a slow minute or two in the house, the boys are sure to hit-up the costume box in their playroom.  They love to dress up and it is so funny sometimes!

Ryder in his Mogli (Jungle Book) costume, plus

a bunch of random hockey gear I brought down.

One early morning, the boys came running into

the living room where I was feeding Shep and

Beau was yelling "We're ready!  We're ready!"

Awesome undies on their heads!

What a crazy whirlwind those 3 days were.  It was fun, but I'm not sure I want to spend another vacation from work doing that!  Love those boys though, and that's all that matters :)

Charlottesville, Day 2

Sunday morning we woke up and went back to the Downtown Mall for breakfast.  The fact that we kept going back to this area made me start to think that Charlottesville is very small.  I thought it was about the same size as Columbia, the town I primarily grew up in.  However, after spending some time in Charlottesville, I began to wonder.  After further research, it turns out it's about half the size of Columbia.  Makes sense!

After grabbing a bite to eat, we went to church.  Lucy said she didn't care about going to her old church there so we decided we were interested in checking out the Acts29 plant in there.  Acts29 is a church planting organization and our church in New York is part of it.  We weren't super impressed with the Charlottesville church, but it was okay.

From church, Lucy dropped Amanda and I off near the University of Virginia where we hung out for a couple of hours while Lucy met a friend for lunch.  We strolled through some of the shops just off campus and then picked up bagel sandwiches at Bodo Bagel to take with us over to the UVA lawn.

The UVA campus was gorgeous!  We spent some time exploring it - it didn't seem terribly huge.  I love how they have kept all the buildings the same...red brick with white trim, lots of arches and columns.  It felt very prestigious to me.

The pretty chapel on the campus was really

the only building that didn't look like the others

Lucy had mentioned that the Cardinal was the state

bird, so I was excited to see some on campus!

I tasted one of the cherries off this tree!

We had fun exploring the tiny gardens behind the buildings that line the Great Lawn.  From what I've heard, some of these buildings are professor's homes and some are student housing.  These are some lucky students to have such nice backyards!

This is the back of one of the residences

We even spotted a little bunny in one garden

After exploring the UVA campus, Lucy picked us back up.  (I feel like I should explain what happened to Carlos.  He went to college at Liberty, just an hour from Charlottesville, so he headed down there on Saturday night and met back up with us Monday morning.  He totally missed out on our Sunday Funday).  From UVA, Lucy took us to a popular fro-yo place in Charlottesville.  Lucy is lactose intolerant, so she couldn't get any and dropped us off and went to get gas.  Just as we were about to order, Lucy called, "I just remembered.  You have to get the ooey gooey brownie topping".  We weren't exactly sure what it was, but if it's the thing to get, we were definitely getting it!  So, that's what we did...Amanda got it on vanilla yogurt and I got it on peanut butter yogurt.  It was basically like brownie batter on top of our frozen yogurt.  It was sinfully delicious.  What a treat!

Next up?  The Blue Ridge Mountains, of course.  These mountains are one of Lucy's most favorite spots in the world...and they are quite pretty.  I've seen them before, but this was the first time I realized why they got their name.  They seriously look blue from off in the distance.  Very cool.  We hiked - a short, but hard hike.  Lucy said she likes to just get to the top quick so she can enjoy the view, which meant we basically walked straight up a really steep incline from the bottom to the top of the mountain.  This really made me realize how out of shape I am!!  Got to get back to consistent running!

Ready to go!

I can't believe we just climbed that!

Lucy did let us stop for a couple of breaks

The reward - beautiful views!

And lots of photo ops

And some moments of solitude

After the hike, we were ready for our next adventure...a farm adventure!  Lucy has some sweet friends who live on a farm.  They used to live in Mississippi where the man was a pastor, but retired about 10 years ago and moved to Virginia and onto a farm.  They had never lived on a farm before, but have picked up quite a lot about farming and are turning a profit now.  They love to share their farm and all they are learning with others.  It was a fun evening! 

This is the lovely home of their parents who live on the property.  Once they have to move into assisted living, they plan to turn this house into a B&B...it will be amazing, I am sure!!

This picture does not do their dogs justice.  They

are HUGE and have beautiful fur!!

They fed us an amazing dinner in the lovely home and it was almost all straight from their farm!  We started by trying out some of their goat's milk...tasted just like regular milk.  Then we had an amazing salad with veggies from their garden, cooked kale from their garden, and grass-fed burgers.  It was one of the best tasting burgers I've ever had and all he did was put a little salt & pepper on the meat and grill it - amazing!  For dessert, we were treated to cherry pie made from cherry tree and the crust was even made from their own ground flour.  It was a delicious and fun meal!

After dinner, we took a tour of the farm.  We started with the bee hives...their newest endeavor on the farm.

We got to milk their goats.  Before we left on the trip, when I first was told we were going to be milking goats, I was a little apprehensive.  I'm just not an animal person :(  But, once we got there and they asked if anyone wanted to try, I was the first to say "I do"!  I don't know what overcame me.  I guess I just got into the spirit of the farm.  I kind of liked doing it...maybe I need a farm!

We saw their chicken eggs and incubator and then some baby chicks!

We strolled through their extensive garden and ate vegetables I've never even heard of straight from the ground.

There were pretty flowers, too!

What a fun Sunday it had been!  After a lovely breakfast at a cool coffee shop, Monday mostly just consisted of a long drive back to NYC.  We did get to stop at Chick-fil-a for lunch....yumm-o!

Although Charlottesville was not my favorite place - it was just a little too small for this girl who's been in NYC a little too long.  But, I did like a lot of things about it...especially the mountains and the wineries.  And we obviously did a lot of really fun things.  I am so glad I got to go see this place that Lucy loves and spend the weekend with such fun friends!