So, 2 weekends ago Teddy had a guys day planned of golf. I was happy since he hasn't seen them all really since the wedding, so it was good that he finally dusted off the golf clubs and got some man time. It was long over due. He even took some pictures of the day.
Teddy's cart partner for the day
Mark and Jon - Don't they look pumped
Teddy getting in the pictures
While he was out on the course I was able to get some much needed errands done. It was a productive day.
On Sunday morning Teddy and I had our first 5K run together. We were running in the Downers Grove run to support The Family Shelter Service. We were excited because it was our first 5K after completing the Couch to 5K program the last 9 weeks. We had been running outside and thought that this would be a good test of our training. Well, I think we should have taken a look at the course before we signed up because the entire thing was hills, and we trained predominantly on flat roads. Oops! It was a pretty tough race and there were times that I wanted to throw in the towel, but Teddy kept me going and we finished the race in about 39:29. Teddy was excited because he set a goal to finish in less than 40 minutes. I was excited just to have finished it with the difficulty of the course. We especially want to thank those that donated to The Family Shelter Service in support of our run. So, thanks to Mom E, Mom L, Aunt Penny, Jennifer and Sara! We were so glad that we did it and have been continuing on with the running a few times a week, although since fall is officially here we've moved our training indoors to treadmills at the gym. Now we need to find a race to run in the spring so we keep motivated all winter.
After the race we headed over to my sister's place to have our family birthday celebration for Michael, Sara and me! Sara had the idea to head to Goebbert's farm by here to check out the attractions and maybe pick up some pumpkins for Halloween. We were game and so was the rest of NW Chicago! It was a perfect day: sunny and 70 degrees. So, we grabbed some lunch and headed around the crowd to see what we could.
What a nice family shot...nice rabbit ears dad!
After the farm we headed over to do some shopping near our dinner location of Cooper's Hawk. We had an awesome dinner there. It's one of my favorite places.
Sara and Michael trying to figure out what to order
Mom and Dad looking excited
Teddy and me
After dinner we headed back to Sara and Michael's place for some cake and gifts!
Getting ready to blow out some candles
Sara made a scrumptious cake for us. It had the most delish frosting that she made from scratch. I have to get that recipe from her. For my birthday Sara and Michael got me some rice bowls and Mom and Dad got me a pizza stone, both from the wedding registry list of unpurchased items. I'm excited to make some homemade pizza on my new stone and I love those bowls.
And that wraps up two weekends ago.
This past weekend started off a little bit sad. Some friends of ours had a death in their family so Friday night and Saturday morning we headed to services to support them. While it was great to see them, I wish it was under better circumstances. At times like that it is so hard to know what to say, and I know neither of them knew what to say either. So, it's this difficult interaction of everyone trying to tiptoe around and say the right thing, do the right thing. In the end, I think the most important thing is to just be there. Really be there to listen, give hugs and follow their lead. I'm sure they have had and will continue to have difficult moments as they grieve, but I hope they know that we are here to help - even if it is just to come over to play games or talk about nonsense to get their minds onto something else. We love you both and are thinking of you every day.
Saturday night Teddy had made plans to take me out to dinner for my birthday. Woot! Woot! He made reservations months ago at Moto. Moto is this molecular gastronomy place that creates art out of food. It's hard to explain, but they take familiar flavors and create a whole different look and use of them. We did the 10 course tasting menu. Here are a few shots of a couple of the courses.
This course was a play on baseball food. It was Quail coated in peanuts with a carmel apple puree, coke a cola reduction, popcorn powder and edible paper that looked like a cracker jack prize and tasted like cherries. It was absolutely amazing.
This course was supposed to look like a cannolli, you know, the Italian dessert. But it was a Mexican taco with duck, jalapeno powder, corn powder and a mole sauce. I've never really liked mole sauce, but this mole was delicious. I must have never had the right mole before.
This was one of the dessert courses. It was chocolate mousse with cookie crumbs on top, merange chips with raspberry dust and some sort of ice cream, I can't remember the flavor. The textures in this dish were so wonderful and the flavor combinations so terrific.
We really enjoyed trying all the courses.
Excited to be at Moto and on course number 5
Teddy awaiting our next course
OK, so there was one course I didn't love. Here I am wondering, what the heck is this? This was a dessert course with pineapple, chai ice cream, coconut crunchy things. It wasn't my favorite. Teddy liked it a lot, but it was a little soapy tasting to me.
We really enjoyed the meal. It was unlike anything we had ever tasted before. I wish we had taken pictures of all the courses. They were each a piece of art and each course had a unique blend of texture and flavor that made it so good (except for the one soapy course). ;)
On Sunday I had a spa day planned with my girls, Stacy and Nilam. We spent nearly all day at the Kohler Spa in Burr Ridge. We all got massages and then hung out in the hot tub, sauna, steam room for an hour or so and then had pedicures. It was heaven. We had a great day catching up and spent a lot of time laughing. One thing I learned on this day was to go shopping with Stacy, that girl will remember discounts and find discounts no one knew existed! It was like a money saving extravaganza with her. After the spa we headed over to Cooper's Hawk (who would have predicted) to get some linner (it was 3:00 by the time we got out of the spa). And after that hit a few of the shops nearby before calling it a day. It was so great to spend the day with them. It has been far too long since we have been able to have a day like that together. I love those girls!
So, despite the delay in my blogging there has been a lot going on. I'm now another year older *sigh* but looking forward to things to come. Hopefully I'll be a little more current on my blog the rest of the month.
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