Thanksgiving 2015

My Thanksgiving was perfect.

Mr. Louisville and I traveled up to Cincinnati the night before and stayed at the Hilton downtown which worked out wonderfully.  We ran the Cincinnati Thanksgiving 10k in the morning and I had personal best time of 1 hour 31 seconds! It's a great tradition to feel better about all of the great food later on and I hope to keep it up.

After the run we cleaned up and headed downstairs for lunch with my family at Orchid's.  It's the most wonderful buffet and my favorites were the seafood (crab legs, crab claws, cold shrimp, freshly shucked oysters) and the cheese plate I made for myself in lieu of too many desserts.  It's arguably my favorite family tradition!

I miss my little BFF!

Group photo minus baby Caroline.

After lunch M and I headed back down to Louisville to stop by his Uncle's for an Italian feast.  Sauce, spaghetti, meatballs, rolled beef, pork, bread, salad.  It was a nice change of pace and absolutely delicious!

Following dinner we stopped by Tia's for a visit which was a perfect ending to our holiday.

San Diego and Las Vegas... a timeline!

I hardly had time to unpack before jetting off for a quick trip to San Diego and Vegas with Mr. Louisville. Thus, another timeline.

Thursday 
We caught an early flight to San Diego and arrived around noon.  Eli picked us up from the airport and we went to Neighborhood for lunch and beers.  The company was better than the food.

Afterwards, Eli took us to Aunt Lois' where we'd be staying with her and Uncle Charlie.  Uncle Eddy was there waiting for us so we had a good time sitting outside and catching up.
Aunt Lois made chicken tacos for dinner with fresh pico. Raquel stopped by for a bit and we all got tipsy and had a little dance party.  

In bed by 8pm.

Friday
The next morning Mr. Louisville and I went on a little walk/run with my Aunt.
Later Charlie made us a delicious breakfast with scrambled eggs with the leftover pico and cheddar cheese, crisp bacon and skillet potatoes.

We headed to Uncle Eddy's apartment and tried out his electric bike.  SO FUN!

Later he took us on a walk around Balboa Park.

We went home for a quick nap then headed over to my Aunt Celeste's and Uncle Karl's.  The whole gang was there and Aunt C made a feast of grilled jalapeno's stuffed with cheese and wrapped in bacon, fresh pico, cheese enchiladas, beef tacos and all the fixings.  Can you tell we love Mexican food?!
So good to see everyone though I didn't many pictures. :(

Saturday
M and I left first thing for VEGAS and stopped at In-N-Out Burger along the way.
We arrived at the MGM Grand later that afternoon and quickly freshened up to meet up with our friends.
We had reservations at China Poblano in the Cosmopolitan for dinner followed by the Britney show at Planet Hollywood.  I've been looking forward to seeing this show for so long and it didn't disappoint!
Later we gambled a bit back out our hotel and then called it a night.

Sunday
The next morning we went to America for brunch in New York New York and then napped since the boys were running the Rock N Roll half marathon later that day!
Around 3pm Melissa and I hit the strip while the boys headed to the start.  We stopped for shops and drinks along the way and cheered on our men around mile 4 and at the finish.

After the race the birthday girl was craving Italian so we went to FiAMMA at the MGM and had a great meal.  Charcuterie, calamari, caeser salads, steak and spaghetti.

Monday

We had a bit of a late start so we began with bourbon and Sprite in our rooms before hitting the strip.  We moseyed down to the Venetian and ate at the Grand Lux then gambled a bit.  Roulette for life!  I doubled my money so I cashed out immediately and was quite pleased with myself.
Afterwards we walked over to Zara and Topshop for a little shopping.
The Bengals had the Monday Night Football game so we placed some bets and went to Tap in the MGM to watch the game.  Bengals lost so we did too.
Later we walked over to New York New York for a bit more gambling before calling it a night.

Tuesday
M and I slept in late and checked out around noon then went directly to 800 Degrees for pizza and salad. Since he's been to Vegas many times (as have I) I convinced him to go see the new James Bond Movie to kill time before our flight.  We both really liked it!
As luck would have it my Uncle Eric was in town on business so we met up with him for a few drinks before our flight.

Finally, I caught the end of the Kentucky Wildcats game at the airport and a win over Duke was the cherry on top of the trip.

Hello Louisville!

It's official.  I quit my job and moved to Louisville.  I feel excited, stressed, sad, happy, hopeful - all the feelings!  Since Louisville isn't very far I didn't want to make a big deal about it but I was able to have quite the sendoff.

Dinner at Sotto with the ladies.

Thursday night Bengals football tailgate with lots of friends at the West Sixth party.  Bengals are 8-0!!  Such a fun time to be in the city!!

Quality time with my little BFF.  I'll miss her the most!  Such a special time living with the Normans...  So thankful for them and sad to be gone.  I was part of their family for 8 months and I'll cherish that time for the rest of my life.

Anyway, excited to start a fresh new chapter of my life with Mr. Louisville!!  Wish me luck!

Welcome Caroline Day!

My sister had another baby!  Caroline Day was born while I was away in Austin but everything went well.  We love her! 

Halloween 2015

God I love Halloween!  The best ever!

All dressed up. Inspiration courtesy of Studio DIY.

Trying to get a photo with this little kitty cat.

Waiting for trick-or-treaters.

Party at Leyla's!!

Dance party at Below Zero.

And because I didn't get to see Mr. Louisville this weekend I gotta give him props on his costumes.  Office Space and a Louisville Basketball recruit.

Hope your holiday was as fun as mine!

Austin... a timeline!

Another trip, another timeline.

Saturday
Head to Louisville to catch my flight.
Arrive in Austin around 9pm.  Mr. Louisville arrives shortly after that and we grab our car and head to the hotel.
After a quick change we venture out on 6th Street.  Craziness... I can't imagine going to college here!
We duck into Eurekas! for a late supper.  I had an amazing kale and watermelon salad. 
Side note: I was trying to explain Eureeka's Castle to M but he had no idea what I was talking about.

Sunday
We head out first thing to Ennis TX to spend the day with his family.

We returned to Austin later that evening and met up with some friends at the Cedar Door.
Afterwards, we walked back to our hotel via 6th Street and ducked into Coyote Ugly.  It totally ruined the movie for me.

Monday
Mr. Louisville is in town for a conference so I have the day to myself!  I worked out at the hotel gym then met Mr. L and some of his colleagues for lunch at The Shady Grove.  I had the cobb salad and it was seriously a high lite of the trip for me!
Afterwards I shopped around.

That evening we went to Vince Young's Steakhouse for dinner with drinks before at Handlebar.

Tuesday
I was able to squeeze in another workout before taking myself out to lunch at Moonshine Grill.  I tried a local beer, pimento cheese and a delicious salad.

Afterwords I went to the Contemporary Art Museum and ducked into a few shops and then did a little more exploring.
That evening we went to Black's BBQ for supper then I called it an early night because... too much food!!

Wednesday
Another quick workout and then out to lunch at Numero 28 for the worst meal of the trip. It was so hot and I had planned to do more exploring outside but I relented and went to a cool little movie theater instead.  I saw Martian and LOVED IT!  Afterwards I made my way back to the hotel stopping at the shops along the way.

Cool blue.

That night was date night!  M and I went to the bat bridge and waited around for an hour for those stupid bats to emerge but gave up because we were going to miss our dinner reservations at Parkside.  We shared oysters, crab fritters and great kale salad, strip steak and amazing pumpkin beignets.

Thursday
We both woke up and were able to get a quick workout in before packing up for our return home.  We stopped for lunch at Homeslice Pizza which was definitely  another food high lite!  Nice crisp crust, fresh toppings... everything I love about pizza!  On the way to the airport we drove by a strip of the cutest looking shops!  Was bummed I hadn't discovered them sooner.  Next time, for sure.

So long Austin... Until next time!

Life lately...

READ

Just finished reading Watch Me, a follow up to A Story Lately Told.  As Mindy said, "I can't believe Jack is O.K. with this book." To which Anjelica responded "of course Jack is okay with it - It's a love letter."  Ugh, love her.

Next up, Purity for Babes and Books.

LISTENING
I'm really digging You Must Remember This specifically their season on the infamous Manson murders. Which is timely because Anjelica mentioned the Roman Polanski scandal in her memoir. After every episode I dive deep into Wikipedia to read up on all the crazy stuff surrounding that lunatic. It's fascinating and so sad.

Random Facts: Anjela Lansbury's daughter was once a member of his "family".
Charles Manson is only 5'2".
Beach Boy Dennis Wilson was affiliated with the cult for a long time. This took me down a Beach Boy bender where I discovered that Dennis' cousin, Mike Love is brothers with Stan Love who is the father of Kevin Love - currently playing basketball for Cleveland.
After mentioning my current obsession to my mom she mentioned that my aunt knew one of the women in the Manson family!!!
It's so good and scary... highly suggest!

TRAVELING
I'm going to Austin this weekend with Mr. Louisville.  He's working which means I get to play!  I've already made reservations at Parkside for a date night but I've been looking up all kinds of fun things to do and see in a new to me city. Timeline to come!

CHEERING
I went to a Louisville football game with M and a Bengals game with Ley.  Wins for both!

xo.