Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Ents R Us

Yeah, I know it's a bit of a stretch. Since Kelly made adorable tree outfits for Dom and Noel for Halloween, I took her idea and went another direction. For our Tanglefooters party last night, we were Ents, sort of. We probably looked more like camouflage. And no one else dressed up, so we felt like major dorks. Oh, well. It was still fun, and people liked our outfits.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Chicago!

A view of fall foliage at the Chicago Botanical Gardens

Hannah and Steve by a giant pumpkin....

"he put her in a pumpkin shell and there he kept her very well."

Hannah and Steve's corner. It's a lovely tree-lined neighborhood.

My favorite part of their house is the rounded bay at the front with gorgeous stained glass windows.

For the first time in history, MSSU had a fall break, October 13 & 14, so we decided to leave on the 10th for a long weekend in Chicago. We went to visit our daughter and son-in-law, Hannah & Steve, and to check out their new house, a delightful brick bungalow in one of Chicago's historic bungalow districts. We flew out of KC, and everything went smoothly, travelwise. While we were in Chicago, the weather was glorious. We did as much outdoorsy stuff as we could, going to the Chicago Botanical Gardens, to a park near Hannah and Steve's place, and walking around the neighborhood a bit.

We also ate ourselves silly. On Saturday we got up late and had a delicious brunch at a Swedish restaurant. We ate outside on the terrace, then walked across the street to browse through a Scandinavian import store. Other ethnic eating highlights of our trip were Thai, Indian, Mediterranean, and Peruvian food. There was a Polish place Hannah and Steve wanted to take us to, but we just plain ran out of meal-times. Next time....

On Monday, Hannah did something sneaky! She'd already taken the day off from work to spend with her parents, but she also scheduled a job interview downtown. While she interviewed, we walked around downtown, along the river, popped into a couple of stores, then met up with her again. She said the interview went well, so we're hoping that she can end up in a better work environment.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Tulsa concert

Monday night, September 29, we went to Tulsa to see the Newsboys in concert for the 4th time in a year and a half. I KNOW! We probably wouldn't have gone if we hadn't finally influenced someone else to go with us. Greg and Shannon Hatfield, a delightful newlywed couple from our church, wanted to go, so that was all the incentive Dale needed to plan yet another trip to see the lads from Australia. We had a great time, but all of us were exhausted the next day.

I've always wanted to get a photo of the big dude outside the fairgrounds, so I finally got my chance. He was wearing a Coca-Cola shirt this time! I wonder what size he wears.


Dale took this photo of the 4 of us--love those flattering arm's length shots!


What a GREAT concert! I think we've turned Greg and Shannon into Newsboys fans, too. It was the perfect night for an outdoor concert. The weather could not have been better. We were packed in like sardines but that was ok. Dale chatted with a nice guy next to him who had chauffeured the Newsboys around for a year.