Marathon Round 2 - Kelly

So this post might be a bit premature, but Amy and I have decided to run the Chicago Marathon next fall. We won't really need to start training until the late spring but both of us are going to spend the winter getting ourselves into gear so the start of training is fairly easy.

How lucky am I to have sisters crazy enough to train for races with me right in Chicago??

Things I've Loved This (Long) Weekend

(And it's only Friday!)

- Stopping by a new chocolate shop in La Porte, where my grandpa is apparently a regular, and picking out some sweets

- Finding 4 belts for me plus a Christmas gift (for certain readers of this blog) at a thrift store

- A gray, chilly run with Kevin through the trails around Stone Lake

- Thanksgiving dinners 1 (at my grandparents') and 2 (at my in-laws'), of course

- A glass of my father-in-law's fancy Scotch

- Watching a movie (Crazy, Stupid Love) with Kevin, Lesley, and Paul until late last night

- Sleeping in until 10 a.m. this morning

- Sitting around in my pajamas and then taking as long as I wanted to shower and get ready today

- A dark, dark purple pedicure, courtesy of my mother-in-law

- An afternoon of work and blog reading, blog reading and work

New Blog Layout - Brady

I was just messing around tonight and decided to try a new blog layout. I didn't ask my sisters, so hopefully they like it.

If you have any trouble with it, let me know!

Adventures with Friends -Kelly

One of the many (although still lame!) reasons I haven't been posting is because I have been traveling as often as I have been home the past two months. Here is just a sampling of where I've been:

- NYC with some of my favorite cousins

- New Jersey for a work conference

- Mexico, Texas, and New Mexico visiting a friend

- San Francisco visiting friends

- Indianapolis shopping with family

Needless to say, it's been busy! I wanted to share a bit of the amazing time I had visiting Rachel and Jasmine, two of my best friends from college, in California.

Here the three of us right after we met in college:

(Who are those little girls?? And can you tell it was a theme party??)We all joined DG at the same time (and actually lived together our first semester in the house) so at this point we've known each other for quite a few years!

We had a wonderful time bopping around the city, eating great food, drinking amazing cocktails, and most importantly catching up with each other.

Here Jaz and I are making funny faces:

Here Rachel and I are listening to records at a sound system store where Jaz likes to hang out (how cool is that??):

And here the three of us are before a performance of 'Beach Blanket Babylon'- if you're in SF you HAVE to check it out:

I miss these ladies like crazy but am always happy for a reason to jet off to San Francisco for the weekend. :)

'Tis The Season... - Brady

...to bug my sisters about posting on this blog every once in awhile. Don't you think?

Just kidding. Kind of.

What I really wanted to write about is FAMILY. 'Tis the season to spend lots and lots of time with them. This past weekend, Kevin and I hosted our annual Vegetarian Thanksgiving. My parents, grandparents, in-laws, siblings (minus Kelly who was in fabulous San Francisco but who came over Tuesday night to help us with the leftovers), and siblings-in-law all squeezed themselves into our apartment. I'm so grateful that everyone made the trip. Veggie Thanksgiving is one of my happiest days of the year. Kevin made/organized an amazing meal, as usual. I could write a whole post about THAT, but I'll just say that my favorite dishes were his roasted brussel sprouts with chile and lemon, my grandma's "party potatoes," my mother-in-law's pumpkin bars, the cheese my father-in-law and I picked out at a gourmet food shop in our neighborhood, and the LaPorte-made chocolates my mom and dad contributed.

Below are a few little photo highlights.

Here's a shot right in the middle of the celebration - between the meal and dessert, I think. The beautiful flowers were courtesy of Lesley and Paul, my sister- and brother-in-law.

Lesley and Paul's little dog fast asleep.

The dessert table. Someone please come over and help me with these leftovers.

I know it sounds weird, but one of my favorite parts of hosting people at our home is cleaning up afterward. I like putting on music, having maybe one more glass of wine, reminiscing with Kevin about the day, and just putting everything back in order. Here's our "dining room table" late that night after everyone went home.

So, Veggie Thanksgiving was wonderful, as always. And the best part about the holidays is that wonderfulness just keeps on coming! I'm driving down to Indianapolis on Saturday morning with my sisters for an overnight Christmas shopping trip with my mom, grandma, aunts, and cousins. And then, of course, just a few days later there's REAL Thanksgiving, which means a much needed break from work, tons of great food, and lots and lots of family.

I hope the start of your holiday season has been as nice as mine.

Happy Halloween! - Brady

It was a great Saturday.

Kelly and I got up bright and early to run the "Carrera de los Muertos" 5K in Pilsen. (And Kevin got up bright and early to cheer us on.) Pilsen is a predominantly Mexican-American neighborhood in Chicago, and the race coincided with their Day of the Dead celebration. It also benefited UNO - a charter school network - so what's not to like?

It was a really great race. The weather was sunny and cool, there was plenty of entertainment, and they served us free churros at the end. (Of course, two tiny churros weren't enough to satisfy us, so we had to stop and buy some Mexican pastries to share after the race. Five for the three of us. You know.)

Then Saturday night we headed to a couple of Halloween parties - one at our neighbor's place and one at Kelly's. Kevin and I hemmed and hawed about what our costumes should be and finally settled on...

A raccoon (me) and a shiny object (him). That was our brilliant idea. (Kelly's, actually.) I don't know if people got it. (Kevin was called a Christmas Tree two or three times.)

Here we are, doing a photo shoot to our camera's timer.

We had no trick-or-treaters, sadly. Somehow they couldn't make it through the two locked gates to get to our condo. Next year...