...energizer bunny...

So, the last few days have been a bit overwhelming for many reasons.

Thursday we jumped in the car and made our way up to Mukwonago to spend a night with the very hospitable Josh, Julie, and Morgan. It was wonderfully misty for the last hour of our drive. Neither of us had been to Wisconsin before, so it was fun taking it all in. We arrived on their doorstep, and were greeted not only by hugs and smiles, but by the tasty scent of chicken jambalaya and a apple/blueberry/cranberry crisp. Drool. We visited a short bit, and then it was dinner time. Yummy. Julie's cooking lived up to the hype.
After dinner, her folks came over to meet Jer and I. I didn't expect to have my picture taken, but it was! Ah well. It was nice to meet them. It was during that time that we learned Rick was in the hospital. We couldn't reach him, but we kept him in our thoughts.
We had a really great evening of talking, drinking, eating, etc.
The next morning we got up relatively early to say goodbye to Morgan before she left for school. She somehow conned me into playing the My Little Pony game that she has (it's not very hard to get me to play board games.) We lolled about, tried calling Rick (they said he was discharged-we couldn't reach him at home-we found out once we were back in KC that he had not been discharged! We are happy you are alright Rick!), then Josh mentioned that there was a Greek diner in town. Jeremy's ears perked up, and he was dressed in a flash. Julie stayed home to work, but the rest of us headed for the diner. Good good. We came back and got to hang out with Julie and Josh until we had to leave for Madison. Thank you Julie, Josh, and Morgan for a fun visit. We will see you in a few weeks!!!

We headed on to Madison. I'm not very in to the driving style that I mainly observed in Wisconsin...driving instead of passing in the left lane, switching between going really fast, or real slow. Whatever. We made it to the hotel in kind of one piece. Madison was hard for me to drive in. There was a lot of construction, bike lanes in the middle, but bikers riding everywhere, and twisty streets. But, it is a really nice town.
We hung out in the room, and freshened up, then made our way to the botanical garden for Emily and Greg's wedding. It was a very nice ceremony. Towards the end Jasper (their son) wiggle out of his Grandparent's arms, and walked over to his Mom and Dad. Very cute. I was the only high school friend who made it to the wedding, so I was a little nervous about if anyone would talk with us at the reception.
Ah, the reception...they rented out a fantastic local restaurant. We got a couple glasses of wine in us, then headed to the seats that we would not leave for the next couple of hours. Check out this menu:
*ancho chile and sweet onion focaccia with a chimi-churri dipping sauce
*celery root and potato soup with walnut-apple puree
*mesclun greens topped with a salad of Incan quinoa, jicama, raisins, carrots, onions, peppers, and tropical fruit, dressed with citrus vinaigrette

I had for my entree: mexican beet gnocchi and creamy sunchoke puree with sauteed bartlett pears, roasted pecans, oyster mushrooms and zucchini.

Jer had: seared sea scallops with a spicy peanut sauce and a crab-mango-haricot vert salad wrapped in rice paper.

There were other choices, but I will not go into them.
For dessert there was:
"A Florida lime custard dome on a sweet-spiced crumb crust, with a cajeta cream and coconut rum sauce."
or
"Gianduja chocolate mousse layered between Brazilnut torte, with passion fruit and Kahlua-chocolate sauces."

Ahhh!!! So good. In between all of the food was drinks, merry-making, talking, laughing, etc. By the time the dancing came around, I could hardly move. We had to waddle back to the room, where I straight passed out.

Saturday was just a car day.

Now we are just back to work, seeing friends, getting ready to re-arrange our house with the furniture we are getting from Daddad's, gardening, watching all the baby bunnies and birds, and getting geared up for more parties, weddings, movings, and more!

...blue crush...

I didn't get to actually see Clayton until yesterday morning due to the fact that he was in the NICU up until that. Nothing serious...he was born with the cord around his neck, so they were extra cautious with him, but all is fine.
He is just divine!
Today, after work, Jeremy, Mom, and I drove up to Piper and Nick's for Mother's Day and to help welcome Clayton to his first evening home. I finally got to see his pretty little eyes open, and he looked right at me! I held him a bunch, and just watched him. I got tears just because. Sigh. It is so nice having him here.

...new baby!...

Piper and Nick had their baby this morning at 11:16 a.m.!
His name is Clayton Blue. Jer and I are going to visit this afternoon to see that sweet baby-face for the first time. Yay!!!