Visitees and Visitors!

The last couple weekends Nolan and I have enjoyed visiting friends in Colorado and I hosted the fourth of July for a couple of my rugby friends!  Be prepared for LOTS of photos!  :)

Colorado was amazing!  Nolan had never been and I had only been there a few times but never in the summer.  We loved the weather - hot and DRY!  What a contrast to our typical humid days in Chicago.  We spent 3 days visiting with my Great Aunt and Uncle on Friday and exploring the Denver area with my friends, Rachel and Matt - you might remember her face as my MAID OF HONOR!

Here are a few photos!

Denver - a view from my uncle's home

Uncle Clint (my maternal grandmother's younger brother), Aunt Pat, Camille, Nolan

Brewfest in Ft. Collins

 All empty!

 BBQ time!  Yum!

 Large rocks to climb!

 Someone was envious of Rach's technique!

 Matt and Rach

This is why Rach is so BUFF!  :)

 Nolan trying his hand at it!

Cory making sure I didn't fall!

 We miss the mountains!

 The mountain we climbed!

 The clan we spent the day with

Tricia - Rach - Nolan

Camille - Cory - Matt

 My turn!

We had an unbelievable time!  We just went with the flow and let the weekend transpire.  It turned out to be a funfilled weekend meeting lots of good people!

Last weekend was the fourth of July!  I had three very special visitors!  Kerrie, Shorty (Christine), and Aubrey - sometimes I forget to tell people Shorty's real name when I introduce her - so I tried really hard this last visit to be conscious of it! She's still just Shorty to me!

Kerrie and Aubs came into town Thursday and we had a low key night - Pho and drinks!

Friday we went to the Taste of Chicago - ate lots of food and ended at Plymoth lookin over part of the city.

We went to Second City on Friday night - finally all the girls were in town!  Oddly enough we called it a night fairly early - at 11pm, although it wasn't a trend for the entire weekend!

The next day, Saturday we went to a Cubs game!  They won - I swear I've yet to be to a game when they've lost!  I swear I am good luck! 

Enjoying some beer and singing the 7th Inning Stretch!

 A cubs game wouldn't be right without a stop to Ian's Pizza - home of the baked potato pizza and steak and fries pizza!  Kerrie wasn't kidding when she said for me to break out my Thanksgiving pants for this trip!  Yikes!

That night we went to Greek food and then out to a club I'd never heard of but it fit us so well!  The Hangge-Uppe is a dive bar/club with 2 floors; one floor with 90's music, the other 80's music - we stayed on the 80's floor where the boys were screamming songs from Grease as we walked in at midnight!

The reason she's called Shorty!

Waiting for the train - heading downtown.

Drinking and Dancing!

Leaving at 5AM!  "Hello college!"

Cleaning our plates since Angela's was closed!

That would be the sunrise! 

 Nothing better than walking home with all the girls you went out with!  Love it!

  Sunday, 7/4, we got up to see a Chicago Movie Tour - that was by all means - mediocre.  We returned to my apartment and we slept A LOT.  That night we made an awesome dinner and attempted to see the fireworks, but were kicked out of the cab - he was a grouch!  So we went to Galway Bay, a favorite bar of mine.  It's a basement bar known for its darts, video games, and $1.50 PBRs!  Delightful!

 Everyone enjoyed their 4th!  Gradually the girls left, 2 Monday, 1 Tuesday and I slowly returned to a regular schedule!  

Next up- Dad visits this week when we'll take a trip to Southern Illinois, see a Cubs game and have a great time!

What a weekend!

Now that it's nearly next weekend, I'll tell you of our adventurous last weekend!

Nolan and I stayed extremely busy this past weekend.

Friday was fairly relaxed, finishing up some minor things to complete Adam and Alicia's wedding invites!  Yep, that's right, I was crazy enough to construct more invites by hand - I must have forgotten how much work it was for our wedding invites.  After a few hour long episodes of Life (Earth's sequel, featuring Oprah's voice as apposed to Sigourney Weaver's), a couple beers, we created some fantastic wax seals to complete their invitation suite!

Saturday I completed the last week of my first quarter back in school with my Color Theory final.  I feel comfortable and back in the swing of juggling school and work just in time for 3 weeks off of school!  Once I finished my final I used the school's resources to edit Adam and Alicia's photo of their Burning Man Art Car!   Burning Man's theme this year is Metropolis and they'll be driving their art car named, Roving Red Light District - a swanky dive bar on wheels!  I was excited to help bring their vision to life.  After some fun Photoshop love I made a pit stop to Kinko's to print some baby announcements I designed for my good friend, Rachel who had a son March 29th.  They were sent with Monday's mail and I am excited for her friends and family to post them up on their fridges!  When I returned home it was barely noon and the sun was shinning and it was so wonderful outside!  We dehydrated fruit!  Yes, like that guy who used to sell the spray on hair - Ron Something!  After filling trays of apples, bananas, grapes, mangoes, and apricots we left the house to enjoy the sun.

After slicing and dicing, we walked to the park and played croquet!  It was so much fun!  I can't wait for it to stop raining here so we can go again!  After 2 games we were back at the house packing our picnic to travel on the Metra Train up to Ravinia Park to see Buddy Guy, a well-known Chicago Blues artist!  He was awesome and so was the entire experience.  JJ Grey and Mofro opened for him and they were unbelievable too, we even got their vinyl record!

Picnics at Ravinia were nothing short of amazing!  I was utterly impressed with the spreads people brought, they were gourmet!  Check out some of them!

 This table had full on wine glasses and china!

Putting their most important item on display!

All crowding around the table - but look at that stroller for the cooler!

 Of course I spot the one think Nevada there!  :)

 You could even rent a fancy table and TABLE CLOTH!  

Buddy Guy rocking out!

 JJ Grey and Mofro!  Awesome!

The weekend didn't stop there, Sunday we spent in Evanston (where I work) at their Custer Street Fair enjoying fresh lemonade, strolling the streets, looking at art, meeting interesting people and mostly just soaking up the great weekend.  We made it home and finally had CHINESE food at one of those places I talked about in my last post who are closed on MONDAYS!  :)

Friday, tomorrow, we're heading to Denver to visit my bestest friend!  Rach - I can't wait to see you!