Pumpkin Carving with my Buddies

Like I mentioned before, Griff and Linc were both really sick this past week. I hadn't seen them in TOO long and Shell and Dan hadn't been out together in a long time either, so I went over to hang with my sicky buddies for a while on Saturday night. You would never know that they were so sick because they were both full of energy and very smiley.

We decided to carve a pumpkin which turned out far better than expected. Here are my little pumpkin carving directors:And here they are with the finished product:

Double Date

This past weekend, we had a double date with Jeff & Laura. Shell and Dan were supposed to come but they had 2 sick little guys. :( There are some advantages to being child-free, we have to admit! First we went to Bruno's for some dough balls, pizza and beer. YUUUM! Then we headed to the movie theater to watch Couples Retreat. However, they were sold out by the time we got there, so we decided to grab tickets for the next showing and then headed over to the pottery place. Laura and I loved it...Josh and Jeff complied. :)Love this pic. (Isn't their bowl great?!) I'm pretty sure Josh was documenting a friendly disagreement and Jeff is laughing:

Here's our pumpkin, I can't wait to see how it turns out!:

Purdue Football Season!!

Here are some pictures from various games through the season. It's been an overall disappointing season, but still nothing beats football festivities.

Shell at the Notre Dame tailgate: Funny times with some ND fans:

They taught us a few fun tricks, as Shell demonstrates: Eric & Danny at the game:

Shell, me, Laura and Jenny @ the ND game

Josh and I at homecoming:

Best picture of the season! This is as the fans started rushing the field after the huge Ohio State upset! We deserved it and it had been quite a while since I was at a game worthy of a field rushing...it felt awesome!!

Anniversary/Work Trip to Philadelphia

In what seems to be a new tradition, we celebrated our 3rd anniversary (Happy Anniversary to us!!) on a little getaway that we combined with one of my work trips. If you remember, last year, we headed to San Francisco. This year, I had a conference in Philadelphia, so Josh decided to come along since we had neither one ever been.

We started the trip off right by visiting the Reading Market and sharing our first Philly Cheesesteak. Here's Josh enjoying a bite:

Then we decided to have a strawberry & nutella crepe for dessert. We always love when we find good crepes because there was a great creperie at the Sandals on our honeymoon, so it takes us back to that fabulous vacation!
Next, we headed to Eastern State Penitentiary. Funny enough, last year in San Francisco, we toured Alcatraz. Maybe it will be part of our annual tradition!

Here is a creepy chair from the barber shop.

This is me being freaked out while listening to the part that talked about ghosts. It was a creepy place, especially considering that this prison was the first to introduce complete solitary confinement for ALL prisoners, no matter the crime. It goes without saying that many a men lost their minds while behind these walls! CREEPY!

Next, we walked to the Museum of Art to do the obligatory Rocky Run up the steps. Here's Josh taking his handsome calves for a quick run up:

And here we are by the statue:

Next, we strolled through the city and found the JFK Plaza, also known as Love Park. A must see while in the City of Brotherly Love, especially while doing so WITH your love!

We ate well. That's for sure. Last year, we did a Chicago Chocolate tour, remember that?, and we have since kept up with Valerie through Facebook and her newsletter and the week before she left, she sent pictures out of a recent trip that she did to Philly where she did a chocolate tour of the city. We (I) jumped on that and we took her recommendation and checked out Max Brenner. Chocolate is their specialty and even the french fries had cocoa in them! I was in heaven. The food was fantastic, the dessert was even better!!

Look at that chocolatey, caramelly goodness! Here you have a happy girl (with Josh's dessert):

And this was my dessert, hot chocolate:

They serve the hot chocolate in these great little cups called Hug Mugs. Soooo warm and comforting!

You can't exactly visit Philadelphia without getting a little history in, so we spent a day seeing the sights. Here is a picture of Old City Hall:

Here we are at the Liberty Bell:

And we had to do Philadelphia's version of a good luck wish, which is to throw a penny of Ben Franklin's grave:

We also toured Betsy Ross' and did a few other fun history-filled things.

Later, we found another of Valerie's suggestions, Naked Cafe. Here, we tried European Hot Chocolate, which is served in these tiny cups because it is so thick and strong. But good! Did I mention we ate well?

We also went to a place called the Magic Gardens. My coworker, Denise, saw it on Samantha Brown's show and we were excited to see it! It was amazing!!! Essentially, it is a work in progress and they are covering everything with mosaics. They have done this in several different areas around the city, giving a facelift to many old and run down buildings and neighborhoods. Pretty neat.

There were all kinds of levels and hidden areas. You could get lost.

Three points if you can find Josh's cute face!:

One night after my conference, we headed out for drinks at the City Tavern. We got this little tester which contains beer made from original recipes of Washington, Franklin, Jefferson and Hancock, or so they claim. It was interesting and the beer was surprisingly good.

Another night, we caught a Phillies game. Actually, we were there the night THIS happened, which was pretty funny.

As a surprise for our anniversary, Josh surprised me with this cupcake that should have been ILLEGAL! I think he said it was called something about "my boyfriend broke up with me" because it had every kind of goodness imaginable. Sooo good!

I leave you with what might be the funniest picture of the weekend. I make no secret of my dislike for minivans. I know people love them and they work for a lot of people but I just don't happen to plan on ever being one of those people. Ever. I arranged to pick my rental car up halfway through the trip when I would be traveling on the outskirts of the city a little more. Unfortunately for me, that meant having to pick the car up at a nearby hotel's Avis counter. They only had 1 car left by the time my conference and alumni visit let out, and that car was....you guessed it...a minivan! The girl at the counter and Josh both had some fun laughing at my reaction and immediate refusal to drive the thing. I didn't have much of a choice in the end, so I did it. But I can tell you that driving a minivan in downtown Philadelphia and in the towns surrounding the city (have I mentioned that Pennsylvania has the most narrow roads in America?!) might as well have been the same as driving a bus for me. It was huge. A few tree limbs lost their lives, but no one was hurt by the driving of this vehicle. Except maybe my ego.