Quick Get-Away

Last week my parents spent the week in Chicago for a little vaca and early Christmas shopping. Since I worked the weekend and had some of the week off, I decided to head up there and spend three days with them! I was sad Kellen had to stay home and work...but I did enjoy having my parents all to myself! We rode the Megabus and I highly recommend it. It is WAY better than a Greyhound, don't worry. And it was only $6.50 round trip! Can't beat that. We shopped and ate our way up and down Michigan Avenue...several times! My fave was the Grand Lux Cafe and it was up above some shops on a corner on Michigan Ave, and it overlooked the street and city. It was very cool! Here are some pics of the highlights.

View of the City from Navy Pier

We had the best weather!

We decided that this looks like a kidney....

.....or a red blood cell.
You can tell my mom and I are nurses! haha

My attempt at being artistic....not so much

Mom and I being silly

What you can't see in this pic is all of our bags!!

Reality hit super fast when I came home though..I came back to work 4 days in a row! Thankfully I was cancelled on the last day so it only ended up being 3 in a row.

This week I am gearing up for having both sides of the family over for Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday. Wish me luck!!

Zoe's Masquerade Ball

Last Saturday night my family and I went to a masquerade ball to benefit Zoe's Bone Marrow Buddies. As many of you know, a very dear friend of mine (more like an older sister!), Tish, lost her little girl to an autoimmune disorder. Tish is one of the most strongest women I have ever met, and she started a foundation through Riley on honor of her daughter, Zoe. Here is an excerpt from her website:

http://www.zoebmb.org

On November 19th, 2003, we were blessed with a very special little girl, Zoë Bontrager Schultz. From the time Zoë was eighteen months old she spent many months at Riley Children Hospital in the Stem Cell Transplant Unit. Fighting a life threatening immune disorder that required a bone marrow transplant to give her a chance at life. Zoë went through many medical procedures and hospitalizations, but on December 7th 2006, our world was completely shattered when Zoë lost her fight during her second bone marrow transplant.

We were not sure how we would be able to face the next morning or any day following. But our Zoë was a fighter. She fought everyday of her three years here on Earth. Because of her strong spirit we knew that we had to continue to fight, to honor Zoë and to help all of the families that struggle everyday in the Stem Cell Transplant Unit.

So through a lot of tears, with a lot of love and with more hope than we thought possible, we have founded Zoë's Bone Marrow Buddies in loving memory of our beautiful daughter.

The masquerade ball and silent auction was a benefit to help raise money for Riley's Stem Cell Transplant Unit to to help fund continued research, education and a new facility for the 6-bed unit.

It was an amazing night full of joy, celebration, and moments of tears and reflection. Tish and her board members did an outstanding job and it was a night to remember.

Zoe loved to dress up in fancy princess clothes, so she would have loved to see everyone dressed up that night

We miss you so much little darling

The lady of the evening! Tish was so stunning!

Everyone is checking our the silent auction goodies

The silent auction was SO cool! Everyone got an iPhone touch when we checked in. It was sinked in to our personal information and everything from the auction to bid on. It would update you on the your current bids, the time left, and it would alert you if someone outbid you! We didn't even have to leave our table to participate!

My (not-so-)little brother

My boys

Mom and me

Angela Buchman was the MC that night. She was so pretty! Kellen and Cameron kept beting each other all night who would ask for a picture with her first...boys boys boys! After her opening, Tish gave a powerful speech. I am pretty sure there we no dry eyes in the house after that. She continues to amaze me everyday!

After a yummy dinner, comedian Dave Dugan ended the evening with some good laughs.

Our table

My feather headband! It IS a masquerade ball, after all

They had masks all over the room that were made by current Riley patients, with a little bio 'About the Artist'
That was such a cool idea!

My lovely ladies of the evening! Left to right:
Julie, Aunt Janice, Mom, and me

There were pictures up everywhere of Riley's heroes, the children.

The Ball was at the Ursey Pavilion. They had the Colt's horseshoe over the stage!

I noticed that in many pictures there we several of tiny white shadows floating... I can't tell if you can see them here or not. I once heard that those were spirits present with us. I would like to think that if that was true, that Zoe and all of her little friends from the unit celebrating with us that night.
As she would always say, "party party party!"

Kel and I at our table

Everyone had these amazing masks!

It is amazing that one little 3 year old girl can bring so many people together to raise awareness and celebrate love. You will be forever in our hearts, Miss Zoe.

First Comes Love...

Second comes marriage (and nope, sorry, no baby carriage yet)! I know this is a bit late, but we have been super busy with work and life lately...and I am finally getting around to our anniversary post. As many of you know, Kellen and I celebrated our 3-year wedding anniversary a couple of weeks ago. We cannot believe we have been married that long already! So I thought it would be fun to look through some old photos and reminisce how much fun we have had these last 6 years together. They are hilarious!

This was taken before we were 'officially' dating during studying for finals week our junior year, 2003.

2003 again. Look how young we were!

Grand Prix Junior Year.... we were 'official' by this point

Kellen's 21st birthday 2004

1 year anniversary date! 2005

Boiler UP! 2005

We both helped out with BGR our senior year 2004
We had so much fun!

We went to Las Vegas together over fall break with my parents, 2004

Nurse's Ball, Winter 2004

I am bummed, we can't find any graduation pictures of us together! We are thinking they were all taken by our parents with the old school cameras so we don't have anything digital.

Engagement pictures! 2005

The big day! October 28th, 2006

I was so surprised Kellen dipped me during the kiss! I was scared to death he was going to drop me.

This is one of my faves

The inspiration for our blog name! To this day, we still have NO idea who made this sign or put it on the back of our limo...but we loved it!

Excited about CAKE

...Happily ever after


I am trying to get a pictures of us each year on our actual anniversary date so we can see ourselves throughout the years...but I already forgot to do it on our second year!

1st wedding anniversary at Oliver Winery, where we got engaged

This was us present day, on our 3rd year anniversary.

Looking forward to filling up the rest of our computer's hard drive with more pictures and wonderful memories :)
xoxoxoxoxo

Trick or Treat, Smell my Feet......

....Give me something Good to Eat! What a perfect day for Halloween this year. Kellen and I decided to have a little get together/bonfire at our house with some friends to welcome Trick or Treaters. We were a bit disappointed- we only had a total of 6 kids! So that means I have 4.5 pounds of candy left over at my house. I am hearing my confession at my next weight watchers meeting already. We had a very busy week and weekend (I am still planning on an anniversary update soon, I just haven't gotten to it yet!) so here are some quick pics. Hope everyone has gotten out of their sugar comas!

Kendra isn't the only bunny living in Carmel...I was a wabbit

Be vewwy vewwy qwiet

Yep.....Elmer Fudd
Get it?

Everyone in the family dressed up for the party!
Vera hates us.

"Hairy" Potter

Eagerly awaiting Trick or Treaters

I turned the pumpkin bars into centipedes

Martha Stewart watch out

Evangeline stopped by! She was the cutest Minnie Mouse I have ever seen!

We ended the night with a bonfire after watching Rocky Horror Picture Show

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

Hello everyone! In case you haven't noticed, fall is my favorite time of year. There is something about the winding down of the seasons that is welcome reprieve from the busy-ness of the warmer months. This week I have been working like crazy, but we were still able to enjoy the last of the season despite all the rain.

This is our backyard right now. It is so pretty!

and peaceful

It's time to carve The Great Pumpkin!

Kellen cutting with a dremel tool... he thinks he's so cool

That's gross

Gotta roast some pumpkin seeds!

Ta Da! The finished product. Kellen named him 'Hal'
Get it?

How inviting does this look to little Trick-or-Treaters?

Hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween! We aren't sure what we are doing yet... so if you want to do anything, let us know. Anything to keep me away from all the candy ;)

Fall Date

This last Saturday Kellen and I had a date day. We decided to celebrate our anniversary a little early! We go up early and did one of our favorite things to do together....cook!

What a handsome chef!
Special of the day: Pumpkin Pancakes with cinnamon apples baked in!

What a festive breakfast

After breakfast we packed up and headed south to Parke County for the Covered Bridge Festival.
The weather was a bit cold, but it wasn't too bad, especially when you had hot apple cider in your hand the whole time! We enjoyed walking around and seeing the sites. And let me tell you, the people watching was the biggest entertainment!

The leaves were so pretty!

Captain was such a good boy! And of course we had to get him a Purdue handkerchief to wear in honor of our Boilermaker win against Ohio State that day!

Mansfield Covered Bridge

There is nothing like Fall in Indiana

There we so many vendors! We were all a little bit over stimulated by everything....you could totally tell this was our first time attending

The drive home was breathtaking.

One our way back, we decided at the last minute to stop by Anderson Orchard. A few of my friends at work had highly recommended it, and Tom Tom told us it was on our way home ;) Perfect! It was so nice to not have an agenda that day and just go with the flow! That made the day so relaxing and that is my favorite!

Anderson Orchard

WE are almost three years old!

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

I think Captain has his eyes on his pumpkin! haha

Finder's Keepers

We had a very eventful day! By the time we got home, we put on sweats and crashed on the couch and watched a movie. I can't think of a more perfect way to spend a Saturday in October! I hope you had a wonderful weekend too!

Hmmmm....

So I usually blog during watching the Biggest Loser on Tuesday nights (and I personally still think that two hours is WAY too long for a show...but for some reason I continue to watch each week)...but this week I am kinda at a loss. Not much new to report really! We have enjoyed nesting lately...and It's been really nice and relaxing.

I got cleared to do brisk walking with 1 minute running intervals this week from the PT...woohoo! I am super excited about this. I have also been working full shifts at work again for two weeks now and so far so good. I am really hoping my hip will behave so I can move on with my life.

Fall is my very favorite season and I am loving every minute of it! It always reminds me of our wedding, perhaps that is another reason I love it. Oct 2nd is our engagement anniversary (4 years ago!) and the 28th is our wedding anniversary (3 years ago), so this last week Kellen and I have had fun reminiscing at what we were doing this time 3 and 4 years ago. One tradition we have always had was going to a pumpkin patch/orchard, and we are hoping to continue that this weekend as we celebrate our anniversary a little early since I have to work our actual wedding date. Kellen said he wanted to plan something so we shall see what I have in store!