The second weekend of October, Chris and I headed off to Washington DC for Chris' friend, Belen's wedding. We were excited to get a chance to have somewhat of a reunion with a lot of Chris' college friends while on the trip. Also, it was our 5th wedding anniversary (October 8th), so vacationing was an excellent way to celebrate!
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| Strange reptile at the Smithsonian Zoo |
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| My favorite -- an elephant shrew |
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| The view from inside Amsterdam Falafel House in Adam's Morgan |
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| My delicious falafel (they have an amazing toppings bar from which to pile onto your falafel and pita |
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| The BEST fries! |
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| Fancy pumpkin soup appetizer at the wedding |
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| The newlyweds! |
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| Friends chatting |
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| The only seats in the house were overlooking the cake -- I wasn't complaining! |
After our DC trip, it was time for "Melissapalooza" to quote my sister-in-law. Little did I know how true this phrasing was! I invited my close friends and family to join me in trying a new restaurant (new to me) called The Shaved Duck to celebrate my birthday on the actual day (October 15th). Most people on my invite list showed up! We had a wonderful time and DELICIOUS food! More shocking than how large our party ended up being, was the amazing birthday present I received from Chris, my parents, and his parents:
They all pitched in together to buy me a Canon Rebel T1i. It was so thoughtful, and waaaaaaaay more than I expected for my 30th birthday! Chris made the point that we need an SLR camera for the impending babies! Not to mention, it shoots HD video, which will be awesome for catching all of those baby firsts! But, really, Chris got it for me so that I could enhance my blogging capabilities. Unfortunately, I'm not off to such a great start, am I? Things will slow down in November (as evidenced by the fact that I am posting this in November).
My first pictures with my new camera (I unfortunately ran out of space on my SD card pretty quickly, and didn't get all the pictures I wanted):
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| Father and brother |
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| My chili sampler (one came with a shot glass of milk because it was made from the ghost pepper!) |
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| Chris' pulled chicken sandwich and gooey mac and cheese |
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| My mother-in-law's duck flatbread |
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| Tim and Faith get cute (as usual) |
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| Jenn and the frisee showing off the new found depth perception |
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| Jenn and Tim |
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| BFF Katie M |
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| Parents (not posing for the photo, as usual) |
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Trying out macro setting in low lighting
Somehow I missed out on getting photos of Katie K (who sent me BEAUTIFUL flowers to my work), my in-laws, and Jenn and Justin! |
So, you might imagine my surprise, after so many of my friends and family showered me with love on the night of my birthday, when Chris led me to a surprise 30th in Tower Grove Park! What a guy, right?! He planned the whole thing himself! It really was Melissapalooza! Almost all of my lovely friends and family members were able to join us for a beautiful afternoon in the park with a wonderful picnic. Thank you Becky, Katie, Ella, Josie D, Maureen, Steve, Jeff, Tyler, Jill, Howpa, Nancy, Bob, Peggy, J'aime, Matt, Josie J, August, Mom, Pop, David, Julie, Dave, Nate, Jenna, Micah, Jenn K, Justin, Tim L, Faith, Octavia, John, Atticus, Delphi, Bella, Jenn H, Tim H, Katie K, Paul, Chris, and Grandpa Schumann for coming to my party! It meant so much!
The next day we went to Pere Marquette Lodge for brunch, which was delicious as usual. Then, we attempted apple picking, but mostly trampled over fermented goo.
The next weekend, I headed to the Lake of the Ozarks with the Catty girls! I will let you check out the Catty blog for more on that. We had a blast! And they were so sweet to celebrate my birthday . . . yet again!!
I MUST go to bed now. I need to keep up on this blog so that it doesn't take me an hour and a half to write one post!
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