Tiek's birthday hike

On Sunday, I went to the Ft. Ben Harrison park for the first time. I lived less than a mile away for several months and never went. It was a really great park! It costs a couple dollars to get in, since it is a state park, but they had some pretty good trails. Kara, Tiek and I went to celebrate Tiek's birthday which was on Saturday. We also celebrated with some cupcakes from the Flying Cupcake, a bakery in Broadripple with ridiculous and delicious cupcakes. Lastly, we finished off the celebration with the infamous Kona Grill. I appreciate these girls so much and their honesty about what's going on in their lives. I feel like we are still learning about this transition into "real life" work, marriage, church, etc... It's really great to have other girls that can relate to all of those things :)








http://www.theflyingcupcakebakery.com/

Chocolate Cafe

Last night our bible study flyered around the city for an event we have coming up. We are hosting XXXChurch, for a men's event discussing porn. They will be talking about sexual addictions and how destructive they are to our churches, families and society. We were mainly trying to post info in coffee shops and things like that, but it is difficult when the topic isn't very "family friendly". Some people were all about it and thought it was a great event idea, and others not so much.

After flyering, we met up at the (SBCC) Chocolate Cafe down on the circle for some ice cream. I think the cafe is really cute and you can sit outside with your ice cream or even go sit on the monument stairs. They also have tons of chocolate candy! The prices aren't super cheap, it is on the circle, but it's a fun once-in-a-while little treat :)

http://www.sbchocolate.com/locations.html

My first demolition derby

Sunday was the last day of the Indiana State fair. Ryan had not been yet to enjoy the fair, so we went with the Kunkles (who are 7 months pregnant!) to the demolition derby. Of course we had to sample more fair food, breaded tenderloins, and funnel cakes before heading into the derby. Wow, what a show. The cars already look ridiculous before they even start hitting each other. It was fun, definitely an experience.

Tammy, the only girl driver, was out pretty quickly...she was stuck on a pile of dirt

http://www.in.gov/statefair/

bring on the rain...

This weekend our bible study decided to do a little camping and canoeing. Ryan and his friends have tagged along with the Hurd family on this annual trip for a while now down to Brookville. We ate hot dogs and sat around the camp fire Friday night. It was a pretty chilly weekend for being August, but it was still a great time. Saturday, we got up to go canoeing, and while it was still chilly, the trip started out well. Charissa and I were in a canoe, and we were doing fairly well for the first half of the trip... But then we had a little wreck. We came over some rapids and headed straight for a tree. While trying to get out of the tree, we tipped over and lost our boat. We both got scraped up a bit in the deep water trying to rescue our boat. Boys on the bank nearby were yelling at us to leave the boat and let it go so we could get out of there without hurting ourselves. We swam away and I'm pretty sure someone gathered our oars and everything that fell out. Come to find out there was a huge audience sitting on the bank just watching people flip in that spot. Awesome. So everyone on the river saw our little mishap and cheered us on as we came out of the water. You would think this was the highlight, but there is more. A little after this, it began to rain a little bit, and then it poured. It was actually fun to be out of the river, already soaked, and just paddling in the rain. We made it back, dried off, and decided to go out for dinner instead of making a fire :) Hurd camping/canoeing trip '09...one to remember.

Molly is off to school!

My little sister is off to college. I took off work on Friday, and went down to visit Molly in Oxford, she will be a freshman at Miami University this fall. She was all moved in to her little dorm room, and it is very cute, and very pink. I was also able to stop by and see Andrew's house while I was there. Afterwards we went uptown for lunch and walked all over campus, and went to buy all of the last minute books Mol needed. It was a good time, and I am really excited for her. I think she will really like Miami, even if it is a hard transition for a little bit.

http://www.miami.muohio.edu/

Barcelona!!

So, all we do is eat. I've never really noticed until I started writing about some of the restaurants on here. Last week, our bible study went out to eat to celebrate Stephanie finishing the bar exam. We went to Barcelona, a tapas restaurant downtown, which I love. This really probably is one of my favorite restaurants in the city, although I say that a lot. The atmosphere is great, and the food is fun and really good. The best night to go is Wednesdays when they have $10 sangria pitchers, best sangria in Indy I say, and live music. If you go, you have to get the goat cheese, very filling and good!

Sangria!

girls night!

http://www.barcelonatapas.com/

Cleveland rocks!

This weekend, one of Ryan's friends, Henry got married in Cleveland. We made the trip up and the wedding was beautiful. I am really excited for Henry and Rebekah to move to Indianapolis after their honeymoon. The reception was at this really neat old inn with this really cool old bar. The next day, excited to explore all Cleveland had to offer...we made a trip to the landmark "A Christmas Story" (the movie) house. It was set in Cleveland, and seemed to be a very popular tourist destination. Everyone there seemed to know like every line to the movie, including Ryan, and enjoyed the tour a lot. Definitely a must if you are in the area...

The actual house in the background

http://www.achristmasstoryhouse.com/

State Fair and Jon McL

The good old state fair. Until I moved to Indianapolis I had never been to a state fair, and boy was I missing out! Thursday was a free Jon McLaughlin concert at the fair, so of course we had to go. Great concert, he played a lot of new, jazzy stuff which was fun. Also, the concert was in the grandstand, but we noticed that they were also seats down on the track closer to the stage. So, of course, we went and tried to figure out how you could get those seats. Some guy walked up to us and asked is we wanted stage-side seating and gave us bracelets! Pretty easy!

The stage

The group

I had so much fun that I actually went back the next night... Kara and Tiek came down and we headed over. After trying some delicious food, kettle corn, corn dog, ice cream, grilled cheese, etc... (I love corn dogs) we walked around the huge grounds. The best part, to celebrate the hot air balloon race the next morning, they had all of the balloons out and blown up so everyone could see them. It was very cool, and they were beautiful at night.

My foot long corn dog

Balloons!

YATS

So Ryan has been on me to try YATS for a while now. It's a Cajun creole restaurant with a couple locations, MassAve and Broad Ripple for sure. The food is not much to look at, and the restaurant is pretty eccentric, but it's very good! The prices are very reasonable, about $7 for a meal. I would recommend the chili cheese etoufee, very good and not too spicy.

http://www.yatscajuncreole.com/

Weekend in Lexington

This weekend Ryan and I traveled down to Lexington for his cousin, Jaime's, wedding. The wedding and reception were a ton of fun, and it was good to spend time with his cousins.

some karaoke at the reception

The next day, we went to one of the local bourbon distilleries for a tour. Lexington is right in the middle of the Kentucky Bourbon trail, which includes about 8 distilleries. We only went to one, the one that was open on Sundays, and was the closest. I enjoyed the tour a lot and learned a little about the process of making bourbon. The grounds were really pretty, and all of the buildings were very old, it was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. After the tour, we were given a taste of the bourbon, which is the official bourbon of the Kentucky Derby btw, and it was very good! My grandfather used to run a distillery, so I think the interest for this kind of stuff is in my genes :)

the distillery

a lot of barrels, full of bourbon

taste test

Crazy Love

I feel like I am not giving you the full picture of my life right now if I don't share this book with you. For the past few weeks, our bible study has been reading this book by Francis Chan. I went into it pretty skeptical that this was just another book about how much God loves us and we should love Him back (both good things, but please not another book...). By the time we reached the third or fourth chapter I was really starting to question different areas of my life and how "lukewarm", as Chan puts it, I had become in my faith. He walks through some of the characteristics of a lukewarm believer and before I knew it I was feeling desperately overwhelmed...how could I have gotten to this place?

Chan goes on through the rest of the book to really challenge believers to ask the question, what would your life really look like if you were willing to love God and others with ALL you have. He goes as far as to ask, are you willing to give everything away in order to help or just improve the life of another. Between the book and listening to a few of Fancis Chan's sermons, Ryan and I have really started asking some tough questions, and even questioning why we think the way we think, live the way we live, spend the way we spend, etc...



I know I am definitely not doing the book justice here, but you should read it. It's a pretty simple read (ha...) but carries a lot of weight. And please! I would love to talk to you about it...I have plenty of thoughts about what he has to say, and I would like to hear yours as well.



http://http://www.amazon.com/Crazy-Love-Overwhelmed-Relentless-God/dp/1434768511/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251817082&sr=1-1

Santorini

Since I am probably not going to be making a trip to Greece anytime soon, Ryan and I went out for dinner a few days ago to this Greek restaurant that we have been meaning to try. It was delicious! So much food...but it was awesome. We tried hummus, and babaganoosh (however you spell that)...both very good. All of the entrees at Santorini, which is located in Fountain Square, come with salads, bread, and sides. I definitely recommend splitting an entree if you get an appetizer. Henry and Becca came with us also, and it was so fun. They are getting married in just 2 weeks and moving to Indy! We might have to make another trip back :)

Yum...

http://www.greekkitchen.dine.com/

Tastecasting - Scottys!

Ever heard of tastecasting? I am new to this world, but last Sunday I showed up for my first event. Local social networking gurus (somehow my application was approved?) come to a restaurant and promote while they eat for free. We were at Scotty's Brewhouse downtown, one of our favorites anyway, and they served us a ton of food, and each person is expected to blog, tweet, or update facebook about the restaurant and food. I had the "Build your own Burger" with the portabello mushroom and it was awesome. I've actually never tried it before, but it was so good. One of the things I like most is their list of specials. No matter what day you happen to bet at Scotty's, I promise you they will have a good special. Anyway, for any of you that haven't been to Scotty's lately, you should go...delicious! And honestly, one of the best parts are the hand dryers in the bathroom.

http://www.scottysbrewhouse.com/

Portabella mushroom cap with guacamole!

Cincinnati

I went home this weekend for a few days to see the fam. We went to the local whippy dip for some ice cream and Dad cooked up a delicious dinner. I was able to hear all about Drew and Mol's summer adventures all over the world...France, Jamaica, Cypress, Egypt, London, etc... And the best part! I brought back my bike! woo!

I have big hair.

Mol and Drew.