Everything Else: Photo Round up

It's time for a round up of some of the things we've been up to lately.

Horse Races

Have you ever been to a horse race? Until a month ago, I would have said no. But we're not too far from Lexington, Kentucky where they like to do them horse races. I wasn't even aware that this was still around. It was no My Fair Lady event, but it was close, people dressed up, had cigars (yes, cigars) and glasses of wine. They got fancy.

I'm also assuming people get really into betting, based on the amount of hype during a race. I bet on a couple horses and won my first bet (go #2!!!). I won 5 bucks! It was cool seeing the horses but honestly I enjoyed the people watching more, I've never seen more sports jackets and colored pants in my life.

Virginia

My cousin got married in Virginia a few weeks ago, and my Aunt Glo flew all the way out from Russia to see it, so adrea and all of us hopped in a car and made the 12 hour trip. We stayed with my Aunt Tammy (who's not really my aunt, but she's aunt glo's best friend and we saw them every year growing up, so she's very much like an aunt) and it was really fun. Seeing everyone again and being together was really nice. I wish Aunt Glo would come home from Russia so we could be closer.

Taken on one of the exits on our way there (I think it was West Virginia)

Really good restaurant we ate it in a really cool area of Virginia (can't remember the name...)

We didn't do a lot of sightseeing, but we did go to Maymont Park where they had some cool birds (bald eagles and vultures and hawks) and some foxes and bears. I have to say I absolutely hate seeing foxes caged up, they look utterly miserable. I don't like to see any animal caged up but especially foxes. However, I found out later they were injured and they keep them there to recuperate them or something or other, which eased my mind.

On our way back we stopped at Monticello, I've been before but it's been many years, so it was great to go again. We also went on the slavery tour which was really really interesting and seriously made me questions Thomas Jefferson (I mean, really guy? Two kids?). Anywho, this strange picture of Adrea holding Cosi is the only picture I took:

Thanksgiving

Man, we have been killing it with holidays since being in Indiana. Halloween was awesome, no I didn't get a chance to dress up (boo). But we had some unexpected visitors, Preston and Corine! We went to dinner and then to a Haunted House, which was an awesome way to spend Halloween. Poor Corine got too scared and so they didn't go through, I felt so bad...and I wanted to go with them because I was also terrified. But it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, the scariest part was at the very end, when we went out the building. There was a grass field between us and the parking lot, and we had been separated from our group so it was just me and Seth, I said aloud, hmm, this is kind of creepy. And right then, this crazy dude starts chasing us with a chainsaw. Seth completely freaks out and is screaming, and won't let go of my hand, so he's basically dragging me across this field, and I'm trying to get him to stop running. If we stop running and screaming the guy would probably stop! Finally I let go of Seth's hand and the guy just takes off after Seth. Oh my gosh, most hilarious thing I've ever seen. A couple days later I was getting acupuncture and I was kind of bored just laying there and I started thinking about Seth being chased by the chainsaw guy and had to stop, because the laughing kind of made the needles in my head hurt. Every time I think about it I laugh, even now.

So anyway, Halloween was awesome (thanks to P&C) and Thanksgiving was ALSO awesome. We had it at our friend Kaila's house. My cousins came up from St. Louis and it was really nice having them here, I just really love having lots of family around, in case you didn't know. It was a bit of a bummer being my first gluten free Thanksgiving, but I worked really hard to make some good dishes, and I spent a lot of time making a gluten free pie (the crust was made out of pecans, coconut, and brown sugar). It was good, but a bit rich, and I wish I could have tried the other pies. The stuffing I made didn't taste very good...but really it wasn't too big of a deal. Anything I made that called for flour I just substituted with my gf flour (no way am I having Thanksgiving without sweet potato souffle). We ate, played a ton of games, saw the Muppets (which was great). A lot of laughs, good times.

I didn't take very many pictures so here's what I have.