Santa is Comin' to Chicago!

to get in the spirit of christmas, we went and saw the christmas lights at the lincoln zoo. fun fun fun!

Runnin' Outta Moonlight!

rich had me listen to randy houser's song "runnin' outta moonlight" earlier, and i don't know why exactly, but this song put me right back in college--when rich and i first started dating, and i would literally always sit by in him, in the middle of his tacoma (even if we were on a ten hour road trip) and we would go anywhere and do anything, day or night. :) we sold his truck before we came here, and school/work has kept us on a rather set schedule, so i haven't sat in the middle for a while, but i still would.  i would also probably make rich sing this song to me...on repeat! ;)

even though we can't go all country here in chicago...we were able to see randy houser live and that was almost just as good. 

show time!

a li'l arrow shotting legolos experience before the conert. thanks cabelas!

Wicked Thankful

hospitals don't close on holidays, so i was scheduled to work this thanksgiving. rich and i were pretty down about spending the holidays alone, but my amazing in-laws, paul and kathy, flew in and said they would celebrate thanksgiving on friday with us! genius sweethearts. amazingly, a couple days before thanksgiving, one of my coworkers asked me if i wanted to switch thanksgiving for black friday...ummm, yes please! thanks to joe and crazy consumerism, we were able to celebrate thanksgiving on thanksgiving! the day did start out very early and very frigid--mr. husband signed us up for a turkey trot downtown. it seemed like a fun way to start the day, but the ten degree fahrenheit weather made it not so fun. i think paul and kathy thought we were trying to torture them. last thanksgiving, it was in the fifties. i'm glad it was rich's idea and not mine, cause i still feel bad! sorry! i promise we will never do that again to them. hopefully the meal made up for the rough start. the food was awesome--thanks to the first time turkey baking education the wise ones' provided. kathy and paul are also the most wise because they had the idea of going and seeing wicked, the musical, and that was simply phenomenal. what a great week. love them! 

 me: yea...this is so fuuuu....ffffreezing...cold...can't think...can't move...

rich: let's do this. i have an abnormally elevated internal temp. suckas! ;)

kathy: my children hate me

paul: i hate my children

we finished! ...never again.

turkey with spices, herbs and butter made it all better

puma is so excited she looks like crazy dog

dinner at the signature room before wicked!

lookin' fly!

let's do this every month!

one word: wow!

we be like copycats

Notre Dame with the Dad

mr. kelly cat came to chicago for a business trip, and he was able to come party with us for a bit! kelly got some tickets to a notre dame/byu game, so we all drove up to northbend, indiana and had a fabulous li'l party! the campus and stadium were spectacular.  the weather was spectacularly FRIGID! it was one of the coldest games ever.  we ended up leaving early because it was so cold and because byu was losing! :p  still glad we went.  we also all went to the museum of science and industry.  My favorite parts were the WWII U505 submarine exhibit, the christmas trees from around the world and toymaker 3000...SCORE! :)  chicago knows how to make a great museum.  as you will see from the pictures below, kelly and rich were thoroughly entertained.  it was a super weekend--thanks kelly!  we miss already! come back! :)

Notre Dame Cathedral

under the golden dome!

they have a cool trumpets under the dome tradition before the game

we are sporting some fabulous notre dame gems and jewels, but because of the weather--you can't see them under our coats. 

so so so so so cold. my jaw was frozen. i look high.

gary, indiana=scary abandoned town.  i think kelly took us on this little detour to try and get us killed! yikes.

these two....i love them...

I LOVE THEM. A LOT. REALLY. A LOT.

after the toymaker 3000...these two needed a little r & r.  this mindball/relaxation competition game was calling their name.

byu vs badgers

last weekend, rich and i met up with some fabulous friends (drew, michelle, jenna and aj) in madison, wi and watched the cougars and badgers game. :p besides the loss, it was a great time.  the drive was gorgeous, the weather almost perfect (a little too cold, but tolerable), the stadium was amazing, the badgers fans were very entertaining, and rich and drew especially loved the bucky burger (burger with a bratwurst on it).  definitely a guy thing! ahah!  i loved seeing this awesome family, and i know rich especially loved seeing his buddy from mapleton.  the only problem with the trip was that it was definitely not long enough! drew works for proctor and gamble in cincinatti, so we will all meet up in indianapolis sometime hopefully super soon! thanks for the fun time guys!

my byu boy :)

i love going to football games!

ahahah look at aj! gotta love it!

camp randall was an awesome stadium!

michelle is so pretty!

;) so hottttt (the other self pics only get worse...)

hot chocolate race

richy ricardo and i are pretty much olympian runners now! :) for real though, we ran another race! and we rocked it rockstar style! ;) granted, this was a shorter distance than our last race, but we did better overall.  rich ran the 5k and placed in the top 14% of like 6000 male runners and i ran the 15k and placed in the top 4% of about 6000 female runners! :) it was my best pr and i ran it in the 7 minute per mile range, so i think running with my hubby must have motivated me to exceed my record! :) also...i had to keep up with him because he was cruising so fast! after the race, we got delicious hot chocolate and hung out with some friends who ran it too.  it was a way super adrenaline filled fun day!

we had to wake up at like freakin' 5am but i t was worth it!

we got matching hot chocolate shirts.  presh.

rich had to capture the moment. lol!

minutes before we started...

minutes after we finished!

the chocolate was so rich and smooth!

leanne, maryann and ana (ana runs in every single freakin' race!)

ana, maryann, mary and leanne

Monster Dash

my amazing richardo and i ran the monster dash half marathon! i know you are thinking: WHAT#*$^?! rich hates running?!  false.  since about...march, rich started running with me about twice a week and gradually rich has been hating it less and less.  is he obsessed? not yet.  maybe never...but he doesn't hate it now! miracles happen! also, i must say, running with rich is awesome. ;) ahah! the race was awesome! it was a monster dash/costume contest run, so we dressed up as clowns (if you couldn't tell).  there were a lot of glorious costumes and it was definitely one of the funnest races i have ran in.  HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

hey hot clown man... ;)

we ran along the lakeshore and wow! it was so beautiful i wanted to stop and takes pics!

ana payne, an amazing nurse at ABH, who literally runs in every marathon/half/5k/etc race in chicago!

winning!