Where did October go?

Oh yeah. I was out of town for the past four weekends. While every trip was absolutely wonderful (i.e., we got to see ALL our kids!), I am ready for a weekend of wearing sweatpants and lying on the couch.

The first weekend away was to Knoxville, Iowa, to meet Erin's in-laws-to-be. Much visiting, laughter, wine, and beer was had by all. Erin is lucky to get such a nice set of second parents. And we're lucky to get Tim! (Lunch with Emily).

The next weekend was Des Moines marathon. Have I mentioned that I completed the half? (Got to see both girls and Tony too).

The weekend after that was back to Des Moines for wedding dress shopping with Erin, Emily, and Beth (Tim's mom). While I haven't seen much of "Say Yes to the Dress", I had envisioned a bit more angst than actually occurred when Erin chose her dress. In her words, it took her longer to decide what to have for lunch than to choose a wedding dress. I won't give it away, but it's long, ivory, and strapless. And she absolutely GLOWED when they put the veil on her her. My little girl will be a beautiful bride!

And then last weekend was the longest road trip by far:

We got to go see Alex, Aly, and Ella and their new house in Grand Rapids! Ella is going to make Dwight want a new dog yet:

I told Dwight from the back it looks like he has a blonde girlfriend

Crazy eyes!

The entire first half of the Nebraska-Michigan State game

The family

The visit was much too short, but we got in eating, drinking, walking, and shopping (for clothes and wine!)

Two comments from Dwight on the ride home:  1) "Wow. There sure are a lot of adult superstores, aren't there?" and 2) "I can't wait to get back to My Fitness Pal". I had to agree with both statements.

Yesterday's breakfast:

I met some of the museum girls downtown at the Zin Room for lunch to celebrate Katherine's birthday, and this was lunch:

Turkey, avocado, bacon panini. But notice that I ordered a salad for my side and not the fries that I really wanted. Baby steps.

We shared two desserts between seven of us - it WAS a birthday after all! I didn't get a picture of the chocolate ganache cake, but this is the fried ice cream. (Ice cream and cake!) It's on a dinner plate, and was seriously the size of a baby's - a LARGE baby's - head.

 I am tired of everything I've been making lately, so I pulled out a favorite cookbook to make our menu for the week:

Why yes, that is a kitty ear in the bottom right of the photo

Last night's dinner:

Today's breakfast:

Today's lunch:

Leftovers, and a kombucha. Before you judge that creamy delicious salad dressing...

Aly turned us on to these last weekend. I couldn't find them at Baker's, but Whole Foods had them. Seriously, for 35 calories, you get two tablespoons of the blue cheese. 

That's pretty much it, except that I am so thankful that we don't have to listen to political advertisements any more!

 TTFN!