Girly Fun!!

Jenny Bernthal and I had the funnest day today!  First, I think we were both just very thankful to know that we are both teachers so our summers are completely free.  Here is an overview of our fun filled day:

11:30-1:30 Hanging out at the pool.  I am so brown....it's not even funny and I haven't even gotten to Venezuela yet!!  We had so much fun just laying out, going in the pool and talking about our married life and our teaching life.  We also discussed just how fun it is to be going through the same stages of life together.  For those of you who don't know Jenny and I were just meant to be friends.  We both lived in the same dorm, same floor our freshmen year in college but we really didn't know each other too well.  Sophomore year, Jenny moved into the Chi O house and I was rushing to join a house.  Then I ended up becoming a Chi O too!!  Junior year, we lived together in the house with our friend Colleen and then senior year Jenny and I got an apartment together.  During that time, I was set up on a blind date with Dave and Dave was roommates with Dave Bernthal, his best man, who eventually we set up with Jenny!!! And now look at us! We basically just switched roommates...too much fun!!!

1:30-2:30 ICE CREAM at Naperville's Cookie Dough creations....we quickly realized that maybe we should have eaten a real lunch before we had ice cream!  We then went for a stroll around Naperville's River Walk.  It was just gorgeous today.

2:30-3 PADDLE BOATING!!! We had soooo much fun going out on the boat.  I had wanted to go with Dave last weekend but he said he wouldn't want to go unless he could jump in.  Well, this time I knew Jenny and I would be on the same page.  We had such a great time!!

Sometimes it is just great to have a fun day with your girlfriend!

Sushi Date!!

This past Saturday Dave and I went on an amazing date!  Last year JP and Brittany had gotten us a gift certificate for the Chopping Block and we finally made time to go!  We had soooooooooo much fun.  The Chopping Block is a recreational cooking school where you can sign up for classes.  We decided that we wanted to learn to make Sushi!  Here are a few pictures from our night!  I think Dave and I are going to try to have a sushi night at our place to share with others what we learned!  Again, I can't tell you how much fun we had this night!  I definitely want to do this again.

This is a picture of us before we left!

Here Dave is working intently...

Here is my sushi!

And here is Dave's sushi...a bit messier!

Dave ate most of his at the place but I had so much fun making them that I made a ton and then got to take them home.  We had them for lunch the next day!

After our date, we decided to take a walk along the river.

The city looked so beautiful!

More Anniversary Fun!

The actual day of our anniversary fell on a Sunday this year.  Dave and I decided to spend the whole day together celebrating.  One of the first things that we did was we took a morning walk at the Chicago Botanical Gardens.  It was such a gorgeous day, it reminded me of the gorgeous day we had for our wedding.  The weather was perfect, not too hot, not too chilly.  The only thing missing from Sunday was the rainbow we got for our wedding!! Dave also claims there was not one cloud the day of our wedding...I guess not all days can be as perfect as that day!

I had SOOO much fun at the Botanical Gardens.

Here Dave is taking a Brandywine Tomato that they were giving out that day.

Too bad we don't garden.

Here Dave has to take an intense wiff at the plants...or maybe he was trying to show off his push up stance for me!

I thought this sign was cute.

One time Dave tried to scare a little kid by telling them there were killer fish in the water!

Can you see the fountain in the background?

Pretty waterfall!

Who would have thought!  A pyramid in Chicago!

Anniversary Celebration

For our anniversary, Dave took me on a dinner cruise in Chicago on the Odyssey!  We had a ton of fun!  I think the best part for me was that I got to dress up (that may have been the worst part for Dave :) but oh well!).  The cruise gave us a gorgeous view of the Chicago skyline! Everyone knew it was our anniversary so they congratulated us and sent out a cake with "Happy Anniversary" written on it.  The people next to us were also celebrating their anniversary and they were betting on how many years we were married.  The wives won...they said 1!  The we got free champagne and they played slow jazzy romantic music all night!  It was great.  The only thing I didn't like was the food but that's okay!!

Here is Dave waiting for his bread rolls!!  When the bread roll man came by Dave asked if he could have another one and the guy replied with an accent "SURE!....why NOT?!"  We thought that  was hilarious!

This was our menu!  This set up reminded me of our wedding reception.

Our cake!

Almost One Year!

Wow, almost one year ago I was preparing for my wedding.  It is almost surreal just thinking about it.  Here's what I remember about the Friday before my wedding.  I remember waking up to a semi wet morning and being slightly bummed since our rehearsal dinner was supposed to be outside!  I remember spending some time with all my family that came in for the wedding.  Meli and I headed out to Glenview so that we could get manicures that day and then head to the rehearsal dinner.  The rehearsal went great, and I remember thinking ...this is fun...but am I REALLY getting married tomorrow? God pleasantly surprised us by giving us the most gorgeous rehearsal dinner of all!  Dave's cousins Jeff and Lynn were gracious enough to let us use their backyard...which just happens to be a beach of course!  We had one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen and we got to spend the evening enjoying time with our friends.  I really didn't want to leave that party but of course I needed to get some sleep before the big day.  Here are some pictures from that day!  I think one of my favorite moments was seeing Dave's uncle drive the grandmas down in the giant hummer!

Our Family!

Here our ring bearers opened up their presents! 

Look at that beautiful sunset!!! Here we are with our great friends Jenny and Dave who were our roommates in college and got married one month after we did!

Here come the GRANDMAS!!!

Way to make an entrance!! :)

Dave and I will be celebrating all weekend!  Tonight we are taking an Odyssey cruise dinner downtown!  I get to dress up, I am soooooo excited!  Hopefully I will have some pictures up from that event tomorrow!  It is exciting for me to look back at such a wonderful time but it makes me even more excited to know that I'm just as excited to be with Dave today as I was then.  I almost feel like a newlywed all over again!!! I pray that the Lord would continue to bless our relationship and that we could continue to feel this excitement for each other for a long time!

Cherish your loved ones

The last two weeks have been both exciting and challenging: exciting because I am finally done travelling and can be home every night with Keren; challenging because my new project, while being local, is very intense and stressful and requires late nights.

This has caused me to think about how I need to cherish each moment with Keren that God gives me. At times I am very impatient with Keren; at times I am rude; at times I don't want to listen to her. I have been coming home from work tired and feeling that I don't have much left to give. At those times, as well as in the many good moments, I ask God that He remind me of the amazing gift He has given me in my wife. That I would cherish and honor my gift, mi chama. Thank you, Lord!

La Gente del Tocullo

My favorite moment during the time in Houston was listening to Asdrubal (Keren's dad) tell stories about his hometown, El Tocullo. He told us about all the crazy, old people that the neighborhood kids used to mess with. Iris says that most of them have probably passed away by now, but I hope to meet at least one of them when we go. I don't remember any of the nicknames they were given, but they were very entertaining.

Spending those few days in Houston was like getting a taste of what it will be like in Venezuela. We are all very excited for the trip, for different reasons. I'm excited to meet the rest of the family and for the first time truly experience this part of Keren's life; Keren is excited to share this part of her life with me and also to reconnect with her roots; Iris is excited to see family and friends; Asdrubal is excited to see his homeland after 10 years away and more importantly, to sit down and have a good, long conversation with his father over a cup of coffee. Cesar? Not exactly sure what he is excited about yet. I think once we get there that he will find something. I'm excited for him to be there so that I can have a workout buddy. I'll need the exercise as it is going to be all arepas and plantanos, all the time.