Bryan and I took a little pheasant hunting trip down to Morris, Il at Erienna Hunt Club.  It was lightly snow.  Cinder and Nadia both came.  Bryan is planning on bringing his little dog, Bailey on the next trip.  Enjoy the photos.  The apparently posed shot of Bryan aiming up in the air is when one of the pheasants flew up into the tree.  They are easy to hit when they aren’t moving.  Brian is shown holding is first bird ever in the first photo.  He looks so proud.  We came home with 6 and let a few fly away.

Three happy families!

This weekend, Ashlee and I had the chance to visit Grand Rapids, Michigan for Amber Cox’s baby shower. We carpooled the three hour drive with the Scheffers, during which we had deep conversations about the future of the American in between bites of Dairy Queen blizzards and yelps from Hannah.  Hannah was in her car seat sleeping most of the way with her hands up behind her head.  She did wake up for about the last 10 minutes while we were finding our way around GR, and she was not happy.  Bryan and Michelle were cuddled up very tight in the back seat of the truck since Hannah’s car seat takes up a lot of space. We had a late night Friday catching up. Saturday morning started out with a very gooey pile of oatmeal. The ratios got off when we didn’t thoroughly read the directions and tried to compensate.

Bryan prepping his breakfast.

After breakfast the men got ready to go for a bike ride and tour of the city. The ladies went shopping and then to the baby shower. I will have to let Ashlee, Michelle, or Amber fill you in on the details of this. I got to see most of the city in which I was quite impressed. Ryan lead us to a 20 mile paved trail for our bike ride. Things started off great, we had a little tail wind and were feeling fresh. However, at the 20 mile point (when we had to turn around) things started going bad fast. Bryan was still feeling pretty good and took most of the wind while Ryan and I drafted as much as we could. At the 30 mile mark we all collapsed and had to bring the intensity way back. About 2 mile before the end I had to stop and work a cramp out of my hamstring and Ryan staved off a calf cramp with some serious moaning. Eventually we finished and had a pretty decent ride considering it was the first hard one of the year. After that we drove straight for Yesterdog, a restaurant that despite its location in a super liberal part of town actually had some pretty delicious hot dogs. We were so hungry that we risked running out of gas in order to eat before we filled up.

We were starving after our bike ride!

We eventually made it home without running out of gas. After about 2 hours of pure laziness, the girls got home and we started making dinner which I must say turned out delicious. Check out the video for some added hilarity.  Hannah kept us entertained as well and handed out the kisses a little to freely if you ask me.  I am going to have to work on that with her before she gets much older.

Hannah and the guys.

Time to eat some delicious BBQ.

Last Sunday our favorite restaurant reopened after almost 2 years of being closed. The old location was no longer viable because the owner got into some tax trouble and that building remains closed. The new location is just down the street and has been totally remodeled with a train theme. The menu is almost the same, but we hear rumors of expanding the menu in the coming weeks, by the time they have the official grand opening. Everything was delicious, they have the best fresh baked bread and French onion soup. I had fish taco’s that were delicious. The Scheffers and Flinns were also in attendance. Click the photo for more.

The Ladies of the Train

The family dinner is an interesting entity. Mainly because it is really three families that get together. The Paces, Scheffers, and Flinns. We all each bring something yummy and lighter on the deserts than in the past. They occur sporadically, but it seems like we get to do it about twice a month in the winter and even more often in the summer. They usually occur on Sunday evening. Always a lot of fun. I linked the photo gallery and there are some cute pictures of Abbey and Hannah. Click the photo for more.  (By the way, we played a six person round of Settlers after the babes had been put to bed and Brian stompped us with a come from behind sneak attack.)

Last night we played one of the best board games ever made.  It is called Settlers of Catan.  The board is made up of hexagonal pieces of cardboard that each represent a different resource.  The goal is to collect resources in order to build towns, cities, and roads.  The first player to reach 10 points wins. For anyone that hasn’t played this before we definitely recommend it.  There is trading and alliances and it gets pretty cutthroat.

Brian and I were on the same half of the board and started battling early on. Meanwhile, Ashlee and Michelle expanded their settlements rapidly. About halfway through the game Bryan and I realized that we were in a pretty sorry state. Ashlee and Michelle continued to expand their empires. Finally, Ashlee with all the shrewdness of the Mongolian Emperor, conquered most of the world and won the game.  The coolest thing about the game is that even when you’re losing you feel like you still have a chance to win.  The games are always close and action-packed.

The best thing about the whole night was Michelle’s cinnamon bread.  The bread came out as a delicious doughy mixture of cinnamon and butter. The four of us ate a whole loaf and Brian and I washed it down with a couple Thai beers. We had a great time, thanks Scheffers.  Check out the pictures below and as always click the photo to see more.

Playing Settlers of Catan