The Daily Snack: June 2009

Bella and Diego celebrated their 6th birthday yesterday. I can't believe it's been six years since they were born on my parents' back porch. Their little stray mama came around to the house for some protection and food. Now she lives the luxurious life with my dad. :)

Diego celebrated his birthday by consuming his favorite thing on earth, chocolate. Specifically, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. He is a mad man for some chocolate. He got a few small pieces and ate them up so quickly! (The first time I learned of his Reese's addiction was in college in 2004. I found him upside down in my trash can digging for Reese's wrappers. Since then he has had many sneaky run-ins with the candy. Think small Reese's cups strewn about the house, paper wrappers eaten, etc.)

Enjoy the video of Diego devouring his Reese's. I swear he even recognizes the packaging!

Bella shows off her pearly whites.

Bella enjoying some cat grass.

Do you have any more Reese's?

So I realize this post is well overdue, but I thought I would share photos and memories. Memorial Day Weekend was full of friends, family, and lots of plans! Friday night my friends and I celebrated Jillian's 27th birthday with dinner at Rick's Boatyard and went out in Broad Ripple. We had a nice night out with friends, but John and I had to cut the evening short because we had plans to meet my family the next morning.

Saturday morning we met Courtney and Matt, who flew in from Boston, my dad, and my uncle and his girlfriend, from Florida. We watched the Indianapolis 500 Race Parade downtown on Monument Circle. Later that day we attended a high school graduation party for Eric Spencer. I used to babysit him and now he is valedictorian of his class and headed off to Swarthmore. I take some credit of enriching him during all those babysitting summer days. We later ventured to the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum, located in Crawfordsville. General Lew Wallace wrote Ben-Hur and served as a General in the Civil War. Saturday evening we had dinner at A Country-A-Fair, in my opinion, the best restaurant in the Crawfordsville area. Each dish is absolutely delicious! The restaurant is located out in the country, and the menu is very simple, many of the ingredients home-grown. I had some tilapia, chose one of the eight different spice rubs for flavor, and enjoyed scrumptious sangria. Our family favorite is the baked brie, but since it was such a popular weekend they were all out. Guess we will have to go back again soon! The restaurant recently expanded by including a sand bar in the back country lot. We enjoyed some live music and headed home. The evening closed with a bonfire in our backyard--with s'mores. Talk about a perfect summer day!

Sunday was spent at the race. We had really exciting seats, right in front of Franchitti's, Briscoe's, and Castroneves' pits. All three drivers lead the pack for some during the race. Castroneves ended up winning it all, and it was exciting to see Danica take third place. Personally, I like to route on the lady drivers! It is really fun to hear so many people cheer her on. The crowd really does go crazy when she does well! That night we traveled as a family pack to dinner in downtown Indianapolis for dinner at St. Elmo Steak House, one of oldest and nicest restaurants in the Indianapolis area. On race weekend, the city becomes a lot more relaxed, so we were happy to sit down to a yummy dinner right after the race. Everything was delicious and it was really nice to enjoy the company of family. We don't see one another enough!

Now that I've taken you on a full tour of Crawfordsville and Indianapolis, I'm going to wrap this up. Enjoy the photos and videos. Click on the videos if you'd like to see them in high quality on YouTube.

Me and John at Rick's Boatyard

Chelsea, Chas, and Jillian, the birthday girl, out on the town!

Me and Chelsea!

The girls out celebrating Jillian's 27th!

The worm float was probably my favorite at the parade. It was quite random because it has nothing to do with the racing weekend, but I thought it was adorable.

Helio Castroneves, who went on to win the race the next day.

Me and John after the parade on Monument Circle

Me and dad

Courtney and me. Guess we like pictures with the fountain?!

The General Lew Wallace Library & Museum.

John perusing artifacts in the Lew Wallace Library

There is a cute story about this photograph. General Lew Wallace liked to fish with his grandson, so he built a moat around his library and filled it with fish! This picture shows them enjoying a day fishing.

Courtney checking out the library.

I really liked these faces, but I don't know who they are.

Ben-Hur artifacts

With Eric, at his high school graduation party.

The boys (Matt, brother-in-law and John) enjoying their tall boys

Enjoying the race, ear plugs and all!

The racing pagoda

Our seats in front of the pits

This video just shows how fast they drive around the track! John also offers the camera a Wheat Thin.

The guys (from left to right - Franchitti, Briscoe, Castroneves) take a pit stop. They are so quick!

Briscoe stops in the pits for some gas. Why can't we get gas this quickly in the real world?

Final lap. Roger Penske, owner of Penske Racing, in the lower right in the white shirt and black pants, waits anxiously for Castroneves to finish his winning lap without crashing.