Hello April?

What was up with the weather on New Year's Eve? I know I went to sleep and it was December 30th, but somehow I woke up in April. We opened up the dining room windows and I think the babies were a little overstimulated. 

Disapproving.

Here's the conversation Viv and I had: 


Viv: "Mom. It's December 31st and you just opened the dining room windows."
Me: "Viv it's 60 degrees out. Stop looking at me like that. Enjoy the birds."


She spent the next hour or so freaking out about all the noises outside and generally being weird. 

Sometimes when I get startled I flatten my ears so I look like a crazy bat.

Oh look! A bird!

I tried to take a photo of Finny but he was so freaked out I couldn't get him to sit still in the window long enough to get one. That nice warm break in the middle of crazy winter did wonders for my psyche! I'm quite optimistic for spring now. :) 

Post-Holiday Relaxing

Thursday was a pretty awesome day. We get early release at work on the day before we're off for a holiday, so I was home before 2pm. We decided to go to the art museum to see our wedding photographer's (Steph Carson) photos hanging in the wedding exhibit they have going on right now. Yes, that's right, she has a ton of photos hanging in an exhibit at the Cincinnati Art Museum. 


So we go to the art museum and we're walking along and so exited to see the first grouping of her photos, and I look at the wall and my jaw drops and I just stare. Because I see this: 

I think Claire was in front helping/balancing me. Ladies--your backs are hanging in the art museum!

These are my bridesmaids!!!! I think it was cropped a little closer, and all her photos were in black and white, which was lovely. Brian tried to get a photo of me with it (there is very strictly NO photography in the exhibits) but he wasn't stealthy enough. The people watching the rooms have eagle eyes for this stuff. I have the original and that's good enough for me. :) (But for the record, if I had been in the photo, I'd be posting a pic of me with my photo right now hahaha. We would have fought security for that one!)


I've been renewing an interest in Groupon recently and got a $10 Groupon for $20 worth of pizza at Mt. Adams Pizza. When I was checking out on Groupon it said I had $10 worth of Groupon credit (I have no idea how I got that) so the Groupon was free! After the art museum we drove to Mt. Adams. It was way too early for dinner so we parked and just walked around. 


It sounds sad, but I've never walked around Mt. Adams. I've driven around it, but never actually been "in" it. It was warm out and the weather was beautiful. We looked at the gorgeous houses and all the crafty ways they get more space. And then we stood and looked out over the Ohio River for awhile and then looked out over the city skyline at the top of the steps at the Church of the Immaculata. We have such a beautiful city. Once it was about dinner time we walked back to Mt. Adams Pizza and got dinner to go and then came home. Streamed The Big Lebowski on Netflix on the TV (I had never seen it--pretty darn good!), ate dinner and relaxed. It was such a nice evening. Our beautiful tree was lit: 

You can see Finn in the bottom right guarding his precious.

And we had the candles going in the fireplace for the second time in almost two years. 

These will now be lit more often--so peaceful.

The cool thing about this day, besides getting to spend so much time with the husband, was the fact that it cost us $8 total. Yep, you read that right. $4 for parking at the art museum and a $4 tip to the owner of  the pizza place (since our meal was free from Groupon and all!). I was seriously impressed with us! 


Whoops. Just forgot. Brian ran out and got us milkshakes after the movie. Make that $15 for the entire day. Not quite as impressive as $8, but it'll do. :) Regardless, it made me realize that if you plan ahead (i.e. use Groupon, special discounts at places, free entertainment, coupons etc) you can really enjoy our city and have fun date days/nights for really cheap. I'm inspired and motivated to make this happen more often!