Weekend Exploring:

Matt and I had a really nice past weekend. A much needed nice weekend. He got out of work on Friday by noon and we were off to enjoy our time together.

A few weeks ago while shopping at our Kroger store we found some local wine from a winery called Shade Winery. We were excited to find this winery and visit... so that was the plan for Friday night. We headed out early evening so we could come home for a yummy homemade dinner. What was great about the location of the winery is how close it is! Probably only a ten minute drive for us and we are there! The winery is small and located in a house built to look like a log cabin. It sits on a hill and over looks the vineyards and a pond. We had the option of indoor sitting or outdoor space on the deck. We could not pass up the beautiful night and sat outside for as long as possible (until the bees wanted our wine) and then we moved inside. It was a very nice evening. Matt and I were able to process the happenings of the past week or so and just discuss how 'interesting' and crazy life has become. It was such a needed date. I loved it. Then we headed home for Matt to cook some of our Wisconsin tenderloin.... and yummy it was!

I think this was actually Saturday night's meal rather than Friday's. But the point is, my husband is a chef and I get to eat fantastic food. Here is his description of the meal: "Ohio City spinach ravioli, set on a bed of peppers, onions and spinach, topped with sliced Mignon, then drizzled with a sun-dried tomato cream sauce"

So after a successfully great Friday night we rested up for an equally great Saturday. On Saturday we headed north to Hocking Hills. We had briefly explored Hocking back when we came down to look for an apartment, but this time we intended on really exploring. So we found our selves at Old Man's Cave and we hiked around from there. It was a beautiful day, not too hot. We enjoyed our hike and finished the day up in Hocking with some tasty ice cream. I must already be in the fall spirit because I had fantastic Pumpkin flavored. Yum. Yum.

Hocking was great and gave us some nice energy and Vitamin D for our week. We had planned on enjoying dinner at home again on Saturday (picture of meal located above) and then we were going to head to campus for a showing of Bridesmaids for free. Can't beat free. We "enjoyed" the movie (raunchy, but I was expecting that), but it was jut nice to get out on campus and take advantage of something they offer for students. Matt and I had a really odd experience while sitting amongst a lot of undergrad students.... we felt old. Yes, old. I'm pretty sure I was blushing during all the suggestive scenes, and almost felt like we were the ol' parents sitting in the back of the room thinking.. "man, this is what kids find funny these days...?" ha. And some of it was funny, or just over the top, but for whatever reason... Matt and I were old folks that night.

And then there was Sunday. Sunday we tried a new church that one of Matt's professors goes to. There is a longer story as to why we visited this church but I'm not quite free to say why just yet. We are still excited about the Central Ave. church we have been going to and still look forward to the relationships we will make through that church. But it was nice to visit with another congregation in town, we met quite a few professors and even our neighbors. So it is nice to know that when we take some neighborhood walks, we may just see a familiar face. Oh and they have two cute little girls that may need baby sitting from time to time : )

So our life here continues to be a lot of navigating. Lots of GPS, lots of googling and lots of confidence to walk into new and unfamiliar places. It's exhausting, as anyone knows... change usually is.