Chili Fest

Three years ago, around this time of year, my group of high school friends (+ Sara, our fab college friend) all got together at Kels' for a yummy chili dinner. We continued that a year later at our place. For some reason, we didn't keep up the tradition last year, so this year, we decided it was time to re-start this annual gathering with a chili fest at our place. And today was the big day.

On the menu was chili, cornbread, wedge salad and s'more cheesecake bars. On TV was the Steelers / Jets game (and much to Sara's delight, her Steeler's won). On the agenda was an evening of fun with friends.

It's not often that all seven of us are able to get together, so we always look forward to the times when plans work out that enable us all to be in the same place at the same time. And honestly, you can't really go wrong with a great group of friends, good food, and football (for the guys + Sara).

I hope we can keep up this fun tradition for many years to come.

Nursery Update

It was a big weekend here at the Moran house!

Corey spent Thursday and Friday evenings prepping Piglet's room for painting while I kept him company (I don't have the patience to be a good paint prepper). Then on Saturday, the Reeders arrived and were a HUGE help. Jason helped Corey paint the room, while Lisa kept me company and paint-fume free by going shopping, to see Black Swan and grab lunch. We truly appreciate their help - Corey really couldn't have painted the room without Jason and all his supplies and I had a great time with Lisa. Thanks Reeders!

On Sunday, Corey put the crib and changing table together while I took load after load of cardboard and garbage out --- who knew that two small pieces of baby furniture would have so much recycling associated with them! Good news is that because they were packed so well, both pieces arrived in perfect condition.

We still have a long way to go with the room - it needs artwork and other decorating, the glider still needs to arrive, we need to order a mattress for the crib - but figured we'd share the current before and after shots.

Stay tuned for more to come!

Nursery Sneak Peek

While Corey and I were in Portland this past weekend, we were very successful in shopping for nursery furniture. While we don't actually have any of it yet, I thought I'd share our final picks, since I'm really excited about all of it.

First, here's the glider. It was more than we originally thought we'd spend, but it looks more like our living room furniture than a nursery essential, and thus will work in our living area one day. Plus it's SUPER comfy, which is a must when we'll be spending many hours in it in the near future.

And here's the crib and changing table we went with. (Disregard the pink!)

And though we didn't pick these up in Portland, I wanted you to see the full picture of the look we're going for, so here's the bedding (minus the quilt) and rug we went with.

We're going for a fun, colorful look with a beachy feel, since we love Hawaii and the beach so much. We'll incorporate other beachy items with artwork on the walls (which will be painted a very light blue). Overall we think it'll be something we like for several years, vs. a super themey-look, which we might get sick of sooner.

The glider should arrive in mid-March, the crib and changing table in the next 2-3 weeks, and we are hoping to get the painting done in the next couple weeks so we can start setting up the furniture as it arrives.

I'll share some photos of the finished product as soon as the nursery is all ready to go!

Babymoon

We returned this afternoon from a fabulous babymoon.

We hit the road, headed for Portland, on Thursday and surprisingly didn't hit any traffic along the way. We checked into our hotel (The Nines), which we loved --- it's right downtown across from Pioneer Square and it's super swanky and fun --- and got some relaxing in (meaning I napped and Corey watched TV) before hitting the streets for some shopping. That evening, the Huskies were playing the Huskers and lucky for Corey, Buffalo Wild Wings, the ultimate sports bar featuring TVs everywhere you turned, and all kinds of wings, was just a block from our hotel. We settled in there for the first half of the game, which surprisingly, the Huskies, who were the underdogs, pulled out a win in the end, which was very exciting.

On Friday, we slept in, bundled up (though it was clear all weekend, it was very cold), then headed to the Daily Grill for a big breakfast to get our day started. We then walked to the Pearl District to check out Posh Baby. We'd done some research ahead of time and found that they carried Monte gliders, which we wanted to scope out for the nursery. They had a few different styles and we found one we loved, so we placed our order and are looking forward to the chair being delivered in mid-March.

As we walked back towards downtown, we hit up other stores like West Elm and North Face before making our way through all the downtown shops right near our hotel. We enjoyed delicious coffee at Public Domain and lunch at Kenny and Zuke's.

Once back in our room, we both crashed for a bit and then got ready for our dinner reservations at Departure, which was an Asian fusion restaurant on the rooftop of our hotel. With it being New Year's Eve, the place was packed and we're so glad we made reservations. Because of the holiday, we got to take advantage of a special prix fixe menu they were offering, which included all sorts of yummy dishes from around Asia. Favorites included the boneless beef short ribs (they literally melted in our mouths) and my dessert (malted chocolate kulfi with caramelized bananas, coconut cream and spiced toffee popcorn). After dinner, we headed back to our room to relax while watching the countdown to midnight. The whole evening was the perfect way to wrap up 2010 and kick-off 2011.

On Saturday, we slept in again before grabbing bagels at Kenny and Zuke's for breakfast. We then jumped in the car and headed to the Pottery Barn Kids at Washington Square, where we ordered our crib and changing table --- we're excited to have the majority of our big baby purchases out of the way now!

We enjoyed more relaxing and napping (can you detect a theme here?) at the hotel before heading to dinner at Typhoon, which we'd been to here in Seattle before it closed a few years ago. We were so excited to go back because the food is delicious ad they have an amazing espresso creme brulee that we still talk about since we tried it in Seattle awhile back. We then headed to True Grit and while I didn't know much about it ahead of time, it turned out to be a great movie, which we both loved.

We slept in again today and then hit the road to avoid the inevitable traffic for tonight's Seahawks game, arriving home to our cute little pup, who we missed dearly.

We had a wonderful time together shopping, eating, relaxing and enjoying each other's company, and wished we could have stayed a bit longer. We're so glad we planned this trip before Piglet's arrival!

Here are a few photos from our weekend. (Apparently we had a bit too much fun and forgot about taking photos - we only snagged a few this trip. Oops!)