Birthday Bourbon!

Happy Friday everyone!  Not only am I super happy that it's Friday, but I'm extra stoked because today is Edible Books!  If you don't know what Edible Book is, it's a international festival that usually happens in April each year where people (often libraries) hold an event where people either make book structures that are edible or, more often than not, take a book title or concept and represent it using food.  Our library participates every year and I've created something every year since 2008.  Here's a blog post from 2013 about my creation (and being awarded Best Overall for the first time!).  Anyway, I always get really into it and look forward to it every year.

Alright, so back to working through my backlog of photos.  These photos are particularly old, from my birthday...LAST YEAR!!  When I turned 30, Antoine and I decided to spend the weekend celebrating in Louisville, KY.  Since it's only about a two hour drive from Cincinnati, it's a good place to get away, but not have to travel too far or spend too much money.  Before we headed to the city of Louisville, we decided to make a stop at Maker's Mark along the way.  We've both been to Maker's before, but this time was special.  Antoine, who signed up to be an ambassador 7 years prior, finally got his golden ticket, which means the bottle of Maker's with his name on it was ready to be picked up.  So he scheduled his appointment and we made our way to Maker's...

The adorable cat who lives at Maker's and was sleeping in a basket in the lobby when we got there.

The good stuff in the works.

Time for the tasting!  They have updated the tasting format and the location.  I really don't remember much about the old format, but I like that they put out a little place-mat now that tells you what you're tasting.

Antoine with his special bottle of bourbon!

The bottle even gets a special stamp on the top.

The next day, on our way home from Louisville, we checked out the Four Roses distillery, which neither of us had ever been to before.  I gotta say, I like it and their bourbon (which again, I'd never had before) quite a bit and would highly recommend it to anyone.  Plus, we had a really great tour guide who was super engaging.

I have some more photos from Louisville to share next week!  Then I have more photos from last March and April.  It feels good to finally get through this backlog, especially since I haven't been taking many photos lately because I can't justify taking more when I have so many old ones I've neglected! Anyway, happy Friday and I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Glamour Shots (featuring Antoine & Gui)

I don't know about you, but whenever I have a long holiday weekend off from work it either goes one of two ways: 1.) I waste most of the weekend doing nothing relaxing and the weekend feels like it flies by or 2.) I am super productive and get a lot done/do a lot of fun stuff and the weekend seems like it's actually 4 days long...until the last day when I say to myself, "Where did the weekend go!?".  This past weekend was definitely the later.  We celebrated Thanksgiving, did way too much shopping, saw Horrible Bosses 2 (hilarious!), went to Crafty Supermarket, participated in Small Business Saturday, watched What If (I highly recommend it), and went for a walk in French Park.  I also made the best gravy I've ever made, baked 3 pies, and edited some photos!  That's a pretty productive and fun holiday weekend for me!

One other feat that I accomplished this weekend was to order our holiday cards.  Every year we do the sappy/corny/ lame, etc. holiday cards with pictures of us and usually pictures of our fur-kids.  We've been doing it for about 4 years now.  This year for the card I had a perfect picture of Cheese and I (that Antoine took this summer), but no good pictures of Gui.  I decided what would be absolutely perfect is if I could get a picture of Antoine and Gui together.  So, on Friday I forced Antoine into what can best be described as Jessica's Glamour Shots and Fun!  I got several cut shots and then a lot of silly ones and outtakes.  Enjoy!

 Awe!  I think this one is my favorite.

 Gui loves the chin rubs.  Antoine looks absolutely adorable in this one!

Now for the silly shots and outtakes...

There were quite a few like this.

 The "grumpy" shot.

 The "like father, like son" shot.

 The "sad" shot?

 The "what do I do with my hands?" shot.

 The "why I oughta" shot.

 The "wild beast" shot.

 The "Gui has had enough!" shot.

I'm so lucky Antoine puts up with my shenanigans...and in cases like this, makes them even more fun with antics of his own!  

Hiking in Yellow Springs

Happy day-after-Thanksgiving, everyone!  I hope you all had a great holiday?  Ours was pretty low-key and involved some tasty food, including a turkey breast that Antoine smoked (delicious!) and my first ever attempt at key lime pie (I used this recipe and it turned out really well).  While Antoine and I usually get into the Black Friday madness, this year we didn't really see much that caught our eye...though we might have to run to Petsmart/Petco to get the kids some Xmas toys (shhh! don't tell them).  Instead we went to a practically deserted Kroger this morning to get the fixings for one of Antoine's scrumptious breakfasts and as I'm typing this he's in the kitchen working his breakfast-magic.  I'm pretty lucky, aren't I?!

Anyway, I thought I'd share the rest of the photos I took from our day in Yellow Springs.  After pumpkin picking and some food to fuel us, we all packed up in our cars (with many pumpkins in our trunks) and headed a couple miles down the road to John Bryan State Park.  Now usually when we go to Yellow Spring we always go hiking in Glen Helen Nature Preserve, but since it had been years and years since I had last been to John Bryan (and Antoine and Aaron had never been), I suggested we go there...

We really had no idea where we were going and just decided to stop when we spotted the gorge trail.

An ordinary occurrence: Gatsby and Aaron going running off together, Amanda and Antoine walk at a normal pace while Cheese smells EVERYTHING (though you can even see him here because he's busy smelling), and I get distracted taking pictures and get left behind.

So regal!

As we were walking someone in the group (all I know is it wasn't me because I was too engrossed in talking photos of fungus) spotted small trails leading to the remnants of an old building.

Another less pristine wall/building.

This crazy tree's roots had grown through this rock...the picture definitely doesn't capture how cool it was in person!

"Come on Dad, it's time to explore!" - Gatsby

"Umm, will someone move this large branch out of my way?!"

All in all, it was a pretty great day!  I mean, how could it not be...pumpkins, friends, ice cream, cute dogs, and hiking.  That's just a recipe for Fall awesomeness!