Party Down in H-Town

There's nothing I love more than visiting friends.  I'm lucky enough to have some great ones that will drive 2+ hours to see me for a couple of days before a work conference.  Love em to death!

After leaving a brisk 40 degree Milwaukee, I landed in a balmy 84 degree Houston, TX on Friday night.  Haley was nice enough to let us all crash in her town home and we rallied the troops for a late dinner.  (Naturally my first stop in Texas would be for queso.)  I told Haley it would be great to go somewhere "kind of quiet, where we could all talk and catch up."  

Little did we know what we were getting ourselves into...

(The gang's all here!  My favorite people in Texas!!)

(Kathryn, myself, and Brooke at dinner.  Notice how dark it is in the background?  Yeah, that's because it happened to be salsa night at Gloria's and all the lights were out with laser strobe lights on.  So much for a quiet dinner:))

(After dinner we headed a couple of blocks down to Celtic Garden in Midtown.

 Love hanging out with my guuurls.)

After a long night out, we headed to Tacos A Go-Go for some much needed breakfast.  

It's amazing how much you can laugh when you're with true friends.  

I literally don't think I stopped laughing the entire day.

(Saturday night we headed to Lights in the Heights for a good dose of Christmas lights and carolers.)

(Sunday morning we had the most amazing brunch at Benjy's.  

Nothing like crab cake eggs benedict!)

(Actually, there's nothing like a refreshing blood orange mimosa.  Those things were so good!)

(The rest of the week in Houston I spent at a Values and Practices workshop for Cooper Eaton.  The acquisition went through about three weeks ago so we're still in the transition stages of finding everything out.  We had a power outage at the Tech Center one morning so they passed out some unreleased products.  Someone's getting a Mighty Light for Christmas!)

(Wes and I took a late flight on Friday to get back into Milwaukee in time for the Young Professional's Holiday Gala at the MAC.  It was quite the swanky event and I loved getting to catch up with my MKE friends who I hadn't seen in ever and a half.)

(That's Wes.  The love of my life.  In Santa suspenders and a candy cane bow tie.  Gotta love him.)

(Saturday night Wes and I headed to Natalie and Meg's Tacky Sweater Party.)

(This picture perfectly captures Sarah's awesome earrings.  They were christmas lights that flashed.  Totally awesome.)

(My sister couldn't put up a real tree this year so she attached this little cutie to the wall.  

That is some Christmas Spirit!)

(Tonight we had breakfast for dinner.  I decided to make some bisquick biscuits and jazzed them up with a little heart shaped cookie cutter instead of the traditional circle.  

Don't they look twice as good shaped like a heart?!)

In 5 days my family is reunited!! I'm so excited!!

Family Visit Round Two

My Aunt Beverly and Uncle Kenny, and their two good friends Pete and Connie came up this past Thursday for the Packers vs. Vikings game.  Pete is a big time Packers fan so I had to bust out all the stops!

(First stop of the night, The Milwaukee Brat House.  This cheesy monster was mighty good!

There's nothing more Milwaukee-ian than brats and beer!)

(The next day the gang went to tour the Harley Museum while I was at training.  I met them up at lunch time in the Motor Bar for some of their delicious macaroni and cheese.)

(Saturday morning we headed to the Lakefront Brewery bright and early at 10:30am for our tour!)

(Me and Beverly; up and drinking bright and early!)

(The gang in front of the Lakefront Brewery Mug!)

(Beverly and Pete were selected to be the Laverne and Shirley of our tour group!)

Sunday morning we got up bright and early to start our trek to Green Bay.  

There's nothing like tailgating before noon!

(Here's Pete the Green Bay Wigwom.  He said in the car on the way up to Green Bay

"I haven't been this excited since I saw a girl naked for the first time, and that's when I was 12.  

I was nervous I was excited, I didn't know what the hell to do."

Definitely the funniest quote of the weekend.)

(Pete, myself, and UK at Kroll's West in Green Bay.  

Waiting in line to get our cheese curds, brats, and beer!)

(Some avid Packers fans and their awesome cheese hats!)

(Uncle Kenny and I at Kroll's West!)

(Our sweet ride up to the game...

Not.

Nothing classier than a Ford F350 stretch truck limo thing.)

(Game time!)

(Love them!! So glad that got to visit!!!)

And now, the best picture of the weekend...

(If any of you know my Uncle Kenny, you know that this picture is amazingly awesome. 

It also further proves my thoughts that I can get him to anything for me, even hold my pom poms.)

Gobble Gobble

So this post is a bit belated, but it's important none the less!  When my parents came up for Thanksgiving we had the BEST time.  Here's a look at the week...

(One of the first stops when they got in...

Leon's for some delicious butter pecan custard.)

This was my first Thanksgiving dinner to host and I have to say, it turned out pretty good.

(Rosemary Roasted Chicken.

I don't care for turkey all that much, so I went and picked out this 14 lb chicken

he was HUGE!)

(Sides includes cranberry stuffing, twice baked scalloped potatoes, and green bean bundles.)

(It made for a pretty dang good dinner!)

  

(And what is Thanksgiving without Pecan Pie??  

My mom and I made this one in a cast iron skillet.)

(Thursday night Mom and I headed down to the Kenosha Prime Outlets for a little Black Friday Shopping.  My main goal was to get Jordan new pots and pans from the Calphalon outlet.  In addition to her pans, I bought myself a ton of stuff (duh).  One thing is pictured above.  I had been wanting a Le Crusette cast iron dutch oven; but they are so expensive.  This one I got at the Calphalon Outlet retails at $300, was on sale at the Outlet for $69.99, and I ended up getting it for $36 after all my discounts.  

I know, I'm good:))

 (Friday we headed to the Lakefront Brewery for a Brew Tour.  My parents loved it!

(That night we headed to Erv's Mug for a Fish Fry.  

Here's my Dad with his first beer flight!)

(The gang at Erv's Mug.)

(Lunch on Saturday at the Harley Davidson Museum.)

Saturday we spent a large amount of time decorating my condo for Christmas and now it's all set up and ready to go!  

I'm really glad my parents helped me because it would have never gotten done otherwise!

 

(Decorating and crafting is a family affair for the Downey's and 

not even my dad was exempt from helping out.)

 (The finished product!)

(My favorite thing of all!! 

MY TREE!

In all of it's glittered leopard glory.  

I can't wait for Wes to see it.)

I'm SO Ready!

I'm so ready for this upcoming week!  Only three days of work, my Mom and Dad arrive on Tuesday night, and then Wes get's here on Wednesday!  

It's an action packed week ahead and I'm SO ready for the holiday festivities! 

(Me and my all-star bowling team; The Slackers.)

(Thanksgiving decorations at work!)

(Printed this banner out online, cut it out, and strung it up on some super sparkley glitter ribbon.)

(Friendsgiving on Thursday night at Emily's place.  We had the YUMMIEST spread!)

Saturday I headed up to Madison with some friends for the Wisconsin vs. Ohio State football game.  It was my first trip to Madison and first Badger/Buckeye game.  

(Popping bottles like champs.)

(Our ridiculously good seats for $20.

We managed to scalp 5 tickets for the game, but they were all in different areas of the stadium.  

With a little bit of savvy and whole lot of confidence we marched ourselves onto the 10th row.)

(Since I hold no loyalty to any sports team except for The Aggies, I decided to side with my future brother-in-law Jim, and cheer for Ohio State.  I saw Brutus and just had to snag a photo.)

 (Panoramic shot of the stadium from our seats.

Thanks new iPhone software, but your Maps still sucks.)

(Although I thought the game was fun, I would not say that Wisconsin has the classiest fans in the country.  Along with these t-shirts that were for sale the student section also chants 

"Eat Shit, Fuck You" back and forth to each other.

Cooper (who went to Auburn) and I were aghast, that sort of action would NEVER happen where we went to school.  Still a good time none the less)

(The crew at the end of the game.  Notice that's the sideline gate we're all leaning on.)

(When I found out the Aggies had BTHO'ed Sam Houston.  

I would also like to go on record and say that 

I have never worn this much clothing to a football game before.)

(Meg and I.)

(The major advantage of football games in the north; 

the ice in your drink doesn't melt before you get to the end of it!)

(Badger Band.)

(The girls at the end of the game.  Isn't Sarah's hat great?!)

Wishing you all a very happy Thanksgiving week!

Until next time...