We have returned! There’s going to be quite a few posts about our trip to Fort Wayne to visit Ross, Liz and Jack; our trip to the Indiana Dunes; Colorado pictures and anything else we’ve forgotten about this fall!
This morning I made cinnamon apple oats for Rod and I using one and a half golden delicious apples, copious amounts of cinnamon and just a regular serving of oats. I topped mine with a little sugar-free maple syrup and he used poplar syrup.
I think Mario really wanted some of our oats! 
Caroline just wanted to get to the park! 
Before heading to the park with the dogs we also started a batch of chili to warm up the cool evening. We use bloody mary mix for the soup base and then we’re going to pair the chili with a nice hearty, multigrain roll. YUM!
When we got back from the park Rod and I started assembling our new bookcase and entry table from IKEA. We decided to go yesterday and finally pick up our first anniversary present to each other - new furniture for the bedroom and a few things for the first floor!
I’m loving the MALM dressing table as our new entry table complete with the clay pot that we won at a silent auction supporting the East 10th Street Children’s Center!
I also love how the EXPEDIT bookcase separates our living room from our dining room much better now - it also gives us SO much storage! Plus we can display some of the unique beer we picked up in Colorado (until we drink it that is)!
Here’s our new bed and nightstands - it’s low enough so that Caroline can jump on the bed plus there’s all kinds of storage in the nightstands!
I hope everyone has been doing well and apologies again for being SO far behind on our blogging! How has everyone been? 
Back in May one of the photographers that I follow, Erin Hession, posted a blog entry about her upcoming marathon portrait day. Since Caroline is a “senior” dog and you never know what could happen we decided to get portraits done with the dogs. I had won a gift certificate from Erin last summer and we were able to cover the cost of the shoot with the gift certificate!
A few pictures from the shoot:
It’s our family portrait - I think the “kids” were on overload!
Caroline giving me a lick bath - too funny!
Mario looking on being jealous as usual.
It was a great session and I can’t WAIT to see the rest of the pictures! I’ll be sure to share the link when we get it !
This past weekend was great, I was off starting at 11:30 on the 2nd and won’t be going back until this afternoon!
We started off the weekend with a tapping at Rock Bottom and drinks at both Buffalo Wild Wings and Scotty’s Brewhouse in downtown Indy on Thursday night. On Friday we had lunch at Creation Cafe and picked up a few items at Goose the Market for a delicious dinner of steamed mussels, crusty bread and beers.
A few pictures of the start of the weekend:
Three Floyds Apocalypse Cow on Tap at BW3
Scotty’s Brewhouse has a great Outdoor Patio
The patio has a great view of downtown and Chase Tower!
We started the mussels by sweating the vegetables.
We cleaned the mussels and discarded any open ones.
Caroline was completely bored with the process.
Mario was just tired and wanted a nap!
We steamed everything together for the sauce.
To thicken the sauce and avoid using heavy cream we pureed a few mussels to make the dipping sauce.
Why hello there - what is this?
We topped with the sauce and served with crusty bread. A TOTAL success!
It was a great weekend including a stop in Cincinnati to pour beer for the City of Montgomery’s Fourth of July Festival. I hope everyone had a safe July 4th and a great long weekend!
a GREAT BIG BEAR - a way up there! Just kidding - when we went camping we didn’t see any bears.
A few weekends ago we went camping during one of the biggest storms of the summer! It was lots of good conversation and lots of good food. The weather was really hot and really humid but I would recommend Morgan-Monroe State Forest for anyone looking to go camping in Indiana.
A few pictures from our weekend:
Nothing beats bacon, eggs and coffee while camping!
Mario was never that thrilled about the trip and he was a tick magnet!
The Outback ended up looking like it was in a car advertisement!
We were most proud of our fire that we were able to start after the rain!
Morgan-Monroe was a great place to go camping and we had a really relaxing weekend. The trails were great and the only downside was how hot and sticky the weekend was after the storm rolled through Friday night. I can’t wait to go again and take advantage of cooler temperatures!
I haven’t posted in a while and I figured I’d post two of my favorite pictures of the dogs that I’ve taken with Rod’s new camera.
The focus on this is great - her head is in focus and the rest is blurry!
Mario looks so scared or really confused. It’s a little blurry so I figured I’d doctor this up in photoshop…
:D I think I need to work on my photoshop skills…
Good times. Have a great Friday!
For my birthday we were originally going to get iPhones until we found out AT&T was going to make us wait until our upgrade date or charge us an additional fee. We decided to wait until our upgrade date and Rod came up with the idea of a trip to St. Louis! We found a Hampton Inn near Union Station where the dogs could join us for the weekend for no additional pet deposit and booked the trip the day before we departed.
Here’s a few pictures from our trip:
The view of downtown and the arch. From when we took this picture we went to Pappys Smokehouse for the most amazing bbq with sweet potato fries!
After Pappys we went to Buffalo Brewing Company for a sampler and got a special sample of their Chili Beer! From there we headed to Anheuser-Busch for their factory tour.
We saw our good friend Chelada at the A-B factory.
Visited the famous Clydesdales’ stable.
Witnessed some interesting logo incorporation.
Felt like we were in the Wonka factory with the Mash Tanks.
Visited the BevMo bottling plant.
Went for a sampler at Square One Brewery and Distillery after our two samples at A-B. We were very impressed with their offerings, although their Rauchbier (smoke beer) tasted like a hamburger (complete with ketchup)!
For my “official” present Rod took me to the Nike Factory Store to get some running gear while he hung out in the car with the dogs. I got two pairs of running capris, two pairs of shorts, a tank top, hat and shoe wallet for under $80!
Of course since we went out of state we had to pick up beer that we couldn’t get here and we also bought a few things at A-B that we could get here. It was a great beer haul and a great birthday trip!
If anyone is going to St. Louis anytime soon I highly recommend going to Pappys Smokehouse for awesome bbq and to Schlafly Tap Room for their yummy liverwurst sandwich!
It has been a busy few weeks since the election with a lot going on around here. We’ve been so busy that posting on the blog has fallen to the side while we work on other things. I thought I’d finally update since Rod and I had our first married Thanksgiving yesterday!
A few pictures from our Thanksgiving:
Our table set with our Kate Spade June Lane china that we got for the wedding! The centerpiece is pumpkins and autumn leaves with a candle from IKEA.
Our paring beer for dinner, a french Bier de Garde that we picked up at Kahns.
All of our delicious food! We had turkey (Rod prepared it using the brine method), green bean casserole, mushroom and dried cherry stuffing, whole wheat challah bread, Pumpkin Soup with cranberry-chili relish, gravy, cranberries, sweet potato pie and pumpkin pie!
After we had our soup course we fed the dogs their Thanksgiving dinner. Here is Caroline and Mario with their Turkey and Pumpkin Puree!
Here are our Pumpkin and Sweet Potato pies. After dinner we rested a bit and had a piece of Pumpkin pie paired with Stone's Twelfth Anniversary Black Chocolate Oatmeal Stout! It was delicious.
All in all we had a great Thanksgiving at the Harbison Weaver household and it was a much needed restful holiday.
That’s right, today is Caroline’s 11th Birthday! Yesterday we picked up a few slices of cake at Three Dog Bakery and gave that to the pups today with a scoop of pumpkin. As soon as I put the plates on the ground Caroline ran off with her piece and devoured it! Mario was much slower, but he’s a very careful eater. A few pictures from the birthday celebration:
Two Slices of Cake with Pumpkin - Doesn't it look delicious?
Caroline gobbling up her cake
Caroline chowing down
I think the cake is bigger than his head!
Mario gingerly attacking his piece of cake
I think the pups enjoyed their cake and it was a great birthday for Caroline. Here’s to many more years with our beloved Caroline!
Today we went to Holliday Park on the northwest side of Indianapolis and took the pups for a hike. There’s some pretty cool things in the park, including the facade of a building that was in New York City made of Indiana limestone!
Ruins from afar
Close-up of Ruins
Park Statue by the Ruins
View of the Ruins from by the trailhead
Graffiti by the River
Mario and Caroline by the Water
Caroline by the water
Caroline by the White River
Me with the pups
Holliday Park Sign
As you can tell we had a great time at the park with the pups! After the park we went to lunch at Petit Chou, where Mario and Caroline each got their own Frosty Paws. It was so good to be able to lunch with the pups with us!
We then went to Three Dog Bakery where Caroline got a sandwich cookie and we picked up a few birthday surprises for her birthday tomorrow. :D All in all it was a great day out with our pups.