oktoberfest and beyond

We're gonna start this post off with the most adorable photo we've seen in a while. Briggs and CharMar taking a snooze.

Ok folks. So it's Sunday night and we are finally at a point where we can relax. It has been a whirlwind week/weekend that included and not limited to all of the following: picnic tables, thunderstorms, crazy cab rides, pitchers of beer, catching up with friends, post-Oktoberfest hikes across Tulsa, soccer games, birthday parties, chicken dance, desi wok, great cousin night, dog parks, cancelled shows, and naps.

It was Oktoberfest weekend and the whole shebang got kicked off on Wednesday night at corporate night. We met up with the Villain and Villain, Sr. and got reacquainted with the grounds. We met a lot of VSr's coworkers and had some good chicken dances but other than that it was a fairly low-key night [which was perfect because we knew we had three more nights at Oktoberfest].

Thursday was Kyle's birthday and he was supposed to have a show at Elwood's that night, but it was cancelled due to brisk, typical mid-October, evening weather. It was 45 deg F and it was cancelled yet they were still open that night. Oh well. So we met up with Villain and Tanee for some pizza and a drink before we made our way to Rusty's and then on to Oktoberfest. It was another great night full of dancing and ziggy-zaggy-ing, but was still fairly reserved considering the next two nights.

Friday was great and was pretty relaxed before we met up with Callan, Kelly, Cameron, Nicole, Haley, Andy, Cole, Racheal, Max and Casey at Haley and Andy's house. The plan was to get some pizza over there before we all headed to Oktoberfest together. We'd been planning this for a while and it was great for Cam and Nic to come in town and hang out with everyone.

Unfortunately Haley, Andy, Casey and Max couldn't come out to Oktoberfest with everyone, but after Oktoberfest we headed back to Haley and Andy's for circle of death and other assorted games. The whole night Callan kept talking about how he was gonna get up at 7am to make an 8am soccer game. Everyone was skeptical, except Callan.

He didn't make the game.

Cheers to Racheal for driving us to-and-fro. We rocked out to RATM on the way back. Throwback jam, y'all. While planning this shindig, we knew we needed to order extra pizza. And believe us, we neeeeded it. We scarfed. Between the two of us, we probably had a medium pizza during round two.

We got up fast on Saturday morning and promptly took a nap at home before we met up with fam at junkyard dogs and watched the pokes stomp the tigers at Mar and Joe's for a little bit. While we were there, Char and Stilly [Cam and Nic's pup mcgruff] had some last minute play time.

We also got a glimpse of a sleeping Sonny.

Lemme tell ya we were so exhausted from the previous nights at Oktoberfest and lack of sleep so we were not thrilled about doing Oktoberfest on sat night. However, Taylor and Morgan, Hugh and Jessica, Jill and Chris, etc., had come in from out of town to attend the festivities. And it was T&M's first time. And Rob was gonna have to miss but actually was gonna make it. And it was the last night. And...it was Oktoberfest, after all. So we put our party panties on and rode down to Tanee's house with T&M as the torrential downpour started. Luckily though, almost everyone we needed to meet up was there with us, so it was still a good time even though we were waiting the storm out. At first, we were super nervous because word around town was the Oktoberfest was cancelled, but after a bit of time, they actually re-opened with free admission. Big time, y'all.

There were waaayyy more people there than we thought there would be so it actually was a great time. The necessary pitchers, chicken dance, and cheers were all over the place and I think that everyone had a great time. From Oktoberfest, T&M, Rob, Tanee, Tanee's sis, and us all took a cab back to Rusty's house.

Why did we go there and not to Rob or Tanee's? We have no idea. As soon as we got there, we immediately set off on a hike back to Tanee's house [from 4th and Delaware to 25th and Harvardish]. Fortunately, the Villain had a typically devious plan to stop at QT and grab some quick Mickey Ultras. And taquitos. Stellar idea. It took a while to get back to Tanee's because everyone was chitty-chatty and takin' their time [it literally felt like 15 miles or 15 hours]. But that's all good cause it's always great to talk to those people. Taylor's daddy Dave came and picked us all up. So nice of him and it was great to see him.

Sunday was slow. We had to recoup quick 'cause we had an indoor soccer game and then we planned a dinner with L's family at Sr. Tequila's for K's b-day. We won our soccer game, which was a fitting end to the sporting weekend cause Arsenal won, OSU won, Man U got thrased, Chelsea lost with 9-men and Tottenham tied. Love it.

Kyle has a show this week but other than that, we plan on chillifying this weekend. The following pic of Charizard is an example of our attitude right now:

Tired. Seriously tired. And also, this:

Except we most likely won't be falling asleep with a tennis ball in our mouths.

C'mon out to Elwood's [19th and riverside ish] on Thursday at 7pm to hear Kyle and Callan play songs. See ya there!

larynx

Well this past weekend was packed.

Since Friday's are halfsies at work, we went to WhichWich for lunch then picked up our nephew, Sonny, for a fun filled day (3 hours). Almost every time we go out to eat, Layne figures out she likes what Kyle ordered more, and then therefore eats his before her own. Almost everytime {There are those rare occasions Kyle wants to swap dishes because what Layne ordered was out of this world}. The reasoning: Layne seems to always go to her go-to at places and Kyle usually orders something new. And then L wants to try, and then figures out she really likes and eats it all.

Soo... back to the main point of this blog: the weekend.

After that lunch, we picked up Sonny. We took him to Pumpkin Town. He loves pumpkins. Could be because it's part of the greatest season, or more likely because of his orange hair. We first went to this one pumpkin place in Bixby, but it was a bust. Absolute no fun, no slides, no ponies, bust. So before Sonny could say "Pumpkin" we turned the car around and went to our usual go-to pumpkin patch, Pumpkin Town. Since we are the coolest aunt and uncle we stopped by QT and got some goodies. Sonny was so talkative, funny and hyper after one piece of chocolate {don't tell his Mom & Pop} so that was all we gave him. When we got to PT we headed straight to the small, handsize pumpkins. Sonny grabbed one and didn't put it down until we took it from him. After browsing for the perfect pumpkin, we went to the small playhouses/shed {what L's mom would call them}. Sonny walked straight up to one and rang the doorbell {guessing to make sure no one was in there}, then walked right in and made himself home. Sonny then proceeding to show Kyle his house. After the walk-through, we then went to the small slide. Sonny loved it and probably coulda stayed there for hours while just chit-catting with us. Until this cute little girl came and Sonny went mute. Flirt. Finally Sonny gave in, and went back on the slide with her. After visiting the ponies we went to pick out another, bigger pumpkin to paint. Sonny had "the one" picked out and no other one was good enough. Just standing there pointing at a specific one in the pile of pumpkins saying "pumkin! pumkin!". So we tried to figure out which one he wanted by picking up the ones we thought he was pointing too..... they weren't the correct ones. So finally about picking up about 10 pumpkins we finally picked up the one. He just smiled and said yes.

We went back to our house to paint it. Layne helped him while Kyle was the paparazzi. He did great at first, putting one finger in paint and then touching the pumpkin. Then he realized his belly was as big as the pumpkin and then proceeded to paint his belly. His belly had more paint on it than the pumpkin did. He was a regular Van Gogh with his tummy as the canvas {think we found a piece of his ear at our house...}. Oh well, at least he had fun. After a shower {which ended up with our entire bathroom soaked form him splashing us} we went to the park. First to the trucks, then the train, then the water park {which was a bummer because it wouldn't turn on} then back to the trucks, and then on to the slides. We were all over the place. He didn't want to swing {which L was upset because swinging is her favorite pastime}. Once everyone was tired we took him home. After that we rewarded ourselves by going to get a sno cone {probably that last one of the year so we went with our usual flavs: Love on the Rocks and Silver Fox}.

showing k his house

there's the "finger" painting

realizing his belly is a good canvas... L obviously not opposing

We went back to home and went straight to get ready for the night. We met Sarah, Eric, Elaine and Daniel for dinner at Dalesandro's. We'd never been but we had heard some amazing things about the restaurant so we were stoked to go and try out this place. We got up there for drinks with S&E and said hello to Sonny {the owner} before E&D made it and we took a seat in a booth. For the sake of brevity and the fact that this isn't truly a food blog, we'll be brief. The bread was soft, the caesar salad was unique and appetizing, the pesto was fresh and cheesy and the dessert was divine. In essence, we loved it; Layne is still dreaming about the meal, especially the pesto. Sonny came over and chatted with us for a while and we had a great time with everyone. Afterward, we headed to Sonny's house to meet up with KFed, his boo, and the rest of our dinner party. We met Rocco, a massive 165-lb english mastiff. His bark made us think he was gonna rip us apart, but he turned out to be the biggest softy with massive slobber. We had a great time with everyone. Sonny has an awesome yard which is a must for that massive pooch {and a yard we would love for Charman}.

We woke up on Saturday and went for a 9-miler. Layne killed it. It killed Kyle.

After we recovered, we took Charizard to Biscuit Acres and then ran a bunch of errands. But first, to fill our hungry stomachs, we hit up Fat Guy's Burger Bar. Then we walked around Utica for a tick, went to Garden Ridge, IOMetro, Target, Home Depot, Dog Dish. Lotta locations. Lotta things to do. After all the running around, Layne started packing up the house. Yes, for our move to Houston in December. The early bird gets the worm...

We had been planning to meet up with Katy and Leigh on Saturday and we got a text from 'em to meet them and Alyssa up at Andolini's pizza. We got the pizza du jour, some sort of combo of mozzarella, arugula and cherry tomatoes. Way tasty. We went over to Leigh's house after dinner, which happens to be two blocks away from Haley & Andy's house, and had a tour, met another puppy named Riley, watched some rain-delayed baseball, and played some golf {the Villain's fave game}. After a little bit of time at her house we ended up going to White Owl to have a beer and chat each other up some more. Just us five and one of Leigh's co-workers named Brandon. Nice guy. We ended up leaving relatively early 'cause we were exhausted.

Sunday we had a relaxing morning before we went to the dog park with Charizard and then on to Kyle's outdoor soccer game. They won, but the real victim was Kyle's throat. He took a soccer ball to the larynx. It was practically a cannonball and he was trying to head it. He obviously missed. He says it was dipping. He also says that he still has a lump in his throat the size of a basketball.

Then we went straight home, taped L's ankle, said hi to Joey who happened to be in the neighborhood, then straight off to our indoor game. We lost that game, 5-2. It was close but a freakin' tough game.

After the game we showered and then started relaxin' after a long weekend. We decided to give in to our old stand-by dinner vice...Hungry Howie's.

Large. Half-sausage. Half-cheese. Cajun crust. Howie bread. Two ranch packets. Boom.

We hadn't had HH is fore-eh-ver. It was deliciously delicious. We of course had leftovers and they're just as good as the fresh pizza.

Now we are hungry again talking about HH and watching Chopped, so we're gonna go eat.

And since our pride and joy hasn't been on here in a while, here ya go! That's her taking over Kyle's spot on the bed while he was in Houston.