The one with three cakes...

 As usual, it's been a long time since I updated. This one is going to be heavy with pictures. I almost always have my camera in my purse but I don't usually take it out to actually snap a photograph. This first set of images is from Keith's visit over Thanksgiving. We don't get a lot of guests coming to stay with us so it was a lot of fun to have him here for a couple days. We went to Ben and Steph's for Thanksgiving dinner along with about a dozen other friends that were celebrating the holiday apart from their families.

Jordan, with the one of my favorite dogs, Lila. She has an enormous and violent tail that whips everything it comes into contact. Notice the variety of snacks on the coffee table in my cute little tiffin box. I love that thing and use it at every opportunity for snack transportation.

  

Keith and me, doing what we do best: sitting around.

 Keith's face says it all: "I don't know anyone here!! I hope there is food that isn't a vegetable! At least I have my socializing juice- Strongbow!"

 

Me and my favorite dudes. 

The next two pictures are the most awesome package ever delivered to the Parker household. Angie sent Jordan a fantastic box filling with amazingly fun stuff. I can't even imagine how much time and energy and thought went into this beauty. She's a pretty awesome gal, good thing we had her in our wedding party.  

 

 Inside was all Jordan's favorite things: beer, coffee, candy, chocolate, a mix cd, and probably more cool stuff I'm forgetting.

While Keith was here we also did something I'd wanted to do since moving to Columbus: we went to the Center Of Science and Industry, also known as COSI. You'd think at such a neat place I'd take pictures of some science-y stuff, but no, I took pictures of us sitting in a throne made of Legos...

 

...and Keith pulling on a rope to lift up an entire car (see it wayyy in the background?) I think this has something to do with fulcrums but it's been a while since I studied levers and balance...

  

 ...and me looking into some kind of aquarium with shipwreck debris??... I don't remember this part...

 

 ...and in true Parker fashion, we went out for ice cream afterward.

 

We set up our Christmas tree at the beginning of December and had some new ornaments for decorating it, including one we picked up on our honeymoon while in Key West. I'm hoping next year we'll be able to get an actual big real tree and I can make Jordan set it up. 

 

 For those of you that were able to make it to our wedding, you might remember this dish that we used for the ring-warming ceremony before we walked down the aisle. It serves a duel purpose...

Before going back to MN for Christmas I wanted to take Jordan downtown to the area where my pottery class is held on Tuesday nights. There is a great park that they decorated for the season. It sort of looked like something out of a Dr. Seuss story- lots of colors on the trees and balls of Christmas lights in the branches. It's also right next to the river which makes it extra pretty.

Downtown Columbus at night is very pretty in the winter. Also notice: this is mid-December and no snow on the ground! There wasn't any snow here even when we left a few days before Christmas. Of course I didn't take any pictures while in MN except this one: using Pinterest as an inspiration, I made some peppermint sugar scrub for some of my friends and family. I thought they turned out pretty cute.

If you don't already know, Jordan collects bottlecaps. Specifically, bottlecaps from bottles of beer. He keeps them all in a plastic ziplock bag and every few months he'll take them out and just look at them. And photograph them. I have tried to convince him to let me turn them into magnets or glue them onto a table to make some cool way to display them but he always turns down my offer and gathers them all back into his bag, puts them away, and waits another few months before bringing them out again. Here's the current collection:

For Valentine's day I got exactly what I wanted:  flowers delivered to me at work, a giant box of chocolates at home, and a card. Notice that Jordan made it himself. What a crafty dude! There is a "1" on it because it was our first Valentine's Day as a married couple. I'm looking forward to the next 50!

 

 And I got him exactly what he would like: a bowl full of Dots, Cadbury chocolate, protein bars, and What About Bob? along with a card and a chocolate cake from CostCo that was the size of his head. Jordan loves cake. Especially chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. And this is the king of all chocolate cakes. For the last year, every time we've gone to CostCo we've looked at and thought it was just a ridiculously enormous cake. I figured Valentine's Day is all about sugar and excess so it would be a perfect time to try it.

 

And last week was Jordan's 28th birthday. He got up and left for the gym at 5:45am. At 5:46am I was in the kitchen making him his favorite breakfast- blueberry coffee cake. I'd never made a coffee cake before and decided the best time for my first attempt would be the morning of my husband's birthday. I managed to get it mixed up and in the oven, cleaned up the dishes, got myself ready for work, took it out and sliced a piece, and left this next to his coffee maker to surprise him when he walked in the door. I think I win the Best Wife award!

 

 It actually turned out to be delicious! I'm not surprised, I got the recipe from Jordan's mom. :)

In the afternoon I gave him his birthday present: a calligraphy set with some fancy drawing paper and a funny card with orange cats. Jordan is very good calligrapher. If I had known this, I would have made him address all our wedding invitations! Notice the extra two pieces of cake in the afternoon.

 

 We went out for a nice dinner at the Columbus Brewing Company, then out to the bar where we met a bunch of friends for drinks. For the first time in a long time, we stayed out until midnight on a Wednesday. Since we are old now, this rarely happens. When we got home, I had one more chocolate cake waiting... one made in a bakery. And this cake was enough to serve two people, instead of fifty.

I lit the candle so he could make his birthday wish and tried to take a picture of him blowing it out...

 

 ... I was too late.

 

 Happy 28th birthday, Jordan!

 And finally, one last photo that I took last night while we were shopping at Whole Foods. 

Jordan, in his natural habitat. The beer aisle.

Next week is Jordan's spring break so we're going on vacation for a few days to Nashville. I've never been there before so it should be a fun time. I'm looking forward to hopefully slightly warmer weather and seeing the house where Jordan grew up. We're hoping to get to visit Mammoth Cave in Kentucky on the way there and see some of his friends from middle school and college as well. We haven't taken a vacation since our honeymoon so this will be a nice break from school and work.