Chicago for Nick and Joy's Wedding

How adorable are my cousin Nick and his sweet bride Joy? This is a wedding I've long anticipated, excited as we've all been to get Joy in our family. There was no way we were missing this.

My whole family concurred. Here we are at a cute pub between the beautiful wedding and reception. 

And Julie Spahn, Cousin Beth says hi!

Here are my sisters.  And after everyone else left on Sunday, I got to spend a fun bonus day with expectant parents Lou and Jason. 

We had the greatest day for baseball watching. Here we are at a most excellent Brewers game where the home team won, the rejoicing was abundant, and the chorizo was the winning racing sausage. 

Before my plane left, we also squeezed in a trip to the Art Institute of Chicago. And CVS! Thanks so much guys!!! Love you!!!

Day 4: Hiking and Biergartening

Our last day included a short train ride to Schliersee for a pretty hike,

a lovely lunch overlooking the lake and mountains,

and a stellar biergarten dinner with Julie and Scott back in Munich. So many of my favorite things rolled into one day.

Day 3: Best Oktoberfest Breakfast Ever

After returning from Oktoberfest with Jeremy's colleagues late Friday night, I think it's safe to say we disturbed our gracious hosts' slumber. We rang them and made them buzz us in instead of using the key we forgot they gave us, tried to give them a good night steamroller, sat on their kitchen floor and ate all of their leftover pasta, tore through the cookies they'd brought home from Italy, and broke one of their glasses.
I might mention that we had a free hotel from Jeremy's work this evening but stayed with them because we so prefer their company. Um, I'm sure they prefer ours too. It was probably like having raccoons.
Instead of throwing us out though, they made us the best breakfast ever: French toasted pretzels with blueberry sauce!  We were so not worthy. You can see how Julie did it and learn fascinating bits about French toast here.

We spent the afternoon post pretzel visiting Jay and Fredrik and their new cutiepie Ella.

Ella was not born in a Taxi; this is just the name of the hospital where she was born.

Day 2: More Oktoberfest

It was a gorgeous Friday, and we took full advantage of it with a great walk past so many of my favorite places, including Viktualienmarkt with its beautifully displayed wares. 

Jeremy and Scott took time out from work to join us for lunch. I was skeptisch, but it appears that there is a good Mexican restaurant in Munich. It was like we happened upon a unicorn.

By the time we met back up for our reservation at Oktoberfest, I didn't have the time or the ambition to make it back to dirndl up for the event. I was a little disappointed in myself; wearing a dirndl is indeed never something one regrets. Especially when one is at Oktoberfest. To help make up for my lack of dirndl, I tried to at least surround myself with a bunch of them. These girls are so adorable.

 Jeremy comically pretends not to notice how adorable they are.

Munich Day 1: Oktoberfest Rides

(shoot, I'm having trouble making my video work, but here's a picture until my tech help comes home.)

Oktoberfest Rides aren't just fun for the participants; they're pretty hilarious for the spectators. We began our fun by camping outside this giant slide where the real fun for spectators is watching people ascend a shaky conveyor that leaves many people on their butt. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Our friend Scott is the first guy in tracht (traditionally awesome clothes) who finds his footing midway. I couldn't tell while taking the video, but Jeremy is the one right after him who doesn't fare so well. 

Poor Jeremy. Here I am ass-essing the damage. The hyphen in ass-ess was Julie's idea.

We also perused Oide Wiesn, the old timey part of Oktoberfest which has its own tent and biergarten area

and more traditional, less scary rides that can still make a person want to hurl. The swings just didn't treat me right.

We thought the third verboten item was funny: riding in a drunken condition.

Art Buying

While I got to pretend to be a buyer at an art auction in a movie last week, I for real got to buy art from the infamous Julie this week. Infamous is when you're more than famous. like El Guapo. You can see her art blog here and you can even buy your own original Julie painting here.   

I'm pretty jazzed about owning my second Julie painting; here is the zoomed out view of its placement. I agree it's a little weird that we have our microwave above the fridge.

I'm so taken with these onions or Zwiebeln in German. I love how Julie uses colors so creatively. I'm partial to the splash of blue in the top right corner, and I love the texture of the hairy bits of the onion. Awesome achievement of hairiness, Jul. As an additional enticement, she even wraps it with a sassy sticker.

Cool Chics in My Midst

This week, there was a very funny interview with my friend Jul here. You have to click on the blue word "here" to get to the article, mom. It made me laugh a lot. If you haven't met Jul, you've at least heard me start dozens of stories with, "My friend Jul..." This is her.

Also, had a baby shower for sweet Becca and her cool little chic on the way. She agreed to tell us the first letter of her name if we promised not to make any guesses afterward. a tough bargain. The letter is B.

Cool chics Jessica and Wendy got fun drinks.

I also go to help Charlene this week with a pop-up shop she was managing in Clerkenwell. It's the best to get to help when it's really just a chance to hang out with a good friend and do a fun art project.