July 1, 2005

• A Celebration

  Last night Hubby and I took Kyle and his girlfriend, Jenny, out for dinner.  It was a celebratory outing, mostly for Jenny’s sake.  We were celebrating her high school graduation, her winning the state long jump championship, and her selection as one of the “Ambassadors” from our town.  We were also celebrating DH’s birthday, if you recall my post from earlier this week.  (He is 48, by the way…and looking mighty fine for his age!)  So here are some pictures we took to share our fun evening with you.

  We chose to go to a trendy restaurant in Minneapolis called “Solera”.  It is a spanish tapas restaurant, and we are slightly acquainted with the owner/chef because of a connection through the boy’s choir (his oldest son is also a choirboy).  Here are Kyle and Jenny posing outside the restaurant:

  

  This was Kyle and Jenny’s first time trying tapas.  They were both a little uncertain as to how well they would like the food, but as it turns out, they liked it very much!  Tapas are various small, savory Spanish dishes, often served as an appetizer, snack or with other tapas as a meal.  They are ordered individually, and brought to the table quickly…so you can start with one or two selections and continue to order until you are full.  We probably ordered between 12 and 15 before we had had enough, but we made sure to leave room for dessert!  Here is hubby with his dessert — a selection of 5 dessert tapas!

  

  I had a dessert similar to a creme brulee, Kyle had banana empanadas and Jenny had ice cream.  Then Josh (the owner) brought us his favorite dessert (on the house)…a citrus torte:

  

  The restaurant is inside an old restored warehouse building, it is furnished in a modern, elegant style.  This picture really doesn’t do it justice, it was in the dining area near our table.  the coolest part is in the tapas bar just as you enter the place.  It has gorgeous, colorful light fixtures and a beautiful, intricate and vivid spanish tyle mosaics on the walls.  I didn’t get a picture of that .

  

  Here are Kyle and Jenny, and hubby and me:

  

  

  After dinner we walked up the street to Marshall Fields.  I love the interiors of those elegant old department store buildings.  Here are Kyle and Jenny entering through an old wooden revolving door (which they thought was very fun!), and a picture of the main hallway on the first floor of the store….love the chandeliers!

  

  

  Finally, on the drive home, Kyle was taking pictures of Jenny in the back seat…they were just having fun, being a little goofy.  Here she is, what a DOLL!

  

  As for the big “HOLIDAY” weekend coming up, we really don’t have any plans to speak of.  We used to do a major neighborhood party for the 4th of July, but we stopped doing that about 3 years ago and went to spending the day at our lake cabin with just family and close friends.  This year it might just be me, hubby and Isaac home for the 4th!  Grant and Mark are still on choir tour and the two oldest boys have tentative plans to spend the day with friends/girlfriends.  So it’s going to be very quiet around here.  I’m sure we will find some fireworks to go see…maybe we will head into Minneapolis for one of the big whoop-tee-doos going on down there.  Whatever we do it will be a big change from previous years, but then, life is full of changes.

  Happy 4th of July to all! ~~~Leah~~~

  • 1:33 pm
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