5 years ago: Who would have guessed???

In 2001, on November 17, we were getting married under the African summer sun. 5 years later, we are just entering the Northern Ohio winter, expecting temperatures below freezing and snowfall :-) Who would have guessed our lives would have changed that much in half a decade!

To celebrate our paper anniversary, we went to the Outback restaurant. This is an Australian themed restaurant where we hoped we could get a taste of the Southern Hemisphere! The atmosphere was good, and the food and service were excellent. Even Nathan was on his best behavior! He loved his Macaroni and cheese! Liesel ordered the :
Bronzed Chicken with Corn Cakes
Bronzed chicken breast and grilled corn cakes with bits of bacon, topped with shrimp in a creamy garlic mushroom sauce

and I had the :

Alice Springs Chicken®
Grilled chicken breast and bacon smothered in mushrooms, melted Monterey Jack and Cheddar cheeses, with honey mustard sauce. Served with Aussie chips

HEERLIK!

However, they had nothing evenly faintly resembling a South African dish :-( but is was good anyway (despite being Australian).

Finally, we had a dry Saturday and we took full advantage of this! Liesel went to have her hair done and some shopping on her own, so the boys went on our own shopping trip! We spent an hour or so at Costco looking at their LCD televisions with coveting hearts! I think Nathan would support me in my quest obtaining this dream digital display, since he was totally engrossed in Finding Nemo that was showing on one one of them!

Later that afternoon, we headed to a playground. After 5 mins in the 5C weather, we decided to cut down the playtime down to a limit that wouldn't expose us all to hypothermia! After Nathan had his fill of swings and slides, and Liesel and I had our fill of frostbite, we headed back home. It was the perfect evening to have another fire in the fireplace! Nathan's excitement always makes the fire worthwhile! Maybe we should give him a couple of logs for Christmas ;-)

Sunday was your average run-of-the-mill Sunday. It was also the last Sunday I would chat to my mom on Skype! Next time it will be face to face in 12 days time....... Cannot wait!!! Those days should fly by as we will be flying up to Green Bay, WI for Thanksgiving on Wednesday, returning on Saturday! We are looking forward to reuniting with family that we had last seen in 2003! The weather in Green Bay is generally colder than Cleveland, but we can handle just about anything now ;-) The temperature forecasted for Green Bay on Thanksgiving is : 9C

Random fact: The weather in Georgia (down south where I applied for a job before Cleveland) will be a lovely 17C on Thanksgiving Day! I think I would prefer spending my Thanksgiving down in Georgia ;-)