on the way to the #adventurebuddies wedding!
photo cred: Ash
It has been a jam-packed week and I finally feel like the year has STARTED.
It's close to the end of the month already, but eh. Better late than never, right?
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Friday: Ash's BACK + Juan Family Dinner
Ash said that there was NO WAY she was missing the Juan family dinner at our house, so we 1) told the Juans to come on Friday instead and 2) Ash came back via Amtrak on Thursday night (poor thing's train was delayed by 2 hours, so she was a starving mess from lack of dinner).
So, to begin our Friday festivities...I made food. lol XD
I made apple crescents, the Pinterest win we discovered last summer, which Ash now loves. I would say it's been steadily improving since the first time we made it.
apple crescents: croissants + apple slices + cinnamon sugar + pecans + honey (optional glaze)
The Juans came over around 5:30pm and Mom had made a fabulous Southeast Asian spread consisting of grilled chicken wings and drums, spicy squid, bean sprout and carrot stir-fry, mushroom and green veg stir-fry, and rice.
unsurprising photo taking for Instagram lol
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Saturday / Sunday morning: In Springfield (for the #adventurebuddies wedding)
We set out from Carbondale shortly after 9am and arrived shortly after noon. Thank God for the hotel allowing us to check in early, because a 3 hour car ride in wedding appropriate attire and make-up just DOES NOT bode well. Especially if you're me, because, well, NO.
I was pleasantly surprised with how nice and large the room was.
Ash and I unintentionally matched for the wedding lol XD
SO MANY PEOPLE commented on the fact and we were highly amused by the end of the whole thing. I promise we weren't trying to. We were trying to match one of the wedding colors, which was blue. Which naturally, we then paired with black jacket / cardigan and then uh...whoops lol
photos courtesy of Ash with the Snow app (in case you wanted to know where the Asians are getting the filters from)
I'll update this post with the link once the #adventurebuddies' wedding post is up this Friday.
Saturday evening after the wedding was awesome. Lots of Calvary people were downstairs in the lobby catching up with friends, but our family opted for some quiet, quality time with Auntie Oi Lin. Needless to say, I've missed my second Asian family and my second Asian mom very much. It was great to hear about how they've been doing and the things God has lead them through and is still paving the way for.
If Saturday was a quiet reflective time with Auntie Oi Lin, Sunday morning was a party. Everyone had gathered downstairs for breakfast and people seemed to be appearing in waves lol XD It was GREAT FUN.
my breakfast of coffee, greek yogurt, and a small bowl of kashi cereal (I like their breakfast bars, but not their cereal, as I found out) and shaved almonds
the Juans also kindly brought me a gift of chocolate, check out this gorgeous hand-writing by Melody! I'm still working on eating this, so far so good though!
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Sunday: In Champaign (dropping off Ash)
We set out around 10am to head to Champaign. There was a bit of a question with where we would go for lunch, but we saw DIM SUM (essentially Chinese appetizers, but there's a time limit on when they're available and only select restaurants will offer them) on a window as we walked down Green Street and you didn't have to tell US twice to go in.
The restaurant was called Mandarin Wok and I will DEFINITELY be going back there for more dim sum. I was extremely happy with the food we ordered, particularly since it has been a while since I last had dim sum. I was also pleasantly surprised to find out that their tea is FREE (I love tea, what can I say?).
mulling over the menu
the Chinese menu on the wall that I'm incapable of reading XD
the menu on the left is the normal menu, the one on the right is the dim sum menu
each plate (enough for each person to have a piece of something) is approximately $3-$4
I'm already looking forward to the food, despite looking very tired here haha
photo cred: Ash
...I hate eggplant, but parents and Ash liked it, so here's a photo of stuffed fried eggplant
hong sao niu rou mian (spicy beef noodle)
siu mai (steamed pork dumpling things)
qi qiong fan (think noodle wrapped shrimp, and you'll get the idea)
pho (Vietnamese beef noodle)
fried "carrot" cake (it's really a white carrot or turnip or some kind)
I'd meant to take a picture of the whole plate, but this was so good, I almost at the whole thing without a photo haha XD
Mum is mushroom hunting, so she's very focused...
we both found childhood favorites (Mum: fish satay, Me: plum candy), this face clearly runs in the family
Mum looks better though XD
classic Asian red bean buns got a cute makeover into bunnies and hedgehogs!
they lie. they don't have faces when you steam them :(
no, I never thought they did, but they SHOULD.
Durian dumpling...things...why.
We got home around 8:30pm, had a quick dinner and I decided to top off my fabulous weekend with a homemade punch of fresh strawberries, rosemary, ginger powder, and sparkling apple-pear juice (only $1 at Big Lots). It was delicious and I'll definitely be making it again.
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I can't believe it's already the end of January...#adventurebuddies wedding photos will be posted as this week's #FeatureFriday2018, so look forward to it!
~See you Friday!
grt
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