Jillian's Visit

Our friend Jillian (a former co-worker of Thom's from Order Fusion days) came to visit for a few days last week. We hadn't seen her since our wedding almost 6 years ago. She's been living in Australia for the past 3 years or so and this is the first time she made it out our way when visiting stateside.

She met up with her sister Kristen for the first few days, and then Aaron and I hung out with them last Wednesday, going to a few local attractions, including the 24 hour donut shop in town, which was so popular that Jillian had to go back before the end of her visit. Jillian and Kristen came back to our house for dinner and a movie before heading back to their hotel.

Kristen returned home on Thursday and Jillian came to stay with us through last weekend, our first house guest since having Aaron. Since his room doubles as the guest room, he slept in the play yard in our room while she was here. I was worried he might have trouble sleeping in a new place, but he didn't seem to mind a bit.

The first morning Jillian was here, she made us crepes, which we filled with whipped cream and some peaches I sauted up with brown sugar. Yum! The next morning, she made us some wonderful cinnamon rolls, which she started the night before. We were spoiled while she was here - an excellent cook!

Last Saturday night, we had a dinner party for 10, which Jillian and I planned and prepared - appetizers of caprese (sliced tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella), a variety of pizzas (with homemade crust) and some antipasto, main course of salad, stuffed shells and garlic toast. Many of the ingredients came from a local farmer's market we went to on Friday with Thom, who took the day off. You can rarely get a good tomato from a grocery store out here, so I have been starting to shop at the local farmer's markets which have wonderful produce. A slide show from the dinner party is below.