Our Impromtu Camping Trip

Last Thursday night when I was at the Rascal Flatts concert at the State Fair, I got a text from Joe.

 

Joe: "Can we camp tomorrow? I'll start packing us up right now so you don't have to worry about much. Stella wants to:)" 

Me: "Can I bring a text book?"

 Joe: "Yep. I just want to hike, finish my book, camp and spend some time with my girls. Can I book it?" 

Me: "Yeah go ahead!"

 Joe: "Doing it. I'll start packing up now. Excited (Stella is too:)"

 

Well, we went camping but I didn't get anywhere near reading my text book. Go figure. We did hike eight and a half miles on Friday and had the trails to ourselves. The lucky spot? Great River Bluffs State Park near Winona, MN.

 

 

We set up our campsite and hit the trails.

 

The views of the bluffs were amazing. Can you imagine what this will look like in a few weeks with the fall colors?

 

 

And great views of the Mississippi too!

 

 

Stella was always off and running...until the end. And then she stuck a little closer to us because she was a pretty tired pup.

 

And remember when I told you we had the trails to ourselves? Here's a picture of the parking lot. Remember, we were here the Friday of Labor Day weekend. I'm sure it was busy over the weekend...all the campsites were booked for the rest of the weekend.

 

 

Oh hey grill in our campsite. You're from my hometown!!

 

And this little guy was on our tent the next morning.

 

Joe has a friend!

 

It was such a great little getaway even if it was just for a day/night. The campground was really nice, the bathrooms had showers for goodness sake!!...which was really nice when we came back dirty and dusty from our hike. We had to leave early Saturday morning so I could make it back for the bachelorette party. I could have stayed all weekend... ahhh. Next time.

Another weekend, another wedding...

Well we had another wedding this weekend. Who could have ever guessed that?! This time it was for one of Joe's friends from high school, Brittany. Her and her new husband Max tied the knot up the north shore toward Two Harbors and then had the reception at Northland Country Club in Duluth. They only had 20 guests at the wedding ceremony but everyone was invited to the reception which was amazing!

They had a social hour with live music from Saint Anyway and then had the best hor d'oeuvres ever for dinner. Seriously, I couldn't pronounce any of them except for maybe the "grilled fruit" but it was so delicious!

Here's a view of the golf course. To the right you could see Lake Superior off in the distance.

I love how this porch looks...

Here's the insdie where you could eat and eventually the dance was held in here.

Saint Anyway!

The only picture I took besides what the place looked like. Ooops. I was too busy catching up with Alsie who I haven't seen in months!

It was such a fun reception and we wish the Brittany and Max a lifetime of happiness!

One Year Ago Today...

One year ago today I married the love of my life, my best friend. I know it sounds totally cliche but you know what? it's the gall darn truth! It has been one adventure after another this first year of marriage. Joe continued working on his Master's and I started Nursing school. We welcomed Stella into our home in January and even started a business together. We've been keeping busy with traveling and finding time to just sit with each other between everything else - even though that doesn't happen as much as we'd like.

This past weekend we spent it up at his parent's cabin in Minong, WI. It was the perfect getaway with great weather and lots of sun and water.

On Friday and Saturday we took the boat over to a couple of the sand islands in the middle of the lake. Here, Joe and Stella are playing fetch on Eagle Island.

Our private island for the afternoon and my favorite spot!

Out for a sunset boat ride!

And now sleeping...

Our humble abode for the weekend!

Two islands in the lake. The one on the left we spent Saturday at and the one on the right is known as "Party Island". You can usually find many boats parked up along the shoreline during the day!

My girl and I!

Stella and Joe!

Joe went for a sunset dip in the water. Stella really wanted to join:)

We had a hard time coming home on Sunday but know we will be there again soon before summer ends. It was the perfect to getaway to just hang out with each other, eat lots of food, go to bed early because we were exhausted from the sun and just be together.

I'm not sure what the next year of marriage will have in store for us but if it's half as good as this past year has been, well I guess we'd be pretty blessed.

Let Me Tell You About MY Day...

It all started this morning and I was going to have a great day!

I finished my summer class (whoo to the hoo) and after went to get my hair cut. Sounds like a normal day so far, right?

WRONG!

On my way home my tire pressure light came on. Now, its done this a few times before (mostly in the winter) and I was about 10 miles from home so I decided to just check the pressure when I got home. Well, I didn't make it home. When I pulled up to my first stop light I could hear a very strange noise. The light turned green and I started to drive but this time the noise got louder so I pulled over to check it out.

Lo and behold I had a flat. Dang it! My first ever flat tire. Not as special as I'd hoped it to be. As I'm reaching for my phone to call Joe, a guy happened to be walking by so I asked if he knew what number I needed to call to have someone come and fix my tire. His response, "Ghostbusters".

Ahh, a funny man.

The next thing I know he's telling me to get out the jack and starts working on changing out my tire. Not only did I get one gentleman to help me but I got two! I guess I found the spot to get a flat tire when you're in St. Paul. They both work at Cosetta's - a fun Italian place to eat at that I had happened to park in front of. The only form of payment I had on me was $5 but they said I should just come in and eat at Cosetta's sometime. So Joe, I guess we're going on a date soon!!

I am so thankful for the two of them! Praise God!

At this point I have my donut on and I finally make it in the driveway. First things first, let Stella out. Poor girl had been in the house for about six hours at this point. I went upstairs to grab something and she had gotten into one of the garbage cans and proceeded to shred everything up as well as chew one of Joe's belts in half! He still doesn't know about that one yet:)

Ugh. It just keeps getting better and better.

No, I'm serious...

I called the Ford dealership near our house to make an appointment to get my tire fixed. I got there at 4pm. I left at 6:30pm!!! At this point I'm thinking, you have GOT to be kidding me! I guess a nail had gone through the side wall of my tire which means you can't patch it up and be on your way. Nope. It meas you have to buy not one tire but TWO tires because of reasons like "unequal tread" and "balance"! Total cost: $408! And the service guy felt a deep spot in his heart to knock of a whopping $20.

Here's one for you Mr. Service Guy....How about you knock off $200 and give me back the hours I spent in your waiting room watching Judge Judy and seeing about ten other folks walk in and walk out before you came and got me?!

And now, I sit here.

$408 poorer.

Laundry needs to be done.

Grocery shopping needs to be done.

And I'm ready for bed.

Family, Food, a Concert and Dogs

Didn't I just post about last weekend?! Man, time is flying by! I wake up one day and it's Monday, I wake up the next day and it's Sunday. At least with the weeks coming and going so quickly it can only mean that summer is rapidly approaching my front door. Now, if only I could figure out how to make summer last a little bit longer. I'll work on it and get back to you if I come up with a solution.

We had a house full this weekend and I loved every minute of it even though I am utterly exhausted from it all. Friday night Kate, Adam, Joe and I went out to grab a bite for dinner and then made our way to the bowling alley to show those kids what's up. Joe and I think we're pretty much awesome since we're in a bowling league and have our own bowling balls. Unfortunately, Kate's boyfriend who claimed he was "terrible" at bowling pulled off two wins out of three games. Geez louise.

Jenna, Drew and their little dog Chloe made it into town around 10:30 that night all the way from Johnson Ceek, WI (it's about a 4-5 hour drive depending on what way you take). Jenna was photographing a wedding on Saturday so they stayed with us for the weekend and Stella was finally able to meet her cousin Chloe. It was so much fun watching those two interact with each other.

Saturday we hung out around the house, Jenna went off to the wedding and the rest of us headed out to lunch at Matt's Bar which claims to have the first Juicy Lucy burgers in Minnesota. After we came back to the house and headed out later for Mutemath at First Ave. Mutemath is one of our favorite bands and they put on quite the show! The night ended with all of us back together playing a board game before heading to bed.

Sunday morning Joe and I made breakfast and everyone headed out around after one. Our house isn't quite big enough for six adults and two dogs but it sure was fun having everyone in our home. We spent the rest of the afternoon going out for a walk, lounging around and homework. I only have class on Tuesday this week due to teacher in-service days/student success day so I have a little bit of a break but a break that will consist of playing catch up with my reading.

Here's a few pictures from the show!

Hello 26

I am officially 26 years old as of yesterday. It's true when they say that the older you get the faster the years go by. Slow down age!! Joe and Stella had a few great surprises for me. Friday night I worked my first overnight at the nursing home which I actually really enjoyed. I went in at 10pm on Friday and left at 6am on Saturday. I went straight into bed when I got home and slept until about 1:30pm which was still not enough sleep but homework and errands were calling my name. When I opened the door I was surprised with streamers and balloons on the bedroom doorway. Joe has learned I take birthdays seriously:)

Then I rounded the corner to head downstairs and saw this...

I loved it:) Joe thought since the Superbowl happened to be on my actual birthday (apparently the Superbowl is a big deal) that he'd create a pre-birthday celebration for me. He even surprised me with a couple gifts! We're planning on heading out to Yosemite National Park at the end of May before summer classes start up so he picked out these hiking boots for me!! And I know they're really good because he did lots of research on them:) They'll keep my feet warm and dry, good ankle support...I mean I got the works in hiking boot standards!!

We're also planning on building a deck off our back door and I have lots of projects I want to do this summer so he picked up these from one of my favorite stores, Lowe's. Give me the power tools!!

That afternoon we ran errands and then came home to make dinner. Joe picked up the ingredients for a delicious beef stew and he also had my favorite ice cream flavor, chocolate chip cookie dough. We ended the night watching a movie and headed to bed early...it was perfect.

Sunday, on my actually birthday he made me breakfast and we hung out around the house doing homework and a little cleaning before the game started. During half time, he came out with cheesecake and birthday candles and even sang me "Happy Birthday". Overall, it was a great way to start my 26th year of life.

RedBull Crashed Ice

Saturday night RedBull Crashed Ice was in Saint Paul. Well, they had been there since Thursday doing preliminary races and such but Saturday night was the finals along with 80,000 spectators! It was nuts! Joe and I had plans to meet up with our friends Anna and Eric, however, no one's cell phones were working and we never actually met up at the race. Thankfully we were able to meet up with them after to catch up a bit.

Joe and I made our way onto the side of a hill to get a better view of the races. Bascially, four racers would head down an ice path on skates with not much protection besides a hockey helment, gloves and if they were smart some padding. They started up near the cathedral and made their way down the hill to the finish line. I don't think I would ever have the guts to do it but it was sure fun to watch!

Taking the corner fast!!!

Found a flag on the ground so it became my new prop:)

The hill we were standing on eventually became a slide for everyone. We had found some grass and brush to stand on to keep us from sliding back down.

Then they sent down the U of M, UMD and St. Cloud State mascots. UMD BULLDOG WON!!!!

It was such a great way to spend our Saturday night:) I also have a big announcement I'll probably be sharing with you tomorrow if all goes as planned... stay tuned!