Posts tagged Photos

Another catch up post

We’ve been busy lately. First we went camping with my family down at a “park” (I use the term loosely) out in the country near my hometown. It was a lot of fun, even though it rained off and on all weekend.

My nephew kept making this face all weekend, any time we pointed a camera in his direction. He cracks me up.

My nephew kept making this face all weekend, any time we pointed a camera in his direction. He cracks me up.

I love my nieces and nephews. Here are a few of them. There are about 6 missing.

I love my nieces and nephews. Here are a few of them. There are about 6 missing.

My dad won the fishing tournaments rough fish category (not Northern or Walleye). Nice trophy, huh?

My dad won the fishing tournament's "rough" fish category (not Northern or Walleye). Nice trophy, huh?

We had a wedding to attend this past weekend. It was FABULOUS, as is the couple that got married. We didn’t take many pictures (too busy having fun!), but we had a great time.

The core group of friends I hung out with in High School - aka the Fab Five.

The core group of friends I hung out with in High School - aka the Fab Five.

Holy cow! We remembered to get a photo of ourselves! Together, even!

Holy cow! We remembered to get a photo of ourselves! Together, even!

And finally, after spending yesterday evening cleaning the kitchen and bathroom (they are about 99% better – we are just waiting for the ceiling to be fixed in the bathroom), we test drove and then bought a pickup today. We knew we were going to need a 2nd vehicle by the time the baby arrived, and since Ryan lost his company vehicle (since he doesn’t go out of the office much) having only one vehicle was going to get annoying pretty quickly. We’ve wanted a pickup for a while, just for the convenience of being able to haul stuff, and also because in case you didn’t know, Duluth is built on a huge hill. Have you seen pictures of San Francisco? Yeah, like that. But with Northern Minnesota winters. We live only 1 block up from the bottom of the hill, and yet there were still a few times last winter when I didn’t think my car was going to make it up the hill. And we had a couple mornings when I had to hike up to the bus station because I couldn’t get my car out of the lot. That’s ok when I’m not pregnant, but I do NOT want to be hiking up the hill to the bus stop when I’m 7, 8 or 9 months pregnant. No thanks. So we kept our eyes open and looked around on the internets and found this truck. It’s a 2001 Ford F150 extended cab with 4-wheel drive. We got a good deal on it, and it’s got lower miles and is in better shape than most of the other trucks we saw in our price range. It gets TERRIBLE gas milage (less than half of what I get with my car), but we won’t be using it to regularly commute, and we’ll take my car on trips whenever possible. So yah. We are very excited. And don’t worry, we already have a request for help hauling some stuff. But, like I told a friend on facebook – we have received help so many times from other people with pickups that we owe it to all of them to pass it along. At least for a while.

So, here it is! Our “new” truck!

The new truck!

The new truck!

We are already planning a trip down to the twin cities and Ikea to put this thing to good use. Of course, thinking about the gas costs of going even that far are kind of overwhelming, but it’ll be worth it!

Whew…I really need to get better at updating this stuff more often. It is DEFINITELY time for bed now. I’m wiped out.

Catching Up

First I spent a weekend with my grandparents, and my mom,  sister and niece came for the day to learn how to make Kuchen (German coffee cake).

It doesnt look like much now, but it tastes great when its done!

It doesn't look like much now, but it tastes great when it's done!

My mom, sister and niece hanging out.

My mom, sister and niece hanging out.

The finished product. Yum!

The finished product. Yum!

Arent they adorable?

Aren't they adorable?

It was so much fun, and I’m so happy that I got a chance to get some first-hand learning experience in how to make these. We’ll see if my first try turns out as well as Grandma’s. I’m guessing this might be a learning experience.

Then, we had 4th of July at my parents’ place. It was fabulous. There was a ton of family in town, including all of my siblings and aunts and uncles that live on the other side of the country. I think there must have been about 40-50 people there all together. There were some wicked games of horseshoes, Norwegian golf (that game with the golf balls tied to strings and you throw them over piping), and Holey Board (a bean bag type game that my grandpa made). My sister brought her guitar and sang for a while, and we had a bonfire and burnt a couch (actually pretty tame for my family). Unfortunately I was so busy watching everything I didn’t take any photos.

Next was a day trip to a Twins game. We went with a coworker of mine and a bunch of people she and her friends knew. We forgot our camera for that trip (do you sense a pattern?), but it was fun. And the game looked like it was going to be terrible, but the Twins almost came back to win it right at the end. SO CLOSE! I’ll be the first to admit I’m not a huge baseball fan, but I do love live sporting events of all kinds, and I like keeping track of the stats on the sheets.

After a weekend off, we had my class reunion at home. And that was awesome! Both pictures of people are courtesy of my friend Adrienne, who is teh awesome. Ryan took the ones from the demolition derby at the fair.

The demo derby:

Here they are, all set to go.

Here they are, all set to go.

You know you are jealous of that kids camouflage hoodie.

You know you are jealous of that kid's camouflage hoodie.

One of the drivers ran someone up on one of the edges so he got hung up. That guys friend decided to do some payback and tipped this truck on its side. It was pretty awesome because everyone was fine.

One of the drivers ran someone up on one of the edges so he got hung up. That guy's friend decided to do some payback and tipped this truck on it's side. It was pretty awesome because everyone was fine.

And from the reunion:

The obligatory couple photo at the reunion.

The obligatory "couple photo" at the reunion.

Some of our high school group.

Some of our high school group.

Finally, hanging out with my in-laws, tubing, dinner and a fire with the ladies.

This is another one where I didn’t get any photos. But it was a fabulous weekend. I got to hang out with the in-laws relaxing, and on Saturday I went tubing down the river at Welch Village for part of a bachelorette party. It was fabulous. We also went out to dinner and then had a bonfire at the bachelorette’s house. Her friends are pretty awesome, so it was a great time.

And that catches us up to now. *wipes brow* It’s been a busy summer, and there are still a few weekends to go. I’m glad we’ve been so busy, though, because I have a feeling that while we’ll still try to do visiting and stuff we’ll be spending more time at home next summer. I hear babies do that to your social life. ;-)

Oktoberfest 2008

Well, I ended up going up to Oktoberfest by myself. Ryan had a bachelor party for a friend of his, and what kind of wife would I be if I didn’t let him go to that? ;-) I had a great weekend hanging out with my mom, a bunch of my aunts and cousins and a couple uncles, a couple of my mom’s cousins, and of course my awesome grandparents. Here is a teaser photo:

This is a wig that my mom bought “for Grandma” and that was worn by everyone. Including my grandpa. I can’t wait to see those pictures (my camera died before that, unfortunately). I like the purple, though. If I was ever going to be a rocker I think this would be a good look for me. ;-)

I’ve uploaded photos to facebook, but not to our Flickr site yet. I’ll add a link to this entry once I get that done (it should be tonight).

Ahh…the weekend

It is finally Friday afternoon. We have plans to go out with some friends for dinner tonight, and we have tentative (weather dependent) plans to go backpacking with some friends tomorrow. And it is my birthday tomorrow. And these things make me extremely happy. Well, that and the fact that I just ordered 2 new sweaters from Victoria’s Secret for a total of about $3.50 including shipping and handling. Yay for giftcards that I didn’t realize I had! Also, what is wrong with me that I ordered sweaters and not undergarments*? I don’t know. Other than the fact that I now have no problem justifying the expense of undergarments* from Victoria’s Secret due to their far superior quality compared to Target undergarments.* So I therefore like to use a giftcard for something that I have a harder time justifying to myself. Or I just like clothes. Or something.

On a completely different note, I would like to share my theory of work-related motivation. I believe we each only have a certain amount of motivation each week. So if we are VERY motivated on Monday, by Friday we might have absolutely NO motivation. I believe that is exactly what happened to me. Over the course of the week I used up all of my motivation, and now there is none. Good thing it’s almost time to go.

*Knowing that there are some of my family and male friends that read this blog makes it awkward to talk about this. And yet I do it, using an even more awkward word like undergarments. Is there enough awkwardness yet? I hope so.

In closing, a picture or two from our wedding day:

Ryan and Becky 6.7.08

Ryan and I between the wedding and reception/dance.

Bridge Kiss

Ryan and I kissing near the lift bridge as a ship comes through. We had 2 ships come under the bridge while we were doing photos down there. This is one of the many fantastic shots our photographer got.

 

Pictures!

I got photos from the shower last weekend uploaded to our site. They can be found here.

As I mentioned in the update, the shower was wonderful. Ryan’s family was very kind and generous to us! And I already got thank you notes sent out to everyone! Maybe this wedding is going to be good for my relationship with the post office.

 As you can see in the pictures, I was grinning or making silly faces all day. Apparently I am very frightening when I’m talking. I’m sorry to all of you that know me in real life. ;-) Seriously, though, I’m going to have to work on that whole keeping my eyes open and even before the wedding. I don’t know what the deal is there. Maybe I have one exceptionally strong cheek muscle???

Anyway, it’s almost time to go home. Unfortunately, today is not nearly as beautiful as yesterday was. I was finally able to get out and use my new rollerblades yesterday, which was awesome. Mike and I went the whole Lakewalk and back, and I only fell once (and it had nothing to do with my skating on the trail… Have you ever tried to get in and out of a porta-potty in rollerblades? It’s not easy – let’s just leave it at that.).

Tonight I need to run some errands, possibly start packing (did I mention we are moving…before the wedding??? Bring on the insanity). And then I’m out of town this weekend. Oh, and our landlord asked if we could be out by the 15th…or he told the new people buying the house that it might be a possibility (I don’t really think it is – not for us, and especially not for Sam who won’t have a place until ((hopefully!)) the end of the month). So yah…we’ll see how that all works out.

Gosh I’m rambling a lot. Oh well. Have a great weekend, everyone. And if you have hints on how to fix my eyes, let me know! ;-)