Wedventure Two

Chris and Lauren's wedding was in Denver and absolutely beautiful! We had a great time in Colorado and at all the wedding events. Gabe was a groomsmen in this wedding and I was a personal attendant. Everything went smoothly,(according to me) and it was a gorgeous day. We had a blast at the reception, dancing our feet off. They gave gabe and i one of the most special memories at their reception. Our anniversary was the Sunday after their wedding so they played our first dance song for us to dance to again! So thoughtful, we still smile about it.

Bestest Friend in the whole darn world

I got a sweet surprise in the mail today. It was perfect after me dreaming about fall in the northern states. Andrea and Jeremy (the cutest newlyweds) went on a fall hike last weekend and she collected these beautiful fall leaves and sent them to me in the mail! I got them today with a sweet note from her. They even have the scent of fall! I think i'm going to press them a little longer and then frame them in one of those glass frames where pictures look like they float. That way I'll have a little Duluth fall all year round. It's one of the hardest things, being away from those you love dearly. Thank you andrea, you are the dearest friend! Love and miss you muchos...

urban kayaking

we made it out to kayak yesterday on possibly one of two days that its ever both cloudy and windy down here, but it was beautiful out! It started out that this pretty stinky young guy showed us to our boats and we got in and were on our way, which i was thankful for because man he was stinky. So we start paddling and about 3-5 minutes of paddling we reach our first bridge to go under. On our paddle over we talked about how stinky this dude was. Then i was like but the smell is NOT going away is it? Gabe said that it wasn't so bad and then i realized that my life jacket STUNK so bad like him, or b.o. that i was immediately disgusted. I started unbuckling my life jacket and twisting the arm parts to get it as far as possible off my body as legal (he told us they had to be on our shoulders). So i definitely left it on my shoulders but i was sporting it much more like an 80s fashion statement when we wore our shirts half hanging off of our shoulders.

Trying to get over this and have a good time (especially because this was part of gabe's bday presents from me) and keep paddling towards our next bridge to go under. Gabe looks at me like i'm crazy with the life jacket and insists upon switching with me. So i allow it because he really wanted me to have a different one. This was MUCH better for me. (Later I thought about most likely all the people that don't wear shirts in the summer and sweat so bad while wearing those life jackets and then I was really grossed out).

Anyways beyond all of that we had so much fun!! We were playing in the waves and watched many many aeroplanes come in over our heads, surrounded by buttes, highways, condos, and office buildings - it was the most urban kayak experience that you can get i think which I enjoyed. Our shoulders were quite soar by the end of our time because the wind was relentless on our way back to the dock and gabe woke up with a soar back (he is 26) but it was all worth it. This is definitely something we want to do with more guests that visit us.

Possible Hiatus...

well there you have it - my cost- co size update. I hope this suffices for the absence of posts over the last few weeks. This coming week we get to go onto our wedventures 2 and 3 and are soo excited for them! This may mean that i'm not on here again for sometime. We hope to be able to see many of you during the next few weeks!

surrounding ourselves with experience

We have decided to join a class this year that studies the Bible through the text, Interdisciplinary Atlas of the Bible. It touches upon the history, geography, archeology, and theology of the bible. We had our first class this past Thursday and as gabe predicted, we were definitely the youngest ones there by about 25ish years. (There were maybe one or two others that were only slightly older than us). So yes, once a week for the next 7 months we will be surrounded by lovely elders that have so much experience at life and all that it delivers. I'm always intrigued by their stories they share and really enjoy learning from them. So I'm looking forward to our Thursday evenings learning about many different aspects of the bible and learning from our elders, which i think has been lost a bit in our society.

Pumpkin Muffins

Since I keep mentioning this lovely food item I'm giving you the recipe because one of the reasons they are so fabulous is because they are SO easy! I don't have a recipe card for them because you can easily keep it in your mind:

Pumpkin Muffins
1 can of pumpkin filling
1 can of water
1 box of spice cake mix
1/2 package of chocolate chips (optional - i make both with and without)

Mix all ingredients together and fill muffin tins with mix. Bake at 375* F for about 25-30 minutes or until you can remove a toothpick without any mix on it.

Enjoy!

fab fall

Although az seems to be getting the memo slowly about what season it is - fall, i'm missing it badly. Thankfully through wedventures I'll get to experience "northern" falls more than i usually do. But in attempt to live in fall right now i'm making a list (in no order) of all my old time favorite things about fall, my favorite season:

• pumpkin spice lattes
  
• pumpkin muffins
  
• well anything pumpkin - carving them, the scent of them, decorating with them
• the leaves changing and falling
• the crisp cool, fresh air
• light jackets
• enjoying hot coffee
• picking apples, making apple sauce
• the colors of the season
• heavier blankets on your bed
• warm apple cider
• crunching on leaves as you walk
• jumping in leaves
  
• Watching leaves decompose
• making and eating soup
  
• and newly added: gabe and my anniversary :)

What are your favorite things?

26 is a good age -- for my husband

I love my dear husband so much, i of course wanted to make his birthday super special. I had many surprises planned for him but quickly learned how skillful you have to become when you're married to plan surprises for your spouse. Its hard to surprise him when our finances are shared, you're on similar work schedules therefore you carpool to work and well you get the picture - its hard to hide things.

Gabe now works the early shift (6-2) so we don't car pool quite as often because I don't function that well that early. But I wanted to make him a birthday breakfast since that's been sort of a tradition for us. This meant that I was up baking around 4:30 am. I made him his favorite - pumpkin and chocolate chip muffins. The little part about me not functioning well at that early morning rang ever so true as I baked and burned the tips of my fingers and got blisters. But all was okay because he got his muffins and i went to back to bed once he left, holding a frozen bag of corn on my fingers. It was a fun birthday and now my old husband is 26, owning a "real mans" drill.

My sweet man with his goodies

These are his triathlon shorts. I knew he wanted a specific kind, of which I didn't know (00ps) so I made him some mini ones until we order his real ones. They are pretty cool - even had butt pads and all.

Another of my umm, creative gifts. It's a little magnetic dude that has a kayak and paddle. I gave him a little morning kayak trip and this is how i presented it to him. We are suppose to go on this this morning - but gabe is still in bed this morning as that his is absolute FAVORITE now that he gets up SOOO early during the week, so he sleeps as late as he wants.So excited that he has a real drill (not a wimpy one any more) so he can build stuff.

Chis and gabe - good friends came out for some drinks that night.

Wedventure numero uno

Wedventure will bring you three lovely weddings in the next month. This is our first one which was my best friends wedding. It was a lovely fall day, September 20th, in minnesota. It was wonderful - the trees were turning, sun shining, just right temperature, a beautiful bride and handsome groom.

A fun thing about weddings for me is seeing how the couple's personalities shine through in the details. Andrea is one of the most creative people I know and she did an amazing job at creating much of her wedding paraphernalia. She even did glass etching! It was a fun night and we danced the night away with the happy couple.

Getting all ready and prettied up

Relaxing before the big ceremony
Tres amigas from moorhead