A birthday month, Trip to Minneapolis, and Trader Joe's/Whole Foodsvisit

Many people that know me know I like to celebrate my birthday ALL MONTH.  Yep.  Every year I have multiple celebrations.  This year is no different even if we are all the way in Michigan.  We have a lot of fun things planned for this month.  I love that we share a birthday month because it's a second excuse to add more fun things to it.  D isn't a big "birthday" person but I am, therefore, he doesn't have a choice but to celebrate his.  This year is his big one, 30! I'll be 26.  I had initially wanted to throw a huge party for him, but that was before we had to move here.  That party is postponed for a few years :)  My 23rd birthday may have been by far the most memorable and pretty hard to beat...a quick recap on that was a trip to a week in SD, a trip to Mexico, a week in Vegas, and ended it with 2 weeks in Florida.  So it lasted a little longer than a month... :) This year we started with a trip to Minneapolis, MN to see Matt play.  We also have a trip to Chicago planned and we are tossing around the option of one more. I LOVE August!

This past weekend we made the long 10 hour haul across the upper peninsula, down through Wisconsin, and into good ol' Minnesota to Minneapolis.  D's brother was in town playing the Twins and it was a long drive but still close enough to do on a weekend.  We left early Friday made it just in time for his first at bat then hit the road home Sunday after the afternoon game and got home at 3:30a.m..

Minneapolis was neat! We truly enjoyed being there.  It was a happening town.  Kind of a mix between Davis and San Francisco, two of my favorite places.  Target field was very nice and the best part about the whole trip was seeing a familiar face! Matt is doing great with the Astros and really enjoys playing and we were able to spend Saturday afternoon and Night with him.  D had this brilliant idea that we should camp while we are there since the weather was going to be so nice, so since this was his birthday trip, we camped.  Camping, baseball, beer...I think that makes for a great birthday.

The view from the ball park was beautiful.  It was a perfect shot of downtown Minneapolis.

After lunch on Saturday we decided to check out the Mall of America to waste some time.  HOLY COW.  It was huge.  Overwhelming! There's an aquarium and theme park there, 400 stores, tons of restaurants, and a water park across the street.  It's just too much!

Sunday was the most anticipated day of the weekend for me.  It was Trader Joe's day! To my surprise when I found Trader Joe's, Whole Foods was right next door. Pleasant surprise! Whole Foods has one of my favorite salad bars.  It's loaded with SO MUCH GOOD STUFF! I pack my huge box full of deliciousness. I stocked up on my favorites and "necessities" from TJ's and was one happy camper :).  I have enough to last until we head down to Chicago at the end of the month where I'll hit it up again.

Oh and did I mention we also got spoiled with  having Starbucks so easily accessible to us? Hello Americano <3

Needless to say, it was a fun and successful weekend!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MONTH TO US!!!! :)

Celebrating 30 and 26!

Our busy days

Life has been so amazingly busy lately that blogging has been one of the last things on my mind. Even now trying to do this I have found myself getting up multiple times and distracted by other things after writing just the first sentence...ay yi yi! Anyway, lately we have been up to a lot!

Life in general:

At the end of last month...our friends Jess and Josh finally arrived from Texas. I really can't believe how fast 3 years flew by for them but I am so excited to have them back here with us! They live across the complex from us but it's perfect regardless.

For the fourth of July we hosted a bbq here and invited our friends over and of course, Jess and Josh. :) Kayla and Jerome came with Jake and we hung out by the pool all day long. It was a perfect day.

Work has been going well for me and I love my job just as much as when I started. I have recently sent one of my little ones on her way to the older Toddler room and acquired myself an adorable new little boy. He is just perfect! Also, our head teacher is moving to another room, which I am totally bummed about, but that gives me the opportunity to step up and plan the classroom with another one of the girls in the room. We are so excited to have this chance and I can't wait to get started. This all starts next month. I also finally have one early day (that is NOT 5pm "early") to get off. My new schedule will be till 5 mon-thurs and till 3 on Fridays! yippeee! :) Having that early day is going to make things so much easier when it comes to making appointments and getting stuff done.

We spent last weekend at Kayla's parents' cabin in Arnold, Ca. It was a lot of fun and very relaxing. They live in the forrest where their nearest neighbor is not RIGHT next door and it was so fun to watch the deer and animals come so close to the house to feed.  We hung out for the weekend and BBQ'd and went to two different lakes both days. It was an amazingly relaxing weekend which is exactly what we needed.

Danny has also gotten a bug up his butt and is looking into buying me a new car...YIKES! I'm not sure where this came from but apparently he's done a ton of research and thinks that since I'm getting so high up in milege that we should consider trading my car in before things start going out (something that never crossed my mind and now I'm worried that he has jinxed me!). I can't say I neccessarily agree that this is the best time to do this since we are still planning a wedding...I'd like to wait until after the wedding but now I'm worried things will start going wrong. I hate that he said that.

This weekend we are heading down to Southern California for his brother's wedding! It's going to be lovely!

Now on to the fun stuff....

Wedding updates:

Ladies and gentlemen...we have a color! LOL it was the color I started out with a year ago...Navy Blue. I have decided on navy blue dresses for the girls and it worked out that my mom bought her dress a few weeks ago and it happened to be navy as well before I even made my final decision. Kayla found her dress yesterday at Nordstrom and Becca put one on hold. Missy knows what style she wants so it's just a matter of her finding it and Jess and Meghan still need to find dresses. I am very happy that this is getting accomplished. I also found a flower girl dress I loved for the girls! I need to take Rylee to try it on.

As for flowers, the girls will probably have bouquets of ivory flowers (maybe with some color, that is undetermined right now) and I will have a different one that I found a while ago that I loved...actually, a year ago! haha! Go with your gut about things you like. Navy and ivory...classy!

Changing back to navy also means I must switch the color of the overlays I am renting which was an easy decision...ivory! or champagne...I need to go look at the colors before deciding. My mom is in the process of gathering up all the lace she has so we can play around with them and see where we can use them at the lodge.

We are pretty sure the guys will be in a darker gray suit. Danny is throwing around just purchasing one rather than renting because in the end, the price ends up being pretty close and dark gray is a good color and a nice suit for everyone to own.

I already sent out our save the dates and I love how they turned out...I was very happy with them. Last night I happened to log on to the website where I bought the save the dates and found that all invites were 60% off!!! I have already ordered samples and they haven't arrived yet but since I ordered a sample a while ago and just messed up on the paper type, I know I like the invite, and as long as the paper is right I will like them completely. We added our own special unique touches to the invites and I really am happy with the design. It's a great website because you can really personalize the invites they just give you a base to go off of.  I am still in need of RSVP cards, rehearsal inserts, and a couple other inserts that my amazing and talented friend Becca is working on. She wanted to make my invites but I figured it's easier just to buy them for how good of a price I got...if I don't end up loving them they do money back guarantee and she will continue to make them for me.

I met with the lady doing our flowers and I was so happy to find out just how affordable she is making this for me because she is good friends with my godmother. I am so happy!

My bridal shower is a little over a month away...I can't wait! I can't believe it's almost here. It's all coming so fast. Kayla, Becca and my mom are planning it and I have no doubts that it will be nothing short of amazing and perfect.

Now that we are about 3 1/2 months away from our wedding I'm feeling confident in the decisions and things that are happening. Everything will be perfect. It has been easier to make decisions because I know I'm getting down to the wire. I am having an easier time envisioning things that I want and am going to make another trip up to the lodge hopefully next month so I can make a final long detailed list of things I need to do and bring up the lace to see where I am able to use it. I need to order my veil and go in for my alterations here soon which I am hoping won't be too costly...I'm excited for this day to be here...I'm excited for the stress of all the decisions to be done with...I'm excited to live a normal life after all the wedding planning that I've been doing for the past year...I can't wait for November 4th!