August 2015 Recap: Part 1

August has been a full month and now that it's almost over, it's time to recap the awesomeness that occurred this month before I forget it all! Warning: This is a long one!  In fact, I'm going to split it into two parts.

Awesome Adventure #1: Des Moines/Cascade
We were originally headed up to Des Moines to go to the Hinterland Music Festival, but the location moved to outside of the city and we were offered a refund if we didn't want to go.  We really wanted to have time to see Nick and Emily too, so we decided to skip the concert and just hang out in the city.  

We spent some time catching up with the Reeds and then Ryan and I had a date at Exile Brewery, which was really delicious food!  We also checked out Confluence Brewery which had a really fun atmosphere.  We sat and played cribbage while Ryan sampled a few beers.

When we got back to Nick and Emily's, we got in our cozy clothes and settled in for some Fibbage before bed.  In the morning, we headed over to Laura and Jason's new place in Ankeny for some delicious brunch.  Unfortunately, the only picture that I got for the whole Des Moines experience is this cute one of me and Laura, showing off our bumps!

After brunch, we drove to Cascade for a family camping day with my mom's side of the family.  This day was full of great food, awesome weather, lots of family time, paper lantern fun, and bags!

Awesome Adventure #2: Flaters Visit/Stolt's Wedding
On Friday, August 7th, Andy and Ashley got here just in time for us to head straight out to Le Claire for some fun.  We first went to the distillery to pick up some more of their awesome bourbon barrel-aged Boetje's mustard.  We stuck around for some samples as well...obviously, I only enjoyed the food samples, not the yummy drinks.  Then we went and put our name in for dinner and had a 45-minute wait, so we checked out the brewery in town: Green Tree Brewery.

We continued our fun, double-date night at Blue Iguana for some Mexican food and then headed to the village in Davenport to Brew for a final drink before heading home.

In the morning, we headed up to Chicago.  We met up with Nick and Emily for lunch in Libertyville before checking in to the hotel to get ready for the wedding.
After a little rest, it was time for the big party.  We got all prettied up and headed out to beautiful location for the wedding and reception!

This wedding was so much fun, I'm certain a recap can't possible describe it.  Let's just say we were spoiled with the most amazing appetizers, drink choices, dinner, and dessert spread.  We were overly satisfied and I'm not complaining!  At the end of the night, a hot dog cart even rolled out!  We had such a good time catching up with friends and dancing the night away.  Ryan and I left a pinch before everyone else, because this pregnant lady was tired at 12:30...but it was an awesome night!

On Sunday, Ryan and I stopped at IKEA to get the last thing we needed for the nursery and then made the boring drive home.

August Extras
The beginning of the month was also when I had my new teacher orientation for Bettendorf Schools.  It was so exciting to get started down my new career path.  I also spent a night babysitting little Kamelia, and loved every minute of it!

To be continued...

June 2015 Recap

June was a fun month and it flew by soooo quickly!  We went to Omaha, I started teaching Summer School, I interviewed for a job and accepted it, we had family visiting and I took my sister to an OB appointment on her birthday to hear little babe's heartbeat!

Omaha

Breakfast after accepting a teaching job!

Lots of Work on the Nursery!

Fathers Day Fun

Family Time

May 2015 Recap

May has been an exciting month for us!  The most exciting thing has been sharing the secret we had been keeping since March with our family and friends!  It was a joy to share the news in person at my parent's Mother's Day party since both my mom and dad's families were there.  We were also able to tell Ryan's grandma that morning at brunch. :)

The next weekend, we went to Chicago for Shae's wedding.  We enjoyed ourselves that evening at the beautiful Beverly Arts Center.  It was fun catching up with friends.  On the way home, we stopped at IKEA and picked out and purchased some nursery items.  Saturday night, we headed up to Dubuque for a dinner reception Ryan's grandma was being honored at.  Another great weekend in the books! 

The week of May 18th was when I finally had my post-first trimester OB appointment and as mentioned in a previous post, it was scary one at first!  But all is good.  I also have my first interview for a teaching job in the fall! It was not my best interview, but it was also not the best school, so I was glad to get the dreaded first interview out of the way.

That weekend, Ryan left for a bachelor party, so Emily, Alex, and I headed to Des Moines for a sibling weekend!  We left around noon, so when we got to Des Moines, we checked into our hotel and wandered around the neighborhood.  Then we got some swimming in at the hotel before grabbing dinner at Legend's and catching the Iowa Cubs game!  We ended the night with some more swimming, Alex's request. :)

The next morning, more swimming after breakfast (this time I passed), then we went to Trader Joe's and did some other shopping that morning.  We totally stopped at Buy Buy Baby and I found some great little Cyclone clothes for Baby H!  We took Alex to SkyZone so he could enjoy some trampoline fun and then we waited FOREVER for lunch/dinner at Zombie Burger.  

On Memorial Day, we spent the day swimming at Mom and Dad's.  This past week, I had another interview and have another scheduled for next week!  This weekend, we're doing more nursery painting (the doors and trim this time), I'm spending the afternoon with Hannah today, and I'm grabbing coffee with Steph tomorrow!  May was fun, looking forward to more fun in June!

Weekend Recap: October 24-26

Despite a gloomy drive on Friday, we ended up with some pretty rockin' weather for our annual fall weekend away!  Our weekend extended to two nights this year with my family renting a cabin "up north" the night before we were planning to go up with Ryan's family.  

We drove up to Marquette, Iowa on Friday afternoon with Emily and arrived at our amazing cabin with some daylight to spare!  Mom took some great pics while we still had light, then we moved inside for games and a steak dinner.  We ended the night with a fire and great conversation...it was wonderful.

On Saturday morning, Dad made a great breakfast and then Ryan and I headed out the door to meet his family for our annual outing!  Ryan spent the day fishing and I spent the day shopping with my mother-in-law and Ryan's godmother, Colleen.  We got to spend a little more time with my mom and sister too! :)

Saturday night, Ryan and I grabbed some dinner at Eddie's Irish Pub...even though the food ended up being great, we waited about an hour for it, so we didn't do much else Saturday night besides just relax.

Sunday morning, we ate some breakfast, stopped at Stark's to stock up on liquor (seriously, the best prices), and then grabbed a Bloody Mary with Ryan's momma before heading home.

As always, our weekend was wonderful and I am so grateful for my family and the beautiful country that we live in.  Life is good, we have it good, and I have so many things to be thankful for.  I am one lucky gal.

Weekend Recap: October 10-12

It's Monday...and I'm sick.  :(  I think I wore myself out this weekend!  Check out all of the fun I had:

Friday Highlights

• Field Trip on my sub day with 7th graders
• Lindsey came over after school for a catch up session
• My sis, bro, and I got some chinese for dinner
• I met Ali for a drink and then a Haunted House

Saturday Highlights

• Hugging Brooke over and over and over
• A wonderful turn out for B's baby shower
• Staying after the shower ended to catch up with B
• A great night at Aubry's wedding reception
• LOWLIGHT: Quickly losing $40 at Jumer's, ha!

Sunday Highlights

• Bears Win!
• Put my new bedding on my bed
• RELAXING

I need to try to relax a bit this week before another crazy weekend!  But as I've said in the past, all of this is worth it.  My friends and family mean the world to me so I want to celebrate with them as much as possible.  Next weekend, I'm looking forward to going to Jess' brother's wedding as her date!  It'll be a crazy time and I can't wait!  Just need to get healthy before then. :) Happy Monday!