August 2015 Recap: Part 2

...Let's continue the recap of my August adventures.  There is so much awesome to remember!

Maternity Photo Fun!
Mom wanted to practice taking some portraits, so we used the good weather and my current pregnant status to take some fun pics!  It was a good time, though I'll have to have a round two so Ryan can get in a couple!

Awesome Adventure #3: Indianapolis Road Trip
Having a small break between summer school and the beginning of the school year led to an opportunity to visit my bestie in Indiana!  I drove out to visit Brooke on a Tuesday and came home on a Thursday.  It was too short a visit, but it was also just what I needed before the school year began.

We enjoyed our time with Jack, lots of catching up, a fun trip downtown, and a nice girls only dinner on my last night.  It was the perfect end to my summer!

Awesome Adventure #4: Inservice/First Week of School

Ok, so this doesn't really seem like an "awesome" adventure...but for me, it sure was!  This August marked my very first beginning of the school year as a real full-time teacher!  I excitedly went to inservice each day, anxiously anticipating the first day of school with the students.

At this time, I don't really have any pictures from this fun time in my life, but hopefully I snap some with my amazing co-workers soon!  This time in my life has been so exciting, but also stressful.  It's all been worth it though, because I am finally following through with the dream of being teacher, a dream I've had since junior high and that I too easily set aside for several years.  But in retrospect, this is the perfect time in my life to begin this career, as I think I've finally reached a point that while it's stressful, I can truly enjoy it and handle the workload a first-year teacher has.  

Yes, it's inconvenient to have to take maternity leave during the first semester of my first year of teaching...but I already know that it will be so much easier to return to a job that I love after my baby girl is born.

More August Extras:

Sometimes, I really slack at taking pictures.  August wrapped up with a dinner out at Alli's parent's house...a mini reunion of high school best friends.  So lovely to see my long-time girl friends, as always.  I also spent an evening baking and watching movies with Hannah!  We enjoyed a day up in La Porte City visiting family and attending yet another family reunion.  I went to my first high school football game at Bettendorf, wearing the black and gold of the Bulldogs.  It was a fun time, though I felt like a traitor the whole time, lol!

September has already started out with excitement, so this month's recap will be a great one too, hopefully with more pictures!  I also need to try to take more bump pictures...I've totally been slacking!  That, and I plan to post another pregnancy update soon. :)

I hope you all have an amazing Labor Day weekend!

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!

Cute Baby!

I plan to try catching up again soon, but I can't make any promises. Grad school has started, I still work every day, I tutor 3 nights a week...but I WILL try!  In the meantime though, I wanted to share some pictures of the beautiful Charlie.  She was a joy to spend time with a couple of weeks ago when we visited Alli and Paul in Madison.  We even got to babysit for a few hours and we had so much fun!

Can't wait to see this little peanut, and her family again soon!