Woo hoo it's Wednesday!

It's Weekly Update Time!  And today's feature is....our getaway this last weekend to the lovely city of Duluth, MN!  We had a fabulous time - it was a super nice B and B we stayed in.  It's called Cotton Mansion.  It's tucked away in a neighborhood up on the hill and away from the less tourist-y area of Canal Park, I liked that it was a little more secluded.  The food was fantastic, our room was nice, I would totally do it again!  Below are some pictures that highlight our stay.

The bed was comfy, it takes up most of the room and it smelled like lavender

We had a fireplace!  Wish we had one in our own home!

Took a side trip to Gooseberry Falls State Park, aka, one of my favorite places in MN!

Nice self portrait of the two of us!

We visited Gooseberry Falls and we also tried some delicious smoked trout and cheese and ate at Fitgers too.  Couldn't have planned a better getaway.  Seriously awesome.  I would like to try some other B and B's now too.

Now we're into Holy Week which isn't nearly as packed as me as it used to be when we were at IC.  I'm going to the Good Friday service by choice, but that's about it for Holy Week this year.  Sunday we are doing Easter Mass with Praise Project at St. Tim's and then having dinner with my parents and celebrating my mom's birthday.  We'll do Easter with Nate's family the following Sunday on Russian Easter.  I'm glad we're continuing that tradition in his grandpa's honor.

That's the latest and greatest.  Things are kind of quiet besides Easter coming up here and you know what, that is ok with me!!

Christmas Rewind

It's already several days past Christmas and I have yet to come on and give my Christmas recap! I have been thoroughly enjoying time away from work this week and a big part of that is actually time away from my computer, which means I'm not blogging much! Anyway, let's go ahead and back the train up to Christmas weekend, because it twas a good one.

My vacation started on the day before Christmas Eve, I took Friday off of work to get all my last minute things finished. I met up with two of my good friends/sorority sisters for a little brunch. It was nice to visit with them before one of them has a newborn again (come on Baby Wilkinson, we're ready to meet you!) and start off the holidays. I went home after hanging out with them for a bit and finished wrapping all of my Christmas gifts. It only took me an hour, I was happy about that! We had a final rehearsal with Praise Project in the evening and were home in time to unwind with a couple of TV shows.

Christmas Eve we slept in a bit, though I did meet my parents for Christmas Eve Coffee! I came home and braved the store to grab a last minute gift for Nate's Grandma Dolly. It wasn't that bad, I have never done that on Christmas Eve before. Probably helps that I didn't go to the mall, I went to a Kohls outside of a mall.

After that I headed home again where Nate was done wrapping all his gifts and we went to get some lunch. We came home and exchanged gifts. He gave me the newest stuffed Kermit that goes with the new movie - he's cute - along with a CD and a couple of pretty things to sleep in - and get your mind out of the gutters, they are practical and really comfy. I don't know the last time I bought myself new pj's, so it was kind of a treat! I gave him a couple of CDs and we're going to go to a glass blowing class together where we'll get to make our own beer glass! And we'll get to taste some local beer too! It should be fun.
We then set about making a green bean dish to bring to Nate's parents for dinner and then went over to their house to celebrate with them. We had SO. MUCH. FOOD. It was super good though. After dinner was our annual "sit by the real fire while the yule log plays on TV."


I took a picture to show what big nerds we are. Everyone says this tradition is all my doing, but in truth I think we all get a kick out of it, not just me! We noshed on some cookies that Ali made and then opened our stockings and our presents. Many nice gifts and it was a nice relaxing evening.

Christmas Day we had to get up way too early to do Christmas Mass with Praise Project out in Blaine. I am glad we get asked to do it, but man, 8:30 was tough to get up for this year! But, then we were done nice and early and headed over to my parents house to exchange gifts with them. My mom made us a nice spread for breakfast too.

We had a little time then to run home, change clothes and catch our breaths for a little bit before heading to my Aunt Michelle's in Uptown. We had a lovely dinner there and it was nice to see my mom's extended family as we don't see many of them throughout the year. It was so nice outside, we even went and caroled at a couple of her neighbor's houses, I have to say, it was on my bucket list to do that, so I'm glad we had the opportunity. We played the Dice Game and a couple of other games before Nate and I decided to head home so we could stop at his grandparents real quick to say hello to his family. We ended up over there a little longer than I planned, but I'm glad we went, it was nice to see all of them as well!

So it seems that we did a ton over the two days, but we were really relaxed and kind of on our own schedule. In years past I have felt so crazed by all the places we try to go, but this was really not bad.

Monday Nate was off too, so we slept in a bit, went to Caribou together and over to the gun range. I ended up not shooting with him because there were just far too many people there that day, it was overwhelming and my noise phobia got the better of me. I have come a long way with it but I'm far from perfect. At least I have a Smartphone now that kept me company while he was out in the range! After that we came home and both just vegged for awhile and then we went and had a nice dinner out because we haven't done so in quite a while!

Now I'm just enjoying being a "stay at home wife" for the rest of the week. I wish Nate was here with me, but I'm glad to have the time off. Did some after Christmas sale shopping yesterday and also reorganized my linen closet. I will be going to a movie with Miss Jes tonight and to dinner with Miss Gina tomorrow, so it will be nice to catch up with them. Tomorrow I will have lunch with my mom, two of my favorite aunties and my cousin - did that last year and it was nice so we decided to do it again. Friday I have no plans, might just watch movies all day and then I think Nate and I will grill for dinner.

So there you go. I feel blessed and my heart is happy. You can't ask for more than that for Christmas.

Before the week is out I'll do my annual year in review. And then I should be back to more regular blogging next week.

Hope you all had wonderful Christmases and are enjoying your week whether you're off or at work!

Fabulous Friday 9/16

Hello friends.  Your regularly scheduled Fabulous Friday post has been cancelled for the week because your author is likely sitting by a bonfire or in a hot tub right now drinking a beer or a glass of wine and enjoying a little "away from it all" time up in the North country.

Fabulous Friday will return next week.

Have a great weekend.

You know that feeling...

...that you get when you are going on a little trip, even when it is just a couple of days worth and you have a list a mile long of things to do including packing, cleaning up your house a bit for the person caring for your cats, running errands, making corn bread to take with you to eat with your dad's chili, and brewing up a batch of beer because if you don't by tonight it won't be ready for the Oktoberfest party you're having in a few weeks and you want to have a packed bar so you really need to do it?

Yep.  That.

(P.S. I decided to take the afternoon off.)

St. Louis recap

We had a really nice time down in St. Louis (see previous post for some pictures). I am very glad we had a chance to go down and spend time with the relatives there that we just don't get to see because of the miles that separate us!

I could thousands of words about the entire trip, but instead will just recap it this way:

We visited the Arch, the Budweiser Brewery and a winery called Mount Pleasant in Augusta. We also took a mini road trip out to Illinois to go boating and hang out on a beach there. We also got to go to a Cardinals game one evening. And we celebrated two graduations and a birthday while we were there. Overall, a good time had by all, even though it was more or less in the upper 90's and even into the 100's the whole time we were there!

There were also moments that led to us joking by the end of the week that it was "Murphy's Law" vacation at times too. Out of respect for my family I won't divulge much on that, but let me just say that each of the five of us MN peeps had one not so pleasant experience while on the trip. I totally believe we'll look back and laugh later though!

I'm glad to be home at any rate and looking forward to the rest of the summer being a little bit calmer. I'm still not loving summer any longer and definitely am ready for Fall and am not minding that the calendar says "August 1st" today, because that means we're inching closer to my favorite season of all time!

Our STL Trip in Pictures

Leave it all behind

In less than 24 hours I'll be in a car going south. And yes, it will be extremely warm where we're going but we'll deal with it.

I'm really looking forward to our trip, we haven't seen the relatives we are going to see since our wedding five years ago. Plus, St. Louis is a fun city to explore.

It's also nice to just get away from it all, shake it up a bit.

I'm sure I'll have stories to share when we return! As Tigger would say, TTFN, ta ta for now!