A Little of Everything

Another great week but when the highlight of my days was making banana bread muffins I think it is time to start work! 

Before and after 

Other highlights included a birthday dinner with my sister, Stacy, and cousin, Lynn, at the Valley Tap House in Apple Valley and book club - even though we only talked about the book for about 5 minutes - with my law school girlfriends.  Tyler is busy studying lately but he managed to find some time to go on a long bike ride with me.  We went west down the greenway path and loved seeing all the trees.  I wish we would have remembered our camera! 

We spent all day and night on Saturday out on Lake Minnetonka - I regretted not checking the weather beforehand and roasted out in the sun!  Such a perfect fall day for a boat ride :) We spent time with Tyler's grandparents, who are on their way back to Texas this week and won't be back until next Summer, and Tyler's cousin Jeff, his wife, and their three kids.  Tyler brought his camera and took some good shots so enjoy - 

This morning I went to my friend Kayla's bridal shower and then spent the rest of the day in New Prague with my parents.  My mom spent all afternoon (and still working on it tonight) hemming my pants for me before I start work ;)  I assisted her with what I could help with and my dad made us a great dinner and did all the clean up.  Luckily for Tyler, my parents always send a plate home for him. 

 Hard at work :) 

 All the pants 

Tyler studied all day today but somehow managed to take a break to go buy a tree stand for hunting.  Hmmm.... I remember telling him that would be a good item for his christmas list ;)  I couldn't find him tonight and went outside to find this...

so I tested it out! 

Full Week of Fun

Although I am off during the days, I have stayed really busy at night!  Last week we had more catching up with friends and some great nights out.  

Tyler's paternal grandparents live in Texas and are here during the summers so we planned a dinner out with them to spend some time with them before they make the trip back.  Luckily, Tyler's other grandma was also in town so she and Renee were able to join us.  I wanted to try a new restaurant in the middle so Tyler picked Woody's off of 494.  The food was great and we had a great time!

 My mother-in-law :)

 Tyler and his grandparents 

The next night was my delayed birthday celebration with Tyler.  He had booked us tickets to Cirque Du Soleil - Dralion.  We had a gift card to the restaurant Crave so we went and had a nice dinner there before the show.  We had seen another Cirque Du Soleil show a few years ago so I was worried that I would be comparing the two the whole time, but both Tyler and I LOVED the show.  I didn't take any pictures there so I found a few online that show some of the acts that we saw.

These made me nervous because there was no net below

On Thursday night, Thompson Square was at Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill.  I have not been to a concert in forever so I was excited for them and to see them up close! 

 Me with Kinz during the opening band 

 Tyler and I 

They were amazing and great performers.  Their second album is coming out soon so they played a lot of their new songs for us!  Here are a few pictures...

 "Are you gonna kiss me or not"

And on to the weekend - Tyler's good friend works for a hunting company that owns some land in Elk River and Tyler was fortunate enough to be a "guest" this weekend for bow hunting.  He went out Friday night, Sat. all day and night and Sunday morning so I was all on my own for the weekend.  On Friday night, a bunch of my high school friends met up in the cities to celebrate Amber's golden birthday by going on a peddle pub.  Some people thought it would be fun to have a theme so we were all supposed to wear fun hats.  Tyler and I ran the warrior dash last summer so we had some "warrior" hats that I pulled out for the occasion.

 Stepka and I before heading out

Birthday girl

Megan and I

Megan wanted to act like bulls when we had these hats on and we accidentally hit heads really hard ;) 

 View from the back - Scott bartending in the middle 

We had 16 people in our group and there were only 10 peddles so instead of people getting tired, we had to take turns on who got to peddle.  I peddle the first shift and was fine sitting in the back for the next two ;)  We had the peddle pub for 2 hours.  We started in the Warehouse district and peddled to Northeast until we arrived at Otters.  We had 20 minutes to go inside and get some drinks and then jumped back on and headed downtown to our second and last stop at Kieran's. 

Megan, me and Sara 

 Stepka (with food in her mouth), me and Troy on the "princess bench"

 The girls in our hats 

 The whole gang - the girls definitely did better in the hat category 

After, we all went to Stadium Village (I didn't know they had one downtown) for a free pizza and some drinks before heading to Pour House.  

 Amber and I - turning 26 on the 26th!

I was so excited on Saturday to finally not have a wedding! Yay! A Saturday all to myself to do whatever I wanted - which happened to be NOTHING!  I had planned to go tailgate and go to the Gopher game by opted against that to have a movie night on my couch.  Sara stopped by to pick up her bag and she ended up staying and chatting for four hours! ha Afterwards, I ran and picked up some food and movies before Stepka came over for the night.  We watched 'The Lucky One' and I joked that watching love scenes with her is like watching them with my parents.  She gets all squirmish and makes awkward comments ;) 

Sunday morning I met Stepka for church and then came home to cheer on the Vikings. Yay!  Gophers and Vikings wins this weekend!  Tyler finally was done hunting so I recruited him to go grocery shopping and do a Target run with me.  He has been seeing tons of deer and even some bucks so he is having fun and waiting to get a good shot...I'm hoping it is soon so we can get some meat in our freezer and he can be DONE with hunting for awhile!  Sunday night, my friend, Sara (the one that is still visiting from Europe), and I went to Kacie's condo to hang out for the evening.  What a fabulous weekend with friends :)  

Today I FINALLY finished the photo book I created from our wedding (16 months ago) that is a gift to our parents.  I spend around 18 hours on it and ordered one for myself too so I can't wait to get them in the mail!  

Staying Busy

I'm still enjoying my time off before starting work but am in serious need of my first few paychecks!  Tyler and I have been staying busy with weddings, catching up with friends, and Tyler's clinic.  Tyler also just signed up to take his part II national boards in early November so his studying is just beginning.  

Last Monday, Tyler and I went to our friends' house to meet their new puppy and grill out.  Megan and Ryan live about 20 minutes away and I have not been to their house in over a year! (BAD friend!)  Luna is a black lab and was born on the 4th of July.  She is full of energy and Tyler and I couldn't get enough of her :)  I cannot wait until we can get a puppy of our own, but until then I will have to get my fill with Luna.

I stole this picture from Megan

Tuesday, I headed to New Prague to finally clean out my old bedroom so my mom can redo the room.  I think I had 2 large bags full of garbage, 3 bags for the epilepsy drive, 2 bins to store, and 3 bags/bins of stuff I brought home with me.  I have such a hard time getting rid of things but am in serious need of downsizing as much as possible.  I plan to spend a few days going through everything at our house before starting work and am hoping for similar success :)   What else have we been up to?  My friend, Sara, stopped by and spent the day with me on Wed. after doing a long training run for her upcoming marathon.  Tyler was busy getting ready to start bow hunting and we watched football and packed for the weekend.  Friday was Tyler's last day at the Native American Clinic off of Franklin so I went and met him for lunch to see where he had been working and to eat at the Franklin Street Bakery that Tyler had come to love.  I had the most AMAZING cookie so we will for sure be going back there in the future!

When Tyler got home on Friday, we headed straight to New Prague for the town's annual Czech festival, Dozinky Days.  On Friday night, the entire main street is blocked off and is full of people.  You can also bring your own alcohol with you so we didn't have to fight the crowds in the bars.  We started out at my friend, Kayla's house where all of my high school friends met before walking downtown.  Such a fun night!  Unfortunately, I barely took any pictures of the night so I only have pictures from one point when I took my camera out.  I lost Tyler for a good 3 hours and spent most of that time walking around with my little sister, Danielle.

Picture of all the people on main street (I stole this from facebook)

 Me, aunt Sandy, uncle Joe, and Danielle 

 Sisters...

 Sisters :) 

Me and my dad! Thanks for buying me cheese curds :)  

At the end of the night, we all walked back to my parent's house where my mom and dad made us all pizza.  The next morning, Tyler and I tried to sleep in before getting ready and hitting the road for ANOTHER wedding.  I was a little bummed we had to miss Saturdays festivities - parade, softball tournie, pork and dumplings, etc. - but there will always be next year.  The wedding was in Tracy, MN (2 hrs and 45 minutes away from New Prague).  Stef is a college friend of mine.  I actually met her working at a law firm and she was a roommate of my friend Kate.  Once again, I was horrible at taking pictures and when I did take them, I had my camera on a weird setting so they didn't turn out the best.

College friends with the gorgeous bride

On Sunday morning, Tyler and I woke up early and headed back to NP.  Tyler dropped me off at my parents's house and then left for Kenyon, MN to go bow hunting (for deer) with some dental school friends.  He saw one buck but didn't get a shot and wanted to wait for a bigger one since the season is just beginning.  I ended up going to meet my parents at the softball fields to watch my brother's team play.  Brandon's team - class of 2003 - ended up winning the tournament for the first time ever so I was glad I went! 

Brandon is in the green (back row, third from the left) 

After the game, my parents made a fabulous dinner for Tyler and I and my brother and his girlfriend.  We have another busy week ahead of us but I am looking forward to some less eventful weekends coming up!