2015!

2014 came and went so fast!  Let's recap: We kicked off 2014 with a trip to the mountains with friends.  We spent a day on the ski slopes before Tyler, myself and one of our friends all took turns with a stomach bug :( After we returned, Tyler's brother, Chris, came out for a visit.  We had an abnormally cold winter for North Carolina and had two 3-day stretches off because of roads covered in ice and no salt trucks.  Tyler and I checked the Duke vs. UNC basketball game off our bucket list - and it was such a great game to see!  In February, Tyler's dad and Suzanne came out for a visit.  In March we traveled to DC for a continuing education for Tyler and met up with my friend Amelia.  In April we headed to Atlanta for a weekend to spend with friends, Sara and Jasper, celebrated Tyler's birthday, I spend a fabulous weekend in Nashville celebrating Bente's bachelorette party, and we both traveled back to MN where Tyler attended a dental conference and celebrated Judd and Rask's bachelor parties and I soaked up family time and helped my sister prepare her nursery.  In May we had such a fun weekend with my brother and Jennifer on their visit and we traveled up the coast to the Outer Banks to celebrate our 3 year wedding anniversary.  The best part of 2014 was the birth of our sweet, adorable niece, Evelyn Rose.  In June we headed back to MN to celebrate Judd and Bente's wedding.  I stayed the week after to spend with my new niece and catch up with friends.  In July we found out we were expecting! I also made another trip back to MN to celebrate my friend, Alicia's wedding, soak up more Evie time, go wedding dress and bridesmaid dress shopping for my little sister's wedding (and luckily we found both!), and celebrated my grandma Rose's 80th birthday with a weekend camp out with my entire extended family.  In August we took another weekend trip to Atlanta and soaked up the NC beach time - Tyler was on the stand up paddle board surfing waves at least twice a week.  We also completed a lot of house projects - had our fence and window treatments installed, Tyler installed a back splash, made us a headboard and we finally have some pictures on our walls.  In September we celebrated my birthday and Tyler flew back to MN to celebrate his high school friend, Dustin's wedding and announce our pregnancy news to his family and friends!  My parents and both grandmas came to visit for a long weekend in October.  We got good news after a pregnancy scare and found out we are having a little girl ;)  Also in Oct., my high school friend, Sara, came for a visit.  In November, Tyler traveled back to MN to go hunting up north and we babymooned to Savannah, GA.  In December we kicked the baby prep into high gear and started our nursery, set up our estate plans and a trust, and life insurance, etc., and went back to MN yet again for Christmas and lots of baby showers!   What a great year.

2015! Yay! We spent the night on a dinner and movie date.  We are not really big into resolutions but instead decided to make goals for 2015.  Our goals for 2015 are: (1) read 12 (at least) books each, (2) workout 5x a week, (3) max our our Roth IRAs, (4) live in the present, (5) limit technology, (6) make more of an effort to avoid sugars and processed foods, (7) read to our daughter daily, (8) pay down 1/3 of our remaining student debt, (9) take more pictures and for me to learn how to use our nice camera and edit pictures, and (10) is some career goals for each of us.

We are so excited for all the adventures that await us this year.  Tyler has already traveled to Utah on a ski trip with his dad and some friends.  We are welcoming our baby girl into this world in a matter of days or weeks!  We have so many visitors lined up for the spring already and expect more in the fall.  We can't wait to return to Minnesota in May/June to celebrate Danielle and Aaron's wedding and Evie's first birthday.  We plan to fully take advantage of a relaxing beach summer.  We are also hoping to make a trip to the mountains, another trip up to the Outer Banks and at least one more trip to MN before Christmas.

Our Attempt at Maternity Pics

I felt like we should document my big bump so we ventured out on a warm February weekend with our camera and tripod.  Thank goodness for my oh so patient husband when his grouchy hormonal wife tried to direct a self-timer photo shoot.  We captured some good ones but of course Tyler is very selective in the pictures he chooses to edit.  Here are the ones that made the cut!

Home for Christmas

We had such a wonderful Christmas in Minnesota.  Even though we barely saw snow, we appreciated the 30 degree weather while we were there.  Last year for Christmas we were driving all over the place and spent the night at five different places in nine nights.  This year, we decided there was no way we were going to do that again and set up camp at my parents' house for the entire trip.  This doesn't mean that we still weren't crazy busy!  First, our second flight was delayed due to a medical issue with a passenger.  We ended up landing over an hour and a half late :(  My sister and her husband picked us up from the airport on their way back from a Christmas party.  We didn't get to bed until nearly 3:30am NC time.  I don't think we are going to be able to book those late flights anymore once the baby gets here.  I was so bad at taking pictures in Minnesota. Grr.

Saturday morning kicked off our busy trip with a baby shower thrown by my mom and aunts on both sides of the family.  It was very lovely and I am so lucky to have such a large, loving and close family!  They definitely make it hard to be living away.  For one of the games at the shower, I had to go through and say which physical features and characteristics I wanted to the baby to have from me vs. Tyler.  Some were pretty obvious but some were hard to pick.  When Tyler came back to my parents' house I gave him the list and asked him to do the same thing and he said exactly what I did for all of them except we each said the other's personality!

My momma and me <3

Note - no pictures with my hostesses and no pictures with my sisters :(  After the shower we had to make the long drive down to Worthington for Tyler's cousin's wedding.  Unfortunately, we didn't know about the wedding when we made all our other plans so we drove five plus hours round trip to be there for the dinner and beginning of the dance.  It is always great to see all the Yahnke extended family though!

Sunday morning I went up to the cities for a small shower with my law school friends. Again, HORRIBLE with pictures.  They had such a cute set up and it was so great to have the time to catch up with these girls.  When I got back to New Prague, my immediate family Christmas gathering had already began.  We had such a great day/night with them.  I love my family, love that my sisters are my best friends and love that our husbands (and husband to-be) and our brother are just as close!  My parents spoiled us with amazing food - shrimp scampi, crab legs, venison steak, twice baked potatoes, etc - and way too many gifts.  Such a fun year to get to watch our niece open her presents and interact with everyone.  Tyler and I couldn't get enough of her and we are so anxious for her to come out here and visit us at the end of March!  Danielle and Aaron didn't work on Monday so we stayed up way too late with them but we had so much fun!

She liked all her gifts!

 How adorable is this little family ;)

 Sisters

Luckily my mom always remembers to take a family picture.

 Our growing fam - first Christmas with Ev, new baby in March, wedding in June and another wedding in April 2016!

The girls

 

Monday morning we tried to sleep in a little before Tyler and I went and met his dad, cousin and her husband for lunch in Carver.  His cousin was in town from CA so it was nice to be able to see her again.  Monday night we met up with Tyler's mom and drove to Mankato to get dinner with the Olson extended family.  Tyler's grandma was so incredible generous and treated everyone to dinner.  We don't see this family enough so it was so great that so many of them could make it so last minute! 

Olson cousins

By Tuesday I was soooo tired and luckily had the morning to sleep in, work out and relax a little.  After getting ready we headed back up to the cities to check out the new Surly brewery.  Tyler is obsessed with Surly.  Danielle and Aaron joined us and we met up with Tyler's brothers and mom, some of Tyler's high school friends, and a dental school friend.  It was so much easier to tell everyone where we were going to be and have them all meet up with us vs. us having to drive all over to see everyone.  We ended the night back at Danielle and Aaron's apartment for a few more drinks for the boys.  I'm so glad we really prioritized spending time with family this trip because otherwise it goes too fast and we just miss them like crazy.

Christmas Eve we were able to relax in the morning again and wrap the rest of our presents for everyone.  We went to my grandma Busch's house for dinner and then to the night mass at St. Wenceslaus Church.  My dad sings in the adult choir and they are so good.  I always look forward to this mass every year. 

Christmas day - We went to my aunt and uncle's house for the Solheid family Christmas for lunch and then back to my grandma Busch's for the Busch side Christmas at dinner.  We love our big extended families.  Always so great to see everyone and fun gift exchanges.

 

With Grandma Rose

 

Love these two

Seriously can't get enough of this girl. Thank goodness for facetime. I wish I could see her every week.

Friday morning my mom and sisters and I went over to my aunt Tami's house for brunch.  This has been a tradition for years and I am so glad that we continue to keep it up even though the holidays get so crazy.  After, Tyler and I made our way up to St. Louis Park for Christmas with the immediate Yahnke family.  We had a delicious dinner and had so much fun playing games into the night.  We always laugh so much with our Yahnke family.  Tyler loves it because he has to work so hard to make me laugh and his family just thinks he is hilarious ;) Again, no pictures :(

Saturday morning I had my last baby shower of the trip with high school and college friends.  Amber Megan and Sara did an amazing job with hosting!  It was so great to see everyone and catch up with everyone but there is never enough time!  Tyler spent the day back at the brewery with my dad and brother, his dad and some more friends. Sadly, we had to start our packing after I got home.  That night, Tyler and I headed back over to Amber and Scott's house to visit a little before meeting up with some other friends for dinner and drinks.

Due 3 days apart!

My high school besties and fabulous hostesses

 

College friends and sophomore year roomies!

Auntie Kacie is already spoiling baby Y with clothes!

Sunday - my parents hosted my family again for a lunch before taking us to the airport.  Goodbyes are so hard but thank goodness our baby is going to be here soon because then most of our family will be coming out to see us!

 

Babymoon!

I needed a weekend away and we have been wanting to go to Savannah, GA so we decided to make the trip a babymoon :) We had such a wonderful weekend.  Traveling and exploring new places with that husband of mine is my favorite!  We left early Friday morning and arrived in Savannah around lunch time.  After checking into our hotel, we made our way to Zunzi's Express for lunch.  Yum!  

Live Oak trees EVERYWHERE ;)

Found this place on a blog and it did not disappoint.

Since it was our babymoon, I decided to splurge on lots of treats (good thing I did when I could because I later found out I had gestational diabetes).  After lunch we continued to walk around and explore and stopped at Leopold's for ice cream.

Savannah is so gorgeous!  Huge live oak trees and little parks lining every street and at every corner.  We made our way through the historic downtown and to river street.  I had to stop at River Street Sweets to get some of the famous pralines and bear claws for later.

 

 

 

 

We enjoyed a happy hour - loved my mocktail - at Rocks on the Roof at the Bohemian Hotel.  The views from the top were amazing.

That night we dined at The Olde Pink House Restaurant.  We read so many wonderful things about this place and it was also recommended to us but some friends and clients.  The restaurant had multiple rooms that you could eat in with different atmospheres.  We went down to the tavern that felt like a log cabin retreat.  It was dark and romantic.  We really enjoyed our experience here but in all honesty, didn't really think the food was as good as the price tag for it.

Saturday morning, we started in the opposite direction to explore.  We walked down Jones Street and wandered around Forsyth Park.  Other stops included checking out all of Savannah's squares (little parks every few blocks throughout the city), the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist and Lucas Theatre.  By lunch we were starving and tired of walking.  We ate at Kayak Cafe and LOVED our food.  I read about it on a blog prior to going and I am so glad I did because from the outside I wouldn't have thought it was anything special.
 

 

 

 

After lunch we made stops at the Coffee Fox and Goose Feather's Cafe for coffee and a cookie.  Next we browsed through the Paris Market and the City Market.  The City Market was a lot of fun with live music and lots of little shops.  We were able to catch the end of the Gopher football game at one of the bars there.  I was exhausted after walking all day so we made our way back to the hotel to rest and freshen up before going to check out the Distillery for their craft beers.  We ended the night with pizza from Vinnie Van Go Go's.

 

 

Sunday morning was rainy so we decided we wanted to get on the road earlier.  We ended our Savannah trip with a fabulous brunch at B. Matthew's Eatery.  So good!  We definitely enjoyed our weekend in Savannah.  It is a beautiful city to visit.

We already have so many trip ideas that we want to take this summer and fall so baby girl better be a good traveler!