Thanksgiving 2012

We spent Thanksgiving in Iowa with the Collman family this year.

I got up an extra bit early in order to throw together a quick Pinterest project – acorns made out of kisses, Nutter Butters and chocolate chips…

We ventured down to the grand stretch of 35 to Iowa – which was actually a pretty nice drive this year considering there was no snow to be seen for miles! After my obligatory stop at the outlet mall in Southern Minnesota, we made it to Des Moines where we ate dinner with mom & dad and Kyle (who had just flown in from Ohio). We dined at Machine Shed – which was a first for me (although we do have one here in the metro).

On Thanksgiving morning, we piled into the car and headed south to Honey Creek Resort for Thanksgiving dinner with Jay & Hope and the nieces/nephew. It was a crazy busy place – but a nice feel, good food and fun family! And a canoe full of food!

We all spent a couple nights at mom & dad’s – complete with lots of God’s eye-making (crafts) with Elisabeth & Levia (pictured above, respectively), a birthday party for Audriana (Lots of Hello Kitty!), Scrabble, Bananagrams and Chex Mix.

It’s always good to catch up with family and spend time being thankful for all we have.

Elliott Mary Downer

She’s here!

Our friends, Brittany & Burke, have welcome (well – we did too!) their first baby – a girl!

We’ve long awaited her arrival – and even spent some time in the hospital with them before she was born…we’re so excited to see her!

She’s a redhead, healthy and doing well!

(5 weeks old)

Nick is 32!

Nick turned 32 this month and he’s always fun to celebrate!

We started the day with the annual beef stick arrangement – this time on top a “cake” of his favorite beer!

He unwrapped his gift from me – a new coat…nehru style (which he’d been talking about for months)…

And we headed to dinner at Porter & Frye – a restaurant in the Hotel Ivy in downtown Minneapolis.

…complete with apple cheesecake with candied bacon for dessert!

Then, when we got home – and had more dessert, ha! I had ordered a birthday cake of a flavor I had at a wedding this summer that I KNEW Nick would love! So we joined our roommates – Eric & Laura – and had a slice of this banana cake with caramel mousse and chocolate ganache filling…YUM!

Happy 32nd Birthday, Nick!

Minnesota Brass 2012

Many of you know that Minnesota Brass is what brought Nick and I together – and drum corps is something we love to enjoy together. Neither of us have marched since we began dating in the summer of 2008, but Nick decided to jump back into it this year and join the horn line for the 2012 season.

It was so fun watching him “return to the mother ship” (he’s marched MBI a total of 10 years now!) and I was definitely a proud wife watching him challenge himself with this tough show and be the best he can be for such a fun production!

Minnesota Brass 2012 presented “Bonnie & Clyde”…

“Bonnie and Clyde is the type of gritty storytelling that we love to bring to the drum corps audience,” said Program Coordinator Joel Matuzak. “It is the perfect vehicle for Minnesota Brass to continue to perform sophisticated shows that are passionate, entertaining and accessible.”

The show will tell the story of two depression-era lovers who chose a life of crime and paid the ultimate price for it. Their doomed love was set against the backdrop of 1930’s jazz.

George Gershwin’s “Summertime” from Porgy and Bess will open the show and remain a theme throughout for the doomed love of the rogue couple. The classic Duke Ellington tune, “It Don’t Mean a Thing if It Ain’t Got That Swing” will be a brass feature. The love of Bonnie and Clyde will be expressed in Lady Gaga’s recent hit “Speechless.” The final act will be based on Samuel Barber’s “Medea’s Dance of Vengence.”

The corps competed hard all summer long and ended out the season by placing 2nd at the Drum Corps Associates world championships at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, MD.

Baby Shower

Our good friends Brittany and Burke are about to have their first baby in November!!

We’re absolutely thrilled for them, so naturally – I threw a baby shower for the mom-to-beeeeee!

I rented a bed & breakfast on Como Lake in St. Paul – and it was a perfect place for the get-together.

With Brittany and Burke and Baby to work with (and not knowing the gender!) – I decided to go with a bee theme…

Maple Grove Fro-Yo Tasting, Take 2

Fro Yo Information: Take 2

We were eating dinner another random night and I had the idea to go to frozen yogurt place #2. Oddly enough, we were eating dinner at the same restaurant that we had the night we decided to go to the first fro-yo joint. Hmm…maybe mexican makes me crave fro-yo? Anywho…

Tonight we ventured to main street Maple Grove to Tutti Frutti.

As soon as we walked into the store, I immediately felt relief that this fro-yo shop was much easier on my eyes and it wasn’t some sort of industry standard to have loud, obnoxiousness furniture and colors like the first place. Whew. I quite enjoyed the atmosphere – but I could have still been on a great high from hearing “throwback to the 90’s” music in the car on the way there. Although it was obvious that the place was hopping and popular…the crowd was kinda annoying to me us (to be fair, it was a Friday night). They had ample seating inside, but the crowd spilled outside to some tables/chairs there. We eventually ended up on a bench along Main Street due to not wanting to be around all the high schoolers – but that’s OK.

We didn’t receive the same sort of one-on-one attention that we did at Cherry Berry, but since we’re seasoned pros at this point, we got right on with it. Before getting into line, we were pleasantly surprised to see a “flavor of the day” board that also included “employee favorites” – which I can always appreciate! Additionally, Nick’s interest was piqued when he saw that one flavor of the day was SOY frozen yogurt! Ta-da!

The frozen yogurt flavor options seemed a bit fewer than #1 – but I didn’t mind since I was immediately drawn towards the salted caramel “pump.” I filled up with just that flavor, while Nick did half red velvet and half coffee. The toppings were not as expansive – but again, I was OK with that since all I wanted was some chocolate chips, peanut m&ms (addmittadly, not to go with the yogurt, but just because I love them. :)) and – as a big surprise – pieces of waffle cone! I LOVE waffle cones, so I got pretty stoked about this and piled them on. Nick added mini chocolate chips to his coffee and cheesecake bites to his red velvet – how appropriate. We paid, noticed that they also sell bigger portions to take home and got to tasting.

We both concluded that we enjoyed the overall experience here better than #1, and although the options were fewer – they still contained ones that would keep us coming back. All flavors and toppings were to our liking and we were happy campers.

Tutti Frutti
ambiance: easy-going
toppings: good variety, including some personal favs
flavor variety: satisfactory
customer service: OK
price: (nick, do you remember??)

Mr & Mrs Hudson!

Nick & I were very excited to be a part of Maddy & Brent’s (friends from church) wedding last weekend!

With all the weddings I go to for Bride Support, I LOVE going to weddings with my husband. It’s so nice to actually listen to the message, be able to relate and understand and feel like I’m getting a “marriage reboot” from witnessing a fresh marriage beginning. It’s nice not to have to “work” the whole time, and instead enjoy the romance that a wedding day brings with my favorite man.

I did work a little at this wedding since they got married at our church. I’m beginning to learn the ropes of being the ceremony coordinator there in order to help out the staff in that area. So I shadowed the current coordinator and did what I could for my friends on this special day. Maddy & Brent added some cute, unique elements to their day including the coolest unity candle I’ve ever seen (it had their initials “carved” into the wood-like material), a variety of flowers decorating the stage at the church, an officiant who was a friend, instructing guests to share stories instead of klinking their glasses and a lively band! It was a beautiful day, full of love – and we’re glad we got to be a part of it!

Congratulations, Maddy & Brent!

I Pinned It So I Did It

This post is long overdue – but in order to prove that I actually did a project I pinned on Pinterest, it’s necessary.

You can see the original pin here – a Dollar Tree version of Williams Sonoma hurricane vases.

I used these in my autumn decor at home and also for an event at church.

I bought all the necessary items, as suggested, at Dollar Tree – candle stick holders, pillar candles and tall vases….

I hot glued the candlestick holder to the bottom of the vase and inserted the candle. I didn’t feel the need to glue the candle into the vase, as it was heavy enough to stay put and I thought I might want to use the vase separately in the future – so I didn’t want to make that not an option.

Then, for autumnal purposes – I put some leaves in between the vase and candle to make it official. I figured I could do this with lots of different things for different seasons. Actually, come to think of it – I put fake snow in there for Christmas time, I just don’t have a picture of it. 🙂

Here’s the same idea with coffee beans for the church function…

 

So hooray – my first Pinterest project realized! 🙂

What have you actually accomplished from the Pinterest inspiration overload? Or do you just pin away and hardly ever get to anything – like me?

New Nephews!

We’re SO excited to have welcomed two nephews into the family in the last month! Praise the Lord for new life!

Nick’s brother, Mike, and his wife Katherine added Andrew Michael to their family on April 13th. Sisters Elizabeth (6) and Emily (4) welcomed him home…

(Emily, Andrew and Elizabeth)

AND

My brother, Jay, and his wife Hope added Daniel Wesley to their family on May 12th. Sisters Elisabeth (7), Levia (4) and Audriana (2) welcomed him…

(Levia, Daniel, Hope, Audriana, Jay, Elisabeth)

(My mom and Daniel)

Maple Grove Fro-Yo Tasting, Take 1

Fro Yo Information: Take 1
(Yes, that was Nick that came up with that one.)

So in the last 3 months or so, we’ve noticed 3 new frozen yogurt stores have opened in Maple Grove. That would make a total count of 4 – if you include the frozen yogurt sold at Leann Chin’s. 🙂 Anywho – being as neither Nick or myself have ever been to one of these new-fangled frozen yogurt bar places (I think the last time I had frozen yogurt was at TCBY when I was like 10), we thought we’d give them all a try and find our favorite. Won’t you come along with us?

First up – Cherry Berry.

This place was a little harsh on the eyes at first. With mod, futuristic-type furniture in neon green and red, I was a little scared to go further. We parked in the back due to the set-up of the stores in that part of town – but walked to the front door…only to find that the proper way to start the yogurt process is to go to the back of the store. Kinda awkward. Anyway. One of the high school kids working there gave us some sample cups and showed us how to do this crazy thing. There were 14 yogurt flavor options ranging from vanilla to red velvet to espresso. As if those weren’t enough options, you could also do a blend of 2 each set of two flavors that were set-up next to each other. For instance, strawberry or cheesecake or combined. Then – there were the toppings…candy, nuts, syrups, and on and on and on. There must’ve been 12 options plus another station of candy and misc.

Nick and I both grabbed the smaller size of the cups and got right to it. I chose cheesecake and put crushed graham crackers on it (original, I know). Then got crazy and added some chocolate covered raisins. Nick did half of his cup with vanilla and half with strawberry yogurt and then added oreos and crunch coat to his vanilla and strawberry bobas (the bubble tea thingies) to his strawberry yogurt. We paid and sat down to have at it.

Fro yo is definitely a nice, different treat – but frankly, I’m not sure that all the toppings are my style. I’m just too plain Jane for that type of stuff. Nick likes trying different combos though – so he’s into it. It was also entertaining watching an 8-year-old try to decide what he wanted, so there’s that.

The best part of the trip for Nick was the crunch coat. He LOVES crunch coat. I often make fun of him because he orders his DQ ice cream cones with crunch coat – even though it’s not on the menu. It’s like a secret thing that only certain people know of. Weird.

The best part of the experience for me was running into an old college friend from Northwestern. I haven’t seen her since my days at NWC, but due to the wonders of FB – we both knew what we were both up to. Fun to see her and her husband though!

So the first MG fro-yo place is under our belts. Now on to the next…

Cherry Berry
ambiance: so-so
toppings: sufficient and comprehensive
flavor variety: extensive
customer service: OK
price: 45 cents/ounce