The Great Minnesota Get Together

Hi guys!

Thanks for all of the support with moving and everything! It feels good to finally take a break and sit down! Oofta it was a busy weekend!

I'd have to say, the one thing I will miss the most about my old place is the view! Well, and Sanity Island...

My favorite month is almost here!

However, our new house features a brighter kitchen (yeah blogging benefits!) and I can't wait to be able to shoot things inside rather than have everything be out on the deck. Especially now that cooler weather is on its way!

Blogging While Moving
Right now I'm blogging at 9:30pm from the couch of my old condo. Empty boxes are everywhere. My fridge is completely empty except for 5 eggs, one slice of cheese, sour cream, and half and half.

As for our new place, everything is still in the boxes--sitting all over the dining room, living room, staircase, kitchen counters, and bedrooms. Awesome.

I hope I can find my toothbrush in the morning.

And so...back to where I left off. It's now 9:32pm and I'm making sweet potato fries in the oven while I just realized all of my potholders are at the new house. This is going to be interesting.

MN State Fair
This past weekend, we went to the Minnesota State Fair with Andy's brother and his wife, along with two of their friends. The day was perfect weather and it was really fun to spend time with Tory and Casey, plus two new friends--Becky and Matt!

However, let me tell you one little secret.

I don't like the fair.

I bring my own food to the fair just in case

In fact, I never went to the fair until my freshman year of college, and it poured the whole time I was there. I don't do well with crowds, humidity, and spending boatloads of cash on unhealthy food. And that, my friends, basically sums up the fair. Andy, on the other hand, loves the fair.

(source)

And, I love Andy a million times more than I dislike the fair, so every year I go with him because let's face it...he does a LOT for me. Like helping me move, staying up late to help me finish things, and doing things that he probably doesn't want to do, such as watching movies like "The Last Song" with Miley Cyrus.

I don't know why, but the phrase "unlimited milk" makes me gag. I feel like drinking unlimited milk would just make me feel so sick...

However, the Minnesota State Fair is the thing to do here. Everyone talks about it all summer long. Every radio station broadcasts at the fair for the entire 12 days. The end of August revolves around Sweet Martha's cookies and all the milk you can drink.

Browsing through the new IKEA catalog for decorating ideas.

So, to get my day off to a good start, I hit up the gym before the fair festivities. It felt great to get an intense strength-training session in before heading to the fairgrounds.

My gym just put in a brand new water fountain that has a spot to fill your waterbottle rather than trying to aim the stream of water into your bottle. 

The little yellow screen in the upper right hand corner shows how much water is saved or something. Pretty high tech!

As soon as we got to the fair, I actually had a lot of fun and was glad I went. There are always tons of new things to see and lots of foods to try!

Right when we walked through the gate, we came across a booth for Ocean Spray. I sampled a fizzy cranberry juice and a cranberry + lime juice--both were really good! 

The "bog" from the commercials. Naturally, I picked out a cranberry to see what they really looked like.

First food item for our group--mini donuts! 

I'm not a fan of mini donuts, so I passed on these--saving room for other things!

However, I was totally amused by the little conveyor belt that these little guys were cooked on. They all scooted up the belt and into the bags! 

Funky new fireplaces on display

Then, we stumbled across Mr. Bubble's 50th birthday party! 

They had this huge bubble blaster that shot out tons of foamy bubbles for kids to play in.

I bet the parents loved walking around the fair with their sticky, sudsy children after this romp through the bubbles...

Next up...some sweet new cars! We signed up to win a new one...cross your fingers!

Ohhh yeah!

Aren't these the cutest things ever? I want the little lollipop girl to come home with me

Awww

They had an area that was covered in bits of tire pieces that you could walk on. I tried jumping on it but it wasn't very bouncy. Killjoy. Andy somehow lost a leg in the process...

The trolley! Whenever I see these, I always think of Mr. Rogers!

CUTEST exhibit ever. Last year I made Andy go in it with me; however, since we were with friends this year, I just took pictures from the outside instead.

Pick me!

And now onto some fair day eats:

Andy's favorite--cheese curds!

Frozen grapes--these were so good!

Smurf flavored gelato! We didn't get this but I found it pretty funny.

My veggie sub for lunch

Fresh, juicy pineapple

Andy's pina colada! It was so good! My pineapple in the photo above actually came from the guts of his drink!

It's always fun to try new things at the fair since many of the items can only be found there once a year. 

Alright, off to work, then unpacking and hopefully moving some furniture tonight! 

Do you like fairs?

Ever tried frozen grapes? If not, what's your favorite frozen fruit?

What would be your dream car? 

Seventeen Point Six

Good morning and happy Monday!

This weekend flew by super fast! We sent out our invitations and we are so excited to find out who can make it to the wedding! It will be great to have so many family members and friends celebrate with us on that special day.

Can you guess what Andy received as an early birthday gift?

After hitting up the gym on Saturday, I texted Andy "Bikes, Bikes, Bikes!" and he responded back with the a-okay! As soon as he arrived at my place, we jumped in the car and headed to Target to pick up our bikes! Purchasing bikes is something that we have been talking about all summer long and we finally decided to bite the bullet and choose some. We actually ended up getting the ones that we had been eyeing earlier in the summer!

His and hers, respectively. 

The verdict? We absolutely love them! We went for a short ride on Saturday evening after stopping off at my brother-in-law's house to drop off a wedding invitation for him and his new wife. They live across the street from me! It was fun to catch up with them since we don't see them very often even though we are neighbors.

After leaving Tory's house, we set out to test drive our bikes. We headed down to the lake, stopped at McDonald's for a milkshake and a movie, and then rode around a smaller lake before heading back home. It was so fun to ride together since we got to be active and spend time together (two of my favorite things).

Our little bear wanted to come too

After our ride, I was so tired since I had already worked out that morning at the gym. On Sunday morning, I didn't wake up until 10:30am! That is unheard of for me since I'm usually up and at 'em around 6am even on weekends.

Yesterday, Andy came over for a taco lunch before we headed out for the bike trails. We ended up covering 17.6 miles over the course of the afternoon. The weather was perfect and so was the ride! We stumbled across some fun neighborhoods with big, fancy houses along with some smooth, scenic bike trails.

We stopped on the way home to take a few pictures of these pretty trees that we passed by! Can you tell that we're both photography lovers?

The weather was cool but we were sweaty when we finished riding!

We were both exhausted by the time we arrived home and crashed on the couch while watching a movie and eating some dinner. As I made dinner, Andy pulled up Google Earth to plot our route and figure out how far we went. Looks like we ended up covering over 17.6 miles! Not bad for our 2nd ride on the new bikes!

Off to work I go! Have a great day!

Does your butt get sore from bike riding? We got gel seats but ow....I'm still feeling the burn!
Do you have a bike?
Favorite milkshake flavor? I like chocolate best!

Invitations Out the Door

Good morning!

I took the day off from blogging yesterday since Friday was such a busy day! After work, I headed up to my step-grandma's house so that she could work on altering my wedding dress. Sine I'm such a shrimp, a good chunk of material needs to be cut off before it can be hemmed. After trying on the dress and pining it to the right height, we played around with bustle ideas and then headed upstairs for dinner.

It was great to catch up with her and my grandpa, since although they live right by me, I don't get to see them very often. My step-grandma is an awesome seamstress and has a little sewing shop set up in her house! I am so thankful that she is able to help me out with the alterations!

After saying goodbye and heading back home, I popped in a movie and waited for Andy to arrive. He got to my place around 10 and we started putting postage on all of our wedding invitations. We also assembled all of the invitations since we needed to include an invite, an RSVP card, and a smaller, stamped envelope for our guest to send in their RSVP card.

We finished the first round of invitations around 2am! It was a late night for this girl! Around 12am, I headed to the couch and assembled the invitations while laying down and watching another movie since I'm normal in bed by 10:30 each night!

The next morning, I dropped off the invitations at the Post Office and they are out the door! Friends and family should be receiving them this week! This was a major wedding to-do and it feels great to have it complete! Now we will just wait to receive the response cards!

We're getting married in 61 days! Ah! I remember for the longest time that that number was well over 200 days! Now it is so close!

After the post office, I ran and errand and couldn't help picking up some of these. Since I'm not going back to school this Fall, but still wanted some new supplies, I purchased some markers for my desk at work! I'm excited to use these tomorrow at the office!

Of course I put my name on them just as I would have done for school. ;-)

I was surprised when I took the larger markers out of their box and found that the barrels were black! I had never seen this before! After looking at the back of the box, I soon learned why!

After running my errand, I hit up the gym for a sweaty workout to start the day! This past week, I was chatting with Allie about strength training. I've always used to the weight machines, but recently started using free weights.

This intimidates me like crazy since I don't know much about free weights except what I learned in dance. My studio required us to do a lot of training on top of dancing (lifting weights, sit ups, push ups, running, etc.). Since I knew I wanted to step this area of my workouts up a notch, I bit the bullet and signed up for a few training sessions with a personal trainer at the gym. My first one is this week and I'm excited but also a little nervous! I'll let you know how it goes.

Upon returning home from the gym, I cooled off with a shower and a delicious protein-packed smoothie!
It definitely hit the spot! After awhile, Andy came over and we headed out to get his birthday gift a little early! I'll reveal what it was tomorrow! Last night, we were wiped after our late night the night before, so we cooked up some turkey burgers and settled in on the couch while enjoying a movie that we picked up while we were out. I had heard that it was a great movie from a few friends of mine, and they were right!

(source)

It was very uplifting and had a great message that was woven throughout the film. Bethany Hamilton endured so much yet remained optimistic about it all and in the end, so much good came out of her tragic event. I would highly recommend it!

A sure sign that you need to run your dishwasher? When you're sipping iced coffee from a mug since all of your drinking glasses are dirty! 

I'm off to start the dishwasher and hit the shower before heading out to spend the day with Andy! Have a great Sunday!

Do you use free weights or the machines? 

Ever worked with a personal trainer? 

What was your favorite thing about going back to school as a kid? I loved new backpacks and art supplies!