Taylor's Birthday

Leinies!

We did the Leinenkugel's tour Sunday when we were in Chippewa. It was a fun tour, I love breweries. More fun to be there with Isaac and Marit as well!

Matt and Jessica's Wedding

a few pictures from the wedding this weekend. I love that mike and i did a ring shot, but we never got one of matt and jessica. oops.

Long time..

So it has been over a month since I last posted! Not totally sure how that happened, but I guess it does show that time flies. I could blame our home computer not letting me access blogger, then my laptop crashing and my motherboard dying, but really, it has just been busy. I was sick, Mike was sick, and we are busy. But life is good!

Here are some shots from Thanksgiving...

Cabin

We spent last weekend at Holly's cabin with Holly, Joe, Angie, Shawn, and Ashley. It was lovely and rainy. So we stayed in most of the time and played mexican train and phase 10. Great to get away for weekend without high school youth!

Mike's Birthday Dinner!

the big 28!

Still not done with the slideshow

So I'm almost done, but we are heading out to dinner for Mike's birthday. Anyway, wanted to post this where I would remember it. It is from the first church we stayed in our on way to Charleston and I really like it.

Thank God for today
This is the beginning of a new day.
I can waste it or use it for good.
What I do today is important because I am exchanging a day of my life for it.
When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever-leaving in its place something I have traded for it.
I want it to be gain, not loss; good, not evil; success, not failure; in order that I shall not regret the price I paid for today.

Taylor at the lake

Good movies...

I had the chance this weekend to watch two excellent movies. The first was Take the Lead. Here's the plot summary:
Based on a true story, the movie tells of the struggle of a dance teacher, Pierre Dulain (Antonio Banderas), to give to a group of problem kids a second chance by exploring their dance skills. One night Dulain is astonished to see a boy, Rock (Rob Brown) destroying his school director's car. The following day Dulaine goes to the school to ask for a job as a dance teacher. The director has little confidence in Dulaine's idea of helping kids (including Rock) in detention to reform through ballroom dance classes. Even the kids, who prefer hip-hop or rap, think it isn't a great idea. Despite criticism from students in his formal dance academy as well as from parents and fellow teachers who believe that the kids need more math and less dance, Dulain catches the students' attention with a tango session. After their initial indifference, they eventually compete in a dance contest; the important thing isn't winning, but making a difference.

I really enjoyed it...thought it was going to be cheesey, but it was actually funny and quite touching. I would watch it again.

Then Sunday I watched Secondhand Lions. I wasn't expecting much out of this movie, but I absolutely loved it! Mike didn't want to watch it with me, but came down for a bit about 30 minutes into the movie. He ended up staying for the end! Here is the plot summary for this one:
"Secondhand Lions" follows the comedic adventures of an introverted boy (Osment) left on the doorstep of a pair of reluctant, eccentric great-uncles (Caine and Duvall), whose exotic remembrances stir the boy's spirit and re-ignite the men's lives.

See that one if you can!

Waiting...

Last night two of our adults shared their faith stories with us. The first was about waiting. It really hit home for some reason...I'm not very patient, and am not good at all about waiting. I have never really been tested though...so I'm nervous that when the time comes that I have to wait I won't have the patience or the faith to handle it.
Something else for me to work on I guess. Mike has been great about getting me to calm down and wait better, to relax and not always have to be working and getting stuff done. Mike was worth waiting for!

Attemping to catch up...

So I'm finally attempting to catch up a putting photos in an album. The last photo that I put in an album is Mike and Lauren's baptism, on April 4, 2004. So I have a little catching up to do. Thankfully, I started this blog in Sept of 2005, so there is just one year in there that I'm a little fuzzy on.

Hopefully, now that we have a photo printer I will be able to keep more up to date!


and two hours later...so now April 2004-May of 2006 are in albums. I need to go buy another one for the remainder of 2006. I think I will actually start scrapbooking (but very very basically) for 2007. Starting with our trip to DC, and then it will mainly be picture of Taylor!

Pizza!

Since both of our husbands are out of town, Lori and I are meeting for dinner along with her sons, Sam and Nathan. We are meeting at the new pizza join in town, Solo's Pizza Cafe. Mike and I ate there with Deb and Dave the night of the blizzard since we had a coupon for free food. It is a really cool place...kind of like a Subway or Qdoba. You pick your sauce and then your toppings. It is nice to get exactly what you want on a pizza and not have to share since they are individual pizzas! I can only eat half, but it heats up really well the next day. I'm thinking about white garlic sauce, with mozzarella, tomatoes, and mushrooms. Yum-O!
I love pizza...just the smell or thought of it makes me hungry!

Dad's Birthday!

It is funny that my only pictures from Dad's birthday are of Taylor...but then again, it was her first time at a bowling alley. We had a great time and all bowled fairly well. It was nice to do something together. Mike and I are pretty lucky that our familys are close by.

Mike babysitting...

Mike babysat for Taylor today while my mom , sister, and I went to see Night at the Museum. we had a great time, and so did they!

Dinner with the boys...

Mike's boys were over for dinner last night. We had a great time...eating, drinking, hanging out, playing video games. They are really good people, and great friends.

Last Day!

Our last day in DC was a great day. We slept in a little bit, ate up our bagels and oatmeal, and checked out of the hotel. We headed over to the Smithsonian Art Museums and wandered through the two buildings. I got to see the Matisse cut outs, which I love. It was fun to see the paintings, but we aren't huge art buffs, so it wasn't all that interesting! I'm glad that we walked through, but I'm really glad we didn't spend all day there!After we had our fix of art, we headed over the Old Post Office for lunch. We got some okay food at the food court, then met up with Jonathan and Kelly. They have a tower that you can go up into, so we headed up. It is a breathtaking view, but they have wires that prevent you from getting great pictures. Here was our best effort:

We then headed over to the Air and Space Museum, which was very cool. We spent a lot of time at a display featuring different pictures of Earth from Space. The building is also currently housing some pieces from the American History Museum, which is under construction. We got to see Kermit the Frog, Abe Lincoln's Hat, and lots of other cool stuff. That was perhaps the highlight of the day. Jonathan and Kelly had to take off and we had to think about heading to the airport. Here are some of our last Capital pictures:

We went back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and headed out to the metro. We arrived at the airport, went through security - which was cool. I went in the new machine that blows air at you. Mike says it check the air for chemicals and stuff. It was an interesting experience. We then had some average airport food, boarded our flight, and home we came!

My mom picked us up and got us to our car. We drove home and attempted to unpack. It is great to be home and we had a great trip. Thanks for following our adventures. Hopefully there will be more traveling soon!