2nd Annual Shuttlecock Smash

Saturday Mike, Stella, and I attended the 2nd Annual Shuttlecock Smash hosted by our friends Chris (Chico) and Candy Lien. There were 16 teams of 2 that battled for the first place trophy. The day was filled with fun, friends and badminton. Although, Mike and Chico didn't get first place in the tournament, they did win the "best dressed" award! I will let these pictures tell about the fun of the day :-)

Stella was great, and everyone loved her! Stella also had a boyfriend for the day. One of our buddies is taking care of a puppy for a couple weeks until the 9 week old lab is auctioned off for charity. It was really fun to watch Stella play with a puppy her own size. So far she has been battling all the "big dogs." Just wait until she is 6 months and outweighs them all! By the end of the day both of the puppies were so sleepy they could hardly move.*Stella Update*

Both Mike and I continue to be amazed with Stella. Both by what she does and how much she sleeps! Mike thinks his little puppy has narcolepsy. Who can blame her, she is growing at the rate of a great dane puppy. We have windows of playtime and then she is sleeping again. Even with sleeping a ton, she is really a good little girl. Since the first night she is consistently sleeping from 10:30 to 5 before she wakes us up for a quick potty break and then in 15 minutes she is sound asleep again. She also is a very smart girl and knows her name, will come when Mike or I call her, and will 75% of the time sit on command. Stairs on the other hand are a bit tricky for her...she can make it up if she isn't tired, but going down is still too scary for her! She has also had several "play dates" with our good friends dogs, and really likes playing and trying to bite the backs of the other dogs legs.She plays hard for about an hour and then crashes. She has such a sweet temperament and is so cuddly. She is also consistently going potty outside. Since her first "whoops" with me after we got home and she had nervous tummy, I haven't had any accidents. Mike had one, but Stella and I blame him. So since Friday there haven't been any and she is making one little bark to say, potty time. She is also growing so fast! On Thursday when we were at the vet she weighed 15lbs, today I weighed her and she is 16.6 lbs...sad to think our puppy will be big in no time, but it is fun to watch her grow and see her learning so much each day. I also wonder what it feels like to have your body growing that fast...ugh...but I am sure she knows no different!

Introducing Stella Puppy

Today after I finished working I headed down to pick up Stella from her breeder. She was about an hour and a half south of Denver. When I got there I got to meet her parents and then I met her and her 13 other brothers and sisters! We then headed back home to Denver. Stella slept the entire way and then played for 45 minutes, went potty, and is sleeping again in her kennel. We are going to kennel her so I guess it is a good start that she is already sleeping in there with the door open! Wish me luck tonight...Mike comes back from LA tomorrow to help out. Also, wanted to put the picture of her on in her kennel...I can't believe that soon she will be filling up that entire thing :-) My baby is going to grow extra fast!

Boys and Girls Weekend Getaways

Mike and I spent the weekend apart doing very different things. On Friday Mike headed up to Steamboat to go fishing with his buddies. I don't know what I have heard more about the fishing or how excited he was to have to put on his cowboy boots and go work on the ranch!
One of Mike's buddies, Matt, worked at a ranch just outside of Steamboat and wanted to stop there on Friday. Mike and Matt were talked into riding a 4 wheeler and moving logs while "working on the ranch." They then managed to get some good fishing in as well. Saturday and Sunday also consisted of fishing, fishing, and more fishing.
I on the other hand had quality girl time this weekend. Friday I flew back to Minnesota to look for a wedding dress. When I got in Tiffany picked me up and she and I went and did some shopping and then played with her son Ben. We grabbed dinner at Green Mill...which used to be a favorite restaurant of mine, but I was not that impressed this time around! We then went home and looked at wedding stuff and got all of our girl talking out of the way.
Saturday we woke up and headed to the dress extravaganza try on 2008. My mom, Ryanne, Krystal, and Mike's sisters Mo and Katie, met up with us to look for a dress for me and bridesmaid dresses. We had 4 dress stores in a row all lined up so that I could find "the one." The first store was a bust for me, but we did find some promising bridesmaid dresses. The second store had "the one" and then we headed to lunch at Bonfire Grill. Then we proceeded to make sure I found "the one" at the next two stores! I maintained my cool even when the chick at David's bridal was not listening to a single word any of us said...she was the only one to almost get punched! After trying on all the dresses we went back and picked up Ben from Grandpa's house and then headed to meet up with my mom to let Ben swim. He loved saying "wawa" while in the pool and it was just the cutest. Ben and Tiff then went home to get some sleep and my mom and I went to dinner.
Sunday Mike and I met up and went and met with a Reverend who may marry us. We also had to go get stuff ready for our Stella puppy. Only a couple nights of piece left!

So far this week...

Mike has been away in Chicago, working and playing with his favorite brother Pat! While he was in Chicago, he casually asked Pat during the Olympics if he was interested in being his bestman! Ahh...Pat also got the "blindside" which is Mike's favorite thing to do. Pat's girlfriend Kim took this picture of the two brothers while they were out before dinner last night. So cute.

I have been at home holding down the fort and keeping myself busy with working and planning the wedding. No one told me that it would be this intense. It is nice we have found a reception place and are now just ironing out all the details. We are going to get married on May 23rd, 2009 so plan accordingly! There will be more information to follow.

This weekend Mike is going to be off to Steamboat for a boys fishing weekend...and I am off to Minnesota for a girls wedding shopping weekend. We should both have our own sorts of fun :-)

Chicago or Denver???

The verdict is in and we are (for the time being) staying in Denver! Before we left for Europe, we found out that Mike had received a promotion to become the Director of On Premise-Central Division for Fuze (Coca Cola).
I am going to brag a bit (he never would), but it is a very good promotion in a great company. This job will be great experience and only open more doors for his career. He also might not have to go back to graduate school...which would be nice for both him and our student loan payments!
With the new promotion there was a lot of talk that it would be difficult for us to remain in Denver. This is why I love this company...they offered him two scenarios one was to stay in Denver and the second was for us to move to Chicago. At this time we decided that it was better for the both of us if we kept our home base in Denver and he took the job.
We will see how all the traveling pans out. It is tough on both of us when he travels. I try to remind myself that it could be worse if I didn't know anyone and was in Chicago! Here I at least have my own job, life, and friends to keep me active. I also have a new furry thing entering our house in 8 days. I don't know what he reminds himself of.

Announcing...

Our new puppy! So staying with Mike and Stacey fashion (never a dull moment-as my mom says) we are adding to our growing family and getting a puppy! We actually decided to get her when we were at a little cafe in Windsor, while on our vacation. We had been talking about getting a puppy for a long time. I admittedly kept whining about getting a puppy ever since Mike's brother's dog Maggie moved to Chicago. So finally we made the joint decision to get her. I wasn't going to get a puppy and take care of her and have Mike say "take care of your dog!"
Her name is Stella and she will be coming home to live with us on the 20th. She just turned 6 weeks on Tuesday and here are her pictures. The first one is when she is 2 weeks old, the second is her 6 week photo. She is a blue great dane and we think she is the cutest thing ever!

There will be many more photos to come! Both Itzy and Tucker have no idea what they are in store for in 2 weeks. Maybe Mike and I don't either :-)

Day 11...Back in Denver

We are home. After waking up on Monday at 5 am (9pm Denver time) we are getting back to Denver at 9pm (5am Oslo)! What a crazy 24 hours of travel! We pulled up to our house at 10 pm and were tired and excited to be home. The cats were also happy that we were back!
There were no major bumps, cancellations, or crazy flights. To get back to Denver we traveled by bus, train, taxi, and airplanes. We flew across 4 time zones, went to 5 airports, and passed customs 4 times, with our only glitch being exhaustion.
In a nut shell we:
1. Went by bus to the airport in Oslo (customs 1)
2. Flew to London He throw 3hr flight (time zone change 1 and customs 2)
3. Landed in Heath row and grabbed a cab to London-Gaetwick (customs 3)
4. Flew from London Gaetwick to Detroit MI 7 hour 51 minute flight (time zone changes 2 and customs 4) *our saving grace on this flight was we had the exit seats and our 3rd person was not there so we had 3 seats for the 2 of us and some much needed extra room :-)
5. Fly from Detroit to Denver flight time 3 hours.
6. Get our luggage, car, and go home!

Vacations are great, but it feels so good to be getting HOME too! Now back to some form of normalcy. We have a bunch of things coming up so we will just keep plugging along and keep you all in the loop!

I will also start and hopefully finish the task of getting the pictures from our trip up. I took over 400 so I will give a link to them so everyone can look...this confirms that I really do love pictures!

Day 9 and 10...Barrett and Anette Get Hitched!

Barrett and Anette got married yesterday in a quaint little seaside town outside of Oslo. It was at a place called HolmsbuBad Hotell and it sat just on the edge of a Fjord (a narrow inlet created by glaciers with steep sides is what the dictionary says). I know I keep using "amazing" in my posts, and again I have to say that it was an amazing ceremony, dinner, and reception. Even thought the weather didn't cooperate and it was raining off and on all day. There were many traditions both Norwegian and American that we all partook in, and spending this special day with Barrett and Anette was an honour for both Mike and I. Barrett and Anette had a beautiful Humanistic ceremony with 60 of their closest family and friends. After the ceremony we were able to go out on the patio of the hotell and mingle while everyone took pictures. Then we started the dinner. This is where the toastmaster (a special friend who leads the dinner and the speeches) gave us the outline of our meal and what was to be expected of us when we were having dinner and when the speeches were given. We then were welcomed to dinner by Anette's dad and began to eat. Throughout the dinner we heard beautifully touching prepared speeches from Anette's mother and father, Barrett's m other, the sponsors ("best man" and "maid of honor"), and Barrett and Anette. This is one of the things that Mike and I have decided we would like to have at our own wedding! The toastmaster was able to introduce the speakers and lead them into their speeches, as well as keep everything on "time!" Also having to have a speech "prepared" seemed to us that they were very thought, tasteful, meaningful and extremely heartfelt. We also were introduced to another fun tradition that when either the bride or groom left the room, the other girls or guys had to get up go in a line around the room and then kiss them on their cheek :-) Another thing that was similar with a extra twist, was that we could ding our glasses and Barrett and Anette had to stand on chairs and kiss, or we could stomp our feet and they had to go under the table and kiss. All in all the dinner was about 3 or so hours long and great fun.
After the dinner, we then again enjoyed some mingling as they got the dance floor ready and the band set up their stuff. We opened the dance with Anette and Barrett's first dance, which after they danced for a minute or so we all grabbed hands in a circle and walked around them. Then we did a "line dance" of sorts and walked around the hotel and then made a tunnel so everyone could go under. Then we began dancing the night away to great music. There is one thing that is certain, no matter how far away we are from our home, this wedding felt like we were in our "Norwegian home!"
As I am writing this today it is so bittersweet that we will be heading back to our house tomorrow. Norway has both mine and Mike's heart! We are so lucky to have had this opportunity to come over here and share in so many special wonderful things with Barrett and Anette. Their family and friends have been so welcoming and gracious while we have been here. I feel like in 6 days both Mike and I have spent time with great friends, both old and new!