Mom here

My mom spent her spring break out here puppy sitting for us while we worked, helping with the house, and helping with wedding stuff. I think somewhere in that time she got some reading and relaxing done too. The picture of Stella on her bed is from the first night...Stella wanted to sleep in there and many mornings at 4 or 5 a.m. snuck into her room and slept with her! Troy came over a lot too that week for some great eats!

Stella is also doing well. She is now over 100 lbs, but continues to think she is about 20 lbs! She is loving life at the new house, she has a great dane friend, Zoey, who is 2 that lives at the end of the street. She loves the green belt and open space that is a block and a half walk and she can run off leash. Her last eye appointment was the beginning of April and things are looking good. The dr. is very pleased with her tumors reaction to the laser, there is scar tissue around the whole tumor and it is helping to reduce its size and keep it contained. So that is all good news. We have moved from monthly appointments to every two months now....so we will keep you updated.

Shower in Cloquet and Krystal's Backelorette Party/Shower

The first weekend in April I headed back to Minnesota for a bridal shower for me and a bridal shower and bachelorette party for Krystal.

Krystal picked me up in Minneapolis and we were able to spend most of the day together on Friday. Friday night my aunt and grandma were in town and I spent the time catching up with them. Saturday was my bridal shower hosted by my mom's friends. It was a great shower and it was nice to see so many of the ladies from Cloquet, some who will not be able to make it out here for the wedding and some who will.
After my shower I was off to Krystal's shower and then her bachelorette party. We had a great time, went to dinner, then went downtown in Duluth to a couple bars, and then headed back to the condos for bed. Sunday I went home, packed my bags and headed to Minneapolis. I was off to meet my friends babies and head back to Denver. My mom was heading home with me for a week too...so we met Tiffany and Hallie (3 months), and Nikki and Amelia (6 weeks). I was in baby heaven...but then I had to come back to Denver and return to real life! Mike was excited to see us too.

House

So our house is slowly becoming our house....we are finding out what they say is true...the list is never ending! We are enjoying it and adjusting to living in the suburbs. We have been in the house for over a month now and have painted, and changed about half of the light fixtures. For right now the house is done and we are going to continue to unpack all the "little" things. Sorry some of the pictures are dark and the house is not picked up, I took them quick before heading back to Minnesota last weekend at 5 a.m.

Death March

The Death March started the last weekend of March, when Mike and I headed up to Wolf Creek Pass to back country ski with our friends Jacy and Garrett. Our trip just started of badly, but all in all it could have been so much worse and we all made it out safe! That Thursday we ended up getting a huge storm all through the mountains and the metro area, so when we left on Friday our drive took us a lot longer than expected. When we got to the ski area our original plan was squashed. We had been told that it would be OK to take our snowmobile up a short 4 mile trail, so we could sled up all our gear. We started to unload around 5 and were told that we couldn't go the 1/4 of a mile on the snowmobile on "Wolf Creek Ski Property." So we went to plan B...head up a much longer trail that was "a bit tricky, but you should see the hut." Off we went....Jacy and I put on our snowshoes and headed up the trail with Stella, while Mike and Garrett took a load up and went to the hut. After about an hour and a half we, Jacy and I, started to get worried about the lack of news from the guys. At this time, we are watching the sun get closer and closer to the mountain tops too. We then heard from them and they told us they couldn't find it...they were going to try to look a bit longer and then head back for us. Well they never found it....so we had to go into quick get out of the mountains, as the sun was setting, and we were all getting cold and tired. Mike and Stella started to hike back, while Jacy and Garrett drove the snowmobile, and I skied behind it. Then I snowmobiled back up to Mike and Stella, Mike drove back and Stella and I rode in the back on the sled (she was a bit nervous-but is a great adventure puppy). We headed into a small town, found a hotel room and went to the "locals" bar to grab a drink, and ponder our next move.
Saturday we started our MARCH. We went 4 miles, up the side of a mountain, in snowshoes, with 50 lbs on our backs, in 3 feet of fresh powder....YUCKY....YUCKY....YUCKY!!!!!!!! Seriously, it was once of the hardest things I have ever done, or maybe I was not in as good of shape as I had previously thought?! When we got there we were all so exhausted....so we ended up enjoying a couple hour nap. By the time our energy levels were up, we had crusty snow, and our great skiing ended up being 1 run :-( Then we went back into the hut, made some dinner, enjoyed good conversation, and rested up for the RETURN DEATH MARCH. The return wasn't as bad because it wasn't uphill, and we got to ski the last 3 miles out, but the first mile and last half a mile were uphill and awful...I was ready for the car and wheels when we were finished. All in all, if it would have worked out it would have been great, maybe next year???? Or maybe I will make that a boys trip and I will go to the spa????

Too many excuses...

So...I'm sorry! Between life, house, wedding, and life...I have been terrible at keeping this updated.

I will try tonight to get on here, but there is what you have to look forward to reading and seeing.
1-back country hut trip-or what I will call the "death march"
2- Updated pictures of the house...all but 1 bathroom is painted, and we are starting to get the living stuff put away.
3-Cloquet Wedding shower and Krystal's Bachelorette party
4-Update on Stella
5-Minneapolis Bachelorette party and Woodbury bridal shower
6-Maybe a wedding update...who knows...

So keep your fingers crossed that all my paperwork, thank yous, and laundry are finished tonight so you can start reading!

Exhausted

Both Mike and I are exhausted after an exciting and equally exhausting weekend. The good news is that closing went well and we are home owners now! We have a lot that we want to do to the house, but we need to have the time and money to do it too!

We are both continually impressed with how much space we have...we feel like our old place could fit in our master bedroom!

We have a lot to unpack but are going to go room by room. We are painting the orange and baby blue rooms that the previous owners apparently loved (2 rooms of each color!). So keep checking back for pictures!

Not worried about the "JINX" anymore!

Well today is the first day of Spring and another big first is happening today...we are buying a house! For the last few weeks, Mike and I have been signing papers, jumping through hoops, and playing the waiting game with getting our mortgage in place! Today at 4 o'clock it will be official and we are both really excited for this new adventure :-)

There will me more pictures to come, but here is the virtual tour of our new house! Please don't mind the paint colors...they will be changing really soon!

Pictures in Steamboat and another 30th

A couple weeks ago Mike and I, headed up to Steamboat for a quick getaway and our engagement pictures. We were able to meet up with our photographer on Friday evening and talk about the "photo shoot" the next day. Friday we were going to try skiing, but instead decided to have Mike fish, and Stella and I chill. Then we went and took our pictures, pretty funny at first, but by the end we got the hang of it. We are both excited to see how these pictures work out...we don't need them for anything special, but thought they would be nice to have.
Saturday, Mike got to go fishing again, and Stella and I went for a walk around Steamboat. Then we headed back to Denver to help our friend Reid celebrate his 30th birthday.

We now have a link to share with you on the slide show that our photographer put together. Some of them are good...some are not...but regardless you can take a look for yourself. Some of our favorites are the ones that Katie captured of Stella...even though we felt a bit awkward, it was well worth it!

Crazy busy...

Things have been pretty hectic around here lately...it seems that everyday we are learning something new or that something might change...more about the "changes" will be coming...we don't want to jinx ourselves! So needless to say this is another sorry will try to be better blog post.

Winter Park

We headed up on Friday with some friends to Winter Park for the weekend. Way back in the fall Mike went up and helped cut down beetle kill trees to earn us a weekend getaway. We went up made some great dinners, played mexican train dominoes, and skied. It was a fun weekend, and the best part was Stella got to annoy her best friend Ella all weekend. Ella is about 1/2 the size of Stella now, so she doesn't have much fun playing tug of war anymore.