Minnesota Wedding Shower

Well, It was a busy but successful weekend! Andrew's mom and grandma came into town for my wedding shower thrown by the best aunts EVER! There was delicious food, drinks and of course presents! It was great to see all the people who showed up to spend time with me and celebrate my pending marriage! WAHOO!! Today is the 2 month mark until our wedding and I cannot be more excited! I decided it is time to get in the tanning bed.....boy am I white! I have most of the stuff room the shower put away except for the stuff we are going to store in our hutch/buffet that should be finished sometime this week! :)

I am excited because I have all of the bridal party gifts complete and ready to deliver to my parents house and am on a mission to find a rehearsal dinner dress this weekend! Wish me luck! :)

Life of a hectic wedding planner....

I have realized that getting married is like accepting another full time job! We have been engaged for 3 years now, so you would think that I have nothing to do to get prepared for our wedding. WRONG As I look at my list of things to do it seems as though someone is secretly adding items to make my list LONGER!  I have the most wonderful fiancée and parents who help with lots of things, but at some point WHEN WILL IT END!

This weekend I will have our second shower, hosted by my family and I am so excited! Bridal showers are like extra Christmases, who doesn't want more presents? I will get to spend time with people who I don't always see that often! Even more exciting...Andrew's mom and grandma are flying in Friday!! :)

I am going to start posting picture of the things I have accomplished off my list in hopes that I will feel more accomplished!

A few years....

Well it has been a few years since our last post! Ha boy have we been busy! We moved back to MN where we are both teaching now and bought a house! I (melanie) am busy planning our wedding getting ready for the best day of our lives on JULY 2nd!!! WHOOOOOOO More updates soon!

San Francisco

So, I thought that I would tell a little about our recent trip to San Fran! We left our puppy with our great friends the Lowes....she did amazing with 3 beagles!

We left late Sat morning and arrived in San Fran around 2....we headed to find out shuttle service...which was very interesting! We got into the van and sat there waiting for another 10 minutes...the driver drove us around the airport a few more times picking up other passengers.....now when I think of a shuttle service I did not anticipate a crazy almost cab like driver...there was a moment the van was driving TOOOO fast on the highway and I felt like we were going to die!

We arrived at our hotel around 330 and dropped our stuff in our room...headed to buy our metro passes which allowed us to ride the cable cars and buses.....we immediately took off for the cable car.....one of the stations was right around the corner from our hotel..VERY convienent! We headed down to Fisherman's Wharf adnd grabbed a yummy seafood linner at a restaurant...we could see views of Ghiradelli square....after linner we headed on a more scenic walk...taking in all the souvenir shops as well as the beautiful views....we saw some pretty interesting stuff...such as the real life humans pretending to be robots like in the movie Eurotrip...check our our slideshow for a pic of one of them.....we ended up in Ghiradelli square....taking in all the yummmmy chocolate and of course enjoying a hot fudge sundae...when Andrew when researching San Fran that is one of the things we were told to try! WELL WORTH IT! :) We continued to walk getting a glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz...along with some interesting people in the park! We headed back to the hotel after A LOT of walking to get some rest for our fun filled trip the next day...

Sunday we headed out on a tour to see Muir Woods and Wine Country...WHAT COULD BE BETTER?! Our tour guide...Roman was HILARIOUS! Our tour only had around 20 people, so it was nice and relaxing...not overcrowed and very interesting...As we headed out of town Roman pointed out many different things about the city that Andrew nand I were not aware of....on our way to Muir Woods we passed over the Golden Gate...and through Sausilito...cute little city...Roman described the history of Muir Woods and how treehugging should take place....we had around an hour in the woods....just enough time because boy was it chilly!!! After "tree hugging" we headed to Sonoma Valley....we were going to experience 3 different wineries, YIKES! Roman promised we would be drunk before noon! First stop was the Cline Winery...it was beautiful! It was a bigger place, so it felt as though we were n a time crunch!!! We tasted numerous wines...Andrew and I really enjoyed one so we bought it! After that we were split into two groups for the next two wineries..we headed off to Homewood a very small place run by one guy who only makes about 3000 cases a year...his motto the redder the better....not exactly my motto but I gave it a try...an older man was our wine narrator..it was awesome because he actually taught us how to taste and experience wine.....we are now wine coinsures..He had a few very delicious wines! After that we headed to lunch in Sonoma...a very cute quaint little town.....we got to see an old Spanish Missionary which was amazing....after lunch we headed to the last wine tasting at Jacuzzi....a more Italian winery...NOT MY FAVORITE! They were very busy and the wine was not my favorite of the day! Although, we also got to taste a variety of different olive oil flavors which was fun...but we were so full!!! After that Roman took us to another winery for us to experience one final view of Sonoma and take some pictures before we headed back to SAn Fran!!!

I am getting sleepy...soooo I am off to bed more to come later!

YIKES! It has been a LONG TIME

Now I know it has been far toooooo long that a posting has been up, but let's be honest...being teachers we DO not have a lot of time to sit down and keep this up to date! I ( Melanie) have had the best of intentions to continue the blog...

Ok so let's do a 6 month catch up....

August....we celebrated Andrew's birthday and got ready for another school year......we spent a lot of time getting our classrooms ready with momma Julie who came all the way out here to help us! That was a great time!

September....School got into full swing and our time got eaten up! Andrew and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary which was amazing! :)

October....School began to slowly take over our lives!

November...Our first Thanksgiving!!!!! We cooked our own turkey, stuffing, mac and cheese! We did it all! Boy was it AMAZING!!!!!

December......WE GOT WINTER BREAK!!! :) We both went home for xmas.....alone again! Spent some wonderful quality time with family....I got to meet the Cadry family and we put Gidget in boarding! WHOA!

January.....BEST MONTH OF MY LIFE! January 4th...Andrew proposed! I have been busy secretly planning my wedding...although we have no date or idea when we will be getting married...you know me...I have my book of ideas ! hahaha We also began to look into jobs back home in MN which has kept up very busy...as well as getting things packed up for the summer!

February.....we spent some quality time together and of course worked

March..... MIKEY turned 50! So I (Melanie) flew home for the weekend to spend time with daddio...tax season...WHICH WE ALL LOVE! We discovered Geisha House as well as planned a trip to San Francisco....Job hunting and packing took full force and it has kept us busy trying to organize and keeps things in order

April...... Since the month just started....we have basically been keeping our eyes open for jobs....figuring our our plans for the summer.....ENJOYING OUR SPRING BREAK IN SAN FRANCISCO and preparing for the rest of the school year!

Well that is our lives in a nut shell over the last months.....I will post on San Francisco........ AMAZING place...


Keep in touch!

Trip....part dos

As we made our way to South Dakota I was amazed at how beautiful Wyoming was. There was very little in Wyoming but the landscape itself was beautiful! We arrived in South Dakota and couldnt wait to get to our hotel and plan the next few days. We drove the route where we got a sneak peak at Crazy Horse, Bear Country and a few other places. We drove into Rapid City and were excited to see that our hotel wasn't a complete dump this time. We got settled into our hotel room, fed Gidget and fell asleep.....boy does driving tire you out!!!! I convinced Andrew to give Taco John's a try, being as he had never eaten there before....he really enjoyed the potato ole's and that is more than I an ask for! I was very excited to eat at Taco John's :) The next morning we got up early to see a bunch of different place....we started out at crazy horse...I was amazed to see the progress that had been made since I had last been there in 92. We took a lot of pictures and enjoyed seeing all of the old artifacts from the architect's house.

Me at crazy horse :)

the wall of change over the years since this project started

a view driving into crazy horse monument

a close up...the face is done and now they are working on the horse and arm streching out

After Crazy Horse we headed to Mount Rushmore...as my second graders called it last year Rount Mushrore :)

Here the afternoon got a little HOT! We started out up top looking at all of the flags and getting some sweet pictures of the monument...

I am going to try to set up a slideshow link where you can click on it and see all of our pictures...we shall see how this works on..

more later :)

The trip.... part uno

Well, I know I should have been doing this along our trip, but it was just too hard to try and keep up! I cant believe we were gone for an entire month and are already back here dreading the beginning of the school year :(

Our plan was to leave at 4 am on June 25th, this was to beat the morning traffic as well as arrive in Denver at a decent hour. Andrew and I got ready and headed to bed around 9. After another wonderful episode of Jon and Kate plus eight, if you dont watch this you SHOULD we tried to go to sleep. After laying around until about midnight, we both looked at each other and decided to just get ready to go and leave. We had everything unplugged and ready for the month we would be gone by 1 am. We hopped in the car and took off!!!!!

The drive started off just fine we were both wide awake and totally enjoying ourselves. Somewhere along the way I got sleepy...... I took a nap and then we switched drivers...I am telling you NEVER again will I drive through t hose mountains EVER! When we made it abour 4 hours out of Denver we were both EXHAUSTED and didn't know if we would make it! We finally arrived to find out what a dump our hotel room was! It was around 3 and we decided to let Gidget eat and drink and we would take a nap. Denver was not that amazing, maybe we were both just tired and we knew we wouldnt be there long, but I could haave done without. We went out for dinner, not great and drove past Coors Field, that was pretty cool! Headed back to the hotel room and went back to sleep! Knowing we would have traffic to deal with we got up early the next morning to head on our journey to South Dakota!

Here are some of the pictures along the way.............

insomnia

As i am currently wide awake in excitement of tomorrrows activites I realize that in approximately 24 hours Andrew and I will be on our travel adventure! There is a bunch of stuff that MUST be done tomorrow in order for us to leave feeling complete. Hopefully I will be awake before 12, but with the complete awakeness I am feeling that does not look possible! We are starting our trip en route to Denver...this should be a LONG but fun drive! Andrew has never really got to experience the Rocky Mountains which are absolutely stunning! I am excited just to partake in this amazing experience with my AMAZING boyfriend! After one night in Denver we are headed to the Black Hills, where we will be doing A LOT of sight seeing in a few days! We are spending to days in Rapid City so we can leave the peanut at a hotel during the day so we can head out and explore the wonderful places there are to see in the Black Hills. After two nights in Rapid City we are heading to Keystone to CAMP! This should be fun!! We went out one night looking at tents, finding a 6 person tent that supposedly has two rooms (We will find out when we set it up) for half price! We could not turn this offer down, so we continued on our camping adventure buying a lantern, some roaster sticks for smores and hot dogs and some other camping necessities! ALready having an air mattress it shouldnt be so bad to camp!! I am REALLY EXCITED!

There have been so many trip preparations ever since school got out! packing....cleaning..organizing...planning it has been never ending! I will be glad that is all over with!

stay tuned...i will be updating as much as i possibly can on here our adventures of our trip!

We will be in MN next sunday..then off to Chicago and Ohio!! :)

Summer Vacation

Well having been out of scchool for a week now I am begiining to enjoy this relaxing time more and more! We are getting ready for our trip each and everyday and cannot wait until we are finally headed on the road! We are leaving June 25th from Las Vegas and should be arriving in Minnesota Saturday June 28th! I can't believe that the trip we have been talking about since March is finally just around the corner! Spending 24 hours a day together has also been fun! Each morning Andrew gets up first, because let's face it I LOVE TO SLEEP! He makes some breakfast and we hang out and watch EuroCup Soccer....I tend to head to the pool for a few hours while he relaxes at home. Later on in the day we do something together with Gidget who is comepletely tired all the time from us being home everyday! She is really an adorable puppy! Andrew and I have begun to really get into teaching her tricks. She has learned the down command and is doing AMAZING with it! This week we hope to move onto another command...maybe give roll over a try?!

Last night we went and saw Danny Gans at the Mirage. He was absolutely hilarious. I thought he would do more stand up comedy, but he completely suprised us with a night filled with singing and various celebrity voices. Some of them were unreal at how much he sounded just like the person. He sure knows how to keep the audience interested!

Stay posted for more updates on Gidget and her training........

Birthday Weekend

us before we left for dinner
me with the ballon Andrew got me
awww me and my birthday cake..ready to blow out my candles
here is a close up of my YUMMY cake


I cant believe that I am already 24! Where does the time go? THis is a tough time of year for me and my family, but Andrew has made it so special and relaxing! For the past two months all I have been talking about is the Sex and the City movie, being that my boyfriend is the most fantastic person in the whole world he went with me to see the movie yesterday after we had brunch at the Red Rock Casino! Over two hours long and he did not complain once! He is the perfect boyfriend!!!!! After the movie we played a little Goldfish and then headed out to run errands. We had the best day! I wasnt feeling 100% so I came home and napped......when I woke up we spent the rest of the night hanging out watching t.v on the couch together cuddling! I love him sooo much! Today being my birthday we are going to relax, go out to dinner and then light sparklers! YES!

Only a few weeks until our trip and we keep getting more and more excited! Stay tuned for more updates!