Meet Keen Keen!

Robby & I got a puppy!  Her name is Kenai and she is named after the Kenai river in Alaska where Robby did some mission work while in college.  After his trip he put it on his bucket list to get a husky and name her Kenai... ten years later he got to check it off his list!  She is seriously so sweet and we are incredibly lucky to get such a well behaved husky!  I know you are thinking "they are crazy to get a puppy before a baby" but really I think it has been good preparation for us!  She is a lot of work but well worth it.

These pictures are from the first few days we got her... she is 8 weeks here.

This is her mom, dad & her with her siblings

This is a picture of her this week!  She has grown so much already!  Oh about the weird toy - she found this in our back woods and it's her all time favorite toy.  Mary did some research and it's a chicken and her name is Henrietta.  Oh Henrietta... you're a little creepy.

Here is a cute video of her playing with a carrot!

From this day forward

In the beauty of the rugged 320 ranch nestled in the mountains...

A beautiful couple made a vow in front of God, our family & friends...

To love, honor, cherish, share, laugh & build a life together...

This picture demonstrates exactly how much fun our family had:

Wait a minute.... there it is!

We had such an amazing trip to Montana for Jill & Shawn's wedding!  The 320 ranch was so beautiful, quaint and the definition of western hospitality.  They had the most amazing continental breakfast where our entire family/friends gathered each morning for breakfast (one of my favorite parts!!).  The wedding could not have been more beautiful... outside with the mountains as the backdrop and crisp breeze.  As pastor Carol put it "more beautiful than any Cathedral man could build."  It was perfect!

After the wedding festivities wrapped up we headed to Yellowstone National Park where the deer and the antelope lark (as Alli would say).  We enjoyed some extremely beautiful scenery touring around in Base Camp.  We camped out in the middle of the woods and thank God for the security of Base Camp I could sleep sound without any worry of grizzly bears!

BISON PRIDE! 

  

We had a fabulous trip!!

Congratulations Jill & Swan!! We love you!

A very special visit!

We welcomed a bunch of tourists over Labor Day weekend this year!  Mom, Dad, Gary & Barbie came up for a visit.  It was a very special visit because this was (according to Barbie) Barbie & Gary's first vacation together since Justin was a sophomore in high school (Justin is a year older than me!).  Robby & I pretended to be tourists with them all weekend and we had a blast!  I never get tired of the tourist attractions in Duluth.  We even took advantage of having a of couple handy men staying with us - they took a rotting tree down,  took and ugly tree down, removed an old stump, saved my tomato plant and did a bunch of other handy things around the house.  So now we've made a new requirement to be a guest at our house: you must remove a dead tree from our yard while you're here.  Bring your chain saw!

We did so much in two days when they left if felt like we did a week's worth of sight seeing.  We drove up the highway, ate at Emily's, enjoyed a treat at the Candy Kitchen, spent some time at the beach, enjoyed drinks on a patio, shopped in canal park, watched TWO ships go through the canal, enjoyed breakfast on the patio of Amazing Grace, and shopped a little more... and I'm forgetting some things I know!  I think this might have been Base Camp's first shopping trip!

A family tradition

When I was little, my Grandpa Alfred's pride & joy was his raspberry & strawberry garden.  We would always sneak in there when the berries were ripe and grandpa would chase us out a few minutes later because I'm sure we could have wiped out his berries pretty fast.  Every summer our families would get together for raspberry malts.  I still crave a raspberry malt in the summer... but you can't use store bought raspberries.... heavens NO!  It just is not the same.  Robby & I found a patch a few miles out of town and went pickin'.  We couldn't get home fast enough to make a malt.  It brings me back to being a kid every time... simply the best taste ever!

Regan & Bretty

We had a short but sweet visit from our Kansas City friends.  Regan & Brett have been dating for two years and we finally got to meet him.  He is a perfect match for Regan... plus he is a skier so he earned major bonus points from me before I even met him ;)  Skiers unite.

We had the best time enjoying Northern Waters Smokehaus (best sandwich in Duluth by far), trying beers (and root beers) at the brewhouse, hanging out in canal enjoying a beautiful day in duluth!

I had to post this picture because I think it's hilarious.  We definitely asked the wrong person to take our picture!  Haha, sorry Robby.

Group picture take two!

Regan transfered from the Duluth Ferguson branch down to Kansas City about two years ago.  Our boss Joe loved Regan, I'm pretty sure he thinks of her as a second daughter.  He put on a big party at his house on Saturday night.  We had SO much fun eating amazing food, playing games and sitting outside around the campfire.  

Regan, please move back to MN... we miss you too much!!  Brett, you are welcome here too ;)

Bump!

So i'm a few blog post's behind... but while I work on them i'll give you a sneak preview of my baby bump!  I was 18 weeks on Wednesday (which means TWO weeks until the big wedding!!!).  We've been calling the baby sesame seed but Elsa call's it chicken & rice which is also a fantastic name for a baby. ;)

So here is my baby bump... or my "i've been eating too many McFlurry's" bump.

A very special slumber party

My good friend Erin's sweet 3 year old has been begging to have a slumber party at our new house.  We've been planning it for about a month and finally decided it was time to give it a try.  Friday night we had a few friends over for a Frey fish fry and pizza party to prep Elsa for her first stay away from home.

Do you remember back to my post about Robby & Johns bet in the trail race?  Well Robby ended up winning so John brought Robby over his prize pizza.

(notice someone creeping into the picture that really wants a bite of pizza?)

(This is John's wife Tiffany, their sweet girl Amelia, and Elsa.)

While we were having dinner we all placed bets on if Elsa would make it the whole night without getting homesick.  Robby's guess was that she had about a 15% chance of making it.  After dinner Elsa started asking her parents when they were going to leave.  Actually,  she started demanding them to leave so we could start the slumber party.  While Erin was getting all emotional and giving her lots of hugs and kisses Elsa started shutting the door on her.  It was pretty funny!  

We painted a picture frame for Erin...

Played with babies...

Did a puzzle and practiced ballet...

Read books...

Lot's of books!

After the books we shut off the lights and Elsa talked & talked & talked.  I felt like I was 12 again at a real slumber party.  She said so many funny things and I was going to try to remember but I was so tired.  One story I remember is "I love pancakes, I can't wait until tomorrow when we have pancakes.  If daddy eats too many pancakes then he has to go to the bathroom for a looooong time."

She was incredibly sweet & cute all night and never even showed one sign of being home sick.  Sweet girl!

The next morning we woke up and made pancakes together - we invited her parents and sister over for breakfast because she kinda missed them a little.  It was a fun & successful 1st slumber party!