Easter Weekend Recap

Thursday Evening

We started out the extended weekend with a date night in Mankato. First, however, we stopped by Dan and Kathi's to drop off a sewing machine we'd been storing at our house and visited with Kathi for a little bit. We ate at B-dubs (boneless wings with medium sauce for Mark, buffalitos with asian zing sauce for me), then made our way to Lowe's to check out our new range (which will be delivered May 17!!). We ended up buying a new over-the-range microwave to go with it as well as a few other household items. We also stopped at Cub and picked up some groceries before heading home.

Friday

Wake time: 9am
Changed out of our PJs: 5pm
Movies watched: 5 (Revenge of the Bridesmaids, 4 Weddings and a Funeral, Joneses, One Week, Salt)
Delicious food consumed: Um, yes!

We very much enjoyed our day off work on Friday - slept in, lounged around in our PJs, cleaned house, watched movies, and prepped for our evening plans. Our big accomplishments for the day included a short walk, some Zumba for me, and actually showering up! haha

The Breukers and Grabers made their way up for the evening, and we enjoyed visiting a bit at Godfather's over buffet pizza and salad and such. Afterwards, we went back to our house, hung out, and watched the "Women's Night Out" show.

Saturday

Wake time: 8am
Changed out of our PJs: 3pm
Movies watched: 1 (The Virgin Suicides)
Delicious food consumed: Of course!

Our friends, the McNabs were in town on their way through the country, so we invited them and our friends, the Stude's up for taco night! It was a delicious spread - how could it not be with fresh guac, pineapple salsa, lots of meat and a little Moscato (thanks, Kristin and Dan!) - and our tummies were definitely full by the time we settled in to watch the movie 'Salt'.

After the movie, we visited a little longer, gave them the grand tour, checked out the new jet ski, and said "adieu" until another time.

Easter Sunday

With the glazed ham finishing in the crockpot and cheesy potatoes waiting to be made after church, we made our way to church to enjoy the Easter service - CHRIST IS RISEN!! - and then made our way home to finish up some prep work in the house and kitchen.

We enjoyed the company of 7 extended family members on Mark's Dad's side of the family (Grandma Vi, Dean, Barb, Megan, Drew, Dave and Chris) for a grand total of 9 of us. We certainly had enough food for an army, and every last bit of it was delicious!





After lunch, we enjoyed delicious strawberry bars from Aunt Chris, and some coffee while visiting a bit more.

After our bellies were over-filled, we made our way on over to the living room to watch a little of the Twins game and check out some scrapbooks, and well, for Dean - to take a bit of a snoozer :)





While we missed those who couldn't be with us, we had a wonderful day visiting with those who could.

We enjoyed a nice long walk with Dave and Chris after the Worthington Johnsons headed back south - a true gem of a day with all the gloomy weather we'd been having leading up to the day!

HAPPY EASTER!

Long Night

I'm definitely needing the toothpicks to keep my eyes open this morning. But, in an effort to be positive, at least I'm not in Mark's shoes! In the past week, the poor guy has had a temporary crown put on, followed by it having to be re-set, and now it has turned into a trip to Mankato for a root canal :( While he probably shouldn't take old prescriptions, he has had no choice, as extra-strength Tylenol has done nothing for ht epain, and even with the strong opiates from his Achilles last year, it has hardly touched the pain :( He's at home trying to sleep on the off-set chance that something kicks in long enough to allow him to catch a few winks. Needless to say - it was a long long night.

We went for a long walk last night, which began with a slight drizzle, but ended in a light rain that soaked us a bit. It was a great effort to get the rainy day blahs out of our system, and even if we were dripping wet when we returned, it was still a nice walk :)

I'll try to work on a recap from the weekend soon, but in a nutshell, we had some wonderful spurts of fun in the midst of a very laid back weekend, and SO enjoyed visiting with our family and friends.

I'm getting EXCITED! :)

I'm getting excited about all my fun weekend plans coming up in the next few months :) Since it's always more fun to have something down in writing, I decided to make a list of the things I'm most excited about this spring/summer :) (They're listed in the order they come on the calendar.)

Fiesta Night with the McNabs and Studes Tonight

Dan and Kristin McNab are (once again) moving across the country, and while they're making a short stop in Brewster for Easter weekend, they're coming on up tonight with the Stude's for everything taco!

Easter dinner with the local Johnsons (Mark's Dad's side)

My taste buds are a little pumped up for the delicacies to come from this day :) I'm trying to replicate my glazed crockpot ham from two years ago, and will be scouring the interwebs today to find the perfect (healthier) cheesy potato recipe as well. We'll have a total of 9 people (including us, of course) for dinner. For those of you who know me, you know I'm an entertainer at heart, so this makes my heart smile :)

Daniel and Iryna's Wedding in May

Mark's older brother, Daniel, and his soon-to-be wife, Iryna will be tying the knot on May 7 in Worthington! We're so very excited to welcome (well, officially anyways - its been un-official for a while) Iryna and her daughter Sofie into our family! We'll finally have a niece to spoil on Mark's side of the family as well :)

Sarah and Jay's Wedding in June

Mark's younger sister, Sarah, and her soon-to-be husband, Johannes will be tying the knot on June 4 in Windom! It's so great to see the two of them so in love - both with each other, and with the Lord :)

Multiple friends' and family members' due dates/baby showers!

I have a total of five friends and/or family members expecting in 2011 (so far!) This includes a short trip to Indy for my friend, Mel Dilling's baby shower on May 21! We're bummed that we won't be able to see my brother Dan and his family that weekend (they'll be out of town), but excited to see Mel and Joe, as well as quite a few other friends!

Fun Summer on the Jet Ski!

Mark just picked up his new toy the other day, and we're super excited to get it out on the water! This hawk has 210hp (a huge step up from his 155hp one he sold last fall), and boy does it have some power under the hood! We're anticipating a fun summer!

ALASKA!! (August 24-September 7)

Our flights are booked and now we are narrowing down our lodging choices. We have our main cities and routes figured out, and can't WAIT!!

Keep posted on the trip plans on my Travel Blog

Happy 2nd Birthday to Caleb (Party in Humboldt)

After my fun girls' weekend in Coralville, I made my way to Humboldt to celebrate my nephew, Caleb's 2nd birthday at the farm. Mark also made it down for the day, which was nice, on his way back from picking up his new jet ski!

Decor

The theme this year was tractors (mainly of the green persuasion), since the little guy is kinda obsessed with tractors :)

Food

While I didn't get any good pictures of the taco bar, it was delicious, and the Larita's tractor cookies and yummy punch added to the cute theme. The cake was delicious as well!

Cousin Riley enjoyed his "walking taco" in a bag

Party!

Caleb and his family

Caleb sure loves his "Bampa" and "Nana" Vinsand :)






The newlyweds - Kim and "Ace"



Grandma Ruth trying to sneak a quick kiss for "on the go" Ben!

Kaleigh Mae was having a rough time of it, but managed to play for at least a little while with cousin Reign :)

Big Revelation

When I walked in the door, after giving a few hugs, I got some GREAT news! Let's see if you can figure it out as fast as I did:

Opening Gifts

If only we all had birthdays when we ended up super tired of opening gifts! lol

Cake

Caleb REALLY liked it when we sang "Happy Birthday" to him, so we sang it to him not once, not twice, not three times, but FOUR times haha :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CALEB!!