September 2011 Recap

Alaska Trip (August 27-September 11)

We started September in Alaska, flying into Anchorage, then staying 4 nights in Homer, 4 nights in Seward, an overnight in Talkeetna, 4 nights in Denali and 2 nights in Anchorage before flying home on Sunday the 11th.

We were able to see lots of beautiful sights, do some deep sea fishing, 2 glacier hikes, a 6 hour wildlife cruise, an 11-hour bus tour into Denali National Park, and ate lots and lots of delicious, fresh seafood.

For a full recap of each city, they're listed below:

Home to Homer
Homer
Homer to Seward
Seward
Girdwood and Talkeetna
Talkeetna Flightseeing to Denali
Denali
Denali to Anchorage
Anchorage and Going Home

Gender Ultrasound (September 13)

We scheduled the ultrasound to find out Baby Johnson's gender for the day after we got back from Alaska.

It's a BOY!!

You can view the ultrasound pictures and what not on my baby blog by clicking here.

Prepping the Nursery (September 16)

We began to tackle the task of clearing the nursery room and beginning to prepare it to be a nursery!

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Turkey Day (September 17)

We had a full day down in Worthington to celebrate with family and friends for King Turkey Day! It began with a pancake breakfast with Grandma, followed by visiting with Barb, Megan and Grandma at the house, cheering on Aunt Chris during the 10K, then the parade with friends. We finished off the day by visiting extensively with our friends Curt and Nancy, starting a baby registry at ShopKo, and then meeting up with Curt and Nancy again at Perkins for supper.


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Kaleigh's Birthday Party (September 18)

We headed down to Humboldt for a day trip to celebrate Kaleigh's 1st birthday at her party. We enjoyed the day visiting with family and it was fun watching the tiniest tots now walking!

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Our 5th Anniversary (September 23)

For our 5th Anniversary, we obviously celebrated earlier in the month with our big trip to Alaska, but we also like to do a little something on the day itself. Unfortunately, on the actual day, Mark was really sick, so it was a little more low-key. The day after, we were able to have an evening in Mankato to shop a little bit and enjoy dinner together at Old Country Buffet.

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Productive Project Weekend (September 24)

This particular weekend, we managed to get a lot of projects done around the house. Mark helped our contractor friend Scott finish up the garage while I worked inside canning some sweet pickles, prepping squash for the freezer and baking some bread.

Click for a full recap.

Productive Saturday (Sept 24)

With Mark feeling under the weather recently, I wasn't really anticipating being able to do much today, so I figured on it being a full day in the kitchen! However, since Mark decided to ditch one of the prescriptions he got (that was making him tired, lethargic, have a horrible headache, and just feel body aches all over), he had pepped up a bit from yesterday (hallelujah!).

Around 7am, he got a text from our friend Scott, who also happens to be the contractor we hired to help with our garage project that has taken almost 7 years to dig into. Scott said today was the day, and we were both THRILLED!

Shortly after 8am, Scott and his buddy Jason showed up and got to work! Here are some before pictures:

Hard at work!

The main project we were hoping to accomplish was to get 3 new windows put in to the garage, even though there was only 1 window there to begin with. This would let a LOT more light into the garage as well as allow Mark to finish off the walls down the road. Scott and Jason also added in 2 vents in the roof last week and another vent in the side of the house right up there above the windows this day. They worked hard all morning...

...so I decided to begin tackling a few projects of my own!

Project #1: Bake up the remaining 2 butternut squash and turn 1 of them into Butternut Squash Soup

Baking the squash was easy, and I used this recipe from the Food Network for the soup, but added a jar of cinnamon applesauce to it as well, which proved to be a GREAT decision! It added a little more of a thicker texture to the soup, and it was delicious!

Project #2: Make some Zucchini Pecan Bread

My absolute favorite zucchini bread recipe comes out of the most desolate looking cookbook I have (thanks to a glue-from-the-binding melting incident about 3 weeks after our wedding): The Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.

It was gone before we left for Mankato lol I didn't even have time to take a picture. Yeah, it was good!

Project #3: Try my hand at canning pickles

They turned out pretty darn good from what I can tell too, but I was incredibly disorganized about it all. They turned out awesome, though, and are very tasty! I made 6 pints and already have most of one of them gone lol

And before I knew it, the garage work was done!

With Mark beginning to feel better, we got cleaned up and headed to Mankato to do a little shopping, finished our Target registry, and had dinner at Old Country Buffet. It was good to see him feeling better after how sick he had been the rest of the week.

It was quite an unexpected, but productive Saturday at the Johnson house! We are thrilled to have worst part of the garage project finished, the pickles pickled, the squash in the freezer for winter, and a hubby who feels MUCH much better :)

Our 5th Anniversary Recap (Sept 23)

While we celebrated our anniversary with the fun Cabin Nite Dinner Theatre while in Alaska...

...we tend to like to do a little celebrating on the day itself as well. Our anniversary this year was an interesting one to say the least. Earlier in the week, Mark came down with an upper respiratory infection and was down and out most of the rest of the week, including the worst of it on our anniversary :(

Nonetheless, he managed to send me a beautiful bouquet of flowers to work!

Thanks, honey!! They're beautiful!

The rest of the evening was just a typical evening at home, but we made the best of it: watched a couple movies, played a little UpWords, went for a super short walk and I made some Goup over garlic red-skinned mashed potatoes. We vowed to celebrate when Mark started feeling a little better.

The next day we continued on the celebration, as Mark was feeling much better, and decided to spend the evening in Mankato. It was nice to spend some time doing a little shopping, and going out to eat somewhere. We initially intended to hit up Neighbors, but didn't have as much time as we anticipated if we wanted to get all our other errands in, so we decided to hit up the Old Country Buffet for a little quicker meal instead.

Even if it wasn't glitz and glimmer, we had a nice weekend :)

So here we are, 5 years in, and it feels like just yesterday we said our vows, but now we've got a little one on the way :)

Five Years! (Sept 23)

Five years ago, I married my best friend :) Since that day, we've been through a lot of ups and downs, but thanks to our gracious Lord and Savior, our marriage has stayed rock solid.

So much has changed in five years, including births, deaths, marriages, projects, travels, and plenty of "sickness" to care (as odds would have it, even today!) for and "health" to celebrate! Through it all, I can't imagine having anyone else standing by my side to share it all with.

Happy Anniversary, Mark! You make me smile, laugh, strengthen my faith, feel so alive, and give me the encouragement I need to be as strong as I am through whatever life throws as me. The first 5 years have flown by, so I can't imagine how quickly the next 50 will pass as well!

One thing is for sure: It'll be a busy, crazy, trying next ten years with babies, then toddlers, then school-aged kids in the house, and learning to adapt our little family of 2 to a family of 3 or more. But I wouldn't want to share it with anyone else.

Love, Me

Kaleigh's 1st Birthday Party (Sept 18)

Mark and I headed on down to Humboldt to celebrate Kaleigh's first birthday with her (although a few days later than the actual date) in Humboldt!

We made it down for church with Mom and Jason, then headed out to the farm for the big party!

Kaleigh was sleeping when we got there (and through most of the eating part), but woke up after a while to join in the festivities :)

Brother Caleb had to help blow out the candles, though :)

Little Kaleigh was still kinda waking up from her nap :)

But she managed to do a really good job eating up her birthday cupcake!

Grandma and Caleb had a fun time playing with the balloons - Caleb was going a little crazy! Aunt Tiff got him started and all riled up lol

Grandma was being such a tease :)

Time for Cake!

Before long, we all decided to dig into the cupcakes as well - YUM!!

Presents!!

It was fun to see these two little munchkins running around all over the place!

You just wouldn't believe they are only 6 days apart, would you?

Party Time!

2 more on the way!

Elicia and I are 9 weeks apart and decided to do a little belly shot :) I am at 21 weeks here, and Elicia was at 30 weeks!

Happy Birthday, Kaleigh Mae!

And congrats to Mom and Dad Vinsand on making it through the first year :)

It was obviously quite the party, judging by the birthday girl's shirt: