Thanksgiving and Such

Thanksgiving this year was so much fun! My parents and Kerri decided to fly out and spend the weekend with us. It was so good to FINALLY have some visitors and to give them a glimpse of our life out here in Milwaukee. We packed alot in over the weekend. They flew in on Thanksgiving Day so basically we just ate and relaxed. We also had our friends the Fairbourns and Fitzgeralds join us for the feast and it was all great food. The boys even helped with the dishes! (see below) The guys played lots of Rook and the girls relaxed, watched Miracle on 34th Street, and mapped out our route for the Black Friday sales.

My Mom in MY apartment- it was so fun to have them.

The Thanksgiving Spread

The gang

Such good helpers!

I love this picture- Mom was tired from a day of traveling and eating =)

So Friday after a day of shopping we went to downtown Milwaukee and went to the 'Christmas Carol' play at the Pabst Theater. They had a beautiful Christmas tree in their lobby so we had to have a little photo shoot.

The play was so much fun. The acting and set were so good. It was a great way to kick off the Holiday Season. Thanks for coming out Mom, Dad, and Kerri! I will always remember all the fun times we had. Hope you can make it out again SOON!

Christmas in Chicago

So the Saturday after Thanksgiving we decided to go down to Chicago to see the decorations and to do a little shopping. Neither of my parents had ever been there and Mom was dying to see Michigan Avenue. We left bright and early and had a fun day seeing Chicago. It was a perfect day to take it all in.

Cozy in the backseat- love that shot of Dad.

Pilot and Co-Pilot

Chicago!!

The girlers

Me and My Honey

So on our wanderings down Michigan Avenue there were two ladies outside wearing these big fur coats and they told us we HAD to check out their store. So we did. Upstairs there were these crazy, huge, expensive fur coats. The owners were so nice they let us try them on and let us take pictures (knowing very well we had no intention of buying anything). They were so fancy. We decided to try our shot at modeling.

Mom wins best model. She's already been recruited. Me? I gave up my contract a long time ago....Haha.

Macy's was decorated so pretty! It was just like off of a movie. Kerri and I got our make-up done and browsed the nine floors. We love Chicago.

Christmas 2009

Christmas this year was awesome. We spent Christmas with my family and then went over to Washington for a very quick trip. We were supposed to stay there through New Year's but the weather wasn't cooperating so we had to come back early. Sorry Barbers! We wish we could have stayed longer. But despite the weather, we had a great trip home.

Before we left for home I surprised Dave with his Christmas/Birthday/Anniversary/any other occasion present. For the past two years Dave has been complaining about our TV, so about 8 months ago I started saving. I was planning on saving it for his birthday, but I cracked one night because there was a good deal. So, he got his present early and I must say I love it just as much as he does, if not more =) Now I'm just trying to find a sofa/console table to go with it....

Christmas in Montana- Santa didn't forget us!
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

Dave and Jason with their stocking treats

The aftermath....

There were so many ping pong tournaments I think everyone lost track who was ahead. Fun times.

It was so fun to see everyone again (minus Melissa's family =( ) Can't wait to see everyone again.

They even let me play one game.

Merry Christmas 2009!

"Is It Somebody's Birthday?"

Well the best day of the year has come and it has gone. =) My Birthday was awesome this year! I was excited to turn 23 and was expecting to just open presents, go out for dinner and hang out on the actual day. To my HUGE surprise, Dave had a birthday get-away planned. We went down to Chicago Friday night and stayed at the Marriott down there (thanks Christoph for the hookup!). It was so much fun! I love big cities- well I love to visit them I should say. It's a totally different feel and everything seems so exciting. We didn't get down there until about 7:30 so we walked around downtown on Michigan Ave for a little bit and then ate dinner. I didn't take any pictures of Friday night because it was cold and rainy and I didn't feel like getting wet. It was a blast though. We shopped all day on Saturday- it's amazing how much money I could've spent. I found some cute things with my birthday money and could've spent ALOT more! Thanks sweetie for one of the best birthdays ever! Here are a few pics to capture it all:

Oh, it felt so good to step foot into that store again!

Dave was such a trooper while I went in and out of all the stores. Not one bit of complaining for him! He made a Lego friend while he waited.

A glimpse of the city. We both loved downtown Chicago and thought it was so pretty.

They had these huge statues of that famous couple in the painting. I can't remember what it's called right now. You know what I mean right? Right! =)

Yeah this is it! We tried to imitate them. Dave did a pretty good job.

We went inside the Hershey's store and they had this 5 pound candy bar! It had over 10, 000 calories in it. Yumm....

I was in heaven with all the Reese's candy (it's my favorite). I wanted to eat it all.

We went into the Lamborghini store- it is ridiculous how much these cars cost. Dave had fun though.

I told Dave I want this for my next birthday. Riiiiiiiiiiiiggghhht.

Dave really wanted me to take a picture of this gas station that's near our house. Pretty sweet.

Dinner with my Girls!!

So the tradition continues. Jill, Haley, and Tiffany took me out to California Pizza Kitchen (AKA CPK). I love this place. We had a great time but we were really struggling with pictures that night. NONE of them were turning out cute. What is happening to us? So as promised, I posted them in a smaller version. Thanks girls for taking me out and for the funny memories, and Haley thank you for the now infamous quote. =)

Tiff and Haley

Me & Jill

So after dinner we got a little goofy. We sat in Tiffany's car and took funny pictures, well to us at least. We took all sorts of them. It was like being in high school again. We were laughing so hard. Loved it.

Tiff & I- we should be models =)

Our "Pretend that you're scared" faces

Yeah, we look scary.

Numero DOS!!

So as some of you may remember I ran my first Half Marathon last summer. I thought I would probably do another one sometime again, and I did. My friend Jill talked me into doing one with her and I'm glad I did. We ran the Lake Country half marathon in Oconomowoc. It was only 30 minutes away and such a BEAUTIFUL run! It made it go by so much faster. I was very nervous the night before the race because I contracted a cold a couple days earlier and the night before I was not feeling too hot. But I woke up and felt pretty good. The day after the race was a diferent story. We had a great run, but I am glad it's over!

Stats:

Time: 1:49:16 (my goal was to break 2 hours)

Ranking: 8th Place (my age group)

Pictures:

Before the race- one last trip to the outhouse =)

The nerves started getting the best of us, we got a little goofy.
FINISH!!! We finished our race with great times.

Dave was so kind to be our chauffeur. He opted out on this race and every race to come. Last year's race was his max.

And these ladies made the race AWESOME! Tiffany and Haley were there to cheer us on. They came bright and early at 7am with these AMAZING and CUTE signs. They are so great. They followed us at different points throughout the race and gave us motivation to keep going.

They blew up pictures of our heads and glued them to sticks. It was hilarious.

Thanks for coming girls! I just have the best friends out here. Love them so much!

Good job Jill! We finished and celebrated at the Original Pancake House. I have had zero desire to run since the race. I might pick it up again one of these days.

Quick Trip

So in the middle of August I made a quick weekend trip home to see my whole family (Except for nicholas and Courtney who couldn't make it! ) But Melissa and her whole fam came up from Texas so I decided to make a quick jaunt home. It was so much fun, but it was FREEZING! And of course the one weekend I leave Milwaukee, it is one of the first nice weekends they had all summer. Oh well- I still loved being able to go home.

My brother Michael is one of the most hard-core Republicans I have ever met, so as a little joke we placed this bumper sticker on his van. He didn't notice for over a day, and drove the van around town-even to church. It was hilarious. Maybe he's a secret Obama admirer....Yeah right.

What perfect timing! The Fair was going on at the weekend we were all together and if anybody knows my family, we LOVE the fair. It is a summer tradition and I'm so glad I was able to be there for it. But let me remind you how COLD it was. It was in the 50's in the middle of August. I cannot remember EVER going to the fair wearing winter coats and bringing blankets to watch the rodeo.

Dad was such a good sport holding all our coats and purses while we went on the Zipper. I went with my Mom and we had so much fun! I forget how much I love that ride.

I have always wondered what I might look like when I'm pregnant....

The fair was complete with a trip to the rodeo.

Alot of our cousins were in town as well so we had a big BBQ with everyone at my parents' house. It was so fun to see everyone.

I have the cutest nieces and nephews ever. Love 'em all.