Every Day Was Wonderful.

Welcome home to myself and cheers to being back on mountain time. I was just thinking to myself that I felt so much more motivation to blog back home in Wisconsin and felt overly inspired but had less time to actually do so. I'm loving all the reactions, hugs, cheers and high fives I've gotten regarding my last post. To say that Joel and I are ecstatic about moving home into a house. to call our own. is one solid understatement. Oofta! 

The last ten days back in the Midwest were dreamy. Yes, I said dreamy and no not specifically because the majority of my thoughts were day dreams of living in the house I grew up in and remodeling it and filling it with children but that's accurate. Let me tell you friends, I have baby fever. There are so many ridiculously awesome and adorable babies filling my life. I'm reminding myself every day to just enjoy the days with Joel and that we have the rest of our lives to procreate and lets just enjoy our friend's babies for now. The times that we are naked and giving each other massages to spa music, are times we tell ourselves we wouldn't want to go comfort a crying baby. 

After a 15 hour drive that I slept through entirely, we made it to Durand, Wisconsin and the first person we saw was my sister in law and her new puppy. Intending to catch up on sleep before even setting up our tent, we laid in the sun and caught up on life but never on sleep. As my close friends and our families filed into the land, I was like a five year old on Christmas morning, cheesing from ear to ear. That night, I also found out that I'm not only going to be an Aunt for the first time, but I'll be an Aunt to a little boy, who I hope learns all his dance moves from his Dad, my hilarious Brother. 

After an amazing weekend cathing up with my girlfriends, playing flip cup with water (because that's what you do when you're 26 and refuse to be hung over the following morning) endless laughs, a perfect weather river float and too much delicious food, the weekend I wait for all summer long, came to an end. And it couldn't have been a more perfect way to start my ten day long vacation, where summers are the absolute best. 

 

Before Joel and I even came home, we agreed that a trip to Valley Fair was quite necessary, partly because that last time I had been there, I had braces and I couldn't remember the last time I indulged in Dippin' Dots a couple times in one day. Conveniently, my girlfriends had already planned a date to go and it worked out for us to be at their sides. We couldn't have asked for a better day, weather wise and we even got stuck on a ride, but only for a few minutes. Joel and I ended that day with a send-off dinner at his Grandparent's house for his Cousin who just moved to London for the next year and a half. Eating delicious food and sitting on the grass, blowing bubbles and sharing funny conversations about 'the secret ingredient' in the bubble mixture, it's times like those that I feel lucky that I'll be marrying into the family someday. I chuckle to myself each time I've said that in conversation the last couple days because, hey! I can now. I'm not being crazy. Being with someone for over five years and already having gone to look at rings with them, I can say that and not be a crazy female. ;) 

I visited the Early Childhood center that set the bar high for me. The amazing management and co-workers that I had there all turned into family and I was devastated to leave them but at the time, was excited for our adventures in moving our life to Colorado. I saw kids that are now three that I had in the older infant room prior to leaving. I saw one little girl I used to babysit and hugged her way too tight after she shoved her chair back, threw her crayon down on the table and came right over to me as I walked into her Pre-K class, in hopes to see her. I sang "Happy Birthday" to a former co-worker, gave lots of hugs and feel confident that I want my job back there, upon returning home and of course, I'm bringing my babies there someday. "I will hire you back tomorrow if that's what you want," was a sentence that made me even more excited to move home. 

Last year, Joel's Aunt had the wonderful idea of each of the grandchildren having a designated month to do something special for their Grandma. Our month was August and could not have worked better, us both being home for a little over a week. Joel and I picked up his Grandma, spent the day catching up, eating lunch and filling her in on our life plans all while enjoying life's natural beauty at the Minnesota Arboretum. I can't even tell you how beautiful it was, you guys. The colors! Ah! I live for that stuff! 

I would imagine Spring there is insane. I couldn't stop thinking about how great it was for us to spend that one on one time with his Grandma and how badly I wanted to go back during every single season and take an obnoxious amount of pictures of the Crab Apple Tree field. 

We also made a trip to Vino in the Valley, which is the cutest little vineyard between two valleys in Wisconsin. We drank delicious wine with my parents and my Brother's Godfather and his wife, ate amazing food, listened to great music and witnessed two hot air balloons, filling up and taking off. 

We ended our trip home with a celebration at the cutest wedding venue you've ever seen. 

At the rehearsal, I said to Joel that I thought the venue was perfect and "Hmm, would Kevin and Kristen mind if we got married there, as well?" Unfortunately, the venue closes down by 10:00PM and I would like to avoid having the same exact wedding photos as our family, so we'll be looking elsewhere. It was a fun thought.

Congrats to Joel's Brother, Kevin, and his new Wife, Kristen. Aside from the scalding hot sun during family photos, the day couldn't have been more perfect. 

We love love.

Yep, I want to get married now.