Harry Potter, Memorial Day & Malcolm…

I’ve had a busy few weeks, and am just now getting around to posting about it!  I attended LeakyCon 2009 in Boston recently.  It was  a lot of fun, and I came home with the dreaded LC1F09 (or the illness everyone got from LeakyCon!).  I’ll try to give a run down of my time there with pictures!

My friend Abbey that I went to LeakyCon with is on the Leaky Cauldron staff, so I ended up helping out with a lot of the registration stuff.  We spent much time in the coat check putting together name tags and registration bags.  Here is a picture of what we did:

I even got a LeakyCon Staff shirt, though I’m not on staff!  I actually had a lot of fun doing that, even though at times it was stressful and chaotic during the actual registration.  I think we pretty much handled it well and everyone got in to the conference that was supposed to!

So the first day was just registration and then Opening Feast in the “Great Hall”.  Across the street from our hotel was “The Castle”…it was a huge building that looked like a castle in the middle of downtown Boston!  Unfortunately I didn’t get any shots of it from the outside.  Inside however, it was decorated to look like the Great Hall from HP!  It was really awesome.  All the tables were decorated in Slytherin green, Ravenclaw blue, Gryfindor red and Hufflepuff yellow.  Here’s a few shots:

The banners were amazing, though I’m still trying to figure out why the Slytherin banner was purple and green…I of course got tons of shots of the Ravenclaw banner, as I claim myself to be a Ravenclaw.  The Great Hall is where most of the big events of the conference took place.

Here is me and Abbey rockin’ it Harry Potter style at the opening feast.

And what would a party in Boston be without some street dancing?? (Abbey, MJ, Jeff and Josh)

The highlight of opening feast: finally meeting Hank Green of the NERDFIGHTERS!  You should seriously check them out the vlogbrothers on YouTube.  I’ve meet John 3 times now, but this was my first Hank sighting

So that was the first night…Abbey and I made our way back to our hotel room after a bit of chilling in the Leaky Suite.  We jammed ourselves into our air mattresses, tucked between 2 beds in the room.  We were sharing with 4 other people, so there were 6 people in a 2-4 person room.  Cozy.  The next day however we were upgraded!  Due to some issues with the hotel the Suite was upgraded, leaving an extra room in the suite and because the staff knew of our cramped conditions they offered it to us.  I unfortunatly forgot to take pictures of the sweet suite (get it??) but it was amazing.  We all had our own cot, bed, couch or air mattress so no one had to share.  And the room was huge.  On the other side was a huge kitchen, 2 large round tables, 2 bedrooms and an outside patio that was AMAZING!  Sure, sleeping at night was a bit of a problem since the LeakySuite is where all the staff hung out at night, as well as some of the confrence speakers and random attendees that tracked down the suite.  Often times the party didn’t break up until 4 or 5 in the morning.  I would usually put on my iPod to drown out the noise when I was ready for bed, which was about 3 or 4 am!  I did manage to get some shots of the balcony:

You can just see Boston in the background of this shot

Okay, so day 2 – I spent the morning watching a vender booth for Julie May who was at the key note speaker that day.  Abbey and I rode to Boston with Julie and Kelly.  Julie makes beautiful glass work jewelery and also prints.  She does some of the jewelery in HP colors, so I got some Ravenclaw color earrings   You should check out her website and order stuff!  That afternoon was “Nosh with the Nerdfighters” which I was in the front row for with Abbey.

And here are the Vlogbrothers themselves!  Hank & John Green.  They’ve emassed quite the following, and no wonder!  Their videos are hilarious, engaging, informative and they also do a lot of work to decrease “world suck”.  Gotta love them!

Oh, and Hank writes and sings songs.  Some of them Harry Potter themed.  Here is my favorite, and a little vlogbrothers dialouge, too!  Accio Deathly Hallows:

Sweet, sweet nerd music.  You should also check out DFTBA records for more nerd music.  It’s a record company Hank started to release the music of YouTube musicians.  I’m particularily excited about the Doctor Who band Chameleon Circuit!

Okay, so that night was the Wizard Wrock night at the Castle.  I’m not really a fan of Wizard Wrock.  I’ll listen to it when it’s there, but I don’t go seeking it out.  What is Wizard Wrock?  Well, you may have guessed, but it’s band who only sing and write songs about the Harry Potter world.  There are bands called: Harry and the Potters, The Moaning Myrtles, The Remus Lupins, The Parselmouths, Swish and Flick  and others…It was fun just to go and hang out with my new HP friends.

Here’s Steven.  Kelly found him in the hotel lobby day 1 and brought him up to the coat check room to help us with registration!  He’s now on Leaky Staff!  Go Steven!

And this is me and Abbey with Farrah LeWinde.  She is a lot of fun and managed to get Hank to donate a dollar to LeakyCon (you can see it poking out of her shirt…).

Here’s a shot of one of the bands.  I think maybe it’s Harry and the Potters?  They sang one song that I really liked (and one of the only ones I could understand the words) called “Bacon”.

So, Day 3 – I managed to get to some programing!  The first I went to was on Father’s in the Harry Potter world where I found myself defending Lucius Malfoy – who knew!  I’m also apparently on YouTube somewhere, as they were filming the session and the camera woman asked if she could film my answer.  I’ll try to see if I can find it!  I also went to a completly amazing session about the symbols and other liturature that influenced Harry Potter by John Granger.  He has a lot more books than the one I linked to.   You should check them all out

That night was the LeakyCon Ball.  Everyone got dressed up and rocked out to the music.

Me, Josh and Abbey in our fancy clothes!

They had the Department of Mysteries veil set up, so Abbey and I got our picture taken in front of it

And peeking under it, trying to find Sirius Black (the biggest question I have for the whole HP series is what’s behind that veil)!!

I had a great time at LeakyCon – got very little sleep, got swollen feet riding in a car for 20 hours on the way home and contracted the LC1F09, but I had a great time.  We got to Abbey’s place at 6:00 am Chicago time and crashed on Memorial Day.  We woke up at 1 pm to get ready for a Memorial Day party at Le Chateau Oiulmette.

We were both EXHAUSTED but it was nice to get back and see our friends and have some great grilled food!  There was also Smashminton to be had, which I did not play because I feared I would fall over from exhaustion!  Abbey got the LC1F09 very bad so she ended up sleeping during the party and went home early.  She’s just now starting to get better.

Enjoying the Smashminton…

Our host, Rev. Tripp in his seersucker and suspendies.

Of course, the obligatory foot shot, showing of my new Ravenclaw socks!!!

Sarah and Evy enjoying the game.

Here is a bit of video of the day at Le Chateau…Obsquatch and Trish trying to “team up” for some Smashminton glory!

Sadly, I didn’t make it very long at the party and we left around 8ish and I went home and went straight to bed.

The next day, Justin and I celebrated Malcolm’s 3rd birthday!  We have a tradition of going to our regular pet shop and getting Mal and new toy, then walking to the other pet shop that carries special treats and getting him a “cake”.  We then go home, sing happy birthday, give him is treat and then the new toy!  It was, of course, raining on his big day so instead of a big walk he got a car ride.

Waiting to go in the puppy shop…

Our pet store guy giving Mal some treats!

The cake…isn’t it cute??

And here we are singing to the Birthday boy!

I was sick, so you’ll have to excuse the shaky voice…

Well, that’s it for now.  Hope you are all doing well

 

More Samson

Here is the promised video of Samson:

And a cute picture of Malcolm, finally realizing there’s something in that bowl of water.  Now he always sits in front of the mantle wanting to be picked up to look at the fish.  I think he just likes the smell of the fish food and wants to eat it!

 

As promised…

Here are some pics and another video of Justin and I announcing news to our families!

First off, we headed up to Minnesota for my mom’s birthday party. It was of course a perfect excuse to go up and also to give her a card with an ultrasound picture in it! I got her a cute card that said “It’s your birthday Grandma!” and on the inside I wrote “See you around October 9th! Love, Zippy Thornburgh” (Zippy is what we’re calling the baby until it’s born. It’s short for Zippy the Zygote, though technically the little one has not been a zygote for quite some time. Baby T actually just started it’s first few days as a fetus, graduating from the embryo stage late last week).  Here’s what happened when mom opened the card (sorry it’s a bit dark, she was sitting right in front of the bright window):

The next weekend we were able to head down to Springfield, IL to tell Justin’s mom the good news!  She was also very shocked and happy.  Again, it was a big surprise to her, and also even more excited because this will make her 3rd grandchild in a year!  Justin’s brother married a wonderful woman last September who has a little boy named Logan.  They are now expecing a child in September – I know!  It’s very possible that Jen and I could have our babies on the same day, or at least not too far apart!  We unfortunatly didn’t get any video of the reaction, but here is a picture I snapped.  Malcolm seems to be very excited, too!

You can see the post just before this for an awesome video my friend Abbey put together of reactions from some of our friends when we told them the news.  It’s so great that now everyone knows and we don’t have to keep it a secret anymore!  It’s been VERY difficult not to shout out to the rooftops about this blessing in our lives!  We’re very much looking forward to the growing of our family and to welcome a new little person into the world!  Oh, and of course, ready to let all of you help us to raise our child to be the best it can be.  They say it takes a village, but why can’t it take a whole world?

 

Yup…that’s my dog!

An email I just recieved from my husband, detailing the thought process of our dog attempting to get in the bedroom this morning to snuggle with me:

“mal was so funny this morning.

“after we came in, after he had his treat, like he normally does he went and sat in front of the bedroom door. Normally we go straight in, but this morning i fixed a bowl of cereal. he sat still at the door and was staring at the door know. I was watching the gears turn in his wee brain.”

“–ok…that magic button up there does something…i know food guy touches it and food gal is on the other side….ok…i can’t reach it…damn…ok…hmmm…magic button…open…damn….magic button i command you to open…damn you….if i stare at you very focused like you will open………(staring)……….damn. food guy is over there laughing at me…..damn you food guy….magic button…how i wish you would work for me.”

 

An Update of my life…

Hello all! Thought I better update before I got way behind! I’ve had a busy week! Last Saturday (that is, June 21st), Justin and I met my sister and her family up at Wisconsin Dells at the Noah’s Ark water park for a day of sun and slides! Justin and Nicole went on practically everything – twice! My sister Shannon did a few slides, while John, Hannah and I claimed the kiddie park! I’m not really a fan of water…or slides…or being wet, but I had a good time in the wave pool and the 2 lazy rivers! Hannah LOVED the red slide at the kiddie park, though she did not so much like getting water in her face! I think she went down that slide about 100 times! By the time we got to supper she was passed out! Poor baby. Here are some pics from that day:

Hannah also liked the turtle shaped slide. Here she is with her daddy, John.

There was a bucket at the kiddie park that will fill with water and then douse anyone who was standing under it…can you find Justin??

After the water park, Nicole hopped in our car and came back to Chicago with us for the week. This is a tradition we started the first year Justin and I were married and living in Chicago, but unfortunately last summer it just didn’t work out. This year we made the most of it though!

Sunday night we had people over for dinner and I made Chicken Coconut Curry then watched X-men 3. Nicky lounged on the couch.

Malcolm really liked having Nicky around all week! You can see he has laid claim to her in this photo.

On Monday, Justin took Nicole to the Hancock building downtown and also to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch. They walked along the lake front, looked at the shops downtown, and Nicky got some photos of graffiti. Here are some pics:

Nicole on the platform, waiting for the ‘L train

A view from the Hancock Observatory…they had a BEAUTIFUL clear day to see the city! Justin got one shot where you can see a building all the way up in Wilmette!

The monster piece of Cookie Dough cheesecake that Nicky had for lunch that day at the Cheesecake Factory!

On Tuesday Justin took her to Devon St, the Indian/Pakistani neighborhood. They had Indian food for lunch (I hear the curried lamb was fabulous!) And hit a bunch of the shops. Nicole got a beautiful Saree that is pink, purple and orange. After Devon St, they headed for Belmont St. and hit The Alley as well as a few other shops. Nik got some really neat books from The Alley. Sorry, no pictures for this day!

On Wednesday I took over and we headed to the Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum. The aquarium is always my favorite. I love all the fishes and other water creatures! Beluga whales are my favorite to watch! At the Field Museum we went to the Mythical Creatures exhibit. That was one of the main things I wanted to do while Nicole was down here, because I knew she would enjoy it! Unfortunately they didn’t let us take any photos inside the exhibit. But here is a neat one of the Belugas…a mommy and new baby!

Thursday was our shopping on Clark St. day and going to the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago. On Clark we hit a bunch of different shops including few antique stores, Bon Bon’s, the Paper Trail, Kopi, the Brown Elephant (where Nicky found some plaid pants) and ate at Huey’s Hot Dogs. After lunch, we drove downtown and picked up Justin after work and then went to the Oriental Institute. Our good friend Sarah works there and was going to give us a tour, but turned out she had to move that week, so it didn’t work out…we still had a great time there and got to see my favorite kind of stuff – Ancient Near Eastern artifacts!!

Description from the OI website: “This colorful striding lion, its mouth opened in a threatening roar, once decorated a side of the ‘Processional Way’ in ancient Babylon (the Biblical city of Babel). The ‘Processional Way’ led out of the city through a massive gate named for the Mesopotamian goddess of love and war, Ishtar, whose symbol was the lion. Each year, during the celebration of the great New Year Festival, the images of the city’s deities were carried out through the Ishtar Gate and along the ‘Processional Way’ past some 120 lions such as this one to a special festival house north of the city.”

Here is Nicole and with the “lamassu”, the bull (which is Sarah’s ‘boyfriend’). Again, from the OI website: “This colossal sculpture was one of a pair that guarded the entrance to the throne room of King Sargon II. A protective spirit known as a “lamassu”, it is shown as a composite being with the head of a human, the body and ears of a bull, and the wings of a bird. When viewed from the side, the creature appears to be walking; when viewed from the front, to be standing still. Thus it is actually represented with five, rather than four, legs.”

And here is Nicole with King Tut!

Friday was a day of driving to Minnesota. Justin and I had a wedding reception that night, and of course I forgot to bring my camera!! Grr…argh! Hopefully I can get a few shots from someone else (hint hint Susie!). We had a good time and it was fun to see some old friends I haven’t seen in a long time

On Saturday my mom, grandma, Nicole, Justin and I headed up to Rochester for some shopping and family time. I got a few new work shirts (which I needed desperatly!) and Nicole found a new pair of pants and a RECORD!! Yes, actual vinyl, not a CD! I’ve introduced her to to love that is vinyl records and gave her my old record player that’s been sitting at my mom’s house for the past 5 years collecting dust. I’m so proud!

Sunday was a birthday lunch for my little sister Robbin. We had ham and salads and DQ Ice Cream Cake…Mmmm! It was good to spend time with the family. Here’s a picture of my dad and Hannah playing together (my dad is wearing Hannah’s hat).

July 4th is this Friday, and we’ll be heading to Madison to spend the weekend with my best friend Susie, her husband Erik and our goddaughter Jannah! I really can’t wait. I’m sure I’ll have another post next week with pictures from the weekend! Malcolm will be spending the holiday with Randy and “Uncle” Albert (the basset hound). Happy holiday to you all!

 

Funny Face

So Justin and I did a 5 mile Walk-a-Thon to raise money for Family Matters here in Chicago last month. I got a few nice pictures (which you can see on my picture website from Shutterfly). The organizer for our team gave me some pics to scan in for the church office to have. I was looking at the large group shot when I noticed something:

See it? No? Okay…how about I zero in a bit…

See it now? Okay…a little bigger…

There it is…a funny face from Malcolm!!!

He’s so cute…Justin thinks he looks like he just ate a lemon

 

Birthdays, Indiana Jones, and Sunday Dinner

Hello all! Time for another update. This weekend was once again full of fun and friends! I have a feeling that this summer will have very few empty weekends! We’re already looking forward to many weddings, a week long visit from my niece Nicole, camping, traveling and other fun! It will be an expensive busy summer, but I’ve very much looking forward to it!

So, on Friday we celebrated the 2nd birthday of our dog, Malcolm Reynolds Thornburgh. He seemed very enthused when we sang “Happy Birthday” to him…I think he really just wanted to eat the cake! He also got a couple of new toys, including his new favorite – a squeaky, stuffed warthog that we named “Piggy”. Piggy is about the same size as Mal, so it’s really fun to watch him play with it and try to carry it around in his mouth!

Here’s the birthday boy with his cake…he looks really excited to have his picture taken, doesn’t he?

The next day, I hosted an Indiana Jones Movie Marathon!  It began at 12:30 pm and we watched the first 3 movies in a row.  There was food, themed beverages and games!  I made trivia questions to go with each movie and a few bonus questions.  The winner of that game got an Indy “action figure”.  There was also the Last Crusade Cup game.  I had the table covered in all different types of cups and glasses and each one had a red sticker on the bottom.  Most said, “You have chosen…poorly” but one said “You have chosen…wisely.”  The goal was obviously to choose the correct cup.  The winner got a pack of Indiana Jones trading cards.  I thought that was pretty clever if I do say so myself

Here is the table, covered in the cups, glasses and mugs.

Close up of the center piece I made for the party.  The “stones” are boxes wrapped in packing paper.  It was covered in bugs, a monkey and a snake!  The ball on top is one of those Styrofoam balls painted brown to look like the big rolling rock at the beginning of “Raiders of the Lost Ark”.

Themed beverages, from “Temple of Doom” – the “poison” was ginger ale, and the “antidote” was blue kool-aid.  If you don’t get it, go back and watch the opening sequence of Temple of Doom!

Here are some of the people that came to the party enjoying the show.  We had about 15-18 people in and out throughout the day.

After we watched the first 3 a group of 6 of us went up to Evanston and watched “Temple of the Crystal Skull.”  It was a good day all around!

Of course the next day was Sunday, so that meant Sunday Dinner!  We all trekked down to Marcie’s place in Hyde Park as she is going to England for the summer, so we won’t see her again until September!!  Her place is AMAZING!!  We had a great time with everyone there.

Here’s some of the group – there were about 13 of us there that night   Marcie made salmon.  It was really good!

Here’s Leo enjoying the culinary delights!

And some of the entertainment for the night – Hank has just decided that he’s a baby dolphin, so he regaled us with his tricks.  You have to do the real dolphin hand signals for him and he’ll follow!

Trish enjoying the cake before the rest of us could get any!

A good weekend full of food and friends – always gotta love that!  Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and are enjoying a good week!

 

An Update

My posting has been scarce of late. Sorry! I finally uploaded pictures yesterday…All 242 of them! It had been a while and quite a few events since I emptied the camera, so I feel we’re in for a long post!

Way back on May 9th, we went to Café Ba Ba Reba to celebrate Sarah’s 25th Birthday. The restaurant is Tapas, which is a Spanish style of eating where you order small “appetizer” plates and share them family style…very good! I had muscles, es cargo (snails), calamari (squid), scallops, octopus and shrimp along with all the other good stuff!

Here’s Hope, Rony and the Birthday girl Sarah enjoying the Tapas!

Toward the other end of the table: Tripp, Bethany, Marcie and Justin.

There were lots of other people as well, but I won’t put up all their pictures! The room was packed! There was a sign on one wall that said “Occupancy by more than 25 persons is dangerous and illegal.” There were almost 20 people just at our table, and the room was still packed with other large groups!

Here’s Randy enjoying the culinary delights. Bethany made a birthday cake and brought it for all to enjoy (well, all except for me…it was chocolate! Yuck…). You can see Sherry in the background.

The next morning, Miss Sarah had her first Creative Memories workshop. Like me, Sarah is a direct sell consultant. While I work with Pampered Chef, Sarah works for Creative Memories which is a company that makes and sells scrap booking materials and other photo preserving items (digital, photo books, etc…). At her workshop it was basically just a time to come together and work with your photos. I took the time to organize and finish up the Wedding scrapbook Sarah had helped me to create.

Yeah, this is what my table looked like while I was trying to sort through my mass of boxed up photos…looks like I still have a lot of work ahead of me!

Here’s Sarah helping some other customers!

In other news, my good friend Tripp finally finished his Masters Thesis with Seabury Seminary here in Chicago! He graduated with an MDiv a few years back and is the Pastor at Community Church of Wilmette, a Chicago suburb. Now however, he’s finished his Masters paper about Calvin, and he decided to “graduate” again! He had a fun graduation party in his backyard that night. What does one do at a graduation party for a baptist pastor finishing his thesis on John Calvin from an Episcopal Seminary you may ask? Well the obvious of course: sing Old Thyme Hymns!!!

Here is the AngloBaptist himself with his trusty banjo…

And a shot of me singing one of the hymns at the party…It was a good time with lots of good food!

Of course, every once in a while, one has to step back from the constant party going and enjoy some time at home with family. Malcolm took full advantage of that one night:

Poor Justin, pined by a 19 lb. Chihuahua/Terrier!

On to more parties! Justin’s friends Mike and Erin we joined in marriage this past Sunday in St. Louis. The ceremony took place in a BEAUTIFUL park in St. Louis. The weather was perfect (for me). It was around 80, humid, sunny and just the right amount of cool breeze.

Here is the happy couple. In the background is Ziggy. He was the “pastor” at the wedding. He was ordained online, as was Mike when he married Ziggy and his wife Elisa. Zig was returning the favor!

Of course, I needed something to wear to this event. For over a year I’ve had a design in my head for a red dress with white polka dots. I’ve been talking about it with my friend Kate (an amazing ‘modiste’ who made my wedding dress for me, a bridesmaids dress, and the flower girls dress) for sometime, and she even bought me the fabric for my last birthday. I finally decided it was time to get the thing made and she excelled with it! It’s gorgeous and a lot of fun to wear! One guy that I was seated with at the reception even said that when he’d seen me at the wedding, he had “voted” me Best Dressed! Yay for me! I don’t think I’ve ever gotten that! Here are some shots of the dress:

I’m super hot *wink*

The reception was a ton of fun. They had good food and a good band. Erin and Naked Dave even broke out “A Little Help From My Friends”, Joe Cocker style for us!

Well…I think that’s all for now! I’m sure I’ll have more to report on Monday, as before next Monday I will have pics from Malcolm’s 2nd birthday, my Indiana Jones Movie Marathon Party, and the latest installment of “Sunday Dinner”! Have a great week and a “fierce” weekend!

 

A FULL Weekend

Justin and I had a very long, great and full weekend! 2 birthday parties and 2 baby/friend visits. It was a great time and I wish we could have spent more time at home. I hadn’t been home to see my family since Christmas, and I’ve decided 4 months is way to long to be away!

The festivities started off on Friday evening with a Birthday party to celebrate our good friend Randy’s 45th birthday. It was a great party, which started off at Sweet Occasions for ice cream, and then we got take and bake pizza from Homemade Pizza Co. Yes, that’s right – dessert first then the main course! It was great.

The pizza was AMAZING!! I highly recommend it. Of course, it wasn’t all fun and games…Randy decided since he had a house full of somewhat competent and reasonably strong people, he may as well have us move his furniture around – so we did!

We had a good time, with good food and good music played on the newly moved piano. Susan also brought cake: peanut butter, chocolate and banana…hello Elvis Cake! Unfortunately we had to leave the party early since Justin and I needed to wake up early the next morning to head to Minnesota! After 6 1/2 hours of driving we arrived at my parents house in Smalltown, MN aka, Spring Valley. We had Malcolm along with us of course, because he would be severely upset if we didn’t allow him 4 days of playing with his favorite “Auntie” Shadow!

This is what they do almost the whole weekend when we come to visit. The do take some breaks for naps, potty time and eating, but mostly they just play! By the end of the day, they are both EXHAUSTED and they plop down and sleep through the night, which is great for us because WE get to sleep through the night! YAY! Malcolm gets very sad when he and Shadow are separated…poor puppy…

On Sunday we celebrated my dad’s 60th Birthday, which officially was April 14th. I don’t think he looks a day over 30! He and my mom both. I hope I inherit the looking young forever genes! My older sister Shannon and her husband John did the cake. She even decorated it to match the dessert plates my mom had bought!

It was really yummy, too Dad got a lot of good gifts, mostly $ and gift cards. Shannon and John got him 60 $1 scratch off lotto tickets. I made him a slide show with pictures of him from baby to now…it was neat, if I say so myself and it seemed to go over pretty well. He of course got the obligatory bottle of Seagram’s 7! One of the neatest gifts was from my grandparents…a poster sized picture of my dad playing basketball! I’m guessing the picture was taken sometime in the 70’s.

The day after the party, Justin and I headed up to visit Dave & Bethany and their new baby Abigail. We had a good time hanging out with old friends, talking and going to Pizza Ranch for Abby’s first outing! It was great to see them all, as I miss my camp friends dearly, and Abby is such a beautiful baby!

Before we left their house, David had to show off his breast feeding skills…um, judging from the look on his face, I don’t think it’s going very well…

On the way back from their house, we saw a sign posted for a farm that sold bison meat. Justin and I were very excited, as we both love bison meat. We decided to turn around and go to the farm to purchase some meat. We drove down the country road, figuring there would be a sign pointing the way to where the meat was for sale. No such luck. Sadly, we were unable to attain any delicious bison flesh, but we did get a pretty sweet picture of a couple of curious bison.

The next day (we’re on Tuesday now people, in case you’ve lost track), we headed out to return to Chicago and our real lives. On the way, we stopped for a way to short visit with Susie and Erik, and of course our beautiful goddaughter, Jannah! Jannah’s newest trick is crawling. We got to witness the trick, and it was pretty sweet. She’s growing so fast! We picked up Erik from campus and headed to Noodles & Co. for lunch. I of course had the Pad Thai, because if it’s on the menu, I’m gonna eat it. Jannah had a good time showing off her opera skills to us…

Jannah was pretty tuckered out by the time we got done with lunch, and she passed out in the car, with her buddy Justin watching over her. He carried her from the car and put her in her crib when we got back to the Brekke residence.

It’s good to be home, but I also wish we could have spent more time with our friends and family. Even with ridiculous gas prices, I think more trips will be required, soon!

 

Mal’s 1st Birthday

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY MALCOLM!!
Today is Mal’s 1st Birthday (or as near as we can guess…) He’s been a handful at times, but we love him all the same, and I can’t imagine life without him now! For more about Mal, and to read his blog, either click the “Dogster” box on the left of the screen, or go here. Wish Mal a happy first birthday!