Winter Beauty

While walking on campus the other day, I couldn't help but snap this shot. The way the photo turned out, it looks a little like a particular famous tower...Isn't she pretty?

Chef Justin and His Helpers

Hello all! We had some visitors several weeks ago-Justin's brother Nate and his family. Due to some major winter weather that hit our area, we were pretty much confined to the house-but it allowed for some nice down time together and plenty of movie watching (which is always a nice thing!). Pictured below are niece Meeghen and nephew Cody helping out in the kitchen. They were either entranced or bored out of their little minds in the top photo, so Uncle Justin put them to work!

Ian ten Hoeve

What a fun evening we had last night! We got a call from our friend Gerben asking if we could pick up his brother and his wife from the Waterloo airport. They were flying in from Holland. So, we went with our welcome sign and picked up Theo and Danielle. Together, the four of us traveled to see Gerben, Julie and new baby boy Ian in the hospital. Ian arrived Sunday night at 8.5 lbs. 19.5 inches. He is beautiful! What a blessing this Thanksgiving week!

Great Weekend

It was a fun weekend last weekend. My mom came to town on Friday to do some Christmas shopping so I took the afternoon off and joined her. Then on Saturday, a few of my college buds came to visit. We had lunch, went to the ole bookstore, walked around campus, and shopped, of course! Twins Jen and Steph both announced they are expecting-one in March and the other in May! Nice timing, ladies! Here's a few pics of our day. You'll notice in the bottom three that we were trying our best to get a good shot--whether we got one or not, we'll let you be the judge! Thanks again for coming friends!

Baby Shower

On Saturday I threw a baby shower for friend, Julie, who is due November 20. Julie is a member of our church and has become a wonderful friend. I'm so excited to meet her little one! Boy or girl...we don't know!

Celebrating Birthdays

We celebrated birthdays for my dad and niece this weekend. We met up at a great new restaurant in a nearby town. We decided since we were all together, we'd take a few family photos. Happy Birthday Dad and Brie!

GNIRRRR

Last weekend I participated in an event referred to as the GNIRRRR (Great Northern Iowa Radical River Run Race). Co-ed teams of 3 participated in this event consisting of running, canoeing, portaging, and mystery events. The race started out with a mystery event of answering 6 questions about the state and about our local university. We turned our answer sheets in, they were scored and given back to us and we were told to start running down the nearby trail. Upon reaching a parking lot, our team was told to select 2 pumpkins (we estimated at 8 pounds each) and continue running down the trail (two pumpkins because we'd gotten 2 questions wrong on our quiz). Well, let's just say the run was at least 3 miles and we had some tired arms! My teammate, Heather, decided to devise a type of sling out of teammate Scott's shirt. We put the pumpkins into the shirts and carried them between us-a huge improvement!

When the 3 mile run was done, we got to leave the pumpkins behind and portage our canoe 1/2 mile to a boat dock. Once on the lake, we paddled to 3 locations. At the first, we got a...pumpkin...and continued paddling. At spot 2, we had to get 3 ringers while playing horseshoes from 10, 20, and 30 feet. Let's just say horseshoes were not our strong suit. We had been leading and quickly fell behind as we were at the horseshoe event 17 minutes! Once we got our ringers, we were back in the canoe paddling to spot 3.

At the final spot, we got out of the canoe and were told to carve our pumpkin who had been hitching a ride on the lake. Once the orange friend was carved, we paddled back to the dock, portaged our canoe to the canoe trailer, ran back and took our jack-o-lantern to a nearby shelter and had to light it. Once lit, the time stopped. We ended up in 2nd place out of 6. What an awesome event!

Purple Pride

It was purple pride around town this weekend with Homecoming taking stage. We enjoyed a pancake breakfast, parade, and tailgating with friends before the big win. It's great to be a panther!

Two Year Anniversary

Today is our two year anniversary! We took a few days over the weekend to enjoy a trip to Rochester, MN. We enjoyed beautiful fall colors, seeing the geese at Silver Lake Park, shopping, Mayowood Mansion and Niagara Cave. Below are a few posts of our adventures.

Mayowood Mansion

Mayowood Mansion was one of our favorite parts of the trip since we both enjoy history. Unfortunately, we couldn't take any pictures inside, but here are a few pics of the outer perimeters. Make Mayowood Mansion a "must" if you are in the Rochester area!

Niagara Cave

Niagara Cave, located in Harmony, MN was a fun find for us. If you don't mind 48 degree temps and getting dripped on occasionally, you'd enjoy this adventure underground.

A Day at the Arboretum

There is an arboretum in town that had a Fall Harvest Festival today. They had scarecrows on display, games for kids and lots of flowers. Justin and I met up with our friend, Andrea and her 2 kiddos. They will soon be joining husband & Dad, Dan in China, so we enjoyed spending a few hours with them. Here are a few pics from the day. You'll notice little Jacquelyn is in two different outfits. The poor girl took a wrong step and fell into the pond she's gazing at below. Luckily, Mom had a change of clothes for her and we were all happy campers again!

1/2 Marathon

It was a beautiful morning for a 13.1 mile run! Here are a few pics taken by my wonderful cheering husband.

Getting through a water stop at mile 4.

Finishers: Joan, Deedra, Theresa, Heather. Way to go, ladies!

The runnin' ladies with our supportive husbands (& one little guy). Thanks, hubbies!