Trip to CR, Aunt Betty's Benefit and a very long week!

Betty and Mom
I started this post at the beginning of this last week, but worked most hours of the day and evening throughout this past week...so am just getting it out today.

Last Friday night I left Steve and the manimals at home and headed for CR.
On the way, I stopped and had the chance to visit with one of my very best friends Jen and her new little one Owen. I guess he is not so little anymore, they grow SO fast, but he did wake up long enough to give Aunt Lori some good smiles and cuddle time:)

On Saturday Mom, Dad, sister Julie and niece Samantha headed to Wisconsin for a cancer benefit in honor of my Aunt Betty Bird. Cathy, Kobe and Zoey came as well. The benefit had a great turn out and we got to see a lot of family we don't get the chance to see often.

cousins Brianna and Kayla

Jeanie and Sharron

Cathy and Zoe

Some of our Feye cousins

Therese and Dan

Even a few of our cousins from California were able to be at the event Diane showed above, and Don in the center below with Bob and Greg (more cousins:)

Karly, Zoe and Bella

Some of us stayed around for some dancing and Karaoke later on in the evening

Starbucks Wisdom for the day...

Every once in a while Starbucks has more to offer than a Pumpkin Spiced Latte;) Though found on the cup of my Starbucks today, this is a good reminder for me, I think I am losing ground on this skill as I get older, I don’t know if it has to do with this Adult A.D.D. I seem to be developing or what. I am going to have to work on that…..

“You can learn a lot more from listening than you can from talking.
Find someone with whom you don’t agree in the slightest and ask them to explain themselves at length. Then take a seat, shut your mouth, and don’t argue back. It’s physically impossible to listen with your mouth open.”
-John Moe

It's Ollie's First Birthday:)

He Used to be SO little!

Gully's Oktoberfest

"Let us so live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry."
- Mark Twain

Friday night was our friend Gully's yearly Oktoberfest. He tries to find a lot of different seasonal Oktoberfest beers from all over, including smaller breweries in the US and of course the German ones as well (since it is their "holiday" - it is only right;). He generously shares his finds with many friends that have come to make this tradition.

Obviously this generosity of Gully's extends to more than just his "human" friends

This party was a special treat since most all of the classmates from school that we met with every Thursday night during college for pizza and beer, a night we affectionately call: "Thursday Night Therapy" were there, which is a fairly rare occurrence. We have been done with school for a little over 5 years and though we don't all see everyone all of the time we have never lost touch.

"Thursday Night Therapy" Group

Even Webster was wondering when we were going to leave:)

Mid-Week

"Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save." -- Will Rogers

It is Wednesday and things keep on rolling...We started our next class - Statistics. Can I just say - SAVE ME! Neither Steve nor I are not a huge fan of mathematics, or of classes that expect 2 hours to every one hour of class:( Yes, that is 12 hours out of our week. Boo Hiss!

I know I shouldn't find this as funny as I did, but yesterday morning, I had the dogs outside before work. As I mentioned before, we are the bus stop. The dogs were running the hill on the side of the house, and hadn't even seen any kids at the front of the house, much less headed over to say "Hello"...and all of the sudden I see a kid looking at them screaming "OH MY GOD" repeatedly and running up the street toward his house - and they are just looking up at me like - "What?". I am sure I will hear about a dog attack by those vicious dogs at the end of the street or something soon:)

Roadtrip! Cheers to Jeff and Michelle!!!!!

Another busy, and especially worthwhile weekend spent! We took off on Friday afternoon to travel to Port Washington Wisconsin for our friends Jeff and Michelle's wedding.

Port Washington is North of Milwaukee, right on Lake Michigan. It is a beautiful little town - not that we could really tell when we arrived that night at 11pm - pretty much just smelled like fish when we pulled into the harbor parking lot to meet the wedding party and the rest of the Iowa contingient. We met them at a nice pub on the harbor for some drinks. We got to meet some of Jeff and Michelle's family and friends.

Even though several of us Iowa travelers made the mistake of stopping in the Hotel bar on our way to our rooms, Steve and I had time to sleep in in the morning, and still get up and ready in time to grab lunch and go to the downtown/harbor area to check out the town before the wedding. It is a gorgeous little town!

The wedding was beautiful and something the presiding pastor said was very true, you have never seen more people look so happy to be at a wedding. Jeff and Michelle are both really great people and have a really great son Jordan. They are just people you like to be around, and it was very obvious that everyone was extremely happy for them - most especially them!

The Mr. and Mrs.

Michelle and Jordan cuttin' a rug

He doesn't like to admit it, but he still likes me;)

Before we took off the next day Steve and I went back to the harbor, had breakfast at a great "greasy spoon", where we ran into the newlyweds. After that we walked out to the lighthouse on the harbor. It was a beautiful day!

Lighthouse One view from the lighthouse pier - charming looking town

Here is Steve and I at the Lighthouse (not that you can tell where we are, but oh well)

Never seems to slow down....

I started to write about last weekend at the beginning of last week, but I am afraid I didn't get very far cause the week was busier than the weekend....so here goes....

Last weekend was a nice, but very full weekend! It was a weekend of celebrations - which is always good.

Our friend Rebecca (that works with Steve) just graduated from college, so we went to a little party she had on that Friday to celebrate.

Rebecca and her husband Tim

On Saturday Steve and I had big plans to be productive, but were pretty lazy that day. We both went out that night to pretty casual bachelor/bachelorette outings with our friends Jeff and Michelle and other friends in honor of their upcoming wedding that was actually this past weekend. We must be getting old (but I prefer the word wise;), because though we all had fun, we actually behaved ourselves and got home without causing ourselves a miserable following day;)

This was good for me since that Sunday I got up and drove to Cedar Rapids for a baby shower. I got in town in time to meet my parents, sister Julie and Sam, Aunt and Uncle Fran and Ray, and my cousin Kira, her husband Eric and their little one Kaleb (who I don't believe I have actually had the pleasure to meet before....) for their weekly breakfast following church. Kaleb is a joy! He is such a happy little boy!

Aunt Fran and Kaleb

Kaleb and Samantha

My sister Cathy and Zoey came in town for the shower as well, so Mom, Julie, Sam, Cathy, Zoey and myself spent the afternoon at our cousin Jenny's house. My cousin Mike's wife is expecting a little boy very soon. We had a nice visit with family and got to see most of my Aunt Judy's family.

I always love to go home and always enjoy it. I don't get home nearly as much as I would like to. It was nice to wish Mom and Dad Bon Voyage in person, because they just left for Ireland with some extended family this past Wednesday!

Julie at the baby shower Zoey, Samantha and cousin Jenny's little one, Connor
Aunt Judy and Mom

Steve visited with his Grandma and Aunt at his mom's that Sunday evening. They were visiting from Arizona for a long weekend and unfortunately I didn't get home in time to see them. There was some pretty severe weather on my drive home that night and the drive took me about an hour more than usual.

The past week was just more go, go, go......We had our last two Western Civilization classes, including a final, I had our monthly Tuesday night neighborhood Bunco party at my house and Steve had the pleasure of helping our friend Gully and other friends taste Oktoberfest beers to prepare for Gully's yearly Oktoberfest party this weekend (Well - you have to make sure they are ok for all the guests to drink, don't you? ;)

And just like that.....it is time for another weekend!