A shower with sisters and a garden visit

I'm a bit behind with the photos and stories...I'm so very happily busy every day and night here at the moment! But on Wednesday, I got to visit an old friend from teaching -- one of my mentors. She taught me so much over the years and it was just lovely to catch up with her. She has a beautiful house with about 12 gorgeous gardens.




Then Friday night was Audra's Bridal shower. We had a relaxed evening picnic with sticky Chinese food, and had quite a few laughs at gifts... then we hung out and watched girly movies....It was a really nice night. I'll just share some photos, and I'll keep the rest as whispers between girls :)

So in between, there was a "coming out" party for little Alicia Grace on Wednesday night... but those photos I took with Michelle and Josh's camera, so you'll have to view those on the Fuller website if you're interested. It was a good night.

Thursday I had some great time with Mom -- we found the mother-of-the-bride dress. and then I spent some time with a group of old girlfriends. We spent about 3 hours getting proffesional photos taken...the majority of the time was spent just trying to choose our photos! so there's no candid pictures of that day, since we really didnt' want to see another camera after that! but we did have a completely satisfying dinner at the Olive Garden. Ahh... I've missed that restaurant!

Friday was a walk through the quaint, historical shopping mecca town of Stillwater. It was good to spend the day with Kim. And then there was the party for Audra, so now I think you're all caught up on the week.

Saturday was beautiful and long and busy....spent with small children and very good friends... but that's going to need many more photos and stories. So that will be in the next post.

to be continued....

The No-hat Noah game

"Hey, they put that hat on me again! I know this game. this is fun! I throw it on the table...
I toss it carelessly behind me...
I will NOT wear the hat! OFF it GOES!!!
Ha ha! I win! I wear no hat. I am so cheeky!
(Boy I'm lucky I'm not an Australian baby! At least I have a good thick ozone layer over my head.)

Ah yeah... another auntie. Man, I have a lot of those. They sure do like me!"

(Happily brought to you by the Minnesota Zoo, the playful Thurber family, and the letter N. and Auntie Alicia. and her camera.)

A beautiful day in Minnesota

Oh, it is lovely to be on holiday in this great green space :) Welcome to Minnesota!

We started out the trip with a visit to the MN zoo, with Loren, Mom & Dad, and of course 9month-old Noah. His favourite part of the day was undoubtably the water tank in Dicovery Bay. He must've spent about half an hour splashing us all with salwater. It was delightful!

The real shark in the aquarium was a bit scary, but not so the light-up rubbery one his Auntie Alicia gave him.

Grandma wanted to throw him in, but we convinced her not to do it ;)

Hmm... I reckon that's all for now. There is Heaps to do ! Today it's off to shopping with the mother of the Bride.

But there's definately more posts and photos to come...so keep watching.

Love to all those back in Australia. And those I haven't seen here yet. See you all soon!

The Excitement Builds!

So many exciting things going on in this lightly-rained-on land this weekend. Besides the Thank-you-God-we-finally-got-some rain feeling of cold but relief, and besides the fact that it's the last day of the school term and starting tomorrow the wound-up kiddies will be released on the world and anyone childless and over 22 will be evacuating the movie theatres...besides all that, there some other fantastic reasons to celebrate.

First off, the celebration of the end of too many hyphens in this particular blog post. And too long sentences. :) That's got to make you breathe easier!

Australia is stoked! The entire country. and all those who have once claimed any affiliation with the country, anywhere they are in the world. They were excited enough to be having street parties before 6AM this morning. I woke up to shouting around the neighborood and hulabaloos of the masses on my radio alarm , and I thought maybe an entire mob had won the lottery. The socceroos are on fire!
Ok, so to sum up for those of you who don't know -- Australia is in the world cup this year. We are hardly ever in any of the final games of the world cup. We have never in history made it as far as we made it this morning when we didn't lose to Croatia. I've never seen so much celebrating over a game that was only a tie. But it meant that They are out (hard luck, Croatia. Better luck next time mates!) and we are in. We get to go on and play Italy!
and yes, I am using "we" proudly. Why not? I'm still here. And We're doing so well!

And for those Aussies who don't get too excited about sport (there are a few of them out there) there is always the big celebrity gossip to get those tongues wagging today. This weekend in Sydney is the wedding of Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban. Ahh Keith -- a favourite Country music star. And he grew up in a town just north of Brisbane. Takes us about 40 minutes to get there... Caboulture. If you want to hear any jokes about that town, just mention it to Danny and Wayne. I've heard them tell hours of jokes about it. But I won't pass along any of those at the moment -- I quite like Keith! and I hope it all goes well for them. :)

And of course, the other big excitment is the biggest for me and completely unimportant to most of the rest of the world. I leave in less than 3 days now...for a two week holiday in MN. VERY excited about that! I can hardly sit still.
:O
:)

see you soon!!