We Had a Break-In!!

We arrived home from Iowa (it was hard to leave) to discover our apartment had been broken into. The burglers left a note... well more like a banner... welcoming us home... ok, these weren't ordinary burglers, they were actually our friend's Stacey and Marissa and they made us feel VERY loved by creating and then hanging this awesome banner:

I had to include this close-up because they referenced my blogging habits! :)

This big banner reminded us what we were coming home to. I had been a little depressed about coming back from Iowa and this banner totally cheered me up and made me feel VERY loved. It's so awesome how God provides family for you, even when you are so far away from your "technical" family. But that's not even the funniest part. So I was thinking- "Oh, they probably got the spare key from our neighbors, and that's how they got in to our apartment" I went on thinking this for two days and then I found out that no, they didn't actually get the spare key, they BROKE IN BY REMOVING THE SCREEN AND CLIMBING THROUGH THE PARTIALLY OPEN WINDOW!! Seriously, burgler style. Wow, do I feel safe! :) I probably wouldn't include these details except that I know that we're moving this weekend to a second story apartment.... Stacey and Marissa better invest in a ladder for next time! :)

DAVENPORT

Wow, what a trip. My inlaws were in their beautiful new home- it was our first time seeing it and we were impressed! It's nice and big so it can accommodate all of the extended family and it has a big yard for lots of croquet action! There was even room for us to set up a frisbee-golf-esque game that I was TERRIBLE at! But of course the main event in Davenport was meeting our very first and brand new nephew, Ryan! Abby and Kyle's new baby is amazing and Justin and I are completely smitten. After a rough couple of first days in the world (he had a bad case of jaundice and had to go back into the hospital for a couple of days) he is the coolest, cutest, awesomest baby in the world (of course until Audrey is born, and then there will be two coolest cutest awesomest babies!)! We loved being a new aunt and uncle and seeing Abby and Kyle in their new roles as parents. They are awesome (just as we knew they would be!) Here are a few pictures of our beautiful nephew:

We got to go down to Bix-fest and we ran the Bix and we spent tons of quality time with the family. I also got to go to my sister-in-law Marie's baby shower- so much fun seeing all of the cute stuff she got for baby Audrey! I can't wait to be an aunt two times over!

All in all we had an awesome trip home and can't wait to go again! We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family to go home and visit!

Back to IC

I know I'm not going to do my trip justice here on my blog. Our trip back to IC was awesome- exactly what the doctor ordered!! I am so blessed to have such amazing parents that at the age of 28 I can suffer from SEVERE homesickness. It was so awesome to see my family and spend quality time together. Eating, talking, playing games, going for walks- we made every minute count! We hit Brueggers 4 times!! Yay for bagels! Here's a little picture to give those of you who have never been to Brueggers a visual:

We did a little touring of the flooding damage which was CRAZY sad- the arts campus was completely destroyed. The music and art buildings aren't even going to open this fall-they're holding all of the art classes in the old Menards building- weird.

I also ate delicious Mexican food at Carlos- here are some pictures of our dinner at Carlos' with my fam:

We basically spent a lot of quality time with the family. My mom, Megan and I went for pedicures- they were quite a bit less eventfull than the pedicure in Santa Barbara the week before (thank goodness) but always good fun. I greatly enjoyed sleeping in an air conditioned house (thanks for that Mom and Dad!) We celebrated my birthday early with delicious homemade pizza (compliments of my Dad and brother) and red-velvet cake (compliments of my sister-in-law Megan) Being the food lover I am, I actually took pictures of this delicious birthday food:

The trip was everything I hoped it would be. I miss my family like crazy but I feel like we're in the place we should be- we just shouldn't wait so long in between visits next time!!

Let's go back...

It's sort of sad when you're the kind of person who blogs and you find yourself with pictures on your camera from over a MONTH ago and you think... where do I even begin? I think I've actually been putting off blogging, in part, because I am overwhelmed by the amount of pictures and stories that have been building for the past month. I don't consider myself a procrastinator, and I think that it's only fair to point out that I have been LIVING these stories and photos and therefore have been too busy to get them on my blog....but that wouldn't be entirely true. I think the volume has been daunting and so, even though I could have found moments here and there to post, I have been putting it off. No longer. Here we go...

Starting with my dear friend Katherine's bachelorette party. Sad fact of the matter is that now that I'm getting to blogging about it, she is already married!! I think that it's still blog-worthy though, especially since we took pictures! :)

We (Katherine, JoAnn and I) started it off right by going for pedicures at this cute nail salon called Aquabar. The salon is super cute and they have themed pedi's like "Peachy Pedi" and "Choco Pedi". Super cute. So we go in for our Peachy Pedi's and everything is going well when this lady sitting near the window decides that she can't stand to watch this dog outside who has gotten himself all tangled around the picnic tables outside Panda Express, and she heads out to let his owners know about their distressed dog (the owners are inside Panda Express, apparently ordering). You would think this would illicit a "thank you" or maybe an "Oh no!" but instead it illicited screaming and extremely inappropriate name calling. This lead to an all out girl-fight between the salon receptionist (who was sticking up for the lady who stuck her nose in, albeit not in a harmful way) and the 17ish dog owner girl. You can probably picture Katherine, JoAnn and myself, feet in tubs, eyes wide and jaws on the floor...not your typical pedicure setting, but not entirely without entertainment value....

After pedicures we went to JoAnn's to get ready (this is half the fun, especially when you are friends with JoAnn and Katherine b/c JoAnn is a hairdresser (and an amazing one!) and Katherine is an artist with the makeup.) Lots of girly fun ensued (even though Katherine will not like me referring to our fun as "girly").

Once we were ready we headed downtown to Pascucci for a delicious Italian meal. Here are some pictures of us at Pascucci:

After Pascucci we went over to Dargan's for a bit and then back to JoAnn's to watch wedding-themed movies! All in all it was a great bachelorette party!