Fall in photos

This fall has highlighted how truly amazing this season in Minnesota can be. The colors have been amazing and the weather could not have been more beautiful! We have had some time to take in some fun fall activities including tailgating, football, walks and jogs near the water, picking out pumpkins, and time spent with family and friends! I love all of the seasons in Minnesota (yes, even winter) and this fall has proven itself to be a favorite!

Mike and I watched Kensley and Mason for a weekend while Frankie and Gretchen were traveling. We had so much fun playing with them!

I am slowly learning more about landscaping, gardening and maintaining (maybe next year I'll move past maintaining and start cultivating) potted plants. I love fall colors and mums! I even bought a fall welcome wreath from Michael's for our front door and got really excited about it...I'm officially old!

 The McQuillan family all headed up to St John's University for Joe's last homecoming as a college student. It is so hard to believe that he is already a senior in college. Sometimes I still feel like I am just leaving for college, and Joe is just heading into 5th grade...hard to believe how fast time flies!

Joe and Leah sporting the Johnnies gear.

Mike and I in our borrowed Johnnies gear! Thanks for hooking us up Joe and Frankie!

One adorable family!

The best parents a girl could ask for!

Mike and I also headed to Stillwater, MN to check out the fall colors and enjoy the last days of the historic lift bridge as it exists today.

Summer 2012

It has been a long time since I blogged, and I will try to be better going forward! It has been an incredibly busy and fun summer. Mike and I have had the chance to go on some fun vacations, enjoy the beautiful Minnesota weather and scenery, and make amazing memories with friends and family! We feel so blessed to have such amazing people in our lives and so fortunate that we are able to travel and enjoy making memories that will last a lifetime! A special thanks to all of our family and friends who have traveled with us, and hosted us in their homes and cabins!

Mike and I kicked off the summer with the MS One Day Ride to Stillwater

We went to Riviera Maya Mexico in May to Celebrate the wedding of Nick and Brittany Davis!

We went to Alexandria with the McQuillan Family in June. We had a great time in the cabin and on the lake!

 

We were in Greenvill,e South Carolina in June for the Conzett Wedding.

We again went up to the Johnson's cabin for the 4th of July and continued our Lawn Olympics tradition!

Not as many as past summers, but we still have enjoyed a couple weddings of good friends this summer!

Kicking off the fall and football season with a little tailgating!!

The honeymoons not over :)

Mike and I decided to delay our honeymoon a few months after the wedding to go somewhere warm and beautiful when it was cold in Minnesota...and some where beautiful does not even begin to describe where we went!

We stayed at the Iberostar Grand Bavaro in Punta Cana, Domincan Republic and it was amazing!! We loved every thing about this place. The staff, the property, the beach and pool, it was all such an incredible experience! We got into a pretty great routine of laying out by the pool, reading books, snacking, enjoying some cocktails, playing bingo, going to dinner, and meeting some great peope! We are dreaming about going back some day!

After returning from the DR, it has been a busy and exciting spring. Plus, we brought the warm weather back frowithm us, and it has been a great spring! We celebrated some birthdays, including our little god son Mason's 1st birthday and Amy and Erin's St Patrick's Day birthday bash! We will have one more birthday girl in our house this month, when Piper turns 2 (or 14 in dog years) on March 29th!! Happy birthday friends and family!!



Winter hybernation...not so much

There have been a lot of ads lately saying, Humans weren't meant to hybernate...and we couldn't agree more! While we are by NO means winter outdoor enthusiasts, we try not to let the winter slow us down, but rather, allow us to spend more time with family and friends during a season where people tend to slow down and be around a little bit more. As winter finally arrived in Minnesota, this January we've done just that!

The thing that excites me most about winter in MN is BY FAR hockey season! We enjoyed a Gopher hockey game with Frankie and Gretchen earlier this season, which despite the Gophs losing to Notre Dame, was actually a ton of fun. We then celebrated 'Hockey Day MN' with our own version of 'Hockey Day Eden Prairie.' Every year that I can remember, my dad has built a hockey rink in our backyard during the winter.

That was up until 3 years ago, when Joe left for college. However, the rink has returned this year, as Kensley turned 3 in November, and in the McQuillan family, 3 is when you learn how to skate! My dad and brothers have also taken this as an opportunity to teach Mike some of the basics of skating that I haven't been able to in the past...like stopping for instance! I just twirl to stop, and he is not having that...his hockey stops are starting to look good :)

 

 We have also been lucky enough to spend some time hanging out with friends. From a road trip down to Iowa to visit Matt and Annie Brandt and their new place, to dinner with friends while Nick and Kaleigh Hitsman were visiting, we've really enjoyed the time spent with everyone! We're looking forward to many more weekends with friends and family this winter, as well as a few trips to escape the cold, including our Honeymoon in the Domincan Republic in February, and trips to Mexico and South Carolina in May and June to celebrate the weddings of friend. We feel so lucky to have so many great people in our lives to share the cold and warm months of MN!

A grown up 2012...sort of!

Ringing in 2012 started and ended with some more "grown up", we're in our upper 20's type activities, and the middle was maybe a little less refined, but hey, we are still in our 20s in general!

We kicked of NYE by hosting dinner for a group of friends at our house. We spent Friday night before NYE cooking a 3 pound brisket, which we then put in the crock pot the next day. I was a little nervous that it would dry out, but it ended up being pretty delicious! Everyone else brought some delicious sides and desserts, and it was a pretty great feast in general!

The night went on, and we rang in the new year with some cocktails and noise makers (note, turns out our fearless dog is in fact afraid of loud noises...who knew?!). Overall, it was a great night, and we feel so lucky to have such good friends!

On new years day, we had a trial run as parents, when my niece and nephew Kensley and Mason came over for the night! It was SO much fun, except maybe the party in Mason's crib at 3am, but I'm not going to lie, I did enjoy his cuddles in the wee morning hours quite a bit...plus his smile in the morning can make you forget anything that happened a few hours earlier!

We also had a fun dress up party while Mason was sleeping...she's going to be a dancer just like her Aunt Katie!! Overall, it was a great start to what we hope to be a fantastic year!!