Anniversary Vacation: Day 1-2

After a long and troublesome night in Seattle (we flew in over an hour delayed and couldn't get our rental car), we immediately headed South along the Oregon Coast to Rockaway Beach. There we met my mom's family, spent some time at the beach, grilled freshly caught salmon, hung out with family, visited the Tillamook Cheese Factory, among other things. This is a picture of me with my second cousins Jordin, Courtney and Caitlin. It was so much fun to spend more time with them. Unlike at our wedding, the girls opened up to Josh and actually talked to him!

Scary Thunderstorms

Last night is a looooong story, but to make it short...some circumstances forced us to be driving home in the middle of a severe thunderstorm. I'm talking continuous lightening and thunder, torrential downpour, high winds, hail, flash floods, the whole nine yards. I typically enjoy thunderstorms, just not when I'm in a car! I was so scared I covered my ears and eyes for fear of the worst. We ended up exiting the highway early since we couldn't see the road and headed towards a friend's house. We never made it there since we would have to forge a river in the road that was at least 2 feet deep.

We ended up at a random house, and the nice family let us soaked travelers in. As we waited for the storm to pass, we conversed with the couple and found a common thread that made the world...or at least the Twin Cities...much smaller. We managed to not be strangers after all. The couple made us hot chocolate (we were shivering!), gave us some blankets, and even offered to let us sleep there for the night. Good Samaritans still do exist! Thankful but wanting to sleep in our own bed, we left once the rain passed. Our car made some funny noises (what we know now as a bent something), but we chanced it and made it home safe. Phew! So much for a long night of sleep.

This is a picture of a tree from Como Park in Saint Paul. The string of storms that has hit the metro area has left tons of huge, mature trees split in half, uprooted, twisted, you name it. We had a power outage both storm nights at our apartment, but thankfully missed out on tree, wind and hail damage.

GO SAINTS!

After barbecuing burgers and brats at Como Park for lunch, the gang headed to Midway Stadium to see the Saint Paul Saints play some baseball. Unfortunately the Saints lost, but we had a great time joining in all the craziness that makes the Saints' games so great! The night's game was sponsored by yoplait so between innings they had contestants play games including a yogurt slip and slide and a mystery slime bucket (getting yogurt dumped over your head), etc. And of course, we got out our rally hats and flags by inning 7, hoping the Saints would make a comeback.

And if that wasn't enough fun, after the game we went to the new creamery in town for yummy gelato! Thanks everyone (Marla, Roger, Cindy, David, Laura, Kristen, Aaron, Ryan, Trevor) for coming up and spending an awesome day with us!

Happy 25th Anniversary

My parents' actual anniversary was June 12th, but since all of us couldn't get together, we celebrated today. The night before I baked a cake and decorated it to resemble one of their wedding cakes. They were very surprised! Congratulations mom and dad!

Current Project

I just finished my two most recent sewing projects! The one on the right is a medium sized tote bag and the other is a small clutch purse. They are samples for the Rosemount shop Quilter's Haven and will be on display for a few months or so.