Sunny San Diego? Nope...Gray May

So I headed to San Diego May 27-May 31st, to see a life long friend of mine, Kate Forsyth. We have been friends since 2nd grade, and 6 months ago she headed to San Diego to start a new life in the sun to pursue her schooling for nursing.

I was able to take some vacation time to go see her, from Wednesday night to Sunday night. I figured since it was nice here in Minnesota it would be extra nice in San Diego, California.... well I was not aware of this thing there called May Gray and June Gloom.... yea.. thats right... I did not see the sun once while I was there.... well wait I take that back.. it came out for about 20 minutes while we were at the Santa Monica Pier. So I left MN while it was raining... experienced cloudy cold weather in CA, and when I came home... my layover was in Denver (raining), and when I came home it was raining... I swear it was following me!

ANYWAY... I didn't really go for the weather but more so to catch up with my dear friend Kate... see her new place, her new California life style. She works at at preschool/daycare... so for Thursday and Friday I got to go to work with her for the afternoon portion of her shift. She works in the infant room... a baby haven... so I was in BABY HEAVEN! Babies are my thing, I just love em so I got to play with about 15 babies at a time... it was a wild experience but I had a blast!

Kate and I went out to Joe's Crab shack for dinner one night.. and got a lot of crab legs, shrimp, and goodies to share! Another night we went out with some of her girlfriends from work. We went to a place called Jonny V's.. a place that has a great happy hour where cocktails are cheap and appetizers are free. It was fun to see the night life of San Diego... people I talked to could definitely tell I was a mid-wester.

One of my highlights was all the frozen yogurt. We went to a place called Yogurtland... where it is self serve.. with about 10 different flavors of frozen yogurt and about 25 different toppings from captain crunch, to berries galore, to nerds, chocolate and vanilla chips... oh man it was amazing.. and then it is only 30 cents per oz. Not bad!!! I think we went there everyday but one. We tried another frozen yogurt place called the Golden spoon...which was tasty but not self serve.

Kate and I spent a day driving to L.A since I had never been there before. I got to experience driving through a toll booth.. that was a first...then we stopped and had lunch with my friend from Seminary Amber who is an intern from Luther. She took us to In and Out burger.. a new experience for both Kate and I.... SO TASTY! We need to get one of those here! It was good to have Amber there... she helped us order thinsg Animal style... the way to do it I guess.

We headed to LA and saw Hollywood and Vine... walked up and down the streets looking at all the stars on the street... we were going to see the hand prints outside the Chinese theater... but there was a premiere going on... we waited to see if we could spot any celebrities but no such luck. So we headed back to San Diego and stopped to pick up some P. F. Changs for a quiet night in with chinese food and Mario Party 8 on the wii. Mark's cousin flew into town that night so the four of us all played wii... very competitive.

I head back to MPLS and arrived back home late Sunday night! It was a fun trip and I am looking forward to going back out there soon! Depsite the poor weather it was so great to reconnect with Kate!

back in the swing of things!

So I have been horrible at blogging lately.. my apologies.... I have had a lot of time off so I am now getting back in the swing of being at work, sermonizing... living the Rochester life.

I thought I would get you all caught up on what I have been doing with my life.. cause isnt that the whole point of blogs in the first place!?

Memorial weekend was not that long ago... and it was a lot of family and friend time. I was given the Sunday of memorial weekend off... THANK YOU PASTOR NICK! It was so nice to be up in the cities and not have to worry about coming back down for Sunday service. Don't get me wrong, I love Zumbro, but a Sunday off every now and again is nice. So The weekend was filled with Dave's family and my family...with sprinkles of friend time.

I was able to have some sister time with sister Taylor and our neighborhood friends Sara and Louise who are sisters... and then Tay and Sara's friend Nora.. who has no sisters so we include her. Whenever we are all in town we try to get together for a meal, games, whatever.... Since Louise was headng back to boston we had to meet early Friday morning for breakfast... not the ideal time.. but still good to get together and catch up.

Friday night we went out for Dave's dad's birthday! We went to Texas Roadhouse... AMAZING steaks and honey butter for your rolls... a delicious time!

Saturday was Wedding dress shopping day at the wedding shoppe! So exciting! My mom, older sister Steph, Maid of honor Amber, and Dave's mom Lynda all went with me. We went to the wedding shoppe on Grand and tried on a lot of dresses. Sadly I cant post pics of the dress I picked because Dave is not allowed to see it, but if you wish to see it.. just email me and I can send you a pic... I didnt end up buying from Wedding shoppe... because I looked one other place (my mom insisted.. just to be sure), I went to mesteds in Rochester that following Tuesday with some friends that live down here. I did find another dress... but since it was WAY over my price limit... it was a no.... but the good news was they did have the dress I loved (from the wedding shoppe) but for a better price... SOLD! I called my mom and dad.. and that was that. I have a dress!

Saturday night was a bachelorette party for my friend Sarah.. at a Spa in Still Water. I had a massage... which was badly needed.... then the group of us girls got ready and went out for dinner.. came back to the house and played games till late hours of the night. Such a fun group of girls... looking forward to seeing them at the wedding!

Sunday of Memorial day Dave and I had a few BBQ's to go to. One to celebrate Austin's(of Kat and Austin) graduation from St. Thomas! Couldnt stay too long but it was good to see friends of theirs we got to know from their wedding!

Then it was off to my parents for another round.. lots of family and friends were there! It was great to socialize and eat amazing food... and just relax.

Monday Dave and I headed to a movie-Night at the Museum II... it was good.. very creative! Then it was off to his parents for a final BBQ. Ribeye Steaks, salads, rice krispie bars, pie, icecream... all soo good! We got on the topic of wedding pics and ended up looking at Dave's parents wedding pics and his grandpa's wedding albulm. It was fun to see what the styles and traditions were then.. fun to reminise.. hear the stories.

It was time for me to head back to Rochester.. but only for a day and a half because I was off to California.. but I will save that for another post!!!