Quick pit stop in the states
I've resurrected the 'ole blog after a couple months of being hiatus, I know it's been too long since I couldn't even remember my password and username for my blog website. Whoopsie Daisy.
Life lately has been nothing short of crazy and spontaneous. I had originally planned to only come to the island for the first eight months of my sisters schooling to experience what it was like down here as well as help my sisters family with the adjustment of a new home, but ended up falling in love with the island and wanting so badly to return. My brother in law unfortunately has not found a job allowing him to work solely from the island, and my sister being in school all day it was either her come back to the island without her kids, or me come back with her to watch the kids while she plugged away in classes-the decision seemed easy, I love these kiddos, and this island.
Flying back to Minnesota for the semester break just Piper and I had me super anxious, I've never flown internationally by myself and wasn't sure how customs went down, let alone having a toddler with me for the 15 hours of traveling...yeesh. The night before I went to the store and bought a disgusting amount of fruit snacks, crackers, juice, narcotics (just kidding) just hoping I could stuff her mouth with food in case she started to get antsy and hysterical on the plane (just kidding again) none of my worst nightmares came to pass and Piper did SO well the entire day of traveling. She got slightly emotional when she saw them taking her carseat down the conveyor belt to place underneath the plane, thinking she'd never see it again, but I reassured her as best I could and we moved on.
She slept on both plane rides, and was completely out before we even took off of the runway, it was such an answered prayer.
We were greeted in Minneapolis around midnight by Andi, Tanner and Casey who were all way more excited to see Piper than they were to see me, what the heck? Being on a smooth road and going faster than 20 miles per hour without braking every 45 seconds for a speed bump threw me off for a while, but I missed home so much and was so excited to be back. Minneapolis is my favorite place ever. Home sweet home.
My parents were unfortunately out of town when I got home (shafted) but I had a blast catching up with my little brothers and sister who was home from college for the summer. Since I was returning to the island I was in panic mode to see all of my friends before I came back, had some awesome reunion dinners with old co workers, saw Jared Allen at the state fair, (DREAMS DO COME TRUE) discovered how incredibly delicious lemon and basil water is when I went to St. Paul to eat at some different food trucks with my friend Jess, rubbed the baby belly of my friend Trisha who's expecting my Godson next week, visited my Grandparents in Holdingford, Minnesota--population 760, cutest little town ever, cut off half a foot of DISGUSTING hair, and cuddled up in my fleece Vikings blanket and watched tv again--oh how I've missed tv.div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
After a week in Minnesota my little brothers and sister and I set off on our 25 hour road trip to Utah where we were taking my sister Hannah back to college and meeting our new nephew Vince that my brother Dillon and his wife Amy were just blessed with a couple of months ago. My parents were already in Utah so we were meeting them there, we surprised them at the grocery store where they were stocking up on groceries to flourish the condo they had rented for the week and my mom pee'd herself when I tapped her shoulder and she turned around and saw me. We were just there having a sweet reunion while others scoped out their produce selections all around us, not the most ideal situation ever, but was still awesome to see my mom again. Love you, mama!
After my mom and I had "hugged it out" I went off to search for my dad in the parking lot where we told him to wait for us (but we told them we'd be longer than we were since we wanted to surprise them) and that reunion was equally as sweet, I swear no matter how old I get I'll never stop needing my mom and dad.
The road trip was definitely the highlight of my time back in the states for sure. We got to stop in Colorado on the way to and from Utah to see my brother, Tyler, his wife, Lindsay, and their kids, Kylie, Katelyn, and Landon.
Not only are they such an adorable family, but growing up with such a big age gap between my older siblings and I, I get to know them more and more each time I see them, and I absolutely love my sister in law, Lindsay, she's so fun to talk to, and is doing such great things with my brother and their three kids. I was not only spoiled with my biological siblings, but my in laws as well.
While in Utah I got to meet up with some old friends that have since moved out there, as well as Dillon and his family of course (our whole reason for going) playing with "Baby Vince" was so fun, babies are awesome. Vince seemed to not mind me too much, I think its the big resemblance I have with Dillon, his dad.
We had a ton of fun in Park City, UT, where my parents rented a condo for the week, we went to the Olympic museum, I went on a scenic chairlift with Colton who's one of my oldest and closest friends, went tubing down the Provo river, spent way too much money at target, went to starbucks too many times (located conveniently across the street), moved Hannah into her new apartment right off of campus of BYU, got to catch up with my Aunt Jan and cousin Rosie after years and years of not seeing them and it was SO fun to talk to them again-Jan is so awesome and so so funny, I wish she lived closer :(
After an awesome couple weeks out west, we drove back to Minnesota for one more week before returning to the island, just once again trying to see as many people as possible, shop until I dropped, and spent some more quality time with my family. The break went so quickly but was so much fun.
Upon returning to the island we've been trying to acclimate to the weather again, it is 10x hotter now than it was when I left a month ago, holy. crap. We took a red eye flight back, so the day we got home we were just so extremely exhausted, we got picked up by some friends at the airport, and saw a bunch of other friends on the plane and in baggage claim, twas pretty awesome. Poor Piper was SO tired all day, and looked sedated half of the day.
It's actually quite surprising how close Piper and I are, Cari tells me that when I'm not in the apartment Piper always asks about me because she "misses me and loves me so much" She's so my protege. If she and I shaved our heads we'd be Dr. Evil and Mini Me. She uses some of my lines like, "Let's blow this popsicle stand," "whoa, that's ghetto," "ya dig?" and does a ton of my same facial expressions now, it's just so adorable. She and I really need our own tv show, this is starting to get ridiculous that nobody else can share in the cuteness that is our daily interactions.
Andi started school at Learning Unlimited last week and is truly liking it so far, we sold our truck today and are going to swap it out for a more gas efficient smaller car to support the daily trek to school and back which is about half an hour each way, and with gas at 6 dollars a liter, driving a tank is not conducive to our budget.
I'll definitely be taking lots of pics and writing more blog updates soon, my brother in law, Casey gave me an awesome new camera that makes my old point and shoot camera look like a total joke of a camera and I'm excited to start taking pictures with it, I really need to get in the habit of taking my camera with me everywhere. We booked our tickets tonight to come home for Christmas, and I will see you on December 19, Minnesota. So excited.
Last but not least, I'm so excited about the NFL season starting again, and the Vikings won their first game! Here's to a great season, Jared!
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