Erika's Engagement Announcement!

I love wedding and engagement announcements - especially how they give you a glimpse into people's lives. As a child, I would read them to discover where people went to school, where they worked, and to try to guess how they met. It's even more fun when it's someone you know! My friend Erika is getting married in August, and their engagement announcement just appeared in the Duluth newspaper.

Erika Brekke and Aaron Zabler, both of Minneapolis, plan to be married Aug. 30 in Elm Creek Park Reserve in Maple Grove, Minn.

Her parents are Arvid and Nancy Brekke of Esko. His parents are David and Mary Zabler of Twin Lakes, Wis.

The future bride, a 1996 graduate of Lincoln High School in Esko, graduated from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn., in 2000 with a bachelor’s degree in organizational communication and Scandinavian studies. She is a quality assurance analyst at Thrivent Financial in Minneapolis.

The future groom, a 1999 graduate of Paddock Lake (Wis.) Baptist Academy, graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside in Kenosha in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in business management. He is a bank examiner for Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

A Friday night date

Sometimes the best dates can be very low-key. Since my friend Erika is knee-deep in her wedding planning right now, I've been reminiscing about our wedding and wanting to look through wedding photos. So Matt suggested that we schedule a Friday night date to look through photos and try to choose photos for our official wedding album. I came home from work, we made a wonderful homemade dinner and drank wine on the deck, and then spent the evening on the couch looking through all our photos and making lists of the ones we liked. It was a wonderful evening!

Last weekend Erika and I drove to Madison to stay with Kirsten and her husband Mike. We spent a lot of time walking around the city exploring, including some Frank Lloyd Wright buildings. I uploaded some Madison pics onto my Flickr page.

At the Cabin

Mom, Molly, Hannah, Jenn

For the 4th of July, Matt and I rented a cabin and invited my parents, my brother, and his dog to join us for a long weekend. Our stay was (nearly) everything we had hoped for. We had campfires every night, had the most comfortable beds, cruised on the lake, tried fishing, and spent a lot of time reading books and relaxing. And I achieved my summer's goal: I saw - and heard - loons!

Indeed, there were plenty of birds on the lake. Several eagles, including two young ones in a nest. Many loons. Ducks, with babies. And what I believed were juvenile double crested cormorants. Wildlife in the campground was what captivated Hannah though - she was obsessed with the chipmunks and continuously pointed them or tried to get them from underneath the cabin! I was quite proud of her, though, the evening she spotted a turtle on the road and "told" mom that it was there. She's my fellow wildlife watcher ;).

The evening of the 4th, Dad, Adam, and I were out in the boat. We ended up being on the water as the sun set. It was a gorgeous sunset, and by twilight fireworks were going off all around the lake! I counted at least nine locations that were sending off fireworks. A very memorable show, and a peaceful evening. I'm so thrilled I could watch it from the lake, though I regretted the fact that Matt, Mom, and Hannah weren't with us.


Even more exciting than the fireworks was a "mom" moment with Hannah. I don't think Hannah has ever learned to swim, based on the times I've seen her in the water and the confused look on her face when I took her into the lake! I was very proud of her good spirit and her willingness to try it. She learned to swim at Jessie Lake, and it was so thrilling for me to see her dog paddling in the water! Way to go Hannah!



I say the stay was "nearly" perfect because we had our unfortunate experiences as well. This includes Matt not feeling well (after a visit to urgent care on Monday he learned he had kidney stones), missing out on seeing my friend Tracey (the stars just weren't aligned for us to get together) and our rented pontoon breaking down (so we rarely got on the water all at the same time). This things aside, I came back feeling rested, even though I wasn't nearly ready to leave.

I have plenty more 4th of July pictures on my Flickr page.