a Cloquet wedding

Last weekend was a very big weekend, with events that had been planned all summer. On Saturday, the focus was Tom and Molly's wedding. Tom works with my brother, Adam, and he and Molly had hired Matt as their wedding photographer. I volunteered to be Matt's assistant for the day. It was a little strange to photograph a wedding in my hometown (at the church I grew up in, no less!), but as always, it felt like a honor to be part of the couple's day, and to do what we could to capture moments and make things go as smoothly as possible.

Check out a few of the highlights on Matt's blog post!

blueberries!

This past week has been the week of blueberries. First, there was the Sunday morning spent picking with my mom. And then came the cleaning and sorting and freezing! Blueberries are so delicious, so beautiful, and so perfectly Minnesotan. The picture above was taken at 4:30 in the morning (you can see Hannah snoozing in the background -- she wanted to be in bed!) when I couldn't sleep. Baby was kicking and moving, and making mama hungry and nauseous. And the most relaxing, peaceful thing I could think of was cleaning berries. And of course, eating a few along the way.

I even sweet talked my mom into making me a blueberry pie, and I've eaten a piece of pie every day this week! I just ignore the sugar and think about all those nummy antioxidants.

I may need to add blueberry bushes to our yard!

me & my girls

I asked Matt to document the pregnancy by taking a photo each month. Eventually I'll do a blog post of all the monthly photos.

In the meantime, though, I had to share this. We brought the pups to the studio with us and I asked Matt to take a photo of me and my girls. This photo makes me look really really fat (which I guess I can't help) but my pups sure are cute!

Birthday Weekend

I absolutely love it when I can celebrate my birthday surrounded by family and friends. This year's birthday had a leg up from last year's, mainly because this year my husband was actually here!! Last year at this time we had just begun living apart, me in Duluth and he in the Cities. This year he was here to wish me happy birthday in the morning, to give me a beautiful rose and romantic card, and to go out to dinner with our group of friends. Nothing can replace how wonderful it is to have my husband in my life!

On my birthday I went to lunch with a group of co-workers, spent the afternoon cuddling and playing with my pups (I took the afternoon off work!), then went out with a group of friends to Va Bene. The company was top-notch and the food delicious! Friends Tom and Steph were in town from D.C. and Courtney, Don, and Miles from the Twin Cities. Here's me and Tom with my delicious bittersweet chocolate cake:


After dinner, Matt and I came home to get the pups and took them for a ride to Bonnie and Doug's to chat for awhile. On Saturday, the friends fun continued with a trip to the Depot (2-year-olds Henry and Miles love trains!), followed by an evening of dinner and games with Tom and Steph. They stayed overnight (through an ugly rainstorm that dumped inches of water, including gallons of it in our basement), and we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast with more games on Sunday.

I capped the weekend off with several hours in the garden, happily harvesting and feeling productive. I finished three batches of pesto just in time to head to a meeting of family members planning a family reunion at the end of August ... the reunion will celebrate the 100-year anniversary of my great-grandfather's arrival in the U.S. (and he eventually settled right here in Solway Township), so that is an event I am looking forward to!

It's a Girl!

We had our 22-week ultrasound yesterday. Given the absence of male body parts, two different ultrasound techs voted that we're having a girl! It was interesting to watch my own reaction to this news. I wondered if I really wanted a girl, but then when I received the news it felt bittersweet ... I instantly thought of the good points of having a girl, but mourned not having a boy at the same time. I think I would've had the same bittersweet reaction had they said we were having a boy. It's nice to know that, in the end, I really didn't care about the baby's sex. Matt and I are just thrilled that this pregnancy seems to be progressing normally and that baby seems happy and healthy!

One of the techs kept commenting on how much our kid was moving around. That definitely jives with the constant dancing I keep feeling. I think this girl will inherit her father's propensity to fidget ;).

Here's the ultrasound picture that shows her kicking. Look at those legs go!

Canines in Colorado

We took Hannah and Piper with us to Colorado. Hannah had been there before; this time she got to be the big sister and tell Piper what the mountains would be like! I decided to write one blog post all about their trip ... be prepared for puppy cuteness, and if you're not a dog fan, then you can skip this one ;).


I'm happy to say both pups were very well behaved. They slept like angels in the car (learning on this trip how to cuddle together!), spent hours laying outside the cabin watching and smelling, and kept all us humans entertained. Pioneer Guest Cabins was an especially wonderful place to bring dogs -- they gave us this great LL Bean dog bed when we checked in that our girls loved! The only bad thing was Piper getting sick towards the end of the trip ... and throwing up ... and having diarrhea ... and having diarrhea every couple hours all the way home ... but really, let's not think of that! ;)

They got to ride in Jenn's new car, although weren't entirely happy about being relegated to the very back. Doggie ingenuity came out pretty quickly, as they discovered perfect places to rest their heads and be able to watch everything:


There was lots of watching at the cabin ...


And more watching ...


And even when you're inside the cabin, you can crane your neck to try and watch the hummingbirds outside!


Sometimes all that watching requires so much energy, you simply have to lay down ...


Heck, you can even watch for critters while dad is brushing you!


At the end of the day (and on the long trip home), it's nice to have comfy places to sleep and time to cuddle with the humans. We loved watching these two cuddle together!

Rocky Mountain High

Two years ago, Matt and Hannah and I spent a wonderful couple of weeks in the Colorado mountains. I think every day I was there I told Matt, "my parents would love this!" So, when we started talking about going back, we decided to expand the group of travelers, and offered my parents a stay in a cabin as their Christmas gift.

We booked a cabin at the Pioneer Guest Cabins ... they were every bit as cute and cozy in person as they looked on the web site:

The cabin offices looked like something out of a Swiss skiing village:

We spent the first few days driving around, looking at the mountains, wildflowers, and lakes, and scaring my mom to death on some of the crazy mountain roads. We went wine tasting in Paonia and got massages at a local spa. Then, for all the non-pregnant humans in the group, the adventures began!

One day this included river rafting down Taylor Canyon ...

and the next, renting ATVs and riding in the mountains at 11,000 feet!

I didn't mind staying behind too much ... the altitude + pregnancy left me feeling tired, plus I always had wonderful canines keeping me company. And we had plenty of opportunities for all of us to meet up during the day ...

There are lots of other pictures waiting to be posted. My parents got pictures of elk in Rocky Mountain National Park and Matt of course captured tons of photos. I hope that eventually I get to share all those photos here!

In the meantime, he did send me this photo of all six of the Colorado travelers: