Catch-up: June 2014

Well, it appears that time has gotten the better of me again. It's been almost 6 months since my last entry and a TON has happened. Summer has come and gone, family reunions have occurred and baby Rasmussen has arrived! I'll do my best version of catch-up from my memory (which hasn't been fantastic these last 9 months or so). I'll start with June and hopefully one day I will catch up!

June consisted of mostly work and some play. 

Around the middle of June, my friend Keely volunteered to do a little maternity photoshoot with me as a promo so she could get more business on her photography site. I was more than willing to help her out since I love the photos she's done for me in the past (engagement & family photos). We had a great time wandering out in Edworthy Park, although the mosquitos were killer. Keely did a great job! We went out for breakfast afterwards to catch-up and to thank her for the photoshoot. I'm glad we've kept in touch all these years since we first met at Trek in 2007. 

Towards the end of June, Jared and I decided to take a little vacation to Utah to visit Erin & Darrin. We knew we wanted to take one last get-away vacation with the little baby on the way and we figured it would be nice to visit family. While in Utah, we had a fun time visiting with Erin & Darrin. We went swimming at their clubhouse pool with Isaiah and Ezra and later at a nice little reservoir they have in their community. We did some shopping...a LOT of shopping it appears (yikes!). The majority of things we bought were for baby Rasmussen so I suppose it was worth the hefty price tag. We did hit up some yard sales one Saturday. Apparently people in Utah really know how to put on a yard sale...lemonade stands, bake sales, even music. We managed to get some sweet deals! We happened to score a CD by the "Red Hot Chili 'Pipers'" with bagpipe covers of popular songs. Jared and I agreed it was the best 50 cents we have ever spent.

A sweet note that Isaiah wrote for me. It seriously gave me the warm fuzzies. 

Also, while we were in Utah, Erin & Darrin celebrated their 12th anniversary on the 22nd. To celebrate, we went with them up to Park City for dinner. We had some tasty burgers and then went shopping at the outlet stores. It's crazy to think they've been married this long, not that I doubted it ;)

Our drive to Park City for Erin & Darrin's anniversary.

Delicious Sparkling Prickly Passion Lemonade that we found at Costco in Utah.

The journey home...

Other than our jaunt to Utah, June was pretty uneventful. I continued to work at the Young Adult Program at the Foothills Hospital where life is good, but usually hectic. I also continued attending my prenatal appointments and everything was smooth sailing! Pregnancy was treating me well at this point since most of my morning sickness had gone away...thank goodness! Also, for some reason, I was really craving soft-serve ice cream from Dairy Queen. So good!

My pregnancy craving

Also, this is the bump at 26 weeks. 

And this is Jared all dressed up for his friend, Jeff O'Brien's wedding. He's hot stuff. 

Now on to July...

Pre-Black Friday Shopping

As some of you may know, I love shopping in the USA! Well really, who doesn't? It's generally cheaper and they have a lot of fun stuff that we just aren't lucky enough to get in Canada.

Last year, I had the awesome opportunity to go to Kalispell in December with my mom and a family friend, Debbie Beazer. I ended up finishing the majority of my Christmas shopping there and a great time having a little girls' trip away. 

This year, I decided it would be fun to do something similar. I had been talking about going to Kalispell again, possibly for Black Friday. Not too long after I thought of that, however, I changed my mind and decided shopping on Black Friday in the States was probably not the best idea. I've heard the horror stories of Black Friday: long line-ups, people fighting over televisions, people being trampled, fights breaking out over parking spots...not my idea of a good time!

I still wanted to go shopping in Kalispell, however, and my mom had offered to take me if I came up with a time that I could get a away for a day or two. I jumped at the opportunity! I swapped an evening shift at work and arranged the trip. I invited my friend, Emily, along for the trip as well and we made the trip last Wednesday (November 27th) to the wonderful land of Kalispell. 

The drive there was beautiful! It had recently snowed and so the trees were frosted and glittering. The clouds were floating around the tops of the mountains and the ponds and rivers were frozen over. Here are a few pictures I happened to snap as we were driving through the mountain passes.

Once we got to Kalispell, we did a bit of shopping at Joanne, the best craft store ever! I bought some fabric and yarn for some craft projects I've started this month. We were starving after our trip to Joanne's so we went for lunch at Hu Hot, a Mongolian Grill, that my mom and I always have to stop at when we go to Kalispell. The cooks there fry up all of your ingredients on a huge grill. If you tip them and ring the gong by the cooking station, they shout "HU HOT!" and flip their spatulas in all sorts of crazy ways. It's definitely a treat.

After lunch, we hit up as many of the other stores as we could: Ross, TJ Maxx, Target, and Walmart. I ended up getting most of my Christmas shopping done again which was great! It's not every year that I can get most of my Christmas presents bought before December. Of course, while in Kalispell, we had to stock up on all of the American pop. Jared loves Vanilla Coke, so I bought him several cases to tide him over until our next trip to the States. 

We made our final pit stop at Wendy's for dinner and then made the drive home. With it being dark so early these days, our trip home was mostly pitch black. I forgot how beautiful the sky can by when you're in the country. I used to see the starry sky all the time when I lived in Drumheller but I think I took it for granted when I lived there. Now that I live in a busy city, I hardly ever get to see the stars at night. The sky on the way home that night was so clear that I couldn't help but crane my neck to see out the window. The stars were piercing and bright and I could clearly see the few constellations that I actually know. I could even see a few planets (if that's indeed what they were).

Anyways, I ended up having a great time spending time with my mom and Emily. I always enjoy getting to spend time with family and friends. With things being so busy these days, that seems to be a rarity. I hope that this yearly Christmas shopping trip to Kalispell becomes a tradition! That is, as long as my wallet can take another beating like it did this time...