apple orchard without the picking of apples

First grade welcomed fall this year with a trip to the coolest apple orchard ever.

So much to do there, so many sweet kiddos, and the perfect beautiful day to go to the apple orchard:)

week day pains

Ya'll ever have those weeks that you are just plain tired and all the rest you get doesn't seem to suffice? 

It's one of those weeks.

But it hasn't been a bad one at all, just tiring.

I like busy and I like structure.

But once I hit about 9pm, it's like my body shuts down and is screaming for bed.

such as this pic above.

Now, I never just plan to fall asleep on the floor.

But I was baking, and Alexio just happen to be nestled in a little ball right at that very spot between the kitchen and dining room, so I sat beside him and started snuggling.

Sometime in the 30 minutes of the White Kit Kat Blondies baking in the oven, I fell asleep while petting Alexio and he climbed into my lap, snuggling between my legs. 

Ryan snapped a pic and then woke me up when the timer for the baking treats went off.

whew!

Even when I'm exhausted at the end of the day, I feel accomplished climbing into bed and knowing that I did so much in the day.

I like feeling productive and being tired and finally hitting the sheets at the end of the day is such a reward.

so thankful for this week.

morning glory, hallelujah.

I like those days that I can lounge in my pajamas for as long as I want.

And even though I can't seem to sleep in because my body has an internal early alarm clock, my most favorite weekend thing to do is to bring my coffee, breakfast, and laptop to bed with him and stay in bed as long as I want.

but...Ever since we got our foster son and puppy, this beautiful weekend image, rarely happens.

This morning with no kids in the house,

I made my coffee and happily brought it back to bed with me, ignoring Alexio's whine to get our of his crate. (naw, i'm not cruel, i just know my puppy that well. he hears anyone awake and he thinks he needs to be playing with that person ASAP. he calmed himself down after a couple minutes.)

I stayed in bed til 9:30 watching four episodes of Beverly HIlls Nannies and loved snuggling down in my blanket and pillows and wiggling my toes around in the sheets.

Coffee is best on Saturday morning.

I like taking my time drinking it. 

and crunching down on my vanilla almond special k cereal with a banana....yum.

and all in bed!

it's the best. 

seriously.

Went on a really long walk with Alexio and Ryan...he's been trained to drink from the water fountain...so if i were ya'll, i wouldn't ever put my lips on the water fountain in the park. 

nope.

don't do it.

 We were pretty pumped to explore this area in the Discovery Center of Little Storm Lake...

Oddly enough, it made me feel at home...like a tiny bit of the marsh in South Carolina...

until you look out yonder and you see the fields and windmills in the distance.

I tried not to look too far out.

 Now this thing was a blast to visit.

I was that kid that loved everything related to forts.

tree forts, forts in my closet, forts made with blankets and chairs, forts under tables. 

and this watch tower really made me feel like a kid wanting to hide out in in with a sling shots and some shiny pebbles.

Who would have thought that this would be right across the street from our street! it's completely hidden by a woody area with paths in it.

The rest of the day was spent eating a big greasy cheesy burrito at a mexican restaruant we hadn't been to in like a year (so it was FABULOUS), grocery shopping (together! we never get to do that!), and watching football in the living.

oh and it's the first official day that Alexio can join us in the living room.

He's beyond excited.

He's always on close surveillance to make sure he isn't chewing anything he shouldn't.

it was a treat of a day, gettng to spend some one on one time with ryan and alexio.

wish we had  more days like today.

Laborless labor day weekend.

Labor Day weekend was really quiet in the BB household.

Grounded child equals cancelled plans.

It also meant a really really quiet weekend.

That we totally soaked up and enjoyed!

I felt like being domestic and made 2 dozen 100% whole wheat cinnamon rolls...

ding ding. our tastebuds were ringing the sweet tooth alarm all weekend with these sitting there all glazed and gooey.

We finished them off in just three days...between the three of us.

yeah, yeah, i did some extra miles on my run to burn these babies off!

We played with this little fella, as he ran and roamed around his territory, aka, the kitchen area, nicely gated, but he's figured out the side of the fence that gets loose quicker and has made a few jail run attempts.

I did some menu planning.

I love organizing my meals and knowing what exactly i'm going to be cooking and which day of the week i'll be making it.

my favorite part is going to the grocery store and getting all the ingredients.

one day i want one of those menu chalkboards that I can mount on the wall and fill in each week.

For now, I just use my handy dandy free from our bank notepad to hold the menu for the week;).

In honor of labor day, since we couldn't go anywhere (cuz of the grounded one's restrictions) ryan and I did a little partying of our own.

Ryan grilled, I made sides, and Alexio raced around and around our yard.

Ryan makes the BEST steaks.EVER. 

they are seriously the best red meat I've ever placed in my mouth.

Talk about making tastebuds dance and go crazy.

These steaks do this to me.

After our grilling and our meal with the grounded one, 

we had a Bourne trilogy movie watching marathon...well, over three nights.

I have a really difficult time staying awake when it gets close to 8:30...

I tried so hard, but normally i end up falling over and passing out til my bedtime at 10:15.

So that was our truly exciting weekend.

I loved being home with Ryan and Alexio.

It was a great start to fall.

Can't wait! September and October hold such exciting things for us!

Back to school campout

While Ryan's away camping with the pastors, we've been doing a little campout of our own.

It's also the last night to enjoy late night fun, because from here on out, we're back to our school schedule of early bedtimes and early rising! 

So, we had pizza, junk food, pop, and popcorn while watching movie after movie. (All things that rarely make an appearance in this calorie-counting home.) Both lil guy and I had really good hard workouts (football for him, strength training at the gym for me!) so we felt like we could enjoy one last night of celebration for summer.

We've both set up camp in the living room and fell asleep to a marathon of Pair of Kings on netflix.

here we are the morning after-he's still sleeping and enjoying his last morning of sleeping past 7.
Both of us are pretty pumped to go back and see the kiddos and teachers at school, but we're both trying to hang on to the little bit of summer freedom that we have left.

Here's to a brand new school year, fresh fall weather, and early mornings! 
So thankful for the summer and the many things we got to do!

Spontaneous Anniversary

this is waaaaay over due.

and i'm only blogging late on this, because i originally wanted to write detailed descriptions on everything.

however, lots of happenings in the Brandenberger household, so this has been delayed up until now.

Can I first say, that I cannot believe it's actually been 3 years of marriage with this wonderful man?!

We've been together for 7 years all together, and life with him is absolutely blissful.

We've grown so much in the years together (sideways and front ways, lol, and back down again), I can't believe we've been in each other's lives for this long.

 [2006-JSB banquet...my freshman year]

 2008-Senior year - JSB

 I love knowing that I'll get to grow old with this man.

and that he'll be the daddy of our kiddos one day.

That with all the love we share, we get to expect each day to get better and grow closer with each other.

It's something to be celebrated. 

So we did.

Ryan and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary with an unexpected twist.

We usually get away for a vacation around the time of our anniversary, but this year we didn't plan on going anywhere, because of not having enough respite days to leave our foster child with another family, and also with our new puppy, we just did not see how it'd work to get away.

But with some dear friends' offers to take care of both lil guy and Alexio, we were excited for the chance to go somewhere just the two of us. We didn't even know where we were going to go until the night before our anniversary-which added to the excitement of it all.

Ryan surprised me with some gifts that went with the theme of the year (Leather is the theme of the third year of marriage...last year was cotton and next year is fruit/flowers...google it, and you'll understand;))

He surprised me with two beautiful purses that he picked out himself.

the night before we left, he presented me with two big boxes and I was impressed with his choices. 

(i'm not going to enlarge this pic, because i'm in my pjs, with no makeup, no hair done, and no bra. so this side will have to do.) 

We took the trip out to Minneapolise, the same location we went on our first anniversary, but this time, we hadn't planned on going...we just up and went!

We have an annual tradition of hitting an amusement park every single year, so this year was Valley Fair....

to be honest, we weren't impressed, and the rollercoasters weren't terribly exciting, so I think we will retire going to the amusement parks in the midwest and stick to going to the good ones on the coast. 

we still had such a fun time hitting all the thrill rides and trying not to freeze from all the water rides.

We stayed at the Sheraton in downtown Minneapolise, where we enjoyed the luxury of the Club guest floor, which gave us access to all the fun and yummy stuff in the hotel.

It was a good pick...ryan usually picks really fun places to stay at.

We got to reminisce old memories of dating each other at McCormicks and Schmicks, which is a happy date place we'd find ourselves at, usually at 10 or 11 at night during happy hour.

Food is really the best part of trips for me, and i enjoyed splurging from healthy eating and eating at places i normally don't get to eat at. Breakfast in a restauarant is key to whether or not I like staying there. 

This place passed. i liked everything i ate.

Mall of America has some new additions to the stores and entertainmet. this is one of them. Go in there and I dare you not to laugh at the merchandise in the store. its kinda ridiculous.

I've been craving sushi...and it was the first restaurant we saw when we stepped into the mall.

There's really nowhere to get it here in storm lake, so was a treat.

It was such an unexpected trip and fun time together, just the two of us.

What a blessing to get to be together on our anniversary, refresh our relationship, and re-energize ourselves for this next school year ahead..

Thanks to all ya'll that let us go on our trip!