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! 

overnight guests

[this is the early morning of their departure...we're both lacking alot of sleep, but it was too enjoyable to stop talking late into the night!]

This week we got to have some sweet time with one of my bridesmaids and her husband.

They stopped by our house on their move from Washington state to Ohio.

Walking with the dog.

Sitting down to a meal and talking and laughing over dinner.

Getting to give them a quick sneak peek of our crazy life with kids.

Staying up really late, sitting on the kitchen floor, with Lindsay. 

Waking up really early for breakfast and to wish them farewell and safe travels.

These are just some of what we did in the 13 hours that they stayed in Storm Lake:)

sigh.

it was such a nice time...and it went all too quickly.

It was like getting a tiny piece of Beaufort, South Carolina, in my home in Storm Lake, IA.

Reminiscing with Lindsay and realizing how much time has flown over the years was so fun.

Had such a wonderful time having ya'll stop in!