Jamaica, here we come!

Every newly wedded couple needs a honeymoon!! Jerad did an awesome job planning the honeymoon for us. I did not know where we were going until we reached our connecting flight in Memphis Tennessee. You would not believe how much I needed that time to spend with my new husband. As the wedding day was closing in, I felt like I was being pulled in so many different directions with planning details, work, and making sure everyone would arrive when they needed to be there.

Jerad picked out Sandals Montego Bay for our resort and I loved it. Slushy drinks were free flowing, sand volleyball was played twice a day, food was available all the time, the sun came out and graced us everyday and of course....I was called Princess by every male that worked there. I think I was in heaven.

While Jerad would be out looking for seashells - that we have yet to decide what to do with - I was basking in the sun people and crab watching. Crab watching is an art....as you will see they are practically the same color as the sand and they are quick as the dickens (whatever that means...grandpa use to always say it). But I did catch on to the art of crab watching and snagged a photo of the little guy grabbing a hold of a stray pineapple before dashing into his hole. I did learn how they are so quick and hide so fast...they dig their hole while they are trying to grab the food and if someone should step/move towards them, they duck in the hole. It took this little guy about 3 tries before people would stop scaring him into a hole. Also above is a picture of the little gazebos off of piers. We were able to see a couple weddings being performed there. It was really cool, but I don't know how I would have been able to fit all of our friends and family in the gazebo, let alone the pier.

One of the evening events included a luau and entertainment by a fire breathing man. He was just crazy. I'm so glad this was an adults only resort, I can only imagine kids trying this stuff at home.

There was usually something fun going on in the evenings and we were able to try out all of the restaurants on the resort. I can't really say which was my favorite as they were all really good. We did take a day trip to Negril where we were able to do some shopping, cliff jumping, and visited the Sandals Negril resort to do some snorkeling and just enjoying another resort. That was the only time we were hit with inclement weather...which was fine b/c at that moment we were practically ready to hop on the bus to head back.

Thank you to my wonderful husband for planning such an awesome vacation. The downside is that now I want to go at least every year. :-)

Reception Pictures and that's all

THE WEDDING!!!!

September 19th is finally here!! The day was absolutely beautiful and we couldn't have prayed for a better day. But first - there was a lot of preparation on Thursday and Friday. On Thursday I worked at getting a ton of decorations over to the hotel for the reception and I had to pick up my dress from the seamstress and took it over to my aunt Pam's house. On Friday, Debbie, mom and I decorated the reception hall. My aunt Pam even brought over some wonderful snacks for us. After we were finished my mom and I had gotten our nails done at Elm Salon in Hastings so we would be ready to go for the wedding. We were looking so good. :-) Sorry - I have no pictures to prove it to you - I was happy enough to just know what needed to be done for the day. The day concluded with a short rehearsal at the church followed by a rehearsal dinner at Dan's bar in a small town south of Hastings. (They also did the bartending for the wedding reception) After the dinner one of my closest friends, Tasha gave me one of the greatest gifts of all - a massage!! She is a massage therapist in Florida and as her wedding gift, she gave me a massage the night before the wedding and I have to say, that is the best thing a bride can ask for! Thank you so much Tasha!!!

Ok - the wedding day!! Just so you know, it takes a lot of people to get the bride ready for her wedding.

My stylist Megan, came to the hotel to do my hair and it turned out just like I had imagined. She has such talent!All of the girls got their hair done in the bridal suite also. We had a girl from Elm Salon come over to do Heather and Andrea's hair. I was so thrilled with their hair. I do have to say that stylists have come a long way since my prom days. :-) Megan spruced up mom's with a little curl and spray.

Then I needed help getting into the dress without ruining my beautiful hair and my very beautiful and pregnant personal attendant was there - and you know, throughout the day, I never once had to ask for anything b/c she was there offering me exactly what I needed at the exact time I needed it. So for all you future brides out there, I am willing to rent her out. Feel free to call me. :-) So while Kristine was buttoning me up, Heather was getting the all important garter in place. And as sad as it may sound, I don't quite remember who caught the garter at the dance.

Since I couldn't finish my necklace by myself, Andrea had to finish it for me. And then, there was the world's best PA putting on the veil. I used to think I could dress myself, but I was wrong.

I will say that I have struggled dressing since. For some reason, these ladies don't want to come to my house every morning to help me get ready.

Also, I was truly disappointed in Jerad's groomsmen....they failed in the candid "getting ready for the wedding" photos. There was not a single picture taken of him getting ready for the wedding. But it's all about the bride anyway, right?

Well I have no candid photos of the wedding itself right now, but I will tell you that it was the most beautiful wedding ever...or am I just biased? After the wedding party all went to Applebees for a quick relaxation drink before heading over to the reception where the craziness would continue. Above is a picture of me, my brother Scott and sister Heather.

Here is one of my flower girl Jordan and I walking back to the hotel suite so I could go put some comfy shoes on. She had a great time being a flower girl....if you could only see all of the pictures from our photographer, you would think this day was all about her. She loved it.

Just so you know, I would love to post every picture possible that was taken at our wedding to share with you all, but then you would be staring at this blog entry for over 2 hours.

Wedding Showers

This spring and summer I was blessed with some very nice showers hosted by some very thoughtful family. In May, my cousin Abbie and my aunt/godmother Darla hosted a Pampered Chef Bridal Shower for me in Belmond. I got some very nice knives, bamboo bowls for entertaining, spatulas, little nonstick pan and much more. It was a fun party.Then in June , Jerad's aunts Sue and Cheryl hosted a shower for me out in Maple Plain, MN at Sue's house. This shower had the Garden and Garage theme and was super fun. I will tell you - we registered at Home depot just for this shower alone and Jerad had so much fun with it. He barely let me put anything on the registry for the 'garden' part. During the shower we played some fun games, tried some fruity champange and opened some great gifts.

Then in August, my aunt Pam hosted a bridal shower for me at her house for the Sorenson Side. There was no theme for this one but we got to play a game that my aunt just made up that morning. Since a bride goes through a number of "feelings" throughout the planning process of the wedding and opening a new chapter in her life, the game was about "feelings". However the game wasn't about emotion - feelings, but about feeling things. She put a number of items individually into a bag and we all had to reach in there and feel it without looking, then we had to write on our piece of paper what we were feeling. It was such a fun game especially when some were a little leary of what would be in there. :-)

I do have to say it was a great time to see a ton of family before the wedding b/c it is going to be so hard to spend the time that I want with them at the wedding reception.

A huge thank you goes out everyone that hosted, helped plan and joined in the parties.

4th of July

Since my class reunion was in Belmond this year, we also got to experience small town traditions on the 4th of July. I love parades and fireworks. This year my BFF Andrea and I agreed to run the 5K on the morning of the 4th. We didn't place first or in any of the medal winning categories...but we had fun and it was something that I got to do with one of my bridesmaids.

After the race, I walked back to grandma's house to shower up and get ready for the parade but first we had a couple house guests....well lawn guests. Grandma and Grandpa have a really big yard and are surrounded by fields - they even put a salt lick out for their guests. But it was fun to see these deer. They even let me come out on the deck to take their picture.

Another huge small town tradition was the parade and this year my dad had a VERY important job in it. I never got to see him at work, but I heard he got a standing ovation when he did have to do it. He works for the city and this year his job was to follow the horses and clean up the messes they made as they walked through the parade. See the horses...and then there is my dad in his truck. He did such a nice job keeping our town clean!

On to another tradition - the FIREWORKS!!! Since Andrea was in town with her family, Jerad and I sat with them for the show (minus the baby - Colin as he was too young). As I have said before, I love fireworks, but I also love seeing children's reactions to them.

Andrea and Jeremiah's twins are also one of the flowergirls and one of the ringbearers in our wedding. We had a great time with them and even saw some of the fireworks in the midst of our running around. :-)

TIIIIIMMMMMBBBBBBEEERRRRRRR!

Jerad had been traveling for work for the better part of last week and then he took off on again on Friday. But this trip he had volunteered to drive a truck to Duluth for the MS 150 which is a bike ride from Duluth to the Twin Cities for Multiple Sclerosis. This is the first I had heard of it, but it is a huge event. Cargill (Jerad's employer) has a huge team every year and needed drivers to haul all the bikes and camping equipment up to the start line and then to the camping location and slowly make their way back to the cities with the bikers. So he was gone until Sunday morning. He was tired and sunburned but he was ready to get those pine trees down. And I'll tell you, this time he didn't let me hide.

Here is Jerad preparing the trees. He tied a rope to the top so that when he made the first cut, we could pull it in the direction we wanted it to go. Check out all of the helpful neighbors that came to help little me pull. We have me, our neighbor boys, neighbor Sharon, and 2 friends of the neighbor boys. Lots of muscle here. ;-P

We actually pulled so hard the that the rope broke. BEFORE the tree came down! I was a nervous wreck yelling at Jerad to quit cutting b/c we couldn't control where the top fell. When the rope broke it, the top fell back on to the chainsaw and jammed it so it was stuck in the cut. Jerad came down and I ran to the hardware store and bought some thicker rope. Jerad tied it back up and then we were at it again. The picture isn't the best....but maybe you can make out all of us actually pulling with all of our might. This first tree had a huge trunk that Jerad even had to come off the ladder after making the cut to help us pull it down . And then.......TIIIIMMMMBBBEERRRRR!

And now it was time for round two on the second, smaller tree. With it being 1/2 the size in circumference and it wasn't leaning towards the street like the first one, he cut it at the bottom and me and my pullers were able to pull without his help.

Here we are tying up the top of the tree,

Jerad making the cut,

and then TIIIIIMMMMBBBEEEERRR!

Jerad also just plugged away at cutting all of the branches and piling them up to bundle it all. He cut while I stacked or cleaned up all of the broken branches or dead stuff that broke off....not to mention the pine cones that fell from the top. We were very tired and sore by the end of the night. As you will see here, the big trunk from the first tree was still up while Jerad cut all of the branches, but we did get that down too last night. It is nice to have our yard cleaned up today, but I would have given anything to stop for the night and save the rest for another day....but if you know my fiance....work work work until it is finished. Plus he is traveling for 3 days this week again so he didn't want it laying in the yard all week long. He had it all at the curb for the rock star yard waste guy once again....this time not holding any back since it didn't take long to load...and as I was working from home again today....I can tell you it only took him 5 minutes to clear it all away. I tell you....I think we have the cream of the crop yard waste collectors. Now all that is left for me to do while he is away is to move all of the hostas and ferns that were growing underneath the pine trees so we can get the stump grinder next week and tear out those stumps. We are looking at replacing it with a lovely new weeping willow tree. Our privacy will once again return.