Chicago

Ryan surprised me with a trip to Chicago!! Well, there was a catch to this trip, but I won't go into those details right now. The important thing is that we spent a beautiful weekend in Chicago and I was BLOWN AWAY by the hundreds of thousands of tulips we saw there! Spring was in full force, and the blossoms on the trees and every single tulip we saw made my heart swoon. Just ask Ryan-- I was gushing over every tulip we saw. We spent some time in the western suburb of Naperville, and also spent some time downtown.

Thanks for a great trip, hunny! I love going on adventures.

Downtown Naperville. So cute.


Some pretty tulips downtown.


See what I mean? Amazing!


Just one of the cool buildings in Downtown Naperville. FYI: Naperville was established in 1831!


Chicago Hot Dogs are amazing.


Another shot of Downtown Naperville.


The Riverwalk and eating gelato. yum.


My cute husband in action. I kind of like that this picture turned out blurry.


We don't have these blossoms in Minnesota yet.


Yummy lunch outside by the river.


Now we head downtown Chicago. We went with Ryan's awesome co-worker Suzanne, and her fiance Mark. We had such a blast!! Although I was a little concern when we went to park at the John Hancock building and the parking attending said she had to check the trunk. Intrigued, I asked "Why?" She said, "Oh you know, for dead bodies, bombs, guns, those sorts of things". Oh, right, naturally. Despite that, we had a blast walking the mag mile and going to a great Indian restaurant, India House.



And, let me tell you--- If I thought there were a lot of tulips in Naperville, nothing could prepare me for the tulips I saw on the Mag Mile. It was AMAZING. I was constantly in awe of the magnitude and beauty of these amazing flowers.









Good thing it was dark, or I would have taken lots more photos. Everyone laughed/loved how much I was taken over by the flowers, they told me I should just go lay in the bed of tulips. I couldn't help it, they were so beautiful.



The next day we went to a downtown Chicago ward and then check out downtown Chi-town a little more.

Here's my shot of downtown on a clear day.


We liked the view of the lake:

Let's Ride.

After a crazy week last week, we finally got out on our bikes as part of FHE Monday night! It felt so good to be outside after work --- We ended up going on quite the adventure as we turned a short little bike ride into a pretty legit ride. This picture says it all:



If you have a hard time seeing the picture, you can click on it, and it will bring up a bigger version.

I took a lot of video on this ride and will hopefully get some software that I can use to make cool little videos...until then, you'll just have to trust me that this ride was sooo beautiful! We were on trails the WHOLE time and the trails are starting to be covered in beautiful leaves and blossoms. It was a gorgeous night for a bike ride and we even got to see a cool orange sunset. SO MUCH FUN!

It's my Birthday, Shout HURRAY!

I love Birthdays. Especially when it's mine. And especially when I have a sweet husband who brings me breakfast in bed. Hello, amazing!

It's hard to believe that I am 25 today. 25!! I feel so old, yet so young at the same time. I found this picture from my 5th birthday .... oh how time flies!



I am so grateful to have been born into a wonderful loving family who has constantly shown me their support and outpouring of love over the past 25 years. I am also so grateful to be married to such an incredible man, and marry into a wonderful family who has embraced me and welcomed me with open arms. I have the best friends in the entire world and constantly feel my Heavenly Father's love for me through them and through my family. I am so so lucky and so so grateful for this incredible life I have been given that is full of love and happiness and adventure.


ps. I know my eyes are closed... I'm looking at my cake :)

Here's a toast to 75 years to come of love, happiness and adventure.

Location, Location, Location

Ryan and I were talking on our way home tonight. We live:

35 minutes from the Temple

15 minutes from an Int'l Airport
15 minutes from Downtown Minneapolis
15 minutes from Ryan's work
15 minutes from Church
15 minutes from Lake Minnetonka
15 minutes from The Mall of America

5 minutes from a lake beach
5 seconds from 3 different trail heads
5 seconds from Downtown Hopkins
5 steps from a fantastic park



What more could a person ask for? Our house is perfect.

KOREA

For those of you who don't know -- Ryan served in Korea. Cool, right? I keep begging him to take me there, I can't wait to go. We have heard there is GOOD Korean food here in the twin cities but have yet to check it out. That is, until Saturday.

We drove an extra 30 minutes out of our way to go to KINGS KOREAN FOOD. From the outside, I totally thought it looked sketchy (think run down strip mall with an adult fantasy store next door). But once inside, it was totally legit. I moved out of my comfort zone and tried Kimchi pancakes -- could have been the best thing we ordered! For my entree, I stayed true to what I know and love, Bulgolgi, and Ryan got an old-time favorite, Kimchi Soup.

Kimchi Pancakes:


So much food! My happy man.



The waitress was testing Ryan on his Korean throughout dinner and kept looking at me and telling me how good his Korean is.

Another one of my favorite things.



THANKS TY!!! Ryan's brother got us this SWEET hammock for our wedding/christmas gift. Needless to say we are IN LOVE. We go out and lay on it almost every day ... and maybe I have taken a nap or two out on it myself in the afternoon sun.

Because sometimes it just feels good to drink from a fancy cup









Who doesn't love fresh fruit smoothies topped with Reddi Whip? Hello, amazing.

Just one of my favorite things

Mid-day runs. One of my favorite things right now is mid-day runs with my girlfriend Katie. She works from home as well, so we will frequently get together for a short 3 mile run somewhere in our neighborhoods, or, if we are feeling adventurous, we might head out to the chain of lakes! With this amazing-perfect-run weather we are having, and the melted lakes, it makes for a gorgeous run.

The Bandshell-- where they host concerts in the park EVERY DAY in the summer.


There's me! :)


View of the bandshell from the other side of the lake...


Oh wait, that was zoomed in. Here's the real view:


Shot of the City Skyline


Our running path. Yes, we have our OWN path. There is a separate path for the bicycles! In the summer this is all grown over...but for us its still spring. no leaves yet!


Poppies! I think?...

At our house, Milk is a must. Even the thought of not having a drop of milk in the fridge makes my cute husband shudder. He loves milk. He's even taken on my dad's phrase: "Gotta have Milk!" (if you know my dad ... you know its the WAY he says this that makes it so classic!).

Anyway, so its BIG time news in our house that we have lasted for 2 WHOLE DAYS with no milk!! I feel bad, like I am neglected my husbands needs just a little bit, but things have been THAT crazy that we have not been able to run to the store, even for MILK. No need to worry, we are headed out tonight to get our grocery needs taken care of, and I'm sure soon enough we'll be back to our normal state of 3 gallons in the fridge.

MACYS DOWNTOWN FLOWER SHOW

The MACYS downtown Minneapolis has an open 8th floor where they host all sorts of things -- like the "Day in a life of an Elf" that I talked about in December. In the spring, a local flower Goliath, named Bachmans, hosts an amazing flower show. We met up with my friend Mary and her cute family to admire the gorgeous flowers.

Here, go on tour of the Flower show with me--- these are just a few of the hundreds of flowers they had on display.

My friend Katie also went and took some sweet pics as well. If you want to see more, click here