Love of the Loved

Someone very special recently celebrated their birthday...

My mom (Laurie).

Peach pie. Made with love (and peaches).

Birthday present!

My mom's birthday was on September 15 and my family (just the four of us) went to Kafe 421 in Dinkytown. It is has an eclectic menu and my overall review of the restaurant was, "meh." The rest of the evening was not "meh." I served up pie I made earlier in the day and not to toot my own horn or anything, but it was DELICIOUS. I also got to present my mom with the birthday gift my dad and I had been working on the previous week. It is a recipe box. We assembled it together and I sanded/stained/polyurethaned it. My mom's current recipe organization looks like this...

The goal is to have two organized recipe boxes and ditch the chaos of the binder. Add that to the rainy day organizing list, Mom!

Maxwell's Silver Hammer

Now that you know what kinds of fun things we were up to this summer, maybe you're wondering if we worked at all. We did! I finally found a job in June as a summer nanny. I watched a six year old girl and her four year old brother. We had a fantastic summer together! We went to a gazillion places this summer... here is a list:

• Como Zoo
• Como Town
• Play Day at Midway with the St. Paul Saints
• St. Paul Saints game
• Storytime at Barnes and Noble
• Jackson Street Roundhouse
• Children's Museum
• Bowling
• The Works Hands On Museum
• Lake Harriet Beach
• ExploraDome at the U of M
• Hidden Falls Park
• Edinborough Park 
• Eagle's Nest
• Highland Park Pool
• Library
• Nearly every stinkin' park/playground in Roseville

Travis worked for his agent (Cory Laylin) as a coach at EuroAmerican Hockey in Maple Grove. He coached mites through bantams five mornings a week. The rest of his days were spent at Snap and hanging out on the lake (swimming, water skiing, and wakeboarding).

My dog Angel also spent some time in the lake...

My dummy with her dummy!

In My Life

Now for a catch-up sesh... Here is what I / we were up to this summer:

I got together with Katrine. You may recognize her as my host in Trondheim

We paddled in the 3rd Annual Canoe Race organized by Travis' older brother, Austin.

17 teams participated in this year's race.

Trav and his partner Donny

The day after the canoe race, Travis celebrated his 24th birthday (with a slight hangover).

Three days later, I celebrated my 24th birthday by going out to dinner with my parents and Trav and watching The Voice finale with a couple of girlfriends. Did anyone else vote for Beverly McClellan?

I went to the Basilica Block Party with these yahoos.

We saw performances by Ray LaMontagne and Amos Lee. I love Amos Lee's song "Flower"

Travis and I went camping at Gooseberry Falls State Park. Luckily, the Minnesota state shutdown ended two days before our trip, and the park opened just hours before we checked in! We hiked around the falls and along the Gitchi Gummi trail, skipped rocks on the shore of Lake Superior, and went on a tour of Split Rock Lighthouse.

At the end of August, we went to a resort in McGregor, MN for a Vermeulen family weekend. We ate, drank, shopped (girls), golfed (boys), went for a pontoon ride on Big Sandy Lake, played games, and then ate and drank some more!

Check out that sunset!

Travis and Tyler

Amanda (Gary's daughter) and me

The Vermeulen boys: Taylor, Austin, Tyler, and Travis

Trav also did a lot of fishing off his dock this summer...

I would say that Summer 2011 treated us very well, even if it did go by quickly!

What's The New Mary Jane

As you may have noticed, my blog has a new look! The banner was designed by Jess at irocksowhat and I made the other upgrades. I am hoping the changes will motivate me to continue blogging. I'll do a couple of posts in the next week recapping Summer 2011 to ease myself into writing again.

In other news of new things, I bought a car...

A brand spankin' new 2012 Honda Fit! So far, I love it. I've only had it for a day and a half, but I have been anticipating its arrival for over a month! It appears small on the outside, but it has a lot of cargo room when the back seat is laid flat. My brother says its the ugliest car he's ever seen, but I love that it looks different! 

NEWS!

Well, we have news:

Travis will be playing for the Chicago Express this upcoming season! Here is the press release: Express add Riley, Palm, Vermeulen. The Express is a brand spankin' new ECHL team affiliated with the Springfield Falcons (AHL) and Columbus Blue Jackets (NHL). They play at Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, IL (about 30 miles northwest of Chicago).

Map found here

The team will be providing an apartment for us in Hoffman Estates during the season. Travis will be moving  in late September and I am hoping to be there by early October. They average 15 games per month which is pretty similar to the schedule he had while playing Junior Hockey for the Sioux Falls Stampede.

We are both excited to be moving to the Chicago area and for Travis to have another hockey opportunity!