What's that Cooper....

....you like air-conditioned air? Oh yes, we knew this already.

Backyard

After this past weekend, I'm pretty sure our neighbors are wondering who the heck lives in this house. You see, our schedules have been rather busy and when this happens, things may or may not get neglected {*cough*} Well, anyways, Ryan decided this weekend that he was tired of mowing the lawn so often and I decided that I was sick of looking at the over grown tomato plants growing in our yard and taking over the lawn. So we took matters into our own hands. Ryan lowered the mowing deck one notch and I attacked the tomato plants and {tired} to put them back into the area designated as the garden. Well.....let's just say our backyard has seen better days. It looks pretty dead right about now.

The grass may have been cut just a tad too short resulting in...

{yep, that's one good looking lawn - ha!}

...and I hacked away at the tomato plants trying to get them under control resulting in...

LOL! This picture makes me laugh. It looks terrible! Note the nice long green grass that survived the mower only because it was protected underneath the tomato plants which were ruling the backyard!

Yeah, as I've said before, we've given up on getting these plants under control. There are wire frames in there somewhere and six stakes which failed to hold this wire frames up. Anyways, when I moved all the vines back into the "garden" area, it left all the dead stuff exposed. Like I said, I'm pretty sure the neighbors are wondering about our lawn/garden care capabilities.

On a side note, I had Ryan roll the yard waste kirby back to these big 'ol plants when I was pulling weeds {there was one weed that literally was taller than me - I should have taken a before picture - and was growing to resemble a tree} and ripping off some of the tomato vines {accidentally}. Ryan and I don't really eat tomatoes {which is likely another reason why these got out of control}. So as I was cleaning up these plants, I was pulling rotten tomatoes off the vine and tossing them in the kirby. Well....one of my tosses ended up coming up short and the tomatoe splattered ALL over the lid of the kirby. I laughed. Ryan looked at me and said "Really Ashley?!? You are throwing rotten tomatoes?!?" {hehehe} and then he ran inside to grabbed a bucket of water to pour over the rotten tomato mess. {hehe}

And what dead backyard wouldn't be complete without a dead tree...

....oh yeah, we've got one of those too. At least the swing set looks nice!

~Ashley

Neat Clouds & A Big Dead Bug

I don't know what it is, but where we are living, we get some pretty interesting weather and cloud formations. These are some pictures from this morning. The clouds look almost painted in some of these pictures. {And yes, everyone's house looks about the same in my neighborhood :-)}

And here's one for good measure....

 This morning we discovered a big dead bug on our deck and apparently the cats realize it too :-)

~Ashley

Fresh Air

For the past couple of days, the temp has been so nice outside. In fact, we shut off the AC and opened the windows. Not only is it nice to get some fresh air but the cool temperatures at night make for perfect sleeping weather. I don't think Ryan and I are the only ones enjoying the fresh air either.

~Ashley

working on the weekend

I worked the overnight shift last night. I had a couple minutes of downtime around 11:00pm so I started to check out the latest updates on facebook. Kristin had posted some pictures from the county fair and on further inspection of the pictures I noticed my parents and Hillary and Ryan. The whole family {minus Ryan and I} had an outing to the county fair. Hill and Ryan were down to meet with their wedding photographer. I wish I could have been back with them but someones gotta work on the weekend :) Then I checked my text messages and Kristin had sent me this...

Isn't it cute?! Looks like they had a good time at the fair! I miss being in MN but this phase in my life is four years and I'm sure that it will go fast, I mean, I can't believe that it is already late-August. Where does the time go? Well, I know where my time goes... "Hi, this is Dr. Thorson returning your page" :)

~Ashley

Dark and Stormy Night

Tonight is the night for thunderstorms! Gotta love a good thunderstorm. We are currently just on the front end of the second thunderstorm since I got home from work.

Here is the first storm that blew through. It brought lots of wind and lots of hail. Just south of our house they were getting golf to tennis ball sized hail. I'm glad I have a garage to park my car in!

My attempt to get a picture of a big piece of hail in the backyard. It was raining so hard that I couldn't open the sliding door to get a picture.

After a few tries, I got a picture of the big piece in the grass. This piece was about 4 or more feet away from the edge of the deck. There were some bigger pieces {quarter-sized} that landed on the deck but by the time the rain let up enough for me to get a picture, the warm rain had practically melted them already.

Here's the beginning of the second storm moving in.

Right now it is raining like no other. I am sitting in the bedroom and the rain is so hard that I can't even see these houses in the above pictures. The lights are flicking too so I'm sure that we are going to lose power. I just hope all the wind doesn't blow our one live tree in the backyard over - she is a rockin' out there! But on a positive note, I'm glad we stopped attempting to stake our tomato plants up as I'm sure they'd be laying on the ground again once this storm passes and also, I'm really glad a have a covered garage :)

~Ashley

An update in cellphone pictures

Ryan and I get to eat lunch together sometimes!

We finished restaining one dresser and the nightstand. {Ryan no longer has to put all of his stuff on the floor.}

Checking my phone during one of mine and Ryan's lunch dates. {Really he just likes that I get a lunch allowance everyday :)}

This past weekend we went down to Old Market and ate at the Twisted Fork. Good food but we had poor service :(

We sat outside and ate our dinner. It was SO nice outside. I could have sat outside all night!

After dinner we walked around the downtown area and came across these super big slides. It was fun watching all the kids {and adults} playing. Some of the kids really got a lot of speed and either caught air going over the first little bump in the slide or they would fly off the end.

Zoey continues to like to sit in boxes....even if the box is a tad too small for her.

The size of the box doesn't matter - Zoey will just make herself at home - ha!

My Step 3 study aid came in the mail. When I opened the amazon box, Ryan looked at me as I pulled this out and said "It's that time already again?!" Yep, it's time for this again.

Ryan and I have given up on the tomato plants in the backyard. They are so huge that we can't keep them staked up. So they are spilling out into the yard. Yes, that tree is dead. We need to get around to digging it out and replacing it.

A Long Drive Home

The Monday after Hillary and Ryan C's wedding, Ryan and I began the drive from Minnesota to Omaha which is a long and boring one. Good thing Ryan and I had each other to keep ourselves entertained! Before we left Minnesota, we ate lunch at Baker Square {to much of Ryan's disappointment as he was wanting Chinese}. My thought behind Baker Square vs. Chinese were two things 1) Chinese makes my stomach hurt which is the last thing I want to have happening on a long car ride and 2) Chinese makes Ryan's stomach hurt and he was going to be driving and he'd have control of locking the windows {if you get my drift}. So Baker Square it was. While eating lunch, I showed Ryan just how sun-burned I was...

Gotta love having fair skin and never letting it see the sunlight!

As we were driving south, somewhere in Iowa, we discovered how maintenance was preformed on wind turbines...

I think I'll stick to my day job. I'd probably lose my lunch if I was to person way up in the bucket.

We have satellite radio in Ryan's car and since we couldn't get very good radio stations while driving through Timbuktu, we resorted to the 90s station. I love to sing in the car. It helps pass time. I'm sure Ryan get's sick of it but he always smiles and tells me I sound good {yes dear, you sound fantastic!} We listened to lots of goodies including...

I was having a lot of fun belting out these tunes and then this came on the radio...

...and I just about lost it. I could no longer contain myself and sang super loud. This song brought me back to Junior High *sigh* the memories. Ryan quickly changed the channel and told me he was NOT listening to Hanson. I begged and begged and begged to change the channel back. He reluctantly let me and I began to belt out the ballad! Um, hello Ryan, this is the Hanson Brothers we are singing about here!!! Unfortunately Ryan did not belt out Hanson until his heart was content, instead he desperately searched the car for ear plugs :) Marriage...it's all about give and take, right?!

I was able to work on my farmer's tan as there were practically no clouds in the sky and it was blistering hot outside.

It was so hot, I was sitting on the sunny side of the car and the air conditioner really couldn't keep up. Well, I take that back, the air conditioning kept up but sun beating down into the car made the air condense and drip all over my legs and feet for the last hour or so of the ride.

We drove back through the flood tunnel roads and got better pictures this time around as it wasn't down-pouring out.

I still can't believe how flooded it is around these parts. The poor families that have been displaced from their homes, I can't even imagine what that would be like. Kind of puts things into perspective somethings - maybe things aren't as bad for me as they may seem sometimes. At least I have a roof over my head and a house filled with my own stuff to come home too.

We made it back to Omaha in time to run to the grocery store before the Bachelorette finale started :-) Ryan thinks the Bachelor/Bachelorette show is stupid and doesn't understand why I watch it. It's "reality" TV and I just....can't...stop....watching...it. Oh well, there are worse things in life than the Bachelorette, right?!

Tuesday morning came and Ryan was off to work and I was off to get BLS {Basic Life Support} certified. And so our vacation ended. We had a great time in Minnesota, only wish we would have been able to stay longer!

~Ashley

We're study buddies!

A Wonderful day for a Wedding

Saturday was indeed a wonderful day for a wedding! Hillary and Ryan lucked out and had a beautiful day. With storms threatening the area, Superior Shores in Two Harbors remained dry. Not only did it not rain on the day but it was overcast all day which was SO nice. Friday, there were no clouds in the sky and you broke a sweat in about two seconds flat {I actually got a little sunburn during the 10 minute wedding rehearsal - go figure.} Having the overcast day not only made it bearable to be outside temperature wise but it also made for good picture taking! I'm so anxious to see Hill and Ryan's professional photos. They used the same photographer that I used. {Lime Rock Photography out of Mankato MN.}

I woke up with the sunrise Saturday morning. The sunrise over Lake Superior {are any lake for that matter} is gorgeous. I quietly sneaked outside and snapped some pictures. The morning was beautiful - the lake was clam, the temperature was still cool and the sunrise was gorgeous.

Hair appointments started at 7:30am in Hillary's room. It was really nice and laid back. We had one hairdresser who drove up to the resort and did all of our hair. It was nice not to have to drive anywhere. We all just hung out, ate breakfast and got our hair done. It was perfect.

The bride got to go first.

Then it was Bobbi's turn.

Then me.

Mom was next.

I loved the way my mom's hair turned out. It was so her :)

Then it was Kristin's turn.

The Wedding Party - Bobbi, me, Kristin and Hillary {I guess Loewe girls like blue!}

Completed hair photo.

Adding the final detail to Hillary's hair.

While we were getting our hair done and eating breakfast, we got to watch big ships go by out on the lake. This reminded me of my first year of medical school when I lived on the top floor of my apartment building and had an unobstructed view of the lake. I loved watching the ships and boats going in and out of the harbor.

After everyone's hair was complete and before the photographer showed up to take pictures of Hillary getting ready, Kristin and I plucked Hillary's eyebrows {had to get her all ready for these photos that she'll look at for many, many years to come}.

Poor Hill - she felt like we were pulling her eyeball out. {I can sympathize. I HATE plucking eyebrows. I'd rather wax them and have a split second of pain than several split seconds of pain back to back to back}

Mom and Hillary doing make-up {I love this picture.}

Getting all prettied up. {I really like this photo too.}

I don't have any pictures of us getting Hillary all ready in her dress, but the professional photographer was there so eventually I'll have some pictures. Unfortunately I don't have many more photos from the day. Once pictures started there wasn't a lot of down time and being in the wedding doesn't lend itself to carrying around a camera. Oh well, it makes me want to see all the professional pictures even more.

The guys hanging out on the balcony. Ryan {usher}, Aaron {groomsman}, Ruben {groomsman}, Dave {usher}

Beautiful bride

Hillary and Bobbi.

Bobbi and Kristin. The bridesmaid's necklaces were made by my dad!

I did manage to sneak in a photo of the bride and groom.

What a gorgeous place to take photos.

There they are, the happy couple!

 These are the last pictures that I took during the day but I got a couple other photos from my Aunt Judy.

Dad and Hillary coming to walk down the aisle.

Ryan and Hillary leaving the ceremony - high fives all around!

Ryan and Dave ushering people out. The ceremony was really quick but it was such a nice service.

Back detail of Hillary's dress.

Here are a couple pictures from Muffie that I took from facebook {gotta love the internet!}.

Look at how gorgeous of a backdrop they had for their ceremony!!

Saying their vows. {During the ceremony, when it would get quiet, you could hear the waves of Lake Superior lapping up against the shore. It was really pretty}

The day was so much fun {minus the whopping sunburn I got during the ceremony - forgot the sunscreen...oops}. After the service, everyone went back to the lodge where the reception was being held. The DJ that Hill and Ryan hired was awesome. He was such a great entertainer.  I can't wait for the professional photos to come back to I can post them and write about them. The dinner was delicious. I had the chicken which was stuffed with wild rice, mushrooms and I think sausage. The other dinner, which was a crowd favorite, was walleye. For dessert, instead of a traditional wedding cake, we had pie from Betty's Pies. Anyone who has been up North knows of Betty's Pie. We had the Great Lakes Crunch which was a strawberry, raspberry, rhubarb, blackberry {I think} and one other berry in a pie with a crumb crust - SO good! And it was served with vanilla ice cream - double YUM! Another cute thing was their party favor. The resort has bonfire pits all along the lake shore so Hillary and Ryan put together little s'more kits for everyone. Like I said before I can't wait until their pictures come back to I can post all the details. It was a great day. I'm so happy for Hillary and Ryan! Congrats guys!! :)

~Ashley