Travel Tuesdays - Boston & Hawaii

What a horrific day yesterday... my heart goes out to all in Boston and all over the world as the marathon brought people from all over. My great-aunt qualified for the B.M. this year as she is a rockstar at the age of 73!

Here is a story about her and my uncle (The Bunks) and their running legacy I'd say. Sadly, my uncle Tom is battling cancer right now so she decided not to run in the Marathon this year. Just such a tough day...

One of my fav photos circulating though after this tragedy is a wonderful quote from Mr Rogers :) It makes my heart a little bit happy after such an awful act.

I am going to get this post on the positive side and update a photo for my Travel Tuesdays link up.

 

Please take me back to Maui. We honeymooned there last September and it was honestly the best vacation I have ever been on. And the first one just Brady and I took together. We did EVERYTHING!

- zip lined, paddle boarded, went to a luau, swam in the ocean, drove in our awesome Wrangler "Big Red" on the Road to Hana, saw the sunrise atop the Haleakala crater volcano (just stunning!).... I never wanted to come home.

If you ever want to take a fun trip without a passport needed, Hawaii is UNDERrated for how amazing it is.

 

 

Spring, where are you??? The Weekend Recap

This sums up April in Minnesota..

Snow, sleet, rain, freezing rain, ice... 

Seriously, where are you SPRING!?

Anyways -- despite this awful weather, I had a wonderful weekend. Here it is - all summed up for ya! :)

Friday - We FINALLY got over to see our favorite new parents and friends, Emily and Cory and their little "muffin man" Cohen. I can't believe he is almost 4 months old!! They got to meet little Griffin who is the exact same size as their little dog, Bertie - the coolest sweetest one-eyed Cockapoo EVER! I missed that fluff ball. Even though it was snowing, a fenced in yard is pretty awesome for the pups. :)

Me and little Cohen. Look at that POUT!! Melt my heart. 

Saturday morning, the dogs wanted to go for a walk since it was literally the only 3 hours of sunshine in days... Griffin is getting SO big! He is 23.5 lbs this morning!!! 

On a second note, Griffin has succeeded in making it onto the bed... He uses his "orthopedic" dog bed as a spring and Dash has nowhere to hide during Griff's psycho playtime. 

Don't let the sleepy boys fool you, they have destroyed my bed. lol 

Ps - Has anyone heard of Vine? Well, it's my new obsession. It's like Instagram for videos. You can make them as random or funny as you want. They are 6 seconds long and play on a loop. Here are some of my awful attempts from Saturday. 

Note: I started drinking during Brady and my HUGE spring cleaning day -- Derrick and Lacey stopped over to meet Griffin, and we got the day started... early. Haha. 

Here are some Vine Videos... 

"Wresting"... They are OBSESSED with that ball.

"Ducks" on a walk on Saturday through Loring Park

Saturday night we had dinner at Nami with my coworker Kim and her husband Tim "the Siegels." See how excited Brady was for the picture?

After some sake and sushi, we then ventured to North Loop Wine & Spirits for my other coworker's 30th Birthday, Mike Gale.

Ps on Friday afternoon, his little peanut, Isaac stopped by work. Such a cutie!

This wraps up the "2 Hour Beer Tasting Event" -- we were a little wild. And yes, Kim, brought her own Belvedere and olives. Classy. 

And the best Vine video so far... "I think these people are too classy for me" -- Kim.

Sunday - 6am wake up call. Feeling awesome... NOT. Haha. But we ventured in the snow, yes snow, to Woodbury for our oldest nephew, Carter's, First Communion. He was so cute and proud. I can't believe how big these boys are. 

Brady's only sister has 4 boys 7 yrs old and younger... Cater, Kohan, Cameron and baby Karson. 

They all melt my HEART! 

Don't you agree they should be putting this baby in Gap ads?! UGH - that face. Karson - i love him!! 

Anyways -- THIS is a long "Weekend Run Down" but what a fun-filled time it was :)

Jambox - "Back that Azz Up Fridays!"

Has anyone ever heard of a Jambox? (You three readers you? - HAHA) Well I never had before...

Brady and I received a surprise in the mail a couple weeks ago - Whoop! It was a belated wedding gift from his parents' friends. The card said "Hope you guys can use this - Jamboxes are great!"

Lemme tell ya - this little 5inch contraption is simple to use - even I could figure it out - it uses either your USB, headphones or bluetooth to amplify your music LOUD! And it has a 10 hour chargable battery so you can take it to the beach, the cabin, etc. :) And it is made of rubber so it can be set on anything to absorb the vibrations. Niceeee.

Source

Anywhoo, in honor of "Back That Azz Up Fridays" - I am looking forward to heading home from work - ignoring the AWFUL April snow outside - and cranking up my Jambox REAL loud with a Longboard Lager in hand.. pictured here from our Honeymoon in Maui....

 

And I am going to CRANK this song for my neato friend, Steph (Insert Classy Here) as we just  jammed out on the"Jambox" during last weekend's Adult Drinking Games "Goodnight" Fest in Elk River, MN (aka the Boonies)

Enjoy!

 

 

And Steph...

Thanks for learning the whole dance routine for my wedding. That is one of the many reasons I love you. :)

 

 

Weekend SHE-Nans.

I am so ready for Spring... So much so that I forced myself to be outside as much as possible this past weekend hoping to will Spring to show it's face. To be honest, I am ready to bypass Spring and get right to Summer.

 

I am craving:

- My cabin

- The radio turned up loud to "Classic Rock GMO" station from small town WI my Dad loves

- Dogs running around - Dash obviously being obsessed with his ball and annoying everyone until they throw it repeatedly for him into the lake.

- A Leinie's in a bottle coozie starting before noon

- My husband and brother's obsession with fires, cutting wood, and general pyro-like behavior

- My Mom and Dad putzing around with chores all weekend until I finally convince them to have a beer and RELAX in my favorite place in the entire world... Silver Lake in Siren, WI.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay. Wow. Tangent much?

Back to my "Link Up" for my Weekend Shenanigan's:

Friday - I was home with a Leinie's Canoe Paddler in my hand before you could say "TGIF". The Gregermeen's came over for a night of drinking, swearing at March Madness, bongo drum jam sessions, Bedouin Soundclash, introducing Griffin to Gonzo, our neighbor's kitty (shoulda taken a photo - damn!) and Overboard with Steph. Basically, we just sat on our computer in the kitchen blogging and stalking. It was awesome, per usual.

Saturday was my favorite morning so far with our new baby, Griffin who is growing WAY too fast - already 16lbs (that's like a half pound a day!) - cuteness pictured here:

 

He slept in with me and cuddled on the couch all morning while Brady was at work! Dash cuddled too and I think is teaching Griff the way to be a "Sells" puppy.

Saturday Brady and I also ventured to Zantigo's for lunch for yummy tacos!

 

Saturday night we celebrated Brady's good friend Blake aka Shady's 28th Birthday at Joe's Crab Shack. The bibs and their captions were PRICELESS. Shady is a pretty good sport and didn't mind dancing around the packed restaurant as the "Crab Fairy"!

 

 

We also watched "This is Forty" together that night just relaxing at home with some good wine. All in all a FUN weekend.

 

Sunday was our breakfast ritual with Brian at The Bad Waitress followed up by my solo shopping date to Express (obsessed- eep!) and a much-needed car wash while the boys went to Gander Mountain.

I love Sunday's when it's not super cold - took the pups on a walk, watched our Sunday Night SHOWTIME shows - aka Shameless, House of Lies and Californication.

 

Cheers to a GOOD weekend!!

 

 

 

"Back That Azz Up" Fridays

Welp - here we go. My first attempt at a "link up" for I Wore Yoga Pant's awesome Friday theme - "Back That Azz Up Fridays." Her inspiration came from a Pandora station with the same theme, which is perfect because  as I sit here at my desk with ZERO motivation, I cannot WAIT for 5pm and some beverages and good tunes to back my azz up...Yes I said it.

My selection for this wintery/almost Spring day:

1. Notorious B.I.G. aka Biggie Smalls - aka my 7th Grade "Hero" speech topic... Not joking.

Song: Notorious Thugs

 

Reason: Well, there are many. Including but not limited to my recent drunken slurred rendition of the entire song in Montana while wearing a red onesie, holding a 24 oz PBR and have 6 of my friends watch in horror admiration as I belted out even Krazy Bone's verses. :) You are welcome!
Ps - I believe there may be a black mail video of this - I pray it NEVER sees the light of day.

 

Ps - OK... FINE.  for your enjoyment... (All two readers of you ;)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pic Monkey - I love you.

Just had to write today about my new OBSESSION - Pic Monkey. Thank you to my friend Steph Gregerson over at http://insertclassyhere.blogspot.com for introducing me. Now, I just want to edit photos all day! :)

My newest creation instead of cold calling at my desk... WHOOPS!

Newest Addition to the Family!

First off, I need to keep up with this whole blogging thing! Definitely realized I haven't blogged in a while so I am going to try and keep at it better.

Although the point of this blog was to chronicle my "Thirty Before Thirty" achievements, I need to post about the BEST surprise I should have had on my list! Brady and I adopted a puppy from a local rescue last week!!!

Meet: Griffin Chadwick Sells

Born on January 11th, 2013

He is an Australian Shepherd/ Golden Retriever Mix

 

 

We rescued him from Second Hand Hounds - This awesome organization in the Cities that does SO much for animals and saving them. Griffin (called Forrest online) and his siblings were in Mom's belly in Lousiana when "Sophie" the Mom was going to be killed. SHH went down  to save and transport pregnant Mama back to MN. On the way, 7 puppies were born! All of them were adorable and shared either the Labrador or Australian Shepherd coloring.

 

These are pics I found on FB through the resue. Sophie is SO cute! The arrows point to our baby, Griffin!

 

 

After I found the listing for Griffin "Forrest" and his siblings online, I started the long process of convincing Brady that we NEEDED to adopt him. I filled out the application for him, and didn't even realize until the Foster Mom contacted me that this litter was a HOT ticket. Our application was the 5th one received in less than 12 hours of posting the litter. The Foster lived in Mankato, and told us that we shouldn't waste our time and gas that night unless she called that he was still available.

8:00pm that night, Griffin's two brothers were pending adoptions, but he was still available.

After an hour in the car, and 30 mins of meeting him and cuddling with him, we spent the rest of the night and with NO sleep, deciding what to do.

 

At 8:15am the next morning with no concrete decision, I drove to work. Seconds in the car, I got a call from Brady saying "I think we should get him!"

:):):):):)

 

Once we decided, the Rescue did a vet check, reference check, and a home visit with a volunteer to make sure we were legit. We were approved and told we could pick Griffin up from his required neuter appt on Sat March 9th in Owatonna. He was 8 weeks old and we now have him, he is healing right up from his surgeries (he also had to get a hernia repaired that they found). He is hilarious, and has the funniest personality. He is picking up potty training and crate training pretty well.

 

 

The best teacher, his big brother Dashel, is getting used to him too. Griff just LOVES Dash... as you can see here.

 

 

 

Dashel says "cheeseeeessee"

 

 

 

Griffin doing AWESOME on his first walk! He followed exactly what Dash did :)

 

Here is a good one - the playful and sleepy sides of Griffin!

 

 

 



LOVE OUR NEW LITTLE BOY!!!!