9/3/09-9/7/09 Labor Day Weekend

For this Labor Day we had an extra fun and secretive schedule planned. In January 2009, Bill & Elaine, very close friends of Alan & Jolene's (Stu's parents), contacted us to present the idea of a surprise 35th Wedding Anniversary. After months of planning, secret phone conferences, and a few small lies, the plan finally came into action over Labor Day weekend. We flew to Minneapolis on Thursday and spent the night with Jimmy & Jen. As always we love catching up with them and feel right at home in their lovely place.

On Friday we nervously drove down to Rochester. We didn't take our eyes off the rear view mirror, as Alan was traveling home from CA for work and was on the road the same time as us. Luckily we had no encounters on 52S. We headed straight to Bill & Elaine's who are party-planning extraordinaries and did not miss a detail in pulling this celebration together. As an extra treat Alan & Jolene's British friends, (Caroline & Richard) who they met living in Germany in the early 1990's, flew to Minnesota to surprise them as well!! We had the joy of meeting up with them at Bill & Elaine's as we all frantically finished up all the last minute details. Seeing Caroline & Richard was extra special for Stuart as he had not seen them since the age of 12!!

Lindsey & Daryl (Lily & Lulu too) were in charge of getting Alan & Jolene to the Bill & Elaine's as they thought they were going for dinner.

The surprise went off with out a hitch, Alan & Jolene were more than surprised about the party in general, but also that we made the trip home, and even more so that Caroline & Richard were there (this was their 1st trip to the US).

Check out a video of the surprise here

The party was an excellent time! It was great catching up with family & friends as well as seeing Alan & Jolene enjoy the company of all those close to them.

The rest of the weekend was spent doing nothing but eating, drinking, having fun & just relaxing, something that always seems to come easy back in Rochester.

We ended up getting out for brunch in downtown Rochester's 'Peace Plaza.' Lily loved the fountain! It was another great chance to keep catching up & enjoy the great weather.

There was also time to show Caroline & Richard some of the Midwest's finest rescued animals at Oxbow Park. Another hay day for Lily, she loved watching all the critters & getting to pet a hee-hee (horsey).

A perfect last getaway for our summer!!!

Beach Weekend 8/21/09-8/23/09

This weekend our good friend's Trish and Dan invited us up to Trish's parent's beach house for a long weekend in Berlin, MD, just outside of Ocean City. Eight of us (Trish, Dan, Q, Jennifer, Betsy, Dusty and us) along with baby Joey and three dogs - Stone, Bear and Harvey - road tripped up to the perfect weekend get away. We had great weather all weekend so we made sure to get plenty of sand and surf in all 3 days. We went to the beach on Assateague Island which was a quick drive up the road, and offered a more quaint and relaxed atmosphere as compared to the close by Ocean City. It was fun to get back to Assateague as we had camped on bay side two times sine living in Virginia.

With Hurricane Bill moving up the east coast the waves were insane, which made playing in the ocean extra fun. Harvey even got to check out the ocean for his first time. He wasn't quite sure what to think... when the waves went out he tried to swim in the calm water, only to turn around and frantically run away from the waves when they rolled in. We got a bit over zealous and let him off leash, he went sprinting into the water just as a huge wave came. He came flying towards shore riding the wave, only to get flipped upside down and thrown all around. Needless to say he was a bit freaked after that, so we called it quits in the water time for Harvey and stuck to fetch in the sand.

Check out the huge waves rolling in behind.....

We also all took a trip into Ocean City which is more of a touristy beach (as compared to Assateague) with a board walk to boot. As expected it was packed, so we were glad we opted to just walk around and browse the endless boardwalk shopping.

- The whole crew, minus the three pups -

The remainder of our time was spent relaxing at the beach house, watching movies, cooking yummy food (fresh shrimp!), watching movies, and just some good relaxing. Overall it was the perfect weekend getaway! Thanks Trish & Dan for letting us enjoy the Navarro's little piece of paradise.

Holiday Road-trip 1.3.09

We wanted to make it back for a nice, long, two-week stay with family & friends for Christmas & New Years, so we loaded up the Road Warrior (Prius) with plenty of gear, skis, snowboard & Harvey and headed out at 10:00pm on the Wednesday before Christmas for the 16 hour drive west.

With our back seats folded down, luggage packed behind the front seats & dog bed, pillows & blankets layed out it was a comfy ride for Harvey & whoever wasn't doing the driving.

With two weeks off, we were able to spend plenty of time with both sides of the family as well as friends from school. We spent Christmas in Wausau with the Wiemans, then headed to Rochester to celebrate with the Hansens. Jill was able to sneak away to LaCrosse to see some of her girls as well. Then it was up to Jimmy & Jen's in Eagen for a couple days around New Year's Eve.

Our time spent in Wausau was great. Plenty of playing in the snow with Trevahn & Harvey. Our dog loved the snow so much we didn't think he would ever want to come in & actually ran off a few times which was a bit scary, but he's a good boy and always made it back (even if it took the neighbor loading him into his truck and returning him!). Spending time with baby Eliahs was great too. We were actually back for Trevahn & Eliahs' baptism as well as witnessing Chad & Kerrie get engage which were both a convenient blessing.

We were able to put Jill's new skis to use, getting in one good night with Kerrie, Chad & Vonnie at Granite Peak in Wausau which we've been meaning to hit for some time...

In Rochester we were able to spend a good amount of time with the family and play with Lily who had grown bigger & cuter since we last saw her a few months ago. Hanging at Alan & Jolene's is always relaxing which is just what we needed over our extended vacation. Harvey missed the wide openness of Wausau, but made out just fine here too. Stuart's parents also threw a rather large holiday get-together with extended family on both sides and all sorts of friends & family-friends. It was an extremely busy night -- a little over-stimulating for Harvey & Brody who just layed in front of the buffet line -- but getting to catch up and celebrate the season with all sorts of family and friends was so much fun.

Heading up to the cities before the new year we were able to spend some time with our good friends at Jimmy & Jen's place... even more relaxing & catching up. New Year's Eve day we spent skiing with Jimmy, Jen, Nick and Christine at Afton Alps outside of the cities. It was great weather and a fun way to round out the year.

We didn't hit the slopes too aggresively spending a bit of time at the chalet so we could save some energy for evening festivities.

Jimmy & Jen had a good number of people over to bring in the new year, accompanied by probably 8 dogs over 60lbs so was a very exciting and wild time.

After such an action packed holiday break we had to load up the Prius yet again and make the long trek back. What should have taken about 16 hours ended up taking over 20 with weather issues getting out of Wisconsin, but we made it back safe & sound and with little ambition for such a long car ride agian. Although we get to bring Harvey, our future trips home will most likely all be by plane.