I’ve decided that pictures are so much more fun to look at than words. So I met Zac in Minnesota this weekend (he was already there for business), and we did some really cool things. The things I didn’t put pictures of were: going to CivicFest, an event in the Minneapolis Convention Center to celebrate America and Minnesota history. It was in conjunction with the Republican National Convention, which is going on in Minneapolis/St. Paul right now! Sorry, we were not part of the protest group that all got arrested. Would have been pretty exciting if we were, but we decided to stay out of that scene. We also went to a University of Minneapolis Gophers football game, where they beat Northern Illinois in the last seconds of the game. It was very exciting. Here are the things we did that we took pictures of:
Minnehaha Falls. This park is south of downtown Minneapolis, and it is beautiful! It centers around these little falls, but the place has been turned into a gorgeous park where families go for walks, picnics, and bike rides.
Walker Art Museum Sculpture Garden in Minneapolis. This is a huge cherry on a spoon. Downtown is just a few miles beyond those trees in the background.
This is Split Rock Lighthouse, just north of Duluth, MN. We took the tour and watched the cheesy video, and we even got to go up in the lighthouse. It was really cool, and really beautiful.
We walked down 170 steps to get to the shoreline of Lake Superior. AND I walked all the way back up without too many rest stops. You try walking up 170 steps while 7 months pregnant.
Zac dipping his toes into the frigid waters of Lake Superior!
Canal Park in Duluth, MN has a museum about the ships that used to come into the port there. This is a replica of the steering room in a ship, and Zac is driving the boat.
Overall, it was a really fun trip, and the weather was so nice!
Why is our blog so pictureless?? We have a nice camera, and Zac is pretty good at taking pictures, so we should really have more pictures on our blog. To make up for our lack of photoblogging in the past, here are a few things we have done this summer.
I was a bridesmaid at my friend’s wedding at the end of May. It was a very stressful weekend for me, not knowing if at 16 weeks pregnant I would fit into the tight dress I had measured for the summer before, but it all worked out fine.
- Bridesmaid
Zac and I bought a piano! It is a Kawai upright, 44 1/2″, ebony polish. This is what it looks like, and it’s going to look so much better once we get it into our house!
Our new Piano!
Zac took my family to Ham and Eggs, a breakfast place that boasts of hubcab-sized pancakes. So of course my husband orders the big stack of pancakes, thinking we’d all share them…
Ham and Eggs
We tried to share them, but this is as far as we got. We took the rest home, and it still took us 3 days to finish these beastly pancakes.
Ham and Eggs2
Cami came home for the week! Dad is wearing his In N Out “Utah” shirt. He was so incredulous that In N Out would open a restaurant in Utah that he drove all the way down to St George (they were on vacation in Salt Lake/Provo) just to get a T-shirt. Then he wore it and bragged about it all the next week.
Ham and Eggs3
Dad and I at the AMERICAN IDOLS LIVE concert in August! It was actually really fun. Can you see my pregnant belly? Thats 29 weeks.
Concert
By far the most fun part of the concert was Juliana and her two friends, who made signs saying “Future Mrs. Archuleta” and other things. They went crazy when David A. hit the stage. I just had to capture their excitement. Plus I couldn’t really get a great picture of the stage, but the 15 year old girls to my right were plenty of excitement for those around us.
Nerds
They love David Archuleta’s face enough to wear this t-shirt on the second day of school.David Archuleta fans
David Archuleta fans
Zac and I trying to be photographers at the park. 28 week belly.
- 28 weeks
Summer is almost over, but we’ve got a weekend trip to Minnesota planned (right before the Republican National Convention – we didn’t know, I swear). It is going to be busy and crowded, but should be fun. And it’s the last trip I can take before baby comes! 10 more weeks!
I am just starting to realize how big of a deal this home ownership thing is. There is so much to think about! There’s setting up utilities, carpet cleaning, pest controlling, lock changing, moving in, unpacking and organizing, buying new furniture, some repairing (luckily we don’t have much of that), and updating (not much of that either). And I’m sure there’s hundreds of things I haven’t even thought of yet! It is so exciting, but a lot of work. Plus we just started our baby registry, and I pretty much spend all my free time on BabiesRus.com now. They just have so many cute things. Except for I’m realizing there IS such a thing as too much pink. My cute husband was so good to go with me and set up the registry, and he was actually excited about it, which was really fun. By the way, here’s me at 5 1/2 months along…
Another thing that’s on my mind is teaching. I’m starting a private voice studio in my home, which makes it necessary for us to have a piano of some sort. We’ve been doing some major piano shopping lately, and I’ve pretty much narrowed it down (based on our price range). But it’s still such a big purchase, that we are kind of waiting to see if that’s what we really really want. So we just keep going to new stores and trying new things. We went to the Steinway store yesterday, and it was quite an experience. If any of you didn’t know, Steinway pianos are a big deal. They are the only pianos in the world that are handcrafted (so they say), which means that only .001% of the population of the world can afford the $70,000 price tag. Needless to say, we won’t be one of those people. But it was interesting to go and play one just to see the difference. Frankly, I couldn’t tell too much of a difference between the Steinway and the noname brands. But that probably just means I’m not a serious enough pianist. Which I admit I’m not. So I think we’ll go with a lesser known brand that will look and sound good in our home. I’ll post pictures as soon as we decide.
Well, I don’t know if anyone reads this anymore, because I haven’t written in a while, but if you’re interested in the details of what has been going on in our lives for the past few months, I will try to sum it up.
We found out in late February that we are expecting a baby! We have been married just over two years, and are excited for this new stage in our lives. Zac graduated from BYU in April, and we have since moved down to Dallas, TX to start work. He works for Grant Thornton in Advisory Services. Basically he does IT audits and some other stuff. He is at clients almost all the time, and does travel some:( But he will be in Dallas a lot of the time as well. I am working for a property management company until the baby is born, and then I will be starting my voice studio. Actually, I’ll probably start teaching in September, and the baby is due November 5th, so I’ll be working full time and part time for a while! We found out last week that the baby is a girl, and we have already spent quite a bit of time looking at baby girl clothes…we’re just trying to keep ourselves from buying too much of it.
Also, we just bought a house! We move in on August 1st, and it is in Lewisville, TX. Here are some pictures:
There are 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, and a yard! We love it and can’t wait to make it our own.
