Christmas with the Irby's

We only got a couple of pictures of Ruby - none of anyone else. So, here she is in all of her cuteness:

Opening Presents

Ruby & Kyle

another picture update to get you caught up...

1. Did the Turkey Trot 5k with my work-out buddies and my step-dad and my brother:

Me

Tanner

Duane (my step-dad)

2. We went to the chamber singers dinner with Jenni (and friends):

Jenni & Me

Kyle & Me

3. We had the company Christmas party (same dress, different night):

Kyle, Me, Kyle's Sister, Rhea, and Rhea's Husband, Harley

Robbin (one of my favorite co-workers and friends) and Me

Me & Kyle

Just three this time. I'll do more Christmas updates today sometime.

10 Things

1. Halloween 5k. I ran with the Winters as the Ghostbusters:


2. We cheered for Tanner (my little brother) as his team made it to the state championship:

The proudest big sisters ever.

Kyle & I sporting our STM gear.

The big man, Tanner.

3. We cheered even harder as they lost in the state championship:

Mom, Tera, Macy, Katie, & Kyle


Mom & Macy


Tanner's Biggest Fan

4. My mom and I realize that we have the same picture pose:


5. We saw Dylan's dorm room at DWU:

6. We watched as Macy discovered the mystery of the Kleenex box:



7. Relived the 80's at Brittni's 80's Party:

I have no idea why Kyle didn't like this look.

Jo & I looking Rad


The Whole Crew

9. Got New Haircuts with the Girls:

10. I got a bad cold. No pictures.

Scary Dream

So, I'm in NM this week for work. I'm blaming weird dreams on that fact. Last night I had a dream that Kyle & I had a little baby girl. SIDE NOTE: Tera & Mike also had a little girl, which I named Mia. Anyway, so Kyle & I have this cute little blonde-headed baby girl and take her home and I put her in her crib to sleep. We immediately forget that she exists and go out of town overnight, leaving her in the house alone. The next afternoon, we realize that we had forgotten about our baby and rush home, to find that everything is ok. She's hungry and has a full diaper, but she's still alive. I tell my mom, who then comes over to help me raise the baby. In the meantime, I find out that I can no longer breast feed, since I waited too long between feedings. My baby also pukes up a weird, thick puke that I still remember vividly. I woke up totally stressed out and it took me half the day to relax and convince myself that when I do have a baby, I won't forget about it. Has anyone else ever had a dream like this? It's still freaking me out.

Visitors....Finally!

We RARELY get visitors in Wyoming. In fact, other than family members, I'm not sure we've had any. So, we were totally psyched when we found out that Andi & Jesse were going to bring Aiden to Wyoming for the weekend. We had such a good time catching up with them, relaxing, watching movies, eating, and planning a vacation. It was so good. I love having friends like them. The friends that you know you don't have to entertain or impress, that will love you no matter what and that you can just lay around watching football all day with. It was great. One of the best weekends I've had in a while. Aiden is so adorable and was so fun to have in the house. He was such a good little baby. I think we're starting to get baby fever in this house... but, maybe not too. Anyway, on to the pictures:

The Freiwald's


Proud Papa


Andi & The yummy Thai food she made for us


Bath Time


Kyle hanging out with Aiden


Lounging. All weekend long...

BUSY BUSY BUSY

So, we've been in full-fledged home remodel/update mode this week. Last weekend, my mom came to help me put up paintable wallpaper in kyle's bathroom, while he worked on changing out the lights/faucets/etc. His bathroom is almost done, just waiting for some things we ordered online. Then, on Monday we started on my bathroom, regrouting/caulking the shower (which is a horrible, time consuming process that we will never do again), changing out the lights, the old medicine cabinet, and the faucets. Kyle is currently up there fixing my toilet. Why are we doing all of this work? We have no idea. It all started once we realized that if we put in lots of work, we could have both bathrooms done by this Friday, which is when my best friend, Andi, and her hubby, Jesse, and baby Aiden are coming for a visit. We are so close. I finished painting the walls in my bathroom today and I have to paint the trim/vanity tomorrow night. I can't wait for it to be done. I need a break from this stuff. And, I'm sick of Home Depot! My mom lives near a Lowe's and is always finding better/cheaper stuff there. I'm jealous. I'll post pics when we're all done... probably Thursday just in time for Grey's Anatomy.

prayer needed!

My cousin Cory was recently in a motorcycle accident and is currently in a coma. Please visit this site to learn more and to get updates: www.caringbridge.org/visit/corydenne

He needs your prayers!

Holy Fun Weekend, Batman!

Kyle and I headed down to Denver to meet up with my old college roomie, Heidi (& Tim, her husband). We did some shopping and then met up with them later in the afternoon. Tim took us up to Lookout Mountain to check out some beautiful views of Denver and the mountains. I forgot my camera, but Heidi & Tim will be posting pics soon. We ended up with dinner in Golden, Colorado at a nice grille. After we split up for the night, Kyle & I stopped for some cheesecake to go at the Cheesecake Factory. I had already killed my diet that day, so I decided I might as well go nuts. And, it was worth it. So yummy! The next morning, I was feeling a little guilty, so I got up early to work out at the hotel finess center. After the workout, I was leaving my room and ran into MY COUSIN Megan! Holy crap! She lives in Mitchell. What the heck?! Seriously, what are the chances a) we'd be in Denver the same weekend, b) staying at the SAME hotel, and c) in the lobby at the EXACT same time. Crazy, right? It was so fun to see her. We got ready quick and met them for the free breakfast downstairs. She was there with her hubby, Blake and their super cute son Tyson. Totally bizarre. So, to celebrate, I went shopping. :)

Aiden Jesse Freiwald is FINALLY born!

Aiden was born at a little after 6pm. 8 lbs, 3.4 ounces. 21 inches long. Can't wait to see him! Everyone's doing great!

Happy LABOR Day, Andi!

My best friend Andrea is having the best labor day ever - she's actually in labor right now! Here's to the new baby boy.... who should be arriving any minute! Way to take the holiday literally.

Sports Spectacular!

Last week we got a cryptic message from Jessica: "Do you guys like football?" So, I immediately called her back to let her know that "YES, We LOVE it!" and was super excited to have her invite us down to Denver for the Broncos pre-season game Sunday night. Kyle & I decided to make a weekend of it and were offered Rockies tickets by my boss (he has connections, apparently). So, we got treated to a weekend of free tickets! Super fun. We headed down to Denver early Saturday morning and got a bike ride in before getting ready and heading to the Rockies game:

Outside Coors Field

We had great seats. However, we were totally confused. Our tickets said section 2 hundred and something and we totally couldn't figure out how to get there. After traipsing to the upper deck and getting nowhere, we finally asked someone and found out we had club level seats! Club level! Ok, we had no idea what that meant either. And all it really meant is that you enter your level through a fancy elevator and you have a few more expensive food options. But, the seats were great and we sat by fun people. Oh, and the weather was good, which is a first for a rockies game.

Inside Coors Field

Sunday we got up early and went biking again. I totally crashed on my bike. Ok, I didn't crash so much as tip over. Yes, I tipped over on my bike. I banged up my knee and my elbow and got a bruise on my hip. Totally embarrassing. Luckily, only Kyle saw. But, he's been telling people about it ever since. So, how do you tip over on your bike? Well, I was clipped in on one side and starting tilting to that side and couldn't get clipped out or regain my balance. Kyle totally ignored my cried for "HELP! HELP!" :) I'm such a dork. But, after all that hard work, we met up with Bryan and Jessica at the Cheesecake Factory (YES!) and then headed to the game:

Bronco Fans

Jessica & Bryan (also Bronco Fans)

It was super fun. I had never been to a Broncos game, so I was into all of it. The Broncos won, which I'm sure was only because I was there cheering them on. Seriously. Afterwards, Bryan insisted that we get dessert. So we went to the Macaroni Grill (YES!) and had appetizers AND dessert. Not great for the diet. Oh well. Super weekend, just super.

Birthday Weekend...

Last weekend was Macy's first birthday party. She's one. Crazy. I headed down to Wagner with my Mom, Duane, and Maggie. We stopped in Mitchell to drop Dylan off at college. Yes, Dylan is a freshman in college. Crazy. He's playing football and basketball this year for DWU.
Anyway, back to the party. I have pictures:

A terrible picture of the sisters. I'm still missing one (Maggie, my mom's daughter was down by the lake and missed out.) Me, Katie, Tera, and Serina (the new step-sister).

With Grandma & Grandpa Ellefson. They just keep getting cuter. You can tell Grandpa is in the middle of cracking a joke in this one.

Macy got her own cake to tear into. She did a pretty good job, even left some of her frosting for me.

While it pains me to say this, Macy liked her first John Deere best (not my present!) and played with it during the rest of the party. She liked pushing it around better and would just giggle as she was walking. Adorable.

FUN WEEKEND!

Once again, we had a really fun weekend. My sister, Tera, and her family came for a quick visit. They arrived around noon on Friday and left at about 7 Saturday night. We made the most of it, though. I got off early Friday and Tera, Mike, Macy, and I headed to the city pool. Our city pool is free, so I was expecting tons of kids, but it really wasn't that busy. Macy just walked all over, she loved the pool. Tera kept telling her to "get her face wet" and she would just stop what she was doing and dip her face in the water. It was so funny. She knows when she is funny, which made it even funnier. She has such a goofy smile! We then packed up the car to head over to the Bighorns for a quick camping trip. We were hoping to have Kyle with us, but he got off work late, so he had to drive over later. We're lucky we went when we did, we got a great camping spot and kept hearing the rest of the night that there were no camping spots available. Whew! Macy was a good sport on the trip, getting frustrated as she had to sit in her stroller while we unpacked and set up camp. She loved walking around and touching everything, especially the trees. We got a kick out of that and had her hugging the trees by the end of the night. It was so fun to have her there. Saturday we got up and made breakfast, then the boys went fishing, while Tera & Macy napped. We had lunch, packed up camp, and headed off for a hike to the lake for more fishing. It was Macy's first shoulder ride and first hike. We had a great time. Macy and I really hit it off and she was my buddy all day. We were so sad to see them go and can't wait for their next visit!!! Come back soon!!

Fun Weekends

Two weekends ago, my mom, step-dad, and little sister came to visit. We had a great time of hanging out at the pool, grilling, and watching movies. We had a great time just relaxing with each other and catching up. The week went fast... and we hung out with more family on Sunday. After mountain biking, we had the Irby family over for pool time and a bbq. Kyle & I went mountain biking with his dad and brother-in-law Sunday morning. We went to a single track trail outside of Spearfish that Kyle had found on the internet. It was a really fun trail, 4 miles of uphill and then 4 miles back down. We had a great time, and i was excited to find out that it was probably an "advanced" trail. That made me pretty proud that I kicked butt like i did. (You'll have to trust me on that.) We didn't get any pictures, but we plan on going again, so I'll take some the next time. In the meantime, if you're looking for good mountain biking, Tinton Trail is where you need to be. :)

Custer Camping Trip

Last weekend, we got to go to one of our favorite camping places - Custer State Park. It was so freaking hot - over 100 degrees all weekend. Way too hot. We woke up early to go for a hike before it got too hot. We went on the Sunday Gulch Trail... only 3 miles, but marked as "strenuous" - ha. Here's the begininng:

Ok, I'm not really climbing the wall.... I'm only about a foot off the ground.

We saw some really cool scenery on the trail.

My future as a National Geographic photographer.

Ok, so it started easy... we were definitely wiped out by the end of the trail. It was fun, though. Can't imagine doing it in over 100 degrees, though. It was about 95 when we got done at 10:30. So, we headed to the lake. I'd post a pic, but I'm not confident enough to post a swimsuit picture. Maybe next year (yeah right). Saturday night, we went to the Black Hills Playhouse and saw Fiddler on the Roof. It was really good, as usual. We love the Playhouse. If you're in the area, you should definitely go. Go at night, though, there's no air conditioning, and the matinees get really warm....

Before going to the play.

You can see Mt. Rushmore through one of the several tunnels on Iron Mountain Road (my favorite road). The trip was a blast, we spent Sunday at the lake too. We're going back next weekend with Tyler & Krista. More pics then. Right now I'm trying to clean my house before my mom, step-dad and sister come tomorrow afternoon. Yep, it's THAT dirty :)

Get Well Soon, Maggie!

My 9 year old little sister, the family princess, had a little scare last night. After a day of fever and vomiting and a "pain in her side", my mom consulted the trusty medical book. Thinking it sounded like some appendix problem, they took her into the hospital late last night. This morning at around 4:30 or 5, the poor little girl was wheeled into surgery. She assured the nurse that "My parents said I would be alright." And she is. But, in need of well-wishes, so give her a call. She's at the Rapid City Regional Hospital over night tonight. Get well, kiddo!

denver!

A few months ago, Kyle and I bought tickets to a Rockies game. We wanted to make sure that we got to a game this summer. Last year, we went to early in the year and froze our butts off the whole game. We wanted a hot game where we could enjoy a cold drink and a foot long hot dog. However, it rained ALL weekend in Denver... so we stopped at Target and got some ponchos and headed to the game. There is nothing like the excitement around a stadium. I love it. I just love walking in and seeing the field and all the people, and the foot long hot dogs. I love hot dogs. The rain stopped long enough for the game, with a few sprinkles in one inning. Nothing we couldn't handle. We didn't even have to pull out our ponchos (so, we took them back and got our $$ back!). It was a great game. The Rockies didn't win, but they came close.....

SAN DIEGO!!!!!

So, we took our trip to San Diego! It was awesome! We had such a great time. Here are some pics:

The funniest thing about this picture is not the GIANT piece of pizza.
It's the fact that Tera is posing with the pizza, and she didn't even have a bite.

We hung out the first night at the beach. We went to this fun bar/grill that had a surfing wave in it. We got some good seats to watch the surfers only to find out that we were there for the premier of some surfing movie. So, we got a karate-like demo, a fashion show, and a demo on the surf wave by the famous surfer. We left before the movie started. We're not surfers.

Saturday night we headed downtown to try out a place called Dick's. While we never made it there (Katie was a few years too young), we got tickets to the sold-out baseball game and watched the Padres lose to the Giants. We were die-hard fans that night, even heckling the Giants fans sitting below us.

Our seats weren't too bad.

We had such a good time hanging out. We found this Italian place and requested a seat outside. However, after seeing a few too many cockroaches and one too many mice, we asked to be moved inside. Made for a fun evening, though!

On the top of Mount Soledad there is a little war memorial with a giant cross. There is a lot of controversy right now about the cross on the memorial (separation of church and state crap), so we had to drive up and see it before it is gone forever. We ran into some North Dakotans currently living in Seattle up there. They're the ones that took this picture.

We got a little bored waiting for our plane.

Maybe more than a little bored.

A lot bored.

A heck of a lot bored.

You know you're laughing right now.