Catching Up

After posting the last blog, I remembered that there were some missing pictures from parts of our Christmas break. I got a new camera right before Christmas, so all of our pictures from the past couple months are on three different cameras. What a pain! Anyways, I found what I was looking for and you'll be seeing them in a bit. :)

My brother, Keaton, and I went to Minneapolis on December 22nd to visit Dad and Connie. Keats and I had gotten tickets to go to the Timberwolves game that night, so we all rode the Metro downtown to get some food and drinks during happy hour, then went our separate ways. The game was more fun than I had expected (it's the NBA -- I think I can count on one hand how many people I know that actually follow the NBA closely. Ick!), however, they lost in the last couple of minutes.

During halftime, K entered a drawing to win some prizes. On the display table they had items like a Joe Mauer autographed picture, some NFL stuff, etc. Really masculine prizes, ya know? WELL! The next day, he got a call from an unknown number. He answers it and all I hear him say is, "Hello? Yes, this is Keaton. .... Oh. I won what? Laser what? Um, no thank you, I live in Iowa." He had won $300 in laser hair removal...haaahahahha. He was so bummed he didn't win something "cool." Oh, the luck he has!

When I was in high school, it was sort of a short-running tradition that Dad, Connie, and I would go up to the Macy's holiday display in downtown Minneapolis. I don't really have any idea how to explain what this is, but it's pretty much just a life-size storybook, where you walk through the pages (aka decorated sets), and read/see the story as you go. Get it? :)

This year's theme was "A Day in the Life of an Elf" -- it was neat but I've seen some better ones in my day. (Okay, the *4* other times I've been there I've seen MUCH cooler ones!) I took a couple of pictures to kinda show what it was like...

Welcome to Santaland!

Everything moves, sings, shoots fog out of somewhere, etc. Pretty neat!

The guy on the top bunk moved up and down so the feather would tickle the foot of the guy in the bottom bunk. Sillyyyy. My brother and Keats wanted to leave as soon as we walked in. ;)

Elves making toys

Elves...baking? haha

The first time I ever went, the story was "The Grinch" and that set the bar pretty high. "Mary Poppins," "Polar Express," and "Paddington Bear" are some other ones I've seen. This one was kind of broad, but nonetheless it was still fun to see. Plus, it's free!

We had Christmas with Dad and Connie while we were up there and among other awesome presents, we got a KINECT for our (K's) Xbox! We've had sooo much fun with it. Keats likes to play the sports games, and I like to play the dancing games. I'll try to capture and post some videos of Keats trying my games, it's so funny! Anywho, thanks Papa Bear and Connie!

We have so much snow here and it's supposed to be -15 degrees tonight/tomorrow. NEGATIVE FIFTEEN!? That's not even counting the wind chill. Who loves the midwest?

I guess I do like the way my parents house looks with snow surrounding it. It's so pretty!

Love this picture of our backyard (the small building is an old chicken coop that we converted into a playhouse...fyi!)

Keats' car after we got back from the cities, covered in snow!

I had my first therapy session with my new client this afternoon. It went really well, so I'm super excited for the rest of the semester! On another good note, I'm D-O-N-E with all of my grad school applications! All I have to do is wait for some news now. I think that's the worst part?

No matter where Bags is at in the apartment, he can always hear when the printer starts up. I wonder if he thinks he is helping?

Mister Cat's first time being in the snow. He was watching K shovel for about 3 minutes and did not want to go back inside. Weirdo!

This is (no joke) the way I found him on Christmas morning. "TAKE MY PICTURE SO I CAN GO OPEN PRESENTS!!!" That's what every kid says, right?