Father Daughter Time!

This last week I had the pleasure of spending quality time with one my most favorite people in the world:


Dad, who is an elementary counselor and gets some extra time in the summer, decided to take my grandma to an event in Dallas and spend a couple days with Michael and I en route to the Lone Star state. Lucky us!

Thanks to my great and flexible boss, I was able to spend almost a full day with him (he was very patient when I had to attend to the crackberry!). We hung out, played with the granddog (he hates when I call him that) and then came downtown. Dad saw my office, killed a bit of time while I did a quick presentation, then we visited Kansas City's Liberty Memorial and WWI museum. What a terrific place.

The tower at the memorial


Is a centerpiece of the Kansas City skyline. Event though we're both a bit afraid of heights, we went to the top to take in the view.

It was great...


This is where my office is...the headquarters of the world's largest greeting card company!

It was a bit scary, but it was OK...until a group of high school age boys came up and pretended to push each other off. I scolded them--"hey! Don't do that!"

I'm sure they made fun of the crazy lady on the tower.

The museum is terrific. It's the national WWI memorial...most of the others are in DC.

To get in, you walk over a field of poppies. Pretty moving. It's a fantastic history lesson and very moving. War is such an awful thing and I think it's good to remind ourselves of where our country has been.

Dad and I both enjoyed reading and wandering. Though it went unsaid, I think it made us both think a bit about our own war hero, from WWII.

How lucky we are to live in a country with history so chock-full of honorable men and women.

Thanks, Dad, for taking the time to come visit! Even if I am somewhat grown-up and have a family and home of my own...there is still nothing better than being a "daddy's girl!" I love you!

Kim's Shower!

Hello! I have the pics!

Saturday we had a shower for our sweet friend (and my former AdFarm colleague) Kim Wallis and her hubby Ross. We were doubly lucky to find out her mom and dad would be able to come from Iowa! How fun!

Kim is going to have a baby girl in August and is the cutest thing you've ever seen. I keep telling her to hurry it up because I want to hold that baby!!

Anyway, here she is cutting her shower cake!


And opening gifts! Amid "Ooohs", "Aaaahhs" over the adorable little blankies, boppies, booties, dresses, etc!





Since it was a shower, we did have to play games. But these were not boring games. No sireee, Michael, the bartender was in charge of prepping the diaper game. Yep...the "guess what the brown squishy mess in the diaper is" game.

Here's the crew checking it out....


And Kim getting a close-up whiff!


and Daddy Ross joining in on the guessing!


All in all a fun, fun day! Ross and Kim are going to be such great parents and it was fun to spend time with them! Congrats, Wallis Family!! :)

Oh, don't worry, the diapers contained a Reese's Peanut Butter cup, a snickers and a 3 Musketeers!

update

Hey! The shower went great! Kim loved the diaper cake and the party was really fun! And funny with the whole "smell what's in the diaper" game! hee!

I'm waiting to get a few pics and will post this weekend! Have a great weekend everyone!

I Never Thought I'd Do This

Tonight I did something I never thought I would do.

I'm not crafty.

I'm not "domestic".

But I do love to entertain.

And I do love to try new things.

So....

I did it.

I braved Wal-Mart (my least favorite place in the world).

To get the supplies...

And I made

A

Diaper Cake!!

Yep. If you don't know, it's a take on a wedding cake, but made out of rolled-up diapers. I'm hosting a baby shower for my friend Kim on Saturday, and thought this would be the perfect centerpiece:

Please note the "topper" is pacifiers....

and the creation is adorned with little hair ribbons for the baby to one day wear! (they know it's a girl!!).

And, if you're thinking this is an isolated outburst of domesticity...you're wrong! Just wait until the blog posts about the caramel rolls in my personalized bar pan (bar pans are a MN/ND thing) and my garden. Yes, my garden. All the naysayers who cruelty criticized my "starter garden" (my parents...my in-laws...my husband) will behold the 4 foot tall peas.

Oh, yes. Stay tuned.

Oh, and if you've, say, made 15 diaper cakes that were way nicer than this one, please, don't tell me. Thanks. :)

Honeymoon Part Two: Beach? Check. Candlelit Dinners? Check. Boa Constrictors? What??

Ok. So the promise to "post more this weekend" was a little unheeded, but better late than never.

So the Honeymoon. Yes, it was wonderful. Romantic. Paradise, really. We loved Puerto Vallarta, sitting on the beach, watching the waves, sipping a cocktail, getting a tan. But was that enough for this adventuresome duo??

NO! We needed to climb into the jungle and zip-line into a waterfall lagoon with boa constrictors!! Ok. In true Sarah fashion, that's a bit of an exagerration...but not that far off.

So we've had an idyllic honeymoon, but we get bored and decide to go "do" something. After much consideration and brochure searching, we decide to do the "outdoor adventure", a six-hour trip that involves boating across the bay...

driving a jeep-mac truck combo thing up deep into the mountains...

taking burros further into the mountains (they forbid cameras so the pictures are not actually us, but are a good representation of what we did)...

...where we were to zip line...

and repel back down the mountain.

Now let me pause a moment to remind you that I have a highly irrational fear of spiders. the little guy in the shower in MINNESOTA brings me to near panic. I knew what lived in those trees in this tropical climate, but did a good job not thinking about it.

So we're repelling...down a waterfall. It was SO fun and BEAUTIFUL!!!

(she's much more graceful than I was...)

you end in the water, then walk to the next zip line that ends in a lagoon! as seen here.

The next step was a survivor-like walk across a cord...

It was kind of wobbly, but not that bad. Besides. it wasn't that far to the ground, I thought, as I studied the ground below me. Pretty smooth rocks, no water and this:

yep. Right below me. "Oh, no prolem, Amigo", said the Mexican tour guide, "It's only a boa constrictor." Great. It won't bite us, just strangle us and swallow us whole.

So glad I was worried about a tarantula falling out of a tree, getting caught in my hair and biting me on the head, all while this guy was waiting underneath my tight rope waiting to squeeze the life out of this Norwegian delicacy.

Well, that was near the end of the adventure and neither of us was constricted by the boa. We got back to our drop point, grabbed the boat and headed back to the safey and snakelessness of the condo.

We then decided that although the Zipline adventure was a blast, we'd spend the rest of the time sitting on the beach...

watching the sunset...

then taking a dinner cruise on the final night.

All in all a fantastic trip with just the right amount of romance, relaxation and adventure.

The Honeymoon

Ahh...sand, sun and margaritas! A good way to start this Marriage thing!

Yes, I know...the wedding should be posted first, then the honeymoon! Well, most people have seen the wedding pictures, but not the honeymoon ones, so I'll do this out of order! Sorry. As you probably know, Michael's brother's in-laws have a condo in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and their wedding gift to us was a week stay there!

By the time the wedding festivities were over we were ready for a little R & R! The wedding was an amazing time...the parties, wedding, time with friends/family and, of course, becoming husband and wife!! So...we left early the Thursday after the wedding and got in that evening.

Clearly, we were in need of a little rejuvenation:

Can I just say that it doesn’t get much better than to roll out of bed when you’re done sleeping (though this took a couple days—I kept waking up at 6am frantically wondering what I was supposed to be doing!) and wandering into the kitchen of the coastal condo to a ready-made cup of coffee…then drinking it as the waves rolled lazily into the bay while lounging next to your delightful husband??

I just realized he's holding a beer, not coffee, but you get the idea. I guess it's all sort of the same south of the border.

Well, most days were spent lying on the beach, reading, napping and just taking in the beautiful scenery of Banderas Bay.

By the time evening rolled around, we were definitely in need of some activity, so we’d go into town…Puerto Vallarta and grab a drink, wander the boardwalk with the locals and watch the beautiful sunsets.

Me and my husband. Hmm. Strange, but good! :)

Really? Really? Does it get any better?

The sunsets were so pretty and gave me lots of opportunities to use my new camera...not that I enjoy taking pictures or anything. :)

Evening in Puerto Vallarta:

This one was taken from an Italian restaurant on the boardwalk that had an amazing view and horrible food. Oh well, you can't win them all.

We went up into the mountains one day and did a zip line adventure, but the wouldn't let us bring cameras...so this is the best I can do. Mountains that have zip lines in them.

This is another shot of the city of Puerto Vallarta. This blogging thing is taking way too long, so I'll work on it more this weekend!

The Inaugural Blog Post

Ok, here it is! My blog. I will do my best to come up with clever musings and post interesting photos, but no promises. My life is not that interesting.

However, in March I did do something interesting in that I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony and met cool celebrities. I was most excited to meet Billy Joel and Bryant Gumbel. Also, Ben Harper, my bro's favorite was also very, very nice. Oh, and I think I'm in love with Will Forte from SNL. He is very sweet and very funny. OK. I will post these as soon as I figure out how, then move on to pictures of the trees I planted last weekend. Seriously, does anyone think this is interesting??

Ok, figured out how. Billy Joel.

Bryant Gumble (above) was my favorite childhood newscaster (yes, i know most kids don't follow news that closely). When I met him, I told him he inspired my broadcasting career. He said, "I hope I didn't lead you down the wrong path" and I told him no, he didn't. I sold out to PR and he laughed. That's probably not funny if you're not a journalist. Sorry.

This is Ben Harper, my Brother's fav. He is married to Laura Dern and they are both lovely. These people were recording cards to send overseas to moms who are in the military and can't see their kids on Mother's Day. Isn't that sweet? We also met Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, but don't have photos of that.

This is Fred Armison (below) from SNL. Very funny and very nice.