Aussie, Sports and fun!!

My life has been crazy busy recently and this weekend I am planning on playing catch up on all of it!! OFTA! I cannot tell how long this post will be or how many posts I may be creating. Either way, you will have the opportunity to gather such information shortly.

I left off with my weekend trip to my parent's house when we were on the radio (which is such a cool thing. Seriously.)!! The return trip home from my parent's house included the briefest of brief stops in Madison to pick up my friend Australian friend, Fred, who I met in London this summer. Fred was touring through the United States and Canada on his way home to Australia. I had my friend Jenni in the car with me too, which made our travels a downright road trip! We stopped along the way at Culver's for Fred's first experience. This became an experience for him with frozen custard AND fried cheese curds. Don't know what I'm talking about? Please don't google it. Fly to Wisconsin and discover it for yourself! When we got into the Twin Cities, I dropped off Fred and Jenni but we each suggested things to do or attend later in the week.

On Thursday, Fred organized a Target Thursday at the Walker Art Center. It ended up being Fred, his friend Max he was staying with, Jenni, myself and two others from our London summer excursion- Adrian and Shannon. We think we got through a good number of the exhibits. Towards the end though we split into two groups, one was to go out in Dinkytown and the other was to go have ice cream at Sebastian Joe's a few blocks away. It was a fantastic time for people to get together and for those of us who traveled abroad to reconnect. After all, it has been almost three months!! We had such a fun time- I hope we do it again soon!! This picture is of a quote by Albert Einstein. For those of you who may have trouble reading it: "The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science."


We had a similar get together on Friday for dinner, Fred, Max, Shannon and I had dinner at Brit's Pub in downtown Minneapolis. This pub is becoming one of my favorite places in Minneapolis. It is close to work and everything reminds me of last summer. I can not complain! We met after work (for most of us) and enjoyed an evening full of traditional british meals including fish & chips and guinness beef stew, stories, and laughter!! Towards the end of dinner, Fred decided he wanted to go outback and see the lawn bowling set up. Unfortunately they were no longer holding sport because of the change in weather. This did not stop Fred. He walked outside to check it out, only to find himself locked out until he could get someone's attention to let him back in. After dinner, the group headed to Max's house for a bit of hot tubbing but I was downright exhausted and went home.

To finish of my weekend, I babysat for my cousin's three kids on Saturday. This is always a fantastic time-- we had pizza and then played music, Olympic in-house games, told stories and shared in enormous amounts of laughter. On Sunday, I
met a girl from high school for breakfast at Victor's. It was Jenni, Kate and Rachel. Rachel was visiting from Wisconsin for the University of Minnesota's homecoming, Kate works with Gopher Sports and Jenni works with an after school kids program... it is fascinating to think of how incredible each of my friends are doing/what they are doing since high school. We've each gone in different directions, grown and learned, yet we stay grounded and connected with each other. I love it. After breakfast, Kate had to work a soccer match, Jenni had other plans, but Rachel and I headed over to watch the soccer match. Minnesota ended up winning, of course! Kate showed Rachel and I the press box before heading our separate ways.

Kate suggested there was this Monday night volleyball group that she and a group of friends from school play with at a community center and told me to join in on the fun. It has been three weeks now and I look SO forward to Mondays. It has been such a blast!! The physical activity is everything I have been needing. Speaking of activity-- I realize I have not filled you in on my running updates! I have been continuing my training to run a 5K on Thanksgiving (11/22/2012) and have (sadly) put in two more runs since my last update! The weather turned and I did not have proper running attire for a few weeks. I am slowly picking up my pace and finding successes! I'll tell you more about it after my next run!

KATE (BABY DAVID, DAVID AND ME! 

Through the next week, I worked and anxiously anticipated the weekend! I had a smorgasbord of family coming in from California, Arizona, New Mexico, Wisconsin, and near by Minneapolis for a baby shower! It was a great time, a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with cousins, Aunts and Uncles that I haven't seen in years! We had a Friday lunch at Brit's Pub, Saturday dinner night at a cousin's, and ultimately the baby shower in Elk River, Minneapolis. It was such a wonderful time with everyone included. Now we just have to wait until December for baby David to come along!!  <3

There are more updates to come!!
Until next time,
Sarah Marsh