Pool, friends and trying to canoe...

Here are a few random pictures from the past two weekends... they have been fun, relaxing and quite entertaining (as always). We are excited to spend next weekend in Pawleys Island and Charleston with Dana and Jana!!! They arrive on Wednesday and are here until next Monday. It's the last hurrah for these "Summers-Off" ladies! Hope we make it a good one for them!

Our apartment complex had a pool party and the walrus decided to make an appearance!!

I totally won the poolside limbo contest (okay okay I tied with a bendy little 5'0 girl... but it was still fun)! Thank you, yoga : )

There was a DJ at our pool party and he wanted all of the kids to get up and do the cuban slide... it was super cute and they all got really into it UNTIL a way too skinny drunk girl got up and shook her (inverted) butt... you can kinda see her in the brown top/white bottom with a cup in her hand. It was so awkward and everyone was just laughing at her thinking she was hot stuff - I wish I had video of it!

More of this girl trying to dance with the kids...

Side view of my haircut.... I like it 80% of the time. I think it's fun/cute when I actually get to do it, but I sweat so dang much down here with my job, so then it just kinda hangs. I do love that I can go to a beauty school and have it done for cheap, but NOTHING compares to Auntie Dacia and Holly back in Waseca. : )

MY BUDDIES from work... they come to all my classes! : ) Faby is on the left and Rebekah is on the right. They are so great and will be moving to the Ayrsley community in a month to be roomies together in a different condo complex! Can't wait to have them so close!

Another pic of the girls... cocktails by the pool. It was a gorgeous night! I'm totally used to their accents, but Faby (on the left) is originally from Bolivia, but also lived in Texas before she moved here- she has a combination accent that cracks me up! Bekah is born and raised in the south... such a thick southern accent- love it!

Erik got to come to girls night!!! He fit in just great : ) Erik and Bekah are showing off their "light-up" plastic wine glasses (so what if they say "ho ho ho" and are hand-me-downs from Aunt Mary)

Today (7/19) we drove 30-40 minutes north to the Lake Norman area. We did a little workout at that YMCA and then enjoyed their pool/lake area (connected to the Y). We rented a canoe for an hour... you'd think we'd be good at it since we enjoy being active. NOPE. We zig zag our way everywhere we go! Seriously I don't think you could find a worse canoe couple. We sure had fun doing it though!

We were, however, really good at lounging in the middle of the lake and enjoying the scenery! It was a great day and we have had a gorgeous (85, sunny, low humidity) weekend! It looks like things will be tropical (high humidity and a few random evening storms) for Ma and Sister K to come visit! See ya at the next blog post : )

Hooray for Uncle Sam!

Happy 4th of July (a week late)! Although I did miss the annual 4th of July Harmony trip... I have to say that this was an experience like no other! We left Friday (the 3rd) around 12:30pm after Erik was home from work and then got back late Sunday night. We definitely made the most of the beautiful weekend and the amazing people watching : )

Erik out on Mary and Kev's dock- I think he found the water before I even got into the house! He must like it or something...

HAPPY BOYS!!!


It was quite a peaceful boat cruise and well worth the 4 hour drive previous to the wonderful evening

We have totally radical 4th of July tatoos on our arms... mine is a heart with USA inside of it, Erik's is a flag (dont ask how we convinced him to put it on) and Mary's says USA in big letters. I like Mary's bad-ass face("butt," G-ma Chubby... I meant, to say "bad-butt"). Too funny!

Erik, give me your most manly pose with your extra manly sparkly/glittery tatoo!


This float was adorable- I think it won "most creative" or something like that. It's a bunch of kids dressed like crabs inside a cage-like thing and they are chanting "Eat more fish!" They were advertising Fish-Fil-A (as opposed to Chick-Fil-A). : )

Live music- as close to a marching band as we got : )

Superman with an American flag?

HAVE to have a hammock in the Pawleys Island parade.... we were trying to figure out if it was from Mary and Kevin's store : )

This was great- wish I would have gotten a better picture. This guy was dressed up as the mistress and "soulmate" Gov. Mark Sanford of SC. There were a lot of floats making fun of him- we enjoyed it since he's an idiot.

Cute and patriotic

Crazy paper mah-shay (when i dont know how to spell things, i just spell them how they sound) rocket thingy

THERE WE GO! Now I feel more at home ..... TRACTOR! : )

Erik and Mary walking back from the parade... sweaty and ready to get into the ocean!

So so happy.... tattoo STILL on (which makes for a great tan line as you'll see later)

A) really?!?! people really still use metal detectors?!

B) you are on a beautiful beach on probably the busiest beach day of the year and you are choosing walk around sweating bullets trying to find coins?

C) you live on pawleys island. is finding $1.25 really gonna make or break your million dollar beach home?!

This dude spent alllllllllllllll day creating this huge sand castle. We left before he was finished but what he had already was pretty impressive!

I tried to be patriotic with my toes (thanks to Darlene's nail polish)... The flags on my big toes (or my cobra toes as yana calls them) turned out the best- the other ones were special. Erik said the red stars on my pinky toes just looked like they were bleeding. Lol thanks hun!

YUMMMM - us ladies were enjoying the fruit kabobs i made.... slaved on them for hours and hours ; )

Boys will be boys- playing with the boats (Luc thinking he gets a ride again)

Bean bag toss (or CORNHOLE as they call it down here)!!! I love that it was red white and blue too! Larry and Kevin here are playing....

Erik and Michael on the other side
Luc was chasing the bags around for a while

You can call us the cheerleaders! (wish you could see the SNEAKERS i was wearing... erik has me calling them sneakers. seriously who says sneakers. anyway, i injured my foot and wore sneakers with a skirt. it was sexy. if you'd like to hear the story, id be glad to tell you) : )

Like I said earlier.... the tatoo made for a great tanline : )

Grillin burgers!

Out on the dock watching fireworks all around us! I think we were laughing at Erik trying to take the picture. He just kept flashing the camera because it was pitch black and he had to guess where to aim.............. it was funnier at the time I think : )

Darlene and Michael bein goofy... ready to go back home on their boat. LOVE that they travel to each other's houses by boat. We hope they made it home safely : )

Erik is already telling Luc how much he will miss him and we haven't even left yet!

We went to another beach on Sunday - in a very nice, secluded area called "Deb-a-doo" (it's spelled something like Deboirdeau or something... its French). Here, Mary and I are at the tiki bar watching Roddick ALMOST defeat Federer.

Cheers on a Sunday! We never do that... it was kinda fun... especially when the bartender was making pina coladas (Aka slushies- lol)

MY FIRST REAL LIVE GATOR!

I guess deer like Pawleys Island too!

Everyone has like 8 cars and golf carts in this development... the golf carts were all decorated because there was a golf cart parade there on Saturday! So great

Next blog will be..... hmm.... maybe my new rockin' trying hard to be stylish haircut, maybe some pics from the weekend if we do anything super cool, and definitely looking forward to Mama and Toobs coming here in a few weeks! They get to experience Pawleys Island as well!

Love to all!

Hiking and dining... great combo!

Hi Ho Hi Ho it's off to hike we go... at Crowders Mountain (about 30mins north of Charlotte). We figured it can't be so hard- it barely north of us! Plus, hellllllllllo... we did a triathlon...

LOL It was quite a hike and the mountain won.

This was us (minus the backpack, hiking boots, hiking hat, and walking stick).... always so UNDERprepared! Ha!

It was approximately 2 miles to the top.... the last .7 miles were straight up- I mean straight! An old guy (mountain veteran) tried to warn us! It was worth it though- amazing views!

We're pretty sure we could see Minnesota from the top of the "Pinnacle" ..... helllllllllllo Minnesohhhhhhhhhhhtahhhhhhhh!

Erik hold on tight- don't fall!

Up at the top, enjoying the view (drenched with sweat) and contemplating how we are now going to get back to the bottom of this thing!!

Do you see us? We were up there!!!!

After our hike, we treated ourselves to a VERY tasty dinner at 131 Main in the Ballantyne area of Charlotte.... Erik is truly obsessed with their roast beef sandwiches. He has reason to be though- they are truly the tastiest sandwiches we've ever had! They also have amazing smoked salmon- melts in your mouth! Okay, enough about that- it's making me hungry!

Thanks for the shirt and earrings, Trudy and for my beautiful bracelets, Ella! : )

Sitting outside after dinner enjoying some live music and a great atmosphere!

He was our live music for the evening- very chill songs that we enjoyed a lot!!!