Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Weekend of Fun :)

OK, so this past weekend, Ryan (Natalie's boyfriend) and friend Kris came up to Stout. They got here Friday afternoon. After a bit they left to get some lunch at acoustic cafe. I stayed back so I could get ready for the day and do some homework. The whole time we had been contemplating whether we should go camping that night because it kept raining on and off and the sky wasn't looking too promising. They got back and decided to play soccer, instead I took a nap because I was super tired from not getting any sleep the nights before. About an hour later they woke me up to go on a walk on the Red Cedar Trail. It was nice walking down by the river even though it was bug infested which was kind of gross. We then got to the playground and hung out there for awhile. The sky was clearing up so we were like why not go camping so we started to head back and of course the clouds came back in so we just decided not to and just go tomorrow(Saturday).

We got back and had a quick dance party in our dorm (listening to some LeCrae and whatnot). We then got ready to go to Jeff's pizza where we met up with Hannah, Lars, Lauren, and Lauren's sister Marlene. We ordered so much pizza we had a ton of leftovers. After we paid the bill we headed back to our dorm to put the pizza in the fridge and to decide what to do. So then we decided to go get a movie.We didn't want to start a movie right away so we drove around in the country crankin the tunes and singing along which was a lot of fun. Then we went to the redbox and picked I Love You Man and Sherlock Holmes. Got back and started I Love You Man, turned it off and put in Sherlock Holmes. Not sure how it was but it put me to sleep so it wasn't that good. haha. The movie ended and then we got ready to head over to Hannah and Lauren's room because the guys were sleeping in our room. Went over to their room and watched the movie Sex in the City for a bit and then went to bed.

Woke up, Ryan and Kris picked us up and we went back to our room to get ready for the day. After we got ready we headed out to the cities. We picked up Ryan's brother Tim and drove off to Lake Harriet. We got there and took a walk around the entire lake. After our long walk we got hungry so we had a picnic in the park. It was too windy to be outside for a long time so we decided to head in the city to go shopping downtown. We went into a couple stores...Victoria's Secret, Urban Outfitters, a book store (which was super sweet) and a record store.
This is a picture of Natalie and I in the window of a car getting out to go to the Walker.

After that we went to the Walker and walked around the outside and looked at the sculptures(there were Prom people there and a wedding so Natalie and I kept looking to see which dress we liked the most) .It was then time for dinner so we decided on Buca's (Italian). It was a 45 minute wait so we headed to Target to kill some time and found pretzel m&m's and were sooo good! Headed back to Buca's and it was so delicious. It was family style so we ordered Rigatoni and a shrimp pasta. They both were really good except the shrimp past was very spicy. It was time to take Tim back because we had to leave. So we dropped off Tim and headed back to Stout so we could get ready to go camping. Before we got to our room we stopped at a gas station to get fire wood because it rained earlier and the wood at the bottoms would be really wet and we wanted to make sure we had dry wood.

We got back and packed up all our stuff to go camping at the Bottoms. On our way we noticed we forgot a lighter so we stopped at KwikTrip and got a lighter, energy drinks, and coconut m&m's because we really wanted to try them(we had been talking about them with the guys so we got them to surprise them). The m&m's were so good! We were then off to the Bottoms and were almost there and realized we forgot chocolate for our smores but we just had chocolate less smores. So we all just hung around the campfire until 2 and we began to get sleepy so we headed to our tents. Once we got all situated in our tents Natalie and I got a burst of energy and were going crazy. Our energy drinks we had finally kicked in, we could not stop laughing and because we were laughing made the guys laugh and we just got really crazy. It was really funny. We finally fell asleep after an hour and a half. Woke up and hung around for a bit, packed up and left. Got back to our dorm and got ready and then went to the Raw Deal for some coffee which was delicious and we just sat there sipping our coffee and chatting it up.

Got back to our room and just hung out in there for awhile and just talked and then it was about 2:00 and so that meant Ryan and Kris had to leave so we said our goodbye's and left. After they left it was so weird for some reason. We went down at 4:00 to return the tents and I went to a group meeting for my Arch Design class and Natalie went back to the room. Both Natalie and I were procrastinating really badly and got no homework done that day and decided to watch a movie instead so we stuck in Ratatouille. Which I did not finish watching because I fell asleep because I was so exhausted from the weekend, but was worth it.

Why not try it?

So I love running but this one run was different. I went on a run which was amazing, through a cute little quaint neighborhood in Menomonie and it was such a sight. It was right on the lake and it just made me think of everything God has made for us and how beautiful everything is and how sometimes we don't realize how amazing it all is and that we take for granted everything He has given us. Since that run everytime I go for a run I set aside at least 10 minutes, no music, nothing, just the quiet, and look at my surroundings and thank God for everything, from nature to man-made objects...the gorgeous lake and the sunrise in the background or that cute little house that gives shelters a family. After I thank Him, I then just take the rest of the time to just pray, whatever is on my heart, anything. In doing this it has helped me in so many ways, I can't even begin to explain the effects of doing this and how greatly it has impacted my life. Try it out!

Read it

This has got to be one of my favorite verses!

"Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become children of God, blameless and pure without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out of the word of life..."

~Philippians 2:14-16

Cute



Just thought these were super adorable <3