Dan's finally finished with school!

Yep! I know he walked in May, but he still had two summer classes to take, and on Wednesday, he turned in the last lab report, and he is officially done! Now he *really* feels like a college grad! (Well, he says he won't completely feel like one til he gets his diploma in the mail, but that's coming).

We're still having fun with my mom here; on Tuesday night, we actually went and saw Mamma Mia again. This time, it was my mom, Dan and me. I'm not too sure Dan liked it.... he was sitting there with a rather bored look on his face. It also didn't help that, as he put it, he was "the only straight guy in the theater." But I loved it; I actually want to see it again, and then buy it when it comes out on DVD.

Oh, and my grandparents are out of rehab and back in their own home! We're so happy for them; finally, 10 weeks after the car accident, they are back under their own roof. We went over there last night for dinner; my mom was staying there to help them, and my aunt Chris and cousin Karissa came up too. We didn't get there until around 8, because I had this work event I had to go to at the Overture Center, but that's ok. It was a lot of fun to hang out with my family, and it's so nice knowing that my grandparents made it through this terrible ordeal ok, and they're back home. :)

Our weekend at the lake

We had a great time up at our cabin in Turtle Lake! We didn't get up there until around midnight on Friday night, but that's ok. We weren't that tired, so Dan, Austin and I actually hit up the casino for a couple hours, which was fun. I didn't win anything (well, I may have gotten a few quarters from the slot machine, but nothing too substantial), but it was still fun. Oh, and we tried a game of blackjack. I was completely lost; I know *in theory* how to play it, but it was kind of nerve wracking being at the table with the dealer, who's shuffling all fast and whatnot. But it was still fun. I have no idea how people count cards, though; there's no way I could remember all that!

Saturday we got up and lounged around, which was really fun. We also had fun setting up our "room" at the cabin. The cabin has three bedrooms, and since there's three owners (my parents, my Uncle Fred [my dad's brother] and Aunt Kathryn, and my Aunt Missy [my dad's sister]) it works out that each one has their own space. Since my mom only gets up there a couple times a year, she hadn't decorated our room yet, but we did this weekend. She ordered these gorgeous beds, and since the carpet down there is a gold/orange (from the 70s), she decided to go with that color scheme (since my grandma Eleanore loved those colors). So we got these really cool bedspreads that are red, orange and yellow, with just a hint of pink/violet. It looks really good down there; very 70s.

That evening, we had Austin get my dad to walk the dogs with him, since we needed to set up for my dad's surprise birthday party. He turns 60 on the 25th of this month, but since we were all up there (my Aunt Kathryn, Uncle Fred and Aunt Missy were up there too) we decided to do the party now. We decorated with some cute 60 decorations, and I got a cake, which my mom then decorated with all the candies from their childhood; you know, wax bottles, chuckles (whatever those are), smarties, etc. Uncle Fred had some Beatles music on his ipod, so that kind of set the 60s mood, so to speak. Some of our neighbors also came over to help celebrate, so that was fun. We had to laugh, though; my dad came in, we all shouted "Surprise!" and he just looked around like, "What is going on?? Anyway, I have to go to the bathroom" and then he just went in the bathroom and shut the door. We were all laughing, like, did he even hear us?

But it was a fun party; my mom made this delicious brandy slush, and we had really tasty salads and bratwurst. I'm glad we were able to do that, since I won't be able to actually spend his birthday with him.

Sunday was spent relaxing yet again, and then we went to the Five O'Clock Club for dinner. It's this delicious supper club featuring steaks, seafood, pasta, etc. It is SO GOOD, but we honestly almost felt sick by the time we left, we were so stuffed. I had steak and shrimp with fettuccine alfredo; delicious. Their clam chowder was excellent, as was their bread. It was so yummy, and my dad treated us, so that was nice.

We stayed up there all day Monday, too, since I took off work, and we didn't end up leaving until 8 o'clock, which meant we got home at midnight, so I'm exhausted today. Oh well; it was worth it. It was a great weekend!

Working Out

Well, I took the plunge and decided to start working out again. Despite the fact that my office has a workout facility upstairs (that's right, not next door or down the street, but up-freaking-stairs) I haven't worked out in a looong time. So I decided to remedy that today and walked for 25 minutes on the treadmill. Was it the most intensive workout ever? Not by a long shot, but a girl's gotta start somewhere, right?

My goal is to lose 30 pounds by my mom's 60th birthday in February, so we'll see how that goes :) I have a feeling, however, that working out is going to be much more motivational once my blue ipod nano arrives (and it should be here tomorrow!) Yep, after seeing Kirsti get her ipod nano, I decided that would be the perfect motivational tool for helping me work out, so we bought one. I'm going to look forward to working out a lot more once I have that in my hands!

Our Dells Vacation....

Was so fun! Dan and I got up there around 7:30 on Friday night (everyone else came earlier). Dan H. grilled out and made hamburgers and hot dogs, which were really good. We just kind of hung out that night, played some cards, and generally just enjoyed being together.

Saturday we got up and spent most of the day at the pool. Dan, unfortunately, spent quite a bit of time in the lobby working on his final project for his summer class, but he was still able to spend some time with us in the pool. It was so hot out, so being in the pool felt wonderful. Rori is turning into such a little swimmer; she will swim a little ways to someone all by herself, and it's so cute that she's so proud of herself! Dan, Kirsti, Rori and I also enjoyed playing Marco Polo, and either Dan or I would hold Rori so we could go in the deeper end. That worked quite well, except Dan decided it was a good idea to use Rori as a human shield so that he didn't have to be it :) That's ok, though, she really liked being it, and we just moved to the shallow part for that round.

Saturday night, we went to Ishnala, which is this GORGEOUS supper club in the Dells. We went to celebrate Kirsti's 13th birthday (which was actually on June 1st, but because of the issues with my grandparents and their hospitalization, we weren't able to celebrate until now). She's very into Native American things, and Ishnala actually means "By Itself Alone" in Winnebago. So it was the perfect setting for her celebration. I'll post pictures when I get home, but you can get quite a good idea of the setting by clicking on all these links :)

The food was absolutely delicious; I had filet mignon and shrimp, and it was honestly some of the best steak I've ever had. Kirsti's uncle Greg came up, as did her grandmother Roberta, her grandpa Marty and his wife Carol, and good family friend Kerman. They're all so nice, so we enjoyed hanging out with them. Afterwards, Greg, Kerman and Roberta came back to our condo to watch the wedding video; we wanted them to see it since Rori and Kirsti are in there (not to mention Dan and Tracy). We also watched Kirsti open her gifts (her favorite by far was an ipod nano, which is THE thing to have in middle school!) and afterwards we played a game of Euchre.

Sunday was spent just relaxing as well and then Dan left early on Monday morning, since he had class. I took the day off work, however, so we spent the rest of the day just lounging by the pool (you can use it all day, even after you check out). It was a lot of fun; we just encountered a *slight* problem when Dan H. was loading up the van, and he realized that we wouldn't have room for all the people AND the luggage. So my Dan actually had to drive back up to come get my mom and me, but that's ok :) The Dells are only 45 minutes away, so it wasn't a big deal.

All in all it was a great vacation; I'll post pictures soon!

Mamma Mia!

We went and saw Mamma Mia on Tuesday, and it was AMAZING! I went with Tracy, her girls and my mom (who is here visiting; yay!) It was such a great, catchy movie, and I really want to see it again.

Wednesday, Dan, my mom and I took the girls to Concert on the Square, which is a regular summertime event here in Madison. We brought blankets, snacks and drinks and just spread out on the Capitol lawn, listening to the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. It was a lot of fun; we also got a game of Euchre in there (Rori was on my "team;" she's quite the little helper!)

Today I have to work a full day (ugh) but then we're heading up to Wisconsin Dells for the weekend. We always stay in this condo in the hotel called Wilderness on the Lake, and it's absolutely beautiful. (You can view a slideshow of it here; this is exactly what our room looks like. It's awesome!) It's very relaxing and just fun to hang out with family. After the stress of this summer and my grandparents' accident, it will be nice to get away!

The Dark Knight

Well, we saw it.... and it was REALLY good. Heath Ledger was amazing! It was kind of dark, but yet funny at times. Christian Bale was great as Batman, too. We went to the 2 o'clock movie, and even that had a line practically out the door. But we ended up getting good seats anyway (even though we were next to a bunch of annoying teenage guys, but that's ok).

Then we went to the Dane County Fair with the Hines. Rori had a blast going on all the rides; she and I went on the bumper cars together, and it was so cute to see her so excited! Kirsti and I went on this awesome ride called the Fireball; she's so sweet, she gave me three of her tickets so I could go on it with her, since I was all out. Other than that, we just ate a bunch of yummy fair food and hung out for awhile. It was really fun!

Tomorrow is the Ehrke company picnic, so I will be going to that with Tracy, Kirsti and Rori. It's held at a park with a pool, so that should be fun!

Benvenuto's and Hellboy; our Friday night

Dan and I decided that we were sick of just sitting home on Fridays, like we normally do. So, we decided that last night, we would go out on a date like we used to. You know, dinner and a movie and all that jazz.

So we had dinner at Benvenuto's (this really great Italian grill right by my work; their cheese bread is to die for!), and that was a lot of fun. Then we headed to the movie theater to see The Dark Knight (the new Batman movie).... or so I thought. Turns out, even though we got there at 8:30, the nine o'clock AND ten o'clock movies were already sold out. Agh! I did not want to wait to see the 11 o'clock one, so Dan persuaded me to see Hellboy instead. I really didn't want to, but we were already there, so I agreed. He'd been wanting to see it forever, anyway.

It was actually tolerable; it was about some comic book superhero, so not totally my cup of tea, but that's ok. I still want to see the Dark Knight, though; I think we're going to go to a matinee today in the hopes that it's not as popular!