7 posts tagged “minnesota”

Well friends and family - in case you hadn't heard, I left Six Apart about 2 weeks ago to start a new position in the video gaming industry at Electronic Arts.

As many of you may know, my very first post was a week before I was moving to San Francisco to start a new job/adventure at Six Apart.  Ever since then, I have been archiving my life on Vox.  The past 3 1/2 years at Six Apart were some of the most fulfilling of my life.  I got to move to a new city, advance my career and meet some really great friends. 

I already miss all of my Six Apart friends and plan to not only stay connected to them but I also intend to maintain my blog on Vox as well as the one on TypePad.  The reason I haven't been posting lately is that before I start my new job today, I took 2 weeks off to "recharge" and boy did I need it. 

To recap, I went to Minnesota to visit family and friends, went shopping and to the spa in San Francisco and then spent a week in El Salvador on the beach.  It was extremely fun and VERY RELAXING. 

Here are a few photos to capture my adventures.

I spent the 4th of July week in Minnesota visiting my family.  I have to say, I think this might be the first time since I moved to San Francisco that I went home and was able to not work and not feel over-extended with personal obligations.  It was fun, relaxing and fulfilling.  Hooray!

Here are some photos from the trip.

 

 

 

So the first photos is the cabin, next two are my fabulous nephew Reece and the last is the first family photo I think we've taken since I was 15 years old (from left to right - dad, mom, sister (Kelly), me, and brother (Rod)).

I am home in Minnesota this week and had a lovely baby shower for my friend Carrie (one in black in the middle).  Since it is sadly becoming less and less frequent that we are all together at the same time, we thought we'd use this opportunity to take a nice group photo.  I've got fabulously beautiful friends, don't I?

So many of you have had to deal with my endless ramblings about my nephews.  So in light of the fact that it's my youngest nephews 5th birthday today, I just had to share one more.

So I am going home in a month to visit and expect to have more updated pictures and videos then but since I don't now, I had to pull an old video from the archives to share.  Reece is quite the entertainer and as a result he tends to have many guest appearances on my blog. 

Here is a video from when he just learned how to say his ABC's.  Boy he's come a long way!  Happy Birthday Reece.  Aunt Joy LOVES YOU! 

Okay, this is my last in my 4 part Christmas series altho we did just get the camera I thought I lost last Christmas back from Matt's Aunt -(thanks Joanne!) and I am pretty sure I've got some hilarious videos on that (hint:  breakdancing) so I may have to do a 2007 Christmas series but I'll try to get you a break for a least a week :)

Here are a few photos from my nephew Ty's hockey game.  I got to go to two games while I was home - it was so much fun.  Ty is old enough now where they are actually playing real hockey with lines, penalties, positions - the whole bit!   The photo below is one of my favorites - my dad and my nephew Nick (middle child just like me!)

 

 Here is Ty actually playing hockey - he's number 11 right front and center!  I just have to say again, my nephews rock.

I was fortunate to be able to spend some quality time at home this Christmas.  In years past, there's been way too much going on and I generally leave feeling like I didn't get to spend enough time with anyone.

This year was different.  I got to play with my nephews, hang out with my family and party with my friends.  And with the exception of a few, I got to see and do nearly everything I had hoped. 

Here are some highlights.

Christmas Morning.  If you follow my blog you may recall my post about my nephew wanting handcuffs.  Well as you'll see from the picture below, he was EXTREMELY happy with them and proceeded to cuff anyone and everyone to chairs and each other.  Yes, he's an interesting little one.

Swedish Family Dinner.  So it's a tradition at our house to have a swedish meal with my Dad's side of the family for Christmas.  Lutefisk is a Swedish food that you don't want to try.  It's cod soaked in lye.  My dad has resorted to bribing us with lottery tickets in order to get us to eat it.  In a tough economy, this proved to be especially effective.  Here's a video of my brother's girlfriend who decided that shooting the Lutefisk like a shot would be the best approach.

   So I've got lots more to share so I'll post this in series.  More to come!  

 

 

So I just spent a week back in Minneapolis.  I've got lots and lots of great pictures and stories to share however I am drowning in work so I'll have to do that in a few days. 

For now though, I had to at least share an awesome picture that Matt's mom took during our "sunset" cruise up at his parent's cabin.  We had just finished having a conversation about how I had never seen a bear outside of a zoo.  They see them quite a bit at the cabin and Matt is a total outdoorsman so naturally they were all very surprised.

As we were cruising around the lake, this is what we saw.  Not one bear but four!  A mama bear and three baby cubs.  And we didn't just get a glimpse.  They playfully jogged from one backyard to another around a good chunk of the lake.  It was very very cool. 

Now, I will be posting Minneapolis city photos soon to not feed into my SF Vox neighbor's beliefs that Minnesota is in the middle of nowhere.  The reason Minnesota is so cool is you get the best of both worlds! 

Oh, and I should mention that I also saw wild turkeys and lots of beautiful loons.  I also took my nephews to the Zoo and saw lots of other animals but no Lions or Tigers I am afraid.