Monday, September 15, 2014

September Happenings.


I can't believe September is half over! Our latest volleyball session is going well and we're currently ranked first! We start playoffs next week. Adam just signed up for a flag football team on Monday nights {first game is tonight!} with about nine guys in his dental class and I start a women's basketball league this week on Wednesday nights. We should really get more involved, shouldn't we? ;) We will have two weeks of overlap with three sports nights a week, then volleyball stops until January. Our team decided to take this fall off and give everyone a little break.

I forgot how much I liked picking out new basketball shoes! 

Adam has been pretty steady in school, as year three is in full swing. He's loving working on patients and I can tell his demeanor about school has changed significantly from days of only classwork. It's so fun listening to him describe his patients and what he did during the day. He's starting an oral surgery assisting rotation this week and will be doing pediatric dentistry next. As of right now, he's still thinking general dentistry and I think it would be a fantastic fit. Adam's a floater. In high school, he was friends with people in every different social group. I feel as though this translates nicely to dentistry. Sure, he has interest in orthodontics {just as he had interest in sports in high school}, but he doesn't want it to limit him. He wants to be able to do orthodontics, surgery, pediatrics, root canals and everything else. Adam would be a wonderful general dentist and I'm so happy for him. Sure, things can change. Who knows where we will be in one year when specialty applications are due, but I do know that Adam can do whatever he sets his mind to and he'll be the cutest dentist in all the land.

This past weekend was equally as busy. Friday night we had a birthday party for a friend at a few different breweries in Minneapolis. We started at Sociable Cider Werks, moved on to Bauhaus Brew Lab and ended at 612 Brew. Neither Adam or I had every been to a brewery and had no idea what to expect. It ended up being so much fun! The breweries had a very industrial vibe (garage doors, exposed piping and beams). Really fun night, despite the fact that beer is one of my least favorite drinks. Saturday I was Britt's date at a wedding at St. Thomas Cathedral and the Landmark Center in downtown St. paul. It was a perfect fall day and everything was beautiful! It was also so great having that much sister time. While I was at the wedding, Adam got together with a few high school buddies who were in town for the Vikings game on Sunday. They hung out, went to dinner and I met up with all of them after the wedding. We all decided to swing by Toby Keith's for some live country music to end the night. A busy day!

Bauhaus Brew Labs

Sociable Cider Werks

We're headed up to Detroit Lakes this weekend. Can't wait!


Weddings, Fairs, Dinners..Oh My!

 I started this post last week, but got too busy to attach pictures. Here's it is, very late!

I was thinking it was going to be hard saying farewell to summer, and I was right. I cleaned our apartment last weekend and begrudgingly packed away my light summer dresses and dusted off a few packed-away sweaters. With our limited closet space, I am forced to have my closet on a rotating schedule...Quickly though, those feelings were replaced with excitement for fall. There are so many things about fall that I love. I love the cooling weather and my big knitted sweaters. I love the warmth of hot chocolate and beautiful colors that fill the trees. I love the familiarity of watching football games with friends, dental school socials and making homemade soups. We had one amazing summer and I wouldn't want to forget anything. Here are some pictures of fun Erickson happenings that wrapped up summer and kicked off fall.

We had a great time at our friends wedding in Grand Rapids, MN at the end of August. Spencer and Rachel are both in dental school with Adam, so this wedding was a giant dental school reunion. We arrived in Grand Rapids early on that Saturday and spent time walking around their local craft fair and eating freshly popped kettle corn. It was so cute seeing all of the 'up north' themed hand crafted goodies. We then headed over to the church and the reception quickly followed at the Timberlake Lodge. A beautiful wedding for a beautiful couple! Everyone danced the night away and had an amazing time. We're so happy to welcome them to the married club. It's a really fun club to be in.

Buchert Wedding!
The dental wives/girlfriends an the stunning bride!

Adam and I headed to the state fair on the following Thursday for an evening of pigging out. The weather was slightly overcast, which did wonders as far as waiting lines went. Aside from the ticket booth, I'm not sure either of us waited in line at all to get food. We had a pronto pub, corn on the cob, cheese curds, pretzel, deep fried apple pie & ice cream, a soda and French fries. We wandered around through the animal barns, the DNR fish pond {Adam's favorite} and the animal birthing center. The new Heritage Square was really very nice! It was a new addition this year and we had fun walking around the cute new shops. All in all, we spent a little over two hours there and we both saw and ate everything we had in mind. Success. Also, people watching doesn't get much better than at the state fair.



State Fair 2014

For Labor Day weekend, we headed up to Green Lake for one last hoorah. We may squeak in another trip up to help get the docks out, but more than likely our warm summer weekends have come to a close. The weather was favorable for the most part and we had a great long weekend relaxing. We played Frisbee golf, sand volleyball at the public beach, went fishing, got DQ and biked around the lake. Funny story about our fishing trip I'd like to remember. Adam, Scott, his friend Zach and myself took the pontoon out on Saturday. There were some distant clouds, but nothing that looked immediately threatening. As we made our way across the lake, the clouds started rolling in a lot quicker and seemed to get a bit darker. There wasn't complete cloud coverage, so the boys all thought we would be fine. As more time passed, I saw boat after boat making their way back to shore. I, again, told them it didn't look great and we should go in. It started to sprinkle and finally grabbed their attention. They slowly started to put away poles and bait when it started. Torrential downpour. The heavens opened up and we were completely at it's mercy. I had my phone, so I immediately took shelter huddled under my skirt and a towel {which kept me dry for about 30 seconds}. Adam was driving and somehow managed to navigate us back to our dock. This may have been the hardest rain I've ever seen and thankfully my dad was waiting at the end of our dock for us, knowing we'd come flying in any minute. My phone survived and everything dried. No harm done, thankfully..

Beautiful. 

Dad's blueberry waffles 
Volleyball at the park
Heading out to fish...



T-5 minutes until downpour 


Last Friday, Adam and I met up with his sister Alyssa and her husband Michael for dinner at Pig Ate My Pizza. It's a small, specialty pizza restaurant in Robbinsdale that had gotten great reviews. It did not disappoint! The décor was so cute and funky. They have a rotating pizza menu and everything was so delicious! It was wonderful catching up with them and hearing about all of the exciting things happening in their lives. We've all been so busy this summer and most of our cabin trips fell on opposite weekends as theirs. Big bummer. They're moving to Austin, Texas this fall, so we're looking forward to seeing them as much as we can in the next few months!


Saturday we had a going away party for our brother-in-law, Nate. He was traded to the St. Louis Blues hockey team and had to leave on Sunday morning to attend their training camp. Brittani and the little girls will follow in a few weeks, so we don't have to say bye to them quite yet. Both our family and Nate's got together at Burch Steakhouse in Uptown to say goodbye to him. It was a beautiful day and Adam had just gotten done taking mock-boards that entire morning and afternoon. The food was amazing {I'm not a huge steak person...but his place knocked my socks off}. Most of us got either a filet or halibut. Good food and even better company. The evening winded down with a trip to Sebastian Joe's for ice cream and family pictures.We will miss you, Nate! We know you'll do great things.


Sunday was my mom's 50th birthday! I can't believe she's 50 and still gets mistaken as our third sister. I hope she decides to pass those genes down to me too! ;) Anyways, Sunday was a great day to celebrate her and how special she is to all of us. Our family met at Pinstripes in Edina and had their amazing brunch {which included a chocolate fondue fountain might I add..!}. When I first walked up to get food, I saw this delicious looking mac & cheese and chicken strips. I turned around to Adam beaming and said 'look!', thinking that this brunch was the best I'd ever seen. I didn't notice it initially, but a sign said 'Kid's Corner'. My tastes buds will never grow up. After brunch we rented a bocce ball lane and spent time playing a few games. Being that it was a Sunday, the other two bocce lanes were empty next to us. This ended up being a great place for Emeri to run around and stay entertained. After Pinstripes we went back to my parents house in Maple Grove and all walked through a few Parade of Homes houses. A great day it was.

The birthday girl and Emeri! 

Bocce ball and blankets :)

The gang (missing Nate)



xoxo,
Courtni

Thursday, September 4, 2014

One Year {8.17.13}

One year ago, I was frantically running around Adam's cabin like a madwoman doing last minute fixes and organizing. I wish that I could tell that girl to just breath. In their defense, multiple people did try to do that, but I don't think there's much one can say to calm a bride who feels unprepared. It's funny in a way, looking back and remembering what worries I was consumed by. What things I let stress me out. While I wasn't quite a bridezilla, I did get a little swept away in the bride vortex that blinds you to your own silly irrationalities. Did it really matter how the ribbon was glued on the galvanized pales? Did it really matter that our DJ wanted to meet one too many times to go over song choices? Of course it didn't and I'm forever grateful to the people who listened to my constant worries and put up with me. In retrospect, the only thing that should have caused a shred of worry would have been a cold-footed groom, but that couldn't have been further from the truth. Our wedding day was pure bliss and the year since has been amazing.

Marriage is absolutely everything it's cracked up to be. I mean it. A lot of that probably stems from the fact that we didn't live together prior to marriage, but a part of me feels like our relationship is just beginning. I knew Adam extremely well while we were dating, but I didn't know all of the little things. I didn't know how he would balance a wife and a demanding school schedule. I didn't know how we would find our balance with daily chores and responsibility. I didn't know how he would handle all of my half full glasses of water scattered around our night stand. I didn't know how relationships with friends would change. There were a million questions I had. One question I didn't have, though, was whether or not we would flourish as a couple. I knew quarrels would weave their way into our lives, but I didn't imagine how much laughter and light would completely overshadow them. I love our first home {apartment}. It's warm, comforting, familiar and we've filled it with so many memories. It was the best feeling going home on Sunday after our wedding. We were home. This was our place. We will keep it clean and buy groceries and make meals and hang pictures. Such trivial things in the grand scheme of life, yet beautifully simple. Over the past year we've hosted parties, opened gifts, spilled on the carpet, danced and babysat our niece. We've welcomed yet another niece, transitioned to the second half of dental school, vacationed, sold a car, survived dental boards and worked through unease I felt at my job. We've done life together better that I could have every hoped. Unwavering support and love is what I appreciate most from Adam. He knows when I need to be hugged, when I need him to listen and when I need some tough love. They say the first year is the hardest, and boy do I hope that's true, because that would mean we've been very blessed. I wouldn't trade this last year for the world and pray that the year to come is filled with even more love, grace, patience, laughter, forgiveness and passion. We're on an adventure of a lifetime and it's only getting sweeter.