Summertime Fun

We started out summer in true Dowd fashion - on the go every weekend :) But it has been a lot of fun. Once I got back from China I had a week off class and we had one of Tyler's friends come for a visit. We went to a Twins game and the rest of the time was boys weekend which included lots of golf.

The following week I started up summer school, Tyler and Don finished up work on our brand new deck and my parents came up from Indiana for a visit. The deck turned out wonderful and I am so happy we have it now. We picked out patio furniture which took longer to assemble then the deck and now we have plenty of room outside to sit as well. Loving it - it's been a very hot summer.

Then the next weekend we flew to Chicago for Dana's wedding in Bloomington, stopped at Purdue on our way and then to visit my brothers in Indianapolis. Two of them also came with us to Bloomington where we stayed the night Saturday, headed back to Chicago on Sunday and flew home Sunday night only to wake up and get to work and class the next day. Let's just say we were really tired but it was really great to see my family and some of my best friends.

Then the next weekend we were finally home, no visitors and no plans. Time to relax and reconnect! We decided to walk around the lakes, kayak at Lake Calhoun, get George outside, clean and just spend time together. It was a great weekend too.

Outside of that school has been good this semester, I really like both classes I'm in and I started a new job when I got back from China so that has also been good but learning a new job on top of everything else has been a little stressful. On the flip side I've been able to go to a lot of fun events (dinners, lunches, boat cruise, team events and award summits, vendor dinners, etc.) so here are a few of the highlights Aerosmith in concert

Dinner at Manny's downtown. They have literally the largest portions of dessert I have EVER seen in my life so if you like dessert (Brett & Dan) you should really go there even if it is just for a brownie or sundae (below). RIDICULOUS but delicious at the same time.

And over the past week we had a nice middle of the week Holiday where we were able to pick out a new washer and dryer (after ours broke) and visit our wonderful friends the Wortleys and their newest addition Alexander who is the sweetest little thing on earth :)

Thanks for reading my mid summer post, hope everyone is having a great summer!