red bull flugtag / birthday celebration

today we went to the red bull flugtag in st. paul. it was a perfect day for it. me, ben, kristen, maggie, wes, bert, and beki all attended the festivities at harriet island. most of the entries went straight down into the water, but one flew far—far enough to set a world record!

[lots of creativity and showmanship. and yes, those men were wearing speedos.]

 [wes was sporting a sharp new haircut, and beki reacted to a particularly painful-looking nosedive.]

we took advantage of the opportunity to celebrate beki's birthday (monday) by going to snuffy's afterward for burgers and shakes.

at dinner, beki asked us each to say our favorite part of the flugtag. my favorite part was getting out of the house to do something random, fun, and summery—especially with such great family and friends. what a blast!

clamshell recap

whew, what a great vacation! we got back today from a long week up at the lakes. we spent last saturday and sunday with ben's parents up at lobster lake, and then traveled to the pequot lakes area to spend sunday to sunday with my family and another family we've vacationed with for years.

we had nice weather. the few rainy days were fine by me, because i had plenty of sun! the week was filled with reading, water sports, delicious meals, a little golf, and (one of my favorite parts) coffee after dinner. even better, it was a blessing that each of us was able to stay the entire week. in the past, some have had to leave early for one reason or another. it was fabulous to spend the time together. my sister-in-law, lauren, is about eight months pregnant and as cute as a button! our friend marianne and her husband are also expecting, so there were two moms-to-be in the group!

here come the pictures. did i mention the food?

oh yeah, and many games of tetherball. a few of us were sporting some serious bruises midweek.

but of course, i was super interested in practicing with the camera. i had many willing participants who let me snap many obnoxious photos. if you look closely at ben's lens in this photo, you can see how i spent a good portion of the trip.

there was practice on inanimate objects, too.

but like i said, some of the best times were on the boat. ben made us laugh really hard on those trick skis!

it was good to come home (especially because our trimmers installed casing, base, and doors while we were gone!). it will also be nice to get back into the weekly routine. still, i can't wait to go back next year, Lord willing!

a kiss to send us off

things will be quiet around here [the blog] for at least a week while ben and i travel up north for a relaxing week of...nothing. my coworkers asked me what books i planned to take along to the lake and i was embarrassed to admit i hadn't even thought about it. that's not like me at all. no time these days!

i thought i'd leave you with a few shots of our painted bedroom, which happened with the help and support of wes and maggie. pretty boring color—the color of drywall, actually—but i like its simplicity. it is revere pewter by benjamin moore, mixed at sherwin williams (of course!). we branched out and used satin instead of our usual flat. i know, i know, we're crazy!

ben's making a frozen pizza, then we're off to finalize carpet and buy some door knobs. out!

hex tiles on the floor

it was brought to my attention that no pictures were posted of the installed main floor tiles. here they are!

we are really happy with the final outcome of all the tile installed. the look is very clean and simple, perhaps even a little vintage. a lot of white with a little gray. i'm partial to solids, but the tile selections give the floor a bit of a pattern and definitely up the interest factor in a way that isn't trendy.

a few things: 1) these hex tiles were very affordable, which is good because we needed like 100 square feet. 2) however, the tiler said they were incredibly difficult to install. (and he knew what he was doing—he was a pro and did a great job all around.) the hex tiles came mounted on a 12" x 12" mesh backing but the tiles themselves were super thin. they slid around a bit when he was installing them, which is made obvious by a wider grout line in a few areas. oh well. i'm not worried about it.

oh yeah—we decided to go with corian countertops for the vanity (and it has nothing to do with the fact that someone from dupont posted a comment here the other day). like i said, i'm picky about speckles, and as beautiful as the quartz was, it competed with the marble tile and the "patterned" floor and didn't match as nicely as i'd like. conveniently, when we had our white corian countertops made for the kitchen, they cut out a large hole for our drop-in sink and gave us the extra material. well, i plopped the cutout on top of the vanity to see how it would look and it was love at first sight. (see above.) clean white. love it. (also, a phone call inquiry revealed that the high corian estimate we had received was due to the fact that two integrated sinks would cost almost $500. ouch. so we reworked the plan to include undermount sinks instead, which brought the cost down considerably. so lesson learned: ask!)

i've met with a few vendors to get bids for glass shower enclosures. we bought faucets and a toilet. looking at carpet tomorrow, still need mirrors and light fixtures. we've painted the closet, finished painting the trim, and will paint the bedroom tomorrow night. oh yeah, we need a closet system! we'll be out of town next week, and while we're gone, the trim and doors will be installed. as weird as it sounds, coming home from vacation will be fun because we'll see progress made while we were gone!

mitchell, sd

hello! did you have today off from work? we did. it's been a great weekend! we spent part of it in mitchell, sd. one of ben's high school friends, pete, was married in hawaii a few weeks ago and was having a reception mitchell. we had lots of car time (almost ten hours) and were eager to try the camera, but the subjects were limited.

we ate taco john's not once, but twice!

but things changed when we got to our destination, which is also home to the world's largest corn palace! yahoo!

the reception was on saturday night. we went over to pete's uncle's home again on sunday for a day on the lake. it was so much fun! they had these things called aqua scooters. they are kind of like the rocketeer in water. the guys also rode on segways, but i didn't get any shots of them. on the boat, pete, ben, me, and stephanie each tried wakesurfing. before long, it was time to hit the road. all in all, it was a fabulous day and a really great weekend with ben and friends.