Wedding Photo Album

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IT IS FINISHED.

This past weekend I successfully managed to catch up on our wedding photo album. This task for some reason was OVER THE TOP ridiculous for me to get finished. The photos came from a number of places: the two photographers who took legit pictures, the point & shoot I carried in my pocket, and a number of family and friend's camera, the picture quality varied.

I am THRILLED to be done with this book. Now to wait for a sweet sale and free shipping to get it ordered and in my hands to look through.

I LOVE shutterfly and creating photobooks.

Jingle Jungle Parade - Animal Kingdom

While at Walt Disney World I always love the rides and attractions, but I also love all of the live performances from the stage shows, to the performances of different kinds, to the parades (which really are a production in and of themselves). One of the parades we got to see while we were down at WDW (and potentially one of my favorite parades) is Mickey's Jungle Parade, which during the holiday season is transformed into "Mickey's Jingle Jungle Parade". It is much of the same as the Jungle Parade just with a holiday twist, all the floats are decked out in holiday paraphernalia, characters are in their holiday wear, Christmas music booms from the floats, and everything is covered in red and green.

One of the reasons I love this parade is, as you will note in several of the floats that come through, mostly the over sized animals are powered by people. The animals are hooked up to the people and they walk or bike them throughout the parade route. There are of course also the motor powered floats as well. Take a glimpse through some of my pictures from the parade (I am almost embarrassed to confess that this isn't even a fraction of my photos from the parade... ooops). ENJOY!

Do you like parades?

Do you have a favorite parade?

          I do always love the Macy's Day Parade and the Rose Bowl Parade

What are some of your favorite things at WDW?

Do you take a ton of pictures on vacation?

What do you do with all of your pictures?

October photo dump

Ahhhhh - Where has October gone?! I cannot believe it is time for October's photo dump and I have fallen off the blogging horse for several weeks (SORRY). Life has been nuts. However with this month's photo dump you will be caught back up pretty quickly:

Grandpa's 85th Birthday party
LOVE HIM

Some of the Thomson Women with Grandpa

Warrior Day of Service prep
300 Junior High & Senior High youth
doing service projects around our area on
an early out day

why wouldn't we let the baby play on the pool
table while we prepped Warrior Day of Service?!

Crocheted some cute hats for
my favorite twins

Warrior day of Service
Beautiful Choas

Trip to Minneapolis with my family

Dinner with my parents

A very entertaining evening with:
Brother, Husband, Dad, & Cousin
Oh. The. Stories.

Lobster grilled cheese with an egg on top
It was AMAZING!

Magic Bands Arrived

Winterizing Camp
This is what we call putting all our eggs in one basket
Dear Mice, STAY OUT of our new mattresses.

A beautiful fall day horse back riding with a member from church
I LOVE instagram (follow me: sathomson)

Gross rainy day 10K in Fargo
sorry about the blurry pic but it is all we got
NO MEDAL :( we got a hockey puck
How am I suppose to hang that on my wall?

Many a good walk and run at the Arb
BEAUTIFUL fall trees with berries

WE SOLD OUR HOUSE!
I was looking threw the abstract of title of the house
and this is the first entry. It was originally built in 1870
We live (until mid November) in a piece of history

One of the church ladies is afraid I will have cold toes this winter
so she made me a pair of slippers

My husband this morning
He is dressed as the dude from Texas Chainsaw Massacre
I did his makeup and was pretty proud of it

How was your October? 

Did I miss anything in your world?

Tell me something ridiculously random.

Nine: Pictures of you and your spouse/bestie

For the next few Tuesdays I am linking up with Lauren at Life. Love. Lauren and Tiffany at The Austin Family Diary for their Tuesday Topics. This week's topic is "Nine: Pictures of you and your spouse/bestie" While I am totally indecisive and have friends and family who mean the world to me, I have decided to go with nine pictures of some of my favorite people, I couldn't pick just one - plus I am not married (11 days and counting) yet, soooo I am altering the questions slightly. Soooo without further delay, please meet 9 very important (groups of) people in my world (listed in no particular order). I. AM. BLESSED.

My Parents: JT & KT
& I seriously can't forget Mickey & Minnie Mouse

BFF: Suz
Goofy - Seriously love all Disney Characters

My Fiance (only for another 11 days - till we get married)
My Sweet Puppy: Dakota 

More BFFs: Stacy, Linnea (who is now much bigger), Vicki
And of course the Minnesota Twins

This group of people is where the line between family & friends gets blurred
these people are as much family as those who I am blood related to
LOVE THEM

My St-End (as in the second half to Best Friend)
remember the necklaces that broke in half that you had when you were twelve
yeah, he gave me one & is definitely on the BFF list
And I cannot forget the Green Bay Packers

BFF: Molita (some call her Trish)
Seriously LOVE this girl - everyone needs to be BFFs with her

Seriously, I feel bad for everyone else in the world because
I have the world's best family

BFF: Hartj (nick name obviously, part of her maiden name)
most people call her Kate or Katie

This list just reminds me time and time again how blessed I am. I could have posted 12,000 pictures of people who I love and adore and can't fathom life without! I give thanks and praise for the people in my life!

All my bags are packed I am ready to go.....

What a wonderful vacation! Seriously.

I am on my way back home today.

I have missed my Marc and my Dakota, as well as all of my friends in Brainerd.

It will be good to be back in my own bed tonight (pending flights go as I hope they will).

Anticipate tons and tons of pictures in the days come.

TOMORROW RACE DAY

Tomorrow I shall earn the first half of my Coast to Coast medal. I AM SUPER EXCITED! I LOVE to runDisney! Seriously, if I could afford it (I have to fly to every race and stay in a hotel) I would run every runDisney race every year. I LOVE them sooooo much, they really are magical. Despite the fact that there are sooooooooo many people who run them. I love it.

Today is the fine balance of not eating anything that I will regret, not over working my legs, and not under working my legs, and getting to bed at a decent time [which seriously is the worst part for me because I am like a little child waiting for Santa to come and have the worst time falling asleep - however I do always wake up wired and ready to go]. Today I will get in a short run, I will enjoy California, and I will think through tomorrow's clothing choices and probably change my mind on what I will wear at least a hundred times. (Really I am debating between two tops and two bottoms - which feels like 10,000 options.)

I have said for years that I will earn my coast to coast medal and I am not certain that I ever actually thought would manage a way to earn the medal. But it is happening. 2013 is going to be the year.

One thing I need to decide before tomorrow - to stop and take pictures with characters along the way or not. Seriously this is a tough debate, we'll see how I am running before I totally decide. I am running with my camera (yes, this may seem ridiculous but I can't imagine not running with it) - not to mention is does fit in my belt so I can always throw it in there if I want/need to. Plus who doesn't want to take pictures as they are running. It distracts me (which around mile 8-9 is welcomed). I am certain you can bank on a slew of photos coming at some point. They will probably be very delayed since I am in southern California till the 28th, but when I return home it will be picture overload on here.

Disney 2011 Photobook

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I finally got around to finishing my vacation photobook from last December. Yes, it took me a year, partially because I forgot that I hadn't finished it yet. My friend Suzi and I always make a photobook of our trips together, so we have been working on this one together. It is such a great memory and I LOVE looking through previous photobooks, I thought I'd share this one with you. I can't wait to share my 366 in 2012 photobook! Seriously jazzed every time I update it and can't wait to order it - I am still a little impressed with myself that I have managed to take a photo every day this year (some are definitely better than others but still I am impressed with myself). 

Home again Home again Jiggity Jig

It is true that all good things must come to an end. We are coming off the boat (really I suppose I should call it a ship, it is enormous) today and heading back home. It is bittersweet to be leaving but I miss being at home too. I miss Marc, Dakota, my friends, and family. While on the one hand I loved being out of the country and not having and cell service because no one could call me or interrupt me or anything along that line, but at the same time, I missed being able to text people to call people and to have the connection with folks. I missed the kids I work with (yes even them I missed) on a weekly basis. I missed my sweet puppy who loves to snuggle (I hope she is exhausted and wants to snuggle lots when I get home.).

I am thankful that when we planned this vacation we planned it so we didn't instantly have to go into work tomorrow. I am thankful to have a day to do my laundry, clean my house, walk Dakota a ton, go for a run, rest, breathe, and then jump back into it. I am thankful for a couple days to sleep in, chill around my house, and then head back into work. I am thankful for my friend Vicki who has taken care of my sweet puppy while I was on vacation. I am thankful for Marc who is checking my house while I am gone and picking up my mail. I am thankful for a congregation who believes in vacation time for their staff.

I am thankful that God calls us to rest. I am thankful that I had the chance to run, play, read, crochet, eat, sleep, and have a marvelous time on vacation. I'm sure in the next few days you will be seeing tons of vacation photos uploaded on here. I took hundreds of pictures. I am excited to look at them and share them with you.

What is your favorite part of vacation?
Where did you go on your favorite vacation?
What from home do you always miss while on vacation?

Long time no blog

Excitement in my world right now:

• I am actually getting somewhere with remodeling the kitchen - the countertops are off and I think I have the sheet rocking done, now to finish taping and mudding and get it all sanded down and what not so I can paint and get the new countertops back into my kitchen (LONG OVERDUE)
• There is a high likelihood that I will get to play a role in helping to run a camp in the area (more on this when it becomes official)
• Dakota is amazing as always
• Work life is coming along fabulously - now I just need to nail down all the little details about the trips & summer ministries for the summer and I'll be good to go
• My brother's dog is moving in with me this weekend (excitement... not certain it is good, but his dog is CRAZY so I am certain you all will hear about the crazy dog, who I have grown to love)
• I bought a KAYAK!!! SUPER excited about this. It is a wilderness systems pungo 120 and it is lime green.
• This weekend I get to see lots of friends in Fargo as we all run various races Friday/Saturday - I am running the half marathon which I feel quite unprepared for but... it is what it is...
• I have a to-do list that feels like it is about 7,000 miles long that is slowly but surely getting chipped away at
• I have tried a ton of new crochet patterns lately and am loving them
• I realized this week that I have successfully taken a picture every day this year so far, I am compiling them into a shutterfly album and am loving it, I update it about once a week, so it doesn't become too overwhelming and I don't have to try to figure out what pictures are from what
• I'M NOT MOVING! - okay, if you know me this is very exciting as it is the first year since high school that I haven't had to move every year - I am jazzed about this
• Sunday nights are becoming a beautiful tradition between a group of friends and I and we are constantly getting new people: we pack up our canoes, kayaks, dogs, whatever else we want and head to a camp here in town and spend the day playing - currently we all bring our own dinner but we are moving to pot lucking it every week - the photo below is from last night

Dakota and Luther swimming in Whipple Lake

366 pictures in 2012

At the beginning of 2012 (which really doesn't seem all that long ago, but in reality is months away, time is one of those things that boggles my mind) I challenged myself to take at least one picture a day and put them into a shutterfly book (I LOVE SHUTTERFLY). I am absolutely loving this challenge. This could by far be my most favorite challenge I set for myself in 2012. I love taking pictures, editing them, and making shutterfly books! I am realizing that I am going to have to make another 2012 book to contain more of the pictures in more of a traditional photobook type format. I have taken way more photos this year than I did at this point in 2011, which was part of the goal. Part of the challenge is what to take pictures on days that I would consider 'normal' and nothing 'extra-ordinary.' Sure I have gotten lots of pictures of my sweet Dakota, which I am totally okay with, and I have some funny pictures of things like my messy desk or some new recipe I tried. The other challenge is what to choose as my picture of the day, some days it seems like I take a ton of pictures and have a hard time deciding what exactly to claim as my picture of the day. I LOVE this project. I am not yet committing to doing it another year but so far this has been amazingly fun and even better I have made it to April without missing a single picture! Which I was 99% certain by now one of two things would have happened, either I would have missed a few days or I would have given up or forgotten about this project and neither have happened.

Dakota and her BFF Luther carrying a stick together

a month in pictures

I successfully took an entire month of pictures. Several pictures of my sweet puppy and lots of pictures of the world around me. I am excited to have made it a full month, I wasn't sure I'd even make it a month. Here's to month two!!!! I am loving the challenge!