Tristan and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary right after Christmas.  I still can’t believe that it’s been that long!  We were super young when we got married – I was 19 and he was 21, but it was definitely the right time for us.

We got married December 27th, 2001, and then went to London for our honeymoon.  We were both so excited to go (neither of us had been), and it was such a fun trip!  We froze our tails off in the December/January weather, but we have desperately wanted to go back ever since.  We had planned to take a second trip to England for our 1st anniversary in 2002, but when it came around, we had a mortgage and baby #1 (Gavin) on the way.

We waited a couple more years and decided to try the London revisit for our 5th anniversary.  Our plans were changed when I had to quit my full-time job because of a bad work situation and we also found out that baby #3 (Gemma) was on the way.

After a couple more years, we decided to try the trip for our 10th anniversary in 2011 (which, at the time, seemed SO far off in the distance!).  We talked and planned over the past few years, hoping that it would finally work out (but I don’t know if either of us actually thought it would ever happen.).  But guess what?  We ARE going to London!!  We leave in 2 weeks (deep breath), and we are SO freakin’ excited!  The kids will be staying here with my parents, and Tristan and I will finally get to go back to London:)

Oh, and we also decided while we are there, to take a short train ride to a little city in France….Paris.  Yup, we will get to spend half the time in London, and half the time in PARIS!!

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeep!!!  No words.  There are no words.

As I mentioned on Friday, I took a little trip this past weekend to a small town in north eastern Colorado called Holyoke.  It was a blast.  My friend, Kaylee, and I went out to visit some dear friends of ours who moved there 5 months ago.  Unfortunately, we were only able to stay for 24 hours this trip and came back Saturday night but our time spent there was so fantastic and was a much needed break for me.

Routing our SUPER easy drive before hitting the road.

Can’t begin a road trip without Starbucks.  It’s a rule.

Our sweet hostess, Stef, made us both feel SO welcome in their home with baskets on our beds for “midnight snacks” in the form of trail mix, “in case your feet get cold” socks, “quench” root beer and other yummy things.

Hey, there’s me.

Wrex (Stef’s hubby) is the greatest and ALWAYS sends me home with the coolest things that he finds around their property or while working.  This time I made out with an animal skull and a killer piece of wood off one of their trees.  Unfortunately, the amazing box of old collected soaps is not mine, but they did let me take a long look at all the pretty wrappers.

Hanging with Stef, Wrex, & sweet baby Sawyer.

Much to all of our dismay, the vintage store in town was closed because of the farm and home show (sad day – and small town goodness, huh? …farm show) but we were able to visit the cutest little book store.  Next time, Wrexy, next time.

Yeah, I’m pretty much the chicken whisperer.  Just sayin.

Can you guess which shoes are mine?

Uh yeah…this happened.  As shocking as it may be to all of you, I had never – before Saturday – shot a real gun in my life.  I’ve shot BB guns and things of that nature, but never real bullets.  It was FUN.  The photographed target was my very first one – I did much better on the second target.  Four shots in the red people.  Four.  I’m signing up for the next season of Top Shot, I tell ya.  I think my favorite things to shoot with the .22 were the .12 gauge shotgun shells after that sucker jacked my shoulder up.  I definitely wasn’t expecting the kick after playing around with the .22 – but I gotta be honest, I felt pretty cool.  I mean…because I am.

I threw together a short video of our trip today at lunch.  It’s mostly just a driving video, but shows a little bit of Stef and Wrex’s property and the fun we had.  Thanks Stef and Wrex for hosting us and showing us such a fun time!  I can’t wait to get back out there and spend more than 24 hours!

{music by sigur rós}

The sunset on the drive home was super beautiful and also super bright.  And you better believe we jammed some Churchill on this trip.  Such a good weekend…

I’m heading 3 hours out of town right now as I type; going to visit some friends in Holyoke, CO. Never heard of it? I hadn’t until my friends moved there either. I am SO excited! This trip will just be one day, but I can’t wait to see my dear friends and spend a little time in their gorgeous home.

Hopefully on our short trip I will get some good photos to share.

And if you haven’t entered our giveaway yet – go now and do it…it ends this Sunday night and we will announce the winner on Monday!

Happiest weekend friends!

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about a trip I took to Taiwan in the beginning of 2010.  It could be because I constantly find myself wearing clothes I bought there (amazing shopping btw), or because my new tattoo idea stemmed from my thinking about that trip (as far as the scriptures go).  My time there was life-changing & it will forever be one of my favorite places for many reasons.

I went to Taiwan with my sister and brother-in-law to lead worship for a conference.  We were able to spend a little over a week there before heading over to Japan and I have decided that I MUST get back someday…hopefully sooner than later.  My sister and I have even tried convincing our family to go there for a family vacation (I’m still pulling for that).  Since it has been on my mind so much, I thought I would share a few of my favorite photos – enjoy!

The area that we were in – Ximending, Taipei – is a center for a very large population of young people.  It is amazing.

Scooters.

Every 7-Eleven should have food like this.  I don’t know that I would try it, but they should.

The Starbucks was less than a block from our hotel – lucky me.

View from Taipei 101 – now the second tallest building in the world after the Burj Khalifa was built in Dubai.

Hey, there’s me.

Throwing down some tunes outside for a group of people in Ximending.

By far my absolute favorite photo of my nephew.

Have a gorgeous weekend!

Hello lovelies!  This week is about to take me out and it’s not even halfway over (I’m including the upcoming Saturday and Sunday in this as well).  In the current 7 day span, Friday is the only evening I am not going to meetings, birthday parties, practices, and more meetings.  I even had something scheduled for Friday and thank goodness it was cancelled because I’m pretty sure I will be sleeping the second I walk into my house after work.

I only have 2 hours left of work today (yes!) and then have to head over to my church where I am a youth leader and we are also having our family celebration for my brother’s birthday tonight as well when I am done with that.  Phew…busy day!

What better way to relax a little and have some fun then show you my most recent Instagr.ams?

New watches. ♥

Airport reading on my way to South Dakota.  My new barista-given name, Stromy.

In SD, we stayed in an older woman’s house – she had tons of great vintage things.  The pheasant was my morning view from the couch.

Wedding fun.

The nephew winning a medal for his flag football team – so cute!

Beyond excited for the Walking Dead premiere!  I need to renew my Nylon subscription!!

Fun thrifting finds – The car was not for sale.

Signs of Fall from my bedroom window. ♥

Happy Jump Day loves!

I know you have all be anxiously awaiting more photos from the wedding I was in last weekend.  My cousin, Elise, got married!  Unfortunately, there was so much work going on, I didn’t get a ton of photos – specifically since I was in the wedding and had to get photos taken OF me instead of the other way around.  Here is what I did manage to get (and also a few by Bre who I roped into photographing some of the ceremony for me):

The venue was absolutely gorgeous and we had perfect weather.

Love the ‘gift truck’….so cute – and I wanted to bring it home!

Pretty wildflowers.

Pretty bride.

So many phone calls for the bride.

Pretty tattoo and pretty bridesmaids.

Awwwwwww….

My cousin, Ross, and I strutting our stuff.

Father and daughter – so gorgeous.

Party time!

I didn’t write this note – but I agree fully with what it says.

The cousins…sort of the coolest South Dakotians I know.  There was a better photo of Ross and I – but it just wouldn’t be the same unless I posted his standard “I’m going to mess this photo up” face.

Congrats Matt and Elise!  Make up the spare bedroom…I’m coming back to visit next week!  That’s okay…..right??

Today is Friday for me and thank goodness, because I don’t think I can take much more.  The past week or so has been CRAZY and I am in desperate need of a vacation.  My sweet cousin, Elise – my dearest La Prima, is leaving me in singlehood dust and getting married on Saturday!  I will admit I am just the teeniest bit jealous…not of the guy of course, because that would be creepy – no offense Matt.  But I am honored to stand in her wedding and it will be so good to see family.  I think things will be crazy there too, like any wedding is – but it will be really great to get away from work for awhile, at least for the weekend and I can barely contain my excitement about seeing my La Prima again, after almost a year.  That’s too long Elise, you hear me almost-married-lady?

The above two photos could be twins.

Isn’t she the loveliest?  So full of joy at all times – she makes me happy.  Can’t wait to see you in a few hours Elise!

I am heading to the airport in an hour…love the airport – so excited to fly on the 16 passenger puddle jumper, truly – I am going to thoroughly enjoy it.

Happy Wednesday loves!

Hey guys!  This week has been very full, and very fun!  We didn’t get to go out of town on vacation this year, so it was good to have a week of fun here in the Denver area.  My in-laws came into town for the week (from Indiana), so we had lots of yummy meals, a trip to the mountains, and lots of Starbucks:)

Monday – Tristan’s parents arrived in the afternoon, and we spent time visiting and then made dinner – baked potato soup (made by me), bread sticks & caesar salad (made by Tristan).  SOOOO yummy – I really want one of those bread sticks right now!

On Tuesday we took a trip to Target where Grandma & Papa graciously let the kids pick out toys and got us all a Starbucks treat of our choice – Gemma and Guini picked cake pops, coffee cake for Gavin, an iced Caramel Macchiato for me, and a smoothie for Tristan.  I love family Starbucks days:)

Tuesday was also our 10-year-proposal-anniversary (read about it here), so Grandma and Papa let the kids spend the night at their hotel with them, and Tristan and I went to Village Inn for a dessert date.  We used to hang out at VI or Denny’s quite a bit when we were dating, so it was fun to revisit:)  Sorry about the blurry picture – I didn’t notice that it was like that in the dim lighting…why is it always so dim in there?

On Wednesday, we headed up the mountains.  We decided to go to Nederland, CO which is a little mountain town about an hour from our house.  I love living close to the mountains, but we hardly ever take advantage of that fact.  It was a perfect day to go – 73 degrees and overcast – gorgeous.  We had a picnic, walked down the reservoir a little ways, and got to ride on the Carousel of Happiness.  SO pretty!  After that we went to Buffalo Bill’s Coffee and got treats for everyone.  It was such a cute place – it’s inside old renovated train cars.  The coffee was good, and I loved the little map-printed cups:)

Later that night, I made a peach/nectarine pie (I didn’t get a photo, so I had to steal Stormie’s because she came over to use our computer that night).  It was good, and is now all gone:)

On Thursday night, we got to go to the Rockies game in Denver.  I love Coors Field – it’s so beautiful, and has THE most gorgeous view.  I am a little embarrassed to say that I haven’t been to a baseball game in over 10 years….we just aren’t really into sports, but it was still good to go and pretend that we were:)

To end the week, we went to the Mile High Flea Market (one of my favorite places).  It was kind of a bust though – not too many sellers, and a lot of the businesses seemed to be shut down for the day.  I didn’t end up buying anything, but the kids sure did have fun riding the motorcycle ride.  Later for dinner, Tristan decided to make his famous alfredo sauce, so that pretty much made up for all bad things…ever:)

Grandma and Papa left yesterday, and we were sad to see them go – it was a great week.  Now it is time to get ready for school – mixed feelings on that one:)

Love,

Stephanie May*

I only spent about 3-4 hours total in Chicago on the way to and from the airport, and the rest of my weekend was spent in Hobart, IN with my family.  Chicago was lovely…wish I could have spent more time there, but seeing the whole family was well worth not being there as long as I would like.  I had to go back to work today, but the rest of the fam will be there until Wednesday so they will be spending some time in the city.  Things I did get to do and see there:

So so delicious.

Lots of traffic.

Hanging out in the hotel…my sweet Grandma was amazed at my digital camera(she is still a 35-mm gal) and took this pic of me

It was a really fast, really fun trip…and now I’m trying to keep myself awake since I’ve wanted to fall asleep since 4pm today.  Time to snooze soon….

Love!

Stormie Dae

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This is not just my dream car…it is my dreamy car.  And isn’t it just?!

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I’m convinced the reason she looks completely content with life is because of the car. {Source}

I’m not really particular on the color, I think they’re all pretty amazing.  I just desperately long for one.  Someday….someday….

This one is for sale near my house…if only. {Source}

*Sigh*

Some days are just for dreaming of cars.

♥ Stormie Dae