Soundset.

Soundset is our favorite annual music festival put on by Rhymesayers Entertainment at Canterbury Park.  They put together an awesome set list of underground hip hop artists, many of them local talent.  It's 8+ hours of awesome music, outdoors, in good ole Minnesota.  And, bonus, there's a car show, B-Boy/Girl competition and more.  Plus, excellent company.  We went with Rhya and Danny and met up with some deployment pals and even Angie for a while.

We got there with a little time to spare before one of our favorites, Prof, took the stage.  We love his music and he puts on a great show.  Rhya and Danny were hooked after seeing him perform.  Trevor had been emailing Prof and his booking agent during his latest deployment because Prof really wanted to come perform for them.  Unfortunately, it takes a lot of planning and, quite frankly, time to make that happen so it didn't work out.  But, Prof sure remembered Trevor when they met!

Prof and DJ Fundo

There were new performers every half-hour, so we got to see so much good music.  It was a hot day (my least favorite kind of day) but I survived thanks to the good entertainment and company.  And some really awesome, refreshing lemonade.

Grieves and Budo

Oh yeah, Trevor met them, too.

Mackelmore and Ryan Lewis were one of my two new favorites.  Loved the music, loved the show and loved the shirt.  I think it's awesome when people with any kind of power (celebrities, politicians, musicians, anyone) use that power for good-like his shirt.  No subtlety there and I loved it.  My other new favorite was Danny Brown.  He had an awesome sound and even more awesome hair.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of him-I must have been too busy enjoying the show.

Aesop Rock with Rob Sonic and DJ Big Wiz.

Lupe Fiasco

There were many other awesome performers there, too, like I Self Devine, Big K.R.I.T., P.O.S., Ghostface Killah & Raekwon (of the Wu-Tang Clan), Evidence and more.  SO.MUCH.AWESOME.MUSIC.

...until Lupe Fiasco was almost done...and they made an announcement about the weather.  Trevor and I had gone down to get food quickly before Atmosphere's set when they stopped the show to briefly update us on the weather.  We could see dark clouds but were just expecting rain.  

The announcement gave us a heads up to a severe weather warning involving very strong winds, rain and hail.  Briefly, the intention was that the show would go on, but it wasn't long before everyone was headed outta there and they were closing up shop.  Rhya was sitting with our stuff (including my phone) so we waited for her to come our way.  When she didn't we started going back to our spot to find her, but she wasn't there.  Then the sirens started.  I convinced Trevor Rhya was probably at the car so we sprinted...in rain and hail and tornado sirens...to the car.  We found Rhya huddled under our towels by the car, not realizing she had the keys to get inside.  Not the ending we wanted, we didn't even get to see Atmosphere's performance, but it was still an awesome day with some awesome people.  We'll definitely be going back next year!

As for the rest of our Memorial Day weekend, it was pretty quiet, just what we needed!  Thursday evening we went to Jamie and Adam's for dinner with them and the boys.  Friday night Trevor and I went to see Men in Black 3 in 3D (yes, it was good!).  Saturday and Monday were both lazy days with a little homework for Trevor and a walk for all of us.  Monday night I went to see The Lucky One (a bit disappointed with it) with Cassie.  Pretty great weekend, really!  Hard to believe a year ago this past weekend we were at a send-off ceremony just starting all this deployment stuff.  Hope you all enjoyed your long weekend, and remembered the reason for it, with your loved ones!

-A

5 weeks

Not much to update this week, and I guess it hasn't even been a week since my last post anyway.  My symptoms are very slowly increasing and pretty different from last time.  I'm starting to get tired every afternoon (ok, that's about the only part that isn't different) and I take a nap on my days off work.  I get teary-eyed really easily.  I've started to feel just a tiny bit nauseous around bedtime and have had some really mild heartburn a couple times.  Very unlike last time, it takes a lot for me to feel full.  I just want to keep eating!  The biggest thing about all of this so far is just that it's really hard not to tell people!  

Apparently this baby is about the size of a small pea now and growing quickly.  Even though there's no baby bump yet (and probably won't be for quite a while), here's the 5 week photo.  Yes, there is a bump, but that's just a whole lot of bloating!

  

Oh, one more thing.  Those of you who have been pregnant (more specifically, those of you who have tried to get pregnant) are probably familiar with desperately searching for that second line on the pregnancy test.  Although I thought there was no way possible I'd get pregnant this cycle, I still got the positive pretty darn early.  Luckily, it doesn't matter and a line is a line, no matter how faint!  This was the first test I took last week.

And, just for fun, I took a different (and less sensitive) test yesterday.

That's all for now!

-A

Weekend of Celebrations.

Wow!  What a busy weekend!

I suppose the weekend started Thursday-Trevor and I went up to Jon and Moe's for their groom's dinner.  Trevor hadn't seen anyone from that group of friends yet, so the timing worked out well.  We had a good time and got to visit with lots of friends and stuff our bellies with some delicious food.  Trevor spent the night because he and Jon had an early tee time Friday morning to get 9 holes in before Jon had to get his wedding on.

After golf, I picked Trevor up and we ran some errands, grabbed lunch and went to our hotel to get ready.

 Best Man & Maid of Honor.

  It's go time!

 Blurry, but cute :)

 Time to party!

After the ceremony, we went to the Varsity for the reception.  

  
It was a very cool venue, they had an awesome band and delicious food, not to mention a great assortment of hosted beverages.  We grabbed a small booth with John and Mari and waited for the festivities to begin.

 A smooch after persistent glass clanking.

Father of the Bride speech.

Best Man speech.

Maid of Honor speech that made all us ladies get teary-eyed.

Bathroom break group photo.

 The Newlyweds!

Quite the set up.

Not only do these guys throw a good party, they're known for their Rockband abilities.  So, naturally, they got up on stage to perform.

Awesome people, awesome celebration. Congrats, you two!

*******

Saturday morning we woke up and headed back home to get ready for our own big bash-the welcome home party!  We had done most of the cleaning already, but hadn't gotten to grocery shopping, getting the keg, or any set up with all our running around.  As soon as we got to town it was time to get to work!  Luckily no one showed up right on time, so we had an extra hour or so to get the food ready.  We had a great turn out of friends and family-and many people brought treats to share, too!  The weather was great and the people just kept coming, we couldn't have asked for a better day!  The party didn't end until about 4am.  Needless to say, we were all pretty worthless on Sunday, and I was pretty glad I had taken today off work.

Rhya and Danny hadn't seen Trevor until the party.

Ping pong was the game of the day.

Guess which one of us just got back from Mexico...

Ashley made friends with Elliot-he's usually fairly shy.

 We had a bubble party.

Logan was a ping pong rock star.

Layne kept finding Alan.

Nick doesn't mess around with his hugs.

Many years ago, Trevor started the tradition of sharing a very special beer with friends when he and/or they returned from a deployment.  Mike, Brian and Michelle deployed with him this time so they all shared it.  Michelle was a trooper since she doesn't like beer and this was some strong stuff.  PS-my BFF and husband are not allowed to deploy together anymore.  Not cool.

And.... we weren't expecting this, but a few people even brought gifts!

Rhya wrapped their gift with the ribbon she had around her tree.

Pretty cool, huh?  It has John 15:13 on it: Greater love hath no math than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Speaking of pretty cool...my dad had our newspaper photo framed.

I wish I had more pictures, but we were too busy mingling and having fun, so this will have to be enough!  A big thank you to everyone who came to party and to those of you who brought goodies to share.  We have been so blessed to have such awesome friends and family in our lives and we look forward to seeing you all much more over the summer!

-A