The girl who said she would never get married just got engaged. It did take until I was 28 in an almost 7-year relationship, but whatev. So here is the story:

This Saturday we went to Walnut Woods to take photos, however we got there and Walnut Woods was pretty brown and dead, not very pretty. It was still a beautiful day and very peaceful. After a while Nick went back to the car to “get another lens”, but he came back with a large gift bag. He said it was because I’ve had a shitty couple of weeks and he wanted to do something nice. After unwrapping boxes within boxes I finally got to this adorable Coach Art Op Wristlet (love it). Then he said there was a note inside, which said “will you marry me” and then gave me the most amazing ring ever, so me. Then it finally dawned on me…handbag/proposal…back in the day I joked with Nick saying my perfect engagement would be a great bag and a ring and he remembered! (With apparently some help from my friend Kari).

The rest of the weekend was a whirlwind, we went to Grandma’s house, mom was there, who called Jan and then Jen showed up. After that we headed to Deb’s and had dinner with her and Bruce. Sunday we did some errands and did brunch with Jen and Ella.

So there it is, I was completely surprised and totally happy! Sort of wished I didn’t look like a hobo that day, but I barack’d it.

The rest of the photos.

The Next Step:
More details to come (website is in the making), but we are thinking Spring 2010, London. And everyone is invited, for those who can’t make London a reception here in Des Moines afterwards.

This was a pretty big weekend in the life of Nicole, I split it up into two articles.

This Friday night Mom and I went out to dinner and to the show “Rain: The Beatles experience” (Thank you to Tim & Tony). The show/concert was amazing! Fun and energetic. The crowd was super in it and the music was awesome. There were about 3-4 songs I could of done without, just not my favorite Beatles songs. The crowd was mostly 40-60 range, but there were a lot of kids under the age 15, which I think is great. There were also a lot of people in costume since it was Halloween so that was fun.

Mom took me back to my car around 10:30 through Court Ave, which was nuts and full of costumes, including Papa Smurf and the rest of the smurfs, of course there were the “sexy”-everything costumes. Mom let them know they were “hos” by rolling down the car window yelling at them. Haha. Awesome.

It was a fun night.

However, I do have some sad news, our election party has been cancelled. It was something we were kicking around. We never sent out invites…so if you didn’t know, it wasn’t because you weren’t invited, we couldn’t get our act together even for a small party, go figure. Maybe in four years we’ll be more awesome about parties.

Nick’s mom turned 50 two weeks ago and she wanted to take the family to Chicago and do the whole touristy thing. I was super excited love Chicago and I have never done the touristy things (other than Shedd).

Thursday
Meet the fam at Deb’s house. Lexie rode with us, while Evan, Deb and Bruce in his car. We got to Aurora around 2pm, where Kari had pizza for us. She so kindly offered to take us into the city so we wouldn’t have to pay parking. All seven of us with luggage got into her Sequoia and headed downtown. We stayed at the Silversmith hotel on Wasbash on Jewelers Row, which was a perfect location and the service was great. We got two suites next to each other, which worked out perfectly. That night all of us except Bruce and Nick went and saw Wicked. Love it, even the second time. The theater was crazy cold though and we were shushed in like sardines. The show ended around 10pm, we were starving, so we hit up Subway, where Lex and I jammed out to Cher on the Subway radio.

Friday
Early start to hit up Dunkin Donuts/Starbucks, I don’t get the hype on Dunkin Donuts, they were just ok. Anywho, jumped over to Millennium Park to see “the bean”, first time I’ve ever seen it. Then saw this awesome video art fountain. Moving on to Grant Park and Buckingham Fountain (photo op!). We ended up at Shedd Aquarium. Oddly enough we finally ended the Great Height Debate, Nick is actually 5’8 and I’m 5’7. Which blew me away considering I tell everyone I’m 5’5. Saw some penguins, whales, dolphins and an awesome Komodo Dragon. Afterwards we headed next door to the Field Museum. Love it except for the creepy dead animals they had everywhere. It was just kind of weird. However, they did have Sue the largest, most complete dinosaur skeleton. They had a fantastic Egyptian exhibit, recreation of a tomb and full of mummies. For dinner was pizza at Pizanos, which was full of drama with an extremely drunk girl causing commotion because they refused to serve her. Pizza was good, but I still love Giordanos.

Saturday
Headed to Navy Pier for the Architecture tour, which was so cool. Then to Magnificent Mile which was nuts and full of people, stopped by Tiffany’s for some ring shopping and browsing. Lexie got a sweet necklace for her birthday. We headed back to our hotel, split up, some of us did some more shopping and then met back up for a amazing dinner at the Brazilian restaurant, Brazzaz. It is sort of “all-you-can-eat” deal. It had this awesome salad bar, with cheeses, risotto, variety of fish, sushi, vegetables, etc. Then men with huge skewers of different meats (shrimp, top and bottom sirloin, lamb, pork tenderloins, ribs, etc.) come around a give you as much as you like. The service was phenomenal. Also something interesting is they keep bringing you fried bananas and mashed potatoes. I don’t know why. It was super great and hope I can go back again.

Sunday
I decided since we have more bags (from shopping) that Lexie and I would ride the train to Aurora and it would be a more comfortable ride for everyone. The train was good, other than we got off at the wrong station (miscommunication), but it actually worked out fine. We did some more shopping at the Premium outlet and then headed back home.

Had a great time! Took about 400 photos and only bought one handbag, I rock.

The Pictures.

Last Friday we packed up again, but this time headed north for Josh & Jolene’s wedding in Morgan/Morton Minnesota. About to Mason City, Nick cries out “I think I forgot all my shoes”. The minute he said it I had a clear picture in my mind of his shoes right by the front door. Yep, he forgot three pairs of shoes. To most men this would be no big deal, to Nick it was devastating. He was only wearing brown flip-flops, not good for a wedding or going out. I tried to calm him down and offered that Mason City has a Target and we are running on time let’s just check it out. So we detoured to Mason City where we found a Kohls and a pair of shoes he liked (which he also did not try on, this is important later on). I’m convinced that God made Nick forget his shoes because I found the perfect matching necklace to my dress and two pairs of cute shoes for $30!

Back on the road, drove through a lot of country towns and got to Morton (Jackpot Junction, reception site) at 1:40. We quickly unpacked/got ready and headed to Morgan for the 3pm wedding. The wedding was very nice, Derek, Jeff and Nathan were groomsmen. Afterwards we hit The Ditch (liquor store outside of Jackpot Juction) for some pre-reception drinks…not a good idea. Led to some very awful dancing from yours truly. Then we headed to the reception for the cocktail hour, free drinks until 6. Of course we took advantage of this. I was pretty much hammered by the time dinner is served and then came some cigar smoking and dancing. At some point I royally fucked up my knee, but it was worth it. And after two hours of wearing his new shoes, Nick developed awful blisters. Around midnight I passed out, Nick partied some more.

Next morning had a pretty good breakfast at the Casino’s restaurant, headed back on the road for 2 hours to Minneapolis. Last time I stayed in Minneapolis I was 12(?). I was looking forward to really experiencing it this time. Well, the plan was to go to the art festival, dinner and the bars but by the time we got to our awesome hotel (with awesome view) I crashed for three hours. We never made to the art festival instead we did pre-dinner drinking and walked to dinner (Nick had to trade shoes with everyone because of the blister issue) We ate dinner at yummy Japanese/Sushi joint called Nami (which oddly enough doesn’t allow guns?!). I ordered Chicken Teriyaki and Tempura. However, my “chicken” tempura actually was shrimp and I didn’t realize until I took my first bite (less than 1/4″ big) I remember trying to understand in my mind why my chicken had a tail…then sheer panic…I’m allergic to shellfish. I’ve never had a piece of shrimp before so I didn’t know what my reaction would be. With regular fish I just get very stomach sick and that is apparently what happens with shellfish also. So after dinner we headed to Drink, which is way cooler here than in Des Moines. I immediately vomited my dinner, had a shot and danced the whole night with a bum knee, sick stomach and dizzy head. It was awesome, I had a great time. So, again I passed out around midnight and around 2:30 I couldn’t find Nick. Eventually he got back to the hotel room and could not speak and got sick until 3:15.

Sunday, around 8:00 I headed down the street for some Starbucks before we headed back to Des Moines…however the Starbucks was closed! So, Minneapolis is a “small-big” city and I love it. The traffic was quiet on Sunday, just perfect size. Headed back to Des Moines and got into town around 2pm. What a great little weekend.

My Pictures
Derek’s Wedding Pictures
Derek’s Minneapolis Pictures

Last Thursday night Matt Nathanson was at Simon Estes for Nitefall on the River and I was in heaven. First of all it was a fantastic July night and I love seeing concerts at Simon Estes. Two co-workers and Nicholas joined me for what was the best Matt concert I’ve been to. The crowd was in it. The sound was great. And although it was a PG-rated Matt (since it was an all ages show) it didn’t bother me. At one point some kid got up danced, did the worm and was escorted off by his mom. Pretty hilarious.

Pictures