NoDak

I'm here! Finally. I've been unpacking, and grocery shopping, hanging curtains, and spending lots of time with my husband. :)

My eyes can't stop crying, and my heart is hurting for my dear friend, who lost her brother last weekend. I wish her and her family strength to get through this very difficult time.

Last week, we switched up the house (Joce's) for fall.


Cherish every new season.

More ladies time

to come- R ladies weekend! We are going to a cabin in northern MN for a weekend of crafting. It will be a grand time.

Next week is my scheduled move to ND. Mark got a new job (yay!), and is training until next Friday, so I'll help hang out with Joce until then.

Duluth and a deer

We've been trying to do a girls weekend in Duluth for a while, and it finally worked out! Annika, Sara, Karen and I had so much fun chatting, laughing, and chatting some more. Being up there brought back good memories of Duluth Kyds Weekends past.

Friday night we had supper at Green Mill, then walked around down by the canal. Picture credits go to Karen.

Saturday was spend driving around and enjoying the AMAZING fall colors. We went over the Seven Bridges (there are actually 8), hiked around some, then drove up the North Shore.


We ate pie at Betty's Pies, and watched rock climbers at Palisades Head. I found some coffee cups at a flea market, and some fabric at a darling fabric store. I can't wait to figure out what to make with it.

However, I'm not an old married lady yet- I can still jump up and click my heels :)


I'm so glad this trip happened! Thanks to Sara for hosting it and driving us around! I got some good girl time in before the move to ND, which will hopefully happen before November.

To end the perfect weekend, my husband came to visit me. And then he went bow hunting with Brian L and got a doe! He was so excited about the whole thing, I didn't even mind him being gone for 8+ hours. We thought he wouldn't get any hunting in this year, so it was pretty neat that he went AND got something.

While he was gone, I got to visit with Annie J and Leah, old roommates of mine. I love when relationships don't change. Like Leah said, it feels like we're still roomies when we're together.

I said good-bye to Mark this morning, but I get to see him again in 3 days. Three days is nothing to us! I'm hitching a ride out to the ND services, so it'll be a chance for me to visit Mark in his place and meet the other couples out there. Should be fun!

They're up!

Jen put pictures of our wedding up on her blog! I love, love, love them. She and Jan did such a great job!

Honeymoon Happiness

Mark and I went to Maui for our honeymoon. His wonderful travel agent sister booked it for us, and we really enjoyed the trip.

We had a layover in Los Angeles both ways. I noticed in that airport, people wear a lot of funky shoes. We both had a good time people watching.


The Royal Lahaina resort was our home for a week. We borrowed some snorkeling gear, and saw some itty bitty colorful fish just down the beach from our hotel.

I love rental cars! It's like a long test drive to see if you would ever want that car. I liked our Jeep Patriot, but not enough to ever buy one.

The coastline of Maui was amazing. Actually the whole island was beautiful!

Whaler's Village was a short (but warm!) walk from our place, and we went there twice to eat and check it out. Mark is showing off a replica of one of the whaling boats, which is much smaller than the size of the whales old-timer Hawaiians were trying to harpoon.

I was so excited to find out there was a frozen yogurt shop in Maui! I dragged Mark there twice to get some.

Frozen yogurt reminds me of living in AZ. Eating it brought me back to those sunny, sunny days. Good memories. It's funny how just a taste of something can do that.

Mark had fun driving the Jeep on the curvy roads up the Haleakala crater. He especially liked the "slapstick" option the car had.

Ziplining! We had 5 lines and a suspension bridge to cross. It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, just thrilling, like a roller coaster kind of.

Mark giving the Hawaiian thumbs up, or the "shaka".

Looking out to the ocean from the eucalyptus forest up on the crater where we ziplined. The clouds always seem so low in Hawaii.

An example of that.

On the road to Hana, we stopped for some coconut ice cream. It was dairy-free, and delicious! Plus we got to eat it out of a coconut shell, which made it taste even better, probably.

I don't remember what this waterfall was called, but it was tall, and pretty.

And Mark wanted to dive in. Haha.

Hibiscus, I believe. They were everywhere. I really wanted a flower, so Mark pulled over and picked me this.

Seven Pools, maybe? Mark swam in one of them, but I was too chicken (and chilly). There were signs telling visitors not to put their heads underwater, to prevent them from getting some disease.

Mark did anyway, and I'm pretty sure he's fine.

After what felt like just a couple days of sun and fun, we returned the Jeep and headed back to the airport. Our trip was almost complete.

We had another dinner date in L.A. Nbd. Common occurrence in the Kangas household.

Then it was back to chilly MN, and Viv running out the door in her pajamas saying, "I miss you, Dista!" It is nice to be back, but it would have been equally nice to stay for just a bit longer. Like maybe a month.

How do you like dem apples?

I still like apples, but at the end of 6 hour workday, they are slightly sickening to see. We get to eat as many as we want, so they are slightly sickening to eat too. I've learned so much about apple picking in one week. I even got to give a short demo to the 2nd graders, and MY 2nd grade teacher too. I could tell she felt old :)

A picture of me picking even made the DC newspaper this week.