Nothing Compares

We'd have to agree with the marketing genius that pitched this year's Iowa State Fair slogan.... Truly, nothing does compare to the Iowa State Fair!   So corny, we know.  But we seriously enjoy it every year and it's growing into a very fun and memorable tradition for us!  This year might just be the best year yet... although we basically just walked around drinking and eating we're still talking about the fun we had.  One thing we enjoyed was the top-notch company, our buddies Chad & Abbey made the trip this year and proved to be prime fair-goers.  It takes a rare combination of qualities to keep up with Kurt & I at the fair but these two didn't have a problem!  We conquered all our favorite parts of the fair and are already making plans for next summer.

 15 Steps to a Fun Fair Experience

Step 1:  Pitch tents while sipping on beverages of our choice.

Step 2:  Nearly pass out due to the weatherman's incorrect temperature predictions, followed by various wardrobe changes (for the ladies that is, because Kurt insisted on wearing his cowboy boots which require jeans... regardless of the heat).

Step 3:  Enter Fairgrounds and proceed directly to the Hot Lips stand.  Sooooooo good you can't even share.

Step 4: Wander around while making a mental list of funny things to people-watch for. 

Step 5: Pay incredibly too much for a cup of beer, but insist on doing so because it's the State Fair. 

Step 6: Gawk at the unbelievably (but clearly real) HUGE cows and pigs.

Step 7: Convince the wimp to ride an innocent looking roller coaster which results in many screams and sobs.

Step 8:  Laugh so hard at the roller coaster photo that you have to purchase it.

Step 9: Eat more than your fair share of fried food.
(But don't feel bad about it, because it's the fair!)

 

 Step 10:  Purchase cowboy boots and rock them the rest of the night.

 

Step 11:  Eat more food-on-stick or fried food (your choice.. if it's fried AND on a stick that's even better).  Step 12: Proceed to the campsite for a good night's sleep. Camping at the fair is by far the best option.

Step 13: Beat the crowd and enjoy a morning ride on the Sky Glider. (A prime people watching opportunity)

 

Step 14:  Relive your childhood by riding down the GIANT slide.  It's OK to giggle and/or scream.

 

Step 15:  Get at least one more order of hot lips before hitting the road home. 
Hey, you only get these things once a year!

  So there you have it, folks.  A foul-proof recipe for a memorable weekend.  Sadly, the State Fair is over and we're facing the cold reality that Fall is it's way (pun intended, ha!).  Although Fall isn't bad, in fact there's many things we enjoy about it, it still means winter is around the corner and that is not something we look forward to.  

On a side note, work stinks.  This calls for cookies!!  Baking makes me happy.  On the other hand, Kurt says baking makes him fat... we're in the process of finding a happy medium on the acceptable quantity of baked goods to have in the house. =P  I think oatmeal chocolate chip is in store for us tonight.  Mmmmm.  Adios!

What a week!

We've been busy since our last post!  Are you surprised?  ...We didn't think so.

Let me just start by gushing about my good friend, Caitlin's wedding which took place last weekend:  Looooooooooved it.  I was lucky enough to be included in this special day as Cait's personal attendant and it was SO much fun.  I think I may have found another dream job to add to the list... wedding planner! :)   Caitlin & Eli planned an amazing wedding down in southern Iowa aka the boondocks (I believe we passed a sign that said 15 miles to Missouri).  Don't jump to conclusions though because this affair was nothing short of gorgeous and it was a blast to see the two lovebirds take the plunge.  So much fun in fact that I apparently got jacked in the nose on the dance floor (evidently my face is elbow height).  I woke up Sunday morning to a slightly swollen, noticeably bruised, rather painful reminder of this party foul.  True evidence of a epic celebration.  Congrats to the new Mr. & Mrs. Kilburg!!

With the beautiful bride!  I love you!

We also thoroughly enjoyed spending time with this lovely couple.

 

Our first wedding as a married couple.  Awwwww

 After that great weekend we were totally pooped.  What can we say... we're just not as young as we used to be!  Of course, by the time we made it back home it was practically time to jump into another crazy work week.  This week turned out to be unusually crappy.... at least on my end.  It was the regular level of crappy for my hubby (work, work, work).   I'm personally coming off one of those weeks packed with family drama, long days at work, a $114 speeding ticket and then more family drama, all things that are considered to be crap-inducing in my book.  Drama is not my friend, and now apparently neither is my cousin.  (....If I bite my tongue any harder I will definitely start bleeding.)

Now that Friday has FINALLY arrived, I took it upon my self to cash in an impromptu afternoon off.  I'm finally feeling like I can relax for the first time this week.  Kurt's already making plans for a movie night and enchiladas are in the oven!  :)  But never fear, we don't relax long around these parts... we're packing up and hitting the State Fair bright and early tomorrow.  I have a feeling that chicken lips, sweet potato french fries, a cow sculpted from butter, some live music, $12 beers and an assortment of food-on-a-stick will be just the cure I need for this crap-tastic week.  If you're at the Fair, call us up!!! 

Look who's back!

Since our computer is seriously slow (slash the DVD/CD-Rom drive is broken) we're going to skip the attempt to upload wedding photos on the blog.  You might notice some new pics in our layout but other than that we'll be directing our followers to our handy Facebook album if you'd like to get an inside look at our wedding.  Check them out, we're still kind of obsessed with reminiscing about the big day and your comments totally make us smile. 

Here's the album:  Our Wedding <3 June 25, 2011

Whew!  Now that that's out of the way it's time to get back to basic blogging!  We've been slacking in the blog department but lets see if we can get you up to speed with a POWER RE-CAP:

We took a little road trip to the Wisconsin Dells after our wedding and enjoyed a "mini moon" full of fun, relaxation and memory making.  We were SO glad that we decided to go on this trip and fully take advantage of the natural "high" we were feeling as newlyweds! 

We enjoyed the scenery with a stroll down the main strip & a near-by trial.

...Explored some tourist attractions...

Hit the "hottest night club in the Dells", Marley's.

Made some new friends and had a great time livin' it up with them!

Spent some time at the pool/beach... after a 3 hour kayak trip (not pictured)

Soaked up extra sunshine and even hit Noah's Ark, the largest water park in the US!

We also had a super fun 4th of July weekend, too.  Started things off at The Lake where we enjoyed some swimming, boating, fishing and grilling out with my family before heading to West Liberty for Joe & Chana's first annual 3rd of July party.  We got a little rowdy but hey, you can do that in the USA!  :)

Happy Birthday, America! :)

Nice face, Kurt.

Fun times!

Kurt celebrated his 25th birthday by doing "whatever he wanted" which basically included drinking for the entire weekend.   A couple friends came to town and we put our Margarita-ville mixer to good use, went out in Waterloo and then topped the weekend off with a float down the river on Sunday.  Our innocent little float ended up being a 7 hour ordeal, which didn't bother us because it was so much fun!  However, it did result in Kurt being covered in poison ivy and my mother being about 10 minutes away from calling in a missing person's report.  Oops! (Love you, Mom)

We helped my little brother celebrate his 15th birthday with a delicious dinner in CR.   I hit the town in Des Moines with my college friends to celebrate Caitlin's last night out as a single lady.  Kurt jumped back in on the Firebird restoration project.  We've been taking advantage of the opportunity to do some fishing, rollerblading and grilling out, too! 

We love our new grill!! Thanks, wedding party!

That brings us to this past weekend which was also full of fun in the sun.... We had a great time at the annual Trueg Fish Fry partaking in fried catfish (some of which we caught), cold kegs and a bags tournament before spending a lazy Sunday at The Falls.  It was the perfect day for some water slides and lazy river action!

It's hard to believe that August is here -- we have another month of summer fun planned and I'm sure time will continue to fly by.  We're enjoying the opportunity to actually stick around home instead of having to travel back to WL every weekend but our families are not so hot on this change.  I think they got comfortable with our constant visits in the weeks/months leading up to the wedding.  As much as we love seeing everyone back home (and miss them when we're away), we gotta do our own thing too.  :)   For the record:  We love visitors!!

In other news... Kurt decided to shave his head on a whim (imagine that)... and Max has apparently developed a drinking problem.  HA :)   Enjoy these last photos -- we'll be back (SOON, we promise!).

"It's just too hot to have hair"

He must have been thirsty!