A Week in Minnesota

Though a little exhausted, we safely arrived in Minnesota for the second half of our break.  First, we celebrated with Parker's mom, and Marshall and Kate.  Thanks for putting the house together and making it look festive before we arrived!  Sue made me a matching stocking and the most gorgeous tree skirt.  Even with her recovering wrist, Sue helped with another phase of the save-the-date magnets.  In addition to making lots of yummy food together, my favorite part was watching Parker and Marshall interact.  They are like twins separated at birth.  They can seriously look at each other and communicate.  It's a good thing that Kate and I have each other when the two of them are together.  Though grown, boys will always be boys!

 

 

 

 

We were also able to celebrate Christmas with Parker's dad, Bob.  Though we didn't remember to take a picture of it, we had dinner at a cute Italian market place.  We also made a delicious brunch complete with Montana Breakfast, Huckleberry Buckle, and fresh fruit.  Thank goodness Grandma came through with the Lego's gift for Parker, because I wasn't a very good fiance in that department this year.  I'll take note for the future.  Present opening came to an abrupt halt while Parker busted out a German building. 

 

In between family celebrations, Parker and I had a day of errands together.  We scoped out possible places to register, had Dunn Brothers coffee while doing our Bible study, looked at wedding bands, and he took me to the mall and possibly the coolest REI I've ever been to.  We also had another "first" as we officially opened a joint checking account together.  It will definitely come in handy with all the wedding planning.  Plus, how else would we get our very own stuffed horse named Snowflake?

The first hint of fresh snow for a white Christmas came on New Year's Eve.  I ran outside and grabbed a few pictures.  The flakes were seriously as big as my palm.  When I tried to catch them on my tongue, one missed flake would make half of my face wet!  After all the traveling and festivities, Parker and I were exhausted.  He actually fell asleep on the couch at about 10:30, while I did more save-the-date work and attempted to clean up the house a bit.  He did have the TV on for me so that I could watch Dick Clark in Times Square.  I woke Parker up 10 minutes before the ball dropped.  We had our midnight kiss, reflected on how good 2011 had been for both of us, and went to bed.  As my brother continues to point out, "It's like you're a boring married couple already."  

 

Seriously though, it was fun to think back on the year 2011 and just how much the Lord has been at work in our lives and this relationship.  This break together was certainly very different from last year when we were talking on the phone to each other until all hours of the night from my closet :)  The Lord is good all the time, even and especially when His time is not the same as ours.  We can't wait for what 2012 will bring!

Finally, our 14 days together came to an end.  As I promised my siblings, I snapped a photo of Parker in the airport with my bags.  Funny story.  One day a few weeks ago, I came home from work to find a ginormous box on my front step.  When I opened it, I found a school bus yellow XL rolling duffel bag from L.L. Bean.  Weird, I hadn't ordered anything like that.  Plus, it had a "MAX" monogram on it.  When I looked at the packing slip, I saw that my brother had ordered a pink aloha bag with "Andrea" monogrammed on it.  You see, my siblings had been begging me to bring home the two pairs of snowshoes for break.  The problem was that they wouldn't fit in my suitcase.  So, here came the pink aloha bag!  Since they had obviously sent the wrong one and I had to return it for mine, I was temped to order a different color.  I mean I am getting married and will be a Lohrenz.  Maybe Parker would prefer to haul around a red or black or blue bag.  When I mentioned this thought to my brother, he said, "Yeah, I thought about that.  That's actually why I put Andrea on it and made it bright pink.  Plus, it will be easier to find at baggage claim."  Thanks Bud, you're always thinking.  When I told Parker the story, he actually thought it was cool. 

20+ Hour Road Trip

"What was I thinking?" was probably the most common phrase I said during the long trek from Montana to Minnesota via South Dakota.  (Parker has taken 3 different routes and deemed this one the most enjoyable.)  This wasn't a regular road trip in the sense that we were traveling in Parker's Subaru, which was packed to the brim with 6 months worth of stuff that he had up in Canada.  Add to that a girl and her stuff (2 sets of skis, 2 pairs of snowshoes, and 2 suitcases)...enough said!  Once I adjusted my attitude (and kept the wedding magazines from sliding into the back of my head), we actually had a really good trip and quality time together.  We were able to break up the trip by doing lots of sight seeing.  We took pictures along the high line of Montana (they don't call it the "Big Sky" state for nothing) and then had a nice lunch with my good friend from high school Aileen and her family. 

 

Not only is she expecting her second child in February, but she also just got the results back that she passed her Professional Engineering exam!  Congratulations girl!  In rural Montana, we also passed this place:

After some stressful wedding planning, we did mention eloping several times though....hummm.

One of our favorite stops was Mount Rushmore National Park.  Apparently, just after Christmas is not a popular time to visit.  We basically had the place to ourselves, and we had a hard time finding someone to take our picture.  

 

 

 

Another highlight of the trip was Wall Drug.  If you've ever stepped foot in South Dakota, you've probably seen a sign.  The signs are literally posted every mile for over 100 miles out.  No offense to any South Dakotans, but when you live there I guess you have to find something to be excited about.  I mean, where else can you get $0.05 coffee, free ice water, or a free baked good for honeymooners?

 

 

 

 

Jackalopes anyone?

 Parker's favorite attraction was visiting one of the hundreds of minutemen missile silos across the north central US. 

 

 

 

And who could resist a quick pit stop at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD? Not us!

No wonder it took us over 20 hours!  All the cool things along the way were worth it though, and we got some good quality time together. 

Christmas 2011

After Christmas Eve service, the McDivitt's have a tradition of opening one gift.  The rest of the night is spent together playing games, eating yummy treats, and watching family videos/old slides and a movie.  This year was no different, except that it was even sweeter because my fiance was there to experience it all with us. 

 

 

 

 

 

I get more excited about giving gifts, rather than receiving them, especially at Christmas.  This year, my labor of love was a tee-shirt quilt for my sister.  She mailed me a box of her favorite high school shirts (from choir, student council, volleyball, cross-country, basketball, and tennis) and my dear friend Jenna patiently tutored me for over 20 hours as we put together my first ever quilt.  Jenna and I got our quality time in, and it turned out quite nice.  Seeing Morgan's face when she opened it was the best of all!

In the morning we listened to Christmas music and opened stockings and the rest of the gifts.  Then we had a delicious brunch.  Per recent tradition, we all wore or matching "Christmas begins with Christ" green and yellow shirts.  Though we couldn't find the exact same print, Parker got his own Christian bookstore graphic tee-shirt.  Somehow he got a nicer blue color. 

 

 

 

 

 

A Week in Montana

The best part about Christmas Break this year was getting to spend all 14 days with my fiance and our families and friends.  It was the first time since our engagement that we were together, hence the lapse in blog posts.  Of course we did to a little wedding planning, and accomplished things such as:  seeing the church (my Montana home church is not quite large enough to accommodate a wedding, so we are marrying in another local one), meeting with Pastor Joe, selecting a caterer, getting my dress, choosing a photographer, and assembling our save-the-date magnets.  The latter was definitely a group effort, as you can see by the assembly line below.  (And yes, my dad has on head phones, not so that he can drowned out the sound of us, but rather so that he can listen to the football game on TV, which is in the other room.)

 

 

We did attempt to limit wedding planning and tried to spend quality time as a family.  My siblings and I took Parker cross-country skiing for his first time.  Of course, we had to stop in at the hospital and say "Hi" to my dad at work.  He still has his father's day peacock (minis it's googly eye) hanging in his office from when I was in kindergarten.  He gave us a demo with his microscope, though he was busy and we didn't have time for him to clean out our ears like usual.  

 

We cross-country skied at one of our favorite places, the Izaac Walton Inn in Essex.  There wasn't a ton of snow, but the groomed trails with a fresh dusting were just right.  When we asked Parker how his first experience was he positively replied, "I could do it again...just not tomorrow."  He did have a few falls, which made my parent's hot tub extra nice.  On the way home, we were able to stop in to see my best friends, Sienna and Sierra, from grade school.  It's always fun to pick back up no matter how much time has passed.

Notice Parker's new Canadian hat...he's quite proud of it!

 

The McDivitt family has a Christmas tradition that the kids each get an ornament that symbolized as significant event in their lives for the year.  We also wait until all three of us are home together to decorate the tree.  This year we beat last year's decorating timeline, as it was done several days before Christmas Eve.  Morgan got her Whitworth ball, Brian had a picture of him with his trophy as he graduated with his MBA, and I got....well, what else, but an engagement ring!

Whitworth girls

Brian & Morgan waiting for me to finish my 28 years
worth of ornaments so that the angel
can be put on last.

Being 6'4'' has its advantages.

Though there wasn't enough snow to ski at our favorite place, Big Mountain, we did manage to downhill ski at Blacktail for a day.  Parker and I went over the day before to do a little wedding planning and to visit with some dear friends.  We had a lovely lunch with my adopted grandparents, Grandma and Grandpa Hannah, and met up with my friend/high school JV basketball coach in Whitefish.  Kate is still as spunky and funny as ever and it was so much fun to visit with her husband and kids.  I remember when her oldest was in an infant carrier and somehow he is in middle school already!  Sheesh, where do the years go?

Parker and I were able to stay with his relatives in Bigfork, a cute town on Flathead Lake.  Shannon and Dave were so sweet to host us for the night.  It definitely beat getting up at 5 a.m. like my siblings did to drive to Blacktail.  Although Parker had been downhill skiing before, this was his first time out West in the Rockies.  He was such a trooper and I'm so proud of his efforts.  He did have a bit of a rough start to the day though, and definitely some quotable moments.

• I am very disappointed that my states (Iowa and Minnesota) failed to prepare me for real skiing.
• Andrea, why is the chair lift still going?  The lifts in the Midwest would have ended twice over by now.
• It's like we're on a real mountain and we're skiing! (Yes, hun, we are.)
• If I keep falling at a rate of once per 100 feet, that means I have about 12 more falls left on this one run! (Spoken like a true engineer skier.)
• The ski hills in the Midwest have false advertising.  Their black diamond runs (hardest) are like Montana blue squares (intermediate).  They kick everything up a notch.
• Self, you can be lame, or you can be man.  I choose to be a man.  (This became our inside joke of the week.  "Self, you can be lame or ...."  Parker was talking to himself as he was preparing to go over a jump in the snowboard park.  He did the jump, rather fast, and almost stuck the landing.  Morgan & I thought that he was going to injure himself badly considering the speed at which he took off.)
• Today was an 8 out of 10, I'll do this again...just not tomorrow. 

I love the clouds over the lake

 

Parker did go down a real black diamond!

 

Just to wet your appetite for the wedding next summer, Cut Bank has some pretty unique things.  Where else can you get your picture with a 30-foot penguin labeled "Coldest Spot in the Nation"?  Also, there have also been two new signs made on either side of town.  How ironic is it that the slogan is "Cut Bank:  Where the Rockies Meet the Plains"?  Yep, Parker and Andrea were definitely meant to meet and fall in love.