Spring Time/Update

Wow, it has been such a long time!  I apologize to my faithful readers (if I have any).  Hello, anyone out there? :o)

Spring has definitely sprung here in Madison.  We are so excited to take advantage of everything Madison has to offer in the spring and you should be too.  We need some visitors, haven't had too many lately because of the cold and snow, but the farmer's market will start up soon, we can ride our bikes around, and enjoy the many outdoor eateries.  We are also getting a head start on our garden and will hopefully be planting some seeds to start inside this weekend.  I have no idea what I am doing, so stay tuned to hear how it goes. 

Since the last update, Andrew surprised me with tickets to see my most favorite band ever, Rascal Flatts!  Because I made such a big deal about his 30th, we totally didn't do anything for Valentine's Day.  It's not that I am a big fan of the Hallmark holiday, because we show each other our love every day, it's just that we usually do dinner or something.  So, in Andrew's words, because I was such a great wife, he got me tickets (that I was begging him for) to see Rascal Flatts and a hotel room so we could stay in Milwaukee.  

Needless to say, the concert was freakin' amazing.  We traded our so-so seats at the back of the arena, for seats closer on the side because it wasn't full.  We could dance and sing the whole time!  They opened with Summer Nights and closed with Life is a Highway, my two favs at the moment.  Darius Rucker opened for them and also did a great job.  You may know him as the lead singer of Hootie and the Blowfish, but he is now a country superstar.  He did though, rock out to Only Wanna Be With Yoooouuuuu.

It was probably one of the best concerts ever!  Although, we do have Simon & Garfunkel AND James Taylor and Carole King concerts coming up in May, so we will just have to see how those are.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE live music!!

Here are some pictures from the night.  

Ange and I in our seats.

Oh yeah, and we did a wine tasting at the Wollersheim Winery Open House with the Wiederhoefts too.  It was great trying all the wines (their whites are the best, the reds are nothing special--you know how we love our reds) and it was a beautiful day too.  Here are some more pictures...

Jeanette and Adam are quoted because they used the winery's Prairie Fume as the wine at their wedding.

Beautiful Grounds

Looking for eagles!

Ok, so I think that's it for now.  Hopefully I won't wait so long to post next time.  We have a lot of fun things coming up, so I'll try to keep updated.  Seriously though, please let me know if you read this, or if it's for my own joy.

Happy Spring!!

Andrew turned 30!!

The time has come, on February 13, 2010 my fabulous husband turned 30.  To celebrate, I planned several surprises for the birthday boy.  

At school, his fellow teachers planned a birthday breakfast and posted pictures of young Andrew around the school too.  The kids were asking him all about it.  And he also got 30 of many things. 

His birthday was the same weekend as my Tim McGraw girls night, so it was a very busy weekend. After breakfast and hanging out much of the day on Saturday, we got ready to head to dinner.  Low and behold, Andrew's mom and Aunt Chris were at the door with his birthday cake.  We had a lovely dinner at Harvest.  It really was a delicious, several course meal.  With some time before heading out, we had a cocktail at the bar.  I didn't get a picture from dinner, but really wish I would have. 

We then left Patti and Ceese headed to The Nitty Gritty, THE birthday bar of Madison.  On your birthday you get free beer all day on your birthday, so we just had to go.  Andrew knew that several friends from Madison were coming, but had no idea to expect anything else.  A little after we got there, and were hanging with our local friends, several of our Chicago friends showed up.  Surprise!  Andrew had no idea that Brian, James and Katie and Schiewitz and her posse were coming.  It was a great night.  We stayed at Nitty Gritty then headed to KK, were we felt super old.  I actually got asked to to see another form or ID.  WHAT?!?!  

Here are some photos from the night....

Scott, Krizia and Janice (Two nights in a row for Jan)

  Jeanette and I

 Jager Bombs for everyone

 

Here you go Bri!

My hubby is 30.

The Boys.  Notice Andrew's yellow balloon (in honor of Iowa of course).

Schiewitz came too! 

Tim McGraw is hot, my friends are hotter!

On February 12, some of my IL favorites came to Madison for the Tim McGraw/Lady Antebellum Concert.  I love Lady Antebellum and was almost more excited about seeing them than I was Tim McGraw.  I know Tim's older songs, but am not a fan of his newest CD Southern Voice.  I think it has many slow and depressing songs, where so many of his older songs are so awesome. 

Anyway, Sara, Erin and Devon came up Friday afternoon.  We went to sushi for dinner, then headed to the concert to meet up with Janice and Jess.  The parking at the Colosseum was crazy.  For being the big venue in Madison, you would think they would know how to park thousands of cars, but apparently, they do not.  We got parked, entered, got some beers and started to head to our seats.  One of lady ushers helped us find our seats and as we were walking up to our row, you would have thought we were in the senior citizen section.  No joke, the average age was 60.  We were thinking as we were going up and up, we better not be sitting in front of any of these old ladies, or this might not turn out well.  We were ready to listen to some good tunes, have some fun, dance and sing.  The old ladies would not have liked that.  So we get to our seats and we are in the last row of the place.  We ended up having great seats.  We could stand and dance the whole time without bothering anyone, it was perfect.  

Lady Antebllum came out after The Lost Trailers and just blew the place away.  This will be the last time they are an opening act, seriously.  They are just awesome.  They do some sweet harmonies and their new CD Need You Now is incredible.  

 Lady Antebellum

Next came Tim McGraw.  Once I heard his voice, my heart just melted.  He has the most beautiful voice.  He did a great job of mixing in old and new songs, which I was really happy about.  I'm not quite sure what he was wearing (some sort of animal print), but the beard and hat are just hot.  I must say though, that my girls are hotter.  We rocked the concert and had a great time singing and dancing along.  

I wish I had a close up.

 The girls in the back.

Janice, Jess and I

  Druck and my cowboy boots and the old ladies in front of us.

  

After the concert, we went to the Great Dane to show these girls a good time in Madison.  Just like old times, partying at the bars.   I love these girls.

Sara, Erin and I.

Overall, just an awesome night.  Thanks guys for coming up.

UW Hockey Winter Classic

A couple of weekends ago, the UW hosted an outdoor Hockey game.  Similar to the one that was held at Wrigley field, the university transferred Camp Randall into an outdoor hockey rink.  The UW played Michigan in the first annual game.  We decided to go and got some sweet tickets.  It was a cold night and it even flurried a little, but it was a great experience.  And even though we are not UW fans, it was nice to see them win.  

All bundled up, trying to stay warm.

 

We went with Scott and Krizia.

It was pretty sweet.  And the band was there (red group on left).

Fabulous Friends

Andrew and I talk all the time about the great friends we are so lucky to have.  We really feel blessed to have such wonderful, caring, fun people in our lives.  While we knew when we moved to Madison that we were moving away from so many of our fabulous friends, we have tried so hard to keep in touch with them while being up here.  Since moving, we have made several trips to Chicago and the surrounding areas to visit our friends.  We have joked that we have actually seen some of our friends more now than we did when we lived at home, simply because we are all making more of an effort to see each other. 

A couple of weeks ago we took an empty weekend and filled it with seeing three groups of friends.  While I don't have pictures from visiting with the Hartkes and Erin for a couple of hours as we made our way into the city, I will post one of their cute little boy Cole, just because.  Cutest kid ever!  So we only got to chat for a a little bit, it was just enough to catch-up, give lots of hugs, play and dance with Cole and remember how much we love them.

Cole modeling his Nemo Halloween Costume

 

After our visit in Crystal Lake, we headed down to the city to hang out with James, Katie, Ferdie and Brian.  Since Katie is a HUGE Colts fan, we watched a playoff game, broke out the victory box, caught up and played a ton of Wii--just a typical night with Andrew's Conant friends.  For those who may not know, I was one of the them until that night, this Victory Box was a wooden box with shots and a bottle of alcohol.  When the Colts scored we took a shot.  The Colts won that game, so the Victory Box did its job.  Once again, another fun night.  

Colts score--shots for everyone

So like I said earlier, when we make a trip home, we try to see as many people as we can.  So after our night of Colts and Wii, we met up with Kristin, Brendan, Megan and Steve to watch some more football.  Once again, just a few short hours, but a great time to catch up.  

The Girls

The Whole Group

 

Happy 2010

Can you say crazy night?!?!  We went to the Majestic for their new years party that consisted of a sweet cover band called Hometown Sweethearts and DJ Nick Nice.  Great tunes were played and a lot of dancing was done.  Oh and a lot of drinking (you can tell mine was Cranberry by the color of my lips in every picture). :o)

I can't even really tell you what happened, but the pictures and how we were feeling the next day showed that we had a great night.  

 

  

  

 

Fondue with the Weiderhoefts

A little late on posting this, but before the holidays we started a new tradition with our friends Jeanette and Adam.  During our winter break, the Weiderhoefts had us over for some Fondue.  While we have this tradition with Andrew's family, it was fun to do it with friends.  And we really don't mind eating the delicious meal more than once.  Thanks guys for a fun night.  We can't wait till next year!

Here are some pictures from the fun night.  Oh and we had to get in the poppers!  Gotta love the prizes and crowns.