june update

June has been a very busy month! Our summers always seem to be jam-packed.  As much as we try to "not plan much" or "take it easy" or "not have all our weekends booked"...it just never works.  We started off June by doing a TON of landscaping.  We spent most of May and the first part of June doing some updating to our landscape.  We ripped up all of the old red lava rock that covered every square inch of landscaping, replotted landscaping space by replacing certain areas of grass with mulch,  and mulched everything that had previously had lava rock.  Our new trailer came in handy with that mulch! We also planted 3 burning bushes, transplanted yellow lillies, and planted 2 knockout rose bushes on the front sideway of our house.  We also planted 2 azaleas out by the mailbox and plotted out an area and filled it in with mulch.  It looks SO much better now.  We also planted a hydrangea around the side of the house.

The first weekend in June was jam-packed.  We started the weekend with my cousin Cole's graduation party.  It is so hard for me to believe he is already old enough to be graduating from high school and going to Purdue.  Side note: VERY thrilled he chose to be a Boiler :).  It was so awesome to be with all of our family celebrating him.  In the middle of his party, I jumped over to my friend Ashley's daughter's 2nd birthday party.  I got to spend a couple hours there and then headed back to Cole's party.  We ended up staying there pretty late watching the Pacers playoff game and then drove back to Lafayette that night.

The second weekend in June, we had our friends from Georgia up for a visit.  We all had a blast!! They got here on Thursday and Hunter's girlfriend Amanda actually came to my BodyPump class.  I really loved that she came!  We came back, went to lunch, and relaxed at home the rest of the day.  I worked on Friday and they all hung out while I was there and then we all went out to dinner at Cooper's Hawk that night.  We ended up getting two free bottles of wine and free dessert because of horrible service (which was totally made up for when we got our new waitress!).  On Saturday, we hopped on our Harleys and went on an awesome ride.  We rode down to Brown County and walked around a little bit.  The sun was shining bright and it was a beautiful day.  After we walked around and had lunch, we rode our way to Oliver Winery.  Then, we came home and had an amazing filet mignon dinner courtesy of the boys.  Fantastic day!  On Sunday, we relaxed all day and then went to the Zac Brown Band that evening.  The concert was amazing.  I would love to see them again!  We had a great weekend with our friends and are so glad they came to visit us!

Last weekend was our annual Dave Matthews Band 2 day concert extravaganza.  Friday night, the boys had to work so we had a girls night.  My friends Amber and Lauren went with me.  We met up before the concert for Chipotle and mimosas (quite a combo!) and then headed to the venue.  We had a BLAST! I am so thankful for my girlfriends (all of you! :) ).  On Saturday morning, Matt and I went to his company's Truck Driving Championship.  His company had one driver competing and they had a tent with food and drinks to cheer him on from.  It was great to finally meet Matt's fellow Supervisors and their wives.  It was a fun morning!  That evening we went back to the Dave Concert Part 2.  This time, all the husbands came with us and we had a ball.  Matt ended up pulling me out into the aisle to dance during one of our favorite songs :).  We always have a great time at Dave!

Yay for a great June so far!

dirty girl mud run

Today I joined a group of some awesome, motivating, inspiring, and down right bad@$$ women from Kiwi Fitness in the Dirty Girl Mud Run 5K.  It was the most fun I have ever had being that disgustingly filthy in my whole life! Not only was it an amazing experience, it also raised proceeds to fund breast cancer research.  Today I ran a little harder and got a little muddier in memory of my Great Aunt Joyce :).

We got to the race and picked up our bibs and goodie bags and headed to the start line.  As we were walking there we spotted a Paul Mitchell tent that a bunch of stylists were doing free hair braids!  We thought it'd be an an easier way to keep the mud tamed in our hair with braids so away we went.  The course was a 5K of running to 12 different obstacles filled with mud.  It was at Klipsch Music Center so they used the natural muddy creeks and ponds in the course as well...oh joy!

My favorite was the massive blow-up slide into a pool of mud towards the end!

What a blast! I am definitely not a runner, but I can get myself through 5K's like this!

San Diego

April was awesome.  No snow and Spring is starting to show her pretty face.  It makes me so happy to see all of the redbuds and pear trees blossom in the neighborhood and to see the tulips popping up here and there.  One good thing about living in a developed neighborhood are all of the mature trees and landscaped yards, especially in Spring when they all start to bloom!  It was so exciting this year to see all of the plants/trees we put in last year bloom too.  Our redbud was planted after season last year so I was itching to see it every day when I would get home to see how much it had blossomed.  It is beautiful!  I bought a bunch of plants and shrubs at Costco which we are planning to get planted in the next couple weeks. Next year will be amazing with all of our new plants!

I spent a week in California in the middle of April visiting my friend Abby in San Diego.  It was an absolutely amazing trip and exactly what I needed.  I could not have asked for a better time.  It was so nice to be able to spend time with Abby.  I haven't laughed as hard as I did out there in a long time.  She is one of those friends where you can go weeks, months without talking and the minute you see each other it's like no time has passed since the time before.  I love having her as a friend.  

I had some traveling issues on Monday and didn't get into the San Diego airport until 415 am my time, so needless to say we went to bed shortly after we got home.  The next day we woke up, walked to an awesome little Italian cafe right across from Abby's apartment in downtown San Diego (Little Italy) and had one of the best breakfasts I've ever had.  I couldn't get enough of the food in SD.  After breakfast we headed up the coast to Orange County to see my Uncle Jay and Aunt Sandra and their family.  It was such an awesome visit and I am so thankful I was able to spend time with them.  After our visit at the hospital we drove to their house so I could spend some time with my cousins.  My heart felt so full on the ride back to San Diego after the visit with my family.  There is nothing better.

We got back to Abby's apartment and went out for some amazing Mexican food and then went out for a couple drinks in Gaslamp District. On Wednesday, we had a touristy day.  We started the morning with another yummy breakfast at The Mission.  I got blackberry banana pancakes and I devoured them.  I mean-I was going to need a lot of energy to burn on our tourist day right?  

We then made our way to Mission Beach.  It was a little windy and a little chilly down by the water, but the sunshine and sand was enough to distract me from that.  

We layed out with Pandora for a couple hours and then heading to Ocean Beach to meet up with one of Abby's friends for the farmer's market.  I guess there is a farmer's market on every day of the week at a different part of San Diego.  I really loved the market! They had samples of almost every food or fruit there.  Everyone had their dogs out and I couldn't help but imagine living there and taking Jax to the farmer's market!

After the farmer's market, we made our way to Mt. Soledad Monument.  It was way high up in the hills and is known for its great view of the city.  It was beautiful!  I was in complete awe of the scenery.

Then we were off to La Jolla Beach to see the seals! They were so cute! There is a little spot on the beach that all of the seals hang out and they just lay in the sun and swim around.  There were people all over just watching the seals lay there.  I have no idea why it's entertaining but it totally was.  We were blessed with beautiful weather that week-normal weather for Cali-but beautiful weather to someone who had just endured an Indiana winter.

 That night Abby and I went out for an Italian dinner and half price bottles of wine night with some more of her friends.  After a yummy dinner, we went back to the apartment and watched Pitch Perfect :).  

On Thursday, Abby had to work so I was left to entertain myself.  At first I was a little worried, but it turned out to be an amazing day and a much needed couple hours of chill time for me.  A couple of Abby's friends picked me up that morning and took me out for breakfast.  We went to a restaurant where the chef was from Indiana.  Big portions and delicious food.  Then Abby's friend, Tia, took me to the hospital they work at to surprise Abby and so I could tour the hospital.  Afterwards, I went back to Abby's apartment and made my way to the rooftop pool for a couple hours  I laid out in sun for a little while and then fell asleep underneath a big umbrella on a big cushy chair for a while.  Once I woke up, I went back down to her apartment to take her dog, Scooter, on a walk for a tour of downtown San Diego.  Well, more like Scooter took me on a tour.  We walked for about an hour all around downtown and down to the Harbor.  The sun was shining and there was a light breeze as we trotted along.

That night we went out for a yummy seafood dinner and ended our night at a dueling piano bar called The Shout House in downtown Gaslamp.  It was SO fun.  We had more laughs and sang obnoxiously loud.  Overall a fantastic night and an even better trip :) Can't wait for next time!

already April?

Well, I guess I'm pretty solid at the once per month blog postings...whoops.  

I am loving this weather!  We had to wait so much longer this year for some relief from the cold and snow.  Maybe that will mean not such a ridiculously hot and drought-stricken summer? Let's hope so. We plan on continuing on with our landscaping plans for the front of the house this Spring and I hope to not have to be out there more watering everything as crazy as I had to last year.  I was so nervous our brand new trees were going to die from the lack of water.  Oddly enough, my jackpot for plants this year has been Costco! You've got to grab it while you're there though, because if you wait to buy it for a week or so it won't be there anymore.  I bought 3 azaleas and some kind of tall evergreen shrub last week and today I saw they had forsythia bushes! I've gotta get me one of those.  Matt wants to put a hitch on the Murano and get a trailer which will come in handy for getting mulch this year.  Making 2 trips and loading 12 bags of mulch into the back of the car last year was less than ideal.

We've had some great weekends with family lately.  Last weekend, we went up to Lafayette to spend Easter with Matt's family.  My mom actually came over too for lunch on Saturday which was great.  We spent Saturday eating great food, playing cards, and falling asleep on the couch watching basketball. Oh wait-that was just me :).  On Sunday, we went to church, spent some quality time with my mom, niece, and the puppy.

I've been subbing a couple extra BodyPump classes at Kiwi on Saturdays which will continue through most of the summer.  It's fun to teach to a class with other "regulars" that aren't usually at my Monday and Thursday morning classes.  I also taught my very first solo KettleWorX class this past weekend! All of the instructors were certified a couple weeks ago and I was able to team teach twice before being on my own this weekend. It was a blast!

I leave for San Diego next week and I couldn't be more excited! It has been way too long since I have seen my good ole' Abby.  I miss her so much and this will be a much-needed reunion. We are making a trip up to LA that week so I can spend time with my uncle and his family as well.  I should probably start thinking about packing for that...

I am really excited for this summer.  We are trying to plan which concerts we are going to go to.  There are SO many good concerts coming to Klipsch this summer. I made a list of not only ones I wanted to go to, but that I reallly wanted to go to and there's 9.  I think we'd go broke if we went to all of those concerts.  A girl can dream right? We know Dave Matthews Band is a must...I hope we never have to skip this concert.  We absolutely love Dave and the atmosphere of just being at the concert. It has become such a tradition for Matt and I and it always kicks off our summer!  

See-give me two warm days and I already can't stop thinking about Summer. I'm not rushing it though, I'll take as many mild 70 degree days as the Spring chooses to give us :).

harley and boston babies

True testament to "if it's not in my phone, it's not getting done".  Poor little blog.  I have been abandoning you! Nothing too exciting going down at the Dunn household.  

There is not a whole lot I love about Winter...I say this as it's March 5th and we are in the middle of getting pelted with a silly snowstorm.  One of the very few things I love is the fact that it's cold and nasty outside-not too many things I'm able to do outside-which calls for a whole lotta extra time to not feel guilty about snuggling up on the couch with a blanket and my good pal Jax for some quality TV time :).  This Winter I've knocked out Downton Abbey (love!), Matt and I started Breaking Bad (I'm a little iffy on this one), and I'm in the middle of season one of Parenthood (love!).  When it's warm and sunny and I could be outside either soaking up the rays, walking the dog, or planting some flowers, I feel super guilty for being inside just watching TV.  There. I found a perk of Winter.

Matt recently bought a new Harley.  He is in love. He's been talking about trading in his Harley for a new one for a while now and after paying off our kitchen loan it seemed like the right time to give the man what he wants. I came home from an awesome weekend/wine tour/night in downtown Indy with the some of the girls in my family to Matt's new toy in the garage.  He was giddy like a little boy when he showed it to me.  I love seeing him so happy :).  We took it for a spin around the neighborhood to break it in, but I think we are going to have wait at least a few more weeks before we can take it out again.

This weekend, I am doing a training to become an instructor in another class at my gym.  We just introduced KettleWorX to Kiwi.  The owner, Laura, is the program director for KettleWorX and brought it to Kiwi Fitness to try for our members before they launch it nationally.  Pretty cool! They are also working on at-home DVDs.  There are 3 different classes in KettleWorx- Cardio, Core, and Resistance.  Each are 30 minute classes using kettlebells and they are AWESOME! Awesome like I could barely bend down to pick up a pen I dropped today.  It's an awesome addition to any of our other hour format classes.  She is giving us the "express" version of the training this weekend and then we will be certified to teach these classes too! I'm pretty excited.

I am leaving on a jet plane in April to see my friend Abby.  She is actually moving to Japan in August and I had to make sure I went to visit her in San Diego before she shipped off.  I miss college days when I saw her everyday.  We are going to have an awesome week :)

My friend Jamie had her baby last weekend! He is absolutely adorable and Jamie is already an awesome mom.  Which of course there were no doubts :).  She is so natural with him! He has cheeks to die for and the cutest little peach-fuzz hair.  I so badly wish we lived closer...it's about a 2 hr 45min drive from my house which is a little bit of a trek.  I am so excited to watch him grow.

If Saturday wasn't full of enough cuteness already, my mom got a brand new Boston puppy.  She ended up getting her from the same place we got Jax...they even have the same dad! Distant siblings.  She is super tiny and all puppy.  I can' wait until we get those two together to play.    Being with her makes me really miss Jax being a puppy, but I do not miss that whole potty training stage.  My mom has been sending me daily pictures of her.  I just want to squeeze her!