ACE Convention

On March 30, (yes, we flew out on my bday! I think this is the first time I've gotten to travel somewhere for my birthday..even if it was for 'work') we flew to Chicago for the 2011 Spring ACE Hardware convention.  It was nice to get away for a few days, but it was still work and busy getting everything done we needed to before we left.  We had some Chicago style pizza at Gino's East and ate with my uncle and his wife a couple times too.  At the show we found a couple of new products we are going to carry at the store, (check out York Ace Hardware on Facebook for updates) and overall had a good time.  My parents came along to help watch Brooks for me, which was nice!  Here are a few pics from the trip!

  

 Milwaukee tools trying to sell more stuff to Blake

 Brooks absolutely loved the "Step 2" booth.  The reps let him borrow the little push car for a while, and he just grinned from ear to ear when we put him in it!

  It was difficult sometimes to get Brooks to drink his bottle, but between mom and I, we usually got it worked out somehow!

We also got a chance to go up the Hancock tower.  Brooks slept through the first part of it, but that was good...he was so worn out!

Unfortunately it was also pretty cold and windy, but did we expect anything less?  We did our best to bundle Brooks in the stroller and keep him out of the wind!

It was a good weekend, but we were also just glad to get home.  Our flight back to Omaha was the roughest I'd ever experienced with turbulence.  It was really windy out and we were bouncing around pretty good.  The lady behind us was freaking out and spilled her drink, Brooks was fussing because his ears were hurting, and I was just holding on to him tight enough that he wouldn't fall off my lap!  Needless to say, everyone was pretty happy when we were on the ground! (It didn't help that we were flying Southwest the same weekend one of its aircrafts had a roof blown off in the middle of a flight and we were already delayed an hour!)

Grand Opening

A couple weekends ago, we finally had our Grand Re-Opening of York Ace Hardware.  The weekend went well and we had a lot of people come through, but we're also kinda glad it's all over! We hope to get back to 'normal' life, as much as possible! Here are a few pictures from that weekend...

As you can tell from the snow on the sign, the weather was pretty crappy, but we had a good turnout.

 

For the ribbon cutting, Blake decided to saw a wooden sign in half instead of a ribbon and scissors.  The sign turned out great thanks to my brother-in-law, Curtis, and everyone seemed to like the production.

We had Living Water Missions grill hotdogs for our customers.  We were disappointed the weather wasn't nicer for grilling, but they stood out in the cold and wind and grilled for us anyway!  Blake also smoked a pork butt on the Big Green Egg, which turned out really good.

Some of our loyal customers came by....thanks Curtis and Lane :)

And Blake's grandparents and parents from Smith Center also made the drive up to see the store.

Brooks was excited to see Grandpa Burgess since he had seen him a lot the previous weeks while he was up helping Blake get the store ready.  I think he made Grandma Burgess a little jealous, but I have a feeling it won't take him long and he'll be excited to see her too!

A picture of where I spend most of my time...someday I'd like to paint/organize/decorate, but we get by for now

Overall it was a busy weekend, but good. Thanks to all who came out!

Wedding

And now a happier post as I promised.  A little over a week ago, my brother, Bret and his girlfriend, Laura got married.  It was a fun wedding that went smoothly as far as I could tell!  Here are a few pictures from the event..

My sister's boy, Lane, was the ring bearer and I think he had a lot of fun being in all the pictures.  Whenever someone tells him to smile, he opens his mouth as wide as he can thinking he's smiling.  It was pretty cute!

Blake was an usher, so we had to be there early afternoon for pictures, but Brooks did fabulously even with having just a 15 min nap on the way from our place to the church.  He was happy most of the time!

My sister and I spent a lot of time before the wedding in the nursery with the kids, and Brooks enjoyed the 'new' toys. (even though he looks like he's frowning in the pic)

The only meltdown we had was when his cousin Katelyn grabbed his ear during a photo shoot.  That girl just can't keep her hands to herself!

Brooks was really tired by the time the reception started and fell asleep in Blake's arms for about 30 min, but overall he did so good for such a long day!

It was a fun wedding, and congrats to Bret and Laura!

And I just have to post this picture of Brooks and my mom at the rehearsal supper...Brooks loves to laugh!

Denali

We had some sad news yesterday, our beloved dog, Denali, was run over on the interstate.  She had been staying with my parents out on the farm since we didn't have a lot of room for her in our duplex.  She really needed a back yard, and we didn't have one, so we knew she would have much more fun out on the farm.  She did.  She loved running around and exploring everday.  She was looking so healthy and strong and just happy.  We went over to the farm yesterday and my parents said she hadn't come home last night and was still missing.  She's done this before, so we weren't too worried, but when Blake and my dad went out looking for her, they found her in the ditch along the interstate.  Blake and I are so heartbroken and sad to lose our friend and companion of 5 years.  We got her just a couple months after we started dating, and she went through a lot with us.  It seems so silly in the big scheme of things to be so tore up over a dog, but she truly was part of our family.   We feel so bad she wasn't with us more these last few months, but we know she was happy on the farm.  She will forever be in our hearts and memories.  She was a great dog and we look forward to the day when we can bring home a new dog for Brooks to grow up with. 

So needless to say, we've had a rough week with things be hectic and busy getting the store ready for the grand opening, our assistant manager putting in her two week notice, (so we're having to hunt for someone to fill that position, not a stress we wanted to deal with right now) and now Denali being gone.  However, we did have a joyous event in our family on Saturday with my brother getting married! The wedding was beautiful and I'll post a few pictures of that in a later post when I get the pictures uploaded and I'm in a happier mood!

For now, here are a few pictures of Denali and some happy memories we had with her.... 

Playing on the farm in the snow...

Riding in Blake's old pickup on the way to Nebraska...we had her in cab instead of in the truck bed because it was a blizzard

 

She loved playing with her toy duck

She loved being outside

 

She loved kitties...especially Yukon and Cornelius when we had them

She was with us when we got engaged

She was with us when we bought our first home

She was there when we brought Brooks home from the hospital

 He won't remember her, but they would have been fast friends :)

We'll miss you so much.  Goodbye, Denali