Our year 2010 ....the moving continues!

Wow! A year has gone by and we never did update our blog. So we thought about updating it but then decided to just mail it out. But we did not so here it is...

So let’s see...after moving to Maple Plain MN: 

Winter - Cold, white, pretty and scary all at once. Zara experienced Hail! Grant found an ultimate Frisbee team and started playing Saturdays...in the freezing cold. Zara visited Fargo, North Dakota and Madison ,Wisconsin for a couple of courses and practiced her photography skills at the beautiful lakes and parks. 

Gorgeous Spring…Zara's mom (Gracy) was able to make a trip to Minnesota to visit with us for a few days before heading back to Toronto. In Minneapolis we visited the Como Zoo and shopped at the Mall of America. We then drove to Iowa to tour Ames, the Iowa State Campus, and meet the in-laws so that they could discuss their wonderful children ;) And for the Easter get-together that Kathy planned. That weekend (April 5th) Grant turned 30, for which we had a Mexican fiesta!

May 1st our friends Arlene, Bill, Andy and Gisella visited. We re-did all the touristy stuff, including visiting the Minneapolis sculpture garden. Oh how we love visitors!

May was wonderful -- exploring Minnesota and its farm life. June called for a visit to Iowa to celebrate Memorial Day. Kathy (Grant’s mom) decided we needed to do something outdoorsy so she organized croquet and other lawn games with the rest of the family. Later that month we visited the famous Minnesota Garlic festival, ate the most delicious garlic brat and tried garlic ice cream (not bad). Fun in the sun! And we did this all in Zara's new red car :)

           

Kathy and her sister Vickie came to visit us July 4th weekend. We checked out Grant's office, went wine tasting, grocery shopped at the Indian stores, visited the Mall of America and IKEA. It was Vickie's first visit to IKEA but for sure not her last :)

 August 8th here already!!! A year ago on this day we had our biggest party yet and enjoyed the company of our family and friends from near and far. To relive the festivities we did a weekend trip to Las Vegas.

October came with its adventures; pumpkin day at the farm was fun with Arlene and Bill’s 2 year old, Alex. Zara accepted a position in Michigan as a Scientist where she works on keeping breakfast cereals looking and tasting good. Grant started his new job with an Aluminum company as their system and network administrator in December. 

Moving was a breeze this time...since we weren't doing the actual moving :). So here we are today in Kalamazoo, Michigan!  We both are happy with our jobs and where life is taking us and our cat. Oh yes! Wiki (our cat) is excited too, to have made the 10 hour drive with us to Michigan. We haven't explored Michigan much yet, we are waiting for spring. 

Our year has been eventful with family, friends and love for which we feel thankful. Life has kept us busy and constantly moving; we are finally kicking back and taking some time off. We will miss our families and friends this Christmas, keep warm and eat loads of cookies. But know that we will be thinking of you with warm thoughts from the Ocho Rios beaches of Jamaica while sampling the Island Rum.

Happy New Year, see you in 2011!

Bubye 2009...Hello 2010!

Let’s see, what’s new since our wedding? Hmmm Zara took up a position in the Research and Development department at a canning company MN. We found a nice rental townhome in Maple Plain (population of 1800) which is about a 40 minute drive from work. Kathy and Greg (Grant’s parents) helped us with the big move up here November 21^st. Zara started work November 30^th ...wow, it’s already been two months.

We did visit family and friends back in Iowa--first for Thanksgiving at Jeff and Kellie’s (Grant's uncle & aunt), then for Christmas at Grandma D’s, back home to Minnesota, then back down to Des Moines to spend New Year’s Eve with friends. Pheeew, you can say we got our (or should we say Grant did) fill of driving for the year :). But overall it was a fun month!  December was like a month of Christmas for us; we finally got to open and use all our awesome wedding gifts that had been packed away.

Grant had just a month to relax before he accepted a contract position in the Enterprise CommandCenter (IT/Computer stuff) at a transportation logistics company in Eden Prairie, MN. He started work December 21^st and has a 35 minute drive to work. 
January has been a good month and we are both getting used to “working life”. Zara loves her job and the people she works with. She is currently working with different baked beans and pastas. She leaves at 6.30am and gets back around 5.30pm. Grant likes his easy going job too; he leaves for work at 5.45am and gets back around 3.30pm. Once we get back we cook food, eat, watch some TV and sleep by 10pm. That’s pretty much our work week.  Weekends are pretty busy but relaxing...sleeping-in, laundry, bill paying, grocery shopping, trying out new restaurants and watching movies. We enjoy trying out new dishes we see on food network or ones we make up :).

We love living so close to the Mall of America (MOA) and IKEA (only 35 minutes away).  Initially, to Grant’s grief it was our weekly pilgrimage, now not so much -- we have had our fill of the MOA :). So we have been familiarizing ourselves with the area and the stores around us.  It’s nice that everything is only a 15-20 minute drive away. We can’t wait for the warm weather to actually be able to walk around and explore more. Surprisingly the weather has been much better up here than it has been in Iowa. We have had just one blizzard and a couple of light snow showers. It is still really cold…but hey, spring is just around the corner :).

We ended this month celebrating Zara’s birthday, which included going out for some responsible ;) drinking to downtown Minneapolis with some of Zara’s grad school friends, and going to The Melting Pot for a fondue dinner (Grant’s treat). We loved it! Grant gifted Zara an awesome big easel for her painting.

Till our next update….keep warm, be safe and have fun :)