Ashley's Visit and a BUSY Weekend!

My cousin Kim's daughter, Ashley, who is a freshman at Iowa State University, came up Thursday night to attend a fashion expo (she's studying fashion design and merchandising) on Friday here in the cities. It was COOL to have her here, but a little bizarre. For YEARS I was on the "college kid" side of going to stay with family and friends, and NOW I'm on the "family and friends" side of a college kid coming to stay for the weekend...I FEEL OLD!

This was also the first time that Ashley has come up on her own, without Kim, which was also a little weird...since Ash really IS still a KID!! She's such a cool girl though, and very sweet, so it was a blast of a weekend. All I can say though, after the weekend has come to a close, is that COLLEGE KIDS ARE EXHAUSTING!!

It started Thursday night (with her hardly having dropped her bags) with a trip to IKEA (she needed some stuff for her bunk at the Alpha Chi house), then a quick trip to the MOA (which, is, apparently, all a college freshman needs to buy two shirts, a pair a slippers, and a dress for her sorority initiation next weekend...!). Ashley is GORGEOUS, so it was interesting to watch "heads turn" as we walked through the mall. It was also interesting to watch them try and figure out who I was (I'm guessing I got a lot of "father"s...but I'll hope there were at least a COUPLE of "older brother"s in there...!).

Ashley's senior picture

Friday night I went back over to Robin and Dave's after work. Dave was in Chicago for business, and his flight back to the cities was delayed, so we ordered pizza from Fat Lorenzo's (LOVE THAT PLACE!), and when Robin took Emilie to swim team, Ashley, Abigail and I went to Target and Verizon (she needed a car charger for her phone). When we got back to Robin and Dave's, he was just getting home. They all went to Cafe Latte for dessert, and I zipped home to get stuff ready for brunch with my friend Kelly Saturday morning.

Saturday morning Kelly came over (after a HORRIBLE detour because 494 was closed for road construction!), and we had an AWESOME time catching up. I met Kelly in grad school at the University of Iowa, and we've managed to keep the friendship going, despite her living in Seattle, and me being back here (what DID we do before e-mail??!!)!

She has family in the area, and was here for a wedding, so we were able to get together between "functions". I LOVE friendships in which you can "pick up where you left off"...no matter how much time has passed. Our friendship is like that...as if we hadn't had any time between conversations at all! Kelly is an absolute HOOT, and it was a great chance to catch up on the last couple of years.

Meanwhile, back at the Nordhues, Robin, Ashley, and the girls went to the outlet mall in Albertville. We were supposed to go to the corn maze Saturday afternoon, but, to be honest, I was OKAY with having the day to get caught up on things, and spend time with Duane.

After Kelly left, Duane and I went to Lindstrom and Chisago Lakes to look in some antique stores we saw on our way back from Taylor's Falls a few weeks ago. The trees are really starting to turn, so there was some GORGEOUS scenery as we got the Riviera out of storage, and drove up Interstate 35. Unfortunately, there were about NINE THOUSAND other vehicles out enjoying the scenery as well, so the traffic was NOT fun.

Saturday night, Dave, Ashley, and the girls came over and we went to the Italian Pie Shoppe for pizza (LOVE THAT PLACE TOO!), then back to my place to hang out for awhile (Robin had a Tupperware thing, so couldn't join us).

Now it's Sunday morning, Ashley is on her way back to Ames, Kelly is getting ready to fly back to Seattle, Dave is getting ready to leave AGAIN for another business trip to Chicago, and I'm going to sit around in a daze all day, make another batch of cheddar buttermilk herb scones, read the Sunday paper with my honey, and try to recover from the last three days. I think I'm getting old...!

Hope YOUR weekend was full of crazy busy fun too!