Thanksgiving

Well it's a little later than Thanksgiving but I wanted to wait until I had some pictures to show you.  So how did Thanksgiving go?

I was blessed enough to have Wednesday of last week off of school.  This meant that Emily and I were able to leave Kansas after Tuesday afternoon's basketball practice.  We were on the road by 6:04 with plans to stop once we became too tired.  Emily drove the first stretch with me taking over at 9:00.  Not knowing where we'd finish the night yet knowing of the existence of a hotel in the area, I was hoping to make it to Dixon, IL where we stayed on the way down after the wedding.  Once we made it there, however, I started to realize how close we were.  I had said at the beginning I wasn't going to push anything if I felt the least bit tired and I don't feel we did once.  Instead of Dixon, we pulled into her parents driveway at about 2:30 am. 

Wednesday was spent baking pies and ended up going to Thanksgiving church that evening at Immanuel.  BBQ Burgers from Pistol Pete's are recommended by me by the way.

Thanksgiving Day was spent at the Theine house with Emily's siblings and parents.  It was a fun time had by all which included a Packer victory (of which I missed an impressive amount of the second half while trying to smile for the many takes before the 'perfect' picture was captured), good food, good dessert, and no one can forget Band Hero.

The day after Thanksgiving gave us another Thanksgiving celebration to be thankful for.  It was very nice to be able to spend a whole day at both places.  Thanks mom!  We missed out on seeing all of our nieces but were pleased to see half of the Racine Lorenz's.  We missed you guys Sarah and Emma!  The food was again amazing.  It was great to see as much of the Lorenz side as we could.  Thanks for hanging out everyone!

Believe it or not my Saturday, the last Saturday in November in fact, was spent on the golf course.  My dad and brother were able to take advantage of some amazing November weather and hit the links for what I'm sure will be my last round of the year.

We got a late start on Sunday but nonetheless we were able to leave after 9:30 church at Immanuel.  It was a long drive of course but for the most part it was rather uneventful.

Here's a (short) list of things I am thankful for (in no particular order):
1) My faith God has given me.
2) Emily
3) My family that is full of parents, siblings, nugens, etc... on multiple sides now.
4) Safe travels
5) Good eating
6) Brewers baseball
7) Wisconsin
8) Kansas
9) Brats
10) Math
11) Cars
12) Sothwest Airlines which now services Milwaukee
13) Friends
14) Dr. Pepper
15) Guitars
16) The chance to teach
17) Rock Band
18) Snooze button
19) Vacations
20) The Red Box
21) Our house
22) Sports
23) Trivial Pursuit
24) Books
25) Music

Again I know that it has been a while since my last post.  Please accept my apologies as it has been a rather busy few weeks.

Nonetheless the wedding day has come! It came and it went and it brought us back to Kansas.  It's so nice to finally have someone else from home in Kansas.

For those that were unable to be there I'll tell you a little bit about the weekend:

For myself it started after school on Thursday when I flew home.  Emily picked me up from the airport and we drove to my sister's house where we had the pleasure of meeting Grandpa and his lovely bride Peggy for the first time.  We also got the opportunity to see my parents, Matt, Elise, Madeline and Carly. 

Friday was busier than I had thought it was going to be.  It began with several errands to prepare the groomsmen/ushers gifts.  I also spent some time at the reception hall trying to help to be sure everything was ready.  From there we went to the church for the rehearsal.  Many thanks to Dean and Cathy for hosting the rehearsal dinner.  Everyone enjoyed a wonderful meal and time to relax.  This still made for a long night before the big day. 

As I went to bed that night, forecast: High of 59, Partly Cloudy

Though there were some kinks in the plan right off the bat nothing major happened to cause any problems.  Right from the get-go I woke up and relaxed a bit in the morning.  The TV was on and I was waiting for the weather.  Today's forecast: High of 68, Sunny.  Looks like everything is going to work out after all. Rumor has it that the temperature actually got up to the mid 70s.  I don't have any confirmation of this. 

Emily was stunning.  The service was beautiful.  I could not have asked for anything better than what we got.  The reception hall was gorgeous.  Emily did a great job of paying attention to the details.  From the cake to the tables to the favors to the dance floor.  It was all amazing.  We were very pleased with our photographer, our hall, the church, the DJ.  It was all amazing. 

The other amazing piece was all the guests that made it to town for the wedding.  We both want to thank our guests for making the long journeys from Kansas, Oregon, Washingtin, Georgia, Costa Rica, Brazil, or the many other places you came from.  It was flattering that you chose to devote your time to be a part of our special day.

Here are just some pictures for those that maybe interested: