A Fun Weekend with Joy!

Brandon's sister, Joy, came to visit us this weekend. She arrived on Wednesday night and leaves today from the Cities around 5pm. It has been fun having her here especially since Brandon has been really busy at the hospital. He has been on home call for peds ortho Friday, Saturday and today, so it was actually pretty bad timing for him to spend time with Joy, but it has been fun for me to spend time with her. He stayed the night at the hospital on Friday, then was called in during the afternoon yesterday, came home around 7pm and then was called in around 11pm and I haven't seen him since. He called and said he probably wouldn't be home until later tonight so he won't even get to say goodbye to his sis...so sad!

On Wednesday night, we went out to dinner with Joy at Whistle Binkies South since it was such a nice night. We ate outside and were able to watch the people playing beach volleyball. Nick also came with us and afterwards, Joy treated me to Culvers for my birthday (which was awhile ago...I am still using it as an excuse!)

On Thursday, I made lasagna for dinner and afterwards, we all went downtown to explore the "Thursday's on First and Third" live music and vendors. It was a nice night out but it didn't take too long to see everything there, so we came back and played Mario Kart and Guitar Hero on the Wii. We also had molten chocolate cakes for dessert that I made. They are super easy to make and are so good. Here is the recipe.

Joy, Nick, Brandon and I at the remodeled plaza downtownThe yummy molten chocolate cakes

On Friday, we went to the Rochester Fair. Brandon and I had never been before so we thought it would be fun. We wanted to see the tractor pull but after seeing the price of admission, we decided just to eat dinner and walk around. They have similar food to the State fair...fried cheese curds, turkey legs, etc. We saw the animals and also went on the ferris wheel which was fun. I had a great idea of taking a picture with a llama and got Brandon to do it with me, but then got scared when I stood next to it, so I didn't get too close!

Watching the animals at the fairPosing next to the llamaTrying to be a creative photographer!Nick and Joy on the ferris wheelOn the Ferris Wheel

On Saturday, we went out to lunch at Brandon's favorite place, Chipotle. Afterwards, Brandon was a good sport and went shopping with us until he got called into the hospital. Joy and I had dinner at Chesters, a new restaurant in town. We ordered a good fondue appetizer and after asking our waiter if that would fill us up, we decided to each order an entree as well. Well, after eating the fondue, we both were full so when our huge salads came we both took one bite and were done. The waiter came by after awhile and realized that the fondue had filled us up and I think he felt bad...oh well, it was kind of funny that we both had these huge salads sitting in front of us and were done with our meal! Afterwards, we went on a bike ride and found a geocache to prove to the guys that we can actually find one. Last time, Joy was out here we tried to find one with Nick and none of us could find it... So, we know that we are not the problem! We decided to treat ourselves to yummy Dairy Queen ice cream afterwards!

Chipotle

So proud that we found the geocache!

Joy blessing our huge ice cream sundae (I think it was more of praying that we didn't get fat from it!!)

We then came home and Brandon had to go back to the hospital. After doing fake makeovers online, Joy thought that dark brown would be a good hair color on me to go with my blue eyes, so at 11pm we went to Wal Mart and got dye. We stayed up until 1am dying my hair and styling it. It was fun but I think it will take some getting used to. Please be honest and let me know whether you like it or not!

The new look!

This morning, Nick and Joy are out together and Brandon is at the hospital, so I am getting some things around the house. I will drive Joy up to the Cities around 2:30 today and am hoping that I will get to see Brandon sometime tonight...