My weekend, picture heavy!

“If you can’t excel with talent, triumph with effort.” ~ Dave Weinbaum

Off-da! (yeah… I’m Minnesotan!)

Things have been go-go-go here lately!

This past Thursday I headed out West…. South Dakota… with a couple of girlfriends for a sorority sister’s wedding. We drove about 4 hours and close to Sioux Falls, SD, we picked up a fellow Greek friend from high school, Dooley, to continue our way even further west to Deadwood, South Dakota.

Thursday night, we drove about 6 hours total and ended up in Chamberlain, SD (AKA the town that has nothing) to crash for the night. While in Chamberlain, we had dinner at a small diner and headed up to a rest stop to check out the view. Beautiful is all I can say.

I’m not a small town gal. I’ve always lived near the cit, but I can absolutely appreciate the views the country gives you… stunning.

Our overnight in Chamberlain was nothing to brag about. We were all exhausted from the drive and just ready to hot tub, then crash once we got to the hotel. The car ride was good for catching up with my girlfriends, Steph (former roommate), and Sheena. And it was really nice to catch up with Dooley… I hadn’t seen him since I graduated…. 3 years ago. The beauty of it is, we were all able to pick up where we left off. It was really great.

On Friday, we woke up bright and early to get on the road to Deadwood, SD. We decided that we wanted to drive through the Badlands on the way there. SO glad we did! I had seen the Badlands as a child on a family vacation, but it was SO long ago, so I didn’t really remember it.

It was so fun driving through the Badlands and stopping often to check out the sights.

After we were over the Badlands, we continued on our way to Deadwood, where Abby would be getting married.

We arrived into Deadwood around 3pm. After checking into the hotel, meeting up with Brian and Stacy (a sorority sister and her boyfriend), Sheena, Dooley, Steph, and I decided to drive through Spearfish Canyon. OMG, let me tell you. SO beautiful! I WISH I had taken some pictures, but about half way through our drive through the canyon, it started storming and hailing. BIG hail. I got pelted in the ta-ta and that was no treat – it literally left a mark! After that, we decided it would be best to NOT get out of the car to take pictures.

After our drive through the canyon, we met up with the whole crew (there were about 9 of us) decided to go out for dinner. It was pretty low key, but it was lovely to catch up with my sorority sisters. It made me realize how much I miss college.

Saturday was wedding day. Sheena, Steph, and I woke up semi-early to go into town and do the tourist-y stuff. It was a lot of fun, but before ya knew it, we were headed back to get beautiful for Abby and Beau’s wedding.

Their ceremony was held outside and it was absolutely beautiful. Simple, but so, so pretty. And of course, the bride was stunning.

The ceremony was perfect. My favorite part was during the vows. Abby started speaking and then decided she didn’t want to speak them into the microphone because she was crying, so she whispered them to her husband to be – it was SO sweet and touching. Ahh!  It was rather toasty out.. I think that’s probably what caused my eyes to well up. My eyes weren’t crying, they were sweating! 

After the ceremony, it was party time! Abby and Beau sure know how to throw one heck of a party! We had an absolute blast!

The whole night was spent boogy-ing down and enjoying some delicious beverages. Sheena and I stayed “responsible” and kept the drinks to a minimum since we knew we had a 10 hour drive ahead of us the next morning.

I can honestly say this past weekend was one of the best that I’ve had in a LONG time.

And as many of you know, I began my new job on Monday and since it’s all been training, training, training, information overload, I can’t really say if I love it or not yet… BUT I can say that I have a very good feeling about it. I think I will really like it and I think I will be good at it, which is an awesome feeling.

As much as I loved the last company I worked for, I did NOT love my job. I wasn’t stimulated, I felt like I was sitting stagnant, and most days, I was just plain BORED. I know I made the right move to accept this position and I feel so confident that I will excel at this position… I cannot explain how good that feels.

Well, with that being said, I need to head out…. on to training day number 3! I’ll be back soon – that is, if my brain doesn’t explode from all of the information being CRAMMED into it!

Thank you for your patience in my absence… I had very, VERY limited internet connection in SD and really… I wanted to just live in, and enjoy the moment… and I’m so glad that I did.

I hope you guys all had an equally fantastic weekend!

xo!

Twitter: @MNLinds