We went to the Mall of America our first weekend in Minneapolis to see what all the fuss was about. It was cooler than we expected!
We also learned if you leave carbonated beverages in your car over night, they will freeze and explode. All. Over. The. Place.
My brothers helped Davey and I load ALL our stuff into a U-Haul truck on Christmas Eve for our move to Minneapolis!
We drove up on Christmas Day. We celebrated Christmas night at a diner in Minnesota. We won’t forget our first Christmas!
Davey and I have been living in a small, one bedroom apartment north of Indianapolis. I will never forget the excitement of coming back to our cozy apartment on our wedding night, spending the second week of our honeymoon making it “ours”, having movie and wine nights cuddled up on our oh-so-fancy futon, and anxiously waiting for one another to get home from work so we can share an evening together.
My favorite spot of the apartment is sitting on our bench at our small kitchen table. The “table” was previously my desk in grad school, and the bench belonged to my loving grandparents. My grandma gave me the bench at my bridal shower.
I also love our coffee table which is simply an old piano bench we picked up at Goodwill! It allows a little extra storage without taking up a lot of space. I love functional furniture.
Davey has put in a lot of work lately to climb the corporate ladder. This rung of the ladder brings us to Minneapolis, MN!
Starting our married life in Indy has been such a blessing, and leaving our family and friends will be incredibly difficult. We are trying to view it as a new adventure; we can’t wait to see what’s to come!
We went out to dinner the other night to celebrate where all good Americans would go– TGI Fridays! We had a gift card. 🙂
Here is a video clip and a couple pictures of our celebration. We had to explain ourselves to the wait staff.
We are moving on Christmas.
These clips are from my travels during grad school. It seems as though I lived out of a suitcase during those times… just the way I liked it.
When Davey and I were engaged, we made the socially offbeat decision to start our married life without cable. Someone recently said to me, “I have never heard of such a thing,” and I am guessing you may be thinking the same thing. Let me tell you about the advantages and disadvantages:
Disadvantage Scenario Number One: We arrive to work and our coworkers and clients ask us through yawns, “Wow, did you see the World Series game last night?” We refrain from saying the first thing that comes to mind which is, “Oh, was that last night?” and have to make something up like, “Yes, I couldn’t believe that one play.”
Disadvantage Scenario Number Two: We arrive to work to find out that tornadoes, hurricanes, and monsoons will all be sweeping through Indiana according to the show-stopping weather reports. Darn, we should have closed our windows at the apartment.
Disadvantage Scenario Number Three: It seemed as if this year, more than any other, 110% of people who went downtown for Halloween were dressed up like some television character. After asking 5 people, “What are you dressed up as?” I learned to say, “Love the costume! You look just like him!”
Advantage Number One: We have been reading. A LOT. We even got a library card. I had avoided the library ever since I was in elementary school. Unknowingly, my repressed memories of my elementary school librarian’s thick eyebrows, muted mustache (she’s a woman), and scratchy voice telling me, “Once again, Kaylee, you are late in returning your books. Are you a slow reader? We have a special class for you” was keeping me away. Now that I have faced my fears, I love the library.
Here is Davey studying away:
Advantage Number Two: We have invested our time in cooking and sharing meals together. Davey has made turkey chili, tortilla pizzas, and something called “Davey’s Special” (I still can’t figure out what that was). I have made chicken tetrazzini, butternut squash soup, and chicken cacciatore. We cherish our meal times together; it’s my favorite time of day.
Advantage Number Three: A number of times, we have simply sat on our couch with a cup of chai tea telling stories about our days and coming up with new adventures. I truly believe we would have lost these precious conversations in new episodes of the New Girl or that one play of the World Series.
I am so thankful for our decision to live unplugged as we start our life together.
Our honeymoon to Excellence Playa Mujeres was pretty amazing. We ate room service breakfast on the balcony every morning, sat by the beach and pools during the day sipping pina coladas, and enjoyed full course meals in the restaurants in the evenings. We initially felt very out-of-place in the lap of luxury–we literally thought we were at the wrong resort. Certainly the concierge had the wrong “Mr. and Mrs. Hiatt.”
On the second day, the phone in our room rang. Davey answered and was quiet for a few moments. I thought Oh great, here we go. They realized they have the wrong people. I imagined repacking everything and being kicked out to a spring break resort in downtown cancun. shudder.
They were just making sure everything was to our standards.
Um, yes. We didn’t know things could be this good in life.
Here are some photos and a quick video to recap our trip:
