I've finally recovered enough from last weekend to get this post up. My friend Ashley flew in from CA on Friday night just in time for the
Amana Colonies Oktoberfest. My boyfriend Dustin's birthday was Thursday so we were out to the festival to celebrate his birthday with a bunch of our friends from Cedar Rapids. As you can tell by his smile and the size of his beer we had quite a lot of fun that night.
The next day we were celebrating my birthday so we headed out to the
Tabor Wine Festival. It was a gorgeous day and I was so lucky to be surrounded by some of my favorite people in the world.
L to R Dustin, Dena, Ashley, Dad, Mom, Hannah and Finn.
To round out the weekend we drove to the
Sutliff Cider Company to enjoy more sunshine, live music and some fantastic hard and soft cider. (The hard cider is alcoholic and the soft cider is more like a sparkling apple juice.) They also have pure cider this time of year which is exactly as the name implies. It tasted amazing and since it's only available for a short time we took a little jug home with us for later.
All in all it was a fantastic weekend. I am extremely touched by all of the birthday wishes I received throughout the weekend too. I've been missing my California friends and family a lot and it was great to hear from so many of them this weekend. (I'm king of hoping they'll see how much fun we have back here and will want to join in next year?!)
October has been beautiful back here in Iowa. We've had pretty major fluctuations in temperatures from the high 30s to the mid- 70s and the trees have just been gorgeous.
I've also been enjoying my 2nd job teaching high school English. Check out my multi-screened office. Obnoxious huh?
