From a Bagel shop In Forest Lake...

Hey everyone! How are you all doing? I have no pictures to post, so I am just writing today. I have finally had the chance to visit Stephanie at her new job in Forest Lake:) She is doing an awesome job. I like to harass her while working, though, so she could probably do better without me:) lol. I am sitting here with a wonderful cup of Turtle Mocha (with extra whip) and typing away...okay, not really "away" but I am typing. I am preparing myself for our first Quiz Meet tomorrow and for granola bar making (8000) next week. oh boy. We have a quiz practice tonight for prep. I had a great time this weekend. I am pretty sure our whole family did:) We went up to our Grandma and Grandpa's house and relaxed. I was able to help her with her "decorating" of the living room...and then we did something really awesome! We made NOODLES! Yeah! really good noodles! Then we made lasagna and apple pies:) It all was sooooo wonderful! well, we are off to quizzing practice now. ttyl everyone and I will hopefully be able to update with pictures later:) BYE! Hopie:) <3<3<3

I Could Have Danced all Night...and Not Have asked for More!

Hey everybody:) How are you all? A couple weeks ago (i know, i know...WEEKS:) we, well it was actually Camille's plan, had a huge get together/party for Stephanie's 20th birthday:) It was so fun! We had a lot of really great friends who came. We all dressed up nice and fancy and went to the Olive Garden for dinner. I don't really know why the guys did the weird "hand thing" but it works, and at least they looked nice:) I was the one [of us three girls who were going] who was "chosen" to hold the spot for the dinner at Olive Garden. Mom was going to leave just me there to set it all up and I was a little nervous because I didn't want to get yelled at for setting someone next to someone when they wanted to sit next to another someone or such...ya'know:) Luckily, Shane and Kyle (who both looked SO handsome:) had arrived five minutes before us so they helped me set it up...along with KT and Lizzie, who arrived a couple min. after them. I never had really been to Olive Garden before, so I didn't really know what to expect. It was kind of pricey. So I got so hungry I began eating the flowers! I was caught in the act though, so I had to stop:) I did take some of these pictures, but I couldn't really figure out the camera, so I gave it to Luke instead. Obviously, I wasn't the only one who was really hungry:) lol. Here is Libby, KT, and Camille chomping on there flowers. They really seem to be enjoying them too...And here is our birthday girlie and her girlfriends, Lizzie (KT's older sister) and Jessina (I probably spelt that wrong, but if I know you, you get what I'm saying:). She has known Lizzie for years and years and Jessina for...about as long only less years:) Here are three of the handsome guys:) I must say, I have NEVER seen anyone of them so dressed up before! It was so funny...er, NICE! oh yeah, and there names are Josh, Luke and Adam. I didn't really know Adam or Josh very well, but I was able to remeet them that night and there really fun guys!Anyone for a spot of Tea? Well, I guess Camille doesn't really want to share it. If you cant notice yet, everyone has been moving from place to place through out the ordering process. I guess we were trying to get TOM (not Scott, he's waiter #4:) confused with the orders, but he did pretty well:)

And me, being sheik. Notice the *BLING* on my hand. All the girls got blingies and the guys got "incognito" shades. It was totally awesome:)

Sister time! Didn't we all look BEA-Utiful?! Not to make me sound arrogant or anything. lol:)

As usual, our "OMGOSH its Patrick Dempsey" moment...well, I think I am the only one who thinks Patrick is cute, so it's more of a "OMGOSH it's...Brad Pitt( idk, it was the first name I could think of:)!" Except, Cami looks like she's smoking or something...lol.

"I could have Danced all night, I could have Danced all night and should have asked for more..." After eating our meal that I doubt anyone actually ate fully. We headed back to Pioneer Pass to eat more food and drink more (it was punch, okay?) and dance the night away...Here you can see KT and Lizzie swinging out and Camille teaching Kyle how to swing dance. It was a great night:)

"Danc-ing...soon becomes Ro-man-cing..." Sorry Jess, I'm just getting back at Jer:)

After a MONSTER and a glass of wi...punch (who knows, it could have been wine..;) Josh was finally ready to learn how to swing dance.

He was taught by my mom. She only knows the guy part I think, because he didn't really know that it was the guy who was supposed to lead. He did pretty good though as a girl:) lol.

Then for the freakiest part in the dancing! flipping. first, Jeff demonstrated on me..I did pretty good...well, on the not dieing part! It is so creepy to be flipped over yourself! I didn't really trust him but he had done it before I guess, so it was all ok. It was hilarious watching Stephanie and Luke try it:)lol. I cant remember if she made it over, I know she fell more times than me though.

And this is what happens when you have to many MONSTER drinks in one night:) I still have no idea what Josh was doing...weirdo:) There is another picture where I am doing the same thing but he ruined my "moment of paparazzi" and jumped in behind me:( lol.Another bunch of sweet peoples...no, Abbi and Ben didn't really come to the dinner, they just came to pick us all up at Pioneer Pass. I thought this was such a cute picture of them all:)

Lets see...Oh here are "the boys." I have no clue what they were doing but it was enough to get them wound up. They're looking a little tired:)

Our "drunk" cleaning committee...Jessina, Heather, Camille, Mom, Stephanie and I. It was probably 2am, because we had gone downstairs to watch "Enchanted." lol. It was great fun cleaning, though:) Those are the cool "incognito" shades that we gave the boys, but they didn't like them!!! How horrible!
Well, that was our fun for Stephanie's birthday:) I will update again with pictures from my birthday when I get the picture from my G-ma Penny:) She got some really great ones:) I cant wait to show y'all what fun we all had:) ttyl:) Love, Hope

Granola and Sanity

iTired. So, we have succeeded in making over 8000 granola bars. It was INSANE! We would make bars till 5am every morning and then would wake up at 10am to start all over again :P crazycrazycrazy! It was fun at times and horrible at times, but we got it DONE! The only bummer is thinking that we will have to do this every month! AI! I don't mind doing it, I just want to get my school work done:) I have caught up from that week, though (yes-yes, i know I'm good:). Our life here has pretty much been a granola bar...or granola...or oatmeal...oi vey. We have had time for a couple great parties, though:) Really, really awesome. Got to swing dance and dress up. I PROMISE I will have pictures! You see, my camera (Toto) died (*sniffsniff*) so we use Stephanie's camera...but, Stephanie "forgets" to give me the pictures till 5months later... and that's the truth!
One of the occasions for partying was for Stephanies 20th Birthday! That was sooooooooo much fun! A bunch of our friends all got together to celebrate it at Olive Garden. We even had an extra friend (Tom:). It was a fun and interesting time:) I say interesting because there was just so much happening that you couldn't really concentrate!) Then we all went home dancing...well, at least I did. I rode home with KT and Lizzie Grothe...THAT was interesting:) We cranked up 97.1 and sang the whole way home. We stopped to...dance in a waterfall that was in a small town and sang "The Way I Am" as loud as we could. Then KT chased us around with a shovel....creepy(for those of you who have seen the Secret Window:) We got to Pioneer Pass and "danced the night away." Quiet literally, actually:) It was soooo much fun! I never really had danced to swing dancing music, so it was new and fun!
Also, last night, we went to the (okay, I am totally going to spell this wrong...) McKeens (?) house to celebrate the homecoming of Ryan and (err...I am horrible with names...) Corrie Ann (i think?). That was fun, too. I am not much into sports, though so I was bored until Libby came and saved me! We went walking on one of there paths, which came to a dead end...so, we used our imaginations (just Libby and I, mind you) and made our own path...then we couldn't find the real path...so we walked around the weeds for about an hour or so and finally found it (thanks to my expert sense of direction:).
Now it is daddy's Birthday:) next Sat. is my 16th b-day and...well, will cross that bridge when we come to it:) Love y'all and have a great life:) *Mwah* (that was a kiss goodbye) Hopie:) <3<3<3

Tour De' Dulutho (Part 2)

I promised a part two once I received all the pictures, so here it is: Getting ready to take off from the Wurdemanns house in Harris. As I said, us Forsman girls started in North Branch. But it didn't really make a difference. lol. "Hallelujah!" This is mom's pose after she finally got everything to fit into the burly. We were all very excited for her and her achievement! Now for take off. I still can't believe they made it to Duluth with those behind them...wow. Oh, I have mostly Pictures today, so I am not writing too much. First stop: Dr Pete met us in...er, I think Rush City? I cant remember. I was soooooo tempted to head back with him. We had gone 12 miles and i was dieing! blah! He brought us ice cream bars and jazz, which was nice, but then it was still hard for me...I am so grateful for Kyle's help, though! And, when we finally reached the Willard Mungar, those of us who kept up the rear. I say that I kept in back with the guys just so I'd know that everyone had made it...I mean, my loving heart would have broken if I had known someone wasn't going to make it. :) "On the road again, I just can't wait to get on the road again. My seat is sore my it's such a chore to get back on that stinkin' bike..." Did I tell you about the boys' little tent experience? Well, Shane had packed there tent, but had forgotten the poles. So, they (remember, all the boys are 16-18) set up my mom's "two/one" man tent and sleep in that! Seriously, it was SO funny! The most talented game of ultimate Frisbee took place on asphalt, in the parking lot of the main entrance, where a church service was being held. So you were catching Frisbee, catching yourself from falling eating dust, and dodging incoming/oncoming cars. It was pretty daring. I was not involved.

The Two CUTEST four year old boys you will ever meet! Charlie O'Brien and Elliott Forsman. Aren't they the cutest things? Especially since they are drinking Caribou Coffee!

Shane, Kyle, Bailey and I had a good time just walking around Duluth. It is always so beautiful up in Duluth! I love going there with friends! It's so fun to just walk around and look at all God's beautiful creation...even though we were pretty much in man's creation, it was still beautiful! oi vey!

"Yo-Ho, Yo-Ho A Pirates life for me...and you also." To our great joy, we were able to make it p to Duluth in time for the, well, "Pirate" ships. Bailey and I kept looking around for Captain Jack, but we never did find him:) I saw a little guy who almost looked like him, but not quite.

Having fun with Bailey and Abbi on the Lake Superior beach (if you want to call it that). And since we couldn't find any pirates, Bailey and I decided to just be our own...with help from Shane and Kyle. We really had a lot of fun up there. Thank You Mrs. O for the awesome pictures and for the song. I'll sing it at my next gig. Now, Hope has only one word to give y'all. iDone.

And our Main Topic: Biking!

Do I get a second chance at blogging? I love to write, but rarely ever get a chance to get on the computer...Here is our main event as of late. Yes, Camille's Open House was a main event also, but we do not have any of those pictures, so we'll just pretend this is the main. And again, yes...there are more pictures from this trip, but I don't have those either...so we'll make do with what we've got, kapeesh? Kapeesh! So, our bike trip; some 100+ miles from North Branch, MN to Duluth, MN. Lets just say, for me, I haven't had much (okay, okay: none) biking experience so it was a little (okay, A lot) hard. I was so tired, even before we passed Harris! Oi Vey! Here is our amazing biking troupe (from l to r): Mrs. Wurrdemann, Josh W, Michele, Mrs. O'Brien, Stephanie, Myself, Mom, Abbi, Kyle O and Shane O. What a great troupe....

Since most of us were girls...actually, I shouldn't say that...It was mostly the tents in the "burly"s anyway. Josh, Kyle and Shane had to pull our three, heavily packed Burlie's all the way to Duluth! They did amazing! I could barely make it by myself, and they all made it with whatever+ baggage. I had carried something on my bike (alright, it was the snacks) but, on our way to Jay Cook Park, it fell off. Shane was right behind me and did a very dramatic flip into the weeds (it wasn't my fault!). All was well after that....

As you can see, they aren't extremely happy in this shot...only because this is after our first camp out in Hinkley and they were all: "Do I REALLY have to pull this up to Duluth?!" But, hey! They made it!....Now JAY COOK! (finally!)

You can see that Stephanie was very excited about arriving at Jay Cook! They (well, a greater part of the troupe) went to the town about three miles from the Park for food. Mrs. O, Kyle and I stayed back to catch up on our sleep. It was all good though!

hmmmm...a little disturbing. Might this be the reason Shane (and Josh) acted the way they did around the camp fire? What he is doing with everything pink I really don't know! :)

Here are some of us daring enough to cross the "swinging bridge of terror." actually, I just gave it its last name, but it has a nice ring to it! It was a beautiful day right before we were about to head out for our last leg of the journey...Oh, and by the way! I would totally recommend y'all or anyone who reads this to stay at that park at least once in their lives!

Then, as were are about three miles from our rendezvous point, it broke out in rain!!! OH NO! We still made it, but I have to say: that was the longest '1mile' of my life! As you can see (surprise, surprise) we have some extra people. This is another troupe of bikers headed toward Duluth. We met them at Jay Cook and rode with them the rest of the way there! They were awesome people to bike with because they were close to our own ages! It was freezing, but we made it! Sore butts and all!

Of Course, of course...where do you think we stopped right after that invigorating bike treck? Yep. Caribou Coffee. We met up with our dads (well, us kids' dads) and our little siblings. I was so excited because I got to see Bailey again! Yeah! Here are us girls with our coffee (asyoucansee, i was the only sane one who bought hot coffee).

Awww....All four of us sisters together, looking like we actually like each other. jk! we do like each other and get along all the time! lol:) I was amazed, because we were finally in birth order, also (I usually end up after Abbi...i think it's because I'm shorter...?)!

....And then there is our mo...uh, some weird lady who looks like she just got shot out of a cannon and hit the wall of the building (this was my mother saying this, not me!). We were so surprised when we saw she had made it all the way out there! And then she went and jumped off the building too! wow! Good Job MOM!

ahem. And the guys: Dr. Pete, Josh, Shane and Kyle, jumping off the very end of the building. It was quite amusing to watch...I had to make them stand for ten minutes to get this shot because the camera wasn't working. blah!
And so end our troubles..er, trials...no wait: Triumphs on the Willard Mungar state trail. I hope you enjoyed it and, who knows, you might see more photo's soon! ~Hope <3