Rocktober!

The month of October is always called Rocktober in our household.  This is mainly because both of our birthdays are in the month of October and in the past few years we've gone on vacation during the last weekend of the month.  This year Rocktober did not disappoint!

Amber's birthday came first.  October 12th marked 28 years of age.  Amber taught in the morning and was serenaded "Happy Birthday" by some of her students and then had a great lunch with a co-worker and in the afternoon had an in-service with all the elementary music teachers in the district.  That evening we went to Texas Roadhouse for steak and margaritas (for Amber) and beer (for John).  We did not let them know that it was Amber's birthday because there is no way Amber is riding that saddle thing!  All in all it was a very enjoyable day.

John wasn't able to laugh about Amber being old for too long because on October 18th he turned 28 as well.  Unfortunately John had to work late on his birthday so we celebrated a day early with dinner at one of our favorite Janesville restaurants The Speakeasy.  We had some great brick oven pizza and great martini's!

Even though our birthdays were great the most exciting thing about Rocktober was our trip to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.  Instead of buying each other birthday gifts we like to plan a trip during our birthday month and this year we decided to venture back to the Dominican Republic.  We spent our honeymoon in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic in October 2009 and had a great time so we decided to go back to the Dominican this year.

We left on Thursday October 26th for a five day and four night stay at the Barcelo Capella Resort in Santo Dominigo with our friends Megan and Avery.  We enjoyed every minute of 85 degree weather, sunshine, island breezes, great food and fun with friends.  It's wonderful when the decisions that you have to make are "Do we sit at the beach or do we sit by the pool?" and "Do I have a pina colada or do I have a margarita?" The only hang up we had on the trip was that we nearly missed our connecting flight in Fort Lauderdale back to Chicago because it took us over 2 hours in customs!  They held the plane and we made it back just fine.  It was a great trip and I think we made Megan and Avery Dominican Republic lovers as well!

Thursday after we got back home from vacation we had our first volleyball game in our league.  We're not the best volleyball players, but we do like to play so when a co-worker of Amber's asked us if we'd be interested in joining we were thrilled.  The games didn't go so well for our team and we lost all three games, but during the third game John fell on his ankle funny and when he went to urgent care the next day we found out that he severely sprained his ankle.  He was put in a brace for two weeks and although the ankle is feeling better now it's still not fully healed.

Last weekend Amber traveled to Appleton to spend some time with her grandparents and to go to her friend Cristina's baby shower.  It was nice to spend some time with all the "Music Girls" and to meet the newest addition to our group, Mallory and Mike's son Jacob!

Well until next time!  Go Pack Go!

 The beach at our resort.

 John and Amber having dinner at our resort.

 Amber's Lobster Thermidor (amazing!)

 The mini-golf hole where Amber got a hole-in-one!

 A walk along the beach at sunset.

 Amber, John, Megan and Avery on the beach at sunset.

 Our "Music Girls" group.  Amie, Mallory (and Jacob), Cristina, Justine and Amber.

Amber and baby Jacob.

Football, Baseball and Weddings Oh My!

Well it's been over a month since our last post so I thought I'd update you all on the lives of the Okray's during the last month.  Football season in Wisconsin started out wonderfully with the Packers taking care of the Saints at Lambeau Field!  Which has given us Packer fans a preview of how we expect the year to look.  And my the Packers continue to look good!

During the weekend of September 9th through 11th John and Amber went their separate ways John off to Madison for the Badger Football Game and a Golf Tournament with friends and Amber off to Milwaukee in search of a bridesmaids dress for Amie's wedding.  We were each successful with John seeing Bucky win over Oregon State (a shut-out of 35 to 0) and having a great time at the Golf Tournament (although not winning) and Amber finding a sexy and elegant dress for Amie's wedding as well as having some very valuable girl's only time with friends.

The very next weekend (September 16th through 18th) John stood up in Jeremy and Jenna's wedding in Stevens Point, WI.  We both had an awesome time hanging out with friends and family in Stevens Point as well as giving our hard earned money to some local drinking and eating venues in downtown Stevens Point :)  The wedding was outside in a very pretty and elegant garden in Mosinee, WI and the reception was held at the Ramada Inn in Stevens Point.  This weekend was capped off by the Packers winning against the Panthers.  We had the pleasure of watching this game with Mike and Mary Okray as well as Tom, Sharon and Brandon Flugaur.  A great end to a very fun weekend!

I'm not sure if you all know this but the Brewers are still playing baseball!  (It's October!)  And since John's friend Brandon won the opportunity to buy tickets to the game on Sunday October 2nd we were able to be a part of Brewers history.  The Brewers won their second game out of five on that Sunday evening and we have never been at Miller Park when the crowd has been that electric!  It was an outstanding game to watch!  Although Adam and Becky didn't have tickets to the game, sad day :(, they did come to tailgate with us and it was fun to see them even if it was just for a little while.

Today Amber went to cheer on a co-worker who was running her very first marathon.  She ran it in 4 hours and 36 minutes!  Amazing job!  We've discussed if either of us would ever want to run a marathon and I think that the consensus is no...we did discuss running the Green Bay Cellcom Half Marathon again or possibly the Green Bay Cellcom Marathon Relay (both take place in May) but we'll just have to see how we feel about it in a few months.  It is exciting to have a goal, but it's very time consuming to put in all the training runs.

Well I guess that's all I have for this month!  Stay tuned for next months edition!  Rocktober is just getting underway!  We're looking forward to more Packer wins, both our birthdays (28 this year...) and our trip to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic!

 Jeremy and Jenna Fritsch and their wedding party

 John escorting Mary Beth up the asile

 John and Mary Beth heading back down the asile (notice John's Super Bowl ring)

 John and I out in Stevens Point after the wedding

 Brandon, Nate and John at the Brewer Game

John and I at the Brewer Game

Whirlwind of a Week!

This past week has been kind of crazy for the Okray couple.

On Saturday August 27th Amber's maternal Grandparent's celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary with a vow renewal and a rockin' party in Appleton, WI.  It was a warm and sunny day and the party and vow renewal were a great success.  It was so wonderful to be able to celebrate such a fun day with family in the midst of this year's tragedy.  In honor of the anniversary nine members of our German Family came to visit for a week.  We had a great time with them at the Anniversary Party on Saturday and enjoyed taking them on a tour of Lambeau Field, to Bay Beach Amusement Park and on a tour of St. Norbert College on Sunday.  It is always so wonderful to be able to talk and hang out with our overseas family!  For those of you who do not know the story of our German Family here is a brief overview.  When Amber's mom (Diane) was in high school a girl named Angie from Germany came to stay with Amber's Grandparents (Betty and Norb) and the next year Amber's Mom (Diane) went to stay with Angie's family in Germany.  Since then Diane and Angie have stayed in touch and so have their extended families.  Whenever Amber and John get a chance to go to Germany it will be to visit our "German Family."

On Monday we had to say goodbye to our German relatives as John and Amber headed back to Janesville to get back to work.  We didn't have much rest though because on Tuesday after work we headed to Milwaukee to see the Brewers/Cardinals game at Miller Park with some friends.  The Brewers lost which was a bit of a bummer, but we were glad that we got to hang out with some fun people at the game.

Wednesday came and went without too much excitement.  Thursday September 1st was the first day of school for Amber and although it was crazy with new students registering and confusion as to where to drop off/pick up students it was a great start back!   That evening John and Amber drove up to Green Bay, WI to see the Packers/Chiefs pre-season game.  This was a very special game for John because he got to where a Super Bowl XLV Ring during the game.  He has been super excited about the Super Bowl Rings and getting to where one was a dream come true!  It made the 5 1/2 hour car ride there and back all worth it!

This Labor Day Weekend has been a relaxing one for Amber although John has had to work most of the  weekend.  To celebrate Labor Day we went on a bike ride around Janesville with a stop at Dunkin' Donuts for some breakfast.  Tomorrow it's back to "normal" with Amber having her first full week of school and John working at the Golf Course.

 Amber's Maternal Grandparent's (Betty and Norb De Baere) after their vow renewal.

 German Family (some of them) Mattias, Inge and Lukas at Lambeau Field.

 John infront of the 13 time World Champion sign inside the tunnel of Lambeau Field.

  Amber infront of the 13 time World Champion sign inside the tunnel of Lambeau Field.

 German Family (some of them) Mattias, Lukas and Rudi inside Lambeau Field with the Bavarian Flag.

 Mattias, John and Lukas under the St. Norbert College Arch.

 John and the Super Bowl XLV Ring.

Amber, John and the Super Bowl XLV Ring.