Weekend Adventures: Livy Comes to Visit!

Last week on Thursday was the first time I saw my best friend since back in February for her 21st birthday, and now it was her turn to pay me a visit. This was the first time Livy had ever come to visit me, let alone be her first visit to the Midwest.

Of course, it was cold and rainy during her visit, even though we had beautiful weather a few days prior to her arrival. Nonetheless, we still had a great time and a weekend full of adventures!

All ready for the Run or Dye 5K!!!

Like I said, Livy flew in Thursday morning and yes, we squealed in excitement like a couple of high school girls seeing puppies for the first time when we were reunited. After we were done hugging and jumping around, we drove to the Sports Authority in Roseville, Minnesota to register for the Run or Dye 5K which we were running in that Saturday. After picking up our runner numbers and Run or Dye swag, I brought Livy back to campus for a quick tour, and then she got to tag along with me to my last class of the day. Unfortunately for Livy, I had to finish a huge paper that day, so after dinner we hung out in my room and tried (so very very hard) to be productive. 

Livy was SUPER excited to see the huge mall!

But first...let me take a selfie! ...Sorry, I had to...

Friday held more excitement for the both of us. Livy tagged along with me to my marketing and my business writing class - both extremely exciting, as you can imagine...*slight sarcasm here*). After which we had to leave campus for a family occasion of mine, but thankfully we were able to make a stop at the Mall of America for a little bit - Livy's first time! We didn't do too much shopping, but I needed to pick a few things up for a banquet I was attending Sunday night.

Dinner at Crave at the Mall of America was amazing, as usual!
(pictured above: Happy Hour's Vegetarian Sushi)

One of the stores definitely worth mentioning is Lush! Now, I had been to Lush a few times before, and knew that they sold soaps and bath bombs, but I thought that was it. I had never really thought to get a better idea of what Lush's life story was, and what the company was all about. So, while walking by the store entrance, and smelling the amazing scents from inside, I grabbed Livy's hand and we ran in to Lush! We were immediately greeted by one of the sales associates (whose name I will not mention for privacy purposes, but let's call her *Amber), and she was literally amazing. Another sales associate helped out Livy, while *Amber helped me out. *Amber asked me what brought me into the store, and I explained that while I had been to Lush before, that I didn't really know that much about the company and wanted to know more about it. I also informed her that I was looking for a face mask. *Amber escorted me to the face mask section of the store and told me all about Lush's values and morals as a company, and what they wished to achieve, in addition to telling me all about the various masks they sold and what each of the masks did.

Ingrid. Why can't I be as amazing and glorious as you??

Livy and I ended up walking out of Lush with a whole new perspective of the company, and purchases that we couldn't wait to try out when we got home for a spa night!

Also while we were at the mall, Ingrid Michaelson made a special appearance, and gave a small concert in the rotunda. This was super cool to me, since she is one of my favorite artists, and I never expected to see her that day, let alone hear her sing live! Not surprisingly, she was amazing live, and it was so cool to see her interact with the audience and engage with them.

Saturday was the day of color. It started pretty early (compared to my typical Saturday) at 6 a.m., as Livy and I needed to be at Harriet Island by 8:30 a.m. for the Run or Dye! We were both extremely excited, and were ready to run (okay let's be serious, jog/walk) a 5K while getting vibrantly colored dye thrown at us. In order to display our excitement (and craziness), we got ourselves decked out in knee high socks, fishnet rave gloves (which we won while dancing in the line waiting for the 5K to start from the two SUPER cute guys hosting the 

event), our Run or Dye shirts, and of course

our DIY tutu skirts (click for tutorial)!

Before...

...After!!

Heading into the blue mist!!

The adventure couldn't be complete
without a few colorful handstands :)

Trying to get most of the dye out
before driving home!

The run was crazy fun, and we've already started looking for other 5K's to run in! The nice thing about fun runs like the Run or Dye, or the Color Run, is that they don't require any training - you can go at your own pace! Which was super nice because of course I didn't train for the run... Haha!




After our early morning adventure, we had to clean up because I had a few summer job interviews that evening in Rochester, Minnesota. After we finished in Rochester, we went back to my parents' house and hung out, made a bunch of food, and tried out our face masks! It was definitely nice to relax after a couple of incredibly stressful weeks!







Sunday was supposed to be another day of fun, but unfortunately the rainy weather canceled all of our outdoor plans. We were going to pay a visit to the Minnesota Zoo (one of my most favorite places in the whole world!), but since it was so icky outside, we decided to hang out around the house and bake incredibly vibrant, pink macaroons! Check out my blog post on how we made the macaroons here! :)

Love these ladies!

My two favorite coworkers!

Livy and I had to be back to campus that afternoon, since I had to get ready for a banquet hosted by my university's Department of Residence Life. The banquet was to honor and thank us student and professional staff members for our dedication and hard work to the department, university, and impact on the student body. I am a Resident Assistant on my campus for those who don't know, and I advise a wing of freshman female students.









It's been an awesome year, filled with fun memories and proud moments, and I'm honestly going to miss them all next year! I will be returning as a second year Resident Assistant, but this time I will have twice as many residents - something that intimidates me, but I look forward to the challenge!

You could say that we're a sassy bunch... ;)

  I had a lot of fun at the banquet, and it was really fun to get dressed up and see the rest of my awesome coworkers all decked out and having fun!


After the banquet I went back to my room to see how Livy was doing (since she wasn't able to attend the banquet), and we ended up being invited out to dinner at Applebee's by a few of my friends.

It was a fun way to end the weekend, and I was extremely sad to see Livy leave. I can't wait to see her again soon, and hopefully next time she comes to visit our friend Megan can join her!!

Until next time guys,

Thanks for reading!!

xoxo AnnaMarie