WICKED!

A few months ago, a friend of mine, Lisa, sent out an email asking if anyone was interested in going to see Wicked--suggesting we make it a girls' night out.

I was super excited!

Jeff was super excited, too. Yeah, he totally wanted to crash the girls' night! I also invited my sister, gave a ticket to my niece for her birthday, and invited an old friend.

Last night was THE night!!

I was so excited! This is the first Broadway play I'd ever seen. We've been to a couple other plays but nothing with this much acclaim.

I was also excited because the old friend I invited was my roommate in the summer of 1997...and that was the last time I'd seen her. Reconnecting with old friends is always such great fun!!

Jeff and I grabbed some dinner at Mackenzie's before the show. It was conveniently located right next door to the theater. My friend, Heather, joined us, and then my sister and niece joined us, too.

Wicked was showing at the Orpheum theater in Minneapolis. What a gorgeous theater! We'd never been inside this theater before. I had no idea how big and old it was. Today, I had to look up the history of the theater. Fascinating! It originally opened in 1921. Jeff figured it was so old by noticing that it the lighting had been converted from gas lamps to electrical fixtures. The Hennepin Theater Trust actually gives tours of their theaters (including the Orpheum). I'd definitely LOVE to take one of those tours.

The play was fantastic! We were in the center of the very back row, so definitely not the best seats in the house. I still enjoyed the play immensely. I especially loved the storyline. It was incredible! I loved the little twists and turns and the tie-ins to the Wizard of Oz. I loved the music and the acting! I loved the fun company of the people I went with.

There were 20 or so of us that went together as a group. I didn't get a chance to socialize with them all, but it was definitely worth the group rate!
:))

Overall, it was a fabulous evening out! Thanks, Lisa, for organizing it all!

Back to Blogging: A Title I Am Particularly Proud Of - "Tuesday, November 04, 2008 - "Tragic Ending to our House Hunting Saga"

NOTE: As part of SITS Back to Blogging event, here's one of my best titles (certainly not a blogging strongpoint of mine). This was originally posted on November 4, 2008. We have since moved away from the apartment. :-)

After much back and forth with the City of St Paul, we decided to forego buying a house and continue renting.


Luckily, it only took less than a week of searching on Craigslist to find a fantastic place.

Our new address is:
2254 Benson Ave
Unit E
St Paul MN 55116

We have conveniently relocated to the W 7th area. We're about 10 min from school, 10 min from my parent's house, and 15 min from church. Perfectly located!

We rented a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom condo from a nice young couple. It's an upstairs condo, and we're nearly completely moved in. Everything's here but not quite unpacked just yet.

Of course, Sallie moved with us. There was no way we were going to give her up. She's way too cute and adorable, so that was one of our criteria in our apartment search. She's adjusted very well to our new place. While we are nestled in between two very busy streets, our condo is located in a wooded area right next to the railroad tracks and lots of other housing complexes. It's very residential, and Sallie loves going for walks.

Back to Blogging: A Post I Wish More People Had Read - "Talking with Sallie"

NOTE: This was originally posted on December 24, 2008. As part of SITS Return to Blogging event, I'm posting this post. I wish more people had viewed it, because it's so funny to see Jeff and Sallie singing together. We often bring this video up whenever we want to show off how awesome our little girl is.



Back to Blogging: The First Post I Ever Wrote - "Welcome!"

As part of SITS Back to Blogging event, I am re-posting my very first blog entry for the Dodson Journal! This was originally posted on February 27, 2006.

Clarinda decided she should do some updates to our website this morning. She was shocked and appalled to discover that we hadn't made any updates since November! That is such a shame...

In light of this, we've decided that our website is too cumbersome and difficult to update frequently. We checked out a friend's blog and thought that might be the way for us to go, too. We hope to keep this updated much more frequently. We'll shoot for once a week, but hopefully at least a few times each month.

We haven't decided yet if we will try to update this retroactively or just going forward--probably a little of both.
 
While I have much enjoyed this blogging experience, I doubt that I've kept up with it nearly as well as my intentions were in Feb 2006! There have been several stints where this blog has been severely neglected. Perhaps Back to Blogging will inspire me to keep up with it.

Camping - Afton State Park

We went camping this past weekend with some friends of ours. It was so much fun. We've really discovered that we enjoy camping. This was our second trip with summer! :-)

This particular campsite was a hike-in. It was rough, as there was quite the hill to traverse before getting to our site. With all our gear (yes, we did try to pack light), it was quite strenuous, and we were pretty pooped by the end.

So, what do you do after hard work like that?

Reward ourselves with a fire!

Enjoying the fire

What's done there, Sallie?

The next morning, we all went for a walk around the park. Afton State Park certainly is beautiful. The clear, blue skies and perfect temps probably helped a lot, too.

Sallie leading the way!

We came across this little log shelter. Not sure what it's purpose is exactly, but we thought it would was a great photo opp.

Our friends

Next to that little shelter, there was this cool brick wall.

Another photo opp?

Yes, indeed!

The Dodsons...and Sallie (of course)

At the end of our little morning hike, there was a beautiful look-out.

Jeff's turn

Clarinda's turn

Here's what we saw. Gorgeous!

I love this pic of Sallie! She looks like she's about to chase after something.