Road Trip 2009: Leg One

Well, we've been back home from our road trip for two weeks, so I thought I shouldn't put off updating our blog any longer. We spent 12 days in the car driving through some magnificent areas of the country. We had so much fun and took so many great pictures! This post is of our first leg which began on May 29th and continued through Sunday, May 31.

Our first stop was in Sioux Falls, SD. I read about Falls park online and thought it would be great fun to check it out. Jeff and I LOVE waterfalls, so this park was a definite treat. While the magnitude of the falls were nothing compared to Multnomah Falls, there were so many falls in the park it was still so beautiful!

Something fun about these rocks were they did not look real. We had to literally knock on them to reassure ourselves that they were not painted Styrofoam. These pictures really do not describe how fake these boulders looked.

After walking through the park for a short while, we found a quiet picnic area and ate lunch. It was a great way to spend our first pit stop.

Our next scheduled stop was in Casper, WY. On our way, we drove past the "World's Largest Bulls Head!" This picture was taken from our car window.

Sallie is in the car with us all the time, but she was not prepared for a long trip on the freeways. The loud sounds of the higher speeds and the semi trucks were too much for her. One of the only ways that she would settle down at all was in Jeff's lap as he drove.

We spent the entire Saturday (5/30) with friends (Molly, Edis, and Amani) in Casper, WY. We spent the afternoon walking around Alcova Reservoir. It was so beautiful!

Amani is one of the most adorable little girls ever! You can't really tell in this picture but her eyes are gorgeous. So big and brown, with luscious eyelashes!

Amani found a real friend in Sallie. They played really well together both inside...

And outside!
We also learned that Amani loves to swing. Molly told us that she would be happy to spend hours out there just being pushed and pushed and pushed some more. Sunday morning we left Casper, WY, to continue our journey, heading to Yosemite National Park. Molly and Edis attempted to get us to look at an atlas before leaving, so we'd have a general idea of where we should go. We didn't listen and decided to trust Frannie (the GPS system in our car). Frannie took us down a road that took us behind Alcova Reservoir.
It was at this point that we really should have turned around to try to find a route that was more well traveled. Again, we decided to put our faith in Frannie. The paved road ended not too long after we passed Alcova Reservoir. We found ourselves winding through Seminoe State park on what could only be described as forest service roads. They were dirt. They were rutted. They were a bit scary at times. We were getting nervous that our car, with its fancy low-profile tires, would get damaged or something would happen and we would have no way of getting help. In the midst of our frustration we decided to say a prayer for comfort and guidance and to be able to enjoy the beauty that surrounded us.

Shortly after our prayer, we drove right up to this beautiful mountain. It was absolutely breaktaking!

Sallie and I got out and walked along the road for awhile. I was counting my blessings that the Lord had heard and answered our prayers. Being a MN girl, I was also fascinated at the sheer power of the mountains. I could feel such a power of peace as I walked along that mountain road.

We came across this spectacular reservoir! I believe it is the Seminoe Reservoir. It was gorgeous, and we never would have been able to see it, if we hadn't taken Frannie's route.

Stay tuned for the next leg of our trip. It takes us through the rest of Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and Yosemite National Park.

Happy Mother's Day!!

In honor of Mother's Day, here is a video of a day in the life of a mom! This is great. Enjoy. :-)



On a more sober note, here's a tribute to mothers everywhere--especially mothers of teens. You are LOVED! Beware: this might induce some tears.

And for the finale...haikus as tributes to our moms!

(a picture from our wedding)

Marna,

You're thoughtful and kind.

We love our Sundays with you.
We love you so much!

(One of the few pictures I could find of Jeff's mom)

Mom,

You're loving, caring.
You are always on our minds.
We love you so much!

(one of the few pictures I have of my mom; this is with her first grandson)

Mom,

Though no longer here,
I'm a reflection of you.
I miss you so much!

Who Wants to Work on a Day Like Today? Part 2

We shot this video on our walk the other day.

Sallie loved romping in the tall, dead grass around Crosby Lake. Of course, she did most of the really cute things when the camera was not rolling. :-(

Sorry about the sound. We had no idea how windy it was until we were back home watching this video.

Who Wants to Work on a Day Like Today?

Today was beautiful! I just couldn't concentrate on the Vietnam War, so instead we decided to take Sallie for a walk along Crosby Lake near our home.

Here's Sallie sporting her Urban Backpack. It's the first time since the fall since she's worn it.

I'm ready to go!!

Help! I've got something stuck in my paw!!

Can anyone tell me what kind of bird this is? All I know is...it's pretty!

We finished our walk by hiking up a scary cliff. You'll have to take my word for it, because this picture doesn't do it any justice. This is Jeff at the top.

Taking a Step Back

Well, it's official.

We've rid ourselves of our cell phones. Now we will rely solely on our land line.

I'm actually very excited about it! No more being tied to the phone. No more worrying about leaving it somewhere. No more being available all. the. time.

Of course, it also means no more texting. :-( I'm really going to miss texting.

But...think of the freedom that will come with no phone tied to my hip!

We were able to transfer my cell phone number to our land line, so I don't need to give out any new numbers (a little added bonus!). Hmm...if you need to reach Jeff, you'll just need to call my old cell number.

This is gonna be great!

Silly Sallie

I was babysitting Isabel the other day, and Sallie did the silliest thing...


I got down on my knees to play with Isabel, and Sallie didn't want to be left out, so she climbed right up on my back, bringing her little toy with her.




Here's a fun little video, too.

Talking with Sallie

Merry Christmas

Tragic Ending to our House Hunting Saga

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.

Sunday

August 24th (hard to believe it's already been a month) was a very special Sunday.


We visited my sister's ward to hear my niece give her very first talk in Sacrament. She just turned 12 in June. She was so excited to speak in Sacrament! I think she was asked to speak on a Wednesday and had her talk completely written on Thursday. Thankfully, she did not get my procrastination gene. :-)


Here is her talk:


"I was asked to give a talk about how education is important to life.

Well we should always work to educate our minds and our hands so we can succeed in our chosen fields. Our education should be an influence for good and our use of it should distinguish us as people of integrity. A good education will prepare us for opportunities as they come and will help us be an asset to our families, the Church, and our communities.

In chapter 130 D&C: 18–19 it reads, Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection.
And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come.

If you’re now a teenager, people have probably stopped asking you what you want to be when you grow up and have started asking you much harder questions like “Are you going to college?” “Are you prepared to take the standardized tests you need for admission?” “What are you going to study?” “Have you thought about internships or trade schools?”
If all those questions make you want to scream and run away from getting more education, that’s normal. Your education and career choices are a big deal, but preparation can take the fear out of making those big decisions. So don’t run away just yet.


Shanna Butler told a story in the New Era, Nov. 2004 and it says: Elder L. Tom Perry, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, has said, “It is never too early to determine the direction you want to prepare yourself for. Don’t wait until you register for college to decide what you want to study.” Christian McConner-Hughes is 17 and just got accepted to BYU in Idaho. He wants to study Japanese and become an interpreter. He’s been a part of the Chicago Illinois Stake’s mentoring program for a few months. He’s a good student but Christian needed to catch up a little on his physics homework, so he signed up for a program to help him right away. Christian has also prepared for his future by attending seminary. Craig Nelson, who is responsible for the career counseling center at LDS Business College, says, “Seminary and institute provide a great rounding to your education that you can’t get any other way.” Education in both spiritual and academic things is a great way to prepare for the future. You also need to be financially prepared. “You have to look realistically at how you are going to pay for your education,” Brother Nelson says. “The money does not appear magically. but careful planning and faith can carry you through your education and your career. President Boyd K. Packer, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, said, “We encourage our youth in every country to get an education. Even if at times it seems hopeless. With determination and faith in the Lord, you will be blessed with success. It is a dream well worth pursuing. And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ amen."


I think that only the first two paragraphs were in her own words, but she did a wonderful job with her presentation! She didn't even seem nervous to be up on the stand or at the pulpit. It was a very proud moment for her and her family.


The other special reason for a visit to my sister's ward was to witness the ordination of my nephew to the office of Priest. Another proud moment for my sister and her family.

What a good looking 16 year old!

Here are a couple of other pics from the day.

Our Little Girl

Now that we're going to be homeowners, we thought we'd need a cutie to come live with us. We've actually been debating getting a dog for quite some time. We weren't allowed to have one in our apartment. :-(


We just couldn't resist this little cutie-pie from the Animal Humane Society in Golden Valley.

We've renamed her Sallie. Her name was Susie, but I have a niece named Susie, so she needed a new name.







I'm already totally in love with this little girl, so there will probably be lots more pictures in future posts.

Welcome to your temporary home, Sallie!!

We close on your new home on Sept 30th!

Holding Pattern

So...

We are in a crazy holding pattern. We have less than 2 weeks until we need to be out of our apartment, and we have no home. We will be staying with my parents for a short, indefinite time.

The day after the bank accepted our offer on 1323 Randolph, we found out that St Paul, who is financing our house, did not have any money. They will get more money, but they do not know when. As of right now, they are not showing the house to anyone else, so chances are still very good that we will still get this house, which is very good news.

I'll keep you updated!

WE GOT IT!!

I'm very excited to announce that our offer was accepted! Our 3rd pitch was a HIT! Whoo hoo!!

They have us down for a closing on August 29th, but we're hoping to get everything done sooner. We do, afterall, need to be out of our apartment by the 31st, so the sooner we can close the better.

Our new address will be:

1323 Randolph Ave

St Paul MN 55105

We will be directly across the street from a grocery store, Copper Dome diner is on one corner, and PJ Murphy bakery is on the other corner. So much convenience within walking distance!

Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we work towards a closing.

We're trying new things!

If you were to ask either Jeff or I what we like to eat, you'd get a resounding..."Anything but fish or seafood!" (Actually, there are probably a few other things that could be added to that list as well.)

Of course, over and over again, we hear how good fish is for you. Lots of people enjoy it.

So, we finally decided to give salmon a try. On a whim, I purchased some at the grocery store. I figured if we didn't like it, we'd only be out $5, and I'd know not to try that again.

Jeff agreed that I could make it for dinner. Here is the recipe I decided to try.

I thought I had lemon pepper, but I didn't. I did have garlic pepper, so it turned out to be way more garlic that lemon. I served it with mashed potatoes (instant) and green beans (canned).

It was my first time, of course, so I think I may have over cooked it. I thought it was a tad too dry.

I was surprised at how non-fishy it tasted. I mean, once you got passed the smell. :-)

It was...wait for it...actually all right. Jeff and I agreed that it would even be OK for me make salmon again.

Big Lake Wilderness Lodge

Last weekend, we took a trip up north to spend some time at the lake. The lake we chose was Big Lake near Ely, MN.

We went with my Dad,

Marna,

Emillio,

AJ,

and Selena.

We had so much fun, and we took a lot of pictures. Check out the slideshow on the right for a quick view. I hope to put some into scrapbook pages and post them in a future post. Right now, it's past my bedtime, and my mouse it almost dead, so I need to call it a night.

Hopefully this is enough to whet your palette.

Come back soon!

Strikes

In the last post, I mentioned that we were going to put in an offer on a house in St Paul.

I'm disappointed to have to report that we didn't end up putting in an offer because there were already two offers in, and we knew we wouldn't be able to outbid them.

STRIKE ONE!

So...we decided to put in an offer on our 2nd choice home. It wasn't in the same location, but we thought that it might be the house for us. We sat down with our realtor and filled out all the paperwork. And we waited. Last week, we found out that another offer had been accepted.

STRIKE TWO!!

We are going out house hunting with our realtor again tonight. Hopefully, we'll find something that we love! And we'll put in an offer! And they'll accept it! And we'll be able to close in a few weeks!

If we strike out again (three strikes, you're out, right?), we'll probably just look for a cheaper apartment--one closer to campus. You see, on June 30th, we put in our 60-day notice to vacate our apartment at the end of our lease. On July 1st, our apartment was rented. August 31st is our last day, so hopefully we'll have something lined up before that day comes...and it's fast approaching.

Wish us luck!

Update / Restaurant Review

OK, so I guess I've been pretty lackadaisical about updating our blog.

We've even taken some pretty cool road trips complete with great photos! We went to Lutsen, MN, in the beginning of May, and Nauvoo, IL (for my cousin's wedding) in the middle of May. Hopefully I'll take some time to blog about them soon.

About a month ago, Jeff and I found ourselves in a Slumberland Clearance center. While waiting to check-out, I sat on a couch by the register. I immediately fell in love with this couch! So comfortable, so soft! Too big, really, for our apartment.

So...we began again the discussion of whether or not to buy a house in MN. After much discussion, the search began. We found a house that holds lots of opportunity for us to really make it exactly what we want and that will fit our needs.

Being city dwellers at heart, this property is less than 1 mile from downtown St Paul, and within walking distance to the Xcel Center and the shops/restaurants on West 7th. We LOVE the location.

Unfortunately, we didn't get approved for nearly as much as we would've liked. Good news is, it is bank-owned, so hopefully they'll accept our very low-ball offer. If you don't mind keeping us in your prayers, we'd really appreciate it.

Last night, we decided to actually go out on a date--something we haven't done in quite awhile. Since I've always considered myself more of a Minneapolis girl than a St Paul, I thought we should go check out the area that we'll hopefully be moving to.

We decided to try El Patio.

This restaurant really helped sell me on the location and St Paul. We dined outside, and it was so relaxing! We leisurely talked about our future as we munched on chips and salsa. Our food was delicious and our server was great! I definitely see us returning to this restaurant and checking out the others that are close by.

Movie Review: 21

Jeff and I went to see 21 last night. Click here for a trailer. (You have to watch a brief commercial before the actual trailer.)


We both really enjoyed this movie!

This post was actually written on 4/19/2008. Not sure why I didn't end up publishing it. Maybe I was going to expand more on what we liked/didn't like...

New Favorite Sport

Last night Jeff and I went to our first Roller Derbie!

We were kind of skeptical (or at least I was), but it was actually very fun to watch. We took some pics (unfortunately, it was too dark for good pics) and some video. The videos that were turned out well are too large to upload to this blog. Maybe we'll be able to edit them a bit to get them down to an appropriate size.

My sister plays hockey, so we're trying to get her to tryout to be a MN Rollergirl. Tryouts are at the end of June. I told her I'd even tryout, too!

Visit the MN Rollergirls website for more about this exciting sport.

New Toys

We moved into a large 1-bedroom apartment at the beginning of February. Now we have all kinds of room and have begun the process of filling out the empty spaces. With both Jeff and I in school, we have decided to use all 3 of our desktop computers--one for Jeff, one for me, and one for entertainment (we run our TV through a computer). Using all 3 computers, presented us with a dilemma: we were short 1 monitor.


Our solution:

Yep, a 42" plasma TV. :-) It is SO nice.

For Jeff's birthday, I wanted to get him something really special. We'd been discussing this purchase, so I went out and bought a Wii.

We've been having lots of fun playing tennis in our living room. My family gave Jeff 3 additional games. I haven't tried any of them out, but I'm sure they'll be lots of fun!

We certainly enjoy our new toys. BUT now it makes it even more difficult to concentrate on our studies. So far, I think we've done quite well.

Wish us luck balancing school, work, and play. :-)