Orchard Fun

This is another post about things we did awhile ago, but I still wanted to share it. Towards the end of October, Anthony and I, along with Nicole and James, headed to Mezeppa, MN to an apple orchard and corn maze. I was most excited about the corn maze portion of this event. However, I also experienced one of the most amazing caramel apples I've ever had. Before we started, our corn maze/apple orchard experience the man told us the it usually takes 20-30 minutes to go through the maze. I am proud to report the we did it in under ten minutes. The guy did not believe us and thought that we cheated, but we really did do it that fast. I was the first one to make it out... and no Dave it wasn't a corn maze for blondes. Here are a few pictures from out experience.

Long Overdue

Hey All!!! Guess what! I am finally blogging. I know it has been 3 1/2 months since my last blog, but things have just been so busy. I'll give you a quick update on what we've been so busy with, then I'll get to the pictures. At the end of August Anthony started his last semester of college. He is taking 13 credits and is also working at Kids Come First about 25 hours a week. The day after Labor Day I started teaching at Faith Christian School in Rochester. In the morning I am with Kindergarten and in the after noon I have 1st- 12th grade. We are using Accelerated Christian Education curriculum, so that allows me to be with such a a big span of ages. Despite this type of curriculum, some days are very challenging just because of the wide age range. From August- October I was the assistant volleyball coach for Crossroads and now I am the girls assistant b-ball coach. It is a lot of fun, but does take up a lot of time. We are both doing well and are looking forward to the holidays to get to see all of our family.

August 16- We were in Iowa for my cousins wedding. James married one of my good friends, Nicole. I was Nicole's matron of honor and Anthony was an usher. Being the Matron of honor, I also had to give a toast. I cried through most of it, as I knew I would, just because they both mean a lot to me. However, I did get Nicole to get a little teary eyed, which is a big accomplishment.




August 30- We went to the Badger vs. Akron football game at Camp Randall. We went with James and Nicole Bolin. After the game we stopped in the Dells for some supper at Moose Jaw Pizza Company. We had a lot of fun on our adventure.



So more things have happened, but I don't have time to wait for the internet right now. More to come very soon. I promise!!

Sporting Weekend II

On Saturday, we continued our weekend of sports by heading to River Falls, Wisconsin. The Kansas City Chiefs have held their training camp in River Falls for several years. It was only 72 miles from Rochester to River Falls so it wasn't too bad of a drive for us. I am the big Chiefs fan, but it was Anthony's idea that we go check out Chiefs family night. Shortly after we arrived sky divers landed on the football field. Later, there was an autograph period and after that practice. We ended up getting autographs from Tony Gonzalez, Larry Johnson, Brodie Croyle, Dustin Colquitt, along with several other players, however they may not all be on the team when the regular season begins. We had a fun night and enjoyed even a glimpse of professional football.

The sky diver. Larry Johnson signing our football.

Tony Gonzalez. This is the crowd to get Tony's autograph. Anthony is toward to front of the pack. I knew his height and long arms would come in handy sooner or later!!
Here is the signed football. Tony's is the one on the upper right. LJ's is on the bottom left. It is upside down in the picture, but you can see the L.

Sporting Weekend I

On Friday night, we went to a Rochester Honkers baseball game with my mom and Nick. Anthony and I have been to other games this season and have really enjoyed them. For those of you who these references may help, they play the Waterloo Bucks and the Wisconsin Woodchucks. Friday they played the Woodchucks and the Honkers lost 2-3. We had fun hanging out with family and being at the game. Nick especially enjoyed the Honkers mascot Slider.

To the faces!!!

The last weekend of July we decided to take a short trip to South Dakota with some of my family. We went with my aunt and uncle, Dave and Pam Bolin, my cousin and his wife, Dan and Lynn Bolin and my cousin and his fiance (also a good friend of mine) James Bolin and Nicole Matlack. We started our trip off in Mitchell at the Corn Palace. In the "Acting Corny" picture it is me, Anthony, James, and Nicole.



We then stopped in Chamberlain to spend the night, but not before enjoying the beautiful view.

The next day we continued to head west. We went to see the famous faces. Anthony, Nicole, and I have never seen Mt. Rushmore.

After touring around the faces, we headed to Wall Drug. For the those of you who don't know about Wall Drug, it became a famous store because of its free ice water. When the store first opened, the owners we having a hard time getting business. They came up with the idea to give away free ice water to anyone who came to their store. This was a big attraction for those we were traveling west, and the store is a big tourist attraction now.

We camped in the Badlands Saturday night. It would have been a lot of fun if it wasn't for all of the mosquitoes. I ended up with over 100 bites, no exaggeration. The next morning we climbed around the Badlands before heading towards home.


For our one last adventure we stopped in Sioux Falls for a short break from riding in the van. It was a good stop because we got to see another example of God's amazing artistry.

Birthday fun!

Natalie opening gifts. Reagan and her cake. Yum!

On July 20th we headed to the cities to help celebrate my nieces' birthdays. Reagan's birthday was on July 16th, she turned one. Natalie will turn 3 on August 8th. We had a good time and enjoyed seeing family and friends. Here are some pictures from the celebrations.

I thought these pictures of Noah and the balloons were super cute!

4th of July

So, I know I'm a tad behind on posting, but I thought I'd still share our 4th of July happenings with you. Anthony and I spent the day hanging out with Beth and Karl (Anthony's sister and brother-in-law). We went over to their house early in the afternoon. We started our fun-filled day out with a competitive game of croquet. We had a very fun time and are all looking into going pro.




























We then headed inside for another round of games. We played Uno Attack and Up and Down the River (a card game similar to 500, but without partners).









By this time, we were all pretty hungry so Karl began grilling our meat for the event. We enjoyed hotdogs, steak, shrimp, pasta salad, beans, and carrots. We then ate patriotic strawberry shortcake.












To finish off our night, we headed to Silver Lake Park to enjoy the fireworks. It was probably the best fireworks display I have ever seen. The finale was so bright that my eyes were watering. Overall we had a great day.