O Canada!

Day 1

For a little spring break get-a-way we decided to head to Avonlea, Saskatchewan to visit Anthony's sister Kim, her husband Clarence and their four girls, Anna, Mia, Briell, and Emilee. We began our thirteen hour journey at 6:30 AM on Friday, March 27th. We were a little worried about what we wound find in Fargo, due to the flooding. When we got there we found national guard helicoptors, men building levees and a very high river.


We arrived in time for supper and also got to help Clarence celebrate the end of his birthday. We got him a Snuggie for his birthday.


Day 2

The next day the girls and I went to the girls' dance competition. It was fun to see them do their dances, but I will say that this is the most extreme dance situation that I have ever been in. All the girls in each dance had to have their hair and make-up done the same way. The girls did a great job and even got a few awards. Anna and Briell were in hip hop. Mia and Briell were in tap and jazz. Emilee is also in dance, but her age group did not compete at this competition.


Day 3

We headed to Regina for a day in the city. We went to the mall first and did a little shopping while Anthony and Clarence went to a movie. We then went to Montana's for a late lunch. Montana's is similar to Outback Steakhouse. We even got to color on the tablecloth. After our lunch we went to Chapters (Barnes and Nobel) to do a little more shopping.


Day 4

We decided to just relax and hang out for most of the day. However, since it was nice out we decided to go for a little quad ride around Avonlea. Kim and Clarence have 2 four wheelers so the four of us went for a little ride. It was a little muddy though.


Day 5

The next day we had to head back home. We went part of the way back and finished up the trip the next day.

The Madness of March

Well, March Madness is underway and we are quite caught up in it in our house. The Badgers made the tourney after being on the bubble. On Selection Sunday, my husband waited nervously, when finally the announcement was made. He ran around our house cheering wildly in celebration. Our dog started barking, unsure what to think of this.

The last four years we have welcomed March Madness by making a large bracket with all 64 teams on it. Each year we have made little improvements to it. The first year it was made out of paper towels, year 2 included 4 pieces of white tag board, year 3 was blue tag board and little tabs with each team that were color coded to go with their seed. This year we made even more improvements. We used black tag board, metallic markers for each round, color coded tabs and glitter glue to decorate. I'm not sure what changes we will make for next year, but we have a lot of time to think about it. If you have suggestions let us know!!

Here is a picture of our bracket. Go Badgers!!

It's a boy!!!

Another change is that Anthony and I now have a dog. We just got him on Wednesday. He is a black lab/husky mix. He is about 5 months old. Our new apartment complex allows dogs, and we both decided that we really wanted one. We had been looking online and talking to people we know to try to find a dog. Last Tuesday we were looking in the Mayo Clinic classified ads and we saw a black lab and called about him. The lady said he was gone, but that she had another dog if we wanted to go look at him. We went over to her home that same night, and we instantly fell in love with Trax. We brought him home the next day and have really enjoyed having him. Here our some pictures of our little boy!

Changes

Well.. Anthony and I have had a lot of changes taking place in our lives these last few weeks. Anthony is done with classes and is working full-time at Kids Come 1st. He has also started his internship with the youth pastors at Autumn Ridge Church. He is really enjoying it so far. He recently helped with their weekend retreat. I am still busy with school, but am no longer busy with basketball coaching because the season ended the last week of February.

However, our biggest change is that we no longer live in the married apartments at Crossroads. We moved to an apartment complex that is off of Hwy. 52 at the 41st street exit. We are now very close to Beth and Karl. It is a two bedroom apartment. It has a washer and dryer and a dishwasher. These are very big things for us. We are so excited about having so much space. We moved Feb. 28th.

Below are some pictures of our new place. We are not completely done with the decorating, but we thought we'd show you our place anyway.

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas!! We were able to spend time with all of our family. We even were able to spend a week with Anthony's family in Wisconsin. We had a lot of fun hanging out, playing games, sledding and doing many more activities. Now we are back in the real world. Anthony finished his classes and is now working full time. School started on the 5th, but I've had several days off because of bad weather. Here are some pictures from our break.


Well...one picture is all you get for now. It is taking a long time. Sorry!! At least that one picture contains Anthony in his new kilt!!

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.