Fall Photos

We've been keeping busy this fall, but the one thing I try to make time for is to enjoy the fall colors and go on some walks while the weather is nice. I love fall in Iowa, even when it goes from 80s to 50s like it has this year, it's still a beautiful place to be in the fall.  Our colors peaked at the end of October this year and lots of trees are still hanging on to their green leaves even now. It's always nice when the fall leaves stick around for Halloween.

You can see more photos of fall colors around our neighborhood here.

Earlier in October when the weather was warmer, we visited Terra Park again.  We went to Terra Park the first week in October last year too, so it was fun to see the differences in the photos I had taken from last year to this year.  The trees were greener this year, but the black-eyed susans were done for this year and they were in full bloom last year.

Check out the rest of the photos I took of Terra Park here.

Camping at Okoboji

Last weekend we went camping at Gull Point State Park on West Lake Okoboji. This was our second time visiting Okoboji, but our first time camping.  The weather was great until it started raining on Saturday night.  We enjoyed swimming, roasting marshmallows, walking around near Arnold's Park, and catching up with old friends. The campground is pretty nice with old growth oak trees and a nice swimming beach; however, the spots are oddly laid out (some with very little space) and the park is filled with single width roads with no direction signs. We had an uncomfortable night on Saturday since we were sleeping in a tent and it rained all night--thankfully the airbed kept us mostly dry from the large puddles that were forming on the floor. I just took a few photos from our weekend, but you can see the rest here.

Beach near Arnold's Park

Palisades State Park

We went camping this week at Palisades State Park with my family.  Mom and Dad got a new little used camper this summer and were itching to try it out.  Kris and Marie met us there with their pop-up and the rest of us stayed in a camping cabin (which worked out great since it had AC and it's been a bit warm lately).

Palisades is filled with Sioux Quartzite which appear as pink rocky outcroppings along the river that cuts through the park.  There are trails throughout the small state park that let you get closer looks at the the rocks and walk along Split Rock Creek.

Above is a view of the bridge (built in 1908) that we later drove over.  If you click on the picture to make it larger--you'll notice some teenagers who were illegally cliff diving.

Palisades is a great little State Park, and I'd certainly go camping there again....just hopefully when it's a bit cooler so we can really enjoy the hiking.

More photos from Palisades State Park are posted here.

Happy 4th of July!

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July and are continuing your celebration into the weekend!  Rob and I went to the Urbandale Fireworks display last night.  I took a few photos to remember the occasion. :)

We drove down to the park around 8:30 (for fireworks starting at 10pm).  I wouldn't leave any later than that either--the parking lot was nearly full--and when it fills up, they close the main road.  We enjoyed watching all the kids run around with sparklers and the view is the best in the city.  The fireworks go off right over your head and fill the whole sky.  If you park on the east side of the parking lot, your car gets covered in cardboard chunks from the falling debris.

Flowers and a Fire

The weather this Sunday was the nicest we've had in a long time (and it's even better today!).  So after Rob had mowed the lawn and I had thrown a batch of strawberries in the dehydrator, we decided to take Molly to the dog park.  None of the dog parks in town are particularly close to us, and only one of the dog parks in the metro doesn't require a permit, so we hopped in the car and headed to Colby Park in Windsor Heights. Colby Park is a nice little city park.  You have to walk a path from the park that goes under the interstate along a creek to get to the dog park.  So off we went.  When we got there, the fence was chained shut and a sign said "Temporarily Closed for Grass Reseeding."  We had even checked the park website before we left, so we were a bit bummed that the park was closed. 

We took Molly for a little walk around the park, and I took photos of the pretty flowers that have started blooming, so it wasn't a total loss.  We even stopped for ice cream on the way home. :)

It was so nice--dry, cool (but not cold, and not too windy, so we decided to have a fire after we got home from the park.

You can see more photos of our nice weather adventures here. 

Crab Rangoons

A few weeks back Rob and I picked up some wonton wrappers at the grocery store and decided we wanted to try to make our own crab rangoon.  They turned out pretty well, but nowhere near as good as our favorite Chinese restaurants make.

We used a variation of this recipe.  We used surimi (mock crab or "krab") instead of the canned variety and we don't keep fresh ginger around...and we made half as much (and we still froze half of them)...and we were out of sour cream (so yeah, we barely followed that recipe).  The filling was a bit thick and we decided using a food processor to mix everything and following the recipe more exactly would make for a better rangoon.  They were still pretty good.

I also tried my hand at making my own sweet and sour sauce.  I love the stuff at restaurants, but I hate the stuff you can buy at the grocery store...so I tried two different recipes (one when the rangoon were fresh and another when we heated up the frozen leftovers--they freeze well by the way).  All of the recipes online involve some variation of Ketchup, Cornstarch, Vinegar, Sugar, and Pineapple juice or water.  The first batch was too vinegar-y, so the second version we made had more sugar and and we cooked it longer...it was better, but still not awesome, so I'm still scouring the internet for something closer to what they have in restaurants--no luck.

It was fun to try to make crab rangoon at home.  I look forward to perfecting our recipe! I'll post about it again when I have a recipe I feel confident about sharing.

Spring Flowers

April and May were some of the weirdest we've had since I've lived in Iowa.  We had our last snow storm during the first week of May...but it seems like Spring has finally decided to do it's thing (crosses fingers, knocks on wood).  Last week the trees were all blooming.  I took some photos as I love that time of the year and the flowers only stick around for a few days before they blow away.  You can find the rest of the photos I took here.  (If you haven't been to Flickr in a while, you may be surprised by the change in layout. I know I was.)

Happy Spring! And here's hoping I blog more often this Summer than I have been lately :).