Fun With Science

Want to know how that works...this next video explains the laws at work.

Des Moines to Sioux Falls

We went up to Sioux Falls this last weekend to visit family and friends. It was a busy weekend of running around, but we had a nice time. We got to eat out at some great local restaurants: Grill 26 and Krav'n. We also ate at The Original Pancake House which is not local, but we don't have any in Iowa, so it was a really good weekend for food :).

On the way there and back home, we drove past the flooding that's occurring along the Missouri River. It really seems like it's been flooding there all summer--since the end of June. The river finally crested about 2 weeks ago, but the water is still very high. Parts of the interstate are still tunneled off with flood barriers and I-29 just North of Omaha is still closed completely. The photo above is from Sioux City, Iowa. The rest of my photos (taken from the car) can be found here.

Independence and all that Jazz....

Sorry about the delay on this one...our internet has been intermittent and it was a miracle I was able to even upload these photos to flickr. Thankfully a tech was out today. He couldn't figure out what was causing our problems so he just replaced everything (new line to the box, new splitters, new modem). The internet seems to be working much better. I hope it stays that way. We had a pretty quiet 4th at home. Rob hasn't been able to take extended vacation yet this summer because of some back up issues at work--so we stayed home for the 4th and had a nice relaxing weekend. On Independence Day we went to see the new Transformers movie (which was better than the 2nd but not as good as the 1st) and went to see the Fireworks display in Urbandale (as Johnston doesn't have one). They moved the display this year to a different park--which was very handy because they posted a detailed map of where people were allowed and where parking was and exactly where the fireworks were going to be shot off from....which made things really easy. We left a bit early to avoid the parking hassle. Rob read a book and we took a break to play a couple of rounds of Fluxx. The fireworks show went a full half hour and was packed with large fireworks which lit up the sky directly over our heads. We were so close that our car was littered with cardboard debris. We'll definitely go back next year if we're in town.

Tree Clean Up

Over the long weekend the weather finally got a bit cooler and we had time to finish cleaning up the part of our tree that fell. Rob tried out our new electric chainsaw. It worked like a charm. It made quick work of the thickest part of the tree. The small branches were the time consuming mess. Now we get to start working on the part of the tree that's still standing. Pictures as we go will be posted here.

Storm Damage

Shortly after we moved into our house last summer, we had lots of rain and some strong storms. One of those storms played musical chairs with the trash cans and split off a large section of our willow tree. A few weeks later, another storm took another big branch. We thought the tree was doomed and we started doing research on the cost of tree removal and went back and forth about buying a chain saw etc.... Well the tree seemed to be doing ok; it survived the rest of the summer and came back all green in the spring. We thought we would just need to trim some branches to balance it out and call it good. Cue Sunday night and a storm with strong winds. Our trash cans got blown over again (but not rearranged throughout the neighborhood this time), and our tree lost another big chunk. There is just one lonely little section left. So, we bought a chain saw. Pictures of that will come later (the forecast for the next two days is 95 with heat indexes around 105...so the the chopping up part is on hold).

So, take a moment of silence for our tree. We hardly had a chance to get to know you whole. Rest in Pieces.

Camping!

For Rob's 29th (for reals, not his second or third...his FIRST 29th birthday) we went camping out at Saylorville Lake with Kris and Marie. The weather was about as good as it gets...it rained lightly a little the first evening we were there, but it stopped in time to light a fire, and it stayed dry and in the 70s the rest of the weekend.

The weekend passed by quickly. We walked to the Saylorville Marina, visited the dam, grilled lots, and played a couple card games. The photo below is of Molly trying to find a cool spot after our walk on Saturday afternoon. It was a beautiful weekend, but the sun was warm--so warm that all of us got a bit burnt. I missed putting sun screen on my neck all together. :( You can find the rest of my photos of our weekend here.

The Bridges of Madison County

My mother and sister came down for a visit last week, so we decided to go check out the covered bridges in Madison County Iowa (yep, the ones from the book and movie). It's about a 25 minute drive to Winterset, IA where we posed at the birthplace of John Wayne and explored their neat city park. After lunch at a local diner, we went to the rest of the covered bridges. It was a beautiful day and a fun little day trip.

I posted pictures which you can find here:
Bridges of Madison County Set

Saylorville

We decided to get out of the house this weekend by driving out to the Dam at Saylorville and checking out some of the campgrounds around the lake. Of course it was cold and windy and a bit drizzly, so it wasn't quite the spring day that we'd all hope for on the weekend, but we hadn't really been out to the lake aside from driving past it and we had no other pressing plans...so on we went :).

We were both surprised by the intensity of the water flowing from the dam out into the Des Moines River. So I took a video:



I posted a few pictures of the dam on my Flickr Page.

The area below the dam has been turned into a campground. After our drive around that campground, we proceeded to check out the other two Army Corp of Engineer parks on Saylorville (there's a 4th, but it doesn't open for another week). There were lots of campers bundled up in sweatshirts....some huddled next to fires wearing stocking caps. I was happy that I was just out for a drive instead of actually camping this weekend. Brr. But we'll be back ;).

Mystery Trees

In our front yard we have three trees alongside our driveway. When we moved in to the house they had dark brown--almost black--leaves. They were pretty and got a little redder before dropping their leaves in the fall. To my surprise, as they sprouted leaves this spring, they came in bright green, and soon after, pretty white cones of flowers began blooming. So now I'm really curious...what kind of trees are these? The previous owners of our house were adventurous with plant purchases to say the least (there are odd plants all over the yard--so this may become a regular installment on my blog :)), so I don't even know where to begin.

Are any of you out there familiar with this tree?

In the spring it looks like this:
And it looks like this in late summer/early fall:

The leaves were dark when we moved in to the house in June (but last year's spring came a bit earlier than this year's).

*Update* My current guess is that these are ornamental plum trees.

Grandma Esther Turns 90!

(Grandma at her birthday party with her nursing school buddy Eris--Photo taken by Kris)

Over Easter weekend my Mom's family all got together in the twin cities and celebrated my Grandma's 90th Birthday. We had a great time chatting with out of state relatives that we don't get to see nearly often enough.

My brother took some really nice pictures from the weekend which can be found here.

The pretty lousy ones that I took that weekend can be found here.