Wisconsin Dells

Last week my family (Mom, Dad, Steph, Kris, Marie, Rob, and I) went to the Wisconsin Dells to celebrate my parents' 40th wedding anniversary. We all met in Minneapolis on Saturday and had a barbecue with family. On Sunday we headed towards the Dells and stopped in Osseo at the Norske Nook (a Norwegian themed Diner that has national award winning pies and lots of things wrapped in lefse) for lunch. It was delicious. We drove through some very slow road construction and made it to the Dells. After getting checked in to the hotel and making a trip to Walmart for groceries--the day was pretty much spent.

Day 2 in the Dells started with an Upper Dells Boat Tour. It last 2 and a half hours and included two shore landings. It was well worth the money. I'd recommend that Upper Dells tour to anyone going to Wisconsin Dells. After our lengthy tour on a hot day, Kris, Marie, Rob, and I decided to head over to the Hotel's Water parks. We all enjoyed "America's largest indoor wave pool" and the more adventurous (i.e. not me) enjoyed all of the water slides.

Day 3 began with a rain storm. Afterwards we went on a Duck Boat tour. These are military ambhibious vehicles from WWII and the Korean War that have been refurbished to run tours of the woods and the waters of the Dells. Dad really enjoyed this tour--but it wasn't nearly as interesting as the Upper Dells Boat Tour. That afternoon we went to Devil's Lake State Park (which is South of the Dells) and hiked Parfrey's Glen. All of my research online said this would be well worth the short hike, but they failed to mention that many of the paths towards the end of the glen had been washed out in the floods of 2008 and the glen had been closed down for a whole year, etc...It was still worth the hike, but we couldn't make it to the end where the waterfall was at (Rob did, and was a bit of a muddy mess for it). After Parfrey's Glen we went to the State Park and debated whether we wanted to make one of the hikes to a rock formation in the park. It was warm and the closest hike involved steep inclines (really really steep inclines), so we decided to just sit and enjoy the lake scenery a bit before heading back to the Dells. On our way back we stopped at the Outlet Mall.

Day 4 was our last full day in the Dells. Kris, Marie, and Dad went to the House on the Rock (which is about an hour and a half away). Mom, Stephanie, Rob, and I stayed in the Dells and started our day off with the Lost Canyon tour. The tour through the Lost Canyon is a wagon ride pulled by draft horses. The wagons were specially designed to fit through the canyon. There were several places where we were ducking or leaning to avoid the canyon walls as we went through. It was a very picturesque tour--but you do smell the horses :). After the Lost Canyon Tour, we went back to the Outlet Mall (as we had only stopped to check it out the night before). After returning from the Outlet Mall, Rob and I went to a few shops downtown to find my magnet (my souvenir collection). After supper, Dad, Marie, Kris, Rob, and I went miniature golfing--Dad said it had probably been 40 years since he had been mini golfing. We were glad to take him. :).

Our 5th day was filled with driving--we headed back to Minneapolis. In the afternoon, Stephanie, Rob, and I made the pilgrimage to Ikea. It was a great trip! :)

Photos can be found here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahjanesetnes/sets/

House!

Well, it happened so quickly it still hasn't quite sunk in. On April 1st we met with a banker about getting preapproved for a home loan. We asked him if he thought it was reasonable for us to try to get into contract on a house by the end of the month (to receive the tax credit). He replied, "Oh, defintely." We thought that it might be a stretch. We had been researching prices and procedures for months...and we were finally ready to start looking. One week later we met with our Realtors (who our banker recommended and have been just fantastic) and started looking at houses. Three days and about 30 houses later, we made an offer on a home. Today we had our inspection (which went well--no major problems). We are slated to close on June 1st. I'm so excited to get into our house and have a garage and room to put everything away and our very own laundry!

What the crap, Ed!

Back in February when we were being forecasted to get yet another dumping of snow....the local sports guy sat in stunned amazement and uttered these words to the local weather guy: "What the crap, Ed!" Of course, I about died of laughter...because it was just what we were all thinking.

Today, I sit typing wearing a tank top and wondering how lame it would be if I turned on the air conditioning on the first of April. The weather channel's website puts our current temperature at 87, though the big two local news stations say it's 84 degrees. There has been no talk of breaking record highs. Yesterday our official high temp was 82 degrees. I thought, this must be a record high for March...has to be. Little did this Northern girl know...that nope, this is not all that weird for spring time in Iowa...seriously.

So lets look at some of these numbers.

• The earliest (in the year) record high of 70 degrees is on February 12th. The record low on that day is -21 degrees. (Just for a bit of reference--the record high in Fargo, ND on February 12th is 43 degrees.)
• The earliest record high of 80 degrees is on March 3rd. The record low that day is a slightly less impressive -6.
• The earliest record high of 90 degrees in on March 29th.
• The highest record temperature in West Des Moines is 110 degrees. Lowest record temperature is -30.

So apparently this little heat wave we're having, is not all that impressive. Though...if the weather channel's current temperature is deemed accurate, we've just tied our record high for the day. Less than two weeks ago--it snowed 6 inches.

...the one where we buy a TV

(title inspired by Friends...all of the episodes are named "the one where...")

After we got my car this fall, we tossed around the idea of getting a flat screen tv. Our newest tv is about 8 years old. We had decided that it would be our next big purchase...but then after watching the prices in the ads and learning all about what to look for in a new tv, we decided it might be better to wait until after we moved to pick out a new tv. Then a couple of weeks ago I saw a tv in the Best Buy ad that looked like a good deal. I checked it against the reviews in Consumer reports and found out it was their "CR best buy" pick for its size range....and that the MSRP that they listed was almost 300 dollars more than what it was on sale for at Best Buy. So we quick (on Sunday morning) went to the Best Buy that is 2 blocks from our appartment and found out that they didn't have the tv (it was listed as "clearance--warehouse quantities only"). They were nice enough to call around and found that they still had a display model at the South Ridge Best Buy (which is a good 15+ miles away). We made a quick stop at home to compare prices online and check shipping costs etc. Neither of us felt comfortable ordering a tv online that we had never seen in person, especially since LCDs are notorious for having problems with their viewing angles. So we treked across town to see the tv and find out what kind of deal they were giving for it (since it was the display). The tv looked great in person--at every angle, but they were only knocking off about 5% of the price. So we drove home and ordered it from newegg. I was glad that we could get a good deal from someone other than Best Buy--the whole idea of putting a tv in the ad that none of the stores had in stock seemed a bit dishonest to me. We had our tv less than a week after we ordered it. It's been amazing. Did you know that there's a shadow under Brian Williams's chin while he reads the news? :)

So, when Rob found out that he was getting 70 dollars in target gift cards from working on the JDRF fundraising at work, it made sense to combine that with a 10% off card and a few of the 5 and 10 dollar gift cards I had lying around from their promotions and buy a Blu Ray player. We haven't tried it out with a Blu Ray movie yet (we just bought one that was on sale when we got the player), but it looks great so far playing regular dvds.

Vikings Cakes Make Cake Wrecks!

Cake Wrecks is a blog that I follow regularly that shares professionally made cakes that look particularly unprofessional. This week they featured two Minnesota Vikings Cakes that were certainly wrecks.

JDRF

Well, that time of the year has come around again. It's time to help Rob with his role as leader of their JDRF fundraising team at work.

Last week we kicked off with a simple "guess how many" game. We filled up two giant containers with M&Ms and Strawberry Whoppers (because apparently they are very popular at Equitrust).

We really lucked out and managed to guess exactly how much candy to buy to fill our containers--two of the biggest bags of M&Ms that Costco sells and 8 cartons of Strawberry Whoppers. We decided on such large quantities because one of the reasons that folks claimed that they wouldn't buy guesses in past years is because they weren't winning enough candy (the guesses cost a dollar). Not a complaint this year :). The containers held 3,715 M&Ms and 704 Whoppers. Of course the real fun of this fundraiser was counting them all...wearing gloves (M&Ms are slippery little suckers). Apparently the fellow that won the M&Ms went so far as figuring out which container we bought and weighing it and filling it with water to measure volume, etc... It's fun that he was getting so involved in it. Rob said he was also more than happy to share his winnings :).

Rob has had a really good group working with him this year. They are all more than willing to make calls and try to get good prices on their supplies etc... One of his group members learned that Krispy Kreme will sell donuts to them at a discounted price since they are selling them for a charity. So...this week they had a donut morning where they sold donuts for a dollar a piece and made more than twice what they spent on the donuts!

Last night we made barbecues again. Last year we cooked up 22 pounds of barbecues. We had quite a bit leftover and there were fewer pre-orders this year for lunch tickets, so we only made 12 pounds of barbecues. It took us about an hour and a half and 3 batches to get a big bowl (42 cup capacity) full. It took almost an entire 7 lb container of ketchup to make these barbecues. All in all the experience was much more pleasant than last year--partly because we knew what we were doing and partly because we were only making about half as much.

Rob tells me that people at work were very excited to hear that we were making homemade barbecues again. So I hope they enjoy their lunch and that they make a good bit of money off of it (the hamburger was all donated this year so that should help).

Happy Holidays!

We had an unusual Christmas this year. We still managed to get to Miller and Estelline, but our stay in Miller was cut a bit short because of an impending storm of doom. So, we headed over to Estelline on Tuesday afternoon to avoid nasty driving. The storm stalled out a bit and didn't really hit until Christmas Eve, but it was foggy and drizzley on the 23rd so we were glad we were in Estelline and didn't have to worry about driving. Stephanie managed to get out of work on the 23rd so she could leave early to get to Estelline. Kristopher and Marie did not make it home because they wouldn't have been able to leave until Christmas Eve. Once the snow started...it snowed steadily for 3 days. They cancelled church on Christmas Eve and closed the interstates for 2 days. Needless to say, we spent quite a bit of time playing board games and we even managed to watch a couple of movies.

I am glad that we didn't have to try to get on the road until Sunday. I-29 in South Dakota was still quite slippery...but once we made it to Sioux City, the roads were much better and we arrived home safely last night.

Despite the nasty weather, we did have a lovely Christmas. I got some great gifts. Rob spoiled me a bit this year and got me both a new DS and an Ipod Touch (he did promise me that he got great deals on both of them though :). Rob also gave me a Royal Blue Snuggie. It was mostly for the laugh, but I tried it out last night and am a bit ashamed to admit that it's dang cozy.

Photos from this Christmas:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahjanesetnes/sets/72157623087276698/

Bacon!

Snow!

When all was said and done, we ended up with about 16 inches of snow. It fell steadily over a 36 hour time period and was accompanied by strong winds (regularly gusting around 40 mph). DMACC let out early on Tuesday, cancelled all classes on Wednesday, and started late on Thursday. Because of my end of the semester schedule, I ended up home for all three days.

Today I am doing laundry and wrapping Christmas presents. Yesterday I made some Christmas cookies. Rob ventured in to work and found himself one of 11 employees who managed to make it in. The numbers grew slightly as the day went on, but management decided to let everyone go at 1pm. They even went to the nearby HyVee and picked up lasagna for everyone who made it in. Rob said that the roads were the worst he’s seen in town since we’ve moved here.

Our entryway/parking lot/ roadway here at the apartments is still full of snow. They’ve carved out passage ways, but many of the cars are still buried in drifts which make it difficult to get in and out of parking spots.

Today we started out very cold. It got down to about -10 last night. But the sun is out so we have warmed up to about 10 above zero. I bundled up and took the trash out and took the Christmas cards (which have been sitting ready to go since it started snowing) out to the central mailbox. I couldn’t stop smiling. Perhaps it was all of the fluffy white snow, or the strange feeling of being comfortable—at home—in this cold snow-packed weather. I’m sure that will wear off as soon as I have to drive in it. But for now, my car is still entrenched in a large snow bank. I cleared off all of the windows of snow to let sun do its work, but I still have an awful lot of snow moving to do to get my car free tomorrow.

Photos of the snow:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahjanesetnes/sets/72157622845734983/