End of Year Review 2014

It was a beautiful fall this year until a nasty cold snap hit in November.  It was below zero and snowing much too early, but December was mostly wonderful, so it all worked out in the end.

There was a lunar eclipse in October.  I didn't stay up until the early morning hours to watch it, but I did take some photos of the bright full moon early in the evening. See more photos of the moon from our backyard here.

We always love going over to Terra Park/Beaver Creek Natural Resource Area in the fall.  This year was no different.  Terra Park is being redone into a fancy shmancy new park, but we still were able to walk through the Resource Area.  To see more photos click here.

I took some great photos of the fall colors in walks around our neighborhood in October--I even managed to catch a monarch butterfly on one of my neighbor's flowers in their front yard. You can find more fall color photos here.

In early December, Rob tested for his second degree black belt (and passed).  To see more photos from the test, click here.

The second week in December we had beautiful weather in the 50s. We snapped a few photos in the backyard without coats on to put in our Christmas letter.

Rob had to work over Christmas so we had a nice celebration at home.  To see more photos from our Christmas letter photo shoot and Christmas, click here.

After Christmas we went to Estelline to celebrate with the family and we made lefse. To see photos of lefse making click here.

Happy New Year (a little late)!

4th of July

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July.  Rob and I went up to the cities to visit friends and family for the weekend and had a great time.  On July 3rd we went to the Bloomington Fireworks display.  The display is just a couple of blocks away from my brother's house, so we walked through the droves of people and all around the lake where they were setting them off.  The fireworks lasted the typical 20 minutes, but ended with quite the impressive finale. We definitely weren't sitting around asking each other if it was over afterwards.

On the 4th of July we went out to my friend Shannon's new house for a barbecue and got to catch up with a group of college friends that we hadn't seen in ages. Shannon's new house is awesome and I can't wait to see our old college friends again soon!

On July 5th we went to our first Twins game.  They were playing against the Yankees.  We had seats in the upper deck, but they were right behind home plate, so it made for an excellent view of the game and of the stadium.  The weather was gorgeous for a baseball game, and the Twins beat the Yankees, what more could we ask for?

More photos of our 4th of July celebrations and of the Twins game are posted on Flickr (available at the links).

Annual Family Camping Trip

Last weekend was our family's annual (ok we've done it twice now, but it does seem to be a thing) camping trip.  This year we camped at Pickerel Lake in northeastern South Dakota.  I hadn't been camping there since I was about 10--so it was brand new to me.  Rob and I had the week off so we went up to Estelline a few days ahead of our camping trip.  I finally got to go visit the Veterans Memorial Park that they installed a couple of years ago.  It really is a beautiful little park for such a small town and it didn't hurt that the sun was setting as we were walking through.

The first day we were at Pickerel was beautiful--weather wise--but we couldn't check in until afternoon, so it was a lovely evening around the fire.  Rob and I took the dog for a walk down to the "marina" that they have for putting boats in and along the trail that goes from the boat launch to the campgrounds along the shore of the lake.  It was really pretty watching the sun go down through the trees over the lake.

The next day of our trip was hot, but I did get to go swimming.  The lake is pretty nice compared to our swimming options down here in reservoir land, and the cold water felt really good.  It clouded up that afternoon and threatened rain, even rumbled and lightninged off in the distance, but it didn't rain until the next morning.  And then it rained off and on all day.  It stopped raining long enough for dad to cook lunch (fish they caught when the weather was changing the night before and pancakes) and then it rained very lightly for a while.  Rob and I took a hike up to the top of a nearby hill that had views of the surrounding area (in the photo below you can just make out the lake). 

Then later on that day half of us went to Fort Sisseton.  It rained very steadily the entire time we were at Fort Sisseton, but I did get my fill of Dakota territory history

It stopped raining in time for us to have supper and a fire that night and rained again in the morning before we packed up to head back home to Iowa.  Aside from the rain, it was a lovely trip.  More photos of our trip can be found here.

Spring is Here!

Not much exciting happened this winter, and I didn't take too many photos, but spring has finally arrived, and with that--more photo taking!

This past weekend we went to Pella, Iowa to enjoy their tulips and visit their amazing Dutch bakery.  It was beautiful weather and nearly all of the tulips were blooming. We came home with a bag of pastries and a camera full of tulip photos.

You can see more photos of our day trip to Pella here.

And just like the spring flowers are blooming in Pella, they are blooming at our house too.  You can see my spring photos from around our neighborhood here.

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.