Camp out

This past weekend I went camping with the Dinkytown ward. It was so much fun, we went to Taylors Falls which is about an hour north of the cities. We got to the campsite about 7:30 and started setting up. We got the fire going and we got the tents up then Bradley started up a game of frisbee death which we played until it was too dark to see. We all went back to the campsite and sat around the fire roasting marshmallows and listening to the music that Joe provided from his i-pod (ahhh technology). Around 1:30 everyone had drifted off to bed and I went to bed also. Tacy had left the rain flap off the tent and it was like sleeping under the stars. It was so nice. I woke up around 5:45 and rolled out of my tent. There were a few people up and the ones that were decided to go rock climbing. I went with and we were one of two groups in the park. The other group said that the wall right next to them was a great climb so Ben set up his stuff and everyone tried it out. Josh, another one in the group, was hungry so he and I went to the bakery and got muffins and juice for everyone. After everyone had a chance to climb we headed back and went canoeing with the whole group. There were groups of three so Josh, Jana and I all went in one canoe. We made good time and we kept going until we got to a sand bar island and beached where we went swimming with the group. We swam around and then the guys started launching people into the water. The little 7 year old that was with us loved it. He got about 15 feet of air and was spinning and flipping. Jana gave us a synchronized swimming demostration and Jay Paul even tried it out. Josh and I were content to watch. After about 30 minutes we got back into the canoe and started out again. After a while we got to a shallow part, about 6 inches deep and got out and swam again. There was a drop off into about 4 feet of water so it was more like floating. While we were playing in the water Josh felt something hit his leg, he reached into the water and pulled out his sunglasses. He was a little confused as he had just left them on the seat of the canoe. He thought it was cool that he had not lost them and that they had traveled the 20 feet to hit his leg. When we went back to the canoe he found his glasses still on the seat. They were the exact match to the ones that he had found. We finished the canoe trip with no swamping (Hurray Mormon Three!!) We got back had a sandwich and jumped onto the shuttle bus that took us back to the cars. After that we left for home in the cities and a shower. It was a great weekend.

My Car

I have my car back!! I got a call from the repair shop today and they said that my car was ready to pick up. I was so excited. I have had to drive a Ford Fusion for the past week and a half and I was not thrilled with it. It was completely gutless. I am so happy to have my little car back. Now tomorrow I will take Emily to Baldwin Wisconsin so that she can meet up with a friend and head out to Nauvoo this weekend.

Como Park Conservatory

It was taking to long adding pictures to the post about the trip I took to the zoo with the amazing Tacy so I put all the pictures of the flowers into a blog and I will follow up with a slide show of the animals and a post about what we did. Enjoy.

Allison, Nathan and Sofie come for a visit

For the last week and a few days we were luck enough to have Allison and her family come visit. It was so much fun to see them and to play with Sofie. Here are some pictures of her while she was here.

FHE at Minnehaha Falls Park

Today was Family Home Evening with the singles ward. The Dinkytown ward and the Uptown ward had a combined FHE. It was loads of fun. We had a barbeque and played games. I played Boccee ball with a few people and I lost. That's okay it was fun. Later we all walked up to the falls and and headed up the trail to wade farther up stream. For those of you who have never been there this is easier then it seems because there are stairs that lead down to the stream level and the trails are really well groomed. Anna and Iwaded around the stream before we walked back up to the picnic area. I saw cute Kristin S. who had just gotten back from her mission to Costa Rica. I got to sit with her and chat for about half an hour, she is so cute. After we chatted I decided that it was time to go home so that Nancy the Meter Man didn't have a reason to give me a ticket. It was so fun and I love that I got to spend time at Minnehaha Falls which is probably one of my favorite local spots.

Poor Car

Last week I was driving home from school when I was rear ended by another car. GRRR!! I was heading home on a busy stretch of road, the light up a head had turned red so I put on the breaks and the guy was not paying attention and rammed into me. The damage looked superficial, my bumper was loose. I was thinking that it wouldn't be a big deal. Today I took it in to get an estimate and the guy starts looking at my car. Yep, bumper needs to be fixed. Along with all the things that make a bumper work. Open the trunk.
"Have you been in the trunk since the accident?"
"No."
So why is the cover for the spare sticking up? Let me tell you. The rear body panel of the car has been compacted. Now they have to literally pull my car back into shape.
I then try to brush a bug off the non-damaged tail lights. But oh wait it's inside the light. Guess that's probably cracked to.
What about the exhaust, it's possibly compacted maybe, maybe not.
Is the bumper possible sitting on the exhaust pipe causeing a rattling noise occasionally?
Not only is it sitting on the exhaust pipe, it's also melting the bumper, and by the way if the bumper falls off in traffic it's now my fault.
These are only a few of the things that the really nice Walser man told me.
So now I have to deal with all the paper work and bothersome stuff that goes into getting my car fixed.
And oh wait the falling bumper problem was fixed with a couple of zip ties. That should hold.
More later on how the fix is going.

Dinkytown Ward

I finally did it. I transfered my records to the Dinkytown ward. It was exciting and scary at the same time. I have been attending the Dinkytown ward for about the last 3 months and I finally made it official. I have met a lot of new people and I am really enjoying myself now. I know that this will be my last transfer with in the Twin Cities Area. I have been a member of all three area singles wards and I won't change unless I move or I "age out" of the singles ward. Now I just have to wait for my records to make it to the new ward and have it made official, in the mean time I am going to have a lot of fun and make tons of new friends at the activities that are always going on.

1, 2, 3...TREE!!!

I finally planted the three Arrowwood trees that I got on Arbor Day from my work. I planted them in a smaller planter about 2 weeks ago. A few days ago my Dad brought home 2 5 gallon buckets and told me that we would drill holes in them and then plant the trees so that there would be room for them to grow. Last night I drilled the holes and filled the bottom of the buckets with some rocks. Home Depot was closed so I went online and look for some soil that would be the best for growing them. I found soil that was formulated for trees and shrubs. Today I went and picked it up and started planting the trees. It was great getting them into larger containers. I learned that the root ball at the base of the tree should not be covered or when the tree gets bigger it will strangle it's self and die, I hope that I didn't cover it. The trees, which are more like sticks with some leaves, are really small and so it was kind of hard to see if I put the root ball under the soil. I am hoping that they will thrive as they are very pretty when they are fully grown.I decided that they needed names, or atleast a way to readily identify them so I spray painted numbers on the two buckets. (Although I think that I really just wanted to spray paint something.) So now they have large red numbers on the side of the buckets and I have three trees that have lots of room to spread out and grow.