Oregon Vacation: Horseback Riding

On the evening of our engagement day I had planned for us to go on a beautiful sunset horse ride on the Bandon beach at the Bandon Riding Stables. I had been to this place in the fall of 2007 when I had gone with my sister, niece, nephew, and my uncle Lou’s girlfriend. That 2007 horseback ride was wonderful and pleasant and I hoped I could provide the same experience for my lovely fiancée!

However, my great plan did not go quite as I had hoped.

We arrived at the riding stables about 20 minutes before we were schedule to leave. We looked around the stables, enjoyed the scenery, and enjoyed each other’s company. Once everyone who had signed up for the sunset rides had arrived, the group leader selected a horse for each of us, helped us up onto the horse, and gave us brief instructions. Our ride started out well with everyone getting used to their horse and making the final adjustments before leaving.


After a short trip down their driveway and along a small section of the road, we made our way down to the beach. After about five to ten minutes we arrived down on the beach. The scenery was absolutely amazing with the sun getting ready to set and so I thought I would get out my camera to take some pictures. I had done this the previous year while horseback riding, focusing on holding onto the mane whilst taking pictures. The horse during the previous year had no problems with this, but within seconds of taking my camera out the horse freaked out and started turning quickly and began running around in circles. I held on, listening to the leader of the group trying to tell me what to do, and I did what they had told me, but within about 5 to 10 seconds I fell of the horse and landed the wet sand. The angle which I landed resulted in my landing on my left hand (in which also had my digital camera) and my lower back (lower spine). As you can imagine I was scared and stunned at what had just occurred, but I gathered up my strength, stood up, and hobbled back to the group.

My body must have been pumping a lot of adrenaline into my body because in the first few minutes after falling off of the horse I was not in that much pain, but it became apparent after a while how much I had been injured. The leader of the group had me get on the lead horse since they did not want me to ride the crazy horse any more. That was quite the experience because the lead horse did not really want to stop ever and so when the group leader(s), who were behind me wanted to stop, it was a challenge to get the horse to stop or even slow down.

At the turn-around point of our horse ride, during the group picture taking, I decided that I didn't want to ride anymore and couldn't ride the rest of the way back to the stables. I had to walk a 1/2 mile to get back to the riding stables while Annah had to ride her horse back with the rest of the group. It sucked, but we were reunited at the end of the ride and we embraced each other and were happy that we were back in each other's arms!

It was quite the experience...but not quite what I had expected. But it will be a good story to tell our children!

Oregon Vacation: Our Engagement

On Wednesday, August 13, 2008 we woke up & ate breakfast at the casino. We were looking forward to a fun day and ending our lovely day with a sunset horseback ride (see next post). Then headed down to Bandon.
When we first arrived in Bandon, we decided to go find the beloved horse stables to see if we could sign up for the sunset ride. After signing up for the rides, we decided to go shopping for some souvenirs (sweatshirts for his sister & nieces). Last year when Jordan and his parents were in Bandon, they brought me back a nice Bandon Coast sweatshirt. At the same store, we looked around and found two sweatshirts that we loved. Jordan bought a black one and I bought a white one of the same style. We needed something warmer to wear during our sunset horseback ride later in the day. After we spent way too much money, we went to Face Rock Wayside with a beach access & viewpoint of the Bandon Coast. I could feel the cold & windy ocean air as soon as we stepped out of the car. After feeling how cold it was, I didn’t want to go down to the beach. But we only a few days left on the coast so I figured I could go see the ocean again. We each grabbed our cameras and started walking to the steps to start our descent down to the beach. About halfway down to the beach, Jordan tells me that he needs to go back to the car to get some Kleenex. I decide to wait on the steps for him. At this point I am crabby and cold. As soon as Jordan gets back we continue our journey to the beach area. We see a gigantic rock (the size of a continent) in the middle of the beach and I think, “I want to climb this”. I wanted to see what view of the ocean I could get from above & I love to climb rocks. Jordan scampers up the rock after me.
We look at the ocean and hug & kiss. Then all of a sudden he gets “shorter” and gets down on one knee. I’m thinking at this point, “What are you doing?” My question was soon answered. He said, “I love you so much and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?” I was so surprised!!! I told him I’d have to think about it/let you know my answer when we get back to MN. Haha, just kidding! Of course, I said yes. The ring fit perfectly and glittered in the sunlight. We decided to try and re-capture the moment by putting the camera on self-timer and trying the different poses again!!
On our way down the rock, I was very cautious of my ring and didn’t want to scratch it. I couldn’t help but smile the entire rest of the time on the beach!!


**For the plane ride home, I bought my first bridal magazine!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Dear Friends & Family,
This Thanksgiving I am very thankful for lots of things! First, I am thankful for everyone in my family and everyone in Jordan's family (who have welcomed me into their family). I am thankful for my wonderful Fiance who puts up with just about anything, is very supportive, loving and caring!! I am also thankful for my children & families that I work with and my co-workers. This year we will be going to Jordan's sisters house for dinner and my family will be going to the cities. Yesterday afternoon I went up to the cities to see my relatives. It was nice to see them because I wouldn't be there for Thanksgiving. Our trade off is Easter. Easter is spent with my family.

Christmas is easily arrangeable because Jordan's family celebrates on Christmas Eve and my family the day of Christmas. I am thankful for having two families (almost)!!!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

Love,
Annah

Halloween 2008: Pumpkin Carving and Baked Pumpkin Seeds

This post is a couple of weeks behind schedule, but so is our Oregon Trip post...which will be coming soon in a number of posts which are broken down by day. We are sorry for the delay with our blog posting but we are going to try to update more often. It has been difficult without internet at home, but it's a good thing we have a library in town with wireless internet!

Anyway, on the weekend of October 25th and 26th, Annah and I went to a local pumpkin patch and selected a few pumpkins, and in addition we got some (delicious) jalapeño pepper jelly and we got to play with a little farm kitten, which was fun!

On Wednesday, October 29th we decided it was about time we carved the pumpkins, so after I arrived in Austin we placed the pumpkins on our table, gathered the supplies, and dug in!

Annah had never tried baked pumpkins seeds and it had been a few years since I had cooked up some so I decided that I would gather up all of the seeds, bake a few batches, and see what happened.

Apparently I never took a picture of the finished product, but the batches turned out pretty well. They were a little salty, crispy, and quite tasty.

While I was working on that, which took me a while, Annah carved out her masterpieces and did a fantastic job! I always carved out simple faces after drawing a simple design on the pumpkin, but Annah used a carving kit and made some awesome-looking jack-o-lanterns!

On the actual night of Halloween, I brought my parents' dog Lucy down to help us with handing out candy...she ended up being our doorbell since we don't actually have one installed. We had about 35 kids come by, which was much lower than we had expected, but we had leftover candy to enjoy for the next few months! We both had a great time and hopefully next year's Halloween will be just as fun!

A Trip to Decorah, Iowa

This past Saturday, Annah and I drove down to to Decorah, Iowa to attend the annual Nordic Fest, which I have been attending most years for the past twelve years or so, but I though that Annah might enjoy seeing a little bit of my Norwegian heritage.

Our first stop was at Seed Savers, which is a farm dedicated to collecting, growing, and preserving heirloom seeds so that the genetic diversity of all plants can be maintained. I have been visiting Seed Savers for probably somewhere around 15 years, and they have a nice store (the barn you see in the second picture below), beautiful gardens, and a fantastic collection of plants.

We spent a while in the store carefully picking through the bags of seeds and discussing what delightful plants we could grow in our yard at our new house in Austin. It was fun trying to plan out our own little flower garden and vegetable garden! After purchasing ten bags of seeds, which included tomatoes, snow peas, cucumber, spinach, arugula, borage, morning glory seeds, chrysanthemums, hollyhocks, and silverbeets. we then went out and walked through one of their small gardens where we took some photos of flowers and had fun being with each other!



The Nordic Fest was not nearly as crowded as it has been in years past when I attended it, possibly due to the fact that it was the last day of the event, but it was only moderately busy when we were there. We got to try a few different kinds of Scandinavian food and purchase some lefse, krumkake, and rosettes. It was fun, although we weren't all that hungry, and we didn't have time to check out the Norwegian Museum there, but we will do that the next time we are down there.


Our last destination, and probably the most fun for both of us, was the Decorah Fish Hatchery. There we got to see hundreds of Rainbow Trout and Brown Trout from various stages of life starting from small minnow-like baby trout to adult trout that were several pounds in size. This hatchery allows you to buy fish pellets to feed the trout as you are walking by and all of the fish seem to know this so when you walk by their cage they all swim around frantically waiting for food! We had a great time there and we look forward to going back there someday!

Ten Month Anniversary and a New House!

Last Thursday we celebrated our ten month anniversary! We went out to eat at the Mongolian Grill HuHot where we were able to spend time with each other, eat some great food, and just relax! It was amazing and we are so happy that we've made it to ten months and we are looking forward to the years to come!

On Tuesday night we signed a 1-year rental lease for a house in Austin! We had found the house in the Austin paper, then Annah had looked at it and she really liked it. The next night I went down to Austin, where we both agreed that it was a fantastic find! The house is still going through the finishing touches, such as new flooring, new carpet, new appliances, new windows, and our landlords are very friendly and will be great!

Once we get the keys on August 1st we will take pictures and post them to this website! Also, once I get a job in Austin then we will be able to move in!

Yay!

The Wonderful Month of June!

Once again we have a month's worth of journaling to do in one post. We need to work on updating this blog more often, but for now you'll just have to read this post for the entire month!

June 6th-8th: During the first weekend in June it was the time for the annual Winona Dakota Gathering, which my mom helps to coordinate and we've been attending for the past few years. We got to stay in our own apartment which is owned by Winona State University. We had a good time eating the different types of food, shopping at the vendors, visiting with people, meeting new people, participating in the sunrise ceremony with Dakota and non-Dakota people, and avoiding the downpours and severe weather. Next year we might not spend the entire weekend there, since there is only so much you can do, but it was fun nevertheless.


June 14th-15th: This weekend was the first weekend that we can remember where we didn't spend time with each other. Annah decided to go up to the cities to spend time with her grandma who recently had hip replacement surgery and this was her first weekend home. Annah went up to the cities on Thursday and stayed until Sunday (father's day). Annah tried to keep herself busy for the four days (Mall of America with her cousins, hanging out with Noah and helping her grandparents), but it was hard to be away from Jordan and she missed him in the evenings. Meanwhile, I was cleaning my house and helping my family. Finally, we were reunited after a week of separation...I was so excited to see Annah that I met her outside of my house when her car pulled up. That really surprised her (a great welcome home surprise!)

June 16th: After a week of being apart, we decided to meet for lunch at our favorite pizza place, Nick 'N Willy's. A little on the pricey side but really good, quality pizza! After we ordered our pizzas, Annah found a table while I walked over to AAA to get some travel brochures about Oregon. Annah and I are going to Oregon to visit our friend Valerie and to see my grandma who lives in Coos Bay. We are going the second week of August so we thought we'd better get planning now!! The rest of my lunch time was spent eating the delicious pizza and talking about our wonderful travel plans!

June 17th-19th: I had training three days out of the week in the St. Paul at the Department of Human Services for my job at Global Home Health Care. We stayed at the Best Western-Kelly Inn near the state capital. Annah came up to visit me the second night we were there. She met us in the hotel lobby and I showed her my room. We freshened up and decided to go on a walk around the neighborhood. We walked near the capital, saw the building where I had the training then we walked past the old Science Museum location. It was exciting to see that because it brought back memories from when we were younger, the main musical staircase and Iggy the iguana outside! After our walk, we drove to the Mall of America. We walked all around the mall, poking our heads in different shops and finally headed up to the third floor for a delicious meal at Bubba Gumps in celebration of our 9 month anniversary! I had their shrimp dish and Annah had tilapia (both of which were very tasty). With our meals we each ordered a drink...and Bubba Gumps is famous for their light cups and beer glasses. With souvenirs in hand, we walked out no longer hungry!

June 21-22: On Friday night we hung out in Austin and had dinner and just relaxed. During this weekend we went to Pepin and helped work on the trailer and tried to go out on the river to go fishing, but the battery (and the backup battery) were both dead so we were only able to fish from the boat in the marina, so we weren't able to really catch anything. It was a good weekend though.

June 24th: When I arrived to work on my birthday, I was stunned to see a completely decorated office with balloons, lots of happy birthday signs, candy on my desk and hanging from the ceiling, confetti, and Googly Eyes on my plants (see my plant blog for more info on that. It was a great surprise for me and I love Annah so much for doing it! My boss and coworkers gave me a cake and had a little celebration for me which was nice too. For dinner I went with Annah and my family to Outback Steakhouse and we all had a great time! For my birthday present Annah gave me a Nintendo Wii along with 5 games and a bunch of accessories! We now have a wonderful time playing games against each other (even though we both get mad when we lose)!

June 28th-29th: Friday night, we drove down to Austin for the evening after work. On Saturday, it was a day we were all anxiously waiting for and hoping for no rain...a trip to Valley Fair with Annah, Jayna (Annah's sister) and Kevin (Jayna's friend). My mom had pre-purchased the tickets a head of time so that made everything easier...on the drive to Valley Fair after picking Jayna and Kevin up, Annah took some Dramamine (which is a life saver) one hour before the rides. Once we got to the park, the first ride was Wild Thing. We didn't have to wait too long and I kept reminding Annah to keep her eyes open and it's going to be ok. She was really nervous even though she had been on it before. After the ride, Annah said that it wasn't as bad as she had remembered it being. There were tears in her eyes after the big, steep drop!

The next ride was the Power Tower, which we were both scared of but it was fun! Our favorite ride was the Extreme Swings which went up and down and made it seem like you were going to fall out! The two of us went away from the big rides to play Mini Golf. It was a lot of fun to spend time with each other and play a little round of golf! I barely beat her!

After we had dropped Jayna and Kevin off, it was about 8:00. We decided to drive down to Pepin, WI where we would stay at my family's trailer then go fishing the next day. It was a long drive and we switched drivers half-way through because Annah couldn't keep her eyes open she was so tired! We made it to Pepin around 10:30. We were both exhausted from a fun day of going on rides and walking around!! Surprisingly, Annah didn't feel sick after going on those rides--yay for Dramamine!

The next day, we went fishing. My dad and I both caught one fish each but they were not very large so we couldn't keep them. Annah got skunked this time around...better luck next time!! We also decided to burn some of the cedar and other branches that needed to be burned around the trailer. Annah and I are both pyros so we had fun with the fire!

July 3rd: Right after I got to work on Thursday the 3rd, my parents called me to tell me that they found a hermit crab walking around on the stairs going into the basement! I was surprised and told Annah and we thought it was our smallest crab "Becky" whom I had taken out the previous night to play with for a few minutes while we were watching Super Nanny. However, as the day progressed and I examined the cage where the escaped hermit crab had been placed, I realized that this was not "Becky" but was instead "Bob" whom Annah and I had thought was eaten by my larger (giant) crabs during the one night we put all of the hermit crabs in one cage. We had thought he was dead because he was nowhere to be found in any shell and we had set some "extra" shells outside on a chair since they weren't being using. Turns out Bob was inside one of these "empty" shells and he must have rolled himself off of the chair. He then roamed around my rec-room for about three to four weeks without any real source of food or water so we hope he will survive! So far he is still alive and happy to be back in his home!

July 4th Weekend: The weekend started around 7:30am with a stop at Dunn Bros for coffee and we were off! Every year Annah's mothers side of the family gets together at a cousin's house in Duluth, MN. Even though the grandparents were not going, we still decided to go up there. It took about 3 1/2 to 4 hours to get up there and we got to visit with Annah's relatives for a while. The weather up there was in the mid 70's, dry, and sunny so it was spectacular!

After eating lunch, we decided to go with several of Annah's cousins to look for a beach where we could make a sand castle. We stumbled upon a nice beach where were able to break into two teams and had a contest for which team could make the best one. I helped a little bit, but not as much as I could have. It was lots of fun! We even walked around in the frigid Lake Superior water and had a blast! After leaving the beach we went and got ice cream and sat down along the beach around downtown Duluth.




We returned to house and said our goodbyes and then we were off to Tettegouche State Park where Annah had reserved a romantic and secluded spot. We had a nice campfire, cooked some hot dogs, relaxed, and enjoyed spending time with each other out in the wilderness! We didn't end up going to any fireworks since we figured it would be too far of a drive to go to the nearest town to see them, so we just celebrated our 4th without any fireworks which was splendid!

On Saturday we then had to pack up and leave for Pepin, Wisconsin. Our drive took about 5 hours was rather uneventful and somewhat boring on the Wisconsin highway, but it was fun!

We arrived in Pepin a little after five in the evening and then went fishing with my dad on our pontoon. It was rather window in the Wisconsin side and it was somewhat difficult to traverse, but we were able to get a couple of hours of fishing in and Annah caught a nice Striped Bass and me and my dad caught nothing!

We finished off the night with a wonderfully romantic dinner at The Pickle Factory where we were able to enjoy each other, the sunset, and a nice relaxing folksy band as we ate dinner! It was incredible! After returning to the trailer we were able to see a few fireworks out of the front door window so we got to see our 4th of July fireworks after all, albeit a day late!

On Sunday, Annah decided to drive back to Rochester to spend some time with her family while I stayed in Pepin to help his dad do some stuff later in the day. Annah also got to have a birthday party for her cats and play the Nintendo Wii with her family. I got to unpack a bunch of kitchen stuff and wash dishes for a couple of hours. I missed Annah though so we reunited for dinner later that evening!

Overall, Annah and I have been having a wonderful time and we're looking forward to the future!

BUSY MONTH!!!

May 3rd: I am the proud owner of three hermit crabs!! I already had two (Becky and Bob) in a very small, purple tank. Saturday May 3rd, Jordan bought two and I bought one more (Boris) hermit crab. Jordan let me use his 10 gallon tank for my three hermit crabs. I helped him set up his enormous tank for his enormous crabs!! Throughout the month he has purchased four large hermit crabs of his own and they live in a 55 gallon aquarium that he had received as a gift about ten years ago. Once we move in together we will probably have to keep the large hermit crabs separate from the smaller ones because the smaller ones would likely get smashed! Feeding these hermits crabs can be tedious and cleaning the aquariums can take some time, but having hermit crabs as a pet is fun! We have started another blog called Hermit Crab Crazy, which will soon contain pictures and information about our crabs when we get the chance to put that all together.

May 4th: Jordan and I went up to the cities and spent the day with my sister and my cousin at the Minnesota Zoo!!!!! We had a great time walking around the zoo. It had been YEARS since I had seen all of it. Jayna and I went there when we were younger but I don't have that much memory of it. I do remember going on the train way up high. The best parts were the dolphin show, the prairie dogs, the farm equipment (Noah's favorite), the wolves, tropical fish and lots more!!

May 8th-11th: This weekend Jordan and I took Friday off of work to go up to Fargo/Moorhead for two days. One of my friends, Meghan was graduating. I had wanted to go up there all year but hadn't had a change to go. Thursday after work we left Rochester. It was a long 5 hour drive (I had forgotten how long it was). We had a great time talking and laughing together the whole car ride up. We stopped at Fergus Falls and got a Culvers ice cream treat to help us stay awake the last hour before we arrived in Moorhead. Thursday night we stayed at Ben and Bill's apartment. We arrived at midnight and Bill was nice enough to have set up the aero-bed mattress on the floor of their living room. We were so tired that we immediately went to bed.

We were awoken the next morning to the wonderful smell of hot cinnamon rolls. That day was filled with graduation celebrations. We attended the graduation ceremony and I learned that it was President Barden's last year as President of MSUM. We took pictures after the ceremony and Meghan's family was nice enough to treat us all to dinner at Bennigan's. We then went back to Meghan and Julie's apartment where we stayed Friday night. Soon after dinner, my old ARC buddy wanted to get together. So Jordan and I picked her up and we all went to a local coffee shop. I had an italian soda which I found out was very very good! We had a great time talking about movies, TV shows, music and life. After we brought Hanna back to her house, it was time to go out to downtown Fargo! We met up with Ben and a few of his friends from the cities and Paul and a bunch of his roommates came a long too! We had a great time socializing. We didn't stay out too long and as we were driving back to Meghan and Julie's--we decided that it's a good thing we weren't in college anymore. We couldn't keep up with this lifestyle of drinking and staying up all night! The next morning we left Fargo/Moorhead semi-early in the pouring rain. Had breakfast at Village Inn then made our way back to the cities in time for the TWINS game!!!

May 17th-18th: This weekend was a lot of fun!! First thing, we finally got to go ring shopping at Arthur's Jewelers! Before we went in, we were like "what are we supposed to do?" and I was a little nervous cause I hadn't done this before. But once we walked in we could see all of the bright and shiny diamond rings. They were beautiful! A woman who worked there immediately came up to us and asked us if we needed help. We said we were looking into engagement rings. She asked me a bunch of questions which I didn't have the faintest idea what she was talking about or how to answer. But she was very friendly and as she was getting our drinks, we had a chance to look around. It took a while to find the perfect one but I found one that I had my heart set on. My first impression was, wow, this ring is a lot like Lynn's ring! But it's a little bit different. We even got the see the diamond and how it would look in the ring, it was gorgeous! After putting the ring on hold and finding the ring of my dreams, the next stop was my grandparents house where all of my family were. Jordan told me not to act too giddy or excited around them.

That same day we watched my cousin perform in the Chang-Mi Korean dance spring performance. Before the show started, we ate Korean food chap-chae and kim-bap. Jordan bought two sets of chopsticks. We sat by my relatives and saved seats for my parents. The best part about the performance was the last dance...the drumming! The dragons on top of the stands were hand-crafted by my dad.

On the way back from the cities, we were hungry and decided to stop at our favorite pizza place- punch pizza in Uptown. Then we headed back to Austin and got back around 11:00pm. It was a fun day!!

The next day we went to the Hormel Nature Center where we took a nature walk in the woods it was a beautiful day! There were bluebells and other wildflowers out and about. Can you see the wildflowers in the background?

May 24th-26th: Since Wednesday, I was in charge of watching my friend Kaia's 5 month old puppy, Chuck. I wanted to come home on Friday night to spend time with Jordan. Jordan has a dog named Lucy so we figured that I could bring Chuck to Rochester and socialize the dogs for the evening. Lucy and Chuck had a great time playing together. Chuck followed me around the house wherever I went, Chuck went too. He was not happy when he was separated from me. We took them to various pet stores around Rochester and bought treats and food. That night, I slept downstairs on Jordan's couch with Chuck in the cage- facing me so he wasn't scared. He whined a few times before settling in.
The next morning I let the dogs out at 7:00am and woke everyone up! Oops! Then we let the dogs play more and we tried to go for a short walk. Puppies are a lot of work!! About halfway through the day, we drove down to Pepin with two dogs in the explorer. I helped Jordan and his family put the boat in and we got to go for a short ride. That day it was VERY windy (felt like we were on the ocean). Chuck had never been on a boat before but I think he had a good time. We gave the dogs two bones, one for each and Lucy was very protective of her bone. Since it was so windy on the boat, we ate dinner at the trailer while the dogs slept. After we got back to Rochester around 9:00 we decided to take Chuck back to Austin. We dropped him off and said goodnight to him and told him we'd check on him in the morning.

Memorial Day, we decided to go on a picnic and a hike. Since neither one of us had been to Whitewater State Park since the flood, I wanted to go see how different it was. We ate a picnic lunch there. The swimming pond was no longer there but the picnic grounds looked the same. We decided to drive to Carly, the sister state park of whitewater to go on our nature hike. We saw some wildflowers and walked about a mile maybe. It was fun and it was a beautiful day!!

May 31st-June 1st: This weekend we were going to go to the cities, but I was not feeling well and didn't want to make my grandmother, who is in a temporary nursing home, sick. So we just hung out in Rochester this weekend. I brought my beta fish home for Jordan to look after. We bought a new tank for him which had a bubbler. I needed to give back the original fish tank he was in to Kaia who let me borrow that one. We set that tank up and put him in there. I don't think he liked it very well because the next weekend, he died. My fish hadn't been eating much lately.

In other news, I have an interview in Byron next Thursday. So in the case I get offered the job and work with the Zumbro Education District next year, we decided to go house and apartment hunting. We looked all over the Rochester area for possible rentals. We even looked at a few houses for sale but those were out of our price range. The one place that Jordan liked the best (besides the single family homes) was the Sunset Trail apartments in Rochester. We will keep looking and see how that goes!