Monday, September 14, 2009

Go Vikings!

Adam watched his first regular season Vikings game on Sunday! Our family, being the hardcore Vikings fans that we are, put on our jerseys and cheered our team to a win against the Cleveland Browns. We got our jerseys with a gift certificate to NFL.com that we obtained when we bought our TV. It's so fun because the jerseys were free, but we still look hard core!

Adam says, "Touchdown!"




Our anniversary (8-13-05). Pretty clever, huh? I know.

How cute is this fan?

Thursday, September 10, 2009

New Label in Town

Grandma Peg brought a special treat for Adam when she was visiting over Labor Day - homemade applesauce! She made a separate batch just for him with much less sugar in it. I might have sampled a bit of it...it is good stuff!

So cute with his own label and everything.
We weren't really sure if he liked it...what do you think?
Wait, don't take the picture yet! I need to wipe my face!
Ok, I'm good.
Thanks, Grandma Peg! Best applesauce ever!

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

My Thoughts on New Plates

I recently registered my car in the state of Ohio. This changed caused me to reflect on each set of plates I have had on my car. My first plates were Minnesota plates. I don't know whether it was because I was newly married, or had just moved across the country, or what, but surrendering my MN plates was a strangely emotional experience for me. I probably could have gotten away with keeping at least one, but I was naive and held back my tears as I handed over my beautiful MN plates (they really are the best ones.) PS, this picture is NOT my actual old license plate. That one would have about a hundred dead mosquitos plastered to it - which added character, by the way. Please observe a moment of reverent silence as you look at the following image...

I now realize that, being military, I could have kept my MN plates all along! However, I didn't know this at the time and one of my first stops - post honeymoon - was the DMV to get my new CA plates. I never had the sentimental attachment to the CA plates, but it made me feel cool when out-of-state peeps would see them and say, "oooo you're from CA. That must be sweet!" Phil assured me, however, that I would always be a MN girl at heart.

Here is my car sporting her new Ohio plates. We got these because it is ridiculously expensive to have your car registered in CA, so this saves us a bundle. Although I was not attached to my CA plates (they are rather plain looking) I was sad to surrender them. Not only are OH plates rather dull, no one EVER says, "ooooo you're from Ohio!"
So, with each new plate it seems I have been demoted a little bit. But it does make me wonder how my collection of plates will grow and which plates my car will sport in the future.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Our Trip to Wegerzyn

Grandma and Grandpa Swenson were visiting over Labor Day weekend, so we took them to Wegerzyn Gardens, one of the parks near our house. It was a beautiful day - the gardens are beautiful and so peaceful. We saw many different plants and flowers and some of the biggest bees I've ever seen! Don't worry, no bee stings! Seeing all the interesting plants had Phil and me discussing our future landscaping plans.

At the entrance. There are some cute little orange flowers in the very front that you can't really see, but I really liked the detail they added.
Check out the spikes on the leaves of this plant! Phil is letting me know that this plant is NOT a good candidate to use for toilet paper when out in the woods. Thanks Phil!
This is cool. For their protection, these guys fold up when you touch them.
This is the exact same branch as in the photo above, but it has been touched so all the leaves are folded in. COOL!
My favorite part of the day! I love watching Adam learn about and enjoy his environment. He loved the fountain in the children's discovery garden.

So close...

yet so far away.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

More Weekend Fun - Cox Arboretum and a Yummy Drink

Making the most of our family time on the weekends, we went over to Cox Arboretum to have a little nature walk and check out their butterfly garden. It was beautiful! I think if we would have gone earlier in the season, we would have seen a greater variety of butterflies, but it we still saw some beautiful monarchs and some really cool caterpillars. One of the caterpillars we saw was just hatched and was TINY! I tried to get a picture, but my camera couldn't even focus on it - seriously, smaller than a grain of rice! Here are some critters that I did manage to capture...



How cool is this guy? The black eyes on top are fake! He's trying to look big and scary to his predators. His actual head is sticking out below the green part of his body. Sneaky, huh?
When we got home, Phil made me this yummy drink. Lots of peaches and berries with champagne and some other stuff (??) in it.
I was loving it!

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

John Bryan State Park

We've been enjoying some cooler weather, here in Ohio. We took a little trip (can you call it a trip if you only drive 25 minutes?) to Yellow Springs, Ohio to visit John Bryan State Park. The town of Yellow Springs is kind of neat and unique by itself. We stopped in town for some lunch (Adam had his first french fries and lemonade) and then headed to the park for some adventuring.

Adam and Daddy all ready for our hike. Adam loved the backpack - and it gave Daddy a good workout!
We had a great hike. There was a river off to the right and we saw lots of different mushrooms, berries, and plants. Adam kept reaching out to the side trying to grab the leaves.
We asked a guy to take our picture, and soon discovered that he was an actual photographer. He carefully got us posed on this narrow bridge so that you could see us and the river. Unfortunately, I don't feel like his care and skill are accurately represented by our point-and-shoot camera.