No title needed

A couple of weeks ago Skott was out of town covering a day route that went from Sauk Centre, MN to the Dakotas and back. While exploring the town of Sauk Centre after work one night he spied this fine dining establishment.
There are so many things wrong with this sign I don't even know where to begin!
Bon apetit!



p.s. He DIDN'T eat there :)

Congrads Skott!

Skott has always had an amazing eye for photography.
He took this random photo at work this past spring with his cell phone. Today he found out that the company wants to use it for their nationwide Christmas card!
Congrads babe!

A purchase I never dreamed of making

Never in my life did I EVER think I would buy....

a BABY (bicycle) STROLLER!

but alas, our poor rescue puppy mill Frenchie has developed an arthritic limp. And with Confuscious being 9 years old now, we decided this wouldn't be a bad investment. Eau Claire has a lot of great bike trails, plus we have a camping trip planned in a couple weeks south at a great biking/camping spot, so no doubt we will get our money's worth!

We actually had to seat belt them in to get them to stay put. Once they realized they couldn't get out they relaxed and enjoyed the ride.

Thankfully Skott towed the 50+ pounds of dog and trailer so I got the pleasure of seeing the looks on peoples faces when they expected to see kids in there and were instead met with this:

We biked down to the park across from the school and I worked on my tree identification for class. It was a lot of fun and we look forward to many more outings!

( ________ ) On a stick!

Since I was in Oregon all last summer, I missed out on the Minnesota State Fair. Skott went, and tried to prepare me but it is one of those things you just have to see to believe! Since my internship was about one hour from the fair, Skott came up and we went the day after my last day at work.

The thing that I found the most hilarious was all the different things you could get ON A STICK. Seriously! Stuff like:
Pickles, big slabs of bacon, frozen cheesecake, frozen bananas, foot long corn dogs, deep fried candy bars, spiraled french fries, scotch eggs, any kind of fruit, alligator, beef, chicken, turkey, falafels, ..... the list goes on! But my favorite was: HOT DISH ON A STICK.

Now I have lived in the midwest for almost three years and I am still not exactly sure what "hot dish" really is. It is a commonly heard phrase, but you get a different answer every time you ask someone what makes a hot dish. The closest thing I can figure it is, is that mystery casserole/goulash/unknown meat/whatcha-got stew thing you would find at a huge Mormon potluck. C'mon, you all know what I am talking about! :) After seeing it advertised "on a stick" at the fair, I was dying to figure out how this worked and what they considered hot dish. Go figure, the line was atleast 50 people long and I couldn't get close enough to find out. Mystery remains.

I wish I had of taken pictures of these two booths on this one street (yes, the fair is that big! Like a town with street names and everything). One booth boasted: "Everything on a stick!" and the other booth across the street said: "Nothing on a stick!" hahaha

We had a great time at the fair in the morning when it wasn't as crowded. We walked around for atleast 7 hours and I kid you not, we probably saw only 3/4 of it. -and we didn't even go into the Midway area with rides, games, etc. Once it got crowded and we kept getting jostled apart, I was done. Ready to go. Tired of being run over by rude, self-consumed people. Luckily, we took a free park and ride bus. There were so many people that we had to wait in line for at least 30 minutes just to cross the street to get to the bus loading area. Once our bus came, it was a quick trip back to the car.

I couldn't imagine taking kids there and trying to keep track of them. I would be a nervous wreck. Several times Skott and I got seperated and it was amazing how fast people filled inbetween you and before you knew it, you were really far apart. A bit scary, but a great "midwest" experience!

These were my favorite -Scotch eggs. It's sausage wrapped around an egg and then deep fried. Served on a stick with your choice of sauces. We put honey mustard on ours.

We always have to check out the Percherons and draft horses when we go to a fair. My great grandpa always had a team that he used for plowing, hauling, and in the winter, pulling an old bobsled loaded with straw bales and a bunch of kids! Great memories!

This was one of the smallest ones that Skott is standing by:

You're never too old

You're never too old to wear a Barbie band-aid!

-especially if your only other option is "food safety blue" (yes, that's actually what its called!).

I found a super cute pair of sandals in my closet and decided to wear them on the first day of school. Big mistake. There was a reason why they were on the top shelf getting all dusty: they weren't comfortable after the first 30 minutes. So I walked around campus barefoot as much as I could but still got some nice, sore blisters.

Happy feet today as I slipped back into my Keens sandals! Love them. (Have them in three colors).