Living in Williston means that any departure from here, even a short timed and short distanced one, turns into a little vacation. What I've also realized, is not having kids or dogs with us means most of the excitement of little things like this ends up without pictures. No one really cares to see me or Tanner eating or walking. Unfortunately we just aren't that cute. But last weekend we did get to steal away Friday after Tanner got off of work. We spent the whole weekend with our good friends Sara and Joe Lawson. Some of the things that were awesome were...
-Eating at Buffalo Wild Wings
-Cold Stone. I'm pretty sure that might be my favorite restaurant.
-Music (Joe likes a lot of the same stuff that I do, but that Tanner does not :) so it was fun (more for me) to jam out to good tunes the whole way down and back!)
-Temple in Bismarck
-Shopping at the mall - pretzels and golf shirt sales.
-Outback Steakhouse. Oh man I love those rolls.
-We got back to Minot and Tanner and I decided we still wanted to see 42 so we left Joe and Sara and went to the theater - only to be disappointed with a sold out show. Nuts. So we went to Target instead and shopped more, which was pretty fun in and of itself. Oh the wonders of the big city :)
So yep - that was it. Doesn't seem like much but I had a ton of fun. Joe even showed us some cool fly fishing videos. Tanner and I are both getting quite excited for our trip in a few months. Now it's back to work for me for a week. And in other big news - Tanner got a new job! He's now a gauger for Enbridge. He got a bit of a raise and he's excited about learning new things and having new challenges. This is also a better position for future upward motility too, so that's all good news. His boss really likes him and he's doing an awesome job and likes the people he works for a lot and the company is just great in general, so we feel pretty blessed!
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Sunday, April 14, 2013
A boring and (mostly) pictureless update...
Let's see. There's been a few blog worthy things that have happened in the last week. Or at least some things I care to remember. I just have very limited pictures to show for it.
Work has still been going good. We had an interesting weekend a bit ago. Four gunshots in 3 days. One was actually a murder outside the strip club. There was a lot of chaos right after it happened (shocking, huh?) and so the ambulance just grabbed the victim quick and brought him to the ER, but he was already gone. Then there was a suicide that came in - he made it about halfway to Minot. He passed away on the plane. Those two obviously a little more dramatic, sad, pathetic - whatever you want to call it. Another one was a guy that accidentally shot himself in the foot. And last but not least, an older guy at the shooting range was trying to teach his sister how to shoot and as he was handing a hand gun over to her, it went off and shot him in the Peter. Nothing but the finest up here.
Also in work updates - even though my mom might be the only one that cares - we hired a new PA and so now my schedule has changed. I'll be working 10-10 now instead of 11-11. Which is glorious. And I'll work WThFS, off Sunday, work MTW, then off for 6 days. Then the cycle starts again. I may pick up another Saturday here or there, but somehow - things are working out that I don't think I'll hardly ever have to work Sundays - which is an incredible blessing that I am so grateful for! Anyway - it's confusing maybe but it's awesome and mostly I'm excited about a 6 day off stretch. Although I have been toying the idea around of getting a job with a traveling company that covers some clinics and ERs in some closer towns to fill in some of those days. Figure while I've got the opportunity, time and energy to work hard - I might as well. We'll see...
Speaking of Sundays and such - last weekend was general conference. I love those two weekends a year so much. Conference is awesome in general, but I love not having to get up and ready for church and to be able to snack all day :) We had some friends, Sara and Joe come over Saturday. They used to be in our ward but recently moved to Minot and so we don't get to see them as much anymore. So they came and we ate dinner and watched conference and hung out. Sara and I did a puzzle and then when the boys went to the priesthood session, we went for a walk. We followed it up with frozen yogurt at My Swirl. We thought how if that frozen yogurt place was in Utah - it would have been JAM packed with men in suits right after priesthood got out, or packed with girls while it was going on. It was pretty quiet when we went. A tad bit different up here.
The next day I was left to my own puzzling devices.
Rozzi kept coming up to the table and her mouth was just the right height. She'd set her face up on the table and when she'd take a step back, there'd be 4-5 pieces stuck in her slobbery jowls. Nice. Obviously I didn't get them all back...
It was fun to have the whole weekend off with Tanner. I even had a couple days off at the beginning of the week. We made our first trip to the racquetball courts in town. It made my heart happy. I think he even had fun...maybe we'll go some more. I'm looking so forward to our new gym - due next Spring - where we can do anything and everything we want all under one roof and one monthly payment. Now we have to work out, swim and play racquetball at 3 different buildings.
Oh - and it's snowing today. And by snowing I mean winter storm warning/blizzard in April type snowing. Not cool. Oh well. Life is still good and we have lots to be grateful for. Hopefully we'll have some better excitement in the next week :)
Work has still been going good. We had an interesting weekend a bit ago. Four gunshots in 3 days. One was actually a murder outside the strip club. There was a lot of chaos right after it happened (shocking, huh?) and so the ambulance just grabbed the victim quick and brought him to the ER, but he was already gone. Then there was a suicide that came in - he made it about halfway to Minot. He passed away on the plane. Those two obviously a little more dramatic, sad, pathetic - whatever you want to call it. Another one was a guy that accidentally shot himself in the foot. And last but not least, an older guy at the shooting range was trying to teach his sister how to shoot and as he was handing a hand gun over to her, it went off and shot him in the Peter. Nothing but the finest up here.
Also in work updates - even though my mom might be the only one that cares - we hired a new PA and so now my schedule has changed. I'll be working 10-10 now instead of 11-11. Which is glorious. And I'll work WThFS, off Sunday, work MTW, then off for 6 days. Then the cycle starts again. I may pick up another Saturday here or there, but somehow - things are working out that I don't think I'll hardly ever have to work Sundays - which is an incredible blessing that I am so grateful for! Anyway - it's confusing maybe but it's awesome and mostly I'm excited about a 6 day off stretch. Although I have been toying the idea around of getting a job with a traveling company that covers some clinics and ERs in some closer towns to fill in some of those days. Figure while I've got the opportunity, time and energy to work hard - I might as well. We'll see...
Speaking of Sundays and such - last weekend was general conference. I love those two weekends a year so much. Conference is awesome in general, but I love not having to get up and ready for church and to be able to snack all day :) We had some friends, Sara and Joe come over Saturday. They used to be in our ward but recently moved to Minot and so we don't get to see them as much anymore. So they came and we ate dinner and watched conference and hung out. Sara and I did a puzzle and then when the boys went to the priesthood session, we went for a walk. We followed it up with frozen yogurt at My Swirl. We thought how if that frozen yogurt place was in Utah - it would have been JAM packed with men in suits right after priesthood got out, or packed with girls while it was going on. It was pretty quiet when we went. A tad bit different up here.
The next day I was left to my own puzzling devices.
Rozzi kept coming up to the table and her mouth was just the right height. She'd set her face up on the table and when she'd take a step back, there'd be 4-5 pieces stuck in her slobbery jowls. Nice. Obviously I didn't get them all back...
It was fun to have the whole weekend off with Tanner. I even had a couple days off at the beginning of the week. We made our first trip to the racquetball courts in town. It made my heart happy. I think he even had fun...maybe we'll go some more. I'm looking so forward to our new gym - due next Spring - where we can do anything and everything we want all under one roof and one monthly payment. Now we have to work out, swim and play racquetball at 3 different buildings.
Oh - and it's snowing today. And by snowing I mean winter storm warning/blizzard in April type snowing. Not cool. Oh well. Life is still good and we have lots to be grateful for. Hopefully we'll have some better excitement in the next week :)
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Antelope Island and other Easter festivities
The way Easter fell on the weekend between months, Tanner would be able to take 3 days off without using his regular stash of PTO, so we decided we'd take a quick trip to Utah. We left early afternoon Wednesday as soon as Tanner got off work and drove the whole 13 hrs to Layton. Thursday we had a lot of time to ourselves while everyone in his family was working. I went for an amazing run with shorts and t-shirt. Tanner took a little drive with his dad. Then he and I went to the golf course across the street and he got to use his new clubs he got for Christmas for the first time. It was basically love at first swing. He was a happy boy!
I was just happy to sit outside and watch. But I did get to swing at a few leftover balls when he was done and didn't do too shabby. Maybe I'll actually attempt to learn some stuff this summer. The rest of the afternoon we spent outside sitting in the sun chatting and relaxing till his family came home. Then we just hung out with them, got dinner and self serve frozen yogurt (and my yogurt weight was the exact magical weight they had announced for the day and so I got it half off. It was sweet!). We went to bed pretty early since we had gotten in so late.
The next morning I dropped off the dogs at the "spa". Both were getting pretty shaggy looking and needed a good grooming. Tanner went golfing with his brother and I drove home to my parents. My dad and I went for a long run with my mom riding along on her bike. Then the rest of the day was spent outside playing volleyball, playing ping pong in the garage, eating pizza and playing games. My brother and sister-in-law came over with their little girl and new Bernese puppy. He was so adorable and just looked like a little stuffed animal alive.
Saturday was the Great Stoddard Easter Egg Hunt. We've had this tradition for the past 9 or so years, and it continues to evolve. My dad is crazy creative and puts so much time and effort into the planning and preparing of it. It's a tradition for him and my mom to go around the day before and hide all the eggs together. It's probably my most favorite family tradition so I was so happy we didn't have to miss it this year. Basically this year went something like this. We had these tools to work with:
We got a clue to find our first egg hidden somewhere at our house. Then when we found that, we had instructions for each couple, with the tools they would need, to find our couple's egg. Tanner and I had to use the tape measure and compass for our first one. Then, in each couple's egg, were a couple pieces to a real puzzle and a couple paper pieces. The actually puzzle pieces went into a bag (needed later) and we had to put the paper puzzle pieces together which gave us a GPS location to drive to, and then walk precisely to that location, where we all searched for one large egg that had instructions for each couple to find their eggs...and so on and so forth.
That first egg led us to Antelope Island, where we spent the rest of the whole afternoon. The weather was glorious, the dogs were in heaven and I couldn't be happier!
Lunch break! Delicious hogie sandwiches, homemade sugar cookies, fruit and chips.
This is the second to last spot. Our instructions had 3 parts - a compass degree and certain footage we used the long tape measure for. From there, another compass degree and footage, and one final time. Lots of room for error, and we ended up out in the middle of a big field. With a little encouragement we found both our eggs tucked in some field fluff.
This also was the spot where we had all the actual puzzle pieces collected (NO eggs had gone unfound in all of this process...pretty amazing). We did this little Avenger/hologram puzzle out in the field, which gave us the final coordinates.
We didn't get a bunch of pictures at the last place. But we got to the coordinate and then all the eggs were just hidden around that spot. In each egg was a little strip of paper saying to find the easter bunny and exchange that ticket for a prize. All the "big kids" got gift cards to Scheels.
This is my super cute niece loving her stuffed bunny she got. She loves stuffed animals! Oh man - it was such a fun day! After that we drove back home and had a barbecue and a little birthday party for my brother and sister who were having birthday's the next week.
Sunday was our last day and we got to spend it with the Niederhauser's. Everyone was there and Mimi and Papa had done a fun little Easter egg hunt for the nieces and nephews. That was fun running around outside watching and helping them. It was 70 degrees that day and was so beautiful! We had a delicious dinner and just spent the rest of the evening basking in the warmth and soaking up as much of that and as much family fun as we could before having to hit the sack for a very early departure back to Williston.
Family is seriously the best. We both feel so grateful to have such wonderful families and in-laws! It was a perfect way to spend a holiday celebrating the event that makes it possible to be with them forever!
I was just happy to sit outside and watch. But I did get to swing at a few leftover balls when he was done and didn't do too shabby. Maybe I'll actually attempt to learn some stuff this summer. The rest of the afternoon we spent outside sitting in the sun chatting and relaxing till his family came home. Then we just hung out with them, got dinner and self serve frozen yogurt (and my yogurt weight was the exact magical weight they had announced for the day and so I got it half off. It was sweet!). We went to bed pretty early since we had gotten in so late.
The next morning I dropped off the dogs at the "spa". Both were getting pretty shaggy looking and needed a good grooming. Tanner went golfing with his brother and I drove home to my parents. My dad and I went for a long run with my mom riding along on her bike. Then the rest of the day was spent outside playing volleyball, playing ping pong in the garage, eating pizza and playing games. My brother and sister-in-law came over with their little girl and new Bernese puppy. He was so adorable and just looked like a little stuffed animal alive.
Saturday was the Great Stoddard Easter Egg Hunt. We've had this tradition for the past 9 or so years, and it continues to evolve. My dad is crazy creative and puts so much time and effort into the planning and preparing of it. It's a tradition for him and my mom to go around the day before and hide all the eggs together. It's probably my most favorite family tradition so I was so happy we didn't have to miss it this year. Basically this year went something like this. We had these tools to work with:
That first egg led us to Antelope Island, where we spent the rest of the whole afternoon. The weather was glorious, the dogs were in heaven and I couldn't be happier!
 |
| Ben, Julie and Adi |
 |
| The whole crew, minus my mom the photographer. |
 |
| My youngest sisters, Kathryn (R) and Laura (L) |
 |
| Tanner verifying our distance with the range finder |
 |
| Rozzi doesn't ever hold still... |
 |
| Heather, Shane and Austin |
 |
| My parents - the masterminds behind this awesomeness. |
We didn't get a bunch of pictures at the last place. But we got to the coordinate and then all the eggs were just hidden around that spot. In each egg was a little strip of paper saying to find the easter bunny and exchange that ticket for a prize. All the "big kids" got gift cards to Scheels.
Sunday was our last day and we got to spend it with the Niederhauser's. Everyone was there and Mimi and Papa had done a fun little Easter egg hunt for the nieces and nephews. That was fun running around outside watching and helping them. It was 70 degrees that day and was so beautiful! We had a delicious dinner and just spent the rest of the evening basking in the warmth and soaking up as much of that and as much family fun as we could before having to hit the sack for a very early departure back to Williston.
Family is seriously the best. We both feel so grateful to have such wonderful families and in-laws! It was a perfect way to spend a holiday celebrating the event that makes it possible to be with them forever!
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