Northern Minnesota

Erik and I took a nice trip up to the cabin last weekend. Here are some pictures from our trip.

Looking for Fall on the Last Day of Summer

Erik and I both had Sunday off, which was so nice! We went up to William O'Brien on the St. Croix River and hiked around there. The leaves are just starting to change slightly yellow and a few spots of red in the Maples. After hiking William O'Brien State Park, we headed up to Taylors Falls, had lunch at a drive-in and then climbed around the potholes in Interstate State Park. After that we headed back down river and stopped at Marine on St. Croix and went to a Art Fair. We only got a lemonade that cost too much but there were some beautiful pottery and photographs there. We had a really nice day!





This pictures is actually from Friday, when I was up in the Pine City area, a little further north than yesterday and there is a little more red in the trees.

Fall is upon us and I'm ready for it. I just finished another good book by Jodi Picoult, Perfect Match. It was one I couldn't put down. I was thankful for that too, since the previous book was dreadfully slow.

Last weekend, Erik and I went to the Farmers Market downtown and stocked up on food to make dinner for Mom, Dad and Katie. It was a good meal and good to buy local. Mom made an apple dessert with her apples. She is having a bumper crop this year - both Katie and I went home with some. Katie has been making hers into Applesauce and I have yet to do anything with mine. I've been freezing bunches but it will be worth it in the winter, but if I freeze much more we are going to need a deep freeze.

Yes For MN

Summer off, but now I'm back! :)

Recently, I hunted for a dresser on craigslist and found one that was in my price range (which was pretty low). It needed a bit of work before we can use it as a tv stand (which is our ultimate goal for the dresser). So today we started the transformation... we went stripped the stain off of the dresser and Erik did a little sanding. Before we knew it the day was gone.

Before:

Erik sanding the back:

Maybe half way done:

Erik and I also went to the St. Paul Farmers Market today and picked up a bounty of vegetables for some meals and some to freeze/can, so that is tomorrows project. I picked up The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving at the library earlier this week and I'm slightly concerned about the most feared thing in preserving - botulism, but I'm getting over my fear and decided that I will be ultra careful and make sure everything is cleaned/boiled and that I process for exactly the time it calls for.

Settling In

There have been a lot of changes lately for Erik and I. We moved - that would be one big one. We both have new jobs - that is another big one. And we are finally back in Minnesota. We are happy to be back, but we miss all of our friends in Nebraska, but they are dispersing throughout the world here in the next few years and we'll hopefully go visit them just as they are welcome to visit us in Minnesota.

It has been very nice to be so close to our family now. I've spent sometime with my family - riding with Mom, softball with Dad. Katie, Dad and I went hiking in Nerstrand State Park last weekend. It was a very nice time. We took pictures of the waterfall and hiked around in the woods.
The other night I went out to my parents and my Mom and I planted raspberry plants and jalapeños. Then we went to Katie's softball game - she is coaching this year, and then out to cold stone. It was fun to watch her doing something that she enjoys like that.