On the Hunt

On Saturday we decided we were going to make the journey to pick out our Christmas tree. On our way down to Cannon Falls we go. We decided to start a tradition this year by cutting down our own tree. So, we had lunch in town and headed out to the tree farm. After we turned in there ended up being 10 cars behind us in line. They hand us a saw and tell us where we need to go. There was 100 acres of Christmas trees. It was crazy! So, we found an area we thought we would find it and made the journey to pick the perfect tree. We walked up and down the aisles of trees. We would stop and think this ones pretty good but is there a better one? Then we thought oh that first one wasn't too bad.... but wait where was it? All the trees look the same. So many to choose from; so many with flaws. Then we found the one. Just like how the Griswald's found theirs. Not really. It's small but just right. Eric cut it down and off we went. 

All the people hunting for "the perfect one"

You talkin' to me?  Are you talkin' to me?

"The One" (for this year)

A little cold there Eric?

Tim-ber!

All finished

Thanksgiving in Chicago

The drive sucked but the company rocked! We headed down to Chicago to meet up with the Wing clan for Thanksgiving. Our average speed down to Chicago - 60 mph. It really SUCKED but in the end we made it for some Smoke Daddy. 

We managed to do a lot while we were in town. Here's a list of things we actually did in 3 days:

• The Smoke Daddy - 3 times - FAB-U-LOUS!!!

• Thanksgiving day parade - Saw the Budweiser clydesdale & lots of balloons

• Walked for miles - burned off all the food we ate

• Garretts popcorn

• Visit with Santa at Macy's - Lilly freaked!

• Intelligentsia Coffee house - 2 times

• Christkindlmarket - ate 2 awesome brats

• Caught up with the fam

A Schaffer Wedding in Mankato

I've been meaning to do a post lately but haven't made the time. Earlier this month we headed down to Mankato for my cousin Ryan's wedding. I haven't seen him for probably 20 years. That's a long time. So, my siblings and I (plus Eric) decided to make the journey down so we could catch up with some relatives on the Schaffer side. It was great to see everyone. We hadn't seen them since our wedding. Eric and I had a great time just hanging out with the immediate family. My dad got called out by my cousin to be apart of scavenger hunt/musical chairs game. For an almost 70 year old he could move, fast! Plus he won with some help from my siblings. It really was a great time. 

Halloween - Just one visitor

This year for Halloween just wasn't the same. We both weren't around to hand out candy. That's ok. The numbers keep going down each year. Eric had been out of town all week until Friday night and I got together with Sherry for a spooky experience. Instead of heading home after work on Halloween I headed out to meet Sherry for dinner. After we went to a haunted house. I was getting a little scared while we waited cuz we heard so much screaming going on. When we made it through it was the actors doing all the screaming. It was kinda funny but some parts scared us. Especially the clowns! Sherry and I both agreed they shouldn't have made the Stephen King's "It" movie. Creepy..... After the haunted house I zoomed over to pick Eric up at the airport and made it home for our only visitor. ANTHONY!!! Cathy, Tim and Anthony stopped by so we could see him all dressed up in his monkey suite with a banana in his pocket. He was so adorable I had to share some pictures. What an end to our Halloween night. 

I hate to admit it but NKOTB ROCKED!

When I found out NKOTB was coming back in town for a concert I had to go. It brought me back to when I was a kid watching them. So, I convinced Eric to get tickets and we went. Can you believe it, Eric went! He's the best guy ever for taking me too! I'm very lucky. Alright to the concert. When we got there majority of the fans of course are women. I guess on the main level they turned the men's bathrooms into a woman's bathroom because of the high demand. The concert was nuts! They had two opening acts which were alright. The first act the girl was odd but the second act was Natasha Bedingfield. I guess one of her songs is for the opening credits to "The Hills". She was pretty good. Then NKOTB came on. What an entrance and a show for 2 hours! I couldn't believe how long it went. The fans went crazy. It was like being 11 all over again. People dressed up in old attire of NKOTB t-shirts and wore buttons that they had from 15 years ago. There were two groups of people in the suite we were in dressed up. Even two guys dressed up for the occasion. Someone brought along an old VHS of NKOTB's old concerts too. We had a great time. It's hard not to enjoy it but still think "I can't believe we are here." If you were a fan of them back when this is a concert worth going to. Enjoy the pics and clips we took. Too funny.

Lilly's Baptism

We went to Tulsa for our niece's baptism. We flew in on a Thursday night and came back home on Sunday. We had a fabulous opportunity to fly on Pinnacle. It's a small little plane company owned through NWA. So, we flew from MSP to Memphis and had about a 1/2 hour to get on our next flight to Tulsa. We stopped to grab some delicious BBQ at the Interstate BBQ (my sister recommended), ran to the bathroom and headed towards our plane. The attendants were yelling at us, "Are you the Wings?" I guess we were the last ones to get on our plane even though we had 10 minutes before leaving the gate. So we sat in aisle 11 out of 16 aisles with our BBQ in hand and there was no A/C. We were roasting, trying to eat BBQ stinking up the plane and the plane didn't even take off until 15 minutes later. All, I got to say is it was interesting but well worth it. It beats driving!

So, we got into Tulsa and we were welcomed with the warmest welcomes from Aaron, Kari and Lilly. Well, Lilly was asleep but she welcomed us later in the car after dinner with some loud screams. ( :

The next day Kari and I got our nails done and then Jim and Bonnie got into town. We were able to hang out for awhile, eat, and then head off to a concert at the casino. We saw Robert Cray and we had front row seats. I think we all could say, "It was way to loud in the front row." Plus, I don't think this was the most memorable moment of our trip that's for sure. We thought it would be pretty good but were a little disappointed. On Saturday, Eric, Aaron and Jim made another trip to a coffee shop on their world wind tour of coffee shops in Tulsa. Kari, Bonnie and I made it shopping a bit too. Kari rocks on the discount too! That's all I gotta say. (: Saturday evening we had a big dinner with the family and Kari's grandparents and friends. It was a full house eating some good grub. Aaron made pulled pork sandwiches with homemade coleslaw. To die for! YUM!! Aaron - I want the recipe.

The big day arrived on Sunday for Lilly. She got baptised and we were all there to see it. It was a wonderful service geared to children. After the service we had our private baptism. It was nice not having to go up in the front of the congregation and stand there. Of course if we had to do it we would but it was nice not having to. After the baptism we ate lunch at a fabulous cafe and had to take some bakery items home. Then we had to head home. It was very difficult leaving everyone. We don't have much time with each other and just want to cherish it. We always have a good time and we just don't ever want it to end.

A Serious Man Filming

So, we had a great opportunity to have a big Hollywood movie to be filmed down the street from our house a few weeks back. The Coen brothers were in town filming their upcoming movie, "A Serious Man". I guess it takes back in the 60's when the Coen brothers were kids. So Eric and I decided to go check it out one night. We started standing at the end of the street with all the others. We ended up chatting with some of the "extras" with their classic cars. They had to stand around all day waiting to be told if they can drive their cars in the next scene. Otherwise, the cars were placed in the street as a prop. The crew really made the street look old school. They added chimneys to house and old school antennas. After awhile as the crew was getting closer to wrapping up for the night we were able to get closer to the set. We were able to see them film a scene over and over and over. It was pretty exciting. Eric had decided to run back and get the camera so we can capture our day on the set. We were able to get a picture of Joel Coen and some of the other activities going on. We even got talked to numerous times to not use a flash and we never did! It was our neighbor, that was there also, using the flash on her camera. She couldn't figure out how to turn it off and they assumed it was Eric. It was pretty funny. Once they called it a wrap the tear down of all the lights and props came down in a hurry. It was pretty amazing how every single person had a task and you didn't want to get in the way. All in all it was a pretty cool scene to be apart of.

Sonic is Now Open In Savage, MN!!!

I can't believe it but it's true! SONIC has officially invaded Minnesota. They opened their 2nd restaurant in the Twin Cities. How awesome is that? I have been counting down the days. Monday it opened and it wasn't a surprise that we made the trip to go there! I've been able to eat at the Des Moines location while traveling to visit my in-laws. It's Eric and I's tradition to stop there now to enjoy a delicious burger and a slushy while in the comforts of our car. Now we can do it any time here.

So, a few gals at work and I took lunch early to get ahead of the lunch rush and get in line. We waited in line to get a stall for about 20 minutes. They had two lines formed. One for the drive thru and the other for parking in a stall. The lines pretty much wrapped around the building. It was crazy! There were a bunch of police there directing the craziness. We had a blast waiting and taking pictures. When we finally got to a stall we didn't know what to order. It took a bit but we figured it out. All the servers were on roller blades and having a blast. Did you know that Sonic has their own radio station! Yes, they do. It was fun. They had a variety of songs. Our server was very outgoing and fun to chat with. We had a blast on the day Sonic opened in Savage, MN.

All in all it took us about an hour to drive there, wait in line, order, eat and drive back to work. It was all worth it and lots of fun. How silly we are to get excited over a fast food place. Guess their advertisements really work. Oh and by the way my hair really doesn't look that Farrah Fawcettish. Really! (:

Northern Night at Elko

A couple of weeks ago we got the opportunity to be rednecks for the night. Northern was having it's Roush Race Truck appear at Elko Speedway. So we go to be apart of all the fun. Eric and I decided to head down a little early and stop in at a bar in town that an old co-worker owned. The bar's name is Bullseye Saloon. It's your typical small town bar that's for sure. The best part was happy hour. $1.50 bottle beers. So we enjoyed ourselves for awhile. Our friend Lori (co-worker of mine) and her husband Tom meet us at the bar with some friends. Then we headed over to the track. From there it was redneck city! (Not so bad) So many people wanting to get as much beer in as they could. Well who would blame them. It was 99¢ tap beers until 8:00. How could you refuse it too! I think it was in honor of the Northern truck #99. We went to our seats and watched the races begin. Walking in front of everyone to your seat you felt like you were in high school again walking in front at a football game. I always hated that. You felt like there were so many eyes on you and you wanted to run. We watched a variety of races and in the final two races the Northern truck appeared. It didn't race though. It lead the cars around the track before they started. It was fun. Last year Erik Darnell (Nascar truck driver) brought his dad's car out and wrapped it with Northern's logo and raced. That was pretty exciting. In the end it was fun and we were also able to watch Michael Phelps get him 8th goal at the Olympics in the Northern Booth. It was a great night at the races that's for sure! Next time we want to go to Elko during the Eve of Destruction. They have school buses race and crash into each other, cars jumping other cars with trailers on them and lots of other stuff. I guess we really want to be rednecks.....I don't think so.