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.

We finally did something to blog about

Eric and I decided to take a couple of days off and head up North. We wanted to go to Cloquet to see the 50th Anniversary celebration of the Frank Lloyd Write gas station in town and then head up to Duluth. We were having some major cravings for Burrito Union and of course Eddies. mmmmmm.....Eddie's ribs. So, we got a beautiful place on Lake Superior in Duluth. It was so beautiful. We were able to hear the water crash against the rocks. It was so peaceful and calm. It really helped us to just relax. It was desperately needed. We even forget how beautiful Duluth really is.

When we got into town on Thursday we were able to have some lunch at Burrito Union (B.U.) and then hike a little bit along a creek outside of B.U. Then we hung around canal park waiting to see if we could check in early and to our surprise we were! We got in at 2:00 and it worked out perfect. We got checked it, chilled for a bit and then headed to Cloquet for the big 50th celebration. When we got there they had 2 guys dressed up in the old uniforms filling cars ups from the 50's with gas for only .25 a gallon! Yes, 25 cents! We hung out for awhile and got lots of pictures and enjoyed the atmosphere. They had the same clown as they did 50 years ago at the grand opening. Pretty cool.

After we hung around Cloquet for about 2 hours we headed East to Superior. We were in some major need of Eddies. They truly do have the best ribs! I just love them. After dinner we headed back to Duluth and had to get dessert. We are on vacation of course we gotta get some dessert. We got a malt at the Portland Ice Cream shop. Very tasty but really filling. We both really didn't need it especially after our meal at Eddies. Wow! Good thing we did a lot of hiking it helped to burn off all those calories.

So, on Friday we hung around town to get the most of our day. We saw 2 ships come in at Canal Park, walked around and hung out by the water. We had to soak our feet for a bit before we decided to have lunch again at B.U. and then head out of town. On our way out we of course had to stop in Jay Cook State Park. It's our tradition. Eric absolutely loves it in there. It's so beautiful. We decided to find the spot Eric proposed to me at. It was a bit of a hike because on the day of Eric was trying to get away from all the people that were around us. I remember that day and he's hands were so sweaty and in such a hurry. I should have put it together. It crossed my mind but I never thought it would happen then. We were just going to visit Aaron and Kari for the day.

Anyway, back to the trip. After we found "the spot" we realized we couldn't reach it. It was too heavily wooded. So, we just went down a different trail that we could get close to it. (How cheesy are we, I know.) After Jay Cook we headed home just in time for the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. We were so exhausted we couldn't make it past 10:30. Well Eric couldn't even make it to 9:30. He was falling asleep on the couch and of course snoring.

After our wonderful 2 days up north we had the rest of the weekend to enjoy. Aaron flew in for the weekend and Kari and Lilly have been in town for a week. We were able to spend some time with them on Saturday and Sunday. It was great to see everyone and can't wait to visit everyone in September.

The Dark Knight movie

Eric and I went to see the new Batman movie "The Dark Knight". This movie ROCKED! It was amazing. The joker was very scary. Heath Ledger did an awesome job.

See it if you can. It's worth it.

Neil Diamond - What a show!

I know it's been a while since we blogged but we just don't have anything exciting going on with our lives. On weekends we might head to the farmer's market, run some errands and maybe hit a Neil Diamond concert. Yes we saw Neil Diamond on Sunday night! It was awesome. We got tickets at the last minute. I was wanting to go. Eric probably didn't care if we did or didn't. But it's Neil Diamond you gotta see him if you can.

Well what a show Neil put on. For being 67 years old he did a fabulous job. He looked great and had great interaction with the crowd. By the end he looked tired but he kept going. He sang a lot of songs we really didn't know but once Sweet Caroline came on look out. The crowd went wild. He had over 12 people in his band. It was amazing. He didn't have an opening act and he went on at 8:15 and finished at 10:15 with one encore. It was non stop. It was a fabulous concert.

I posted some pics and clips from the show. Hope you enjoy them.