I Heart Kansas

And here's why: 90-degree weather. Yep. It's been in the upper 90's and low 100's for almost a week now. Hot, hot, hot. Yep, almost the worst time of the year...the "dog days" of summer. But I LOVE it because this is the worst we have for weather. No -20 degree temps, no -40 degree windchills.

Sure, it gets cold, but nothing like the motherland. All the buildings have AC and it's quick and easy to cool down, so having HOT be your most extreme weather? Ok by me!

You just gotta know how to enjoy it! :)

Good Quote

I always love a good quote, and this one was in my planner yesterday:

"On with the dance, let the joy be unconfined!" is my motto, whether there's any dance to dance or joy to unconfine.

-Mark Twain

Minnesota Vacation

We traveled up north to MN for the 4th of July and had a great time! It was relaxing, complete with beautiful lakes, wildlife and time with family and friends. After hours and hours and hours of driving, we finally hit the lake country, you could almost smell it in the air...

We stopped in Minneapolis so Michael could visit the lovely Northwestern College campus...



...and Oggy could stretch his legs. Before we knew it the dog found his favorite spot on the ornate and historic campus!

Not only are you not supposed to have dogs on campus, but they're really not supposed to be off the leash and I'm pretty sure they aren't crazy about wild, wet dogs running around. But, he was so. darn. cute.


When we made it to the lake, Oggy quickly discovered the chipmunks, but just couldn't quite reach them. Darn it. But not for lack of trying. He continually stood at the base of the tree and then JUMPED as high as he could. To the amusement of the neighbors.



One of the most exciting additions to the lake this year was the new kayaks.

Me and my new hubby took them on the maiden voyage...and our first kayak ride as husband and wife. awwww.

Oggy LOVES the water (though he doesn't know how to breathe and swim and does a lot of coughing and sputtering).

He felt especially compelled to serve in a guiding capacity when the kayakers returned. Here he his accompanying his grandma on her safe return to the shore.




Near my parents place, we ran across a cluster of Lady Slipper orchids growing wild. They are the Minnesota state flower and pretty rare and very lovely. I'm still trying to figure out how to get a clear focus on my extreme close ups so sorry about the blurry pics.

Dear friend Stephanie joined us for part of the weekend and the whole crew headed out for a kayak/canoe trip. Good fun, though the outfitters caused us all to have scenes from "Deliverance" flash through our heads. Uff da.

This week is Steph's birthday...

...so we had a party! Yes, complete with Transformers party hats.

All in all, a great trip! Michael is so patient to put up with Oggy and I for that many miles, but we had a great time!! Thanks, Mom and Dad, for the fun, great meals, kayak rides, boat rides and relaxation. We all had a blast!

Father Daughter Time!

This last week I had the pleasure of spending quality time with one my most favorite people in the world:


Dad, who is an elementary counselor and gets some extra time in the summer, decided to take my grandma to an event in Dallas and spend a couple days with Michael and I en route to the Lone Star state. Lucky us!

Thanks to my great and flexible boss, I was able to spend almost a full day with him (he was very patient when I had to attend to the crackberry!). We hung out, played with the granddog (he hates when I call him that) and then came downtown. Dad saw my office, killed a bit of time while I did a quick presentation, then we visited Kansas City's Liberty Memorial and WWI museum. What a terrific place.

The tower at the memorial


Is a centerpiece of the Kansas City skyline. Event though we're both a bit afraid of heights, we went to the top to take in the view.

It was great...


This is where my office is...the headquarters of the world's largest greeting card company!

It was a bit scary, but it was OK...until a group of high school age boys came up and pretended to push each other off. I scolded them--"hey! Don't do that!"

I'm sure they made fun of the crazy lady on the tower.

The museum is terrific. It's the national WWI memorial...most of the others are in DC.

To get in, you walk over a field of poppies. Pretty moving. It's a fantastic history lesson and very moving. War is such an awful thing and I think it's good to remind ourselves of where our country has been.

Dad and I both enjoyed reading and wandering. Though it went unsaid, I think it made us both think a bit about our own war hero, from WWII.

How lucky we are to live in a country with history so chock-full of honorable men and women.

Thanks, Dad, for taking the time to come visit! Even if I am somewhat grown-up and have a family and home of my own...there is still nothing better than being a "daddy's girl!" I love you!

Kim's Shower!

Hello! I have the pics!

Saturday we had a shower for our sweet friend (and my former AdFarm colleague) Kim Wallis and her hubby Ross. We were doubly lucky to find out her mom and dad would be able to come from Iowa! How fun!

Kim is going to have a baby girl in August and is the cutest thing you've ever seen. I keep telling her to hurry it up because I want to hold that baby!!

Anyway, here she is cutting her shower cake!


And opening gifts! Amid "Ooohs", "Aaaahhs" over the adorable little blankies, boppies, booties, dresses, etc!





Since it was a shower, we did have to play games. But these were not boring games. No sireee, Michael, the bartender was in charge of prepping the diaper game. Yep...the "guess what the brown squishy mess in the diaper is" game.

Here's the crew checking it out....


And Kim getting a close-up whiff!


and Daddy Ross joining in on the guessing!


All in all a fun, fun day! Ross and Kim are going to be such great parents and it was fun to spend time with them! Congrats, Wallis Family!! :)

Oh, don't worry, the diapers contained a Reese's Peanut Butter cup, a snickers and a 3 Musketeers!

update

Hey! The shower went great! Kim loved the diaper cake and the party was really fun! And funny with the whole "smell what's in the diaper" game! hee!

I'm waiting to get a few pics and will post this weekend! Have a great weekend everyone!

I Never Thought I'd Do This

Tonight I did something I never thought I would do.

I'm not crafty.

I'm not "domestic".

But I do love to entertain.

And I do love to try new things.

So....

I did it.

I braved Wal-Mart (my least favorite place in the world).

To get the supplies...

And I made

A

Diaper Cake!!

Yep. If you don't know, it's a take on a wedding cake, but made out of rolled-up diapers. I'm hosting a baby shower for my friend Kim on Saturday, and thought this would be the perfect centerpiece:

Please note the "topper" is pacifiers....

and the creation is adorned with little hair ribbons for the baby to one day wear! (they know it's a girl!!).

And, if you're thinking this is an isolated outburst of domesticity...you're wrong! Just wait until the blog posts about the caramel rolls in my personalized bar pan (bar pans are a MN/ND thing) and my garden. Yes, my garden. All the naysayers who cruelty criticized my "starter garden" (my parents...my in-laws...my husband) will behold the 4 foot tall peas.

Oh, yes. Stay tuned.

Oh, and if you've, say, made 15 diaper cakes that were way nicer than this one, please, don't tell me. Thanks. :)

Honeymoon Part Two: Beach? Check. Candlelit Dinners? Check. Boa Constrictors? What??

Ok. So the promise to "post more this weekend" was a little unheeded, but better late than never.

So the Honeymoon. Yes, it was wonderful. Romantic. Paradise, really. We loved Puerto Vallarta, sitting on the beach, watching the waves, sipping a cocktail, getting a tan. But was that enough for this adventuresome duo??

NO! We needed to climb into the jungle and zip-line into a waterfall lagoon with boa constrictors!! Ok. In true Sarah fashion, that's a bit of an exagerration...but not that far off.

So we've had an idyllic honeymoon, but we get bored and decide to go "do" something. After much consideration and brochure searching, we decide to do the "outdoor adventure", a six-hour trip that involves boating across the bay...

driving a jeep-mac truck combo thing up deep into the mountains...

taking burros further into the mountains (they forbid cameras so the pictures are not actually us, but are a good representation of what we did)...

...where we were to zip line...

and repel back down the mountain.

Now let me pause a moment to remind you that I have a highly irrational fear of spiders. the little guy in the shower in MINNESOTA brings me to near panic. I knew what lived in those trees in this tropical climate, but did a good job not thinking about it.

So we're repelling...down a waterfall. It was SO fun and BEAUTIFUL!!!

(she's much more graceful than I was...)

you end in the water, then walk to the next zip line that ends in a lagoon! as seen here.

The next step was a survivor-like walk across a cord...

It was kind of wobbly, but not that bad. Besides. it wasn't that far to the ground, I thought, as I studied the ground below me. Pretty smooth rocks, no water and this:

yep. Right below me. "Oh, no prolem, Amigo", said the Mexican tour guide, "It's only a boa constrictor." Great. It won't bite us, just strangle us and swallow us whole.

So glad I was worried about a tarantula falling out of a tree, getting caught in my hair and biting me on the head, all while this guy was waiting underneath my tight rope waiting to squeeze the life out of this Norwegian delicacy.

Well, that was near the end of the adventure and neither of us was constricted by the boa. We got back to our drop point, grabbed the boat and headed back to the safey and snakelessness of the condo.

We then decided that although the Zipline adventure was a blast, we'd spend the rest of the time sitting on the beach...

watching the sunset...

then taking a dinner cruise on the final night.

All in all a fantastic trip with just the right amount of romance, relaxation and adventure.