State Fair Time

Wow, i've been slacking, although I'm mainly writing for myself I believe... I love the State Fair, I wish it was all year around. Although then it wouldn't be so special, would it? This year the Grandstand is 100 years old. I've seen two concerts, both the same group, Brooks & Dunn. Once in 1997 (or was it 1996?) and once in 2006. My favorite parts are walking through the buildings, looking at the stuff that people have created from food, to sweaters to photogrphs to sculptures. Don't get me wrong, the food is great, but I find I eat less and less as the years go on. This year I tried wine ice cream. Highly recomended. I wish they would sell it at the store. My purchases this year was a set of earings and matching necklace (2nd floor of the grandstand), an official State Fair poster and a State Fair T-shirt featuring the gopher. See you at the Fair!

State Fair

My favorite time of year, the State Fair. I know its not quite time yet, but being the 1st of August, only 26 days until opening day! I've been to the fair every year since I was 4 months old and hope to continue that tradition until I'm 6 feet under. This picture was taken last year across from the space needle. When I lived in Falcon Heights, the fair time was even more exciting. Every day I'd see people walking there and the needle going up and down and the rides in full swing. Can't wait to go this year and live out the yearly tradition.

Jay Cooke

I've been doing alot of thinking about the North Shore lately. My next trip is planned for August and is soley a photography trip, of which I am quite excited about. This picture was taken in October of 2007 at Jay Cooke State Park. The water was really high and the river was flooded so the water was really moving over places that were normally dry, such as this area. My family used to take cross country ski trips to the North Shore and Jay Cooke was a favorite. We loved to ski over the swinging bridge look at all the rock formations. Can't wait to show off my favorite picture from my next trip...stay tuned.

Swing Dance

In college I was introduced to swing dancing, of which soon became a favorite activity. In this picture Josh and I are practicing for an event we danced at in the cities. I really enjoyed going to the Caves and learning new moves and dancing with all sorts. Swing dancing is something I miss most from my college years and wish that I had kept up with it. I think if I wanted to dance now i'd need quite the refresher course and its too bad that Scott lacks the rhythm. Some of my best memories of yet are from college and I look forward to highlighting more in the future.

This was one of the first pictures taken with my now not so new Canon 40D camera. It was December and really snowing outside, so I grabbed my camera and headed outside. I snapped this picture of the fresh snow on top of my fence gate. Ever since winning the Kodak award at my 7th grade Regional Science Fair for good use of pictures, i've been interested in taking pictures. As a kid I towed my camera everywhere and would waste a lot of film expiermenting with objects and things. Finally being able to get a SLR camera was a dream, I was like a kid in the candy store. So here is one of my more artsy pictures.

Sweet Grass Ranch

My friend Shren and I decided that we wanted to go to a dude ranch for a week, just us two girls to go pick up some cute cowboys. We scoured the internet and found Sweet Grass Ranch. We were the first guests of the season and there were only 4 total guests that week. With 4 wranglers, that gave each of us one. We had our pick of the rides each day and basically could go in any direction we wanted. There was no line walking, we could steer our horses wherever we wanted within sight of the wranglers. We even had some adrenaline rush gallops across pastures with gullies. Once we got back from the rides we had all evening to relax. The food was excellent and it was very nice and quiet. We stayed in a two bedroom cabin adjacent to the main lodge. It was located in the most beautiful valley surrounded by mountains and streams. We didn't end up picking up any cowboys, but we did pick up some elk and mule deer shed.

Speyer Cathedral Project

In high school I was required to do a church project for religion class. I visited Germany in 1987 and 1991. I always remembered Speyer Cathedral. So I decided to build a replica of this massive church and the above photo is the result of this project. It was actually one of the more fun projects i've ever had to do next to the cell project (more on that one later). This project lived in my parents basement until they moved out a few years ago. I finally let go of it to the garbage, but not until I imortalized it in photos.

The Lake

Lake Shaminau...a wonderful sunset in July. My family has been going to this lake for a very long time, since my mom and uncle were children. My parents purchased a cabin on this lake in 1994. I love this lake because of the fish and because of the activity. The weekends in the summer are reserved for cabin time. Although since i've met Scott, we've had to split our time between Lake Shaminau and Tripp Lake. My favorite thing to do is nothing, I love that there are no expectations and one is free to do as they please, the perfect way to let go of the week and move into the next.

Drum Corps

I marched with MBI in 2002, 2003, 2005, and 2007. I played baritone, that's me in the front of the triange on the right. Dave is on the left. I believe this is finals in Scranton, PA on the wonderful baseball field. This was the 2005 Pat Metheny show, not my most favorite of the shows I marched. I really enjoyed drum corps, but my life changed and the time commitment became too much for me to enjoy other things in life. I miss putting on the uniform and marching the show in front of a big crowd. I don't miss the long hours in the hot sun. I still enjoy going to shows and keep in touch with the MBI familiy. I also found out upon dating Scott that his dad played Baritone for MBI way back in the day, so when he found out that I marched we suddenly had a common bond. Maybe one day i'll find a way to participate again, even if its not on the field.

Day 1

So i've decided to start a blog with all my free time and all. My main objective right now is to share some pictures and thoughts from my life. Thanks. Here goes post #1...

I've been thinking about Jason lately. Here is a wonderful picture of him at the Ren fest, he was called on stage by the Tortuga twins to be the island princess, I laughed so hard and didn't know if I should crawl under my bench or stand up and cheer. I find myself thinking what would life be like if we were still married and he was still alive. Would I have purchased my practice, where would we be living, what kind of person would I be, would we have children? Unfortunately i'll never know the answers to those questions. All I have are memories. I find myself thinking about his voice and trying to remember the sound of it and the things he said. I really enjoyed my time with him and find myself missing him and my mind wandering through college memories. He taught me alot and I am glad that I had him in it, even it was only 7 short years. July 21st it will be 3 years since his death.