Wedding Cakes, Films and the MnGCA Spring Event

Kris: The past few weeks have continued to be trying on us financially but while it's very stressful, a few things are very exciting.  One evening we went to Queen of Cakes to sit down and talk about our wedding cake and options for evening cupcakes.  Their prices are very reasonable and we got plenty of options for cakes and frostings.   Yikes seriously we EACH got like 10 half slices of cake on a platter to try.  Both of us fell in love with the red velvet as top choice.   We have some fun designs started but I think I'll keep that a secret and not spoil the surprise.

We also signed a contract with Charles and Mike from Forever Films that will be helping us to capture our lives together and help us show off our wedding.  When we met with them, they were totally on the same lines of thought that we were and had some great ideas.   So after a lot of careful thought and many $$$ we've got a fantastic project in play!  Again, not going to spoil the fun on this one, you'll have to be at the reception to be part of this one :)

(And Charles, Mike, if you guys are reading this, I'm sure we'll get you to be Caribou Coffee fans before this is all over ;)

Mark: Kris forgot to mention another financial setback we had during the past few weeks. My dog Ruger broke open the tip of his tail and unfortunately it would not heal up and became badly infected resulting in us making the decision to have his tail amputated. He gets his stitches out on Friday and I will then post before and after pics.

Kris: We also got to take our engagement photos!! Last Tuesday our friend Sarah McGee, a fabulous photographer, took our photos down around Lake Calhoun which of course holds a very special place to both of us.  We had a blast, the weather was perfect and I am anxiously waiting to see the final results!  I'll show some off as soon as we get them :D

This past weekend started with a 5k race in Eden Prairie.   You can check our personal blogs for the recaps on that.  I just posted mine earlier tonight. Mark: I will hopefully post mine in a day or so.

Kris: So Saturday after the 5k we did a quick change and headed down to Nerstrand State Park for the Spring MnGCA event.  It was about an hour drive and with the pouring rain we had to get through it took a bit longer.  Here are a few blubs about our adventures :)

After lunch and a few fun caching contests (oh I won a really cool book and Mark won the Splinterheads movie!) we headed into the forest.   It was go green and so pretty!

We ran into ISpy and his family and came upon this really odd tree.  It looks like some time in the very distance past someone stuck a step between these two trunks and the tree has grown in.  Kinda heart shaped :)

We then headed over to this waterfall which was also an earthcache.

We kept seeing these signs about endangered plants and that this one was only found in just 3 counties in Minnesota.   We think this might be one of them but weren't able to find out for sure.

Before heading across the road to the southern half of the park for a "quick" multi we stopped for a picture.

Mark: So as the day was getting late we decided to try for one more cache, a multi called "A Walk in the Woods" Unfortunatly the name of the cache was was not just a name, it was very descriptive. The first stage was close by, just across the road from the park office.

Stage 1 was such a cute little little charater.

Along the way Kris decided to try her Jane imitation with a vine hanging from a tree.

Stage 2 was about a 3/4 mile walk from Stage 1 and was another very creative container.

On the walk to the Stage 3, the final stage, we decided to grab another cache that we had writted off earlier as it was too far away in the park. Apparently not since we had to walk right past it on the way to Stage 3. The cache was at a bridge at the southern edge of the park. We made the find quickly and dropped a few TB's and one of our pathatgs for the next cacher to make the trek. Now for the return trip, which was about a mile and a half back to the car. All in all this one cache took us about an hour and a half, not part of the plan, and we ended up getting home much later then we planned on, but we had a great day! 

(Ok Blogger people....please make pictures faster and easier to upload.   This post took me WAY to long to put together.  And why can't I figure out out to put the pictures in the words anymore?  Sigh....)

Winter Cache Bash and a Vikings WIN!

Kris: OK so I'm a little slow in getting this blog up but it's been a busy week!

Last Saturday we went to a Winter Cache Bash put on by some local cachers. It was simply a pot luck type get together and the weather was actually somewhat mild. Here's a pic of the food area.

We decided since it wasn't completely bitterly cold, we would bring a couple of the dogs along. Journey and Ruger (as I mentioned before) aren't the brightest two in the bunch but since we knew it would be a short outting and not a ton of walking we brought them along. They tend to criss cross a lot when walking so here's a pic of Mark doing the "twist" to untangle himself. I was trying to walk with Journey most of the time and she wore me out! She likes to pull in every direction as hard as possible!

Mark: This is of course one of the reasons why these two don't get to go out as much as Roscoe and Sugar. You can sort of see it in the picture, I have a pink winter doggie coat for Journey.

Kris: There were two simple caches in the park that we managed to pick up. We also got to discover the travel bug in the picture below. Called Grey Wolf and Wild Rice's Creamy Wild Rice Soup. One of the more interesting items I've seen as a travel bug. Although the Big Blue Ball was there too (don't have the pic of it right now)

Mark: I had to remind Kris to blur out the Wild Rice Travel Bug tracking number other wise any geocaches reading this could have logged the soup.

Kris: All in all it was a fun, quick outting to catch up with other cachers.

We also recently setup a trade of our pathtag and Mark got this really cool glow in the dark tag

Mark: Near....... Far........

Kris: Sunday was quite the adventure as it was the Vikings Playoff game against the Dallas Cowboys. My parents have always wanted to see a football game at the Metrodome so we gave them two tickets to come with us. It was a VERY high energy game the whole way through (especially since the Vikings were always ahead). Mom and Dad had a blast of a time with all the "stuff" going on and the people that were there. I think they are going to be talking about that one for awhile!

And they also went out the next day and bought a new big screen TV for the next game :)

Mark: Which we get ot help them setup this coming Saturday. ;)

Kris: I became intrigued by a green line on the side of the field that was quite often guarded at one end by two officers. Anyone have ANY idea what that line is for??? It's going to bug me until I find out :)

We had a super fun time at the game! Especially after the extremely obnoxious Dallas fan behind us started to shut up somewhere in the 3rd quarter :) We both came out with sore hands, throats and ringing ears but it was SO worth it. 34-3 was the final score. Now if only the next game was at home too! Unfortunately this weekend's game will be in New Orleans so we'll have to resort to watching it on TV.

Mark: I especially enjoyed the fact that the loud mouth, abusive Cowboy fan that was sitting behind us was complete deflated by the end of the third quarter. And it was really sad that by the end of the game he was shouting out "Go Saints" What a LOSER!!!

Kris: Here is the best pic we got of Brett Favre doing interviews after the game was over.

For our devoted followers, I might suggest you check out our individual blogs as well over the next few months. While we are doing a 90 day "thing" together, we decided it's something that is better tracked on our individual blogs. Especially considering much of the reason behind it is for training and racing. So, if you are interested, I'll be posting a blog about that next. Mark has already posted his blog.

Mark: My personal blog is: Work in Progress

Breakfast Buddies and Winter Waddle (and Holidazzle) - Part 3

Mark: So it is Sunday morning and Kris is making breakfast, mmmmmmm...., while I post the last update from yesterday.

I will only mention the Winter Waddle 5K in passing as I plan on writing up a post race blog over on my "Work in Progress..." blog, and I am sure Kris might have a thing or two to say about the "race" in her running/racing/training blog as well.

Winter Waddle 5K is by far the most unusual race I have ever run in. This is a race that need a lot of help if you ask me and probably not one I would race again but hey you have to try everything once just for the experience. I will post a picture as a teaser and hopefully you will follow the links to go read more in our other blogs. 
Kris: Yes I have to completely agree that this was probably one of the more interesting 5ks I've ran.  Especially since I am out of shape from not really working out the past two months.  Check my blog later today or tomorrow :)

YES! This is the actual starting line and you are looking at the race course.

After the race and post race snacking we headed home to my house to let the dogs out and stretch their legs for a while and change clothes before heading down to the Holidazzle Parade. Kris mentioned the possibility of trying to fit the parade in this weekend and as far as I can remember I have never been to the Holidazzle Parade. (Kris: Always fun when I find that I'm bringing Mark to do something new together.  I've been to the parade before but it's been probably close to 10 years) We drove down and without telling Kris where we were heading first I made a bee line straight for Caribou Coffee for a warm drink to watch the parade with. I am beginning to think that the coffee flows like water and it is being taken as an assumed thing because Kris did not even look up or even plesantly surprised when I pulled into the parking lot. ;) 

(Kris: Hey, I was tweeting about our wonderful day when we pulled in...and yes, maybe assumed that we were going to be stopping for a Caribou drink...give me a break man...lol   :-P  Oh and while I was waiting in the car, "Christmas in Sarajevo" by Trans Siberian Orchestra came on.   First time I've heard it this Christmas season.  Best Christmas song ever!!)

So with drink in hand the next objective was parking, which turned out to be much easier then I anticipated, the lot outside the Library was wide open and that lot is right at the end of the parade route. Unfortunately we had to pay $5 in the little envelope, which in hind site was unnecessary as no one was checking who parked and paid during the 30 minutes we were watching the parade.

So now that the car was parked and we were at the end of the parade route we decided to walk a few block and try to find a good place to watch the parade, which we eventually did and learn a little about parade watching as well. Here are a few pics that I took during the parade.

Kris with her warm drink.

Me

Our view of the parade coming down the street.

A lit up Twins Snowman. Where was Ragnar when you really need him??

One of about a dozen attempts to get a good picture of us with the parade in the background.

Santa!!!

End of the parade, a non-lit Twins Snowman. Again no Ragnar!!

All in all a very busy day and fun day!!!

Morning mud bath

Kris: Here is how our day looked when we started our day in Iowa. Foggy and cool



But we had a blast doing our first trail run together down in Des Moines Iowa for Living History Farms. Thanks to cousin Eric for putting us up for the night. What a blast! Trees, water, hills, ropes, holes and MUD!!!









To read more of our personal accounts of the race, check out our individual blogs on the right.

Had some awesome beef stew for the post race food and now we are off to get cleaned up and cache our way home.

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