I never thought I'd see the day, but Al has been using a trial membership at a gym and we're joining! I was a member of Gold's Gym until about five years ago. I really miss the classes, like yoga. I also am frustrated with the toll that teaching takes on my weight. When I'm in great shape (like I was at Gold's), I'm 135. When I left serving for teaching, my weight crept up and up. The summer of 2007, I was up to 150 and lost ten pounds. I managed to put on another 13 this past year and ended the year at 153.
When we got home from Minot, I started working out pretty intensly, using my elliptical trainer I have at home. I also joined Lady Fitness, because there is one right down the road from Northridge, so I can go right after work. If I go home, I just want to sit around, so having the gym close to work will help me keep this up. Also, mom joined Lady Fitness as well, so we can do classes together! We did yoga last night and she did great!
http://www.ladyfitnessusa.com/
The gym that Al and I joined just barely opened. It's right down the road from the house, so it will be handy for weekends and night classes. I'm starting my third week of regular workouts and am at 151. There's going to be a party when I hit 140 again!
http://www.familytotalhealthclub.com/
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
Reptile Gardens
So technically, this post should have come after the Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse post, since this is in Rapid City. We went to Reptile Gardens the next morning. Al said we'd need about two hours there. We ended up staying for four hours...and we rushed.
Reptile Gardens opens at 8:00am and we got there probably around 8:15, so there weren't many people around yet. We started off in the dome area, which you can see in the photo above. It's a really neat area that features an indoor rainforest in the middle and individual animal displays around the perimeter. Here are a few shots:
Reptile Gardens opens at 8:00am and we got there probably around 8:15, so there weren't many people around yet. We started off in the dome area, which you can see in the photo above. It's a really neat area that features an indoor rainforest in the middle and individual animal displays around the perimeter. Here are a few shots:Komodo Dragon:
Maniac, a very large saltwater crocodile (I think he was about 14 feet):
Saw-Scaled Viper:
Soft-Shell Turtle...I loved the nose!
Al saw this Emperor Scorpion and let out a gasp. I couldn't figure out what was so exciting about a scorpion, since Al's never really been into the stinging arachnids. However, when I got close, I figured it out...can you? (Look below the photo for the answer.)
The white things on her back are her babies! How cute!Ok, so maybe not really all that cute, but we did manage to find some super-cute reptiles:
Yes, we realize that we can see these anytime right in our own home, but we were overly excited anyway!
The indoor rainforest was really neat. All of the plants and flowers are alive and growing, which made it that much more interesting. As you wander around the flowers, there are animals hanging out, too.
Lizards who were enjoying their heat lamp:
Tortoises:
Birds: (Red and gold Macaw):
Amazon Parrots:
And a Colombian Boa (probably about 5-6 feet), hanging about three feet above Al's head:
Emerging from the dome, we took advantage of a couple of photo-ops:
And then we attended the shows. They do a snake show, crocodilian show, and a bird show. They time them so it's a constant rotation. It took us almost two hours to watch all three shows. Sorry we don't have pictures of the bird show, but we'd forgotten to charge the camera battery and Al wanted to save the juice for more cold-blooded creatures.Snake show highlights--this guy was the most entertaining of the presenters. He had corny jokes like the rest of them, but it seemed like he actually believed they were funny...
Albino Burmese Python:
Rear-fanged, venomous, Mangrove Snake--he told a story about how the snake had bitten his thumb once during a performance.
Hooded Cobra--this is the snake that is responsible for the most human deaths annually. It isn't the most venomous snake out there, but it lives in highly populated areas that don't have the best medical response and facilities.
Here is a clip from the show where he plays with a rattlesnake. He's talking about the myth of telling a rattlesnake's age by counting the rings on its rattle.
Crocodilian Show: When you watch the video, listen for the "Uf-Dah" that the presenter says. Al thought it was great because it's Scandinavian, and thus very Dakota-ey.
Right after he jumps off the crocodile/alligator/caiman (whichever one he happened to grab), he goes and gets a bucket of chicken pieces. The residents have learned the routine by now:
After the shows, we wandered around a bit more. The prairie dog enclosure has a plastic bubble right in front of the food dish that you can stick your head through and get up close and personal.
You can walk through the Galapagos Tortoises and get pictures of them. Apparently, they like to try to jump over one another:
Here's a film of the attempt. The sound the tortoise makes is very funny! Here is one of their bald eagles. This one was found with an injured wing and cannot fly:
And that's Reptile Gardens...the abridged version.
Bear Lake
This past weekend, Al and I were able to go to Bear Lake. His mom and stepdad had booked a week at the WorldMark property and they took along their neighbors, Karen and Kelly, who have a boat. Neither Al or I had ever been to Bear Lake before, so we were excited to see it! 
We arrived a little after 1:00 on Saturday and met Karen and Kelly down at the marina. Then we set off. To give you a bit of a feel for what it was like on the boat, here's a brief film. It's really loud.
We drove out to a quiet spot and Al and I were brave enough to go for a swim. The water was probably about 65 degrees and it felt fantastic!
I couldn't believe how blue the water was. It matched my blue toenails quite nicely...
Eventually, Kelly did some wakeboarding and waterskiing, but the water was really choppy, which made it difficult. Then we pulled out the tube. After Kelly had a couple of rounds, I went.
It didn't look like anyone else was going to go, but Connie decided to just hang out in the tube for a while.
Eventually, she requested a gentle ride around in the tube and she had a pretty good time!
Al was content to just hang out on the boat:
But afte a while, even he got in on the tubing action!
Here's a film of the last moments of his final ride:
After we'd been out for about three hours, we decided it was time to pull in before the marina became a traffic jam.
Then we went out for pizza, where Al and I got Bear Lake Raspberry Shakes! Bear Lake is famous for its raspberries, so raspberry shakes are the "thing to do" there. We thought about buying some raspberry jam but then realized how stupid that would be since my mom makes it out of her very own raspberries and I don't think Bear Lake raspberry jam cuold possibly be better!
The next day, we woke up late, had breakfast, and visited with Connie and Gary until lunchtime. (Karen and Kelly had taken the boat out again.) Connie went with us to lunch and then it was time to go. Al had forgotten to reapply sunscreen after his jaunts in the water. He looked great against our pink kitchen wall!
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Minot
When we arrived in Minot on Sunday night, Al's family had some fun things planned for us and we had a few things we wanted to do, too. So the fun started on Monday...when we baked: Al's dad's amazing brownines and our chocolate chip cookies and rice krispy treats. We had desserts coming out of our ears and asked Al's sister, Abby, to be sure to invite some teenage boys over to help us out with everything! Abby just graduated from Minot High this past Spring, where she was a great student and athlete. She is going to be attending college in the fall, about 4 hours from home.
She and Al (who went by "Eggy" while there) had a lot of fun together. This trip was long overdue--we hadn't seen this group since the wedding four years ago!
After the baking excursion, we hit an Italian restaurant called Michael's. Al ordered a gorgonzola pasta that was fabulous. I had mannicotti, which was also excellent!
Tuesday was a busy day. We went to the zoo, which is where we took the most pictures.
The bears are adorable. They have quarter machines that let you buy treats for the bears, only a lot of people miss--I think on purpose. The bears have learned to adjust. 
When the zoo was building its otter habitat, they sold personalized bricks to raise money. Al's dad loves the zoo so much that he asked for a brick for his birthday.
It was a big joke during the trip that Al ("Little Al" or "Eggy") wasn't included on the brick. Of course, he was out of the house, living on his own in Utah, so...
I think the donation was a great idea because the otters were so fun to watch!
And here's a few more pictures:
That night, Karen invited her parents and Al's dad's family over for dinner. I met a lot of new people that night, but some I'd met before. It was my first time meeting Karen's parents, who were just amazingly kind people. Al's aunts, Val and Verona, added to our dessert collection with German Chocolate Upside Down Cake and Cherry Cheesecake.
On Wednesday, we went to visit Al's Mom's side of the family. We spent a few hours there and I met a lot more people. We spent the afternoon with Al's dad and sister and went to see The Hulk, then went home to a nice social visit with Tiff and Shannon. As I understand it, Tiff is Al's cousin in some way or another. Al and Shannon went to high school together. Now Tiff and Shannon are a couple and we had a great time visiting with them! The cat story was told once again, but since most of you guys don't know it...
Al's dad and stepmom have three cats. The night we arrived, we had piles of stuff in the front room. One thing in particular was the plastic shopping bag with our shirts from Reptile Gardens. As we sat and visited, Tiramisu, the super fluffy calico, was sniffing around and batting at the bag and she had her head almost completely through the bag's handle. I made some comment to her about how she was going to get caught in the bag. At just about the same moment, Karen said "Tiramisu, what are you doing?" which caused the cat to jump, get her head in the handle, get completely freaked out, and rocket around the entire house with the bag whipping in the wind behind her. She ran back through the bedrooms, back out into the living room, knocked over a glass in the windowsill, ran downstairs... Me, Al, Al, and Karen were all incapacitated with the laughing, so Abby is running all over the house chasing the cat. She finally managed to grab the bag, which tore away from the cat. Then we hear Abby yell from downstairs, "I can't find her!" It was all too funny. We retold the story all week.
On Thursday night, we went to one of the places Al and I knew about and requested. It was actually one of the placed Dad and Karen wanted to take us, too. It's called 10 North Main (which conveniently is also the address) and was opened by Josh Duhamel and one of his friends. He is one of Minot's claims to fame. You all probably know him as the soldier from Transformers who is trying to get home to his wife and daughter. Anyhow, he and his friend felt Minot deserved some fine dining.
Al got some sort of fish--marlin I think. It is shipped in fresh, so they served it medium rare. The whole fish thing is gross enough for me, but Al is a sushi fan, so he really enjoyed his meal. I had a butternut squash ravioli in a parmesan sauce that was AMAZING! We had a party of 10, so we got one of the private rooms. it had a record player and a bunch of records you could listen to. If you ever find yourself in Minot, North Dakota, you should really check this place out!
She and Al (who went by "Eggy" while there) had a lot of fun together. This trip was long overdue--we hadn't seen this group since the wedding four years ago!
After the baking excursion, we hit an Italian restaurant called Michael's. Al ordered a gorgonzola pasta that was fabulous. I had mannicotti, which was also excellent!Tuesday was a busy day. We went to the zoo, which is where we took the most pictures.
The bears are adorable. They have quarter machines that let you buy treats for the bears, only a lot of people miss--I think on purpose. The bears have learned to adjust. The petting zoo portion was great fun, albeit very stinky.
When the zoo was building its otter habitat, they sold personalized bricks to raise money. Al's dad loves the zoo so much that he asked for a brick for his birthday.It was a big joke during the trip that Al ("Little Al" or "Eggy") wasn't included on the brick. Of course, he was out of the house, living on his own in Utah, so...I think the donation was a great idea because the otters were so fun to watch! And here's a few more pictures:
That night, Karen invited her parents and Al's dad's family over for dinner. I met a lot of new people that night, but some I'd met before. It was my first time meeting Karen's parents, who were just amazingly kind people. Al's aunts, Val and Verona, added to our dessert collection with German Chocolate Upside Down Cake and Cherry Cheesecake.
On Wednesday, we went to visit Al's Mom's side of the family. We spent a few hours there and I met a lot more people. We spent the afternoon with Al's dad and sister and went to see The Hulk, then went home to a nice social visit with Tiff and Shannon. As I understand it, Tiff is Al's cousin in some way or another. Al and Shannon went to high school together. Now Tiff and Shannon are a couple and we had a great time visiting with them! The cat story was told once again, but since most of you guys don't know it...Al's dad and stepmom have three cats. The night we arrived, we had piles of stuff in the front room. One thing in particular was the plastic shopping bag with our shirts from Reptile Gardens. As we sat and visited, Tiramisu, the super fluffy calico, was sniffing around and batting at the bag and she had her head almost completely through the bag's handle. I made some comment to her about how she was going to get caught in the bag. At just about the same moment, Karen said "Tiramisu, what are you doing?" which caused the cat to jump, get her head in the handle, get completely freaked out, and rocket around the entire house with the bag whipping in the wind behind her. She ran back through the bedrooms, back out into the living room, knocked over a glass in the windowsill, ran downstairs... Me, Al, Al, and Karen were all incapacitated with the laughing, so Abby is running all over the house chasing the cat. She finally managed to grab the bag, which tore away from the cat. Then we hear Abby yell from downstairs, "I can't find her!" It was all too funny. We retold the story all week.
On Thursday night, we went to one of the places Al and I knew about and requested. It was actually one of the placed Dad and Karen wanted to take us, too. It's called 10 North Main (which conveniently is also the address) and was opened by Josh Duhamel and one of his friends. He is one of Minot's claims to fame. You all probably know him as the soldier from Transformers who is trying to get home to his wife and daughter. Anyhow, he and his friend felt Minot deserved some fine dining.
Al got some sort of fish--marlin I think. It is shipped in fresh, so they served it medium rare. The whole fish thing is gross enough for me, but Al is a sushi fan, so he really enjoyed his meal. I had a butternut squash ravioli in a parmesan sauce that was AMAZING! We had a party of 10, so we got one of the private rooms. it had a record player and a bunch of records you could listen to. If you ever find yourself in Minot, North Dakota, you should really check this place out!
Friday, Dad and Karen had their rummage sale during the day, so Al and I did some shopping. That night we went to a restaurant called Wild Things, which I can't really explain. It's a restaurant/gift shop/framing store. Apparently, the owner is a hunter/taxidermist and wanted to share the joys of Alderwood grilling. For such a weird place (there was a giant table with a centerpiece of a taxidermied deer and wolf posed like the wolf had just killed the deer) it was great food. Their baked beans were fabulous!
We left just after 6am on Saturday morning and drove 16 hours home. It was a short trip, but they made it so fun!
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